Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or The Idylls of Pegasus.
Chapter 4: Embarassing Moments
Softly and slowly, Kairi played the few measures that she was having trouble with from the piece in front of her. Her vibrato and shifting were getting a bit better, although not much since Mr. Leonhart had been too busy to help her lately. It was nowhere near as good as Sora's, but she didn't expect that. Who actually did?
For the past few days, Kairi had been coming to the orchestra room as soon as she had finished eating her lunch. She hated to do that, but it would soon be over... this weekend, she would be getting her paycheck, and renting her new cello. She crossed her fingers in hope that it would be as nice as her cello at school.
Selphie and Yuffie had been a bit upset about her leaving as soon as she ate, but Namine was nice about it. Really, that girl needed to be at least a little bit more assertive, Kairi thought. She would really just let anyone get away with anything, never really letting her feelings into the situation. Roxas, the boy in Namine's French class, had continued to tease and taunt her. It wasn't just in French, either, it was in English, too. Kairi had felt so awful about watching her own best friend suffer from a stupid guy that just wouldn't leave her alone.
"Hey, are you alright?" Kairi heard Sora's voice. "You kind of spaced out there."
She blushed. Really, why couldn't she just act normal around him? He always caught her at her worst.
"...Yeah, I'm fine." She managed to stutter before going back to the piece.
He took this opportunity to sit down next to her, and followed where she was in the music.
She stopped when she realized his eyes were on her. "What?" she asked, a bit too defensively.
"You're... kind of out of tune."
Kairi sighed. Why was everyone on her case lately? "Look, I'm just having a bit of trouble-"
"I'll help you."
No need to argue with that. "O-okay." she stuttered. Why was he being so nice to her, instead of some other girl cellist? And why would he be wasting his time helping her anyway? He was almost famous, being able to get into Julliard!
He walked over to his cello, and brought it over. It looked very... familiar to Kairi, especially the beautiful red-brown shade of the wood.
"Here, let me play it for you first." He set this bow on the string, and let the melody flow out from it. He stopped after the line, almost sounding like someone had cut off the record. He then said, "You try it now."
If Kairi had any confidence on playing that line before, it had completely washed away now. She pathetically attemped to copy his movements. When she reached a high shift, it turned into a squeak, and both of them winced.
He gave some thought before commenting about this. He knew that she had the passion and talent that came with it that Tidus obviously didn't; but technically, she was most definately not the best cello player around.
"Hey, do you have a cello at home? Because I know that it would help a lot if you did." He smiled at her.
She shook her head meekly, and said, "I used the school's over the summer, but... yeah, I had to return it when school started." She looked down to hide her red face.
"Lunch time really isn't the best time to practice... there's always people popping in and and out of here, and they're usually noisy and distracting."
She gave him a Look, as if to ask if he was always in here.
"Yes, I AM in here everyday. It's like home to me, you know? Ever since my father died, Mr. Leonhart's almost taken his place."
"Oh... well..." She felt sudden sympathy for him.
"It's okay, really... I don't remember him much, and my mom works hard enough for the two of us."
She gave a shy nod. Why was she becoming like Namine around him? Wasn't she just criticizing her friend's behavior?
"Well, I'm going to get back to my seat; the bell's gonna ring soon, and Tidus is going to try to steal my chair if I'm not there before he is."
Kairi giggled at that comment. Tidus just wouldn't admit to anyone that Sora was better than him, would he? Even if he had to go to immature measures to do attempt to prove he was better...
After he walked off, Kairi slumped in her seat. She had realized before that she despirately needed a cello, but not as badly as now. It also depressed her more than anything else that SHE would have to be the one to pay for it.
Just as Sora predicted, the bell rang, and all of the freshmen orchestra shoved and pushed each other into the room, and then did so a little bit more around the instrument lockers in the crammed room with all of the instruments.
"HI KAIRI!" Selphie squealed. She waved to her from afar and then found Tidus to bother. He was talking to Yuna, the girl who had originally been first chair before the chair tests. Selphie glomped him from behind and then screamed into his ear. "TIDUS!"
"Oww!" he screamed in pain for his ear. "Selphie! If I play out of tune today, it's ALL your freaking fault!" He then left a half-quivering Selphie and a very pissed Yuna by the lockers.
Selphie twitched. "Someone's PMSing."
Yuna gave her a light slap on the arm. "Be nice to him. He hasn't done anything to you."
"I never meant to do anything!"
"Well, aparently, you did."
The whole orchestra watched the feuding top violinists, and realized that it was going to be a VERY rocky stand partnership between the two. When Selphie noticed the eyes on her, she grabbed her instrument, gave one last glare at Yuna, and haughtily walked to her seat.
"Okay, kids, the excitement is over. So hush up, and get to your seats." Mr. Leonhart, who was waiting at his conductor's stand, tapped it with his conductors stick. And he tapped it quite loudly for a stick of such small size.
That got everyone's attention. The little orchestra cliques in each corner all ran to their seats, and unpacked as quickly as possibly.
Mr. Leonhart turned to Yuna, looking at her oddly. "Do you have gum?" he asked, warily. Before she even nodded, he opened his gradebook in front of him and made a mark. A frown creased into his face.
Red came to Yuna's face as she guiltily walked over to the trash can to throw it out. Selphie smirked; she was the one who knew the rules here.
Kairi looked at Mr. Leonhart. Yup, he was very different from this summer. He wasn't the fun teacher that had time to help every one of them individually. Now, his mouth was permanently shaped into a straight line- meaning no smiles or frowns.
"Hm, now that we have that silly business away and over with, let's tune." He put the pitch of the A string on the overhead speaker, and waited for everyone to check and adjust their strings.
Tuning was one of the few things that came easily to Kairi for cello- as long as she didn't need to use her pegs. There was just something annoying about having to get up out of her seat and embarassing herself with her lack of strength. Her ear was half glued to her instrument, and matched the pitch of the A string to the one on the speaker. She then played the D and the A strings together, to form a perfect fifth. After, she repeated with the D and G, and G and C.
She was in her own little world for about five minutes, listening to the song of the 4 open strings. During this time, Sora had taken the chance to turn around and give her a Look. "Are you done yet? We're kind of waiting for you."
Darn it, he caught her again, and now her face was probably as dark as her hair. "...Y-yeah." She stuttered out, and then attempted to regain her normal flesh color again.
Mr. Leonhart asked the group to get out their piece, "The Idylls of Pegasus." This was the one where Selphie and Sora had solos, and was the hardest one for Kairi.
The drone of talking buzzed around the room, until Mr. Leonhart loudly and purposefully cleared his throat. "Okay, class. You're in high school now, which means, when I ask you to get out a piece of music, you don't talk. For that, you will NOT be packing up until the bell." He gave all of the talkers a cold, hard glare.
Moans and groans flooded through the room. Mr. Leonhart ignored them, and turned to Sora, the starting soloist. He waved his hands in the air and said, "From the top," and gave Sora the upbeat before starting his solo.
The music that came from the cello Sora was playing was more than words could describe. It was beautiful, yet melancholy at the same time... it just made Kairi want to cry. She watched every bit of his movements, which was not an easy feat considering there were about 10 people she had to peek through just to get a little glimpse at him.
Suddenly, the whole orchestra cut off.
"SOMEONE," Mr. Leonhart looked directly at Kairi, "missed their entrance. Everyone, start after Sora's solo. Then, little miss daydreaming-about-Sora can have another chance and coming in with the rest of her section." He gave her a look that screamed, Just because you're last chair doesn't mean I can't see you back there, missy.
Kairi was more embarassed then than ever before. First of all, Mr. Leonhart pointed her out from the rest of the cellos, and as if that wasn't enough, he accused her of crushing on Sora! Through her anger, she saw Sora wink at her. She was sure that it was at her; who else would it be? Fantastic, she thought, now he thinks I like him, too.
She told herself to ignore Sora and his cello playing for the rest of the period. Or else she would have been pointed out once AGAIN by Mr. Leonhart, the teacher that she no longer favored the most.
But then... every so often, her mind would wander off, but then it would pop back into place again. Sort of. She didn't play as well as she usually did when she was practicing, but that was beside the point, right? (right!)
As the bell rang, Mr. Leonhart finally let his arms rest as his side for the first time in fifty minutes. "Pack up," he said, and then walked towards his office.
Kairi huffed as she put the cello back into the bag, and then set it carefully on the rack before dashing out the room to catch up with Selphie and Yuffie.
"Ugh!" She whined. "He was such a bastard today..." she rested her forehead on the palms of her hands.
Selphie patted her friend's shoulder. "It's okay, Kairi, he's kind of always like that. Grouchy and kind of ALWAYS upset about something."
"NO HE'S NOT!" A couple of heads turned as Yuffie argued in protest with her friend. "He's just been grouchy because it's the first week of school, you know that Selph!"
"Well," Selphie teased, "you're just saying that 'cause he's always nice to you."
Yuffie didn't comment after that; she just tried to keep herself from blushing before they reached the Science room.
-
"Here's your paycheck, missy. I don't think you earned it, though." Kairi's grouchy co-worker handed her the slip of paper.
"Thanks." Kairi said, just as grimmly. Why would she want to be at work on Saturday when she could be the one inside the mall with her friends?
She was about to leave when someone grabbed her wrist. "Not time for you to leave yet." It was the manager. "You have clean up today."
She groaned; how could she have forgotten once AGAIN? She could just feel the manager smirking at her as she got the rag and started to wipe off the counter.
"At this rate, I'll be at the music store at about six..." she moaned to herself.
"Complaining?"
She immediately looked up, and saw the oh-so-pissed manager's face. "No."
-
An hour later, she had finally reached the music store, huffing and puffing. She had to first stop at the bank that was one block away, and then she had to come back in the same direction that she came from before to reach the store.
"Okay, Kairi, you are going to breathe now... in and out... in and out..." she muttered to herself outside the doors.
After she quickly collected herself, she smiled and dashed into the store.
She walked over to the cellos, and waited for someone to come to her. A few minutes went by, and all of the workers had been busy with someone else. She didn't want to bother them; it would be embarassing to.
She tapped her fingers impatiently and sighed, resting her head on her arm against the counter. How much longer was this going to take? She wanted to get to practice and three-way with Selphie and Yuffie at least a LITTLE bit before she was forced to go to bed...
"Hey, you need any help?"
Thinking that it was a store worker, she replied. "Yes." Then, she turned around and realized it was a familiar face with brown hair and blue eyes...
"Hey, Kairi!" he cheerfully grinned at her.
"Hi..."
"So are you gonna rent a cello? Or buy one?"
"...yeah... why are you here?" she asked.
"I had to drop off my bow to get it rehaired... but I come here so much for sheet music that the people know me. I'll get someone to help you." He tapped the shoulder of someone in the store's uniform.
"What? Oh, hi Sora... need help?" The woman immediately turned away from the other customer and walked behind the cello counter.
"Yeah... my friend," he waved at Kairi, "needs a new cello. Any recommendations?"
The store clerk turned to Kairi. "What are you looking for?"
"I'm looking to rent." She felt a bit more confident talking to the lady behind the counter, and looking away at Sora.
"Well, I'm going to go. Kairi, I hope you get the cello you wanted!" Sora gave a wave and left.
Kairi let out a sigh of relief. She didn't feel nervous, now that Sora wasn't around.
"You like the boy, don't you?"
Kairi moaned and slapped her forehead. "No! It's not like that... it's just that he's the principal chair and..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." The clerk inturrupted her. "Such a wonderful boy, Sora... only I wish that he'd take a break from his musical studies." She stopped rambling and asked, "So, shall we look at the cellos?"
"Okay!" Kairi followed the lady as she pointed out a few. "Since you obviously go to Sora's High School, then I'm assuming that you'll need an intermediate to advanced cello..."
"Oh, no... I just started out, and I uh..." She paused. How was she going to say this to the lady? "I... "
"Don't have much money? That's okay! Since you're Sora's girlfriend, I'll find you the ones with the best deals."
"I'm not his girlfriend!" Why was everyone thinking that lately?
The woman chuckled. "Okay, then. Let's take a look."
-
Finding the cello that Kairi had wanted wasn't too hard. After all, there were only three general different types within her price range.
She smiled as she carried the cello home. But that smile turned into a straight face as she thought of Sora. Sure, he was a nice guy... but WHY, oh WHY did everyone think they were in a romantic relationship?
She opened the door to her house, and then walked up to her room.
After replaying his music in her head, she could feel her heart rate quickening.
Did she really like Sora that way?
-
End Notes: Yes, Kairi's boss is a bitch. Yes, I have played "The Idylls of Pegasus" before. It's by Richard Meyer & a gorgeous cello solo at the beginning... TT Although I really wouldn't say it's a 9th grade piece, cuz it's fricking HARD... I played it in youth orchestra last year.But it was the only orchestra piece that I knew well enough that there was both a cello & 2 1st violin solos. Because... that's how I wanted it, LOL.
