After dashing through the main entrance of her high school, Sayori made her way to the second floor. She considered detouring to the downstairs music room to pay Monika a visit, but decided against it and continued on to the Literature Club. Her girlfriend was counting on her, and she wasn't about to let her down.
As she skidded to a halt just outside of room 206, she smiled to herself. Girlfriend sounded nice.
Sayori opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Yuri and Natsuki standing as far apart from one another as they possibly could. Yuri was looking out of a window at the front of the classroom and Natsuki was occupying herself with the bookcase at the back. At the sound of the door opening, both looked over at Sayori.
"Congratulations on being on time today," Natsuki said with a smirk.
Sayori gave an overdramatic whine supplemented by a pout. "Hey! I'm always on time for the Literature Club."
Natsuki crossed her arms. "Maybe for the Literature Club, but not for homeroom."
"I…um." Sayori hummed, tapping her chin. Now that she thought about it, she'd actually managed to make it to school before homeroom had started. Maybe this was a first for her.
"Well, we appreciate you coming in early today…" Yuri said quietly, moving swiftly between the desks and standing beside Natsuki with a smile. "N-No offense."
"You're welcome, I guess," Sayori replied a little sheepishly. "Anyways, let me cut right to the chase. Monika's preoccupied this morning, so we're going to have to run the festival booth ourselves."
"What?!" Natsuki cried indignantly.
"Hang on, there's good news, too!" Sayori continued quickly. "After we set up the booth, I can run it by myself. And when the time comes for the club to perform something on stage, Monika's going to be the only one of us that goes up. She thought you two would appreciate that."
"I…" Natsuki trailed off, crossed her arms, and let out a satisfied huff. "Well, good."
Yuri let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness…I'll have to thank Monika when I next see her."
Sayori nodded. "Right. Um, you've got the decorations and cupcakes, right?"
Both Yuri and Natsuki nodded. Sayori smiled and gave them two thumbs up. "Awesome! Then just gather them up and meet me in the gymnasium after homeroom! I'll help you set up the booth. Sound like a plan?"
"Yeah, we can totally handle that. Right, Yuri?" Natsuki said, turning to the girl in question.
Yuri swept some of her hair back over her ear and looked away. "U-Um. Yes. I agree."
Natsuki cleared her throat and turned away from her friend, trying to cover up her rapidly reddening face with a cocksure smile. "Of course we can, Sayori."
Sayori smiled knowingly at her friends' antics. Just then, the first bell for homeroom resounded overhead.
"Oh! We've got to get going," Sayori said with a giggle. "I'll see you after homeroom. Literature Club, away!"
Monika swore loudly. She'd slipped up again with her left ring finger. Undaunted, she continued playing away, her slender fingers darting across the piano's ivory keys swiftly and efficiently, finishing off the chorus of the song with a flourish. Having reached the song's bridge, Monika took the opportunity to relax back into her chair and contemplate her prior shortcoming. For some reason, that one chord kept giving her trouble. If she couldn't get it to work, she might have to change the progression of the song itself.
Once the bridge concluded, Monika cleared her throat and resumed singing. The chords interlaced and met in elegant harmony. Her fingers moved quicker, and as the song built to a crescendo…
She missed the chord again and slammed down on the piano in frustration.
Groaning, she rested her elbows on the keys, eliciting a dissonant and highly disapproving tone from the piano. A solid hour (maybe more) of writing, practicing, and rewriting the song, and she still couldn't get that one God damned chord to cooperate with her. She sighed, clasped her hands together, and glared at them. Truth be told, they were perfect piano-playing fingers – long, which allowed her to play even the most stretched out chords, but not thick, which meant that she could do so at as quick of a tempo as she needed to.
This chord, however, was one that did not play to her fingers' strengths – it was a four note, minor chord that was scrunched together so as to give it a better feel when it led into the song's bridges. Monika's long fingers were struggling to contort themselves into a shape that would allow them to play such a chord without muddling it up. And if the clock hanging on the nearby wall was correct, the festival was only growing closer. Something had to give – should she rewrite the song again or keep practicing the current version in the hopes of getting it right?
Monika sighed and got up. Time for a water break.
She got up from the piano bench and went out into the hallway to take a long, hearty sip from the water fountain that stood there. Gulping down swaths of water voraciously and sighing in pleasure upon finishing, she heard a bell ring overhead. That meant that homeroom was close to starting. Hopefully, Sayori had already met with Yuri and Natsuki and explained the situation to them. She hated having to rely on her friends even more, but right now, it was all she could do.
And as she reentered the music room, musing on the fact that no teachers had yet questioned the music emanating from said room as well as the fact that the music teacher himself had yet to arrive, Monika supposed that she was already relying pretty heavily on someone else to keep her out of trouble. But relying on him was unavoidable.
Then again, as she sat down on the bench before the piano once more, she supposed that it was unavoidable not to rely on any of her friends, or not to do any of the things that she was doing right now, considering what her reality truly was.
She looked up at the clock again. Had the hands moved at all? She couldn't tell.
Well, whatever. She was going to finish this song in time for the performance – that much was sure. Monika smiled, cracked her knuckles, and got back to work.