7 The Moment Where Tania Was... Helpless

C A I L A H

Everyone in the house greeted us. I just smiled at them as I put my things down. I looked over Tania who was sitting on the couch; she was pondering on something. Dwight was doing the same thing, too. Both were lost in their own worlds.

On the other hand, Ranie can be seen eating alone in the corner. Stacie was just observing us. Lastly, Dana and Danielle were in the middle of an argument; and no one dared to get involved.

Oh! I almost forgot! There he was… I glanced at Matthew and tore my gaze off of him before I stood up to announce an important matter.

“I have something to tell you, guys. I—”

Ranie cut me off. “What is it, babe?”

Matthew glared at him. “Don’t call her ‘babe’, dude.”

He even emphasized the last word, so Ranie immediately covered his mouth. I sighed, realizing how helpless I am when it comes to them.

They’re hopeless…

“Stop it, idiots!” Dana smiled at me. “Go on, Cai.”

I cleared my throat. “Last night, at Tania’s house, the elders offered us a deal. We’re in for a huge surprise if we are able to consistently secure our rankings after the final exams.”

“Really?! Deal!” Dana exclaimed eagerly.

“Piece of cake! I’m so in!” Ranie said confidently.

The rest accepted the deal. We were all excited; and unlike Ranie, we weren’t really trying to come off obnoxious. But we’re aiming for one goal, so we’ll be intentional about it and we’ll surely do our best to achieve it.

We went to our building and entered one of the classrooms for our first period—which is the Music class. I sat on the chair that was assigned to me. I yawned as I checked the time on my phone. We still need to wait for 5 minutes.

Honestly, I can no longer wait for lunch. I’m looking forward to visit Ian in their building after the dismissal. No one really knows that I’ve been secretly going there every day. And I have no intention to let them know—especially my cousin, Tania.

“Good morning, 4-A!” Mr. Javier has finally arrived.

We stood up as we greeted our teacher. “Good morning, Sir!”

“We’ll focus on the piano lessons today. Please be seated,” he said after he checked his schedule.

I was relieved to hear that as I was taught how to play the instrument when I was young. But I was worried for Tania, though. If there’s anything that she’s not capable of doing well, it is playing the piano.

“So, all of you will play the piano. But you’ll have to draw the papers inside the fish bowl in order to determine what piece you’re going to play.”

Holding his iPad, Mr. Javier has gotten up to explain what we should do. And then, he looked at us as if he was choosing who would play first.

“Let’s start with you, Ms. Veridiano.”

Dana proceeded towards the teacher’s table. Given the pressure on her as a first performer, she wasn’t nervous at all.

“Go, Dana! You can do it!” her ex-enemy, Danielle, cheered loudly.

Dana handed the small piece of paper to Mr. Javier.

“River Flows in You by Yiruma,” he gave the music sheet to her.

Dana couldn’t keep up with the tempo on the first part, but she was able to keep on tract afterwards. We gave her a round of applause when she tapped the last key for that beautiful piece.

“You’re next, Mr. Lopez.”

In his confident demeanor, Ranie headed to the table and pulled out the paper off the fish bowl.

“Rondo Alla Turca by Mozart.”

Ranie smiled wickedly as he accepted the music sheet. He even bowed in front of us before he sat in front of the grand piano. Then, he brushed up his hair using his fingers and stared at the music sheet. He smiled again, but this time, it was for us.

What’s he doing? Maybe, he didn’t know how to play it, so he was putting up a show as a strategy to waste our time!

“Mr. Lopez…” our teacher warned him.

The idiot slowly glanced at Mr. Javier. The smile on his face wouldn’t just fade, huh?

“Yes, Sir?”

Matthew caught my attention ‘coz he was laughing with Dwight at the back. Ah, the idiot’s best friends! Birds of a feather flock together!

“What are you doing? You may start now,” said our teacher.

Ranie nodded his head. “I know! Sorry, Sir! I just had to feel it ‘coz I want to deliver a good performance. Y’all deserve it!”

Tania, Stacie, and I rolled our eyes at the same time. He’s so full of himself!

“Oh! Take your time, then,” Mr. Javier made a gesture for him to continue what he was doing before he massaged his temples.

Ranie positioned his hands on the piano keys. “I’ll start now, Sir. I was just fantasizing that this was my first-ever piano recital. It felt so good! Thank you for this opportunity as I was able to experience what would it be like to play in front of many people.”

We smiled at him. Yes, he was naughty; but he can act like an innocent kid sometimes. And we all prefer him that way…

Ranie took a deep breath and started to play the piano. He was amazing!

He plays piano better than us. He can also play the other instruments like: electric and acoustic guitar, drums, violin, flute, saxophone, and xylophone. And believe it or not, he can sing and dance so well. What a multi-talented doofus!

Stacie was the next performer; she entertained us with her own take on Schumann’s Kinderszenen. She was followed by Matthew who played Dvorak’s Humoresque.

Before I was called, Danielle played Philip Glass’ Metamorphosis.

Mr. Javier read what was written on the paper. I bit my lower lip, hoping that the piece I picked was easy to play.

“Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.”

Thank goodness! I used to play it a lot back when I was still taking piano lessons, but it grew deeper in me when I heard it in one of Detective Conan’s episode.

“Nice one, Cai! You did well!” Danielle hugged me as I came back to my chair.

I giggled. “Thank you! You did well, too!”

After seconds of cheering for me, Mr. Javier called Dwight.

“You’re the last one to perform, Ms. Estrada,” he said to my cousin who seemed to have lost her cool.

Stacie was sitting in between us, so I reached for her hand and held it tightly. She was beaming, but I could tell that she was feeling uneasy.

Before Dwight headed to the teacher’s table, I caught him staring at Tania. Concern was painted on his face, but he masked it immediately.

“Liszt’s El Contrabandista.”

My mouth dropped open slightly. Liszt himself was reported to have failed spectacularly while performing it! Was he expecting that Dwight would outshine the composer? That was absurd!

Ranie gave Dwight a flying kiss. “Good luck, dude! We’re all rooting for you!”

The heck was he talking about?

“Good luck!” Matthew said sincerely.

Dwight just nodded his head and began to play the piece. We watched him in silence. I’d be a hypocrite if I said that I didn’t wish for him to mess it up, so my cousin would get a chance to obtain a higher score. But I totally forgot how competitive he could be!

J-Just look at him! He was playing effortlessly! He even closed his eyes! At this point, he might even beat Tania!

"Ms. Estrada, come here.”

My gosh! Tania’s face was so pale!

“Go, Tania!” I shouted as loud as I could.

There was only one piece of paper left in the fish bowl. With a trembling hand, she took it out and gave it to Mr. Javier.

“Liszt’s Transcendental Etude no. 5.”

We all gasped. What the hell?! Tania isn’t a piano virtuoso! How will she able to pull this off?

“You must be kidding, Sir! It’s impossible!” Dana raised her concern.

Danielle voiced out her opinion as well. “Sir, please choose an easier piece for Tania. No one in this room—including you—can play that. And she doesn’t have five hands on each finger!”

Even Ranie couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Yes, that didn’t surprise me at all. “Are you serious, Sir? Please, don’t be like this!”

The tension in the room arises when Mr. Javier told us that he wasn’t kidding around. Dwight didn’t say anything to defend Tania; he was just looking at her seriously.

“She can do it…” I glanced at my seatmate.

My eyes widened. “What? Stacie, that’s impossible! We all know that!”

Smirking at me, she shook her head abruptly. “She can make it possible, though. She won’t be the top in our class for nothing. Keep that in mind.”

I leaned on my chair. Well, she has a point.

Mr. Javier tapped the table. “Quiet, class! I’m dead serious!”

I sighed as I watched my cousin sat in front of the piano helplessly. She was just looking at the music sheet as if she was memorizing it. She, then, pursed her lips and breathed deeply.

Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes was considered by the majority of piano virtuosos as one of the most difficult piano pieces that has ever been composed to play. I really felt sorry for my cousin…

Tania put down the music sheet and stretcher her hands. She tapped the wrong key and just laughed it off.

“My bad…”

Mr. Javier grinned at Tania as he went back to his seat. I heard Matthew and Ranie congratulating Dwight in advance, so I glared at them. But Dwight irritatingly shut them off.

“It’s too early to say that. I thought you know your friend well?”

Shocked crossed our faces when Tania tapped the keys once again. This time, she was doing it right. Her hands were moving so fast like a professional pianist!

What in the world…

Mr. Javier closed his eyes as he listened to her. He grinned more when she hit the complicated notes perfectly. It was like he was already expecting it!

I stood up to see her properly. “D-Did she just memorized it? She’s not even looking at the sheet!”

Goodness! Tania is indeed the Rank One! She was casually proving that no one else was deserving to earn that spot but her.

We gave her a standing ovation. She slightly bowed her head and humbly accepted our praises for her.

“You’re impossible…” I mumbled.

“See? I told you,” Stacie whispered to me.

We flocked to her to talk about her amazing performance. On the other side of the room, the boys were teasing Dwight ‘coz he failed to beat Tania. We actually lost count, but he would always accept his defeat wholeheartedly.

Mr. Javier knocked on the table. “Seat down, class. That’s enough.”

We complied obediently. He announced our scores and told us how proud he was. In the end, Tania got a perfect score and extra credit for her outstanding performance.

Mr. Javier left us with a smile on our faces. Everyone was excited to leave ‘coz we wanted to celebrate our latest achievement. However, I took my time and retouched my makeup.

“You don’t need that, Cai. You’re already beautiful without putting too much makeup on your face,” Matthew commented.

I smiled at him. “Really? Thank you!”

That was good to know! But I needed it to impress Ian.

They all waited for me. On our way to the house, we noticed that there was a commotion in the garden. And because Ranie loves gossips, he was the first one to join the crowd to fish out some information.

“Oh! There she is!” a girl shouted as we neared them.

She was pointing to someone and we realized that it was Tania. But why?

“Miss Tania, someone’s looking for you…” someone said that.

Tania narrowed her eyes. “Who?”

“It’s me. I’m looking for you.”

My lips parted. Tania and I were both in shock when we saw who was looking for her.

He ran towards Tania and hugged her tightly. “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you, too! I can’t believe that you’re here!” her voice cracked as she hugged him back.

My friends were all looking at me—waiting for an answer as they have no idea what was happening.

But Dwight turned his back and walked away before I could even talk.