Disclaimer: I do not Pokemon or its characters. But if I did, I'd actually have the money to buy a 3DS and X and Y.

Rosa's POV:

It's the first time I've ever been out of town on my own as I walk along the path, Route 19, to Floccesy Town. Muse walks with me—I plan on keeping her outside her Pokeball, unlike Hugh's Snivy—and marvels at the world. She's very young and inexperienced, even more so than me, and I love the incredulous look in her eye as we pass trees and people and walk up hills.

"Guess I'm not the only greenhorn around here," I mention with a laugh.

Muse seems to laugh, too, saying, "Osh!" in a surprisingly sonorous voice for her small size.

Before I left town earlier today, I showed her to Mom proudly.

"Wow, she's so cute!" Mom said when I darted back into the house. Muse and Audino chatted as Mom hugged me and told me that I was going to be a good little Trainer.

I smiled. "I beat Hugh, Mom. He's so intense about Pokémon, and I beat him."

Her eyes filled with happy tears. She glanced away and then unclasped the necklace around her neck. It was the one she'd worn ever since I could remember. The chain necklace had a disc-shaped pendant that resembled a yin-yang, but on closer inspection, it was an angular black wing and a feathery white wing divided with a jagged path of silver. Before I could ask what she was doing, she clasped it around my neck. "Mom, no," I said, but she shook her head.

"I love you, Rosaria," she murmured, using the name my father had chosen and she rarely used. "Take this with you. Call me when you can. Treat Muse and all of the Pokémon you meet well."

I touch my necklace. I don't wear much jewelry aside from earrings and anklets, but I honor this. It's Mom's blessing. Humming a warm, dark melody under my breath, I scoop Muse up out of the blue and embrace her. "I already feel really stupid for not wanting to travel, you know," I tell her.

No duh, her expression seems to say.

Out of the blue, a yowl greets us. I stop dead in my tracks as a Purrloin stands in front of us, bristling and angry. I really don't like these Pokémon, I think in annoyance, thinking back to Mom's Liepard, the evolution of Purrloin. They're crabby little buggers; I'll be damned if I have one on my team.

But I know Muse would enjoy the battle.

"Come on, let's get him," I say, and Muse leaps out of my arms with a loud war cry.

We battle the Purrloin. He's a dirty battler, not afraid of drawing blood, and he gives Muse a nasty cut I'll have to treat later. However, she takes him down easily (we move his unconscious form so he's not sprawled in the middle of the path), and the cut under her eye gives her a tough look. "Does that hurt you?" I ask her, crouching down.

Muse shakes her head, wiping blood way from her face. "Wott!" she exclaims. However, I notice she's a bit shaky, so I spray her with a Potion I bought in town. The light brightens in her eyes and fades the cut into a pale crescent. It gives her sweet face a tougher look.

We continue down the path, fighting a few more snarky Purrloins and a few Patrats as well, and as the sun begins to set, I notice the tall cliff face about forty feet in front of us. Silhouetted against the summer sun is the figure of a man with spiky hair pulled into a ponytail. Who's that? I wonder. Something about the silhouette seems old and impressive…legendary, even.

As we near it, this silhouetted figure turns toward us. "Hey, you!" calls a deep voice. I look up and watch as the man throws himself from the cliff. I stifle a scream, thinking the man will die from the fall, but he lands lightly and without apparent harm. In the shade of the cliff, I can see him a little better. His hair is orange and tongued like a bright flame and puts Hugh's messy black spikes to shame. Oddly enough, his clothes look nomadic and rough, and he wears a necklace of Pokeballs. He looks older, maybe in his late fifties or early sixties, but as spry as a high school track star at that.

I give a sigh of relief. "Thank Arceus you're okay…" I pause as the man walks closer to me and then makes a slow circle around me, observing me with dark, hard eyes. "Um, excuse me?" I demand, unnerved. Muse seems unafraid of the man—either she trusts him or is too inexperienced to realize that I feel threatened.

He comes back in front of me and holds out his hand. His eyes immediately thaw as he greets, "Hey there, greenhorn. I'm Alder."

The name is one I'm very familiar with. I stare at him. "You….you were Champion. Before White. My mom talked about you a lot when I was younger; she was always a big fan of yours," I say, shaking his hand. It's large and calloused, the hand of a worker. Mom and Hugh are going to be unbelievably jealous when I tell them who I just met!

Alder gives a wry smile and chuckles. Suddenly serious, he points to me. "Who are you?"

I reply, "I'm Rosa…just a newbie Trainer. And this is Muse," I add, gesturing to my scar-faced Starter. She waves her scalchop enthusiastically at Alder.

He nods with some impatience. "You could both do with some training," he says, and points behind him. "Follow me." Alder then races away, charging off in sandals hardly suited for running.

I don't know whether to be indignant or amused by Alder, who seems as mysterious and scatter-brained as Mom's Liepard was. Scooping a huffy Muse into my arms, I cry, "Wait up!" and sprint off after the former Champion.

I arrive in Floccesy Town. It's a rural place, smaller and less populated than Aspertia City. The buildings are old and made of stone; the people seem to be of a similar nature, even the people going about their business who are my age or younger. They give me, in my outlandishly modern clothing, strange looks as I pass. Those who are obviously trainers give Muse envious looks, but otherwise, I doubt they'd be willing to talk to me.

I approach the Pokémon Center and decide to heal Muse when I hear Alder's voice again.

"Ah, good! Healing your Pokémon is always important," Alder says, trotting up from out of nowhere. "When you're done with that, follow the road through town. My home is the building near the warehouses." He darts off again, leaving me wonder if the man is perpetually overdosing himself with caffeine or not.

I sigh. "Come on, Muse, let's heal you up."

We go into the Pokémon Center. Much to my dismay I immediately recognize the attendant here. She isn't one of the nurses named Joy that are notorious and/or famous outside of Unova, but she is also my aunt Katrina.

Or, should I say, Dad's sister. The woman who introduced my parents to one another, essentially setting up a relationship that would eventually fail.

She doesn't seem to recognize me. We haven't seen each other or spoken since I was nine years old, and back then, I had a boy's haircut and often wore castoffs from my neighbor's sons in Accumula Town.

Katrina greets me and takes Muse, who is in her Pokeball. She looks nothing like Dad. Her hair is strawberry blonde and short, twisted into stubby braids, and her eyes are a very soft, gentle green. There's no confusion or recognition in her eyes as she sees me, and I think I'd like to keep it that way. Seeing any relatives of the man who tore my family apart is painful enough.

"Have a nice day," my aunt says, handing me Muse's Pokeball.

I release Muse. The scar under her eye is still there, and after patting around under her eyes, Muse seems relieved that it is. That's what I get for choosing a Pokémon reputable for an honorable samurai attitude, I suppose. They love their battle scars. "You have a good one too, Katrina," I say, and I want to kick myself. I'm supposed to be a stranger! How could a stranger know her name?

Katrina blinks. "You…you're really familiar."

"I just have that kind of face," I say and try to scurry out of the Pokémon Center, but then what she says next makes me freeze where I'm standing.

"Stop! You're my niece!" Before I can try and deny that, she leaps over the counter, ignoring the strange stares from the people sitting in the lobby, and embraces me. "Oh, Rosaria, you have your father's gray-blue eyes. I can't believe I didn't recognize them. I guess all of that long hair threw me off."

I resist the urge to squirm. Muse stands a few feet away, looking confused by my reaction to Katrina's affection. "Please call me Rosa," I say, hoping I'm not making a repulsed face. "I'm just Rosa, not Rosaria."

She lets me go and places her hands on my shoulders. I stand at least three inches taller than she does, even though I'm average height for a girl; Dad and his siblings were never particularly famous for being tall, I guess. She looks me up and down and says, "You look like your mother more than my brother, but I think you're prettier than she was at your age. And your eyes aren't as intense as Jonathan's were," she says.

Something clicks. Jonathan. Dad. Mom never called him Jonathan. I actually had no idea that his name was Jonathan until now. When they were still together and he wasn't being a total idiot, she'd always called him Jay, never Jonathan or Jon. I guess it was really just J, like the letter, because there's no good reason to shorten a name like Jonathan to Jay. "That's one thing to be thankful for," I say, looking anywhere but at Katrina. Even if she doesn't look much like Dad, she certainly reminds me of him. And I'm not appreciative of the fact.

Katrina smiles and looks down at Muse. "I thought your mom said you didn't want to become a Trainer, last time I talked to her. Has that changed?" she asks.

I shrug. "Sort of. I just was given a Pokedex and Muse today, and now I have to train her and fill in a Pokedex, I guess. She's my only Pokémon right now, but I really like her." Muse beams at me, proud that she's pleased her Trainer.

"Well, it's only natural. Your parents were incredible. Before your mom's Emboar passed away from that awful outbreak of fire virus and before your father released his Lucario, those two had the strongest teams I'd ever seen," she says proudly.

Her words are a physical blow to me. I hadn't thought about Dad's Lucario in years. He was a good friend of mine; actually, he was probably my best friend, back when were lived in Accumula Town. I wasn't fond of many of my Mom's Pokémon—especially her stupid Liepard, who took it upon herself to make me feel uncomfortable in my own home whenever Mom wasn't watching—as five of her six Pokémon were large and frightening at the time. Dad, on the other hand, had less frightening Pokémon. His Reuniclus rocked me to sleep when I was a baby, and his Swanna kept an eye on me from the sky when I was old enough to play outside. He had others, all special in some ways, but I had a particular favorite…and that was Lucario. Dad's Lucario was only a few inches taller than me when I saw him for the last time and always kind. He had a very firm grasp of human language and very chivalrously put up with my endless questions about life, Pokémon, and his taste for classical music. He really loved the cello and inspired my love of the piano. When I could finally play a tune on the piano, Lucario had been so proud.

Dad released him, along with all of his Pokémon aside from his Watchog, and that's when I knew he wasn't the man who'd taught me love and compassion, along with care for the Pokémon I lived with.

"I haven't thought about Lucario in a really long time," I murmur, and Katrina winces at the obvious pain on my face.

She ruffles my bangs as Muse rubs against my leg, mewling at me. "Sorry to bring him up. I'm still pissed at my brother for doing that," she murmurs. Then, she gives me a curious look. "Where are you headed, Rosa?"

"I ran into Alder. He senses that I'm a newbie and he wants me to go train with him," I say. "Is there a smell newbies have or something? Because everyone always seems to know if you haven't been a Trainer for long."

She nods, and she doesn't answer my question. "That's good. He has a number of students, and they all learn a lot from him. You should be going, then." After an exchange of goodbyes, I leave with Muse, and we start down the road toward Alder's house.

It isn't a very long walk. The setting sun has sunken lower since my exchange with Katrina. My old pain for Lucario stabs at me, and Muse can sense it. She sits on my shoulder and presses her nose to my face. "Sha, wott, osha," she says quietly. I wish I spoke her language or that she was like Lucario and could communicate in mine.

I turn my face to the side and kiss her head. "Hey, don't worry about me. I've had eight years to deal with losing my friend, okay?" I reassure her. "Besides, he isn't dead. He's probably either living as free as a Pidove or has a better Trainer. He wouldn't let himself get captured by a bad person." The last statement is more to reassure myself.

Towards the end of town, we see a small house, near large metal sheds. There's a dirt arena outside of the house, and I know immediately that this is Alder's home. Who else in this old-school establishment would have that outside of their house? I'm not able to even start toward his home when he walks out. "Rosa!" he booms, as if I'm an old friend, and strides forward with purpose. Stopping a few feet from me, he stares intently at my bag. "Why are you carrying two Town Maps?"

Who else has shoved random things into my belongings?! I think, feeling a little nervous, as I drag out two Town Maps from my bag. There's a note attached to one. It's written in the handwriting of Hugh's mother:

Rosa,

You're going on a journey, and you're more likely to see Hugh next before I do. He left before I could give him this Town Map. Please deliver it to him for me.

I told your mother to give it to you so that you could find Hugh and give it to him, and hopefully you aren't discovering this in your bag randomly, and you know exactly why you have this.

Thank you!

I stare at the note, fuming a little. Why isn't Mom like a normal person who just hands things to people instead of shoving them into pockets and bags? "Well, it appears that I'm supposed to deliver this to my friend, Hugh."

Alder claps his hands. "A young man with dark hair and intense red eyes came by here earlier. His name was Hugh. He headed off to Floccesy Ranch to train only thirty minutes ago or so, actually."

Sighing, I shoulder my bag. "That's the Hugh I'm talking about. I should go find him, then. His mother would freak out if he doesn't have this as soon as possible."

"Come back here whenever it's safe to. If it's really late, stay the night with the owners of the ranch. They have sleeping quarters. Plus, it's a great place to train," he calls after I bid him goodbye and head east.

I thank him for the idea, and Muse and I walk off into the darkening evening.

I have my first battles with Trainers other than Hugh on the way to Floccesy Ranch. Partnered with my little warrior Pokémon, I sweep the floor with the Patrats and Purrloins that the younger Trainers use. Checking my Trainer card, I realize I haven't earned much money from them. They are clearly young or novice Trainers, so I figure they don't have a lot of money to give. We also battle some wild Pokémon. Muse looks stronger and more certain, and by the time we reach the outer limits of Floccesy Ranch, I use my Pokedex's stat function to check her level. It's doubled since when I first obtained her at level 5, and she knows some new moves, too.

We pass through the entrance to the ranch nearly an hour and a half after we leave Floccesy Town because of all of the battling. "Osha," Oshawott murmurs incredulously, staring at the huge barn in the near distance. I've never been in a place so distinctly rural, and I must reek of city girl as I gawk at the fluffy Mareep roaming around, the barn situated in the midst of the gently rolling terrain, and the long stretches of wooden fence.

I get it out of my system and start towards the barn. Before I can even begin to think about where Hugh might be, I hear his voice. "Hey, Rosa! You got here fast!" A confident-looking Hugh trots over, dodging a pair of sleeping Mareep as he goes. "How about a battle to see who's trained their Pokémon better since leaving town?"

I smile. "Wouldn't dream of denying you a battle."

In exactly six minutes and forty-three seconds—or should I say, in the time it takes to run through the melody of my favorite movement of a nineteenth-century piano concerto—I defeat Hugh. Or, should I say, Muse whacks the snot out of Snivy with her newly-learned Water Gun and a few ferocious Tackles. She's a little demon on the battlefield, and I suppose I've become something of a strategist in the time we've worked together…though I'm fairly certain she doesn't need a lot of guidance from myself.

Hugh recalls his Snivy and shakes his head. "I never thought you'd be this good of a Trainer."

"It's probably beginner's luck," I say modestly, even though I feel like gloating and boasting about Muse. I feel lucky to have met her just earlier today. However, before I forget, I reach into my bag and toss Hugh his Town Map. "Your mom wanted me to get this to you, by the way. You left town so quickly that she didn't have a chance to get it to you," I say, a mockingly reproachful note in my voice.

Hugh kicks at the ground casually as he looks at it. "Huh. This thing's nice. I'm going to have to call my mom and thank her. I kind of did run out of there like a Woobat out of hell…"

"That was some battle you had!" calls a new voice, twangy and very much feminine. I look up to spot a pair of people who are obviously ranchers. I sense that they're probably at least ten years older than my mom, but I can't really judge by how much. Living around my mom has made me leery of assigning numbers to age. The woman, with curly hair and an air of modest grace, looks at us, obviously impressed by the battle we just had. Sensing the way the man moves around her, he's the woman's husband. This man is tall, thin, and dark-haired, kind of like a lanky Hugh sans the spikiness of his hair and the dark garnet of his eyes. Trotting with them is a pair of Herdiers, scruffy-faced and loyal to their Trainers.

Hugh looks at the Pokémon with cool eyes. Then, they roam up to look at the ranchers. He must've taken the woman's comment as an insult, which I know she didn't say to insult him, and crosses his arms. "Thanks," he says, his voice frigid.

The woman notices his tone but smiles anyway. With a note of gentleness in her voice, she chides, "Losing doesn't mean you're a bad Trainer. You're very good yourself. The young lady and her Oshawott are cut from similar stuff and understand each other."

Hugh glances at me. "You really didn't have to give many directions in our battle, did you?"

I shrug. My adrenaline rush from our battle has fogged my memory, but there's truth in what he says. Muse has good instincts without receiving commands; I know the few I gave assisted her battling, but they were far and few between. Something tells me that not all Pokémon are like this, and as I start to catch more Pokémon later on, there's a very good chance that some will need their every move plotted out for them.

The man smiles at us. "Well, we heard the commotion and came out to check what was going on. We figured if you two were out this late and battling this hard, you hadn't had dinner yet. I can't believe you didn't wake up some of the Mareep," he adds, laughing at the sight of the two Mareep zonked out.

I blink. Does this man want two strange kids from out-of-town inside of his home? "Are you inviting us to dinner?" I ask.

"We run something of a bed and breakfast nearby. There are two or three others who'd be joining us who don't necessarily live with us," his wife reassures me, her tone encouraging. "They're all Trainers, too."

My stomach giving a well-timed rumble, I decide that, alongside what Alder told me about Floccesy Ranch, it's a safe idea. "I'd be happy to join you, thanks." I turn to Hugh. "Well, what about you?"

He looks a bit resigned, but he nods. Quietly, he says, "I think it'd be a bad idea to train on an empty stomach." I try to thank him for being polite with my eyes, but he doesn't meet them. He's trying to process that I'm a natural who got lucky and chose a really smart, battle-savvy Pokémon as my Starter. It might take him some time to get used to it. For a moment I feel bad that I've done this to him, but why should I? He's the one who's inhibited himself by refusing to leave Aspertia City without first having a rival.

We follow the ranchers back toward their house, and I'm enticed by the thought of food.

Hugh's POV:

Rosa has now kicked my ass twice in one day. She's only been a Trainer for one day. You do the math.

She's either a natural, or I'm just really bad.

We're in the house of the two ranchers, eating dinner at a long table. Much to Rosa's chagrin, they have a "No Pokémon at the table rule". Muse was extremely pissed off to go back into her Pokeball before dinner. She's a funny little thing, not at all reserved and pompous like my lazy ass egomaniac of a Grass-type starter.

Anyway, the food's awesome. They gave us a plateful of mashed potatoes with some different kinds of herb in it, some kind of steak—it's good enough that I'd bet it's Bouffalant meat—and a crapload of bread and vegetables. Rosa isn't eating the steak, but she's a vegetarian. She has been ever since I met her, back when she barely spoke a word to anyone. The ranchers, along with the two other Trainers at the table, are giving her a hard time about it. They're all joking, and I'm not really in the mood for talking.

So I listen in as everyone talks back and forth to each other.

Rosa is talking to one of the other Trainers, a boy about our age with a gray baseball cap shoved down over curly blonde hair, about a local country music band. He clearly loves the group, and I can tell Rosa is trying not to insult the genre of music. Country music is just a bunch of people praising Arceus and our region and whining about missing someone they never deserved to be dating in the first place, I hear Rosa grumbling in one of our first conversations after she finally started talking to people. The thought makes me smile a little, even though my mood isn't great.

The two Ranchers are talking with the other Trainer, who looks enough like the boy to probably be a sister or a cousin, about the Mareep outside. The girl is dead-set on catching one, but she's having trouble even battling one with her Woobat. One of the ranchers promises to lend her their Herdier tomorrow so that she can catch one.

I didn't know a human could squeal that loudly over an electric ball of fluff on stubby legs.

I finish my food before everyone else and check the clock. Is it seriously nine o'clock already? They eat late around here. I think. My mother would yell at me if I started back into town at this time of night. It took me at least two hours to get here when it was light out, anyway.

When the conversation dies down as people really dig into their food, I ask, "Do you have anywhere to stay for the night?" I silently add, Rosa and my mother would both try and strangle me for travelling this late.

"Oh, good. We were hoping you wouldn't try and go back into town at this time of night. It's not safe," says the female rancher. Her face is really lined and leathery from working out in the sun, but she probably used to be pretty. "There've been some odd folks around lately and we don't like kids travelling on their own with them around."

Rosa swallows a mouthful of potatoes and murmurs, "I'd like to stay here for the night, too. If Hugh's not going back to town tonight, I'm not comfortable going back to town on my own."

She'd feel safer with me? I think, a little rattled at the thought.

So, after dinner, we find ourselves getting towed along by the female rancher. We exit their house and find ourselves near a trio of guesthouses. "You two can stay in the one on the left," she says, pointing at the one. It's a squat little thing that's probably only about half the size of the apartment I live in with my mother and Taylor. Rosa thanks her and enters the house. Before I can follow her, the rancher grabs my arm.

"Behave yourself with the young lady now. I don't take well to kids getting up to funny business in my guesthouses," the rancher says, her eyes filled with fierce warning. Before I can even feel embarrassed and tell her Rosa and I aren't in love or that we're not going to get up to "funny business" in her guesthouse, she disappears. Standing in the dark for a moment, I pound the heel of my hand against my forehead. Yes, Rosa is incredibly pretty (which my male friends often reminded me), but I'm not exactly plotting to get into her pants or anything.

I go in after a bit, and Rosa's sitting on one of the beds. The guesthouse is basically an overlarge bedroom with a tiny refrigerator, counter and bathroom attached. Plus, I see a microwave in the corner.

"Alder told me about this earlier. I wouldn't have come out here so late if I'd realized how long it took to get here and get back," Rosa says. Her voice, usually just a little raspy and the good kind of low, is the epitome of exhaustion. It's then that I notice her hair is down, falling down her back and gathering a little on the bed behind her due to its length, and she's just wearing her leggings and her pink cami. I've always known she was really pretty and had a nice figure in the back of my mind, but damn. This was a total blow to the head. She'd slept over at my house a few times since we became friends, but she always wore baggy pajamas or something that left more to the imagination.

I look away from her and take off my jacket. The guesthouse is warm in comparison to the chilly night outside. "I guess Alder's a really knowledgeable guy," I retort, "seeing as he told me to come here and either train or catch a Pokémon. Not big on the Mareep, though, no offense to him."

Rosa makes a noise at the back of her throat and slides under the covers. She replies, "He was Champion once. Of course he's smart." Then, for some reason, she adds, "Sorry I ruined your day by beating you twice."

I almost laugh at what she says, but I'm not in the mood to laugh. Crawling under the covers of my bed, I admit, "That kind of sucked, but hey. I deserved that. I insulted your dreams about a music career." Karma had to get me at some point, and I guess better sooner than later.

Rosa laughs and rolls over to meet my eyes. She seems less guarded and worried when she's really tired. In the low lamplight, her eyes look dark, almost black, even though they're really a pale shade of bluish gray. "It's okay. I always thought that your Pokémon training dreams were kind of stupid, too. I love Muse. I really regret not caring about this kind of lifestyle already." She reaches out from under the covers and releases Muse from her Pokeball. Her starter is sleepy and immediately cuddles in beside her. Even though her Pokémon is falling asleep in her arms, Rosa seems sad. "Those ranchers are really nice, but their rules about Pokémon are annoying. Pokémon are good friends. You treat them with all of the respect you'd treat a person. At home, Mom's Audino had full run of the house and yard. Here, they're treated like…I don't know…like something less than a friend. But that bothers me. Like you wouldn't abandon a friend, so why would you abandon a Pokémon? You wouldn't take someone else's friend away without good reason, so why would you steal someone else's Pokémon?" Obviously there's something in her past that's bothering her, and it throws itself full-force into her voice.

"Yeah…" I'm wary. Rosa's hitting a little too close to home here, making me feel helpless like I did five years ago.

She closes her eyes and gropes for the light switch on the lamp nearby. "Goodnight, Hugh. See you tomorrow." We're submerged in the darkness once her fingers find the switch. I'm not at all tired, but I suppose Rosa's day has been pretty tiring. Between her steady breathing and her Oshawott's light snores, though, I find myself getting lulled into a sense of tiredness.

I finally murmur, "'Night, Rosa," and turn over on my side to fall asleep.

A/N: Hello and welcome to "Well I should've been working on an essay for my political science class, but that's pretty weak. So here's the very seriously edited second chapter of Sonata in Gray for my already beloved readers." Okay, anyway, so if you aren't required to take a political science class at your school, bake your administrators the best cookies you can manage because, damn, you are one lucky individual. If you don't even know what the hell political science is, then congrats. Your life will be at least 15% happier.

Anyway...

I've gotten a few messages (and comments in a review) concerning Hugh's sister's name. I'm just going to take a moment and let y'all know that we, as a fandom, are absolutely lost on the name of this child. You all have very different views on what this name is, and I had an off-topic discussion with my friend via phone call about it-it was a nice interlude in our serious conversation. Regardless, we've decided that Gamefreak should've given this child an official name in the gameverse. Because if she had a name, I would remember that name.

Another issue I've encountered in writing this is that I don't want to scare people with musical jargon. When Rosa is thinking about music and doing things with music, I have to tone down all of my music theory knowledge. Many people don't know what a fermata or a diphthong are (or even basic things in music education like time signatures and the reading of sheet music), and I don't want to alienate my readers who are not musically inclined. The anatomy of music isn't for everyone, and I don't want to confuse my readers with Rosa's knowledge.

My next update is going to be delayed. I had to do some serious overhauling on the third chapter and I'm back down to 2500 words again, which isn't enough for me to publish. On this fic, I'm aiming for somewhere between 4000 and 6000 word chapters. Plus, I have two concerts, a major rehearsal and two tests coming up in the next five days. Hopefully, come next weekend, I'll be able to sit down and do a major writing session and churn out that next chapter.

Please keep reading and reviewing! I appreciate that greatly with this fic!