Enjoy!

Of course Marcella had friends. However, they were also her biggest rivals, and right now they were winning.

"Thank you Marcella, that's enough." To her friends amusement, Señor Garcia stopped playing the piano, cutting her singing short.

"Is there something wrong, señor?"

"Yes, Marcella. I specifically asked you to perform an original song. This was not it, meaning you've failed this week's assignment."

"But señor...."

Her friends, Beatrice and Olga, giggled behind her back. All three of them were meant to perform this week's assignment in front of their teacher. Marcella however, was the only one to fail.

"I'll be forced to fail you unless you can present an original piece by the end of this week."

"Right" She nodded. With that she was free to leave the auditorium, expected to get back to work on her musical piece whilst Señor Garcia helped Beatrice and Olga perfect theirs.

"...by the end of this week." Marcella said, taunting the voice that was Señor Garcia's. Of course she knew what the week's assignment had been, however, her song wasn't finished yet.

"How am I supposed to finish writing a song that I can't relate to?" She asked no one.

"Lie." Someone yawned.

Marcella screamed.

She had left the auditorium only to return to the abandoned classroom next door, where Señor Garcia stocked all the instruments. There were no lights, except for the string of it shining through a small basment window. She was sitting behind the piano when there was movment on the old sofa in the corner of the room.

"Aghh, please. Can't you see that I'm trying to sleep?"

"Pedri?"

He sat up, letting his cupped hands drop from his ears. He looked fresh from a nap, wearing a black sweater, his dark hair tousled up underneath the hood.

"Mierda, you scared me!" Marcella tried recollecting her exhilarated breath. "What are you doing in here?" The room belonged to the music program and the music program only. The school prioritized football above all other curriculums, with their own private lounges and newly renovated locker rooms. Couldn't Pedri Gonzalez have found a better place to sleep over there?

"The door was open." He shrugged and rubbed his tired eyes before pushing off with his arm to sit up straight. "Let's hear it then."

"Hear what?"

"This unfinished song of yours."

"What?"

"The one that Señor wants you to finish by the end of the week."

"How did you..."

"Thin walls." He smirked.

"Still, you came here to take a nap? In the room right next to the music auditorium."

"Like I said, the door was open."

Marcella stayed put behind the piano, a skeptical look on her face as Pedri made the effort to stand. He was sort of slow in his movements, supporting himself against a wall, like an old man with an aching body.

"Got any snacks?" He asked, walking over to the piano, cranking his neck and snapping his knuckles.

"No." Marcella muttered.

He plotted down beside her. Without invitation, she might add.

"A shame."

"What is?" She turned to look at him, heart fluttering when he smiled at her.

"The fact that you don't have any snacks."

Heat rose to her face, but Marcella was quick to diverge her attention back to the sheet music in front of her. Grabbing them, she said, "If you don't mind. I have a song to write."

"I don't mind." Pedri sat back as if not to disturb.

Marcella turned back to him with a frown on her face. "I meant like, can you leave?"

The line between his eyebrows wrinkled a little. It left Marcella feelig guilty. "I just really need to finish this assignment." She mumbled, in all honesty. Writing a song wasn't easy to begin with, rewriting one also took time. Time that she didn't have.

"Play it for me."

"W..what?"

Pedri said so with such grace. "Play the song for me, perhaps it's not that bad? Maybe it's just señor Garcia who has mistake his wives underwear for his own?"

Marcella chuckled with uncertainty. "What does that mean?"

Pedri mimicked her expression, smiling as he leaned towards her. He whispered, "It means he's up tight....in the ass."

She shook her head, regretting having fueld his ego by laughing at such a cheap joke.

"Now you haven't got all day Marcella. Are you gonna play me the song or not?"

She was hesitant, but only because the way Pedri said her name threw her off. Pressing down on the piano keys, she regained some composure. Marcella didn't look to him, avoiding eye contact at all cost. However, she could see out of the corner of her eye that Pedri observed her causiosully, not saying a word until she'd finished playing.

"Aren't you supposed to sing to it?" His eye traveled to the sheet music where there was lyrics written underneath every measure.

"Like I said, it's not finished." Marcella let her hands rest on her knees.

"No? What's missing?" He suprised her that the conversation between the two was still ongoing, with Pedri sounding genuinely interested.

"Well first of all, I lost about three sheets in the parking lot the other day." And she had plans to make Gavi pay for that. "And overall I don't like the instructions for this assignment."

"Which are."

"Well..." She cleared her throat. "Señor Garcia wants it to be a love song."

"I see." Pedri nodded.

"You do?"

"Sure. You're obviously struggling to write about something you've never experienced before."

"I've obviously felt loved." Marcella corrected, a bit taken aback that he could pin point her struggles so accurately. "I mean my parents love me and my dog..."

"Yes, but that wasn't the assignment, was it?"

Marcella frowned. "What do you know anyway?"

"Like I said, the walls are thin and it's not the first time I've taken a nap in here. I've been hearing señor Garcia go off on you guys for the past few weeks now."

"I know." She groaned. "His ass is really uptight"

Pedri's eyes widened, along with his face that transformed with his bubbly laughter.

"What?" She blushed. "You said it first, not I."

"I know." He laughed. "But it's sounded way better coming out of your mouth." He stared at it, her mouth. And for a second all time stood still. However, Pedri was the first one to break eye contact. "So let's take a look at the lyrics then."

She snorted "What do you know about writing lyrics?"

"I know I'd never rhyme, time, with crime or crazy with lazy, when I'm trying to write a heartfelt love song. And why are you singing in English anyway?" To her suprise, he really looked genuinely displeased, forcing Marcella to come up with a logical answer. "Well I sound better singing in English."

"Bullshit."

Her eyes widened.

"You sang the national anthem in Español, no?"

"Yes, and?"

"And..." His voice lost volume.

"Sorry, what was that?"

He mumbled something under his breath.

"I'm sorry Pedri, I can't really..."

"I said..." He groand, "You sounded beautiful....singing in Spanish."

And for the second time all space and time seized to function. Marcella didn't know what was happening or what it meant, but it made her uncertain of herself in the presence of Pedri. He was tampering with her emotions somehow, making her feel things that she didn't want to feel.