Chapter 13 Listen to the Real Teacher

Roy let out a sigh. What emotion was attached to the sigh, he could not tell. Maybe, in the long run, all he felt was relief. After all, the first day of his punishment was over. Now all he needed to do was get through the next six. Or was it four? Roy didn't know, nor did he really care. All he cared about at this point was watching Double Intrigue. Roy sunk deeper into the cushions, his attention tuned to the TV.

You know, it really wasn't his fault. What happened in the classroom, that is. It wasn't his fault that the power went out across Dragonbite. After all, he wasn't the one who had electric powers. It was Ludwig's fault, entirely Ludwig's fault. Roy's feelings of guilt had nothing to do with him being the real cause of the surge. Instead, it had everything to do with Ludwig throwing a temper tantrum. Yeah, that was it, that had to be it. Right?

Cha ching!

Roy pulled his phone out of his hammerspace and smiled when he saw the text. It was from Celia, and it read:

Hey, Roy. Just got home. Was wondering if you want to go on a date later?

Roy felt a surge of excitement. With fingers bumbling about, he typed into the textbox.

Sure. After my week is up. #CoolInSchool

About three minutes passed before Roy got a response.

Speaking of which...is Ludwig alright?

Roy blinked. Ludwig? Why would Celia be worrying about Ludwig?

Yeah, he's ok. Y do you ask?

Another five minutes passed before Roy got his answer.

He was just really upset when I last talked to him.

Roy smirked before typing in to the textbox again.

Celia, trust me; he's fin3. he loses control of his powers al the time.

I know. But he just seemed like he was really torn up. I think you might want to be nicer to him.

That made Roy a little concerned. Torn up? Ludwig was torn up? he didn't seem like he was torn up when Roy saw him; he just seemed angry. Wouldn't Roy have noticed if his own brother was torn up? With this thought in mind, Roy started to type again.

I'll talk to him later. Right now, I just want to kick back and watch TV. #DoubleIntrigue #NewEpisodes #TooManyHashtags

With that, Roy put down his phone and leaned back into the couch. He let out another sigh, this one of relaxation. Maybe Celia was right about Ludwig. But you know what? Roy probably wasn't the best person to comfort him. That honor belonged to someone like Lemmy or the Iggster, not him. With this thought in mind, Roy prepared himself for a double marathon of Double Intrigue. Right before he could though, he heard someone clearing their throat in the entryway. He looked up and saw Ludwig. His expression was kind of funny. He had a smile on his face like he was happy, yet at the same time, his brows were scrunched up like he wanted to turn Roy into kibble.

"Heyyy, Roy," he said.

"Oh," Roy said with a smile. "Hey, Ludwig." Roy turned back to the TV just as Ludwig pulled back the folds of his cloak.

"Do you like my suit?"

"Yeah! I do!" Roy turned back around, finally realizing that the vest Ludwig was wearing was silver. "Wait a second; isn't that the one Iggy built for you?"

Ludwig face rose in what Roy assumed to be happiness. At least, he hoped it was happiness.

"Wow! You are very observant! This is actually my power suppressor! I find I've been needing it as of late." Roy felt shivers run down his spine at the last sentence. "Now, Roy, will you be a dear and come with me to my room?"

Not know what else to do (if there was anything else to do), Roy got up and followed Ludwig to his bedroom. When he got there, he found that a swivel chair was situated right in front of Ludwig's bed. On the bed itself was a weird instrument that Roy could remember the name of off the top of his head. Maybe it was a Zeephone? Or was it a xylophone? Whatever it was, Ludwig gestured toward the swivel chair.

"Go ahead; sit down."

Roy did as he was told to do. He turned the chair toward Ludwig, who was still standing on the carpet.

"What's going on?" Roy asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to get you a little present."

Ludwig approached Roy and reached down beside his bed. Roy felt confused when he saw what Ludwig was giving him.

"A golf club?"

"It's Larry's; he let me borrow it," Ludwig said dryly. "Now tell me, oh wise one. How do you get this..." Ludwig displayed the golf club. "Confused..." Ludwig reached into his hammerspace and pulled out a piece of paper. He thrust it towards his brother. "With this?"

Roy looked at the picture on the paper. He recognized it as one of the things that he had drawn on the board earlier that day. He smiled apprehensively.

"Well..it...kind of looks like a golf club."

"Hmm," Ludwig said as he snuck a glance at the picture. "Yeah, I can kind of see it. Okay then Roy, now riddle me this..." He pulled another picture out of his hammerspace, and when he showed it to Roy he actually looked angry. "Does THIS LOOK LIKE A GOLF CLUB TO YOU?"

Roy stared at the picture, feeling more confused than ever before.

"What the World Eight is that?"

"This...is a treble clef." Ludwig pulled another picture out of his hammerspace. "This is a bass clef." He went over and sat on his bed, right in front of the instrument. "And what I'm about to play for you is the A major scale." With that, Ludwig picked up a mallet and started to lightly tap the bars. They produced a ting sound that was actually quite nice. When he was done, Ludwig did it again.

"Low A..." Ting..."B..." Ting..."C sharp..." Ting... "D..." Ting..."E..." Ting... "F sharp..." Ting... "A flat..." Ting..."and high A..." Ting. "That's eight notes, Roy. Eight! You can play them on a xylophone, you can play them on a piano, you can play them on a guitar...heck, you can play them on pretty much anything! I bet if you tried hard enough you could play them on a toothbrush!"

Roy felt like his heart was sinking. He turned away from Ludwig, feeling his heart sag.

"Okay...maybe I do need a little help."

"Oh really; no shrooms, Shellock! You know so little about music I would have thought you were deaf! Except that you're not, so you should no better! Especially seeing how you are related to a MUSICAL PRODIGY!"

"OKAY!" Roy yelled. He shook his head and whimpered. "Look, I'm sorry that I got a lot of stuff wrong. I thought, since I listen to music all the time, that teaching it would be easy. I wanted it to be easy! I wanted to have just one subject that I could be good at! I mean, what else am I good at? I hate reading, I'm terrible at math, I know nothing about history, and science?" Roy let out the most sad example of a scoff anyone had ever heard. "What's that?"

Roy hung his head. A silence lingered in the room, which only made Roy feel even more terrible. He started to wish Bowser had never assigned him to teach music. It would have been a whole lot easier on everyone involved.

"Roy?"

Roy looked up at his older brother. Ludwig displayed a newly drawn picture to him.

"Do you know what this is?"

Roy shook his head.

"Not a clue," he said. Ludwig scooted a little closer.

"It's called a measure," he said, speaking in a calm tone for the first time. "You see, music is divided into measures to make reading it easier. Typically..." Ludwig drew four symbols. "There are four notes in a measure. You see these little babies right here?"

Roy looked at the picture Ludwig had drawn and snickered.

"Golf clubs," he whispered in embarrassment. Ludwig smiled.

"Actually, these are called quarter notes. You can include a maximum of four quarter notes in one measure." He drew another measure and drew what Roy had previously mistaken for a broken golf club. "This puppy is a half note. You can include up to two of these in a measure. And this..." Ludwig drew a donut hole... "this is a whole note. You can only include one of these in a measure; no more, no less. I'm I making sense?'

Roy stared at the notes. Quarter, half, and whole. Wait a minute!

"Ohh, I think you are! The quarter is a division thingy of the half, and the half is a division thingy of the whole."

Ludwig's eyes lit up.

"Yeah! That's exactly right!"

"Cool!" Roy felt confused. "But what about the double golf club, hockey stick...a, thingamajig?"

Ludwig laughed.

"That thing is an eighth note. Eighth notes are half of a quarter note. They sound like this." Ludwig started to snap. "One and a two and a three and a four."

Roy nodded his head and started to chant along.

"One and a two and a three and a four." The two brothers continued to chant. As they did, Roy started to smile like nobody's business. Ludwig also looked pretty happy. By the time they were done, both of them laughed.

"That's cool, Ludwig! So there are whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes."

"Yeah!" Ludwig smiled. "Do you know what that means, Roy? You now know about basic notation."

Roy felt his heart swell with pride.

"Huh. yeah! I guess I do! Thanks, Luddy!"

"Anytime, bro." He got up from off the bed and wiped the dust off of his power suppressor. "Now, I just need to go find Iggy and..."

Unfortunately, right at that moment, Lemmy entered the room. And he did not look happy.