Chapter 10

“Yes.”

“Would you like to show us what you can do? Maybe we spend the first fifteen minutes of class taking requests? Can you play without sheet music?”

“Oh.” I beamed. “I’m pretty good by ear,” I half-bragged. “If I’ve heard of it, I can probably play it.”

The first request was Taylor Swift. I loathed her, but I knew the song from somewhere—the one allegedly about female empowerment. How could I refuse? I played and some of the girls sang along. It was pretty cool. We were interrupted by a knock on the door. The secretary from the main office was on the other side, standing with a rather large brown box balanced on her hip. Gentleman that I was, I got up and took it from her.

“It just arrived,” she said to Mrs. DeBenning.

“Finally!” The music teacher seemed quite excited. “I ordered them back in September.”

The secretary left and Mrs. DeBenning—Sheri was her name—tore into the packing tape as her students leaned in excitedly.

“Now you can play along,” she said to the class.