...But I just can't place it

[MethodicalSlacker]

Drum kit? Gosh, looking at Meilin, Violet never would have guessed that answer! That was the beautiful thing about icebreaker questions. For how simple they seemed to be, they could really, honestly, truthfully, tell a lot about a person if they were answered in a real, honest, true way. Meilin was just the perfect candidate for this one, really. Given how well she tuned, Violet didn't think Meilin would pick a rhythmic instrument. Really, she just sounded very, very good. Amazing tone—Meilin was definitely a classical clarinetist rather than one that you might find playing jazz music, but to Violet's ears, there was a sort of reserved energy just waiting to burst from the surface and take hold.

As for answers to her own question, Violet had at least two.

"Well," she began, "I've always liked how the flute sounded. There's a certain airiness to it that I've always admired."

She twirled her hair in her fingers and gazed off to the side. Of all the instruments most likely to give her goosebumps, flute was at the top for sure. A good flutist played in a way that kept her on her toes, drew her spirit out of her chest, twirled it around in a cyclone, and floated it back down in a different way than it was lifted out. The whole instrument was shaped like a stirring straw, too, making a whirlpool in soupy soul kept in the cauldron of her chest. Her mind went back to the first time she heard Black Moth Sugar Rainbow's album Dandelion Gum. Oh, the flutes on that album! They killed her then and kept killing her even now. To make that sound right on command, she'd find herself in high demand, she was sure.

But as for something she'd already tried, in private, alone, when she was certain nobody was listening,

"I've also wanted to sing, too. But I'm no good."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Oh! It seemed Violet had two answers to her own icebreaker question. That worked too! So, it was a choice between the flute and singing.

"Ah, flute's a great choice!" Meilin began.

She meant that, and basically agreed with everything Violet said about it. It was a very pretty instrument! She remembered one song from last year, she forgot the name. It was pretty simple over in the clarinet part anyway. But, there was a flute... solo? It wasn't really a solo, other instruments were still playing, but in the background. Still, the only instrument with the audience's attention at that point was the flute. So yes, there was a flute solo towards the end, and that was easily the best part of the whole piece. She was pretty sure she had it on her own playlist, but the name escaped her. Or maybe she didn't have it on her playlist, who knows? Alright, alright, back to the answers.

"Singing? Wow! Hey, you're probably not as bad as you think," she tried to reassure Violet in her desire to sing. "I'm sure you'll get really good with practice!"

Seriously, the desire to try was the first, most important step! Or was it the practicing afterwards? She'd heard different answers from different music teachers, and had a guess at which one would come from Mr. Faust. Though, she'd never know for sure if she didn't ask him. Then again, he was kinda scary... she wondered if he'd even tolerate questions like that. I mean, he's not that strict, right? A few harmless questions wouldn't hurt. She'd ask him the next time music class came around. Now, what was she doing? Tuning? Right, she should be tuning!

After reaching over and turning on her phone, that had gone to sleep, she brought the clarinet back up and played the highest B flat, glancing at the tuner as she did. She started off sharp, but went to normal later on. Hm... she tried again, trying to keep the flow of air steadier. Now, that was better! Satisfied, she reached over and turned off her phone, before taking it and putting it back in her purse.

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Haha," she laughed demurely, "thanks."

Meilin's encouraging words probably meant well, but her undeserved praise only made her feel sheepish. Was she just the kind of girl that people guessed would have a good singing voice? It made her feel a little odd to hear. For a moment, she was tempted to sing something, anything, just so that she could get some honest feedback, but decided against it. That'd just be pretty weird, right? She had a good friendship with Meilin already, but there was a difference between offering to help someone else out and trying to get really close to them.

She tuned a bit more with Meilin, and then they grew quiet. Maybe it was time to pull out a piece, but which one? She didn't really know what chair Meilin held as a clarinetist, but Violet had first parts for every piece, so it would be nice to be playing with someone of a similar skill level. Though not quite as good as some of her classmates, she had been at the instrument for long enough to know her way around the thing. She'd even been to district festivals once or twice. But she wasn't quite on the level of someone playing in a local youth symphony orchestra.

"Anything you wanna run through in particular?" she asked over the din of her violin strings.

[Cicada]

(previous part happened not very long ago)

"If it's as you tell me, where's the proof? I think Mrs. Yan should have written me a note."

...

"Well then. Just have her send me an email about it, Mahelona."

...

Somewhere in the vicinity of a generally irate class teacher busily lambasting a flute player, there was also a vague shadow of a tall and slightly frazzled, come-undone girl whose hair was fluffed one way as if she'd slept against a particularly static dense blanket, static to where it hummed like an old television set.

That shadow waved at Violet as it vanished and forgot it had ever been there.

(Beryl Mahelona finally moved onto a new day)

Violet received a text not long after, actually about immediately after that specter on the opposite side of the room vanished. From that one person, to Violet: hey hey! ? when do you want to meet for our next ?? album listen through ??? i wanted to show you this debut drone ? album i thought was pretty good if thats ok!

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

"Hm..."

Pieces to play through, huh? Well, then pieces for the end of the year hadn't really been set in stone yet. It was mostly a weird jumble, too soon to solidify and shed the unnecessary bits. To be honest, Meilin would inevitably be kind of sad when the time for repertoire-pruning came. She liked all the pieces the band had been playing throughout the year. Heck, even that really easy one from the beginning of the year, mostly for the newcomers to the band. Well, as much as she liked it, she was certain both her and Violet would be better off playing something a bit more... on their grade level. But what?

"I dunno, really. Probably one of the higher-grade ones though-" she ended abruptly, meaning to continue her train of thought out loud, but not really doing so. Her thoughts after that weren't really talky things.

Pieces you run through... pieces you need to work on. Alright, what did Meilin need to work on? What did Violet need to work on? What did the class need to work on? Well, she didn't know what Violet wanted to work on herself. She never payed much attention when Mr. Faust was yelling at the other sections. Heck, she didn't pay much attention when he was yelling at the clarinet section. Out of tune, squeaking, not staccato-ing, overpowering the flutes, she'd heard it all before. It didn't mean she didn't care, he just seemed... overly irritated about it? That probably wasn't it, but oh well.

Well, what did they need to work on? That was the important part.

"Is there anything you think we need more practice with?" she asked Violet.

"The band," she kinda-sorta elaborated on the 'we' part.

[MethodicalSlacker]

She stopped playing the instrument, the last note tracing loop-de-loops into the air. Gripping the violin by the neck, she let it dangle by her side, the bow in her other hand. Her eyes found a spot on the wall to stare into, and stayed there.

The question deflated Violet's mood like needle to a balloon.

Not exactly on its own, but it did stir something inside of her mind that had been troubling her for a while.

The band sounded fine, by any metric, but it didn't sound the right kind of fine. It was adequate, but it wasn't really stellar, in Violet's own opinion. The brass section had their collective stuff together, sure, and the woodwinds felt like they had a decent grasp on what was going on, but this was only in terms of the sections as collectives. Take any individual member aside and you had a pretty good chance of hearing something a little odd coming from their instrument. It was the sad truth! Not really in her own class, but the underclassmen were, for the most part, a little behind the curve? She thought so, at least. There were the odd standouts—Milo Diaz played a mean tuba, for example, and for the most part the younger siblings of her classmates could be held to a similar standard—but for the most part they were all universally disappointing.

Nowhere could this be felt more intensely than in the string section. Why did a concert band even have a string section? She was unsure, but somehow Faust managed to make it work through his mystical powers of giving-the-strings-the-oboe-and-bassoon-parts, even though it probably wasn't going to last for much longer once this current class graduated. Violet's perception of her section was that very few of the people in it wanted to be there, for the most part. She couldn't count on them to be entirely with the music, with the exception of Ivy, and though she could tell that Ivy's heart was in it, she could tell that her mind wasn't really all too there. Distracted by some far off thought of some party happening later in the day, or the week. That's how she felt, knowing what she did.

Maybe it was time to move on. Time to join a youth orchestra somewhere and put her talent to work. The only reason she had stayed away from breaking away was because she didn't think she was good enough, and now it was almost too late. Here, she didn't feel like she could count on anyone. Could she count on anyone anywhere else?

She saw Beryl passing in the doorway waving to her, and waved back with the hand that had the bow in it.

Closing her eyes, she let out a deep breath, and put her violin down on a nearby seat as she rummaged through her bag. Her music folder was a little squished, awkwardly shunted in against a binder where it didn't quite fit. Her hands found an errant corner, and pulled. In her jumbled state, she found the folder a little hard to hold. She couldn't quite explain why.

"Let's take out Alligator Alley," she said, after some deliberation, "I feel like I need to work on that one more."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Meilin welled up with worry, her brow scrunching up and her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. The way Violet was just staring into nothing- well, she was staring towards the wall, but she wasn't focusing on the wall, per se- anyway, the way she was staring at nothing in particular was uneasy to look at. Was it something something she said? She thought about going over and maybe shaking Violet out of her trance, but that would be a bit uncalled for.

Thankfully, she didn't need to- Meilin got some proof that Violet was kinda-sorta aware of her surroundings when she waved to someone in the hall, it seemed. When she turned her head to see who it was, they were already gone. Huh.

Then Violet suggested they play Alligator Alley! Meilin loved that piece, it was just so jumpy, lively, and fun to play! Though Violet was right, they did need to work on it. The recordings the band was shown sounded like a blast of a thing, though.

"Great idea!" She cheerily agreed with Violet. She put a knee down beside her chair, and reached under it, pulling out her bag. Unzipping it, she gently pulled her music folder out from behind an overstuffed binder and another notebook, before placing it on the music stand in front of her chair and opening it. Then, she flicked through the pieces in the folder with a couple of fingers until she came across Alligator Alley. When she did, she pulled it out and set it down in front of the folder

[MethodicalSlacker]

"Alrighty!"

With that, her prior mood dispelled itself. It wasn't good to bring negative energy into a place of music, especially when said place was a place where she was playing specifically. She didn't want her aura to cloud Meilin's with insecurities or anything—of all the things to disrupt a practice session, that was by fair the worst she could imagine.

It took a minute to get everything in order—she set out both her music and reaffirmed her tuner on her instrument— but Violet and Meilin had their materials in order at roughly the same time. Her violin on her neck and her music in front of her, she looked to Meilin to see if she was ready. Everything looked set. Violet called out a measure number, and got ready to play.

Her first note was ten cents flat.

---

They played for around an hour before Violet had to get home. Nothing specifically called her home but her homework, history class forcing another essay on her even though there were but months to spare until graduation. Senioritis had taken hold in many of her classmates, but Violet wouldn't let it take her too. As she put away her violin, Violet made some small talk with Meilin about what they had gone through. Overall, not only did Violet feel better about her own part, but about the band in general. If everyone had as clean and sweet of a tone as Meilin, they'd be in a lot better of a place.

After gathering her things, Violet made her exit, but not before she made sure to give Meilin her phone number. At the door she turned and waved one last goodbye, and promptly exited the music room.

[Violet Schmidt continued in Say Yes! To T!nn!ss!!!]

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

It was an hour well spent. The initial run throughs were a bit "meh" on Meilin's part, but over the course of repeats upon repeats, reruns upon reruns, the two of them had smoothed out some glaring road-bumps. All in all, this session was a success! Violet really did have a talent for that violin, in her eyes. Even if she started off a bit out of tune, they picked up the pace of it real quick!

It was a shame that Violet had to go before she did. On the other hand though, she got her number! New friends to talk to were always appreciated. She waved goodbye to her as she walked out of the room, before running through Alligator Alley on her own one more time. It wasn't as fun as with a playing partner around, but hey, she'll take all the practice time she can get.

It wasn't long before the tun was finished, and Meilin was packing up her clarinet. After she put the reed in its case into her purse, she took out her phone once again and made a note for herself- "Reed in purse!"

Once that was done, she was out the door.

[Meilin Zhou continued in In Our Bones]