Eleven

Past.

Courtney played the final note of the song on her violin and opened her eyes to those who would decide her fate. Miss Lerman had promoted Courtney to first chair of orchestra only a month after she'd joined, and it was her who had suggested she try out for Julliard.

She was nervous to apply, but Miss Lerman thought she was good enough and Mrs Anderson had agreed when Courtney had mentioned it at her lesson. Duncan had supported her completely and Bridgette had agreed to tell Nadine that Courtney was at her place the weekend of the audition. Roger of course knew about it, and while he had been a bit sceptical at first he had eventually agreed to let her go.

So there she was, sitting in front of three people, where she'd performed her piece and been greeted with complete silence save for the scribbling of pen on paper.

"Thank you, Miss Matthews," an old balding man with glasses addressed her. "We'll be in touch."

The three of them were giving her nothing to go by as to whether she had done well or not, so instead of trying to read them Courtney nodded her head as thanks and walked back to the foyer where Duncan was waiting for her.

"Well, how did you go?" he asked her as soon as she came out. She sighed.

"I have no idea. I mean, I didn't mess up but they didn't exactly say anything and their faces gave me no indication of my performance," she told him. "So I don't know."

"Don't worry babe, I'm sure you did fine!" Duncan assured her. "And when you get your letter we'll open it together and if you don't get in we can get drunk. And if you do get in we can get drunk."

Courtney laughed and nodded. "Oh don't worry, I know I did excellent! But okay, sounds good," she agreed.

Two weeks later Courtney ran up to Duncan while he was shoving his bag in his locker. She held the letter up in front of her face.

"It's here," she breathed nervously. Duncan smirked.

"Well what's taking you so long?" he wondered. "Aren't you going to open it?"

Courtney nodded, her hands shaking as she fumbled with the envelope. It was strange how difficult she was finding it; she was normally so composed but this moment showed just how much she wanted this.

She finally pulled the letter from the envelope, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before reading it closely. Her brow was furrowed as she began reading, and as she finally reached the end of the letter, a smug smile spread over her face. She shoved the letter into Duncan's hands and he read it for himself.

"Well obviously I was going to get in," she said confidently, as if she hadn't been shaking with nervousness a minute ago. "They'd be stupid not to accept me really. I went from fifth chair to first in a month."

Duncan chuckled at her as he finished reading the letter for himself. "So I guess it'll be a celebration at Bridgette's tonight," he said to her.

"But did you expect anything different?" Courtney asked. She swiftly kissed him on the lips. "I'll see you tonight."

Duncan met Courtney at the end of her street so they could walk together to Bridgette's. As promised, he had called Courtney's father to inform him of their plans that night. Duncan had provided the alcohol once again, and Courtney could only assume he stole it from Hatchet again.

"Imma make a toast!" Bridgette announced to the other four drunkenly, trying to stand up but instead just stumbling everywhere. When she finally steadied herself with the help of Geoff, she cleared her throat. "Ahem. To our good friend Courtney. We all knew she would do incredible things, and I'm so proud of her for getting in to such a good school. We love you Court, and I'm proud to call you my best friend."

"Excuse me?" Heather protested.

"Shhh!" Bridgette demanded, putting her finger on Heathers mouth. Heather screwed up her face and slapped Bridgette's hand away. "To Courtney!" Bridgette raised her beer to the roof, spilling most of it on the carpet. "Oopsie."

"To Courtney!" Geoff, Duncan and Heather cheered, raising their drinks as well. Bridgette tried to sit down again but ended up just falling onto her back. She burst out laughing and Geoff hurried over to see if she was okay.

"Ugh, disgusting!" Heather scoffed as Geoff and Bridgette started making out.

"Hey, you could have that as well if you hadn't broken it off with DJ," Courtney reminded her.

"Yeah but he got so boring and kept going on about his dumb rabbit," Heather said, folding her arms. "Anyway, I'm thinking of going for one of the guys in the year below us."

Courtney raised an eyebrow. "Who in the year below us could you possibly want to be with?" she wondered. Heather laughed.

"I don't mean to be with! I mean to hook up with," she corrected. "There's a difference. Anyway I'm thinking maybe that Lightning guy. He's really dumb but he's got a good body. What do you think?"

This time it was Duncan's time to laugh. "Good luck trying to get that guy to do anything with you," he said. "He's so self involved if it were possible to surgically install mirrors into your hands, he would."

"Are you sure you're not talking about Justin?" Courtney giggled, hiccuping at the end. "Pardon me."

"Okay I think that's enough for you," Duncan told her, taking the bottle from her grasp and putting it on a nearby table. "Are you ready to go home?"

Courtney nodded. "But you probably shouldn't drive if you've been drinking," she said. He nodded.

"We walked here, remember?" Duncan reminded her. Courtney smiled and nodded.

"That's right, I forgot. Okay, let's go." She turned to the others with a big grin. "Thank you guys soooo much for tonight. I will see you all on Monday." She blew them all kisses as Duncan led her out the door.

She was stumbling around a bit on their walk home, but when he asked her to act sober she did so reasonably well, though she was incredibly chatty, and even when she wasn't talking about anything she was still talking about something.

They arrived back at the corner of Courtney's street and Duncan gave a kiss goodbye and watched as she walked back to her house to make sure she got there safely.

She walked through the front door and threw her keys on the table as she kicked her shoes off. Much to her surprise, her parents were waiting up for her.

"Nice to see you got home safely," Nadine said coldly. "You needn't tell me where you've been, your father told me everything." Roger didn't even look ashamed of what he'd done. It was clear his promise to Duncan had meant nothing.

"Dad how could you?" Courtney demanded of him, tears forming in her eyes as she knew what was about to come.

"I'm sorry, Courtney," Roger told her, but he didn't look sorry at all. "It had to happen. Your grades are more important."

Courtney stared at them both with her mouth open. "But my grades are fine, I even got into Juliard which I just found out today!" she told them angrily.

"They're fine, yes, but they're not what they used to be," Nadine scolded her. "You've gone from straight A's to B's. B's! How could you be so irresponsible? I raised you better than that."

"You raised me to be what you wanted but never thought once that I might want something different," Courtney countered. "Why couldn't you ever just let me decide for myself?"

"How dare you speak to your mother that way!" Roger snapped.

"It's of no matter now," Nadine told her daughter. "First thing tomorrow morning we're sending you to a boarding school far away from here. You'd better go and pack you're things now."

"What?" Courtney cried, not bothering to hold her tears back. "You're not even going to let me say goodbye to my friends? To my boyfriend? Mom you can't do this!"

Nadine took a deep breath, clearly annoyed that Duncan had been brought up. "That low-life is the very reason your life has been ruined." She said it softly but her voice was strong.

"No. He's the reason I had a life to begin with," Courtney snapped, shaking her head. She stormed up to her room, and that night she cried herself to sleep.