Andante con Brio

XVI

Eddy was momentarily disoriented when his alarm went. 
Wait, what? Had he just simply fallen asleep and slept through the night? This didn't happen very often, especially when shit was stressful, and straight away he knew why. 
It must have been yesterday's preparations in the park, right?
He closed his eyes one more moment, one more precious moment of peace as he allowed those happy memories back into his head. 
It couldn't last, though, because inexoribly the truth pressed up at him. 
This was his last day, the very last day he would ever have the opportunity to practise for the most important moment in his life. And it sucked more than a little bit that - to make matters even more stressful - this was also the day in which he also had his first school exam. Seriously. Who planned this shit? At least he had no exams tomorrow, on D-day.
He threw his quilt off as if it could help it and jumped out of bed so fast his heart had to play catch-up.
Math, in two hours. Well. At least it would be the last time he would ever have to think about that particular subject.   

He managed to cram in an hour of last-minute study and half an hour of violin practice before he ran out of the house and to the school, slowing down very suddenly when he saw the school gate coming up in the distance. 
This was well, well weird. He walked slowly up to the square he knew so well, his and Lily's bench just visible over there on the left in the corner. How many hours had he spent there? How many days, weeks, years? And now it was all about to be over. Final exams this week and the next, and that was... it. For good. He blinked at the gate as he passed it. 
He had had bad times, here, and he had had good times. He could already feel his mind shoving the bad to the side, leaving room for a sudden hit of nostalgia he had not seen coming. 
He walked into the school and past the lockers. This was where he had befriended Lily all those years ago, when he was feeling so alone. He ran the tips of his fingers over the lockers as he went. Then he shook his head briskly to rid his head of all these unexpected emotions. 
Come on, mate. There really is no need for this right now. You have shit to do. 
He nodded severely to himself as he walked into the exam hall. Yeah. Only a few more days and he was out of here. 

Okay, so by now Eddy had to admit he was nervous. No, not just nervous, he was terrified. His math exam had gone fine, and he had spent the whole afternoon practising. Just... not very well. Mistakes had kept slipping in whenever he had thought of the committee that would be sitting in front of him tomorrow, and the thought had cramped his left hand up, had messed with his vibrato and his intonation. By the end of practice he had been ready to throw his bow out of the window, but then his mum had called for dinner. 
God. 
"Hey mum." he said despondently as he dropped himself down on one of the chairs without thinking about decorum. 
She put a dish of rice on the table and gave him a questioning look. 
"Are you okay, Eddy?" she asked him. 
Look, what was he going to say? 'No, because I suck at violin'? To be honest, he really didn't have very much to say at all to her anyway. She had not been supportive of him at all. So what business did she have to ask him now if he was okay? 
He blinked once and looked away, over to the window and the garden behind it. 
"Sure. I'm fine." he said curtly. 
He knew she wanted to say something else, he could feel it in her silence, but then she turned around and went to the kitchen to get the dish of meat. 
Good. It was better that way. He could do this on his own just fine, thank you very much.