Chapter Text
🔭 Talia’s (Test Tube) POV 🔭
I am so lucky Ms. Davis is that nice.
Technically, I should have gotten a tardy under my name, but she said it was fine!
Now that I am in the band room, I can see Finnic is in his seat, already annotating our new sheet music. How is he annotating it? That’s a great question, I have no idea. I never really cared for band.
As I approach my seat, Finnic waves at me. Hm, more friendly than usual. I should take note of this. Not now though, focus!
“Hey Talia! We get to work in partners today!” He exclaimed, his voice surprisingly clear over the other students’ chatter.
I guess that’s why he was so friendly. I don’t believe I would work with anyone else. “That’s… a nice change in work dynamics,” I mutter, sitting down in my assigned seat.
Now that I think about it… that flashback with Leslie I got a few months ago was awfully similar to what I saw when I first met Finnic in 4th grade… We never talked about it, did we?
🔭 Finnic’s (Fan) POV 🔭
I can’t wait! Partner work, in band, WITH Talia? This day cant get any better than this!… wait what did she just say? “Uh… yeah!” I managed to get out.
Damnit, that was so awkward… whyyyyy… well, it can’t get worse than that. “Ms. Davis just wants us to mark our music in partner groups or… whatever,” I grab an extra pencil out of my bag, handing it to Talia. “We’ll go over it at the end of class, I’m sure of it!”
She accepts the pencil, turning to look at the sheet music on her stand. “So… What have you done so far?” She asked, looking gently confused. Oh yeahhhh.. she doesn’t know how to do this. (A/N: neither do I, my sheet music for the piano has 0 notes, same with choir 🥹)
I clear my throat before looking back at my music, humming something I learned from this person named Payton in my science class. What was it… ‘Everything Stays’? “Ok, first I…” I continue to explain my notes, passionately of course, not awkward at all.
“…and that’s about all I have. I did most of it over Christmas break, sometimes instead of praying!” …wait that’s not something to be proud of. “Ehehe uhm… yeah that’s not a good thing. A- Anyway, all we have left to mark is breathing!” I know she usually needs to take more breaths, so we’ll have to do this separately.
Good thing we play the same parts, or this would have been way harder. Talia leans over a bit to check my notes, her brown hair momentarily getting caught on the sleeve of my red jacket, before continuing to mark her own paper.
I finish marking my paper first while Talia was only halfway through hers. I’m starting to doubt if she actually likes band… when we were picking our school activities back in 5th grade, she didn’t seem interested in the options at all.
Come to think of it, the only school activity she ever gets excited for asides from Math and Science is that after school lab thing once a week.
“Hey, Talia?” I tap her shoulder, attempting to get her attention. She replies with a hum, looking up from her paper. “So, I’ve been wondering,” I continue, fiddling with my pencil down as I turn in my seat to face her, “why did you join band?”
Her pencil stops moving. “Well… I….” She starts, clearly struggling to find the words.. which is very rare for her, “I just wanted to find something new and this looked interesting. I was… intrigued, if you want to put it like that. It’s very… math centered.”
Ahah! I knew it! I hum in response. “I had a feeling you picked it because of the math. I mean, what don’t you try that’s math related?”
Talia sighed. “Finnic, everything is math,” She stated, as if it were the most obvious fact on the planet.
“Nerd.”
“Geek.”
Before I could even start to defend myself, Ms. Davis clapped her hands and began giving instructions.
…
I should probably tell Talia soon.