The Details Matter

Chapter 2

The Details Matter

I have Tuesdays off due to a scheduling mishap, but I take advantage of it by going to the music lab at Samule South and working on my compositions. I still wake up at 5:30am, but that is because I want to. I found out this trick early on that waking up happy makes you want to get up. If you wake up and don't want to live the day, you aren't living life right.

Samule South was a short walk away. Since Hillard East is located on the west most side of the main campus, walking to the west campus isn't  all that bad. It's not like walking across a crowded ten acres main  campus. West campus is actually three buildings all named Samule, after the guy who sold the buildings. He actually got annoyed by the noise from the main campus. He sold it and moved to Florida but had to leave behind his three pianos. So west campus became the campus for musicians. Samule's House became a small student center and library, Samule East was re-renovated to being a small lecture hall and two private consulting rooms, and Samule South became a three story lab room with five pianos, seven cellos, three trombones, four clarinets, and twenty percussion instruments.

  I have access to all these instruments and I immediately bang away at four timpani for the music I am composing. The problem that I first addressed was the strange fact that no matter what rhythm I bang out, it won't fit. So I left the timpani as one shots in my composition. Slowly other students started coming in and makes the first mistake almost all composers make. They went to their most comfortable instrument. 

I work best on a piano, so I leave that as the last instrument I work on. I moved on to the cello. As my cello squealed (I only had a crash course in all the instruments) I found a melody harmonic to what I was working on. So I wrote that in on a big sheet of blank staves. I moved on to the clarinet and worked out a supporting melody for the cello. Finally I went to the piano and played out the other instruments. At the end of it all, I got a good rough draft of a song.

Around 11:20am the lab room got too noisy for me, and I went to Samule's House. On the second floor there is a massive study hall with a wide collection of sheet music from every genre. Normally I would do homework here, But I finished all of it last night. So, I grabbed Adele's 21 book and flipped to Turning Tables and studied that for a while.

I went to the cafeteria because it was nearing 12:00pm. After I had a bowl of clam chowder soup, I went back to my room. I noticed my door was wide open and I panicked. Then I realized, it was just my new roommate.

He looked so proper with his polo shirt tucked in to his khaki pants. He wore round glasses that made his green eyes pop. His body language was what I'd expect from new meat, lost. He had his suitcase on my bed which I thought was odd.

"What is your suitcase doing on my bed," I stated gruffly. I raised an eyebrow and a smile while hanging from the doorframe. He was mumbling something.

"Speak up," I ordered.

He shouted, "I'm sorry. I'm kind of new here..."

"First off, thats physically impossible; second, of all calm down. I don't bite, much. I'm Satteo and I sleep there." He threw his suitcase off my bed. "You must be my new roommate."

"I'm Clyde." He extended a hand out.

"Put that hand away. You only shake hands with people five years older than you. We are no more than two years apart, and even then the older or host extends the first hand."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. What's your major"

"English literature."

"Music. I'm going to the Hillary Student Center. Timmy want us to meet in the common room tonight so don't be late."

"Ok," I shut the door behind Clyde and started walking to the Hillary Student Center. I was abruptly stopped by two other new students running with their bags flying around. As I passed by more and more new students, I could tell this is going to be one helluva year.

As 6:30pm loomed around I grabbed my tips and went back to my room. I made twenty-five dollars and a nickel today. I guess no one cared for Adele song with no vocals. I got into the common room and saw who will be living here this year.

Timmy spoke over the crowd, "OK everyone, lets get this meeting started. My name is Timothy Darn and I was last year's student representative. We need to vote on a new one. Any volunteers?"

The whole room was silent.

"How about you, Timmy," Noah said.

"Don't call me Timmy. Fine if no one else wants to, I will. Welcome new students and returning students to Noel University. Now that summer is over we need to go over some..." I tuned him out as I found Clyde on the sofa. I sat right next to him and he immediately clammed up. It was a little cute.

“Now to introduce everyone,” Timmy called out. “Our new student are Nathan Gerald majoring in composition, Hershel Note majoring in nutrition, and Clyde Leo majoring in english literature.”

Nathan looked full-out goth and Hershel looked like a nerd. Clyde was clamming up agin. My gosh, he is painfully shy. It seemed like he was raised to be that way. I felt obligated to loosen him up by the end of the semester.

Timmy continued on, “The returning students and new tenants to Hillard East are Satteo Oswald majoring in music, Daniel Hades majoring in marketing, Sebastian Moor and Samuel Nokes majoring in nutrition, Hank Acre (our only strait guy) majoring in communication (like me), Noah Holmes majoring in fashion, and my boyfriend Mark Grogo majoring in general studies.”

“Now that the formalities are done,” I started, “I have to tell all of our new meat that we have finals tomorrow and you have to register for classes. Please wake up at a decent time , don’t destroy the place and try not to get lost.”

I walked out and went to my room and started studying for my exams. I already knew what I needed to know for my classes, but I still study to learn some other stuff we didn't go over in class. Clyde walked in and just sat on his bed and was staring at me, the ceiling, the floor, his shoes, and then back to me. I got pretty annoyed since I could see him out of the corner of my eye. It was obvious we needed to talk, but Clyde started.

"So I'm going to wake up at seven, but I don't want to disturb you."

"I get up at five thirty. You won't disturb me."

"Why so early?"

"My first round of exams start at seven and I don't want to go to class half-asleep. That would be counterproductive. Plus it's all the way in south campus. I need to make the first bus at six."

"Um..."

"You don't have to wake up at my time, but I am going to hit the hay so don't disturb me."

"Ok." I fell back, but couldn't fall asleep knowing that there was someone there, and I have exams. I just shut my eyes and tried to stop thinking about how crazy this year will be.