Disclaimer: Shall I insult your intelligence by stating the obvious? Do you really believe that I own Newsies or are making money off of this?
A/N: So, there's nothing like a looming deadline ticking away next to your ear, to make you update old stories. :P I've prolly lost all my original reviewers, but hey, maybe someone new will find this fic and enjoy it (and REVIEW!). :D
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6:30 am
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I rolled over and reached for the snooze button on my alarm clock before sitting up in shock. This was the first morning that I hadn't been awoken by Hilary's early morning practicing. Glancing over at her bed, I saw her marking bowing into her music before lifting her violin again. Apparently she had been playing but I had learned to sleep through it. Score for me!
"Morning, Hilary," I said with mock-sweetness as I switched off my alarm. "How did you sleep last night? I slept wonderfully."
"Well that's jolly-effing-nice for you," she replied before flipping me off.
I laughed and went to take my shower.
It wasn't until halfway through my shower that I remembered the previous night and Oscar Delancey. Immediately my day went from great to sucky. There was no way I was going to be caught alone with that creep again, ever! When I got back to my room, I crawled back in bed and huddled under the covers, ignoring Hilary's snort of amusement. Let her laugh, she should be glad she hadn't been kissed by the younger Delancey.
By the time Hilary left for breakfast, I had stopped shivering, but was no means ready to venture out by myself. Luckily for me, Anne and Klara grew impatient of waiting in the stairwell, and came to drag me from my bed.
The Syzmanski brothers were already seated and eating by the time we got to breakfast. Jason was nowhere to be seen.
"Mornin'" I said as I sat down.
"Mmph-Badumph-Mmphph," Taras replied.
Grekory smacked the back of his head. "Chew and swallow before you speak, Itey!"
"Where's the J-man?" Anne asked.
The picture of Jason as the Joker and Anne as Harli Quinn passed through my mind, and despite my gloominess, I burst out laughing.
"It wasn't that funny," Anne grumbled.
"Oh, but it was," I managed, finally beginning to regain control of myself. That was, of course, for naught, because the pancake I was trying to put into my mouth fell onto Klara's lap instead. My giggles began again mixed with her shrieks of: "Oh no, not syrup!"
"Jason and Blink are skipping breakfast today," Grekory said, plainly trying to ignore the chaos on our side of the table. After a few moments, he gave it up. "Good god, Itey, go get them some wet napkins!"
"Sorry about that," I apologized to my violinist friend. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I stop laughing?
Klara smiled. "No problem. I love these jeans, and as proof, they have several stains already. Paint, colored hair spray, whipped cream, car grease, and now syrup. It just startled me, that's all."
"Calm down, Julia," Anne said, patting me on the back.
Finally, my breathing slowed to normal and I returned to my former depressed self. The rest of breakfast was subdued, save for Anne's comment to me as we rose to head to symphonic band:
"From one extreme to another – god, girl! You've got to find yourself a happy medium!"
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8:00 am
Anne waited while I assembled my bassoon before band. I hadn't told anyone about Oscar and I didn't plan to, but I think she sensed that I was a bit distraught.
"Hey, Pigtails!"
We both turned to see Jack Kelly striding towards us.
"It's Anne, actually," my black-pigtailed-haired friend retorted.
"Whatever."
"What do you want?"
"To tell you to keep your perfect-pitched ears listening for my perfect-pitched playing today."
"As opposed to all the other days? I'm glad you've realized that I'm right."
"I don't play sharp!"
"Yes, you do. I've heard you four days consecutively."
"I'm – "
" – the Tuba God? So you've mentioned."
I sniffed in an amused fashion and looked at the ceiling. The two brass players squabble was quite interesting, to say the least.
"Who gave you the job of being the pitch police?"
"I just thought that you were mature enough to take the criticism and use it to improve your playing, that's all," Anne was growing annoyed and bored, I could tell.
"If the criticism were coming from someone I thought I could respect, maybe I would take it better."
"Oh, you think you're soooo much better than I am, don't you? God, Julia, what the hell?" Anne exclaimed as someone bumped into me from behind, knocking me into her.
I knew who had run into me before I looked.
"Heya, Oscar, get back over here and apologize to the lady for bumping into her!" Jack demanded, his feud with Anne apparently forgotten for the moment.
"So sorry," the creep said, his words dripping with sarcasm.
Jack rolled his eyes and turned back to Anne. "You're crazy," he told her.
"I know," she replied. "You're an egotistical sharp-playing doofus."
"Oh, ouch, that one hurt. And I do NOT play sharp!"
So intent on their bickering, neither saw Oscar give me the finger. Flipped off twice in the period of two hours. Wow, this day was sure going great.
"Hi Tony, are you talking to me yet?" I asked as I slid into my seat for band.
"I'm thinking about it," was his answer.
I gritted my teeth and decided to give him some of his own treatment. From now on, I wasn't going to speak to a certain annoying, talented, Italian bassoonist.
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11:15 am
"Julia, that was very good. You have excellent articulations and vibrato. I think the one thing you could work on is a bit larger tone. Put your music out there all the way to the last row in the auditorium. Big tone! Macho tone! Rich, huge tone!"
The bassoon masterclass teacher was quite impressed, I could tell. And I knew what she meant about the tone. All of my instructors had been telling me that the entire two years I had been playing. I was working on it, it just took a while.
"Does anyone have something else to add? Something that stood out to them, either praise or constructively critiqual? Tony?"
Tony lowered his hand and smiled. "I thought the piece was great. I just love Hindemith, don't you? What I have to say though, isn't about that – Julia, I'm sorry for being so rude earlier. I believe you that nothing happened with Jason, and it's also not even my business if something did. Will you please come back and eat lunch with our group again?"
The teacher's face was priceless.
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12:00 Noon
"I can't believe you said that in front of all those people!"
Tony grinned as we walked out of the basement where our masterclasses were held, holding the door open for me as we went.
"Her face, oh, it was great!" I squealed.
"Yeah, I wanted to make it up to you. I acted like a jerk. And so, are you sitting with us at lunch, or not?"
"I can't," I sighed. "I promised to sit with Anne and the others at lunch. But I'll come for dinner."
"Awesome. It's been lonely without my bassoon buddy."
"Lonely? With Grant at the table? Not to mention Jack and Spot?"
"True," he laughed. "Off to lunch and our different circles then?"
I took his offered arm and we skipped the rest of the way to the dining hall.
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1:00 pm
Lunch was long. Jason and Blink skipped, again, though Grekory assured us that they had plenty of food stocked up in their dorm room. Therefore, there was no interesting conversation throughout the entire meal. All Anne could talk about was "that jerk-of-a-doofus Jack Kelly, no wonder he played tuba" and "he was totally sharp again today" while Klara ate her food in silence. Grekory and Taras shoveled their food into their mouths without stopping to breathe it seemed. The sounds of them chewing and swallowing were only interrupted by an occasional belch by Itey. I almost wished that I had taken up Tony's offer.
That was when I had glanced at "Rachel's" table and its new inhabitant. Stupid damn blonde-bitchy violinist. I hate her. Seated at Tony's right, Hilary kept whispering in his ear, and his face kept growing redder and redder. Eventually, he caught me staring and flipped me off. What is it today. Do I have a "flip me off" sign tapped to my forehead or something?
Grekory walked with me back to symphony. On the way he started talking about Jason. It was an awkward conversation to say the least.
"Jason's pretty cool, huh."
"Yeah, sure, Grekory."
"He's not usually like this."
"You mean he's not usually cool?"
"He's not usually happy."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I've known Jason for almost my entire life, and he's one depressed kid."
"So the Jason I know doesn't really exist?"
"No, he can be happy occasionally, but just not usually."
"And why do you think he's happy now?"
"Well, he's met some pretty awesome people here that he seems to like a lot and would like them to like him."
"So he's faking who he is so that he'll be popular?"
"No, it's more that the people he's met are bringing out the happy side to him."
"Grekory, you are hecka confusing me."
"Sorry. Forget I said anything, okay?"
"Sure thing."
Symphony was hell. Sheer and utter hell. Tony was once again pissed at me, for reasons I had no idea about (though I was pretty sure that Hilary was behind it). When I tried to talk to him about it, he glared a killer glare and went back to ignoring me. Both of us played wonderfully. I guess anger sharpens the mind and quickens the fingers. Who knows?
During our ten minutes symphony break, I hurried for the drinking fountain after making sure that Oscar was otherwised engaged and couldn't follow me. So preoccupied with escaping without him seeing me, I bumped into a brunette wearing a skirt made out of neckties.
"Sorry 'bout that," I said quickly.
"No problem. I'm Cadence."
"Oh, hi. Wow."
She looked at me oddly. "Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just, you're the 2nd seat cello, right?"
"Yeah."
"I just know someone who thinks you're extremely hot."
"Grant Meyers?"
"Yeah."
"Tell me, is he really as insane as he seems?"
"Yep. But he's awesome – a bit exuberant, but everyone needs a good dose of exerburance. Grant's just a big dose. You have to get used to him."
"He says his friends call him Mush?"
"They do. And I'm Julia, by the way."
Mr. Snyder was tapping his stick on his stand, signaling us all to return to our seats. I got my drink really fast and ran back onto the stage with my bassoon. I got the evil stare from the symphony conductor, but he didn't say anything.
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3:45 pm
I was in the middle of scribbling down a note about the three composers born in 1685: Bach, Handel, and Scarlotte the Younger, when a folded piece of paper slid onto my desk. Glancing around, I couldn't tell who it had come from. Kloppman wasn't paying attention, so I opened it and read:
"so, do you really sneak out every night to meet boys? – g."
I frowned and looked around again. Grant was across the room and was looking conveniently at the ceiling. Rolling my eyes, I wrote a reply:
"No, I don't. Wherever did you hear such crap? I got locked out of my room once and stayed with a male friend, but absolutely nothing happened. – j."
I nudged the girl to my left and nodded my head towards Grant. She smiled and passed the paper along. A few minutes later she handed it back to me. The reply read:
"the blonde chick at lunch today was telling Race all sorts of stuff about you. she also said that you were bi and didn't like her cause you had a crush on her and she is straight. – g."
Feeling my blood begin to roil, I angrily scratched down my answer.
"That lying little bitch. I am not bi! And I don't just dislike Hil, I HATE her. Nothing happened between me and any guy here! – j."
Kloppman came to stand next to me as he lectured, so I had to wait till he turned to write something on the board to pass the note back. Class ended before I could get Grant's latest addition, but the cellist caught up to me as we walked towards Camp Chorus.
"I'm glad you're not bi and that you haven't been sleeping around," he announced loudly, causing several people to stare and snigger.
"Grant," I hissed. "That was totally not the coolest thing to say aloud."
"Sorry. So, you ready for the pictures?"
"Pictures?"
Grant grinned at me. After a moment the grin slipped into a look that bordered on terror. "Please tell me that you're kidding. Please tell me that you know what today is! Argh! They always say, 'kill the messenger', gah!"
"Just spit it out, Grant," I said, frustrated at his antics.
"It's picture day. Instead of having camp chorus, we all get our picture taken."
I froze.
"Yeah, now's the time for you to start running around screaming because you think you look like crap. However, I think you look great. And I'm sure that Race does too. And whatever the 'other' guy's name is, too. Well, you might want to fix your eyeliner a little bit."
Sigh. Boys.
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4:30 pm
I am totally in shock that they think that it's safe to cram two hundred high schoolers on wooden risers with wire backs that were only constructed that morning! Behind me three rows, and to the left around thirteen people, Jack and David were attempting a Russian Cossack dance on the top level. Needless to say, the entire fragile frame was shifting quite discontently from the activity and I could hear several squeaks and groans that left me fighting back a sweat.
"Everyone look at me and smile! One. Two. Three." There was a long pause after the three before the light finally flashed.
"Oh, can't see! I can't see!" I heard Taras shriek.
"Alright, one more serious picture. One. Two." Flash. "Er, three."
I rolled my eyes.
"Funny picture! Do funny poses. Silly stuff! Come on!"
Turning to my neighbor, I began to throttle them. Or at least, that what I meant to do, but I suddenly found myself hoisted into the air and passed backwards towards the top of the unstable contraption.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Hiya, Julia!" A deviously grinning face that belonged to a patched flutist poked up through my elbow.
"Ryan! Put me down!"
"No can do, sweets."
"Ryan, Blink, Brecker, or whatever you go by, you put me down or – "
"God, Julia, calm down, they're about to take the picture," Jason said in my ear. I whipped my head around, but no matter how I tried to see over my shoulder, he was hidden from view.
"I'm going to kill you two for this," I muttered.
"Ready? One. Two. Three." Long pause. "Uh. One. Two. Thr—" Flash.
"Now, put me down!"
Jason laughed. "As Blink said, no can do."
"Why not?"
"Unless you want to be passed back down to your original spot, then there's no where to put you down in."
"Fine. But I swear, if you drop me, so help me – "
"Calm, Julia. Breathe."
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7:30 pm
The Student Ensemble Recital had begun. The group was attempting to be quiet, though after the riotous dinner at which Blink had snitched a cucumber from the fresh vegetable display, proceeding to eat half of it raw before offering the other half (after being goaded on by Klara) to a passing-by Kloppman. Kloppman's reply had been the highlight of the entire meal, spoken in his usual deadpan: "I don't think you're supposed to eat those. And I would wash it and salt it first." Other than that, the talk mostly consisted of the dance that was set for the following evening.
"First up, we have our Intermediate Saxophone Quartet, with Ashley on soprano, Les on alto, Karl on tenor, and Sam on bari."
Of course, Kloppman was once again emceeing the concert, in his deadpan voice, looking as bored as ever. The sax quartet was okay, but the next group got the most applause from us.
"Next up is the chamber wind ensemble with Beckah on flute, Jason on oboe, Edmund on Clarinet, Alex on bassoon, Nick on horn, and Rachel on trombone."
"There was a chamber wind ensemble?" I whispered to Anne. "There wasn't when I registered. Only stupid boring electives."
"It went fast. Apparently only the early registers had the chance."
"Whatever. And why, oh why, is Jason wearing a Fedora?"
"Now we have our Advanced Saxaphone Quartet, with Mikayla on soprano, Kyle on alto, David on tenor, and Matt on bari."
"How did we do?" Jason asked as he took the seat next to me, already tugging off the tie he had been wearing.
"Awesome."
"Glad you liked it."
"Yeah, I wish I could have been in it. I didn't even know there was a chamber wind ensemble."
"It was pretty small."
"I'm stuck in Music History."
"Hey, it's with Kloppman."
"True."
The sax quartet stood for their bows and our beloved teacher returned to announce the next group.
"I LOVE YOU, KLOPPMAN!"
We all turned to see Ryan slip farther down into his chair, his cheek flushing redder by the moment. "She made me do it!" he insisted, pointing at Klara. She nodded, accepting the blame.
"Please be quiet," was all Kloppman said to that. "Next up, we have…"
Various people in our row came and went getting ready for their various performances. I wasn't in anything, as my elective wasn't a performing one. At one point I looked over and noticed that Jason and I were the only one in the row.
"Where'd they all go?" I asked, nudging him.
Jason shrugged.
"And now, we have the Didgeridoo Choir," Kloppman said before retreating behind the curtain once again.
Suddenly Ryan came bursting onto the stage, his face smeared with paint, his jacket wrapped around his waist, and holding a didgeridoo to his lips making the oddest sound. He danced his way around the stage before lowering his wooden instrument and stomping three times. A chorus of deep grunts and whistles filled the auditorium as members of the ensemble leapt to their feet. High up in the balcony right behind our heads, we could hear more people rising and blowing on their instruments. In reality, only Ryan had a real didgeridoo. Everyone else had long pieces of PVC piping.
"Ew! I can feel all their spit raining down on my head!" I complained.
Jason snorted and removed his hat from his head. "Here," he said, placing it on my head. "You can wear the Fedora."
"Gee, thanks."
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10:00 pm
The recital didn't get over till late, but we still had time to party a bit before heading in to our rooms. I was rather grateful to get away due to the fact that Oscar had hung about, purposefully drawing my attention to himself all evening. The memory of his pale greasy face, his discolored eye and unwashed hair made me shiver.
I didn't have time for that though, I had a bone to pick with Hilary the Bitch. Enough was enough, and if she couldn't understand that, I would just have to make her understand it.
"Yo, Hilary. Why do you hate me so much? Huh? I know you're a bitch and you don't like it that I'm friends with the girl you've made your arch-nemesis, but that doesn't mean you have to try and ruin my life!"
She just smiled at me and went back to her air bowing.
"I ASKED YOU A FREAKIN' QUESTION! I WANT AN ANSWER!"
"Get used to disappointment."
She did NOT just quote the Princess Bride at me! She just didn't! I was tempted to bash her blonde little head into the wall and break her damn violin over her damn head, but I restrain myself. Instead, I switched off the lights and climbed into my bed, pulling the covers over my head.
Tomorrow had better get better, or I was going to scream.
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A/N:Please review.
-- pj