79: Surrounded and Alone

Todd

     I don't understand! I knew before that she didn't want to be my girlfriend, but we'd hung out so much lately that I thought she changed her mind!
      I think back on the past few weeks. Adele came over almost every day. It was weird that she wanted to hang out at my house, but I didn't mind. Her dad scares me.
      Oh no. He's going to hear that I kissed Adele, I think with dread filling my veins.

It didn't work.

     I text Eddie. He told me I should try it since he kissed Helen and liked it. Eddie's convinced that me and Adele should be a couple too. I can't believe what my best friend has turned into.
     He thinks Helen is the prettiest girl in school, and since she's his girlfriend then that makes them the most popular couple. He's going around the school like he owns it. The worst is that it looks like everyone else agrees! When did this become important?
     Eddie (he wants us to call him that instead of Eduardo because it's easier and faster to say -- whatever) told me that it was embarrassing that Adele wasn't my girlfriend. I hardly know the guy anymore! We're eleven, and he acts like we're sixteen or something.

     I walk inside to hear my parents fighting in the kitchen, so I sigh to myself and walk into the den to escape. They don't expect me to be home for a while, and I don't want to get in the middle of all that yelling.

     We have a big piano that no one plays.
     "You're not my friend anymore!" I hear Adele's voice yell at me in my head.
      Sighing again, I sit down on the piano bench. Staring at the black keys, I notice they're grouped up into twos and threes over and over again.

       I reach up and lightly press down on a key in the middle just under and to the left of a set of two black keys. Then, I do the same for the one just under and to the left of the next set of two to my right.
      Huh. They sound the same... kinda, I think as I play the two keys back and forth

     Out of curiosity, I play the note just under and to the left of the set of three black keys. It's a little different somehow. Then, I randomly play the higher note under the two black keys before going to the one under the three and back again.
      That was cool! I think as I do it again. Then, I play all three keys at the same time. I have to use two hands, so I do the lower one with my left hand. It's a nice sound.

     Playing around now, I move each finger up a key to try out other combinations with the same space apart. They all sound good until one of them sounds broken... or something. Even though it sounds broken, I like it. It fits my mood right now and somehow makes me feel better.
     I try out different combinations of the different keys to see what happens and see if I can get a similar sound elsewhere. Sometimes it works, and sometimes I have to trade a white key for a black one.
     Then, something I play sounds like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I sit and figure it out while I sing the note that's supposed to come next before I find the sound on the piano.
      Before too long, I try out a few other songs I know, and it starts to become easier to guess how many keys to jump from what I remember the sounds sounded like while I was stacking notes a while ago.

     "What are you doing in here?!" my dad suddenly yells at me from the doorway to the den, and I jump out of my skin. "What makes you think it's okay to bang on the piano like that?" he snaps.
     "I wasn't banging! I was playing very quietly so you wouldn't be bothered by me!" I say back to him while getting off the piano bench.

     "Listen! I can play a song!" I tell him and rush back over to the keys to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star again. I mess up a few times, but I eventually get it out.
      "You're not old enough to be playing on the piano. It's not a toy," he says in a scolding tone.
      "I wasn't treating it like a toy," I say, trying not to sound like I'm sassing back at him.
      "You want to take lessons?" he asks, then he doesn't wait for me to answer. "Good. Go find a teacher. I'll pay for it. It'll get you out of my hair more, you and your little friend Allison or whoever," he says in an irritated voice.
      "Adele," I correct him, knowing he doesn't care anyway. And I don't think that'll be a problem anymore.
     "Whatever, but you don't touch the piano again until you're taking lessons, got it?"
     "Yes, sir," I answer and gently close the lid with a feeling of sadness. I have no idea where I can find a piano teacher or even if I want someone to teach me.
      Getting "that look" from Dad, I leave the den for my room. Once in there, I pull the jewelry box out of the pocket of my jeans and open it up. I'd hurriedly thrown the locket in the box before leaving Adele's room, so I work on untangling it now.
      That done, I stare at the locket in my hand, feeling hurt. I thought for sure she'd like it because Adele likes this kind of stuff even if she sometimes tries to play like she's got a tough shell around her. Even I think it's pretty, and I think it looked pretty on her.
     Why did she have to get so mad?! Why did I listen to Eddie?! Why did I have to kiss her?! I scream in my head and can't really think up an answer.

     I don't know, I internally growl as I arrange the locket like it's supposed to be in the box before closing it and putting it in my sock drawer. Mom makes me match my own socks, saying she gets tired of me losing them, so I know it'll stay hidden.

     

     I guess I don't have to worry about getting her something for Christmas, I think dully before getting out my tablet to play something.

Then Adele is weird

     My phone chirps at me, and I read the text back from Eddie. Adele isn't weird, I growl at him in my head.

You're weird.

     I text back. He probably reads that as me kidding around, and I don't care to correct him. I meant it in an "I'm fed up with this" way.

     We have a week until we get out for our break for Christmas and New Year's, and it's a week from hell. Eddie teases me unmercifully, and Helen thinks it's the funniest thing, encouraging him to keep doing it. Adele sits quietly all by herself at lunch. She even looks like she's all by herself when she's surrounded by people during class. I'm scared to go talk to her.

     By Friday, I've had enough of Heldo, and I walk off and leave them at lunch. They don't care. They're surrounded by all the other kids trying to get in on this crazy "popular" game. Guessing that Adele doesn't want to talk to me, I decide to sneak into the theatre, a place we're not allowed to eat in, to have my lunch. There's a piano in the theatre.

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The child piano poses turned out great the first try, and they're available here. All but 2 of the poses in the last shot I did, but I'm having trouble getting the dern picnic table to show up in Blender, so it'll be a while before they get released.