I was about to scream when I heard another scream.
"Shelby! Wake up, for goodness' sake!" My mother's voice rang sharply in my ears, interrupting my nightmare of about to be beaten up by a boy. Thank goodness it was only a dream, thank goodness. All I needed now was a nice good sleep with no nightmares.
My eyes flickered open. "Let me sleep a bit more..." I whined blearily, my head rolling about on my pillow. I pulled the covers over my head, trying to drown out my mother's huffs and puffs.
"You're late for piano!" My mother screeched, and that made my heart plummet. My piano teacher, Mrs Evergreen, had a lion-like personality and scored top marks with fierceness. I clenched my teeth and hoped for the best as I glanced up tentatively at the wall clock. 8 o' clock. The time piano began! With that, I jumped out of bed, my heart throbbing in my throat.
No doubt, Mrs Evergreen flashed her famous anaconda eyes at me the moment I stepped in, making me cringe. I wished I had set my alarm last night. I wished I slept earlier last night. I wished I didn't have any nightmares last night. Fifteen minutes ticked by as she lectured me a earful.
The lesson went badly.
When I was finally allowed to touch the keys, five seconds later, she broke into a loud cry and ferocious yanking of hair. "Oh, the wrong fingering! Wrong notes played makes me sure you need to practice ten times a day. Flat fingers are disgusting, you don't get anywhere with them. For goodness' sake, the sharps and flats! Atrocious playing-"
Her naggy voice was thankfully interrupted by the pinging of her doorbell.
"Ah," She said, her lips settling into a thin-lipped satisfied smile. "New student. Dudley Dursley is sooo punctual. Thank goodness I have a brilliant student like that. Oh, sweetie, do come in," She crooned, popping her head out of the room. She snapped back to me." Bear in mind what I said." Then she sniffed a sniff of displeasure.
I smiled sweetly in reply, earning a rude book-slap from Mrs Evergreen as she shoved my piano books in my face. I stuffed the books in my bag, not bothering if they were creased, and trudged outside. I couldn't help remembering the times when parents came on the first few lessons and how Mrs Evergreen was so sickly sweet. And a few weeks after my parents stopped coming to check on how the lesson went, she began to reveal her true colours. The smile turning into a snarl. Oh, I know them all too well. Even though we've only known each other for a year, I've always felt like I've known her forever, inside out. Sadly.
In front of me stood a fat boy surprisingly like the one in my dream. A tall lady was at his side, and she was so skinny that she seemed to have no front and back but only two sides. She was strangely familiar too…
Mrs Evergreen shooed me away impatiently. Typical. I've always been an annoying housefly to her.
The more I thought about the injust I received weekly, the more self-pity that consumed me. Why was she so mean?! Anger rose in me like vomit, but before I could react she slammed the door in my face so hard it bounced and resonated again. My mobile phone beeped, a rather pleasant contrast than hearing Mrs Evergreen's falsely sweet voice inside the room. A message from Mum telling me she would be late for half an hour in fetching me due to a traffic jam, and told me to wait at the atrium and participate in the celebration going on. I made a mental note to go there in about 15 minutes' time and daydream here first. No, there was something better to do.
I tiptoed silently behind the door and squatted down, pressing my ear against the cool metal of the door.
"Well done! You've brought one of your music books!" Mrs Evergreen cooed. "Do remember to bring the other three in future though!"
From the small sliver of the ajar door I saw the fat boy, supposedly Dudley, glaring belligerently at my teacher. His expression reflected on my face. I smiled at the thought of his face in the months to come, where she would scream at him instead.
"Now," Mrs Evergreen was saying smoothly after Dudley moved his fingers like snails across the piano keys for a while. "Let's start on Mozart's favourite. First: Let me show you how to play the note with this curly thing: a trill." Dudley's hands stayed rooted to the piano stubbornly, so Mrs Evergreen hesitantly swiped them off the piano keys with a hand and plunged into the song. Dudley's beady eyes disappeared beneath the fat folds of his face as he slouched, bored.
The more Mrs Evergreen played, the more carried away she was, and I knew she just liked bragging her "real talent" to students as usual. Dudley straightened suddenly, the colour in his face rising scarily in anger and impatience. Unknown to Mrs Evergreen.
Noticing the purple hue on his face, his mother draped an arm around his neck, squeezing his arm softly to calm his nerves, and I almost wanted to howl with laughter at the sight of his fat face taking angry colour more and more, so much it seemed like a...red balloon? A bubble of laughter escaped my mouth before I knew it and I hastily stuffed my fist in. Are you mental, don't be so mean and laugh at this, I scolded myself and straightened up.
Luckily I stopped in time to catch the horror of horrors. Dudley sprang to his feet, knocking the piano chair backwards to the ground. I flinched in shock as the piano chair hit the ground though it felt more like hit my head. Mrs Evergreen and his mother's mouth dropped open, but not a word escaped. Thank goodness they were not sitting on the piano chair like how Mrs Evergreen usually sat on one side while I sat on the other. He was probably too big anyway for them to lay even a finger on the chair.
Mrs Evergreen's fingers froze above the piano keys, tentatively turning around to peek at her student's outraged face, and before she could even realise he was angry, a fist met her nose. All she felt was twin rivers of blood gushing out her nose. Oh my gosh. I cou;dn't bear to look at what was going to happen next. Thinking she had just kissed Death, she closed her eyes and rested her head on the piano keys, as if willing to die with the piano.
Crazy woman. Total and utter panic etched across my face.
"What's wrong, my diddy darling?" His mother ignored Mrs Evergreen completely except to toss her a packet of tissues to wipe her own nose. Sure, when she was half-dead.
"Stupid, STUPID Mrs Evergreen!" Dudley exploded, delivering Mrs Evergreen another punch on her stomach. She winced in pain, but had yet a word to make. "I played the note correctly!"
He cursed fluently and kicked the piano hard. I was speechless with horror. My mind raced with worries and confusion. Why was Dudley so… cruel? I swallowed hard. It felt like there was a lump the size of a golf ball in my throat, stopping me from speaking, breathing. After a few moments of basking in consternation, I seemed to have discovered my voice at last, and to put it to go use.
I followed my instincts. While the skinny lady purred hopelessly, I wrenched open the door, treating Dudley to my best glare. "How could you?!" I snapped at Dudley angrily. Just that was one huge mistake.
"Oh yeah?" He raised a pudgy hand at me, eyes flashing, face twisting into a weaselly sneer. As he inched closer, panic rose to its peak in me, gripping at my lungs, making it hard for me to breathe again.
I could almost feel his breath, sour against my skin. He balled up his fist and it was almost meeting my face when-
"HARRY POTTER?!" I cried, noting the skinny black-haired boy running towards us, his hair flying in the wind. But how did he come, all of a sudden, did he have magic powers, or what?
He just winked at me. I felt my cheeks warming.
"Sorry, Aunt Petunia," Harry bowed his head as he mumbled shiftily, as his aunt, who had been watching the scene with a mildly amused look on her face, pushed up her eyebrows and shot daggers at Harry.
I gulped. I was really, really doubting that he would continue to be the Boy Who Lived. It would change to the Boy Who Once Lived.