The Wolves in the Woods

Into the Silent Garden

We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.

— Leonora Carrington

***

Amaia takes the lead in solving the current problem.

***

            Amaia sat in the back of the class in her usual seat next to her brother while doodling music notes in her notebook. Time signatures and clefs filled the margins. Graphite marks indicating sharp notes and flat notes randomly dotted the lines. Accompanied by imprints of different notes that had been crossed out or erased. Several chords in the bottom were smeared by either her hand or the eraser she had taken to the page. Last night's rain had given her an idea for a song and she wasn't going to let it escape that easily. Since she and Andres had gotten to class earlier than everyone else today, she figured she could sit down and doodle for a bit. Their homework had already been completed. They had time to spare.

"How's this look?" Amaia asked Andres, who was plugged into some Jagged Stone tunes on his phone. Andres leaned over to look at her work. Eyes studying intently the composition before him.

"Hmm," he hummed. "Have you tried a B-flat over here?" He took out one of his pencils to point at what he meant. "This sounds like a lament or a ballad."

"Hmm," Amaia hummed, not paying attention to the glum students that had begun filing one by one into the classroom. The past five days had been hectic, to say the least. Bustier suddenly found herself under scrutiny when a mysterious (not) informant told the class's parents about their recent behavior. And if that didn't light a fire under her butt, four of her students got in trouble with the law for trespassing onto private property. Amaia didn't know if an apartment complex counted as private property, though she did know those four weren't invited. Which was reason enough for a resident to call the police and file a report.

Needless to say, there were a lot of unhappy students in Bustier's class.

"Hey," Juleka and Nathaniel greeted, taking the seats in front of the sibling duo.

"Hey," Amaia and Andres greeted in turn.

"What're you working on?" Juleka asked. Amaia glanced up briefly from her notebook.

"A new song," Amaia said. "I got inspired by the rain last night." Juleka's eyes widened while Nathaniel silently took out his sketchbook to start doodling a new piece.

"Oh, word," Juleka said. "You're into music?"

"Please," Andres scoffed in amusement. "She practically eats, sleeps, and dreams music." Amaia rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't say anything. "What? It's true."

"Didn't say anything," Amaia snapped.

"Sure did," Andres quipped, smirking.

"Did not," Amaia retorted.

"Did too," Andres fired back. Amaia's eyebrows flattened in annoyance, regarding her grinning gremlin of a brother with irritation. Nathaniel snickered and Juleka just giggled. Finding no other words to say, and unwilling to give him a victory of any kind, Amaia returned to her notebook. Now she was inspired to write a diss track about little brothers who didn't know the meaning of the words "back off".

Despite the mirthful mood, it was difficult to not notice the sullen atmosphere of the once joyful class. Lila had been absent these past five days, which Amaia suspected had something to do with that police report filed against four of the girls. Juleka was running errands for her mother that afternoon. Hence why she managed to escape whatever crazy scheme Alya concocted this time. Rose was heartbroken when Juleka decided to switch seats away from her. Same with Alix, though Nathaniel had confided in Andres that he couldn't stand the sight of her after what happened. Neither blamed him, though it did make things awkward.