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 Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:04 am
Jane had agreed to the music lessons easily enough. Anything to give Casia something to do. When she was at home, she laid down on the couch like she was dead and drew strange blue people or listened to records in her room. She only seemed to be really enthusiastic about things that involved being outside the house, and though Casia made her schedule busy with afterschool practice, she could easily forfeit some of her time for proper singing lessons. So after a bit of petitioning, Jane had paid for the first month of lessons and dropped Casia off at a picturesque cottage just outside Durem and next to a museum afterschool.
Casia regarded it for a moment. The mailbox said Wells, which she didn't thnk had been Maria's last name, but this was where they had arranged to meet for the first lesson. She knocked on the door and it was opened by an Englishman, whose expression changed from polite to bewildered as he looked at her. "Er, may I help you?" he asked politely.
Casia looked back up at him. This was not Maria, and coupled with the fact that the name on the mailbox wasn't hers either, she was beginning to get a little nervous. Had she come to the wrong house?
"I don't know," she said, eyeing the englishman. (His accent was different from the Beatles', she noted almost subconsciously) "Is Maria home?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:15 am
"Casia!" Maria appeared. That was a good word for it: appeared, with her arms wrapped around the englishman's neck. "Hello, Casia, this is my best friend ever, Archer Wells. Archer, this is Casia! She's my student. Hope you don't mind, Etienne is having friends over today and you have never heard the cacophony that is a string quartet warming up until you've heard Kaatje van der Weydin warming up her cello. It's quite odd! She's very good on stage, but warming up is just an exercise in removing one's own eardrums--" With an affectionate kiss on the cheek for her best friend ever, the redheaded woman disentangled herself and took Casia's hands, pulled her inside.
The room was tidy, undoubtedly a living room or parlor. Sitting on a couch, watching TV, were a blond winged girl (her eyes matched her hair. and her wings. and her dress--) and a pale boy with only one arm. "Chris," the little girl was saying (she held a violin in her lap, which she was playing pizzicato, a few notes at a time), "Chris. This song is dumb." Whether she was talking about the song on the television (it was Beauty and the Beast) or the one she was plucking away at on her violin was anybody's guess.
Maria sighed fondly, dropping Casia's hands. "And this is my daughter, Lucy, and Christopher, Archer's son. Children, this is Casia." Lucy, the blonde presumably, turned to look.
"She's your student, right Mama?" The look in the little girl's eyes was undoubtedly envious. Her frown, even more so. She was green with jealousy.
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:28 am
Casia jolted as suddenly the Englishman was wearing her music teacher. He seemed just as surprised by the turn of events, and as Maria led Casia in, he stammered, "Your stud- Maria, why is your student here, this is my house..." but soon they were past him and couldn't hear whatever he was complaining about anyway. They turned into a tidy room with plenty of windows and pristine curtains, the kind of place Casia felt she should take off her shoes before entering, so she did. Inside, there was a girl about her age and a boy, who Casia noticed had only one arm. She tried not to look at it, that kind of thing always made her insides squirm, but she might as well have tried to look away from the sun. It was like a magnet drawing her eyes back, he only had one arm.
"No, it's beautiful!" Chris assured her kindly, assuming she was talking about the violin, because nobody could think Beauty & the Beast was dumb in his humble opinion. "I'm sure with practice-"
"I'm Maria's singing student." Casia said, grabbing her teacher's hand and giving the other blonde girl a small frown. She hated people who didn't like practicing music but kept on doing it anyway. What was the point if you didn't even like playing your instrument? She couldn't believe Maria's daughter was like that, and she made a snap decision. "You wanna listen?"
Before the girl on the couch could reply, the one-armed boy did. "I'd love to! Nice to meet you, Miss Casia." Grinning widely at her, he glanced over at Maria's daughter like he fully expected her to follow. "We can finish the movie later." he promised.
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:43 am
She did not dignify his distress with an answer. Why should she? She never had, she never would. Maria did flash a smile at him over his shoulder, and promised herself she would be extra nice to him tomorrow to make up for it.
"It's not," grumped Lucy. "Practice is dumb," she said as she stared at Casia. Mama had a singing student, did she. Well, that was okay. Lucy couldn't sing at all, unless the song had only three notes, and none of them did. That was why she didn't sing along to Beauty and the Beast, even though she had all the words memorized because every time she came over to Uncle Archer's house she would be told to sit down and watch a movie. She always chose Beauty and the Beast.
Did she want to listen to the new singing student sing? No. No she did not. But Chris did, and Lucy wanted Chris to like her because she didn't think Uncle Archer did. At all. If Chris liked her, though, someday she might convince Chris's dad to. Maybe. So, grudgingly, she said, "Okay," and shut off the VCR. Then, disconsolate, she plucked away at a tune eminently recognizable as Hot Cross Buns when she played it all in one string instead of piecemeal, distracted by Lumiere.
She thought Mr. Archer didn't like Lumiere much, either.
Maria glanced at her daughter. "You can help, if you like, with your violin. Where's your bow?" Lucy mumbled something, and the redheaded woman sighed. "Speak up, Lucy," she chided.
"Right here, Mama," repeated Lucy emphatically, picking up her bow from the case at her feet.
With a nod, Maria turned to Casia and said, "Now. Casia. How do you stand when you sing?"
Meanwhile, Lucy was smoldering. That was her Mama.
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:32 am
Somewhat disappointed that the movie had been turned off, as she rather liked Beauty and the Beast, Casia said,"Like this," since she didn't know how to explain it well. Listening to Lucy pluck away at Hot Cross Buns, she sang,
"Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
Oneapenny, twoapenny,
Hot cross buns."
The entire time she stood straight up, chin raised and chest raised, wings erect in the air. "I sing in other positions, but that's the one I use when I'm concentrating."
Meanwhile, Chris applauded gently, hitting his one hand against his leg. "Well done, Casia! Well done, Lucy," he offered encouragingly, "It was a lovely duet."
Casia smiled at the praise, but attempted not to look at Chris. He still made her uncomfortable. Instead, she looked at Maria. "Is that right?" she asked, somewhat nervously. She wasn't quite comfortable in this environment yet.
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:53 am
Maria stared critically, and then straightened Casia's shoulders. "Your position should always be the same, Casia, it should be perfect. Do you know, your airflow can change the strength of your voice? It's very important to remember that. Your chin is too high." If Maria taught at a school, she would be reprimanded for touching her students; she physically corrected Casia's posture until satisfied. Then, with a smile, she said, "You were very close, Casia darling."
Lucy frowned. Mama never called her darling. Just honey, and sweetheart, and all kinds of silly nicknames. She brightened, though, when Chris told her she'd done well; Mama hadn't seemed to notice at all. Not like Mama was ignoring her, because Mama had given her a smile, but still. She knew it was Casia's lesson and not hers.
"Lucy, play a mid C, if you would? With your bow." Lucy did so; the note only warbled a little. "Now, Casia, match that note. Please."
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Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:01 am
Casia matched the note without warbling, one perfect tone. As a siren, it was the most useful skill she had, any note, any pitch, Casia could sing it. She tried not to move a muscle, trying to commit the pose Maria had moved her in to memory. The fact that she hadn't been singing in the right way was disappointing, but she had been close, so it didn't matter that much. She knew better now! And no one had noticed probably, though she did a cursory check of her memory, trying to catch some unimpressed glance that she hadn't before, some offhand comment to be horrified about.
None came to mind, and Casia relaxed. Singing right was important to her, and people noticed her because of her music. She wasn't really good at making acquaintances, so she wanted to be good at impressing people she wanted to impress.
Chris shook his head as the two notes rang out, like he had something in his ear. "That was good, Lucy!" he exclaimed at her note. "And Casia!" Chris would cheer people on for hours. He had endless supplies of cheerful support that could get incredibly annoying if you let it.
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:09 pm
She had to show her up. Right. Lucy looked unmistakably hurt for a long moment, but managed to smother it--or something, because her face smoothed out for a vapid grin. Maybe Mama would like her better if she looked more like Casia?
Something crashed, and Maria looked off into the house. "I'll be back, girls. And Christopher! I'm just going to go make sure your father's all right." She sashayed out of the room, her hair flipping around the door frame.
Lucy waited exactly thirty seconds before the smile vanished and she set her violin aside. "You're trying to steal my Mama," she said, looking over the couch. Her wings were flaring out like she was trying to intimidate the other girl, her molten gold eyes narrowed. "Why?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:10 pm
Casia bristled defensively, flapping her wings- something that was dangerous to do in Archer's little parlor. "Hey, what's your bag?" she demanded. "I'm just trying to learn music." Her eyes flashed, Casia could be territorial too, and she got especially territorial of her role model figures. She had lost too many of them already to back down from a challenge about one.
Christopher attempted a conciliatory "Now then, let's be reasonable," but Casia ignored it. "I'm paying Maria for lessons, I get her attention fair and square until lessons are over!" More protests from Christopher were ignored, and Casia stepped forward, giving Lucy a mistrustful stare.
She moved to take another step forward, but Christopher had wedged himself between them. "I really think that maybe we should all just count to ten," Chris suggested meekly. Casia frowned at him but said "Whatever, I don't need to argue with some clingy old panty-waist," somewhat huffily.
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 9:19 pm
"But she's my Mama," snapped Lucy, pushing herself up to stand on Archer's couch so she'd be taller than Casia. "Doesn't stop being my Mama just 'cause you're here! That'd be unfair!"
And it really, really was unfair to her mind. She'd only had her Mama a short time, and it wasn't fair that she'd have to give her up so soon, especially considering that Lucy'd never really had a Mama. The fact that it was temporary seemed to be completely beyond her comprehension right then, because she was tearing up and pitching a temper tantrum would just get her lectured but she really, really wanted to.
She would have quieted down; she was counting to ten at Christopher's suggestion, finding that it didn't really work, but she would have just sulked in the corner as opposed to what she did: "I'm not a clingy old panty-waist," she practically shrieked. "She's my mama!"
Which, of course, brought Maria right back out, her face stormy. "What's going on," she asked, looking to Christopher.
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