✏️ Under One Roof

36. Four Chords

The music that Pete could play on his pipes was mostly folk music, or vaguely militaristic pieces that the others didn't recognise. He went on to showcase some of his attempts to play more modern pieces, but it was clear that he had more talent in playing than in adapting music for a different instrument. The pipes sounded vastly different from any guitar or keyboard, and so simply playing the same sequence of notes wouldn't work so well. Especially when Tegan noticed that there was never a pause between the notes. She should have known that already, she thought, but she understood now that the bag was a giant balloon filled with air, enabling the pipes on the top of the instrument to keep on playing even when Pete paused to take a breath.

She could do this, she realised. She could take a popular tune and work out how it would need to be change to work with the different tonal characteristics of a new instrument. It was one of the skills that set a composer aside from a simple musician. But it was a rare skill, and in this case she wasn't sure how easy it would be to teach Pete the new piece without being able to show him how to play. But he could kind of play by ear, it seemed; he had followed the main melodies of the songs he tried pretty well. So she had high hopes for his performance in future. And it seemed that nobody doubted his skills.

"Think the sun's setting," Reubed said, and Tegan looked up with surprise. She hadn't noticed the light starting to fade, but it was dusk now. The fire pit now only contained a faint orange glow from the last of the coals, and once she paid attention she realised that they were no longer emitting enough heat to drive away the chill of the December night.

"Yeah," she said. "Want to go inside, or are you guys heading off?"

"I'd like to keep going," Tracer said. "Maybe head inside and see if we can work out who has the best voice for each part. Or even talk about what we'd like to sing about, if you're still planning on writing some original songs for us."

There was a lot more debate there; and there were plenty of things for them to talk about. But as they started walking up the stairs, Tegan heard something she had never expected. The sounds of the piano coming from Ness's room were a common fixture in the house recently; but he didn't normally play when there was anyone else around. Ness was shy about his performance. But to play now, when the band were in the house, could only mean one thing. Ness wanted to join the band, and he was trying to impress them so that someone would invite him without consulting her first.

She gritted her teeth, and wondered what she could say to keep this group of friends as a brother-free zone. She needed time to herself, and she wasn't comfortable with Ness getting too close to people whose opinions mattered to her. She could admit, now, that he hadn't done anything directly to come between her and her friends, but it was hard to dispel the notion that it might only be a matter of time. She had trusted boys too many times; even given her biological brothers the benefit of the doubt more times than they deserved. And every time, her kindness had come back to bite her as soon as she wasn't expecting it. And even if she wanted to hope that Ness was somehow different, she knew that was too big a risk to take.

She thought about telling them that he was cruel; that he only tried to hurt her. Or that he was a diva who couldn't respect anyone else's contributions. If they trusted her to say that he couldn't be trusted, there would be no question of inviting him to their practice. Or maybe he was some kind of musical prodigy, but had no social skills. That might explain the piano music on the edge of hearing, while also warning the others that giving him attention was the worst thing they could do. It might get him some sympathy as well, but if she played into that, said that she was trying to help Ness but that he wasn't ready to play well with others yet, she was sure they would defer to her opinion.

Tegan nodded, sure she knew what to say, and then decisively pulled her thumb free from its place between her lips. She opened her mind to speak, and then hesitated. She was sucking her thumb now. Was that because of the hypnotic suggestions Ness had given her? There really wasn't any other way to explain it. Not that she could think of, anyway. Somewhere deep in her mind, there must be a part of her that thought of her plan as bullying. Her subconscious mind knew that she wasn't being reasonable, and that her brother deserved better.