Chapter Three
Gabby
Clara opens the door to her office at my knock, a wide smile on her face. “Come on in, Gabby.”
I follow her inside, setting my violin down on the piano bench in her office. She takes her usual seat at her desk chair pulled out to face me, still smiling. “I know we talked a little the other day when you came by to schedule your lesson, but I want to hear more. You said you got to play for some studio recordings. How was that?”
“Oh, it was really cool. The music wasn’t too hard, but I got a lot more practice sight reading, both for that and with the teacher I worked with while I was in LA.”
She gestures to my instrument. “Go ahead and unpack while we talk. How long were you in California, exactly?”
Pushing my hair behind my ear, I bend over my case to unlatch and unzip it. “Oh, most of the summer. I got there at the end of June and left mid-August. I was in Texas for about a week and a half before my parents brought me up here for school.”
“Get out the music you worked on this summer. You can take me through what your other teacher had you do. I’m excited to see the progress you’ve made.”
I dig out the music from the pocket on my case, hesitating for a second when the page with the melody I started to write peeks out from the stack. Part of me wants to show it to Clara, but I also don’t. She said she wants to know what I worked on this summer, but she means on the violin. Composition is a whole other thing. Sure, she’d probably be interested and supportive, but with everyone already thinking I’m too distracted because of Jonathan, I don’t need to add any more fuel to that fire. If she starts worrying that I’d rather compose than play, that’ll add another layer of pressure that I don’t need right now.
So I tuck that piece of paper back in the music pocket and set the rest on the stand. “We did a lot of the same kinds of exercises I’ve done with you. More Ševčik. Different bowing exercises. I’ve been doing the Flesch double-stop scales and working on unaccompanied Bach.”
Clara’s brows raise above her glasses. “Wow. Good. I’m looking forward to hearing it.” She hesitates for a second, but meets my eyes and continues. “And how did you leave things in California?”
Tucking my violin under my arm, I decide to take her question at face value. If she has specific questions, she can articulate them. “On a plane.”
She sighs. “I mean, how did you leave things with Jonathan? I haven’t seen anything about you on the gossip sites the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t sure …”
I blink at her a few times. “You read entertainment gossip blogs?”
“Not usually.” She gives me an acerbic look. “But when one of my students is frequently mentioned on them, I do tend to keep an eye on things.” Her eyes soften. “I’m concerned about you. You’re young, and I worry that you’re getting pulled into things you might not want sooner than you’re ready for because of outside pressure.”
Rubbing a hand over the bridge of my nose, I force myself to hold back my sigh of annoyance. This conversation isn’t all that different from the one I had with my mom when I got back to Texas a few weeks ago. God, it feels like a lifetime ago that I was happy and having fun in California with Jonathan, making music, starting to compose, blissfully ignoring how soon everything was going to suck.
“I’m fully aware and capable of making decisions for myself. Thanks. Things with Jonathan are fine. He’s starting to promote his new album. His lead single hit the charts its first week out, and has been steadily climbing closer to the number one spot. He’s actually going to be here next weekend for the Tinnabulation Festival in Riverfront Park.”
“Oh. Wow. I’m sure you’re excited to see him.” Her voice is carefully neutral.
“I am. Yes. We’re going to do the long-distance thing. It’ll be challenging, but we’ll be fine. Thanks for your concern, but you don’t need to worry about me. I’m fine.”
She gives me a doubtful look. “Alright. Let’s get started. What scales were you working on this summer?”
And just like that, we move off personal subjects and onto music. Clara is impressed with the progress I’ve made in just the short time I worked with Julia over the summer.
“Wow,” she says after we go over the bowing exercises. “You’re really digging in and pulling a lot more sound out of your instrument now. Your range has increased a lot since I last heard you. I like it. Let’s keep working in that direction. I guess it’s easy to get a lot of work done when you don’t have all the usual distractions, huh?”
Her smile makes her comment seem innocent, but I’m overly sensitive to suggestions that I’m easily distracted, so I narrow my eyes at her. “Yeah.”
She laughs lightly at my expression. “Relax, Gabby. I just mean other classes and homework and everything. You had fewer demands on your time over the summer. That’s not a dig. It’s reality. I had fewer demands on my time over the summer, but I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as you did. I’m proud of you. You should be proud of you, too.”
“Thanks. I am.” The desire to show her the beginnings of my composition pokes at me again, but she pulls out the unaccompanied Bach book, and the moment passes. This is just my first lesson of the semester. There’ll be plenty of time to show it to her later if I decide I want to. Today is for Clara to figure out what to focus on for this semester.
After we run through everything I’ve worked on this summer, she pulls out a few concertos and a book of Paganini caprices. “Here, these are fun,” she says as she puts the Paganini book on the stand and opens it. “Try this one.”
I let out a bark of laughter as I look at the sweeping thirty-second note runs that start off the caprice she’s chosen. “Fun? I think we might have different definitions of the word.”
She shakes her head and gives me a smile. “Try it out. They’re just A minor arpeggios. You know how those go. Play them slow a few times, and then speed it up. You can do it.”
Placing the violin on my shoulder and the bow on the G string, I take a breath and start, getting a feel for the runs slowly. She’s right. All the black slashes through the note stems make it look more intimidating than it really is. After playing through the opening arpeggios a few times, I’m already speeding up unconsciously, pleased at how easily my fingers fly over the strings.
“Good. Now take a look at the next section. Again, slow. We’ll work up the speed later.”
It’s trickier, with finger extensions and awkward stretches, but Clara’s right. This is a fun little piece. I get to the bottom of the first page when she stops me.
“Good. This’ll be perfect for you. I’ll make you a copy and pin it to my board in the hall so you can come pick it up later. Now, let’s pick a concerto.”
We settle on the Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor. That, plus the Paganini and the Bach D Minor Partita means I’m playing all minor pieces this semester.
Clara laughs when I point it out. “Well, you can use it to express all your late teenage angst and ennui. Especially since you’re in a long-distance relationship now.”
My smile slips a little at that. I guess it is kind of fitting. “Yeah.” I clear my throat. “Yeah. Good point.”
Clara’s smile is sympathetic as she hands me the music off the stand. “I’ll copy that for you too, so you can have all my fingerings. They should be on my board by the end of the day.”
“Thanks.” Taking my music from her hand, I stuff it in my case, putting my violin away and closing up my case now that the lesson is over.
When I get to the door, Clara says, “See you next week. I’m glad you’re back, Gabby.”
I give her a quick, forced smile. “Thanks. See ya.”