Piano
"I knew you would give in eventually," Jackie spoke with a smug smile. Crystal was following her through the hallway towards the art wing as free period started. She had texted Kyle a few minutes prior saying that she would be with Jackie and couldn't make it to their rehearsal. Of course he was disappointed by this, but frankly, Crystal did not care.
"Yeah yeah, whatever Jack," Crystal rolled her eyes playfully, "I just couldn't stand to listen to all your begging anymore!" she teased, opting to not tell her the real reason behind her joining. Jackie hit her lightly on the arm before grabbing her wrist to pull her to the art room faster.
Once they reached their destination Jackie took it upon herself to introduce Crystal to the rest of the students in the room.
"Everyone, this is Crystal. The girl the one the art contest back in her old town, remember? Well she's finally here! She's gonna make a great addition to our art show!" Jackie said with enthusiasm. "This is Lux," Jackie pointed to a small blonde girl with beautiful makeup, "this is Daya," now pointing to the tall brunette next to her, "Rock," motioning towards a shorter girl with black hair and a very bright dress. She proceeded to introduce the rest of the group: Daegen, Widow, Tiff, and Heidi.
Crystal smiled and waved at them before backtracking on Jackie's words.
"I never said I would be in the art show!" Crystal whisper yelled to Jackie. Jackie just looked at her with a nervous grin before walking over to the supply closet and bringing out some paints and canvases.
"Okay!" she clapped her hands together. "We need a new piece from each of you for the show, it's sneaking up on us quickly!" And with that the entire club set up their stations and put in their earbuds to begin their work. Except Crystal.
Crystal sat in silence staring at the blank canvas in front of her, wondering what in the world she had gotten herself into. "At least I'm not singing with Kyle right now," she thought to herself before picking up a brush and laying down some blue paint, just to pass the time.
Free period went by extremely slow, but after that lunch came quickly. Crystal was buzzing with anticipation and anxiety just thinking about being with the girl she liked and having to pretend she didn't have feelings. She stopped in the bathroom on her way to the music room to make sure she looked okay and put on some extra lip gloss. She then found herself sitting at the piano, shaking her leg uncontrollably as she waited for Gigi.
Crystal was so fixated on the keys of the piano that she didn't even notice that the girl had entered the room until she was leaning on the piano in front of her.
"Do you play?"
"What?" Crystal shook herself out of her daze.
"Piano. Do you play?" Gigi reiterated.
"No, I wish...do you?"
"Yep! Who did you think modifies Jaida's songs for Gavin and I?" Gigi laughed as she made her way over to Crystal's side of the piano, motioned for her to make room, and sat down next to her.
"Oh! I should've known, I'm such an idiot. I guess I never really thought about—"
"Relax Crystal, you couldn't have known!" Gigi noticed the brunette's unusually tense state. "So should we get started then?"
Crystal let out a breath that she had been holding in since Gigi sat down a little too close for comfort. "Yes...but I don't have the piano sheet music from Jaida, so we can just use the track she sent me!" Crystal spoke nervously. "I can ask her for it for tomorrow though! I would love to hear you play," she added, biting her tongue at the last part.
"Okay!" Gigi replied with more enthusiasm than she intended and with that Crystal was opening her messages from Jaida and pulling up the track. Gigi grabbed a piece of paper that had been sitting atop the piano and followed along with the lyrics. She was pretty familiar with the song as she sat with Jaida at lunch usually so she took over what was supposed to be Kyle's harmony seamlessly.
Crystal tried to keep her eyes focused on the sheet music, but it was difficult not to look to her right where she felt the blonde staring into her. She let her eyes slip up a few times, a blush spreading across her face each time as they met Gigi's, but immediately returned her gaze to the paper. When the track ran out silence, and tension, filled the room. Gigi was the first to speak.
"What did Kyle say when you told him you couldn't rehearse with him anymore?"
Crystal cringed at the mention of him. "Well I told him it was because of the art club obviously, so he wasn't too mad. He said he would just use free period for basketball and practice with Jaida before school," she informed her. "He also asked if we could practice during lunch, but I told him I'm busy with something super important during lunch," she laughed.
"Where's the lie?" Gigi laughed back. The silence filled the room once again after the laughter died down, and Crystal saw an opportunity to ask a question that had been playing in her head for a while.
"Are you gonna ask him to winter formal?" she looked down at the piano keys nervously, not wanting to meet Gigi's piercing blue eyes.
"Huh? Why would I do that??" Gigi's forehead creased in the middle with confusion.
"Well because you like him?" Crystal brought her own confused expression up to meet Gigi's.
"God Crystal, you'd think for someone with good grades you'd be a little less smooth brained," Gigi scoffed, seriously in disbelief that Crystal still hadn't caught on.
"Hey!" Crystal gave a mock offended look, nudging Gigi's shoulder with her own. "So you don't like him?" she questioned with a tone that was a little too enthusiastic. She hoped Gigi hadn't noticed it.
"No you idiot! He's uh...he's not my type..." Gigi trailed off, praying that Crystal had missed the way she had involuntarily put emphasis on "he".
"What!? How is a golf-loving, basketball playing, musical theatre singer not your type!?" Crystal found Gigi's claim absolutely ridiculous. Gigi sighed in relief that Crystal truly was oblivious, but felt panic rise again at her question.
"Well uh...he's...," she tried to think of something that wouldn't cause Crystal to question her further, "his hair! His hair is dirty blonde...I'm more into brunettes!" Gigi exclaimed as she stared into the dark brown curls in front of her.
"Oh my god of course you are picky like that, I shouldn't be surprised," Crystal teased, buying her partially truthful answer. "Wanna sing the song again?"
✽ ✽ ✽
"Why weren't you at lunch?" Jackie asked Crystal as she found her standing at her locker before their next class. Crystal jumped.
"Geez Jackie, you scared me! I was rehearsing for callbacks."
Jackie's brows furrowed in thought. "Really? I could've sworn I saw Kyle in lunch.."
"Right, I uh...we practice separate sometimes!" Crystal remembered Gigi's request from the day before ‘don’t tell anyone about this’, and chose to leave out who she was practicing with instead of Kyle. Jackie wasn’t as unobservant as Crystal though, and knew for sure that something was off, but chose not to press further right now as she had to get to class.
Jackie turned and headed towards the stairwell that led to the second floor where her math class was. As she turned the corner she was stopped by Chad bumping directly into her.
“Ah! I’m so sorry!” he spoke picking up her books, “Jackie! I was just coming to find you!” he exclaimed as he looked up and saw who he had collided with.
“Me? For what?”
“It’s about Kyle. And Crystal. We need to make sure they can’t go to the callback.” he spoke with a hard tone. “All of practice during free period today he was distracted and humming! And the championship game is the same night as callbacks.”
“Yeah, now that I think about it, the art show is the same night as callbacks too...and I need her at the art show,” Jackie tried to brainstorm, but couldn’t seem to come up with anything. “So what do we do?” she finally asked.
“Umm...I think we just need to get them to hate each other or something, that way they won’t want to sing together!” Chad said the first thing that came to his head.
“Okay, sure, I hope it works,” Jackie agreed, not knowing that it would be a lot easier than she anticipated to get Crystal to hate Kyle.