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That night they were out, they were drinking and Alea was waxing poetic about music and Jules hadn’t wanted to be left out, so when Alea had asked if she played anything, she’d shrugged and said that she messed around on the piano.
Which she did.
Mess around, that is.
She could play the first three bars of Chopsticks.
She swallowed, feeling her chest tighten a little. What had Amelia said the other night? The peril of sinking ten pints with someone whilst trying to get to know them. Crap.
“Oh, fantastic,” Alea was beaming.
Jules’s chest relaxed just slightly with Alea’s smile and she found that she was smiling back. “Fantastic?” Her voice was hoarse.
“Well, it’s just that this song that I’ve been working on really needs piano accompaniment. The guitar is just too… it’s just not expressive enough for what I’m looking for, you know?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, sure,” said Jules who had no idea what she was talking about.
“So I thought of you, obviously.”
Huh. So Alea did think of her. Jules beamed and then Alea was handing her something and Jules was taking it.
“It’s not hard, I’m sure it’ll only take you an hour to get what I’m going for,” said Alea.
Jules looked down at the music she was holding, a seemingly random mixture of dots and lines that made about as much sense as a Chinese menu. “Um, yeah,” she said, starting to think that she might be better off coming clean.
“I thought that we could do it when I get back, like a sort of welcome home gig here in the pub. What do you think?”
Jules pushed her tongue into her cheek and thought as quickly as she could. Six weeks. She had six weeks. Surely that was time enough? She could do that, learn this in six weeks and then play with Alea. Because what could be more romantic than that? Would could possibly make Alea fall for her faster than that? Six weeks was forever.
“I think that it’s a great idea,” she beamed.
Alea beamed back. “Great, you’re on then,” she said, climbing down from her bar stool. “I can’t wait.”
“Me neither,” Jules said, face starting to ache a bit from smiling.
Alea gave her a wink and then went to chat to the guitarist who was sitting on the edge of the tiny stage and Jules was left with the music in her hand.
This was not a mistake. This was an opportunity. An opportunity to finally get the girl. Jules’s heart pounded a little harder. How hard could it be? After all, she only needed to learn the piano. And six weeks was a long time.
Chapter Four
The school was exactly as she remembered it. Billie got a little shiver in her stomach when she walked through the door. Things had been normal here. For the most part, her memories of secondary school were all mixed up with music. But here, primary school, this had been where it all started. She’d had fun here, she could remember.
Amelia Hawthorne had climbed to the top of the climbing frame and jumped off, which at the time had seemed immensely brave and fascinating. Of course, she’d then done it again and broken her arm, which had also seemed immensely brave and fascinating.
Where was Amelia Hawthorne now? Probably married with a handful of kids, the same as any other kid in her class. Billie was always going to be different. The problem was, she was used to being different in a special way.
Coming home had taken that specialness away.
The tiny music room was just as she remembered it too, but smaller. She supposed she’d also been smaller though, so that fit. She rolled her shoulders as she went in, feeling the beginnings of nerves, but then became absorbed in getting ready and forgot to be anxious about what she knew she could do well.
In fact, it wasn’t until her second lesson that things began to go less according to plan.
The first class had been older, and the recorder group whilst not exactly the London Symphony Orchestra, had been above the standard Billie had expected. Now though she had the reception kids in.
Small was fine. Everyone should appreciate music. And for the most part, everyone did. The smalls were marching around banging their triangles and tambourines in time to the music that Billie had put on.
Except for one.
