Adventure Arises

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It was exam day. On top of doing her school work, Elmire was preparing for two piano performances, composing new music, spending time with her family, spending time with her friends, dancing … That is to say she felt there were hard limits to how much she could study because she had to manage her schedule with ruthless efficiency.

Since these were her first high school exams, she actually didn’t know what she was doing time management-wise. If it turned out that she had miscalculated things, she might cry from shame. Everyone expected her to do brilliantly …

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Morning exams ended. It was beautiful outside and there was an unspoken agreement among students that they should never ruin a good lunch break or good weather with talk of exams, so they banished such awful things from their thoughts and enjoyed the sun.

Then, Dominic appeared, wrecking the atmosphere.

Dominic: Hey, what’s up?

Aurelio: Hey, Dominic.

Carrie: Hi!

Dominic: Exams going okay?

Aurelio: Uh, maybe.

Carrie: Sure.

Dominic: Elmire, what about you?

Elmire: I’m okay.

Dominic: You seem upset.

Elmire: Okay.

Dominic: None of the tests here are that bad. I’m sure you did well. Don’t worry.

Elmire: I’m not worried about exams.

Dominic: So you’re mad at me? That’s too bad. We should be friends—we have a lot in common. Earlier, I had wanted to protect you from going through a “let them eat cake” era, but if you want to “play peasant in the village,” I won’t stop you.

Elmire: … I never asked for your help.

Dominic: It’s polite to help before someone is begging for it. Sometimes, I help before they even realize they need it.

Elmire: I don’t want your help—Anyway, we don’t have much time left. I’m going in.

Dominic: We have plenty of time before lunch ends. There’s no need to rush, but we’ll see you later.

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Carrie: Why doesn’t she like you?

Dominic: I told her to stop being friends with Brett.

Carrie: What?!! Why would you say that?

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Carrie returned just in time.

Dominic was late.

Elmire didn’t care much about, or have time to sort out, what was going on with Dominic, but he frustrated her tremendously. Everything about him felt like such a waste. Before, she had wanted to become friends with him because they had a lot of rare things in common, but friendship between them seemed highly unlikely to happen now.

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Asher saw Elmire practicing her dancing and wanted to remind her that he danced well too.

Asher: I can teach you how to do a backflip.

Elmire: Wow, okay.

Asher: Watch.

Elmire: Are you okay?

Asher: I’m fine. I’ll do it again.

Lightning struck. Elmire turned to look.

Elmire: It’s raining really hard—

Asher: Did you see me flip?

Elmire: Sorry, I missed it. Dad, I’m sure it was great.

Elmire (cont.): I should probably go to get ready for the show now. Please teach me later. 🤍

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The talent showcase was being hosted at the Solar Flare (designed by amoebae). Elmire’s entire household came to watch her. This was a low-stakes event that was supposed to be fun for everyone.

Her friends and family had arrived early. It was nice to see them getting along while she wrapped up last minute preparations for the event with the organizers.

Before her performance, Asher was asked to read an excerpt from his book, Raising Geniuses. He shared a cute story featuring Calanthe, who was now a business tycoon, and didn’t mention his three youngest children at all. Elmire had never been happier to be among the three that were excluded.

His introduction of her also suited her tastes.

Asher: Everyone, please welcome to the stage, my daughter, Elmire. She will perform two pieces for us. First, “A Child’s Dream,” which is her original composition. Then, her second piece is—It’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait to see what it is, but I’m confident, it’ll make you smile. Please give a warm round of applause for Elmire.

Asher had been careful not to brag too much about her skills or use any words that she disliked, but as a father, he could not resist taking a few photos of her.

Her parents loved her performance, but Ennik was the most excited and proud.

Elmire was buzzing happily afterwards. She’d felt so incredibly at home at the piano, had played to her standards, and her heart was bursting with joy, but she tried to look cool.

When she went to thank her friends for coming, she was still hyped. She thanked them graciously and then entertained them with a random, dramatic story, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

The talent showcase had been a simple, low-pressure event, but her family and friends had still enthusiastically come to cheer her on. Everyone who was there also seemed to have enjoyed her music. She felt deeply grateful for all the support, past the level of her bones and down into her cells, and wanted to do really really really really REALLY … well at her next performance both to express her gratitude and to show how serious she was about music. Her next performance would be at the Starlight Accolades—which internally had her screaming with glee and nervous excitement. She was set to play part of her sonata and an extremely famous piece, one that she’d been diligently practicing and that she would continue to practice. It was important to her to nail that second piece perfectly. Her interpretation of it had to shine.

Author’s Note: Ennik’s journal was created with DALL·E and by me in Adobe Photoshop. The Solar Flare build, by amoebae, is here.