Beauty and The Pianist

     Blackpaw was annoyed, very annoyed. He basically wasted all day playing the beloved ornate grand piano (which wasn’t and would never be the annoying part to him) and staring at every dancer he was forced to play for. Garbage...garbage...super garbage. The only reason he was even tickling ivories for these losers was because the Neopian Philharmonic made him saying he needed to get out more. To him, this was a punishment having to take the attention of the music away for someone jumping and spinning around like an idiot. Sighing, Blackpaw heard the name Meerial be called, or to him...Stupid Dancer #27.

     Excitement flowed through her! Finally! Finally! This was her chance! Meerial didn't bother peeking around the curtain at him to see his mood, she was just going to go out there and do her best! So instead of meekly walking out like all the rest, Meerial gracefully twirled her way through the curtain, barely missing the previous dancer with her tail. Her physical tail, anyway. Droplets of water flicked off her tail on her way past, splattering the Xweetok competitor in the face. Fake it till you make it! ACT LIKE YOU'VE ALREADY WON! That was the advice her fellow Neopians at home had shouted at her, so that's what she did! She twirled out ready to pour her heart and soul into her audition!

     He already could tell, this Water Meerca was already the worst one of the lot and she hasn't even started her audition. Rolling his eyes, he waited for one of the judges to hopefully ban her from auditioning, or at the very least tell her to shut up so he could start playing and get her garbage dancing over with already. He groaned to himself, he could be practicing the pieces for his next performance or composing the next masterpiece but instead, he had to be stuck here playing for the clowns of this circus...

     Eventually Meerial twirled her way onto the stage and stopped, grinning hopefully at Blackpaw...at least until she saw the sour look on his face. Meerial's own features dampened quite a bit. She had figured that she'd made an awesome entrance! Apparently just not to the one that really mattered. Her blue eyes swivelled towards the Eyrie at the piano, who nodded encouragingly to her once before launching into the piece that Meerial had handed to him at the beginning of the night. Meerial closed her eyes, centred herself and let herself feel the music pour through her. A peaceful smile stole over her features and she gently began to flow, letting her own watery limbs swish and move gracefully to the sounds of the music. She forgot about him and the stress and the worry and just let the sound move her to its glorious beat. At the end, she landed gracefully upon her tail, swooshed herself forward and landed upon her feet, where she bowed to him and came up with a flourish, a smile on her face.

     Blackpaw hoped to Fyora that that fake nod of 'encouragement' would've sped things up, and to his pleasure he was right. Still though...that Meerca still was a soul-sucking twerp for taking the attention away from his piano talent just like all the other ones. Not wanting to make things worse for her...or more importantly himself, he pointed to the judges letting her know that their approval is what'll get her to the finals...not his. At least then once she goes off she'll be out of his hands and this horrible night will end.

     Once Meerial had finished her audition, without the lack of applause from anyone other than the judges and the piano player, the Meerca turned and headed towards the backstage. Blackpaw hadn't even looked the least bit interested, though she hoped that the judges had enjoyed her dancing, at least. Now that the audition was over, she felt much better inside. Much more relaxed. All she could do now was go into the back, take a quick shower and get changed and head out for the results in a few moments...

     Good, Blackpaw thought. At least now he'd never have to see Meerial or any of these other dancing fools ever again. He can pack up, go home, get some much needed sleep, and start tomorrow playing piano in peace and pretending like today never happened. It was a good try Neopian Philharmonic. Or at least he would go home when one of the judges, a Spotted Tuskaninny, announced the winner, which happened to be the bratty Water Meerca. The judge told Blackpaw that he'd be working with her for the next few weeks to perfect her dance for the finals, much to both of their dismay. His shock and anger led him to slam the fallboard so hard that he almost broke it.

     When Meerial strolled back out with the other contestants, she felt much more refreshed and a lot more excited. Only one of them would make it, but surely Meerial had a chance, right? She took a deep breath and faced the judges with the rest and, when they called her out as the winner? She squealed in excitement and bounced up and down, clapping and hugging those in line that moved to congratulate her.

     That meant, however, that Meerial had to spend the next few weeks with Blackpaw at his house, perfecting her dancing to go along with his piece. Merial suspected that the Rainbow Eyrie was just putting on a strict face to get her motivated to pass her audition with flying colours, and then he would spend this time kindly making her the best dancer in Neopia, but Blackpaw wasn't the least bit kind to her. She showed up on the first day of practice, nervous and jittery and found herself with a very grumpy partner. He worked her hard, too, criticizing her for each and every little thing she did wrong, which was seemingly everything. The first week was the hardest, no matter what she did or how hard she tried to perfect it, it always seemed to go wrong! The second week of practice turned out much like the first, but at least Meerial was expecting his nasty comments. Despite all of the discouraging words sent her way, Meerial found herself working harder, pushing herself to the limits each and every night to try and make him proud.

     Finally, the last week of practice came around. Meerial did her best, but this week? The more he was mean to her, the more Meerial seemed to mess up. The nerves of the upcoming show, mixed with the constant stream of negativity were really starting to get to her. It got more and more difficult to keep going and Meerial started to find her own sense of inner strength waning. At one point, Meerial was pretty sure the only reason she hadn't gotten hurt from all the times she'd been dancing was due to her being made out of water. She just kept bumping into things or tripping over her own tail or doing the silliest of things that should have gotten her pretty hurt.

     At the very end of the third week, when the show was due to start the next evening? Meerial came in, her face set with dread. She had spent the last few weeks getting bossed around, tripping, and just having the most awful of experiences. After everything she'd gone through, she was starting to think that Blackpaw was being as mean and cold as he was simply because he just didn't want her around! This wasn't fair in any sense of the word because she knew, deep down inside, that she was a really good dancer!

     The evening started like all the others. Snarky, mean comments even while she did the simplest of tasks, like a twirl in a circle. Her first fall came, as it inevitably would and she sat up, rubbing her cheek. Being made of water meant that her bruises didn't show up, but that didn't mean that falling didn't hurt. She looked up to Blackpaw looming over her, the same angry orange eyes and scowl on his face she’s had to stare at for weeks.

     "You may have the name of Maya the Miamaid, but you are nothing like her! You're a failure as a Meerca, a failure as a dancer and an absolute failure as a Neopian!" Blackpaw said coldly, looking down on the Water Meerca with disdain. “Do you even know why I’m working with you? Because I was forced to by the Neopian Philharmonic because they think I have no life beyond my piano. They don’t know what they’re saying, who needs a life beyond piano anyway? I don’t even want to be working with someone like you!

     Meerial's lower lip started to tremble for a moment. It was all just too much! Then something started to happen and her tears slowly turned over to anger. Meerial slowly got to her feet, her eyes narrowing as she looked him in the eyes. "No I'm not!" Meerial said stubbornly. "You want to know what your problem is? Your problem is that you're so busy being so mean and nasty to everyone that you can't see a diamond when it's sitting right there in front of you! I don't know why anybody would want to come and work with you anyway, you're nothing but a jerk!"

     Meerial took the precious tiara from her head, the one she'd been wearing every night for three weeks and she threw it at Blackpaw's head. "The whole purpose of music is for Neopians to enjoy it! To dance to the rhythm and feel the sweet harmony that you provided, but you're so stuck up that nobody even wants to be near you! That's the whole reason the Philharmonic put together the competition, because even though thousands of Neopians look up to you, nobody is ever good enough and they know it!" Meerial turned, storming off the stage. "Good luck finding somebody to do your stupid show for you in the next 24 hours because I AM OUT!" Meerial shouted, stomping her way up the auditorium. She paused just long enough to grab her things on the way out, not even bothering to glance back as she moved out of the doorway.

     “Good! Leave then!” Blackpaw shouted back. “You’re just doing both of us a favour because I didn’t even want to do this stupid show in the first place! Good riddance to you too!”

     Blackpaw sat down at his ornate grand piano and groaned loudly with his paws over his face. The nerve of the Neopian Philharmonic to set up this entire play just to make him get out! Is all of Neopia against good piano music!? Looking at the clock in his house he noticed the time. 8:22 PM... Great, it was almost time for that dumb underwater Miamouse play. He had a feeling that despite Meerial saying she quit, they were most likely empty words and she was going to still be there waiting all the same, besides, if he didn’t show up himself that would be a major reputation stainer. Grabbing his music sheets and heading to the door he looked back at Meerial’s abandoned tiara on the floor and felt...wait what was he feeling? Guilt? Regret? Well whatever he was feeling, it would make a good topic for his next composition. Without thinking, the Rainbow Eyrie picked up the tiara with his free tail and flew to Brightvale Castle for his last nightmare ridden night.

     Meerial sat backstage sighing. She was able to calm herself down after her outburst but the removal of all her anger just left her as a big ball of sorrow and worry for her performance. Worst of all because of said outburst at Blackpaw she threw her tiara at him and left without it. This was a disaster. She was mere minutes away from her most important dance that’ll make or break her dancing life and she was a complete mess because of one pianist that said right to her face that he didn’t even want to work with her. The Water Meerca knew deep down she wouldn’t just throw away her big chance at joining the professional dancers but she hoped her outburst would spark something in the mean pianist’s mind, but as those minutes ticked down before she had to get on stage without the Eyrie begging for forgiveness she knew that wasn’t going to happen so she got up and got herself ready as she always did. Then she saw something.

     The Water Meerca’s tiara was sitting right on stage waiting for her and below the stage in the orchestra pit, was the Rainbow Eyrie giving her a glance with his orange eyes filled not with anger like he always had, but guilt before looking back at the ornate grand piano. For a second Meerial thought she was dreaming, but the cold metal of the tiara in her hands and eventually her head as she placed it back where it belonged told her it was reality. At the same moment, Meerial felt like all her negative emotions melted away right as the curtains opened and Blackpaw hit the first keys of the first song and she started dancing her heart out. At the same time those keys hit, the dancer sensed that even the cruel pianist’s emotions warmed up during that performance, even by just a bit.

     The End.