A/N: I hope everyone continues to enjoy the story!
Chapter 4: The Debut of Masquerade
Over the following next few weeks, both Hiro and Maka made huge improvements in terms of getting over their flaws.
Maka had completed just about all the lessons involved in the music book, with Hiro quizzing her on what each note meant and what sound was representing by each letter each day. She was even able to get down playing most of the beginners songs and few of the more advanced ones.
Hiro himself had kept his word to buy the dumbbells and began doing morning runs around the town and drinking protein shakes. Even though he felt insanely sore from overdoing it (which Maka had warned him about), he was at least beginning to show he had gained better strength with the muscles to show it.
It was nice that they both were benefitting from practicing and getting advice from each other, but Maka still felt troubled by not only keeping the lessons a secret from Soul, but from the rest of her friends also. She had already had one close call last week during lunch that could have just exposed the secret.
FLASHBACK
"So my right index finger goes to the top one at the bottom and my left middle finger goes to the center one at the top." Maka mumbled to herself as she made motions with her fingers.
"Hey Maka what are you talking about to yourself over there?" Black Star slobbered out, food still in his mouth flying onto the table.
"Black Star, please at least swallow your food before you start talking." Tsubaki stated next to him with a sigh.
"Come to think of it, you have been acting kind of distant lately, is something troubling you Maka?" Kid questioned in concern.
"Um, No I'm fine! I was just …uh thinking about the homework that professor Stein assigned us for this week." Maka lied, smiling to alleviate his worry.
The look Kid gave her back obviously showed he didn't really believe her, but luckily he didn't inquire on the topic any further.
"Maybe Maka was thinking about a guy she likes perhaps?" Liz questioned, a devious smile appearing on her face when Maka started blushing.
"Ooh! Tell us who he is Maka! Does he go here or like to read books like you do, but most importantly does he like giraffes?!" Patty exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh you guys, I wasn't thinking about a guy really! Can we please just change the topic?" Maka asked, embarrassed over how now everyone was looking at her as Patty loudly declared she was in love.
"Well, if you weren't thinking about guys then what were you really thinking about?" Soul asked sternly. He had been oddly quiet during this whole conversation and now he was finally speaking up.
"Just like I told Kid, I was thinking about Dr. Stein's assignment." Maka replied back angrily. 'I really wish Soul would just believe my lie and stop questioning me.' Maka thought sourly.
Soul's ruby-colored eyes narrowed as he glared back at Maka.
"I don't think you're being completely honest with me. You've been up to something these past few weeks and haven't told anyone, aren't you?" Soul stated in a whisper that only Maka seemed to hear.
Everything became rather quiet after that until Black Star cut in.
"Am I the only who sees that a lot of sexual tension seems to be going on between those two over there?" Black Star announced loudly as he pointed a finger at both Soul and Maka, grinning when he saw them both began to blush.
"Black Star, shut up!" Maka and Soul both yelled in unison, before they quickly shifted away from each awkwardly in realization how alike they were being.
'This day just went from being okay to horrible in only a matter of minutes.' Maka thought gloomily.
FLASHBACK ENDS
~X~
'I'm sorry; I don't mean to lie to you constantly Soul. I just want to get better at music without having to deal with all the taunting and the teasing.' Maka bitterly thought, as returned her books back to her locker to meet back up with Hiro again.
Once again, just as Maka was opening up her locker, another letter fell out, but this time a foul odor came with it that smelled similar to that of rotten eggs or spoiled milk.
'Don't tell me they really put an actual stink bomb in my locker?! Now they're just being immature.' Maka scowled, getting pissed as she picked up the letter.
The letter this time was much shorter, but it still made its point.
We hope you enjoy the fresh smell of rotten eggs and decayed fish. We think they fit well with your personality and how you look after all, but this is only the beginning we already gave you your first warning and we are prepared to do more if necessary.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
"Oh yeah? Well then just do your worse then. I can handle anything you throw at me." Maka muttered to herself crumbling the note and throwing it away. 'I've already progressed a lot in overcoming my faults since their last letter, if only I could figure out who or at least which people are doing this.'
"So, I was thinking we should make today's practice and stuff different from usual." Hiro stated once they had both settled back again at his apartment.
"What did you have in mind then for us to do?" Maka asked curiously.
"Well, since you've already pretty much mastered most of the stuff in that music lesson in a faster amount of time than I expected and I've already gone through 2 out of those 3 DVD's that you gave me, I was thinking it was about time now we really put you to the test and have you begin performing for other people." Hiro voiced.
"What?!" Maka cried in disbelief. "Hiro, I'm not ready to perform for other people! I've barely even done enough practicing with you and your guitar. What makes you think I'm ready to do that?" Maka explained in shock.
Hiro appeared unfazed by ignoring Maka's worries and just grinned broadly.
"Oh what's there to be afraid of Maka? You've already shown that you are pretty much a fast learner with the saxophone and practice makes perfect, right?" Hiro concluded with a smirk.
"That's the problem. I haven't practiced enough. We've only been meeting up with each other for about close to two months now. I hardly consider myself that good; I'm mediocre at best." Maka grouched out.
"Maka, I've told you this before, but you need to have more confidence with your playing. Sure beforehand you played like a dying animal, but now you're playing doesn't make me want cover my ears at least!" Hiro stated cheerfully.
Maka arched an eyebrow at Hiro. 'Was that supposed to be an attempt to compliment me or insult me?'
"Besides it is not like you are going to be performing alone. I'm going to be playing my guitar with you, just like we have been practicing. Consider this like your Final Exam to see if these weeks of practice have truly been worth it." Hiro mentioned.
It seemed like Hiro was dead set on them performing, but Maka still remained unsure. 'What if we perform and then someone from the DWMA sees us, then they'll run off and tell Soul and then Soul will tell Black Star who will tell the whole school and then somehow Papa will find out… and no I don't want all that to happen!" Maka thought in distress.
"I'll only perform on one condition." Maka said after thinking everything over.
"Okay, what's on your mind?" Hiro inquired.
"I don't want anyone to know it's us if we perform. We need to have something that covers our faces or at least makes us not look like how we normally are." Maka expressed.
"Hmm, well I guess I do have these leftover masks from when the drama club forced me to help them with setting up for a play. Hold on, let me go get it from my closet." Hiro thought over as he walked into his room and came out with large box labeled COSTUME PLAY in blue marker.
Maka walked over to it and peered over every mask. It seemed like whatever performance the drama club had been doing had been for some kind of masquerade ball or show. A dark green mask with shiny turquoise jewels encrusted in it suddenly caught Maka's eye.
"Oh, I like this one!" Maka exclaimed, as she placed it on her face. "Which one are you going to go with Hiro?" Maka asked as he continued to rummage through the box.
"It has to be one that represents how much I have transformed over these last few weeks. Something like this one fits me best I think." Hiro announced proudly. The mask he had picked out was silver in color with violet colored diamonds around the edges of it.
"We shouldn't just stop with just covering up our faces. We should really be unique about this to make us stand out from other groups and bands." Hiro asserted.
Hiro walked back over to the box and took out some hair dye.
"Why do we need hair dye?" Maka asked confused.
"Don't worry, this is for me. I'm going to dye my hair brown to further disguise myself. You should think of something to do also, maybe with your hair so there is less of a chance people will recognize you." Hiro replied back, as he walked over to his mirror and began applying the dye.
Maka mused over what she could do. Keeping her hair in her normal pigtails would be too obvious and give her away even with wearing a mask.
Maka pulled her pigtails out and brushed out her hair. Her hair currently reached her around her mid upper back when she finished combing it out.
"Maybe I could just clip in these curly extensions to my hair at least then I won't really look like myself. Adding make up and acting a bit out of the ordinary should throw enough people off." Maka mused, as she took out a packet of unused extensions from the costume box.
After about 45 of minutes of styling and changing into casual wear, both Maka and Hiro headed out to where they would have their first performance.
~X~
"So where exactly are we going to be performing at and are we going to introduce ourselves when we go up on stage?" Maka questioned as they strolled along the street.
"When we get up on that stage I will longer be 'Hiro' and you will no longer be 'Maka'. As soon as we don those masks we should go by a codename. I was thinking since our masks kind of represent gemstones we should match up with them.
"So like since my mask is green in color I would be Emerald and you would be Diamond?" Maka questioned.
"That sounds good! Lady Emerald and Sir Diamond and together we are Masquerade!" Hiro declared proudly.
Maka just chuckled a bit at Hiro's enthusiasm. She still wasn't too sure how exactly good she was at playing the sax especially keeping up with Hiro when he played his guitar, but at least they were starting out small and it was more practice.
Hiro unexpectedly made an abrupt stop causing Maka to turn towards him in puzzlement.
"We're here." He announced, surveying the name of the club.
Maka followed the direction of Hiro's eyes and panicked when she read the name of the club: The White Lily Café and Pub.
'I know I've heard the name of this club somewhere before. I'm sure this is one of the clubs that Soul and Liz have mentioned before that would be fun for us all to visit as a group at some point. What if one of them is here right now? I know people from school like to come here. Maka thought, anxiety starting to build up uncomfortably in her chest.
Unfortunately, before Maka could think of just turning around and walking back home, Hiro reached out and grabbed her by the arm and dragged her inside the club's doors.
A/N: That's it for Chapter 4. Feedback with reviews or messages is always appreciated and thanks for reading as usual!