Gifted Connections 01

by S M Olivier

  “What did you do?” I rounded on Jemmy.

  Jemmy smirked. “You have an impressive voice, you need to get it out there. It’s not like you have anything better to do, plus it’s a good way to make some extra money.”

  “Money?” I asked, suddenly interested. I hadn’t forgotten that I had every intention of paying Will back one day.

  She looked at me like I was dense. “Uh, yeah. He said he does gigs at restaurants. Don’t you remember?”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “I barely remember anything about that night. You kept feeding me booze. How much does he make typically?”

  She shrugged. “It depends on the venue and the crowd they bring in. I know he made four hundred dollars on their last gig, so a hundred dollars apiece for the guys. Not bad for two hours’ worth of work with a twenty minute break.”

  She finally got to the counter. “I will take two large frozen mochas,” she stated.

  We waited a few minutes for the drinks. I took a sip. “Mmm, this is good.” Then I looked at her sternly. “You’re lucky that it sounds like they make decent money. Otherwise I think I would have had to kick your butt for volunteering me and giving out my number.”

  “Don’t tell me you have never had a frozen mocha,” she looked at me amazed.

  “Jemmy, I was poor, I was lucky to get normal coffee when I could,” I said in exasperation.

  We started heading to the school.

  “Blake, hey, Blake!” Jax’s distinctive voice called from behind us.

  “Do you want me to take you to the college?” he asked as he drew near, putting an arm around my shoulder.

  I smiled looking down at my watch. I still had twenty minutes before my audition. The bell for Jace and Jemmy would be ringing soon. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m going to catch the trolley. I might as well get used to it. My next two classes are over there as well.”

  He shook his head. “I still can’t believe you are starting some of your college courses already. What possessed you to take physics and calculus already? Chemistry and Algebra II was enough for me.”

  I shrugged. “Call me an overachiever.”

  “She’s trying to make us look bad,” Jemmy sighed dramatically. “Pops is going to start asking us why we haven’t signed up for college courses. Try to convince us that study hall and nutrition is a waste of the day for me and study hall and agriculture science is a waste for you.”

  I interrupted her tirade, “Nutrition? Really? You hate most vegetables and live off chicken fingers, French fries, pizza, hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese.”

  Jax snorted with laughter. “So, true. And speak for yourself, I need the study hall to study. I don’t use it as social hour like you do and I’m actually applying my agriculture science to real life as we speak,” he said smugly. “I’m helping Remy with his greenhouses, so he can have a true farm to table restaurant at his new joint. That way if I don’t make it to the NFL, I’ll just start working with Remy, maybe become part owner someday.”

  Jemmy pouted. “Why hasn’t Remy asked me to help him yet? Drake helped him with a new menu and you’re helping with the greenhouses and I’m just finding out about it now.”

  Jax shrugged, “You never asked. You know Remy, he’s not going to ask unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “Speaking of Remy,” I interrupted. “He left the other day abruptly and I don’t believe it had everything to do with his water main issue.”

  Jax shifted uncomfortably. “Remy didn’t have the greatest life growing up, much like you. He’s still fighting his demons. Sometimes he just disappears when he has a trigger. We just let him be, he’ll come back around…eventually.”

  I knew he wasn’t going to elaborate any further.

  The bell rang and Jemmy blew me a kiss and wished me luck. Jax planted a sweet kiss on the corner of my mouth. “Good luck, honey.”

  I made my way to the trolley, trying to calm my nerves once more.

  I was surprised, to say the least, when I saw Will waiting for me on the steps leading up to the college music building.

  “Hi,” I said with surprise.

  He gave me a gentle smile. “You really didn’t think you’d attend the auditions by yourself, did you?”

  I nodded sheepishly.

  He linked my arm through his when I got to the top of the steps. “You’re part of the family now. One of us had to be here.”

  “Make that two,” a deep, husky voice said from behind us.

  I turned, surprised to see Jace making his way up the steps.

  “Hey,” I said a bit shyly. “Don’t you have school today?”

  He grinned and nodded. “I had some personal time. I figured I would take half of the day off and make sure I was here for your big day.”

  “What happens if they don’t like it?” I asked pensively. “I can always do a piece by Mozart or Beethoven.”

  “No,” Jace and Will said simultaneously. “This is the piece you need to do,” Jace added.

  “I agree,” Will said firmly. “I had my reservations at first when you said you wanted to do an original, but after hearing the song last night, it’s…sublime.”

  He handed me some papers that I hadn’t even seen in his hands. I looked at them and saw it was my music. It looked professional. It was actual sheet music, complete with my name and the title of my song.

  I looked in surprise at him. “How?”

  He grinned at me. “You left the original on the piano. I took it and put it in a music program and it did the rest.”

  I felt tears well in my eyes. He had already done so much for me.

  “Well, we should be getting in,” Jace said gruffly, patting my back. Knowing I needed a distraction and time to recover.

  As we entered the music building, I could hear music everywhere. Even through the doors, I could hear the pianos, guitars, cellos, flutes, harps, violins, and so much more. I stopped and took it all in. This is where I belonged. This is where I wanted to be. I hoped and prayed that this is where I would begin my music classes, come tomorrow.

  Will had already informed me that I would know their decision by lunch. Either I was accepted, or I was not, it was that cut and dry. They generally emailed you the results. They had already given me a school email address and I had downloaded it to my phone. Will told me that he and/or Jace were generally on the board for any prospective students, but they had excused themselves due to conflict of interest.

  Their music program was truly a music program. It wasn’t a guise to help train gifted students as the high school or middle school was. This was an actual school for anybody that qualified to get in the program. Not to say there weren’t any gifted students in the program, but we were grossly outnumbered compared to the middle school and high school.

  Students that attended here paid a ludicrous amount of money to get accepted to it. Although, some promising students couldn’t afford to be here, they received a scholarship. They boasted of some of the greatest teachers in the entire world.

  I could hear the click of my shoes on the floor as we walked to the auditorium. Several times a year concerts were held here. It was another way to bring in revenue for the school. Knightstown Music Conservatoire had put themselves on the map and the last few years they had grown exponentially.

  “Nervous?” Jace murmured huskily.

  I nodded.

  “Would you like my help?” he held out his hand.

  I know what he was suggesting, but I felt like it was cheating. I felt like this was something I needed to do on my own. I wanted to know I could do this on my own merit.

  I shook my head. “No thank you, but can you just hold my hand?”

  I could see the wonder in his eyes. A few days ago, I had been anti touching. I didn’t like casual contact, especially with men. Jemmy and the guys had worn me down.

  We walked into the auditorium; it was huge and expansive. It could easily sit over three thousand people. I whirled in amazement, looking at it all. A week
ago, I would have thought that never in my wildest dreams could I be standing here. The main auditorium was dimly lit, but the stage was lit up. Various instruments were already on stage. In front of the stage was a six-foot table with five seats. A few of the seats were already taken up by people, but two remained open, including the one in the middle.

  I was surprised to see there were at least twenty other people waiting for the auditions. Only a few wore the uniform I was wearing. Everyone else had on casual dressy to formal wear. Clearly dressed to impress. They hadn’t told me other people were auditioning. Again, they probably didn’t want to show me any favoritism. A lot of the people auditioning had people with them and I was thankful for Will and Jace being there for me. I gave Will a side hug, much to his astonishment, and I looked up at Jace, squeezing his hand trying to convey to him how truly thankful I was for him being here. He gave me a tiny smile in return, the low lighting in the auditorium making it hard for me to decipher his expression.

  We walked down near the front where other people were already seated. Will got in first and I followed with Jace sitting on the end. Jace sat back, put one arm behind my chair, and held my hand with the other. His legs were touching mine and I felt silly for thinking it felt extremely intimate.

  We didn’t have to wait long before the other seats were filled. The gentleman that was in the middle finally stood up and walked on stage. He was a tall and on the skinny side. He wore glasses and looked to be extremely haughty. He wore a grey suit with a blue tie. He gave the impression that we were wasting his time and he didn’t want to be here. He had a slight accent I couldn’t place.

  “Good morning, everyone. Today we have twenty-six potential applicants. Only two of you will make it, so impress us. We will be calling you up one at a time. I want your name and what you are preforming.”

  With that he sat back down.

  “That’s Dr. Allen. He’s fastidious, but if you were to be fortunate enough to be taught by him, you wouldn’t regret it. All of his students rise to the top,” Will whispered to me.

  I nodded, too nervous to talk. Jace must have sensed it because he rubbed his thumb on the palm of my hand. I was thankful he was trying to push his gift on me but was still morally supporting me. I had less than a ten percent chance of getting in.

  One by one they called the applicants up alphabetically. That left my name to be called near the end. I gulped. I would have much rather gotten up, gone first, and gotten it over with. But that wasn’t my luck. Everyone played a song from one of the most prestigious composers; Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Puccini, Ravel, and the list went on. Several instruments were played, including the piano. Only a few had made noticeable mistakes, but most of them sounded astounding, beyond astounding. Nobody played an original. No one. It made me second guess myself once more.

  Finally, my name was called. I stood on shaky legs. Jace stood with me and gently brushed my back as I passed him. I headed to the board’s table first and handed them each a copy of my sheet music. Then, I made my way up the stairs, telling myself to breathe. I tried to take deep controlled breaths. I tried to pretend I was performing in front of my new-found family and not a board of people that were determining my musical future. It was a dream I never thought I could indulge in, but now that it was a possibility, I wanted it more than anything else.

  I stood up to the microphone and said, “Good morning, my name is Blake Thomas and today I will be performing an original, “Rumination.””

  I could see varying shades of disapproval, wonderment, and confusion on the board’s faces. Finally, Dr. Allen cleared his throat and said, “You came here today, hoping to impress us with an original. What made you think that anything your young brain could produce would impress us? You realize thousands and thousands of people would die to even get the opportunity to stand where you are standing now, and you are coming to us with an original.”

  I stood, shocked for a moment as I heard titters and snickers from a few of the people watching. I looked at Will and Jace and I saw they each had a look of encouragement in their eyes. Finally, I cleared my throat, it was hard to talk past the nerves in my throat, but I didn’t get this far in my life by laying down and letting others quench my fire from within. I wasn’t going to start now. “Thank you for your time and I apologize if you feel I am wasting your time or committed some grievous mistake by coming before you with the intentions of playing something I created. However, I feel like music always has and always will be an expression of our souls. I could have come here and played Beethoven, Bruckner, Strauss, Handel, or any other one of the great composers known to us, but their music is their souls. Anything they composed that we perform, is just an impression of their emotions. This is not theirs. This is mine.”

  I thought I saw an expression of respect in Dr. Allan’s eyes for a brief second.

  Another one of the board members cleared their throat, “The stage is yours, Ms. Thomas.”

  I nodded to them and walked to the piano. Their doubt in me was the fuel I needed to perform my piece flawlessly. I put my sheet music on the stand but knew I wouldn’t need it. This was my story, and I know my story by heart.

  The moment my fingers hit the keys I was transported to that place only music could take me. I let the board see who I was. What my story was. The carefree, the happy, the loneliness, the fear, the hope, the guilt, the pain, the anger, the anticipation; all the myriad of emotions I had been through. My mind may be young, but I had lived a life most adults never experienced or could even comprehend. They could judge me on my age, but my experience was undeniable.

  When I was done, I took a deep breath and looked over at them. I could have sworn I saw tears in the eyes of one of the board members. I stood and gave them a bow. Eight minutes and four seconds.

  Eight minutes and four seconds would determine the rest of my life.

  I still had about forty-five minutes before my next class and Will had to get back to work, but Jace pulled me to the side as we got to the bottom of the steps and asked me if I wanted to get a pastry or muffin with coffee at the college’s quad before my next class.

  I agreed, I still felt tense and wound up. I had been the only one brave enough or stupid enough to come with my own composition. I would say six of the twenty-six, including myself, were the obvious people to cut, the other twenty had been remarkable. Even if they had been interpreting another person’s soul.

  “You did splendid,” Jace said as we sat down with our coffees and banana nut muffins.

  I took a piece of my muffin and put it in my mouth. “I’m happy that I didn’t make any mistakes, but maybe I was too bold and brazen when I confronted the board. I feel like conformity is key there. I am a square peg and I’m not sure I can fit in their round holes.”

  He chuckled, his eyes dancing. “Of all the analogies to use, you use that one.”

  I shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a rebel without a cause. I’ve never been one to conform. I don’t think any one of them will appreciate it and no one would want to teach me.”

  He shook his head and smiled. “I agree that many of the board members and teachers there are extremely traditional and unyielding, but I know personally that there are several members of the faculty that would love to be considered one of your teachers. You’re a student that doesn’t need teaching. You will have more of an impact on most of them than they will ever have on you.”

  I blushed at his compliment. I wish I had the same confidence in myself that he did. “Thanks,” I murmured.

  “Now,” he drawled out. “I heard you joined a band.”

  I groaned and buried my head in my hands. “Jemmy has such a big mouth.”

  He laughed. “Jemmy and Jax. That’s why I was surprised that Jax kept you a secret for so long. Now, what video am I searching?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “Nuh uh.”

  He looked at me with a raised brow. “I can text either one of them and they will tell me.”


  I took a sip of my coffee and glared at him. “I can’t even remember half the songs I sang that night.”

  “But you are aware of at least one song that went viral,” he pushed.

  “Ugh!” I groaned. “Fine. Fine. Search: “The Highway Don’t Care,” Ben and Blake.”

  He sat there and watched the video for a few minutes. When it was over, he looked over at me. “You changed the arrangement. It’s better than the original.”

  I shrugged, unsure how to react. I didn’t have to ask him how he knew I was the one who changed it. He had seen me through a lot of my musical journey, enough to know by now my style.

  “So, when’s the first band practice?” He teased.

  I groaned once more. “Tomorrow. I don’t even know how Jemmy pushes me into these situations, are we sure that she can only manipulate electronics?”

  He chuckled. “I met Jemmy when she was nine years old. She has always been able to wrap people around her finger. Girls, boys, men, and women.”

  “At least Ben gets paid gigs and I don’t have to perform every song with them. I’m just adding some estrogen to their testosterone fest.” I took another bite of my muffin.

  “Sounds like you’re going to be busy this year. Two college classes, gifts training, physical training, the band, working, the music program. Make sure you don’t burn yourself out.” He said with some concern.

  I smiled ruefully. “For the last year, I took care of my sister, went to school full time, worked full time, and took care of a household. I think I can do this.”

  He reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t doubt your ability to do whatever you set your mind to, but I don’t want to see you get hurt in doing so.”

  I smiled at him, knowing he wouldn’t voice his concerns if he didn’t care for me. He was no longer my meddlesome teacher. He was now my caring connected.

  Chapter 21

  I was already told that they felt physical education was important to the gifted. They felt a physically fit body helped protect us not only physically, but emotionally, and mentally as well. When I thought of phys ed, I thought of the gym classes from my old school. There was never anything physically demanding to them. I never even had to take a shower after them. We played dodgeball, maybe soccer, and sometimes basketball. We weren’t even required to participate. We just had to show up. I showed up most days, letting the jocks and the meat heads dominate the court. They always ran us little peons over anyways.