[Thursday]The second day of the festival arrived as quickly as the first. As a flood equal to the size of yesterday flooded in, Ethan watched from the roof with Owen behind him resisting the urge to throw him off.
"Do you think things will go well?" Ethan said with his face against the chain fence that was burning from the blazing sun.
"I"m sure it will," Owen said taking a step back as his urges arose.
"We operate the same as yesterday. Do you remember what you have to do today?"
"I do," Owen said. "I don"t know why I was dragged into this deal but I"ll play along. I"ll add it to the long list of things you owe me."
"Perfect…" Ethan said throwing anyone and everything at a problem to fix it just to make it the best festival ever.
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# # #
At the stage, only a few minutes until the music performance. Owen and Ruby were having their first meeting about the piece they were about to perform to almost 100 people.
"We don"t have long," Ruby said. "Kaylee and the drama department are putting on Robin Hood after us so we better make this good."
Owen scanned through the music and even though he had seen the music several days ago. He was now realising how impossible it would be for them to play this having little to no practice.
"Schubert"s Grande Marche Heroique is 15 MINUTES LONG!" Owen screamed as the stress of the situation had just hit him. "HOW ARE WE GOING TO PLAY THIS WHEN WE HAVE PRACTISED TOGETHER? COULD YOU NOT PICK SOMETHING SHORTER AND EASIER?? WE WOULD NEED TO BE PERFECTLY IN SYNC TO GET THIS RIGHT FIRST TIME!"
"Calm down," Ruby said surprisingly calm for the situation. "I believe we can do it. I have faith."
"FAITH?!" Owen continued to question the awful decision.
"Relax, I"ve been practising it, sort of, and you can sight-read it."
"You do understand that I would have to sight-read for 15 minutes? And the page-turner needs to be perfect so I can tell what comes next? I"m not a G.o.d!"
Owen began to break down at the amount of pressure that had suddenly collapsed all over him. He would need to play a piece of music he"s only looked at for the last few days and not mess up once or else he will ruin both him and Ruby. Even for someone who had been playing the piano their whole life, this would be nearly impossible.
"It"s ok if you don"t want to do it. We can do just part of it?" Ruby said
"Hmm, no. We"ll just do what we can." Owen said. "This is a strange decision for you. You wouldn"t have done something like this before."
"Maybe you are right. Maybe there is a reason for it."
"Whatever. Let"s just get this over with. I feel like I"ll be sick any minute if we don"t get out there."
The performance started and the audience was as filled as they expected. The people that wanted to rest could come and go as they pleased, as for the next 20 minutes, all that would be playing would be Ruby and Owen"s performance, and afterwards, they"d have the best seats for the drama performance.
They sat down behind the piano and breathed out before resting their hands on the pale white keys. Owen looked down at his hands to check if they were still attached whilst Ruby smiled and whispered into his ear, "Let"s just try our best, ok?"
"Yeah," Owen replied as the room started spinning but he couldn"t take his eyes off the score.
Owen took on the role of the primo, playing the upper part whilst Ruby was the secondo, the pianist on the left who took the lower part.
Their hands stayed in their sections of the piano, apart but sometimes close. Their performance entranced the audience who wasn"t expecting anything magnificent. A piece they hadn"t heard of before was brought to them. A duet that seemed as if they were practising together for their whole lives, sat in front of them. Ruby and Owen glanced at the mountain of pages in front of them as they were turned by another music student. Their eyes bounced back from the music to their hands, ignoring those around them, even ignoring what sound they were making. All they needed to focus on was pressing the right keys. Even without hearing the notes or each other, they jumped around the piano with perfect timing, creating a performance worthy of Ethan"s festival.
The performance ended with a standing ovation. Owen and Ruby both smiled at each other with sweat and visible fatigue all over their faces. Ruby was overjoyed at the performance she had just put on and latched onto Owen without second thinking about what was happening. Owen, who was socially awkward, didn"t know what to do. He could only give in and also wrap his arms around Ruby as he felt he would pa.s.s out at any moment.
# # #
"That was really good," Ethan said congratulating the performers at the door. "I"m impressed."
"Thanks, I"m still upset about being forced to do this," Owen said. "What are you doing? Shouldn"t you be looking out?"
"Nah, Ethan said forgetting what his role in the festival was. "It"s fine. As you said, it"ll go well. You two go and enjoy the festival. I was told to make sure nothing goes wrong with the drama performance."
"Oh, right," Owen said feeling bad about leaving it all to Ethan. "If anything comes up just phone me. I"ll be there."
"Thanks, but it"ll be fine. Go and enjoy your time off."
Owen and Ruby left with Owen looking back at Ethan who smiled with his usual empty smile. As if he wasn"t informed to watch the performance and broke apart from his plan.
"What"s up with him?" Owen said to Ruby as they walked.
"I don"t know. Forget about that. Let"s enjoy ourselves like he said."
"Y-yeah,"
"Do you want to get something to eat?" Ruby asked. "At one of the many cla.s.ses that are selling food."
"Sure. We can go see if Lily is making that bread from that other festival."
The two of them walked around the school, checking out every cla.s.s making sure not to leave a single one unchecked.
Whilst this was happening, the drama performers started their performance. Ethan watched from the back making sure that everything was going smoothly, even if he couldn"t take his eyes off of the performance.
To call Kaylee the star of the show was an understatement. Her presence was one that the other actors and actresses on stage were constantly trying to rival. She stood up reading her lines as if she lived the life of the character. No matter where she moved she was the focus of the audience. She was the light that anyone would want to reach. An inspiration to all that watched.
"Well done…" Ethan said congratulating her as she came off the stage. "It was a lot of fun. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well. You could easily become famous."
"Heehee… Thanks." Kaylee said hiding her face behind some papers that seemed to be her old script. "I"m glad you found the time to stay."
"Yeah… I can"t stay for much longer. I promised Ruby that she"d have more time with Owen so I need to make up for his mess."
"Oh, give me a second to get changed! I"ll come to." Ethan stood still watching as Kaylee ran off, unable to deny the request. They both went around the festival for a different reason to the others, they both walked around and helped anyone that needed it, bringing the second day of the festival to a successful end.