Seiran Academy

Chapter 9

Perhaps Sage had felt that Minako had needed the peace for the night. His attitude had gone back to cold and taunting in the following day, and he as always remained the one with the worst taste in words. Nemesis had distanced himself and Belle remained Belle, there was no other explanation for her. Yet, every once in a while, for the week that followed, Sage would catch Minako’s eye, and when no one could see, when no one knew that a moment had passed between the two of them, he would wink at her. A tight little smile would pull at the corner of the right side of his mouth and Minako, for an instant, was reassured she really did have someone by her side.

Quickly came the day for the concert, the day Minako and Nemesis would be showing off their talents for a group of the rich people of the surrounding area. Sure, their parents may be there in the audience, but it was the friends of the parents that would be the most important. As the week drove on Minako emptied herself of all the emotion she felt in the pit of her stomach and focused on her violin. She ignored Mr. Evans and his growing attention to a little angel named Fatima who often came to sit in on their practices and listen to the screeching sounds of the violins and violas and cellos that were less trained than the others. Several times Mr. Evans had grown so impatient with some of the sounds he had to leave the room just to gather himself. This was a concert that would ride on his talents as choreographer and conductor and composer. Could he handle the three biggest C’s of music or would he fail in the attempts of a few reckless teenagers who did this from the force of their parents?

On the night of the concert Minako dressed in her best white dress, accenting the lightness of her skin and the goldenness of her hair. The dress attire was recommended to be black, white, or navy blue, the colors of the school. A few girls had argued they had wished to wear the deep burgundy of the bows and ties they wore as well, but Mr. Evans had nixed the idea of burgundy. He would have loved to have told the girls no little black dresses either, but unfortunately it would have meant a row of men in white suits, which would have looked uncomfortably bright, and the shading was wrong for most of the men in the concerto.

Minako cracked her knuckles behind the curtain and was trying her hardest to situate herself into a comfortable position in the first chair for the violinists. Beside her the second chair remained empty. Nemesis was running late and had not shown up for rehearsal earlier that morning, which meant that the students had skipped over his solo, showcasing only Minako has the violinist solo. Minako had not objected but she had doubts that Nemesis would give up his moment of glory so easily. What was he up to?

“Mr. Evans, should we just remove the second chair and move Eric up into the second spot?” an insolent student asked, perhaps hoping to move up to fourth chair if Nemesis was knocked out, where the student had been before Nemesis had ever joined them.

Mr. Evans’ eyes shot over to Minako before he shook his head curtly. Minako wondered what that look had been, but she had given no look of acknowledgment. She would condemn Nemesis with her silence. “We wait,” Mr. Evans said and tried not to shudder. He was as nervous as the students; he had more riding on this than any of them. If they did not make it as musicians it would be no loss, they call came from rich families that would support them until the day they died; Mr. Evans was a career man who needed to prove something to himself and his critics.

“Sorry I’m late.” Minako did not look up as Nemesis entered the stage and took his place casually beside her. Her eyes only glanced over for a moment, long enough just to see the outfit he was wearing. He wore a white suit, which no other man had decided to try to brave, with a navy blue tie. The deep blue sapphire at his ear matched the coloring in the tie. Minako nearly gaped at the earring he wore and wondered if Mr. Evans would yell at him for the jewelry. They were not supposed to look flashy, they were supposed to look classic.

“Mr. Rose,” Mr. Evans said huffily, “you have missed rehearsal and we go on in less than a minute. I have half a mind to move your chair and allow Eric to take your place.”

“Good thing you think with your whole mind, Mr. Evans,” Nemesis said with a usual arrogant tone, “because you know that would be a mistake, and besides, you know I am the most interesting thing up here.”

“This is not a rock concert, Nemesis Rose,” Thomas Evans snapped, “and if I see you make a fool of yourself or any of the people on this stage tonight, you will regret it.”

“You mean Minako, don’t you?” Nemesis sneered.

Mr. Evans and Minako both had little time to react. Enough time to feel the jolt of anger and embarrassment at the words, but then the curtain was opening and Mr. Evans was taking his place on the stage to move into the conductor spot. He was showcasing his beautiful orchestra, each one of them prim and proper and dressed to impress, but the two in white on the corner stuck out, the golden girl playing up an innocent face, and the bad dark haired boy playing up the innocence of the girl he claimed as his own when she could not hear. The rest wore the dark somber colorings that were classic and appropriate.

“I hope you are ready for this,” Nemesis hissed over at Minako as Mr. Evans gave his long exaggerated speech and took his place. “I am going to give you, and them, a run for the money.”

Minako had no time, once more, to retort to his words. She was caught up in the sound of the music starting and she and Nemesis lost themselves in the sounds they created. Minako tried not to scan the crowd, but her blue eyes betrayed her. Her eyes moved across the crowd, her fingers knowingly moving across the violin and the lead with little effort. She found an audience filled with people she wished would not have seen her in her most awkward stage, beside Nemesis, her heart pounding, feelings left unanswered, and only more dredged up by audience members. Bartholomew Rose sat in the very front watching his son with penetrating eyes that bore holes through his son’s dashing white blazer, though no one would have guessed by the smile on Nemesis’s face as he played his violin. A few rows behind Mr. Rose was the illustrious Fatima, looking less than impressed so far, unless she caught a glimpse of Mr. Evans. Minako had to fight her jealousy down with a sword and a sharp pull on her bow to distract herself from thinking so far back.

Fatima and Mr. Rose were not her fears in the audience; the two of them meant little of consequence to her. Her fears sat farther back, watching her proudly, like shining parents should, her golden mother and her flame-haired step-father, the two looking nothing like the wicked parents they were. She could even see the teacher who sat next to them, most likely praising Minako as a student and a violinist while the parents went on about how proud they are of her and that no one could ask for a better daughter. She was sure they felt most of that, too, but in a twisted dark way that parents should not feel about their children.

When the solos came up Minako was all too grateful for the distraction. She strung her bow across delicate strings and went into her solo like the devil playing against the Daniel’s Band. The soft melodic music came out like a thumping dance beat and for a moment Mr. Evans’ face could not have looked more forlorn at the sounds until his ears truly registered what he was hearing. The sound was not a sound unpleasant, in fact it was a sweet twist to classics and he allowed himself a brief second of enjoying the sultry sounds that came from her violin. However, things could never go as planned, not when Minako or Nemesis were involved. Nemesis’s violin cut in long before Minako’s violin had come to the finish of her solo and he began to add and play off of her beat, trying to lead into his own beat. She was not going to do a violinist impression of dueling banjos and she was set to give up, to set her violin down and let Nemesis finish the duet he had started as the solo it had been meant to be, but her nerves were too raw and she was feeling the music somewhere she had never felt it before; in her heart. She had felt it tug in lower places and felt it deep in her soul, but her heart played these sounds, drumming them out and strumming along.

She was not going to allow him to finish alone.

The music poured out into the crowd, two clashing beats, the sound of classics mangled by a hip-hop sound from two teenagers bound to prove themselves. It should have been a menagerie of ear bleeding noise, instead it was music that melded together as if the two had trained on it for months, if not years. She knew where he was going with his beat and she followed him into the piece of music she could not finish without screeching her bow along the strings. She was determined and enjoying the fierceness of the battle while the rest of the orchestra stared in abandoned helplessness. They looked to Mr. Evans, who had long ago stopped conducting and just started staring himself. He did not know how to conduct music that he did not know where it was heading.

In the audience Mr. Rose looked fatigued and drained. He knew they were killing their violins and making a mockery of the orchestra, perhaps the only one in the crowd who truly knew. Everyone else, Fatima and the Aino family included, looked on in awe and inspiring ecstasy as they listened to the sounds of the duet now mingling together and becoming the sultry beat the song was meant to be. The faster the two moved the better the song sounded.

The ending came and for the first time Minako glided through it, Nemesis at her side, and the sounds poured out sweetly and the two of them finished together. Applause erupted in the audience, Mr. Evans looked far from pleased but too stunned to announce his anger in front of an audience, and the rest of the orchestra smiled falsely. It was the end of the program, the curtains were closing, and Mr. Evans went to the front to take a bow.