A Musical Mayhem

10 - Claude

It was lunch time when I met Arielle for the first time.

I was at my locker, digging around in my backpack for my water bottle. Suddenly, I heard a calm voice behind me.

"Hey, is your name Claude?"

I turned around and saw a slim girl with brown hair in a messy bun and pretty dark blue eyes. I was speechless for a moment - this girl was so pretty. Literally, so, so pretty. And I didn't mean, like, the fake-popular-girls type of pretty. I meant . . . genuinely pretty. Okay, I had said the word "pretty" too many times now.

"H-hi," I stammered, getting nervous again. "Yeah, my name's Claude. Um . . . have we met before?"

The girl smiled. I was pretty sure I could hear the heavenly angels singing in the skies. "I'm Arielle. I play the flute, and Bree told me that you're a cellist. I suppose you know her, right?"

"Oh, yeah, I know Bree. Cool, you play the flute? Are you, by any chance, auditioning for the Eiffel Tower Summer Camp Program?" I said, curious. Other than the fact that she was pretty and seemed really friendly, I was glad that I had finally found someone else who was maybe interested in auditioning for the program.

"In fact, I am. It's got me really excited, but the competition's really fierce to get in," Arielle said, biting her lip.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Do you, um, know anyone else who's interested in auditioning?"

"Well, Bree definitely is, but I'm not really sure about anybody else. You?" she said, looking at me. Gosh, those eyes were like oceans I could fall into.

"I know Flynn from my string quartet," I said. "He's a violinist, and I'm pretty sure he's going to get accepted. He's really talented."

"Flynn. Interesting. Does Bree know him?" Arielle said.

"Well, they know each other quite well now, actually," I said, hiding a smile. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what was going on between them, even if they were still clueless themselves.

"Quite well, huh?" she questioned, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. She was, apparently, a very quick learner. "I'll have to interrogate Bree about that later."

"So, um . . . do you want to talk more some other time?" I said cautiously. I knew that I sounded really weird and cringy right now, but I was genuinely interested in what she was going to say. Was she like the other girls, who more or less ran away from me within seconds?

"Sure," she smiled again. "And tell me more about Bree and Flynn and . . . what they're up to, I guess. You should introduce Flynn to me some time."

Arielle winked and walked away. I couldn't help but chuckle softly - even she was starting to suspect that something was maybe going on between Bree and Flynn. 

And . . . I couldn't help thinking about Arielle and how, after just a few minutes, I was suddenly feeling so strange about her.