Chapter 6: Positive Outlook

~Break From The Line~
~ [Taylor Louderman and Natalie Weiss]~

"But I - I know that I'm not the only one that's climbing
As high, to be
The one they call on the stage
Finally in the light
Who's been chasing this day
Where things all lock in right
Still I look around me
Everyone fighting for a sign
But someday I will break from the line."

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"We will be exploring duets and working with partners on your music." Ms. Hudson said. She continued on, talking about how we would be reviewing melody and harmony. Some of us could go a step ahead and get into our next topic, lyric study and writing.

I took the sheet she handed out, my elbow resting on my guitar as I read it over. It seemed easy enough. But then again most of my group projects ended up with my partner and I barely talking while I do most of the work. I slowly exhaled, pursing my lips.

Positive outlook. I told myself. I had given myself a mental lecture last night on working harder and I wasn't about to ignore the scolding from my own brain. So I waited for Ms. Hudson to pair everyone up. She called out names and I prayed to god that's she wouldn't miss my name.

"Finally, Cole and Selena." Ms. Hudson announced. I frowned, blinking as she set down her sheet and walked back to her desk.

Cole glanced up, his dark hair falling over his eyes. "Who's Selena?"

Positive outlook. My brain mocked me.

"Shut up." I muttered to myself. Making Riley give me a funny look. I tried to signal them that yes I am sane but I'm not sure if they bought it. I steeled my nerves and walked to where Cole was sitting. His feet were propped up on the foot stool and he was tuning his guitar. As I drew nearer I could see a deep frown on his face and he almost looked... upset?

"Hey." Cole noticed me approach. "Do you know who Selena is?"

I laughed awkwardly. "Actually that's me."

His eyes widened. "Crap. Have I been saying your name wrong this whole time?"

"No." I glanced back at Ms. Hudson. "It's Siena."

Cole's mouth formed an 'o' as he understood. "It's been a few days, why don't you just tell her your name is Siena?" He asked curiously.

I shrugged.

Beat.

Awkward silence.

I already was hating this.

"Sorry you got stuck with me." Cole finally mumbled.

"What?" I furrowed my brow, sitting down in the seat beside him.

He didn't meet my eyes as his index finger traced the edge of his instrument. "I'm...not that good at music."

I blinked several times. "But...you're in a music program."

"Yeah," his voice was odd. An almost cold chuckle escaping his lips as he paused and looked up, jaw clenched. "That wasn't exactly my decision."

Now it was my turn to from my mouth into a letter. Silence. "I used to do pageants." I blurted.

Cole let out a disbelieving laugh but he quickly smothered it. Ducking his head shamefully. "Sorry... It's just- I don't really see you doing pageants."

I chuckled a little myself. "Well, neither did I and yet my mother thought it would be beneficial for me... Since I have a slight social anxiety as you may have noticed." He shrugged one shoulder. "Anyways, I hated it. Every bit about it. It wasn't the make up or the dresses or the idea of it but just because I really didn't have any idea of what I could do."

"For each pageant we'd show off our talents. I felt like I had none." I continued. "But my mother still believed I could find that in the pageants. So I sang a song. When I practiced I didn't really love the song I chose. I remembered how much fun my dad and I would have when we would make up silly songs together so...I started writing."

I smiled slightly. "I still hate pageants. But it was what helped me find what I was passionate about. I guess that's what you have to do in every experience. Used it to gain a little bit of yourself."

I finally looked back at Cole. He was just watching me with an expression I couldn't read. "Wow. That is...really deep." He told me.

I snorted. "Thanks."

Cole huffed. "Alright, well I guess we're committed as partners." He sighed, standing up and extending a hand to me. "I suppose we can try and make it work."

I took his hand, feeling the constant butterflies in my stomach fly around. "That's the spirit."

"But seriously," Cole's fade fell into an intense stare. "You are really going to regret being my partner."

🎹 🎸 🎤 🎸 🎹

I winced at the horrible twang that erupted from Cole's guitar. "Did you...tune that?"

"I tried." Cole admitted. "But I don't have a tuner so I was sort of...winging it?"

I raised an eyebrow and placed down my own instrument. I gently took his guitar from his hands and placed it on my leg. My fingers worked the pegs as my nails plucked at the strings. I tilted my head and listened to the note as I turned it to the right sound.

"There you go." I have his guitar back to him.

"Thank you." Cole gave a lopsided smile as I adjusted my own strings.

"Um... so..." I wasn't really used to being in charge. "Do you want to do some warm ups?"

"Uh sure." Cole but his lip.

"What songs do you know?" I asked.

Cole hesitated. "Uh..."

"It's fine." I cut in after he trailed off for a good while. "Um...we can do an easy song I made."

I grabbed my notebook and handed it to him. "I think it has the green tab? The chords should be there."

Cole nodded as he flipped through. His eyes widening as he saw all the scribbled writing. "You wrote all these?"

I tugged on a lock of my hair. "It's...a pretty big hobby of mine."

Cole shook his head as he made it to the green tab. "Okay," he said, so softly that I think it was mostly to himself. He positioned his fingers on the frets as he scanned the page. "Ready."

I tightened my grip and began to strum, my hand making a steady pace as I remembered the pattern.

I blocked out the background noise and focused on the music, smiling to myself as I switched chords before glancing at Cole. His brow was furrowed in concentration. His eyes flicking from the page to his hands as he tried to match my pace. I slowed down for him, watching as he fumbled with the chord. He let out a shaky, frustrated sigh as he pressed his lips in a thin line.

"Hey," I said gently. "You're doing good. You're just hitting the fret to low so it makes the sound go off." I adjusted his finger. "And you need to curl your fingers more so you it it right there." I touched my own finger to the skin at the tip.

He sat quietly as I showed him what to do before starting again. "Now let's start again. Slower this time." I started with gentle, slow strums. "Down, up, down" I instructed.

Cole followed along, a small wrinkle in between his eyes with concentration as he stopped looking at his hands and focused more on my own. I felt a tiny smile form on my face as he began to grow more confident.

"Good job." I praised, giving him another grin. "That was really great!"

"Thanks." Cole rubbed the back of his neck a little shyly at my complement. "Could we..." he hesitated.

I waited patiently. "Could you sing it while we play?" Cole ducked his head.

I was silent for a moment. "No one would notice." He said quickly. "It's just us."

It was. For some reason I felt comfortable around Cole. Maybe it was his sweet smile. Maybe it was his cheerful attitude. Maybe it was his calm, steady, aura. Or maybe I was finally starting to become more... me?

"O-okay." I said softly. I swallowed hard and adjusted my guitar to play but it slipped from my grasp. It fell with a twang and both Cole and I lunged for it, smacking heads as we did.

Not-so appropriate words whizzed in my brain as I saw stars. I leaned back, hand clutching my forehead as I blinked away the stars in my eyes. Cole was doing a similar thing as he hissed. "Are you okay?"

I nodded wordlessly, focussing on rubbing the pain out of my skull. I let out a little laugh of disbelief. Of course. Right when I was getting comfortable.

Ms. Hudson glanced at her watch and whistled for everyone's attention. "Alright, that's all the time we have for today. Get your partners contact information so you can work on it at home, okay?"

I frowned as I glanced in my camera at the red spot now on my face. My hands subconsciously put my things away as muscle memory got me moving out of the door quickly.

"Siena!" Cole called. I blinked and turned, glancing back at him.

He jogged up to me, coughing with a weird shyness as he presented his device to me. "Um...I need your contact information."

"Oh."

Stupid. I scolded myself. I gave a nervous smile as I took it and forced myself to causally type in my number. No big deal, no big deal, was the silent mantra in my head.

Cole took it back and I gave him my own phone. Trying not to blush too hard at the ninja background. It was a particularly weird one that seemed to zero in on the muscles in the earth ninja. Cole smirked, an odd expression to see on his face as he looked at it before selecting the contacts and filling it in.

"You're a ninja fan?"

I half-shrugged. "My friend Mackenzie likes to change my background to the weirdest things when I'm not looking." I quickly took it back, hastily changing my wallpaper back to its original sunset.

Cole flicked his eyes away, kicking his shoes as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Alright, well...I guess I'll see you."

I nodded in return, quickly making my escape when everyone began gathering around, awaiting me to get out of the doorway. I scurried down the hall, glancing at the contacts, confusion overcame me when I noticed Cole had changed his profile picture to the one of the earth ninja.

Why would he do that?

Authors note*****

Aw yeah. I did it. A chapter without a song. BOOM!

I almost put one in I just had some song writers block.

LuckyBugBooks 🐞