A New One

Riley stepped out of the car, but not without giving Donovan a lovely smile and a thank you.

Natasha walked up to him and gave him a pat, then she took a deep sigh as they watched Donovan drive off without sparing them a glance.

"I hope you get over him."

Riley chuckled at Natasha's attempt to console his broken heart.

They both turned and walked into the school.

"Donovan is kind of, how do I put this?"

"Cold?"

"Hmm, more like he does not know how to express himself, he's kinda shut himself off. It's been a while I've seen him just be himself, and let it all go."

"Ah!"

"Look, I won't tell you that he's an easy person to get along with, cause trust me, he's a hard nut to crack. I'm only this close to him, because I grew up with him, so he kinda treated me like his baby sister."

"You two grew up together?" the look of shock on his face was priceless.

"Yes, he was still a child when I was born. He's just ten years older than me."

"Damn. I would also love to have such a young uncle."

"Just get your grandparents to adopt a child if they are past the age of childbearing. Then you would have an uncle you are older than. Crazy, right?"

"Yeah."

Riley's voice was no longer as cheerful as before, and Natasha took notice of that. Was it because of what she said, did she make him remember something sad.

'Wait, don't tell me his grandparents are dead. Shit, why didn't I think of that.' she thought to herself.

"Are they, are they gone?" she asked as gently and as comforting as she could.

Riley turned to look at her, surprised at how comforting her voice sounded. He smiled

"They are alive. I'm just not on good terms with my family members, or should I rather say that they are not on good terms with me."

"Makes no difference to me. You and your folks are not on good terms."

"Yes."

"So, even if you had a young uncle, it would make no difference?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Don't worry bro. Starting today, my uncle is your uncle. You okay with that?"

"I'm okay with that, but don't we need Donovan's consent?"

"Trust me, he will be more than happy to have a second younger one."

"I see."

"Oh no, you don't see nothing."

"Huh!"

"Just kidding. Come on, let's hurry, class will be starting soon."

*****

Riley was sitted, waiting for Natasha to arrive before eating. Natasha had no idea what to pick, since everything was to her liking, so Riley left her and went on ahead to find a table for them.

He was busy fiddling with the edges of his tray if food, when he felt the presence of someone. He didn't bother looking up, since he believed the person to be Natasha or one of the trio. But nearly a minute had gone by, and the person was still not seated. He finally decided to look up and was a bit taken aback, seeing a senior at the other side of the table.

"Senior." he said and nearly stood up.

"Can I join your table?"

Riley looked around nervously. If this conversation was to go on, he knew it was not going to end well.

"I'm sorry, but they are all occupied."

The senior chuckled, then pulled a seat out and sat on it.

"All occupied by you?"

His smile looked nice and harmless, but Riley would be a fool if he ever trusted the smile of those seniors again.

"The rest are on their way." he replied, sounding bold.

"The let me keep you company till they arrive."

"I actually don't think that is needed senior, since they will be here any moment from now."

Rilwy was getting a little tensed up as he watched the senior ignore what he said.

The senior looked at Riley with a soft smile as he said

"I'm Bram."

Riley was losing his cool. It was his gentleness that ended him in a lot of trouble, there was no way he was going to let it repeat itself.

"I don't remember asking for your name senior."

The smile that made his face all cute was now gone, but he still looked gentle, or maybe not. His voice didn't sound gentle at all, but his face still looked like one who could not bear to piss off people. But that was all just Bram's speculations. As far as Bram was concerned, Riley was just pretending to be tough.

"You should at least hear me out Riley."

Ain't no way he was gonna fall for such gentle and caring look.

"The very last thing I want to do is to listen to a stranger, let me be a little bit more specific. A stranger, who happens to be a senior in this very school. They are the last people I want to listen to."

Rey got up from his seat, all the while holding his food tray. He was going to go sit elsewhere. He knew he just had to. Sitting still and expecting the senior to shut up or leave was something he did not believe would happen.

Just as he took a turn, he saw Natasha, looking right at the senior with a threatening look on her face.

Bram smiled as he got up from where he sat. His gaze didn't tear off Riley, ignoring the glare on Natasha's face.

"See you soon, Riley."

Riley let out a deep breath after the senior left. He looked at Natasha with a grateful smile. Back when he had stood up, he felt conflicted, wondering where he and his group would sit, since there were no empty tables around. He really was glad they didn't lose the table to the senior.

Natasha returned the smile and sat down. Just as she sat down, the trio also joined them. And they all ate and discussed, but no one brought up the senior.

*****

Riley stepped into the music studio and saw his music teacher waving him over. He walked towards the teacher and when he had gotten closer, he greeted the teacher with a slight bow.

"Riley, come along."

Riley followed the teacher into the teacher's office.

"Have a seat."

The teacher did as they entered. The teacher went over to a shelf and came back with a file as he also took his seat.

"You signed up for the competition, right?" The teacher asked as he put on his glasses.

"Yes sir." Riley replied with a polite smile, but he was nervous.

The teacher in front of him was all smiles, which was exactly what made him nervous. The teacher he, or rather he and all of the other students taking the piano class were more familiar with was a teacher with a stern looking face, not the gentle face he could see on the man's face.

"And you do not have a partner. That's what it says here." he said as he touched the open file.

"Yes sir."

Now, this topic was beginning to make Riley feel uncomfortable. He had always gone solo, since finding a partner had always been hard. No one wanted to be associated with him, no matter how good he played. And now that he had friends who were willing to take the risk of befriending him, unfortunately for him, none of them attended music class, he was alone in this.

He could already imagine what the teacher was going to say next.

Well, if you can't find a partner in the next two weeks, you will have to drop out of the competition.

He chuckled silently to himself, applauding himself on mimicking the teacher's attitude perfectly.

"Well, you are in luck Riley."

Riley rose his head up, as that took him by surprise. Something definitely was off with the man.

"A senior is interested in teaming up with you."

'no, no, no, no, no way.' he screamed in his mind

"But seniors are not allowed in this competition, that was what you said."

"I was not the one who made the rules boy. And also, why deny the seniors this chance to get a scholarship to study in one of the best music schools. They never got such a chance like this when they were juniors. So boy, the rules got changed, a junior now has to team up with a senior. "

Riley shifted in his chair uncomfortably. Of all the people to team up with, a senior was the last person he wanted to team up with. The seniors, no matter how good they appeared on the outside, Riley knew they always had ulterior motives.

" I can see you are worried."

He had almost forgotten he was still with his teacher. He composed himself as quickly as possible.

"Don't worry Riley, it's not just some seniors who wants to leech off you. It's the best among the seniors that wants to team up with you. Since we will be needing the best to represent our school, he assumed the best should be paired with the best. But the competition in the school will still hold, since we want to see the best in every one. So, do feel free to choose someone else, I just think you would have a better chance to be the school's representative if you team up with him."

Riley took a deep sigh. He was feeling conflicted. Was this a threat or an advice? After all, this was the best player in the whole school. If he doesn't team up with him, how will he win against him?"

He heard a knock and heard his teacher tell the person to come in. He remained sitted, looking down, fiddling with his fingers, as different questions popped in his head, but he had no answers for them.

Well, that was until he heard that voice.

"Mr Mekaly."

He looked back, the same time the music teacher looked up. And he really was surprised.

'he really meant it when he said we will soon see each other again' he thought to himself.

"Oh, Bram. Come in, we were just talking about you."

Riley was surprised to see Mr Mekaly smiling so brightly as Bram sat down.

'Hold on a second' Riley thought to himself. 'Mr Mekaly just said we were speaking about Bram. Does that mean Bram is the so-called best among the seniors? Damn it. But how come I've never heard of him before, I've never even seen him before, is he a transfer student?'

"Riley."

He did his best to focus on his teacher and not on the senior sitted beside him who made him feel uneasy.

"Yes sir."

"This is the senior I told you about. And as you can see, he's also good looking. You two on stage would make the hearts of the spectators flutter."

Riley got up abruptly

"I'll think about it and get back to you tomorrow sir."

Saying this, he dashed out of the office, leaving Bram speechless.

"Take no of fence Bram, the boy is quite reserved. It takes time before he opens up to people. And I just heard of how he got bullied by seniors. I'm sure seniors are the last people he wants to interact with. Give him some time."

"Hmm, I can wait."