Music Rooms

*Tessa*

The next couple of weeks involved unpacking, chilling in a minimal amount of clothes, and eating pizza almost every evening. Now the house was practically finished minus getting new things that we didn't like, redecorating bedrooms, and a few boxes laying around the house. It felt weird to walk through the house since I was so used to just seeing piles of boxes everywhere.

"Tessa! Come on downstairs!" I shook my thoughts away and put down the books I was reading. I went downstairs and saw my mom standing at the counter with her laptop.

"Yeah mom?" I asked when I entered the kitchen. She turned to face me and walked towards the basement door.

"I wanted your opinion on what to do with the basement. I was thinking about just leaving it the way it is when I had a better idea."

"Which is?"

"Letting you do whatever you want with it." My mouth dropped.

"Are you serious?" I asked after a solid minute of shock.

"Yes. Of course, you can't go spending hundreds of dollars. It has to be affordable and you will help pay for some things, but yes. It is too small of a space to put a bunch of games down there and I don't think Mason would use it all that much since he enjoys playing sports rather than arcade games."

"This is awesome! Thank you so much!" I ran over to my mom and hugged her. She hugged me quickly and pulled away.

"Your welcome. I know this move was hard on you. So, what will you do with the space?"

"Music room. It would be great. I could turn one corner into a space to record, put a couch against the wall, put my piano and guitar down there, and a mini fridge! And my computers I use for editing my videos and mixing music and stuff can go down there too. This is perfect."

"Good idea. Hopefully I won't have to spend that much." I chuckled and felt happiness rise in my chest. "Oh, I almost forgot. Tomorrow I schedules for you to get a tour of your new high school. I thought it would be helpful to get a feel for where things will be. After all, you start school next week."

"Yeah, not looking forward to school. But a tour would be good. Now, I was hoping I could go into town. Explore the city."

"Of course. Just text me when I should start making dinner. I'm gonna try out the stove." I chuckled and nodded.

"Sure. See you later." I went out to the garage and got in my car. I put my phone in the cup holder and put the car in drive and began to back out of the driveway. I got my car from my aunt. We had it brought down to the house a week after we moved in along with my mom's car.

I started driving out of the neighborhood that led straight to the busiest area of Hillwood. I parked my car along the sidewalk next to a string of buildings and began walking. I looked through the windows as I walked and then I heard a lot of screaming. I past the corner and saw a park. Little kids were playing on the play set and a baseball practice was going on nearby. Next to it was a fountain around a bunch in the trees and a couple benches. I began walking around the park when I heard a shout.

"Watch it!" I turned around too late when a soccer ball hit me in the head, sending me to the ground.

"Ouch." I muttered, rubbing my head before looking for the ball that hit me. I saw it two feet in front of me and grabbed it as I stood.

"I am so sorry. I swear, I didn't think the ball would go that far." I looked up and saw girl running towards me. She had dark brown hair and a smokey eye makeup look. She appeared to be around my age. She was wearing black athletic shorts with a black tank top.

"It's fine. Happens all the time." I said, giving the ball to her.

"Really? Who kicks the ball?"

"My brother." The girl laughed and shook her head.

"That makes more sense. I'm Roxanne, by the way. Most people call me Rocky."

"I'm Tessa. You have a powerful kick."

"I better. Being on the guys soccer team means always having to prove my worth and a powerful kick is a must have."

"Why aren't you on the girls team? And I mean no offense when I say that."

"None taken. My school only has a boys team. Budget is too low. People would rather be watching boys in gear run into each other as a ball is thrown and girls in tiny tops and tiny skirts dance around." I laughed and stuck my hands in my short pockets.

"Sounds exciting."

"It's just how my school is. Speaking of which, I've never seen you around, and I've lived in Hillwood all my life."

"I just moved here a couple weeks ago and haven't had a chance to get around town. Unpacking my stuff and all."

"Cool. Where'd you move from?"

"California."

"Damn girl! That's far. Why'd you move all the way out here?"

"I don't really know. All I remember is being told to pack my shit and we are moving here."

"Well, now your tan makes sense. You don't see a lot of super tan people here."

"Yo Rocky! What are you doing!" I looked up and saw a boy coming over to where Rocky and I stood. He looked around my age, but maybe a year or two older.

"It's called socializing. You might want to try it sometimes!" She yelled back to the boy. Turning to me she said, "That's Carlos. He's my friend and goes to my school. I assume you're gonna attend Hillwood High?" I nodded and she smiled. "Loser get over here!" she yelled back at the boy-Carlos.

"You're annoying as hell, you know that?" he asked. Rocky just shrugged.

"I've been called worse. Carlos, this is Tessa. Tessa, this is Carlos."

"Hey." Carlos said. I nodded back.

"She's new in town. From California."

"Really? What's that place like? Any hot chicks?" Carlos asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yep. Gorgeous, sexy, and way out of your league." I replied. Rocky laughed as she pointed at Carlos.

"Thanks." He said sarcastically.

"Dude, you set yourself up for that one. You walked straight into that. Good one Tessa."

"I hate you both. Anyway, I got to go soon. My mom wants me home soon for dinner. It was nice meeting you Tessa. Hope that ball didn't hit you too hard."

"Bye loser." Rocky said, smirking. Carlos walked away, leaving me to talk to Rocky alone. "You're a junior right?"

"Yeah. I am."

"Nice. It's gonna be nice having another girl around. The only people I hang out with is Carlos and Spencer. All they do is be stupid and check out chicks at our school?"

"Spencer?"

"My other friend. He doesn't look at girls actually. That's just Carlos. Spencer likes to keep to himself. I tease him about it, but I think he just doesn't like any of the girls at our school."

"Sounds like he's a little judgmental."

"No. His sophomore year he got cheated on and now he thinks all girls cheat on their boyfriends. They had been dating for a year and he really liked her. Turns out she didn't reciprocate those feelings. Oh shit! I shouldn't have told you all that."

"It's fine. My friend experienced something similar."

"Oh. Well, it was great meeting you. You're really funny."

"I try."

"Keep trying. Now I got to go. My mom won't be happy if I'm late. You mess up one time. See you Tessa."

"Bye." Rocky walked away and stared back at the fountain. Maybe I'd actually be able to make some friends here.

*****

"Do you know where the school is?" I looked up from my bowl of cereal at my mom who had asked the question.

"Yeah. I saw it yesterday when I was walking around. I think I'm gonna drive so I can pick up some lunch on the way home and bring it here. If I find something, will you want it?"

"Sure. You know what food I will and won't eat."

"Okay. I might bring back something for Mason." I stood up and put my bowl in the empty dishwasher before grabbing my phone and keys. "I'm gonna leave now. I'll be back later with lunch."

"Bye. Love you."

"Love you too." I walked to my car and quickly drove to the school. It was about a five minute drive so I spent a couple minutes in the car just on my phone. I looked at the time on my phone and decided I could go in now.

I walked up to the front steps and saw two double doors. It was a decent sized school, one that I could easily get lost in. Thinking about it now, a tour wasn't such a bad idea.

I entered the school and felt the AC immediately. I saw the front desk and walked up to a woman typing away on her computer.

"Excuse, ma'am?" I asked. The woman looked up at me and smiled.

"Hello, darling. What can I do for you?" I instantly picked up on her strong New York accent with the dropped 'r'.

"I'm Tessa Golding. I'm here for a tour."

"Of course. Just give me one second." The woman began looking through her computer when she looked up at. "I have you in my calendar. Elise Haller will be your tour guide. She's in you grade and one of our top students. She will just be a minute. Why don't you take seat over there while you wait?" I nodded and walked towards one of the chairs and sat down. About five minutes later and girl with brown hair walked in.

"Sorry I'm late. Tutoring the little kids in the other building went a little longer than I expected." she said.

"It's fine Elise. The girl you are showing around is right there." the woman at the desks aid as she pointed at me. Elise turned around and smiled.

"Hi. I'm Elise." she greeted.

"I'm Tessa."

"Cool. Let's get going." I stood up and followed Elise out of the main office. "Okay so down this way is the library and College Career Center. You can go there to do homework after school or during merit time. It is also used for club meetings. Library allows you to check out books to read or books for an essay. You also have the entrance before the main office as you previously saw coming to the office. There are also two English classrooms on this floor."

"Is the library used a lot?"

"Yeah. Book club meetings go on in there and there are a multitude of books." she said with a wide smile.

"You're a book lover I'm guessing." I stated. Elise blushed slightly.

"Guilty. I run the book club and help out in the library. What about you?"

"I read. It's good for a past time, but it isn't my life."

"Well, let's find something that is. Come up to the third floor." I followed her and saw a long hallway another on to the right. "This is the language and social studies floor. There are also some English classrooms here too. The languages we off are Latin, French, Spanish, and German. I'm taking Latin because I want to be a chemist. What about you?"

"Oh, I take Spanish. It's pretty basic. I took it all throughout elementary school."

"Same. I was just so sick of it. Plus I never retained anything. I literally thought 11-14 was Italian." I let out a laugh.

"That's a little sad."

"Tell me about it. Anyway, there is also a room for people who need help for math. Onto the bottom floor." We walked down the stairs to the bottom floor and again, long hallways. "Over there is the cafeteria. If you stop just before those shelves you'll see a short hallway that leads to the gym. Now this is science and math floor. Pretty basic. By the way, the room number corresponds with the floor. This floor is all 120, 114, 112. In the one-hundreds. It also goes in order. Second floor is like 229, 223, 221 and the third is 333, 337, 334. Understand?"

"Yeah. I think I can manage."

"Now there is one more floor. You can only get to it up these stairs." Elisa brought me to a flight of stairs. These stairs lead to two rooms. Dance, and music. To get to the theater, you take a right from the front entrance of the school. I forgot to mention that. Anyway, want to see one of the rooms?"

"Sure. Can we see the music room?"

"Totally. There's no band meeting there today. Come on." I followed Elise up the stairs and walked into the music room. There was a piano, some guitars, a drum set, a few violins, a cello, and some other instruments in the room.

"This is so cool." I said.

"I'm guessing music to you is like books to me. Your life."

"You could say that."

"Well, as far as I know there isn't anything you can do music wise for the school, but there is a music school a couple blocks away that you could teach at depending how musically inclined you are. I saw they were hiring for a guitar instructor."

"That's perfect. I've played guitar since I was six. Do you have the address?"

"Yep. What's your number? I can send it to you." I gave her my phone and she gave me hers. "Fill your number in on mine." I put my number in her contacts and she put hers in mine. We re-exchanged phones and I could feel a smile coming onto my face. "This is great. I worked the desk there over the summer as well as the library. I can go to put in a good word for you if you'd like. And I'll send the address later."

"Thanks. This is all wonderful. I've been meaning to find a job here. Get some money so I can do some stuff with my room and basement."

"Well, I'm glad I could help. You ready to get out of here?"

"Definitely." As we made our way back downstairs, I was feeling over the moon. I was meeting people, getting along with them, finding places to work, being able to make the basement a music room for myself. Maybe, just maybe, this move wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.