Keep An Open Mind {Lynn Gunn}

23) There's No Such Thing As Better Things In Life

I was currently in Music class, enjoying myself strumming on a classical guitar. I almost took an acoustic guitar but they told me it was a bit of a risk since I actually wasn't a musician. However, It was easy for me to learn the notes on the sheet thanks to my memory, but I must admit that I wasn't that coordinated when I started playing.

"No, no! Lynn, that's not the correct sequence!" Mr. Phillips said, rushing in front of me and trying not to yell the instructions. I guess he was getting a little exhausted but hey... he's a teacher. He's paid to be exhausted.

He raised an eyebrow and stared at me expectantly, impatient to hear me play. The thing is, it wasn't really easy to position fingers.

I tried the song again. It's not that I was bad at it, I just didn't care enough for it to come out well. It wasn't something that I did with passion, simply because the song he had assigned to me was lame and generic and I didn't really like it. It's a bad habit of mine, not pledging in something if I'm not fully interested in it.

I tried to change that aspect of myself but in my defense, we all have our peculiarities. I don't like to call them 'flaws' because no one can decide what's a merit and what's a defect.

"Lynn, you're putting your index finger on the wrong chord." He said through a sigh and helped me find the right position for my hands.

"Can't I just play something less soporific and less annoying?" I asked, baldly. He raised his eyebrows and his eyes widened, but he gave up eventually.

"Fine." He sighed. "What do you want to play?"

I thought about it for a few seconds, then started playing Karma Police by Radiohead. It kind of came naturally, I loved that song and it had such a strong meaning that I couldn't forget.

"Nice." He complimented when I finished the song, to which I small smiled. I wasn't a fanatic for compliments, but it sort of made me feel proud.

"Have anything else?" I hesitated in answering.

I had something that I had been working on for a long time now, the only song I had ever written. Before I could decide whether to play it or not, someone interrupted us. It was a familiar slender girl, blonde, with a sharp black eye make-up.

"Mr. Phillips, Andy lost his guitar pick again." She explained, laughing a little. Despite the tough look, her laugh was kind of cute. Mr. Phillips looked up at her and shook his head slightly, rummaging in his pocket.

"Here, tell him not to lose this one too, okay?" he said, handing her another pick.

"Yes sir." She replied, giving a two fingers salute and tossing the pick to a pale tall guy with black hair, Andy I guess.

Mr. Phillips let out a small laugh. If you saw these two, they didn't look like a student and her teacher, more like a young uncle and a niece. Teachers shouldn't have favourites though, but I didn't exactly care.

"You can now return to your seat, Taylor." He said, and turned back to me. I was still holding tightly on the guitar.

Taylor didn't move, instead she stared at me expectedly. I guess she wanted to hear me play...? Okay then.

The room went silent as I relaxed my knuckles and the music started to play. I had finally pulled together all my courage to let it out, because even if they don't understand what I have to say, it's not good to keep everything bottled up. And I used to always keep my thoughts, hopes and fears all segregated since no one seemed to really care. I began singing my heart out, trying not to think about the possible judgements that might come out of this later.