What Lies Beneath the Water

Break a Leg (9)

*Aqua's POV*

"Hello! Earth to Aqua!" Tyrus said while waving his hand vigorously in front of my face at breakfast.

"Sorry, I'm just a little nervous for first period. Kal and I have to perform our duet that we wrote, and I am scared to say the least. We are either going to win big time, or we are going to fall flat on our butts." But I would take the nervousness over the Mermaid Sickness any day of the week.

Kalen shifted in his seat and said, "Do you trust me?"

"Well trust is a relative word. I know you but I don't know you well enough for me to fully trust you, and my grade is at stake. I don't really know." I started rambling and thought back to when our hands touched on Wednesday, and I got nothing from him. It was like he was immune to my skin reading.

"Dammit just make my life easier and say that you trust him, Aqua!" Tyrus shouted at me.

"Fine, I trust you Kal!"

"Okay, then grab your violin, and stand up on the table." My mouth dropped at his absurd proposition, but I knew that he would never do anything to embarrass me, so I grabbed my violin and bow, and stood up on table which made everyone stare at me weirdly. "Now start the song." I took a deep breath and started playing as Kalen disappeared.

I keep breathing slowly to keep my nerves at bay as the room got quieter to listen to my song. And just as Kal's part came up, he stood up on a table across from the room. I played the final note on my solo part of our duet, took a deep breath, and threw my bow over to Kalen. He caught it in his hand, and using his magic, he transformed it into a guitar pic and started playing his part.

Slowly the part of our duet where the violin and guitar are played together came closer, so I jumped from table to table closer to Kal. On the final chord, ending his solo part of the duet, I did a front aerial onto the next table and caught the guitar pic that the threw my way while I was midair.

Upon touching my skin, the pic turned back into a bow, and we started playing together in a harmonious and lively tune. The entire dining hall was in awe of our song, but my favorite part was when I jumped on top of the teachers' table, and Tomoe and Kou were smiling and giving me thumbs up.

With one final, strong note from my violin, our duet concluded and everyone stood up and gave us a standing ovation. Tyrus was the biggest cheerer and put two fingers under his tongue and gave the most ear-piercing whistle, but I loved it.

I jumped off of the table that I was on and ran over to Kal, and he gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, "See, I knew you could do it!"

"You played absolutely fantastic like always, Kal. I couldn't have asked for a better partner." I said honestly and some part of me was sad that I wasn't going to be spending every day after school with him to work on our project. It was fun and so many people came up to us and gave us money just for playing together.

The bell rang, and Kai came up to us. "That was the quite the performance, Ms. Gray and Mr. Jalloh. And upon deliberation with my colleagues, we have decided to give you a hundred percent with the full extra credit amount available. Just please don't do something like that again." Kai said, and we both agreed.

We started walking to the class, but I heard someone else say, "Ms. Gray, we would like a word with you." I turned around to find both Professor Michaelis and Professor Sinclair staring at me, and my heart dropped. I am not the type of kid who gets in trouble.

I immediately went into word vomit mode and said, "I am so sorry for what I just did! I didn't think of the consequences and just succumb to peer pressure, which I'm usually really good about avoiding, but I just did it, and I am so sorry!"

They both looked at each other and started laughing. "No, we weren't going to reprimand you for your actions. This academy is supposed to give you a safe place to express who you want to be. We actually loved your performance and wanted to ask you if you could play at the Eclipse Ball at the end of the month."

"It would be my pleasure, but I am unaware of this Eclipse Ball."

"You will be informed about it during the History of Magical Creatures Class. You are dismissed to go to class now, Ms. Gray." Professor Sinclair said, and I returned to walking to the Auditorium.

Despite the fact that every com-positional piece played made my ears want to bleed, first and second periods went by quickly and before I knew it, I was sitting in my seat in between Kal and Tyrus. All of the professors were all at the front of the class and Professor Sinclair said, "Seeing as this is a school to make connections and peace among nations, the faculty and I have decided that we are going to host two balls, or dances as human culture calls it." The professor looked directly at me before continuing. "The first ball will take place on the eclipse at the end of the month, thus it will be called the Eclipse Ball. Dresses worn to this ball should be primarily short and all men attending should where suits, no exceptions. The second ball will be at the end of the year to celebrate the school year coming to a culmination. Royal Families from the Balance, Alvalr, the Vampire Kingdom, and the Fairy Kingdom will be in attendance, thus the ball will be called the Royal Ball. Dresses worn to this ball should be long and once again men should wear suits or tuxedos, no exceptions. We will give you class time off to gather the correct apparel when the Ball draws closer. That will be all students." He waved goodbye and Tomoe and Kou looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and started stayed in place. Kai started talking to Leo on the way out, and I could tell that he was joking around with him.  

*COMMENT & VOTE*