Gabe - Three

Gabe

            By Friday, we had already fallen into routine. Erich was, using no method we could see, always up first. I was shaken awake when he crawled out of the bunk, and Hersch would stumble out of bed a few minutes later. We would awkwardly get dressed �" everyone had staked out a corner of the room for privacy �" and grab our books before heading out. If we forgot to throw something at Jim, he would come dashing down the hall after us a few minutes later.

            We sat on opposite ends of the dining hall, sharing tables with people who we had never spoken to. I wondered if we would ever bite the bullet and try to sit together, but it hadn’t happened yet. Obviously none of us were clicking with anyone one else much better than we had hit it off with each other.

            Classes were dull. I had second period with Erich and first and fourth with all four. Of the four of us, bored as I was, I managed to stay awake the most.

            Third period was the best two hours of the day. After lunch I would race back to the dorm and grab my violin with more enthusiasm than I would be able to show for anything for the rest of the day. I hadn’t let on to any of the other guys that I played. The last thing I wanted was for people around here to think I was queer.

            I tried not to worry about it, but the anxiety was always looming in the back of my mind. People had been presuming I was that way (as it was so often phrased) for as long as I could remember. And here at school, surrounded constantly by dozens of guys, was the last place in the world I wanted anyone to think that.

            It clearly wasn’t working. Obviously there was something about me that made Erich say what he said to me on that first day of class, and it made me even more intent on hiding from them. It had been humiliating. I had barely been able to open my mouth in front of him since.

            The music studio was a tiny structure behind the main building. I doubted that many people knew it even existed. I had actually gotten lost on my first day of class (and somehow ended up in the shower building), thinking it would be a more important feature of the school. Barely anyone else was taking Instrumental Theory, so we didn’t play together. I would take whatever music the instructor had for me and close myself off in one of the practice rooms.

Time would fly by then. Playing had always made life easier, even back in Italy, when things could not have been worse. It made me feel like nothing else that had ever happened mattered.

            I hated putting my violin down, but I always left practice early. Our instructor, colorfully referred to as Professor Crackers since no one ever learned his name, was nearly always locked in his office listening to Bach on an ancient gramophone (emerging only to inform the six other students and myself that we had no talent), so there was no one to catch me. I dreaded being seen coming out of the music building, so I would race across the grounds to the dorm and toss my carrying case under my bunk before the bell could ring.

            On that first Friday, though, I almost didn’t get away with it. I was shoving my case under the bed when I heard the door open. I looked up as fast I could and whacked my head against the top bunk. I swore and turned around to see Erich standing in the doorway.

            “Smooth,” he said amusedly, “no fourth period today. Showers.”

            I froze, “Showers?” I asked tensely.

            “Yeah,” he motioned for me to follow. “Come on. We missed our chance on Wednesday, and I’m not smelling like this for another day.”

            I cursed about a thousand times in my head, but I wasn’t about to defy him. Somehow the yellowing bruise on his eye made him even more intimidating, and anyway, there was no way out. So I swallowed nervously and followed him out the door.

Reviews

[Dakota]

Gabe really worries a lot about what the other's think about him. Hopefully soon he'll realize he has nothing to be ashamed of and stop worrying so much. I like the humor interwoven throughout the chapters (mostly at Jim's expense LOL). I keep wondering when they'll realize Erich's just as scared of them as they are of him.


.novelists.elite.info.
.display. .dakota.003.
.memberID. 003
.name. Dakota
.username. DakotaTrent
.novels. Saepe Expertus, Fratres Aeterni, Terminal Leave, Blood Stripes, Tag Chaser
.status. Admin, Novelist, noelwrimo Contestant
.noelwrimo. 11,261
.join date. 03-22-2011

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good chapter. I like the desire to play the violin and the fear of being known to enjoy the playing of the violin. I like the thoughts in this chapter. A excellent chapter.
Coyote