[[OPEN]] Let the rain fall, I don't care

[kristay]

“Are you sure you don’t want to get milkshakes with us Joe?” Joseph Burkeheart ran an irritated hand through his short hair before speaking. “No, I’m fine. I want to stay behind and do some practicing.” Jackie paused in her walk and frowned at her brother. “But you always practice Joe, come on hang out with us.” He groaned softly, he didn’t really want to hurt his sister’s feelings. “I always hang out with you travel-sized, and I’ll see Yume and the rest of the family when I get home. I’ll be fine by myself, I promise.” Jackie put her hands on her hips and tried to glare him down which proved an impossible feat for someone as tiny as her. Seph couldn’t help but laugh at her attempt and he put his large hands on her shoulders and spun her around to the direction of the door. “Go on, I won’t be late for dinner.”

Jackie had finally given in and Seph was on his way to the music room. He had been given a key so he could practice inside; it had been much easier to get a duplicate than to constantly bug the staff to open the door for him so he had gotten his way pretty easily. He carried his cello to the room and set it down by a seat he favored before leaving the door slightly ajar. He took out the instrument and positioned himself properly, deciding to play a jazzy rendition of Norah Jones’ Don’t Know Why, improvising on the notes he couldn’t remember. The boy closed his eyes, feeling himself drift off into the calm music, remembering how he used to play with his father; he felt a rare smile curve the corners of his mouth. Don’t know why I didn’t come…

[Dani]

Alexia slowly drifted through the rapidly emptying halls of Riverside High. She had only been attending the school for a few days now and it was already starting to remind her of her old high school. To most people that would have been a good thing, but not to Alexia. She hated North Ridge High, a place that thrived on pep rallies and mindless gossip, and not intellect and creativity. Sure, she had participated in a few extracurriculars here and there, but they were mainly to get her mother to shut up, a task that seemed to be getting easier with each passing day. Riverside High was no different. She wasn't sure why she thought it would be; after all, most high schools were full of bullshit. Today, while eating lunch, she had overheard a conversation a few tables away about the baseball team. The people who were participating in it were acting as though it was the be all and end all of everything. So what if you can hit a ball with a piece of wood? she had thought to herself. Who the fuck cares? Is that going to end world hunger?

As she headed past another bunch of identical lockers, she was stopped in her tracks by a musical sound. Being the aspiring musician that she was, she immediately abandoned her boring plans of going home and quickly set out to investigate the origin of the music. After about five more minutes of walking, she had fulfilled her quest. Walking through the door, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that her new school had a music room. Not only that, but it actually looked like it was used quite often, not like the abandoned electives building at North Ridge that had been purely built to satisfy the demands of a few pushy PTA parents. Recognizing the song that the boy was playing, she took out her guitar and strummed a few notes, softly murmuring the words to herself.

[kristay]

Seph continued into the second stanza of the song, a slight frown playing on his lips when he heard the guitar come in. It wasn’t that the playing was bad because it wasn’t; it was pretty good actually. He knew the version of the song he was playing made the cello and guitar well suited to one another but he couldn’t guess who had suddenly picked up a guitar and started playing with him. Curiosity got the better of him and he opened his eyes, a bit surprised at what he saw. Joseph continued to play however, not wanting to disturb the harmony that seemed to come from both of their instruments. The girl was someone he had never seen or met in the hallways of Riverside and he was starting to wonder who she was and why he had never seen her before.

The song was over almost as soon as it had begun and he leaned back in his chair, holding his bow carefully. “Are you new here?” He spoke up first because he wanted to advantage of knowing more information about her than she did about him. It was a bit ironic that he’d even bothered with that question because if she was new, he was just as new to Riverside High and the Riverside the town in general. “You played pretty well.” He didn’t say she was marvelous because she wasn’t, but she wasn’t bad either and if she practiced more, she would have been great. One thing Joseph was good at was noticing potential in other musicians. He wasn’t sure where the gift came from, but it was something he had always done ever since he was little.

[Dani]

Despite the song ending, the melody still resonated in Alexia's head. She was hardly a jazz fan by any means, having grown up mostly playing rock and roll, but there was something about this song that had spoken to her ever since she'd first heard it playing in the waiting room of the dentist's office a few months back. The second she had arrived home that day, she immediately googled the lyrics to the contagious euphony and was surprised to learn that it was by Norah Jones, an artist that she had hated as a child for "stealing" Avril Lavigne's Grammy award. Then again, she had been just a foolish eight year old girl at the time, wided-eyed and carefree, naive about not just music, but most of the world in general.

She was startled out of her musical trance by the sound of the stranger's voice. "Are you new here?" The words immediately made her defensive. She had felt like somewhat of an outsider at back home at North Ridge High, thanks to her air-headed older sister and her bitchy best friend, but the students at Riverside were much worse, treating her as though she was illegally trespassing in their school. "Yeah, I'm a noob," she said, sucking her lip in. "One of those little Mabtown brats that was blown it with the hurricane, what's in to you?" Her demeanor softened a tiny bit when he complimented her on her playing ability. She hardly thought that she was that good. "Thanks, you weren't so bad yourself."

[kristay]

Seph quirked a brow at the way she spoke; he was sure he hadn't said anything that offensive and yet she seemed to take it badly. "I didn't mean anything by it you know, I'm new too. And I live with a family of 'Mabtown brats' as you call it who were blown in because of the hurricane." He plucked at the 1st string of his cello, feeling the bass vibrate around him as he continued to survey the girl, wondering why she seemed to take things in a bad light constantly. "You're welcome." Joseph didn't need compliments; he knew he was good and that meant more to him than some other person telling him so.

He started another song, wondering if she knew this one as well. It was another one of Norah Jones' songs. Of course Seph was a master in classical but he used jazz and blues songs for himself; it reminded him of his father and of how he started his love for music in the first place. Come away with me in the night...

[Dani]

Alexia also raised an eyebrow at his response. Was he from Mabtown too? She had lived there since she was four years old and couldn't recall ever having seen him before. "Hey, I'm not the one calling it. The high and mighty Riverside natives are the ones that coined that nickname, not me. Don't shoot the messenger." She leaned forward in her chair to get a better look at him. If he was new like she was, he had to have been from Mabtown. Why else would he be here? The concept of people actually moving to Riverside for reasons other than fleeing a natural disaster seemed ridiculous. "So which lucky Mabtown citizens are you privileged to have as roommates?" Perhaps, that would give her some sort of a clue to his identity. Not that she cared that much....

She sat back in the chair and listened to him start his next song. The jazzy sounding tune was unfamiliar to her, but like the previous one, it spoke to her. She couldn't figure out why exactly; she was never a huge fan of jazz, nor did she ever find the cello to be a particularly interesting musical instrument. Yet it was the combination of these things that caused her to close her eyes for few seconds and allow herself to be magically transported to a world where she was at peace.

[kristay]

Joseph raised a brow in return; this girl really was something else. He knew he was a jerk but she was not only defensive but mean spirited. "Do you even know any of the so called 'high and mighty Riverside natives'?" All of the people he had met so far were not only nice but very accommodating to him and his family. Xander liked Collins, Aya had Garret to talk to when no one else could get her... He shook his head. "The Tays."

He all but ignored her as he played, singing the song softly in his gravelly baritone voice. Though it didn't suit the song that was usually sung by a soulful woman, it still complimented the blues-y setting of the song and he continued to play and sing at the same time. The music calmed the annoyance that had sprung from inside him when this girl had started unknowingly insulting his friends.

[Dani]

Alexia shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I don't need to know them. I walk down the hall. They call me names, end of story." It really shouldn't have bothered her that much. She was pretty much an outsider everywhere that she went, from the mall to even her own home. She froze when she heard him mention The Tays. Aya.... Aya Tay was the girl whom she secretly referred to as her best friend because she was too nervous to say it out loud. She was the girl who had bought her the sitar that she'd nearly risked her life to save from being destroyed by the hurricane. She was the girl whom, like almost everyone else in her life, had just packed up and left one day without explanation. And now she lives here? "I remember them," she said softly, looking down to try to hide her emotional face.

His voice startled her at first, only because she had gotten used to the music, but she eventually allowed it to enhance her musical daydream. There was just something soothing about the combination of cello and his voice. Despite the gravely sound of his voice, every word that he sang was very clear to her, clear enough that images of each lyric began to form in her head. "Come away where they can't tempt us....with their lies...." She liked the sound of that. She wanted to go away, far away from the stupid lies and drama that surrounded high school. She wanted to be at peace somewhere."And I want to walk with you....on a cloudy day.....in fields where the yellow grass grows knee high....so won't you try to come?" Her vision quickly immediately morphed into her and the boy doing just that, walking through a field of high yellow grass on a cloudy day. She didn't know him very well at all, but it didn't matter to her. Walking through a deserted, cloudy field with a stranger beat the hell out of living in a house full of crazy screaming people. "Come away with me and we'll kiss....." Just like with all of the other lyrics, an image quickly formed in her head. OH MY GOD, WHAT THE HELL?! her mind immediately screamed. She quickly jerked her eyes open and tried to find something else in the room to focus on. I think I'll just stick to rock and roll, she thought to herself.

[kristay]

Seph honestly felt a bit bad about his assumption and lowered his head. "I'm sorry; I didn't think--I mean I wasn't thinking." He wasn't the type of person to apologize often but he really had felt bad for pushing this girl's buttons without needing to. Blue eyes scanned her pretty face and his lips twitched into a confused little frown at the shock that seemed to register on her face. "Is something wrong? Do you not like the Tays or something?" He would have taken a lot of offense to that; he may not have known all the inhabitants of Riverside but he knew the Tays and they took in his family even when they didn't have to.

He finished the song and leaned against his chair so he could get a better look at the girl. "They probably wouldn't make fun of you if you smiled more and weren't so surly." Seph shook his head at himself; he really was the type to put his foot in his mouth on more than one occasion. And it was funny that he of all people was giving this girl advice when he too was surly and a jackass on occasion.

[Dani]

Alexia shrugged her shoulders as he apologized. "It's cool," she said nonchalantly. "No harm done." Damn straight you weren't thinking.... Everybody was always so quick to paint her as a bully. Sure, she had given them plenty of reasons to do so, but it would have been nice if someone had given her the benefit of the doubt once in awhile. She shook her head when he asked about the Tays. "No, I don't have a problem with them. I only really knew one of them that well. The rest of them skipped town before I had a chance to get to know them." Even though she was sad when Aya had disappeared, she couldn't hate her for it. Her family had been cursed with some sort of an ability to randomly make people vanish from their lives.

She glanced over at him, trying to shake the remains of the weird mental image that his voice had created. "Well, I don't have anything to smile about, so I guess I won't be having tea parties with them any time soon. And even if I did, they'll find something else to make fun of me for." She made a face at his "surly" comment. If she had nothing to smile about, then of course she'd come off as surly. How else would she had come off? Happy? Beautiful? "Thanks for the advice," she added with a smirk. "Maybe someday I can be as popular as you."

[kristay]

Seph quirked a brow in honest curiosity. "Oh? Which Tay? Seraph? Kai? Aya?" There were a lot more of them of course, but he wanted to start with the three siblings whose mom had taken them in. He too was pretty close with Kai and Ser because of their musical ability and he had become friends with Aya because of the beautiful song she had written and he had assisted her with. He wondered which of the Tays could possibly tolerate someone with such a smartass attitude; even he didn't act that way around his friends. "They left for good reason you know..." He didn't know if he had the right to tell this stranger about the Tays but she had said that she was a friend of one of them. "Aya Tay was diagnosed with breast cancer and they all left so she could get treatment and be with her family."

Seph shook his head; he didn't smile on purpose but that didn't mean there weren't things to smile about. He ultimately found the world a beautiful place; it was where music was created and played, of course the world was beautiful to him. "You have your music... The world may not seem that great to you but that's only because you refuse to see what's right in front of you. You're a good musician with a lot of potential; that's something to smile about but all you see is the negative side of this world." He paused and rolled his eyes as he packed up; he wanted to help this girl but her attitude just made his own day sink into a depressive state where all he wanted to do was play requiems like Sean. "It's a sad way to live you know."

[Dani]

"A-aya?" The color immediately drained from Alexia's face. Aya has cancer? She had come up with so many scenarios in her head as to why Aya had skipped town without telling her, but not once had cancer entered her brain. Her mind instantly became racked with questions. Why didn't she tell me? Is she okay? Did they get rid of it? Is she...dead? No, she can't be dead. She refused to believe that. After all, this guy wouldn't have mentioned Aya in the list of Tay kids if she was no longer alive, right?

Her expression brightened a little when he complimented her on her music. Sure, it wasn't the first compliment that she had received on her music, but it was the first one that didn't sound rude or phony. All she had gotten were simple comments like "you're great" or "you suck". Never before had anyone told her that she had "a lot of potential". Even her older brother Hayden had given her very little feedback before he made the decision to kick her out of his band. "Thank-you," she said sincerely, the faint hint of a smile showing on her lips. "My music's pretty much the only positive thing that I have left in my life." Noticing that he was also packing up and leaving, she put away her guitar and stood up. "Especially since I just found out that my friend has cancer," she added, her happy expression starting to fade away.

[kristay]

He saw the expression and panic on her face and he held his hands up as if to stop her thoughts from rushing in all at once. "She's alright! She's in remission; she even goes to school here. I'm sure you've seen her around but you probably didn't recognize her because her hair's still so short." Seph felt bad for making this girl panic; he really wasn't good at telling news like that. He shook his head. "So Aya was your friend then? Don't feel bad about not knowing; I don't think she told anyone about it except her b... ex-boyfriend."

Seph watched her and pointed at her upturned mouth with his bow. "See? You were hardly thinking about music but you're already smiling." He shook his head as he put away his instruments. "Aya's fine; she's back to yelling at people and kicking their shins. I'm pretty sure you'll see her around soon."

[Dani]

Alexia breathed a huge sigh of relief after hearing that Aya was okay. Aya had always been so nice to her; she didn't deserve to have any type of pain in her life. "Yeah, she was my friend," she replied, taking another deep breath. "We met two years ago. I doubt she remembers me, seeing as how I'm not a very memorable person." Mentally, she began to recall meeting Aya at a club for the first time one night. It was a different time and Alexia was a completely different person, a much happier person than she currently was now.

Aya probably wouldn't want to see her now. She had just won a long fought battle with cancer. It wouldn't be fair for Aya to be burdened with her negativity; she had been through enough as it was. Plus, she could have changed a lot too. What if she had a whole new set of friends and had decided that she could do without Alexia? Trying not to think too much about it, Alexia tossed her bag over her shoulder and headed towards the door. "Can you tell her that I...I mean...Alexia said hi?"

[kristay]

Joseph slung his backpack over his shoulder and carried his cello case with the other hand. He raised a brow at her. "Why don't you tell her yourself, Alexia?" He had realized that now he knew her name but she still didn't have a clue as to who he was. Well, if she didn't ask then he wouldn't tell. That did seem a bit rude but she might not even be interested in knowing his name. With this Alexia-girl, he wasn't really sure what she wanted or what she was about.

He made his way out of the music room and waited for Alexia to follow suit; he still needed to close and lock the door or the custodian would probably yell at him for his irresponsibility or whatever. Seph looked Alexia over; he didn't really want to go home yet. "I'm going to go have coffee at Mud and Grinds; do you want to come with me?" It wasn't a date, not really anyway; he just wanted company that wasn't related to him by blood.