When The Heart Sings

Chapter 2

Serena's POV:

I yawned as I sat on the bus. The bus wasn't far from the café at this point. A sign was advertising self-defense classes again. It was tempting, but I knew the outcome already. I had spent over a year in that building trying to learn how to defend myself, which I had thought was an excellent investment when living on the streets.

The trainer finally pulled me aside when I had tried to sign up for the beginner class for the fifth time. She told me that in all her years she had never seen anything like me.

I still remembered her exact words as she had looked at me in kindness and perplexity, "People often have different variations of the flight or fight reaction. Some just tend to freeze up before the reaction can get them going. These classes do help overcome the freeze up, which you have done quite well. Then we focus on the fight side of an encounter before concentrating on flight. You are the first person I have ever met that simply does not have any of the fight reaction. I simply cannot take your money again. Instead, I am going to refer you to my friend. He focuses on evasion and I think that will be a better fit for you."

I had thanked her and gone off to locate the address she had given me. I was disappointed at her observation, but I had noticed that I had been unable to learn a single technique in her class despite trying my hardest and repeating that 3-month class four times. I guess she had noticed as well.

The only move I had even partially managed to remember was to stomp on someone's foot if they grabbed me. I knew the moves themselves and could use them by myself in front of a mirror just fine. Throw in a practice partner and it all disappeared like fog under the desert sun despite the fact that I hadn't panicked.

In my desperation to learn, I had even tried using my musical magic. It was to no avail. My music was unable to affect my personal physical abilities, so that meant no extra speed or strength.

The evasion class was more of a success. They even taught things like picking locks, breaking out of rooms we might be held in, and how to stick to more public places where predators were less likely to try something.

The man allowed me to sign up for the next two levels once I passed the beginner class with flying colors. I was glad that I wasn't completely hopeless. Outside of that class I had also practiced, but with my own twist - music.

I was stunned when I figured out just how easily humming could undo almost any lock I encountered, a whistle could even unlock an electronic card lock. It did take trial and error to get the right pitch and tone for that particular lock, but I could get almost any lock undone in less than three minutes.

My music could also help make people more likely to ignore me or get distracted. Several times, I had hummed a song for protection when I noticed someone following me through the park. I had been winging it to be honest, but it had worked in some fashion or another. In the past, I had mostly tried to avoid my magical abilities until I started taking those classes.

With the protection hum, it usually wasn't long before some sort of intervention arrived in such a public place. Although the form that the help came in was highly unpredictable and uncontrollable.

One time it was the man's girlfriend. Once it was some rival gang members of my stalker. Another time it had been a police officer doing a regular patrol through the park. I was once more reminded of why I didn't like travelling through that section of the park.

The day flew by as I tried to provide the best service possible to the café customers. If the service was excellent, they would sometimes leave tips. This café wasn't fancy, so tips were rare. I finished my shift and once more headed up the street.