Breaking Key (M)

[[Desolate Divine]]

So I decided I felt like writing again. But this time I wanted something different. Something original (not fan fiction), and something realistic. Nothing supernatural. Everything that happens in this is believable (to a degree). I decided to write about what I know, which is music. However because of this there is a lot of musical terminology, some of it pretty advanced. If you want me to explain any of it, feel free to ask. I am going to be a music teacher, so I don't mind answering music questions. I actually quite enjoy it.

One of the things I think I will be doing is using real places, real bands, etc and basing some experiences off my life. For example I almost got done by the cops having a fire at blue lake before, which was the inspiration for that.

Book 1: Anacrusis
Prologue (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?8032-Breaking-Key-(PG)&p=166424&viewfull=1#post166424)
Chapter 1 (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?8032-Breaking-Key-%28PG%29&p=200030&viewfull=1#post200030)
Chapter 2 (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?8032-Breaking-Key-%28PG%29&p=200277&viewfull=1#post200277)

[[Desolate Divine]]

Prologue
F Sharp Minor, C Sharp Minor, B Suspended 4 to B Major.

I sat on a stool facing the back wall of my room with my eyes closed. Below me was the keyboard I was given for my sixteenth birthday. My pride and joy. I sat there; practising the piece I had written a matter of weeks earlier. With my audition coming ever closer, it seemed like all I did these days was practised. Though I got sick of the repetition, and constant thoughts of what needed to be improved, it would be worth it.

The audition was for a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. This year was my final year of school, and to go there next year would be the opportunity of a lifetime. Nothing I could do here in suburban Melbourne could possibly hope to compete with that. But if I wanted to get that scholarship, I would have to earn it. I would have to show that I am a cut above the rest.

Piano had been a big part of my life for the last twelve years. My dad was a concert pianist. One of the best in Australia. However he passed away when I was five, in a car accident that almost killed me as well. A distracted driver didn’t give way, and ploughed into the driver’s side door at eighty kilometres per hour. The crash left him in a coma, and after two weeks, it was recommended that life support be turned off. He was not going to wake up. Had dad not always been so vigilant in making sure I was strapped into the child-seat as tight as he could, short of suffocating me, I would have been killed as well.

According to mum, I started playing piano in the months after dad died. He had tried to teach me before he passed away, but I showed no interest. Dad assumed I was too young, and decided to wait another year or two, but had managed to teach me how to read music, and which notes were which on the piano. Mum told me that she was preparing dinner, when she heard music coming from where dad used to practise. The piano had been sitting there, gathering dust since dad died. However this one night, I decided to try and read one of dad’s old music books. According to mum, that was the happiest she had ever been to hear the piano being played. Even if it was a five year old playing out of time and out of key, it was like she had dad back with her, just for a minute.

After that, mum enrolled me in lessons, where they discovered that I was more gifted in piano than they realized. By the time I was fourteen, I was playing at a Year Twelve level, and my school pulled some strings for me to do Year Twelve music in Year Nine. To the displeasure of my classmates, all of which were three years older than me, I passed, with the highest score in the class.

I am now eighteen, in my final year of school. I had months before my audition, however spent most of my free time practising. I wrote this piece specifically for it, as I struggled to find one I liked. It is in the key of E Major, though tends to resolve around a B Major chord. The thing I enjoy most about it are the suspended chords. I enjoy seeing how the change of one note, the slight movement of one finger, can change the way an otherwise (and I use this term loosely…) boring chord sounds.

I opened my eyes and glanced at the scribbled notes on my music stand. Next to it was my mobile phone. The screen was lit up, and on it I saw something, which I probably should have noticed earlier.

Missed Call: Amy
Missed Call: Amy
Missed Call: Amy
Missed Call: Amy

“Crap.” I muttered under my breath, taking the headphones off my ears. If there was one thing my girlfriend didn’t like, it was people not picking up their phone. I quickly unlocked the iPhone and had a look at the call log. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw they were all in the space of ten minutes. I had been practising for an hour and a half, and my phone wouldn’t have been touched that whole time. I quickly tapped her name in the call log.

“Hey, sorry,” I said, “I was practising.”

“I figured as much. At least I know that you won’t cheat on me. Your piano tends to take too much of your attention for that.” Amy replied, “Are you ready to turn off the keyboard for the night and spend a bit of time with me?”

“Depends what’s on the table.” I said, looking at my watch, “It is nearly 9pm, on a Tuesday. I doubt anywhere is open. There might still be a movie playing if we are quick?”

“Parks don’t close…” Amy said, leading onto something else.

“Parks are nice during the day, I will give you that.” I said, “But I personally don’t feel like getting mugged or stabbed.

“Daniel invited us to a campfire at Blue Lake.” Amy said, “There’s gonna be a couple of people there.”

“Hmm…” I muttered to myself. Daniel was Amy’s cousin. He and I always seemed to get along well. He was a musician as well. A guitarist, though I had never seen him play. The idea of getting out of the house for a bit appealed to me, but then again it was getting late.

“Please?” Amy said, “We haven’t spent any decent time together in days!”

“We had lunch together today at school?” I replied.

“You mean you downed your lunch in five minutes, then had to go to your piano lesson.” Amy retorted, starting to sound annoyed.

“Point taken,” I said, “I will pick you up in twenty minutes.”


I arrived at Amy’s house, slightly tired, and wishing I were at home. I pulled out my phone and sent her a text, letting her know I was here, before quickly throwing all of the empty McDonalds rubbish into the back.

Soon after, Amy walked out the door and made her way to the passenger side. Her black hair was tied back, and she wore a thick jacket. It was a cold night, and I could tell she could feel it.

“Hey.” I said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. She said nothing.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, “I get I might be a bit distant at the moment. I am just trying to make sure I am ready for my audition.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Amy said, “We get to spend some time together now.”

“You’re right.” I said with a smile, as we pulled out of her street. “So do you know where we are going?”

“Just head up Aqueduct Road.” Amy said, “Daniel told me how to get there. It is pretty simple.”

As we drove up Aqueduct Road, we were mostly quiet, until we hit a pothole.

“Crap.” I muttered, as Amy was slightly thrown out of her seat. She was a pretty small girl, so a small bump like that was enough to scare her. Soon after we stopped at a red light.

“I get you love this car and all, but you really couldn’t have picked one less comfortable.” Amy said, “I mean, for what you spent on this, you could have gotten a Mazda 3, or something like that.”

I paused for a second. My car was a dark blue 1988 Nissan Skyline. I loved Skylines, and when I bought myself one after saving for the last two years, it was like a dream come true. Suddenly I had an idea for a laugh, but needed to time it perfectly.

“That is true. I could have gotten a Mazda 3.” I said. If my intuition were correct, the light would go green very soon. “But if I got a Mazda 3, I wouldn’t be able to do this…”

The light went green, and I let my foot off the clutch, slamming down on the accelerator. The car took off with a jump, and revved quickly. I put it into second, and began to take off quickly.

60kpmh

80kmph

“This is where it will get fun.” I thought to myself, as we drove past the 80 sign.

100kmph

120kmph

“Damn it, stop!” Amy screamed from the passenger seat as she grabbed the nearest handle she could find.

I laughed, and put my foot on the clutch and the brake, slowing down to a safe speed.

“So I take it we aren’t going to slide the corners on the dirt road?” I asked with a grin. I had no intention of it, but just wanted to stir her.

“Never do that again.” Amy replied coldly.

“Okay, I get it.” I said, knowing when to quit.

We continued along and Amy directed me onto a side street, which then turned to a dirt road. As we came to the corner, I held down the clutch, and pressed down on the accelerator, causing the car to make heap of noise, without actually moving. I saw out of the corner of my eye Amy jump out of her skin, and giggled to myself, to which she responded with a somewhat hard punch to the arm.

“Okay, NOW I will stop.” I said, proceeding to drive normally for the rest of the trip. A few minutes later, we arrived at a car park, where I saw a bunch of people crowded by one of the cars. Among them I recognised Daniel.

“Hey Daniel.” Amy said, still somewhat coldly, walking over to hug her cousin.

“Hey.” He said, slightly confused, “What’s up with you?”

I saw her head jerk in my direction, before she went to say hi to one of her friends, as Daniel walked over.

“It’s been a while. Last time I saw you would have been Mum’s birthday a few months back?” Daniel said as he shook my hand.

“Yeah that sounds about right.” I replied, “How have you been?”

“Pretty good.” Daniel said, “Yourself? And what’s going on with Amy?”

“I’m doing pretty good. I have an audition for a scholarship at a music school in London, so I’m working my a**e off to get that.” I said, “I think Amy is feeling a little forgotten. That and I kind of maybe had a little bit of fun on that dirt road driving in here.”

Daniel burst into laughter.

“Yeah, I get it.” Daniel said, “Don’t worry, she will get over it.”

“Daniel, is this everyone?” One of the other guys there asked, “You know we aren’t allowed to have a fire here. If the cops come by on patrol and see us with an axe and my car full of firewood, we are in a bit of trouble.”

“Yeah, this is everyone.” Daniel replied casually, “Come on, let’s head in.”

We locked up the cars, grabbed a log or two of firewood each, before heading through the main gate, into the park.

We walked along a clear path, with dense trees either side of us. The path was easy to follow, but if someone strayed from it, chances are they wouldn’t find their way back, especially at this time of night. Eventually we came to a wire fence, where we threw the logs over, before squeezing through it.

Where we stood was a cliff edge. I walked over to the ledge and looked down. Below me was a series of cliffs, all about twenty to thirty meters apart. At the base of the bottom was the lake, which I am sure looked nice during the day.

“Don’t get too close.” Daniel said, “The ground is pretty weak and will crumble near the edge.”

I took a couple of steps back.

“How long have you guys been coming here?” I asked, “A spot like this would be popular, but it doesn’t seem like many people come here. There is hardly any rubbish or graffiti.”

“I have been coming with friends for a few years. It’s a nice spot.” Daniel explained, “People who like this enough to come often tend to respect it. They clean up after themselves, and don’t cause too much trouble. Hell, occasionally the rangers even turn the blind eye to us camping here, even though we are not supposed to. They know we aren’t going to leave a mess behind.”

The fire was soon lit, and eventually we all sat down around it. People were chatting, and those who didn’t have to drive were having a drink or two. I remained quiet for most of the time, just thinking about my audition, and listening to Daniel play his guitar. Usually I wasn’t so interested in guitars, as most of the guitarist I had worked with had proven to be incompetent musicians who knew nothing more than reading tab and accidental chords they had made up. However the way Daniel played was different. What he played worked well together. Yet was strangely different and unusual. I could tell he knew what he was doing.

I watched and listened carefully as I tried to figure it out. After a few minutes, I was convinced I had it. He was picking broken chords, of E Minor, C Major, G Major and D Major, whilst holding down two high-pitched notes that acted as a drone the whole time. A rather simple pattern, however there was something else. Something clever. Then I found it.

E Minor and G Major chords both contain a B note. Instead of starting with an E and G base note on those chords respectively, he started with the lowest B note he could. So whilst the rest of the chord went E Minor, C Major, G Major, D Major, the base notes went B, C, B, and D. I half wished that I had a keyboard here to play along with.

“Hey, are you awake?”

Suddenly I was pulled back into reality by Daniel’s talking.

“Yeah, sorry.” I said, “I was just thinking. What did you say?”

“You play piano right?” Daniel said, “How long would it take you to figure this out?”

To my surprise, Daniel passed his guitar over to me. I grabbed it, and put it on my knee. I put my ear close to it and played the top four strings, trying to get an idea of what notes they were. I wasn’t able to figure out what notes they were exactly, over everyone talking, but did figure out something handy. They were all a perfect fourth apart. That was enough for me to work with.

I used my index finger to hold down the top string on the fifth fret, and then placed my ring finger on the seventh fret of the string below it, and my little finger in the same place below it. If my theory and ear were correct, this should work well. A root note, a perfect fifth and an octave above. Neither major nor minor.

I started playing the chord I had just made, before moving down a string and across two frets, keeping the same hand position, but starting on the seventh fret. I then moved to the ninth, and after that back to the fifth. If I was correct, it should be the I, V, vi, IV of whatever key it is I am playing in. The Four Chord Song.

“So you knew how to make power chords?” Daniel asked, as I gave him back the guitar.

“Power chords?” I asked, “Is that what they are called? I could tell the strings were a perfect fourth apart, and figured the easiest thing for me to do would be a root note and a perfect fifth above.”

Daniel looked at me shocked. I could tell he understood what I was saying.

“So you mean to tell me, you just figured that out then, and made it work?” Daniel asked. “Because that is how half of these so-called rock-stars make their millions. Playing power-chords over ridiculous amounts of distortion.

I laughed.

“You forget how long I have been playing piano.” I said, “Twelve years. Three years ago, I did Year Twelve music, and topped the class.”

“Damn.” Daniel said, “Well, when you get bored of playing your classical music, or whatever it is you play on that piano of yours, give me call. I have way too many guitars, and I think if you borrowed one, you could pretty easily pick it up.”

“I might just do that.” I said, “After my audition.”

“Of course.” Daniel said.

I looked down at my watch and saw the time. 1:14am.

“Crap.” I muttered, before turning to Daniel, “Amy and I had better get going.”

“No worries.” Daniel said, “Thanks for coming. And let me know if you ever want to borrow a guitar.”

“Thanks.” I said, as I stood up, and walked to where Amy sat. “Are you right if we head off now.”

“I don’t mind.” Amy said, “I am starting to get tired.”

We said our goodbyes before walking back down the track towards the car park. Even though they went pretty far into the park, you could still see the glow of the fire and hear the voices of the group.

Amy and I got back in the car, and she was still silent. She was still pissed about the way I drove here.

“I’m sorry for being stupid on the way in.” I said, “Especially with you in the car. I guess that everything has been so serious recently, with school, work, auditions and all that. I just tried to have a little bit of fun. I won’t do it again, okay?”

Amy was silent for a second, thinking about it. Finally she spoke.

“Okay. Sorry for being so grumpy with you before about it.” Amy said, “But seriously, don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.” I said. We were about halfway through the dirt road the lead into the park, however before I could continue, I noticed something strange. Another car driving the opposite direction. As it passed us, I recognised it as a police car.

“Daniel is gonna be in trouble.” Amy said, somewhat nervously, “Reckon he will get out of it?”

“Probably not. If it were a ranger maybe. But you can see where they are from the car park, and hear them.” I said, “I might be able to get him out of it though.”

“How…” Amy asked, uneasy about what I would say next.

“Do you trust me?” I said, struggling not to smile.

“Yes?” She replied, still uneasy.

“Well text Daniel and tell him to get out now.” I said, “Then hold on.”

I drove until I could barely hear the police car behind us. At that point, I put the car into first, and found a large patch of dirt track, right by the bitumen road. I turned the wheel hard left, before pushing down hard on the accelerator, proceeding to do the biggest donut I could, and make as much noise as possible, hopefully more than the amount Amy was making in the passenger seat. After about ten seconds I stopped.

“What the f-“ Amy shouted.

“Ssh.” I said, as I turned off the car. I heard what I wanted to hear. The sound of the police car, getting louder. Sirens and all.

I started the car, and then took off down the road. I had to find somewhere to hide. A long driveway or a car park. Somewhere dark. I knew I didn’t have very long. The police car was a VF Commodore SS. 6 Litre V8 engine. Though my car was somewhat quick, the police car was literally twice as powerful. One advantage I did have however was that I was no longer on the dirt track.

After a minute or so, I found something perfect. A football oval with a large car park. No lights were on at this hour. I drove in, and drove around the back, turning off the car and the headlights.

“If this doesn’t work, I am going to kill you.” Amy hissed.

“Get in line.” I said grinning, “If this doesn’t work and we get arrested, mum will kill me first.”

After about half a minute, the police car roared past us, stopping at the next intersection, before turning onto the main road, heading north.

“Who is a genius?” I asked, laughing. It was soon received with a punch to the arm.

“Come on, you gotta admit that made tonight that little bit more exciting.” I said to Amy, “And it means your cousin doesn’t have to spend the night in a police station.”

Amy tried to keep her serious face, but soon failed and started laughing.

“I will let you have this one.” Amy said, “ONLY this one.”

After a few minutes, I could hear cars driving towards us, so I started mine, and made my way to the exit. Shortly after, a group of cars drove past, that I recognised from the group we were at Blue Lake with. At the back was Daniel. When I saw his car, I flashed my lights, trying to get his attention. He soon slowed down, and rolled down his window, coming up next to us.

“I guess I owe you guys one.” Daniel said with a laugh, “You should have seen everyone crap themselves when I told them Amy told us to get out of there, and a second later, we all heard your little burnout and police sirens.”

“I have two spare tickets to a concert tomorrow night.” Daniel explained, “I was going to try and sell them, but seeing as you guys saved me that much money in a fine, they are yours if you want them.”

“Send us the details, and I will let you know in the morning.” I said, “Right now I am too tired and hyped up on adrenaline to make plans.”

Daniel laughed, before waving goodbye and driving off.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Haha I started reading in the middle and was like, "is this a true story?!" And then I read the first post. :P

Interesting so far though. :)

[[Desolate Divine]]

Haha 95% fiction, 5% funny situations that I have been in and decided to fictionalize ;)

[[Desolate Divine]]

So I got halfway through writing the first chapter, and got distracted. Six months later I remembered the plans I had for this and how much I was looking forward to it. So I am going to continue. It feels weird to be continuing it after six months. Will upload another chapter tonight.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Chapter 1
I awoke the next morning to the sound of my phone making noises. I groaned as I rolled over and started pressing random parts of the screen, hoping to shut it up. I still hadn’t willed myself to open my eyes. When the phone kept making noise, I finally opened my eyes, and unplugged it. It was a text from Daniel.
‘Concert is at 170 Russel Street. Doors open at 7:30pm. I will be catching the 6:09pm train from Greensborough tonight. If you and Amy want to come, let me know ASAP.’

I read the text, then looked at the time.

7:48am

I had arrived home at nearly 2am the night before, so getting up was a mission. I slowly got dressed, and contemplated giving my hair a brush, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. I was just too freaking tired.

I walked out into the kitchen, and walked to the pantry, grabbing the box of cereal. However before I opened it, I felt something. A lack of motivation…

“Welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order.”

“Hey, could I please get a Bacon and Egg McMuffin, five hash-browns, and an apple juice?” I said to the speaker that was just outside my car window.

“I’m sorry, did you say five hash-browns?” said the voice from the speaker, in slight disbelief.

“Yes, five.” I said slightly annoyed.

“That will be $12.34. Drive forward please.”

I drove through and paid for my breakfast, before grabbing it from the last window and making my way to school.

I rocked up to homeroom a few minutes early, eating my breakfast that made the cereal I otherwise would have had look unworthy for even the dog to eat, as the rest of my class arrived. The roll was marked, and the bell signalling the start of first period rang. I made my way to the common room, as I had no classes until after recess. My school had this stupid rule where we had to be at school the whole day, even if we only had one class, otherwise we would be marked as absent for all of them. Their way of trying to make us study in our spares.

I found a couch in the common room, put in my earphones, and fell asleep to the song I had written to perform at my audition. I needed to eat, sleep and breathe this song to play it well enough at my audition, and was willing to take some drastic approaches.

I awoke with a fright an hour later, to being shaken. With my sight out of action, and hearing preoccupied, Amy giving me a shake to wake me up, in all honesty, scared the crap out of me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Amy said, as she sat down next to me.

“Don’t worry,” I yawned with a grin, “How was psychology?”

“Same old,” Amy replied, sipping her coffee. “How was sleeping?”

“Surprisingly satisfying,” I remarked, “And unproductive, but I try not to think about that.”

Suddenly, I remembered Daniel’s message.

“By the way, Daniel messaged me this morning.” I started to say.

“That’s cute that you and my cousin have your little bromance thing going on,” Amy interrupted, “Just remember who your girlfriend is.”

“Would you ever let me forget?” I asked.

“Probably not.” Amy said with a grin.

“Anyway, he was asking if we wanted to go to a concert tonight,” I said, “What do you think?”

“It’s Tonight Alive playing, isn’t it?” Amy asked.

“Not sure,” I replied, “He didn’t say.”

“He mentioned it to me a few weeks back, and they are the only decent band playing tonight.” Amy explained, “So I am pretty certain it is them.”

“Okay, you are going to hate me for this…” I said, “But who are Tonight Alive?”

Amy groaned.

“I can tell how much attention you pay when I choose the music.” Amy muttered.

“Well can you show me one of their songs?” I asked.

“Nope.” Amy said quickly, “We are going. And if you listen to anything before tonight…”

“Okay, I get it.” I huffed, pulling out my phone, “I will tell him we are in.”

‘Amy and I will be there. See you at the station.’


School dragged by, and finally, we reached the end of the day. The bell rang signalling the end of the day, and as per usual, I had never been so happy to hear it in my life. Just like yesterday. And the day before. And last week.

Amy and I made our way to the car, and drove out. I plugged my phone into the head-unit and continued listening to the song I was going to be playing at the audition. Amy groaned when the first note played, and she realized what we were listening to.

“This again?” Amy asked, “Haven’t you memorized it yet? I know I have.”

“Doesn’t hurt to keep it fresh in my mind,” I explained, “I am good at piano. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I am a damn good pianist. But good isn’t going to cover it. If I want this scholarship, I need to be the best.”

I noticed Amy frown slightly, before trying to hide it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing…” Amy said quietly, “It’s just…”

“You know I can’t stay here forever,” I said, “Music is all I know, and all I want to do. And Melbourne isn’t an easy place to make it. I thought we talked about this?”

“I’m not going to see you for months at a time. If you get this scholarship, you will be in London. I will be at uni next year. I don’t think either of us would have time for an overseas trip to visit each other.” Amy replied.

“What do you want from me Amy?” I asked, starting to raise my voice, “Do you want me to give up on the opportunity of a lifetime? Just so we aren’t long distance for a few years? I get it. You don’t like the idea of me living on the other side of the planet! But whether I do is my decision! Not yours!”

There was silence for a second, before Amy started to cry.

“Look, I’m sorry for shouting at you,” I said to Amy, as I slowed down the car and pulled over, “But seriously, what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t expect you to give up something like that for me,” Amy said quietly, “But I just wish that you wouldn’t spend the small amounts of time we do spend together preparing for the thing that will ultimately take you away from me. It’s like you are here, but I can tell that you would rather be in London.”

I was shocked at what she was saying, but she was right. She was trying to spend as much time with me as possible, in case I did end up moving away, but during this time, all I can think about is leaving.

I unplugged my phone from the head-unit, and passed the auxiliary cord to Amy.

“You pick the music. From now on, whenever I see you, you have my utmost attention,” I said, “But just remember if I get the opportunity, I am going. I can’t stay here forever.”

Amy nodded, and started to smile again.

“Come on. Let’s try and forget about this, and have a good night.” I said, trying to sound cheerful as we pulled back out onto the road.

I dropped Amy off at home, before making my way home. I had considered just staying at Amy’s for the afternoon, but decided that for the benefit of everyone else, I needed a shower. I still reeked of campfire from the night before, as well as just smelt bad in general from the day, and all the clothes in my car had been there for a few weeks and needed a clean.

I arrived home and quickly showered, shaved, and found some clean-ish clothes. A pair of black jeans that had only been worn once in the last week, that I picked up from my floor-drobe, and a semi casual button up shirt, which hadn’t been worn since I last went to a birthday party. Once I was ready, I made my way back to Amy’s house.

When I arrived, I saw Amy waiting by the lounge room window. As soon as I pulled in, she came out the front door and got in the car. I noticed her wearing a shirt I had never seen before. A black shirt with a large Tonight Alive logo on it. She must have gotten it from their last gig.

“So you really like Tonight Alive huh?” I asked.

“Yeah, they are one of my favourites. One of the best bands to come out of Australia,” Amy explained, before grinning, “You would know if you weren’t such a music snob.”

I snorted with laughter.

“Music snob?” I asked, “Just because I have slightly higher standards of music. Daniel said it himself last night, most rock music is power chords distorted beyond recognition.”

“Not exactly sure what that means, but trust me, Tonight Alive are amazing.” Amy said, “You will wonder why you never listened to them earlier.”

“We will see…” I said, as we pulled into the Greensborough train station car park. It was 5:45pm when we arrived, and the regular commuters were starting to leave, which made it easy to find a spot nearby. As we made our way up the ramp, I noticed Amy getting ahead of me. Usually, due to her small size, she was the one falling behind, however she was excited for the concert.

“Wait up.” I shouted out with a grin.

We made our way into the station building, as Amy walked over to the Myki machine to top up her ticket. However, every time she would put in her coins, they would just fall to the return chute.

“I’m not sure why they ever brought in this stupid Myki system.” Amy muttered, “Been nothing but a pain.”

Amy made her way to the counter to have the attendant top up her ticket, whilst I went to the machine to pay by card. Once we were sorted, we made our way out onto the platform.

“Hey, over here!” shouted Daniel from the other end of the platform. Amy waved as we made our way over.

“It’s been a while, “ I said sarcastically as I shook his hand, “Been waiting long?”

“Got here about a minute before you guys.” Daniel said. He stopped when he heard the noise of the train arriving, as it stopped at the platform. When the doors opened we found a bay of four seats. Amy and I sat together, as Daniel sat opposite us, resting his feet on the empty seat next to him. The train soon took off, and we were on our way to the city.

“So how did you get these spare tickets?” I asked Daniel.

“When they went on sale, I got some friends together and got a few,” Daniel explained, “I was the one who bought them all, and most of them my friends paid for. But I had a bit of a falling out with a few of them, and they refused to pay for them. So now I got tickets that I wanted to get rid of. “

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay you back for them?” I asked Daniel.

“You already did. By stopping me from getting that fine last night,” Daniel laughed, “Seriously, don’t worry about it.”

We arrived at Flinders Street Station, and walked up Swanston Street, getting food at the McDonalds there. As we sat down, I couldn’t help but drool at the sight of the Spicy Jalapeño Burger I was about to devour.

“You know they don’t have those in England, right?” Amy said with a sly grin.

“Oh hell, really?” I responded, “I guess I will have to find somewhere else to go then.”

Daniel burst into laughter. We ate our dinner, and made our way to the venue. When we arrived, the line was starting to get long. The doors weren’t even open yet.

We got to the back of the line, and waited, being antisocial on our phones and soon became thankful we came as early as we did when we saw the line grow exponentially.

The sun went down, and not long after, the doors opened. We showed our IDs to the bouncers as we walked through, and soon after, we found ourselves in a large, dark room, full of people.

Against one wall was a stage, where various roadies were setting up drums, guitars and amps, and in the centre of the room was a sectioned off part which housed the sound and lighting desks. The opposite wall, and the two adjacent housed the bars, and one had an ATM, which probably would have charged a small fortune in fees to use.

“Who’s the support band?” I asked Daniel.

“Hands Like Houses.” Daniel replied, “Post-Hard-core group from Canberra.”

“Post Hard-core?” I asked, “Does that mean we will be listening to some idiot scream and try to convince us it is music?”

Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle at the comment.

“Amy was right. You are a snob.” Daniel chuckled, “And there are a couple of screams. But it is mostly clean. Trent, the singer, actually has an amazing voice.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” I said jokingly.

“Snob…” Amy muttered under her breath, to which Daniel and I burst into laughter.

“Do you want a drink?” I asked Daniel.

“You stopped me from getting into a ****-heap of trouble last night!” Daniel said, “I should be buying you drinks!”

“Get over it.” I said with a laugh, “What do you want?”

“I’ll have a Corona,” Daniel said, “Thanks.”

I went to the bar and got Daniel a Corona, as well as a Canadian Club for Amy and myself. Though there were a few beers I liked, I generally wasn’t fond of beer, especially during the colder months. And Amy hated it.

I went back to where Daniel and Amy were standing and gave them their drinks.

“You’re drinking?” Amy asked, slightly concerned, when she saw my Canadian Club.

“Generally one goes to the bar for drinks?” I replied.

“Yes, but you are driving home. You’re on your P’s remember?” Amy lecture, “.00?”

“Amy, it’s one drink.” I said, “The support band aren’t even up yet. It’ll be two hours before we leave here, another twenty minutes by the time we are on the train, and about another forty before we get back to Greensborough. It’ll be fine.”

“Cut him some slack Amy!” Daniel said, putting his arm around my shoulder, “He seems smart enough!”

“This bromance thing has got to stop.” Amy muttered to herself. Anything else she was going to say was interrupted by the sound of the drum kit on stage and a relatively quiet lead guitar playing a high-pitched intro. Then the rhythm came in. It had begun.

“Get ready for the time of your life!” Daniel shouted over it, barely loud enough for me to hear.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Chapter 2
“So what did you think?” Amy asked as we walked down Russel Street, “Did it meet your concert pianist standards?”

It was nearing 10pm when we left, and the city was still as alive as ever.

“It was better than I expected.” I replied. Truth was, I actually really enjoyed it. Though I wasn’t going to let Amy know that. She had the tendency to say ‘I told you so’.

“What was the opening song that Tonight Alive did? With the really quick drum fill?” I asked.

“Lonely Girl.” Amy replied, “Did you like it?”

“Yeah, it was probably my favourite.” I said, “Though I’m still pretty surprised that the support band were as good as the headliner.”

“Don’t get accustomed to that.” Daniel laughed, “I have seen some pretty shitty support bands. Like, when I saw Nickelback, they had these two stoners from Mildura that played pretty much the same song over and over. Just with the ‘****s’ in different places.”

“You seem surprised?” I asked, “It’s Nickelback…”

“Are you kidding me?” Daniel asked, sound nearly hurt, “Nickelback actually have some pretty deep and cool music!”

“Isn’t the first line of one of their songs ‘I like your pants around your feet’?” I asked teasingly, trying to make Daniel uncomfortable. I should have realized he would call my bluff.

“Hey, at least they’re honest!” Daniel retorted, “Who doesn’t like a girl with her pants around her feet? Don’t you?”

“Anyway!” Amy said loudly, eagerly trying to change the conversation, “What have you got planned for the weekend Daniel?”

“The band might have a gig at the Espy on Saturday night.” Daniel explained, “If they stop screwing us around. But I’ll let you know if it happens. If it does, you two should come.”

“I doubt I’d be able to drag him away from his keyboard.” Amy said.

“Maybe.” I said, to which Amy’s jaw dropped. That was half the reason I said it.

“You refuse to leave the house when I ask you to, but the moment your new boyfriend does, you do?” Amy asked mockingly.

“What can I say? The bromance is strong.” Daniel said with a laugh.

We soon arrived back at Flinders Street Station, and got the next train back to Greensborough. As we sat on the train, Amy fell asleep resting her head on me, as Daniel and I discussed music. I was half surprised at his knowledge of music theory. I guess I was guilty of viewing guitarists as the Neanderthals of the music industry, who learnt by just trying things until it worked, and not knowing anything about it. Yet he knew a lot, even the tiny details like when to and not to use suspended chords.

“Crap…” Daniel muttered as he looked past me. I turned around and saw a bunch of ticket inspectors walking towards our carriage from the next one.

“You touched on at Flinders Street?” I asked, “I saw you?”

“I finished school last year and am still on a student ticket.” Daniel responded, “I don’t have a student card any more.”

We were pulling up at the next stop. Dennis.

“Get off the train here.” I said, “And don’t let them see you. The exit is past them, so pretend you’re going there, and get on the carriage they have already been through. Then meet me back here.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing.” Daniel replied, “Wish me luck.”
Daniel grabbed his black jacket, and put that on, pulling up the hood, as he got off the train. I saw him make his way over to the far side of the platform where it was darker, and start walking to the exit.

The ticket inspectors got onto out carriage, however before Daniel could get onto the previous one, the doors shut, and the train departed. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself when I saw the look on his face.

“Ticket?” said a rather grumpy looking, overweight, and middle aged man in a PTV uniform. He held out his portable ticket machine. I grabbed my Myki from my wallet and tapped it against the machine, then showed my student card. I then noticed him looking at Amy.

“You really don’t want to wake her up.” I said, “We were just at a rock concert, and she had a few too many, if you know what I mean.”

The man grunted and moved on, as I decided on how to tell Amy that I stopped her from being rudely awoken by the ticket inspector, that would make me look best.

When we were halfway between Watsonia and Greensborough, I gently nudged Amy to wake her up.

“Where’s Daniel?” She yawned.

“Ticket inspectors rocked up, so he got off the train to avoid a fine, but didn’t get back on in time.” I explained.

“Of course he did.” Amy muttered.

“Now arriving at Greensborough.” Said the voice over the PA system.

We got off the train and made our way back to the car. As we drove back to Amy’s house, I let her choose the music, which was mostly Tonight Alive and recognised a couple of the songs. Some of them had a punk-rock sound, which I really enjoyed, whilst others had a crappy electro-pop-rock style to them. Upon asking Amy, I found out that their most recent album had changed their sound pretty drastically, to the pop-rock type of thing we were listening to. Surprisingly, Amy preferred that.

I dropped her off, and as she got out of the car, plugged my phone in to listen to the audition piece again. However before I pressed play, an idea came to mind. I opened Spotify and tapped the search bar.

Hands Like Houses

I had a look through the song names, and found one that interested me.

Wisteria.

I was shocked at the sudden introduction. No build up or anything. Straight in with quick and punchy drums, heavy rhythm guitar and a melodic lead guitar.

I listened to this track, and a bunch of others by the band I’d only heard for the first time earlier that night, and enjoyed myself as I drove home. It felt strange, as the only music I had really liked was piano based, pop-rock type of stuff. The Fray, The Script, that sort of stuff. When I grew older, I came to appreciate some classical and orchestral music as well. Never anything like this.

I arrived home, and made my way to my room. It was late, but I wanted to get some more practise in for the audition. I had spent two nights in a row out, where I could have been practising, and needed to make up for it. Another hour at least before I went to sleep, just to make sure I wasn’t getting sloppy.

I sat at the keyboard, and played through the audition piece, which I still hadn’t thought of a name for. For a total of ten minutes. The whole time, I couldn’t play it properly. I was making silly mistakes. My fingers would slip and hit the wrong keys. The tune that was in my head wasn’t my piece. It was Wisteria.

In the end, I gave in. My mentality was that unless I figured out how to play it, it would be stuck in my head. I pulled my laptop off the desk, and sat it on the edge of the keyboard, and opened Spotify, managing to find the track.

When it was playing, I began playing major scales over it in attempt to find the key of it. It was the second simplest way, only being beaten by using a website to find the key out myself. But I was a musician. There was no way I’d stoop to that level.

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

Definitely not.

G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G

Not even close.

D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

Okay…

A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A

This is starting to get irritating.

E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E

I am starting to run out of normal keys…

B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B

Okay, time for the weird keys…

F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F#

I swear to God, if this turns out to be in F Major…

C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B#, C#

C# Major. Or nearly. Though this song didn’t sound depressing, it was no doubt Minor. A# Minor.

I first began figuring pieces out by ear a few years back. When I had a fairly solid understanding of keys and diatonics, the years of playing made it easy for me to do. After all, even though the chords change depending on the key, their relativity remains. The second is always a minor, be it Dm in C, Am in G or Em in D. And it has the same sound relative to everything else.

This song wasn’t much more difficult. The left hand would just be playing chords, and the right playing the melody. Soon enough, I had the intro and first verse figured out mostly. Then I realized the time. Shit…