Beneath the Sharps & Flats

♫Chapter 32- Everyone Acts Strange When They Have Something to Hide♫

Chapter Thirty-Two

It's been five days since I found out I've been accepted. Ultimately, Julliard didn't give me much time to prepare a new, more impressive piece due to the fact that I fly out tomorrow. I've been working with Julie recently though, and she's really been helping me out a lot.

            "Violet, you spaced out again," she scolds me, "That's supposed to be a B sharp but you finger keeps slipping onto an A natural."

            "Sorry," I apologize sheepishly, "I'm just really stressed."

            She nods understandingly, "And from what I understand is occurring in your life right now, I totally understand. But if this is your dream, you really have to focus so you can make it come true."

            I roll my shoulders back to loosen my tensed muscles slightly and rest my fingertips on the beautiful black and white keys. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, trying to picture myself on stage with a million tiny lights shining down on my face and three judges staring at me intently waiting for me to begin. I open my eyes and take in the time signature, the key signature, and my first note. I press my fingers down on the first notes and I'm off. I let the music carry me through the sharps and flats as I play. I quiet down when a more downbeat part of the piece reveals itself to me. It picks back up again and I gradually crescendo until my fingers are flying across the keyboard and the muscles in my hands are burning. The piece I chose is called Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. It starts out very simple, slow, and painfully pretty, but towards the middle of the piece, it begins to pick up pace, volume, and speed. It gets exciting, and tiring for my fingers to play, but Julie said with my capabilities, I could "wow" the judges and strut off of the stage leaving them with their jaws hitting the floor. I'm trusting her word on this because usually when I play, I can point out every single thing I did wrong and I don't typically notice how well I performed. I have performed before at competitions and I have won a decent amount of them, but so has Elliot Pierce, my greatest rival and competitions. Unfortunately for me, he also got accepted back by Julliard. To add on, we will be flying up together tomorrow due to the fact that we live in the same area and it would be much more convenient. I honestly don't think Elliot and I will be able to make it all the way to New York before one of us kills the other.

            After about a good fifteen minutes, my piece is finally finished and I end with a powerful scale all the way up and down the piano before my fingers presses into the keys once more with a beautiful ending chord; the same notes I began with. Julie claps ecstatically beside me, tears of joy clouding her vision. She stands up to hug me and I gratefully hug her back. She's taking so much of her free time to work with me (and probably Elliot) for this formal Julliard audition and without her, I would most likely be drowning.

            "I'm going to miss you so much next year when you go off to Julliard," she sniffs into my shoulder I pull back and look at her with a frown.

            "Don't you even dare say what I think you were going to say," she scolds me and I immediately snap my mouth shut. I was going to tell her how there's no guarantee that I will make the cut, but she always hates when I'm negative and doubt myself. Another flaw she's helped me with over the years is positivity.

            "Fine," I huff and just to meet her wishes say: "I'm much better than everyone else anyway so I'll definitely make it in."

            She smacks me on the shoulder lightly and a disapproving look forms on her face, "The second thing I taught you was not to get too cocky."

            I pat her lightly on the shoulder, "I know Julie. You've spent countless hours pounding it into my brain."

            "Damn right I did," she mutters, fondness shining through her eyes as she looks at me, "Now, tell me all about you're problems. Just because I've been working you so hard the past five days doesn't mean I don't care about you."