Mordred the concertmaster

     I was meeting my twin friends Wila and Mina for junior orchestra practice. The twin Vandagyres were very energetic and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were already at the hall. I got dressed and went to brush my hair. Looking in the mirror I noticed my shirt was on inside out! I quickly fixed that and brushed my hair. It was getting too long again. I would have to ask my mom about seeing the hairstylist again.

     I didn’t mind seeing her, in fact, she was a very nice old lady. Every time she saw me she would happily tell me that I was the most handsome checkered Gelert she had ever seen! I brushed out my mess of jet-black hair and went downstairs to the kitchen. Nessa was still home for the holidays and hadn’t gone back to Brightvale university yet. Naturally, she had been up first and already had breakfast on the table.

     “Good morning,” she signed to me.

     “Morning,” I returned in sign. “Thanks for the pancakes!”

     “Hurry and eat,” she signed quickly, “Or we’ll be late for practice.”

     Nessa was the first chair violinist in the Neovian orchestra. Even though she was attending university abroad, she still returned when the orchestra needed her. Brightvale held musicians in very high regard as scholars of the arts and made foreign music students a big priority.

     “Vanessa!” I slapped the table to get her attention and signed to her quickly. “I forgot my violin in my room!”

     She told me to finish my pancakes and I watched the Pink Kougra as she ran for the stairs to retrieve my instrument and her own she had also forgotten in her room. We were off to a great start this morning. She returned a few minutes later with our violins.

     “You need to pick up your room,” she signed to me. “Mom will flip if she sees your music books all over the floor.”

     I nodded. I had been busy practising concertos all week and was too concerned with perfecting a few of them to clean my room up. If Nessa had moved the books aside she’d have probably found a lot of my action figures from my Judge hog play set and a few of my plushies too. I made a mental note to clean up my room later tonight. I finished up my pancakes and put the plate in the dishwasher and followed Nessa out the door with my violin.

     ***

     “It’s so cold out!” Wila signed to me. “Winter is only fun when the sun is up!”

     Her identical twin Mina stood beside her and nodded. The twins had been my best friends since we were three. Vanessa had taken a job babysitting them and often brought me along. Since then the four of us had been extremely close. Nessa had become the adopted big sister of the twins and would pretty much stand by them the same way she would stand by me. Honestly, some days I don’t think I tell Nessa enough just how important she is to us, especially now that she isn’t here all the time.

     We entered the Neovian music hall. Nessa was already inside. The orchestra was already setting up and junior orchestra didn’t start for another fifteen minutes. That was ok, however, as our conductor was late again. Mrs. Granger had recently become a new mom and her husband was filling in as our conductor for the next year while she stayed home and recovered from a complicated birth. Mr. Granger had wanted to stay home too, but he was the second-best conductor Neovia had for orchestra behind his wife. So he had arranged to take her place, while another filled in for the adult orchestra.

     From what Nessa had said, their new conductor was extremely snobby. The role of concertmaster and mistress was a difficult one. The most prided one was my mom. From what Nessa had told me, mom had loved her job as concertmistress before I had been born. Nessa had been eight when I was born, so she remembered quite a bit. She had also said mom had been a whole lot more strict and concise. Our mom had a reputation for being strict to the point of borderline cruel when it came to organization and when I had been born she had retired and began giving music lessons at the music hall. She was also begged by the music hall staff to be the travel planner and organizer. She may have retired officially as concertmistress, but they found a way to keep her doing the job because the violin and strings section was always cared for and mom always made sure that section had at least two bows at their chairs at all times. Nessa had been her replacement and suitable heiress to concertmistress.

     The twins went to their seats, second and third chair flute. They had switched places today. Wila and Mina took turns in second chair and I was the only one who knew it. They had developed an amazing talent for ambidexterity so they wouldn’t be identified easily. It was Mina’s turn today. I took my place as first chair in the violin section. We were all waiting patiently when Mr. Granger arrived.

     The Green Kau looked exhausted beyond belief. I bet his new baby had kept him up all night. He dug through his briefcase of notes and musical sheets and set most of what he needed on the music stand before him. Before he started he signalled one of the twins to come to my side and he began speaking. He was definitely too tired today and possibly in a hurry to be done if he wasn’t going to try to properly communicate with me.

     “He says there’s going to be a program for the violin section,” Mina signed to me. “Apparently they want to teach about the duty of concertmasters in the senior orchestra.”

     That was intriguing. I didn’t want to follow in my mom’s footsteps, but learning about it might be fun. My biggest dream was to be the very first deaf violinist to walk onto the stage at the Tyrannian concert hall. Not only that, but I wanted to play a seven-string electric violin! I had been saving all my birthday and Christmas money to buy my first seven-string electric violin. It would have a beautiful aquamarine body with the best rosin for the bow. A lady in the adult orchestra had a hot pink electric violin that both Nessa and I were envious of.

     My next biggest dream was to open for my favourite metal band Twisted roses. The twins, Nessa and I spent many-a afternoons signing the lyrics of the songs to each other. I couldn’t hear the music but when I pressed my hands to the speakers I could feel it.

     I was already technically a concertmaster for the junior orchestra. I had responsibilities for tuning the orchestra and solo performances. Apparently, the adult version of the job came with even more responsibilities. It sounded insane! The one running the program would be the new conductor the adult orchestra had hired to take Mr. Granger’s place while he filled in for his wife conducting for us. After rehearsal, I would go and sign up for the workshop.

     ***

     That man was a total jerk. I did not like Mr. Digby at all. He only gave me a chance because he knew my mother, but outside of that he didn’t think the orchestra would have use for and I quote him, “Someone like you.” I’m not usually one to go running to my mom when I was addressed like that, but she was definitely going to know. I was also going to definitely do my absolute best to prove to him I could learn what it takes to be a concertmaster at a professional orchestra. My responsibilities for junior orchestra might seem difficult for someone who is deaf, but second chair, a Green Yurble named Sally helped me with certain things. She understood sign language because her grandpa was deaf. Third chair, a talented eight-year-old Pink Lenny who is more than likely going to take my place when I graduate in three years, learned sign language because she wanted to be able to communicate with me.

     Outside of the twins in the flute section we had Marco. Marco was a tall burly Red Grarrl who played the tuba. He understood sign language because he is a CODA, (Child of deaf adults). It wasn’t for lack of people understanding me enough to help, it was that adults refused to give chances to kids who they think will get in their way. Nessa was the first chair for the main orchestra, but often let second chair fill in for her while she went to study in Brightvale’s prestigious music program. Mr. Digby had apparently been bugging her to come back as a legacy because he entirely disliked her replacement. She refused. She wasn’t giving up her music course at university just to please someone who refused to recognize her dreams of going further.

     She and I shared the same dream to be metal violinists taking over the stage in Tyrannia and all across Neopia. It was a dream that was lofty and hard to accomplish, but we were determined. Perhaps my biggest dream right now was to open a concert for Twisted roses and play with them. They were my dad and sister’s favourite band and mine too. My dad and sister often signed the lyrics to me when I was little and the songs were amazing! I used to think they were concert mistresses.

     You see, when I was just a little kid and the concept had first been introduced, I thought concertmasters were people who sold out shows because they were amazing. Not someone in charge of an orchestra. And honestly, I liked my definition better and fully intended to make that definition a reality.

     First, however, I had to learn the professional orchestra version of the term concertmaster from Digby’s workshop.

To be continued…