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I Love The Sound of Violins
The thing with Melissa's soulmate is that he has too many pairs of shoes. It's even worse considering she only finds the pairs he loses and it's getting a little bit ridiculous considering the pair that turned up at the foot of her bed on her first day of school are brand new . She picked them up by the heel and placed them on the rack in her room, switching on her jukebox on the way. It juttered as it began to prepare to play whatever she had left from the night before. Some of her favourite songs had been lost to her soulmate. Hopefully, he enjoyed them as much as she did because Melissa didn't really know what to do if they handed her the discs, asked for his shoes back then never spoke to her again.
Not that she'd give him his shoes back , not because she was creepy or anything! Or that she was into feet! The rack had been a staple of her room since she was four and to be honest, there was something a little funny with how many shoes she'd accumulated over the years. Jax always joked that he'd bring it up at their wedding.
With the latest pair of shoes safely on the rack, Melissa grabbed her uniform and threw it on. She grabbed a small amount of hair at the back and tied the largest bow to keep it intact. She switched off the jukebox but continued to hum the song under her breath as she swung herself round the bannister and hopped down the stairs for breakfast. It's french toast based off the popping of the toaster which, isn't what astrology.com recommends. She picked it up and leant against the counter,
"You know, astrology.com says I need strength to fight the problems of today and," She waved the toast in front of her parents' faces, "I don't think this is going to cut it."
Her mum rolled her eyes and took the remaining slice from Melissa's plate, grinning at how her eyes widened in shock, "Then I guess you'll just need to make food that strengthens you enough on your own. And be late to school because of it."
Melissa reached forward and grabbed the toast from her mum, walking out of the corridor backwards, "Well would you look at that. I have plenty of strength on the go. I can't keep Jax waiting, can I now?" She waved before turning to face the direction she was heading in.
The sun had risen by the time Jax actually arrived at the bus station, huffing and puffing. His blazer ruffled and his shoes falling apart. He waved at Melissa as he sat on the bricks beside her. He eyed her toast, to which Melissa gave him a death stare.
"Would you mind explaining to me why your Mum thought I had already picked you up today Mel? You know it's a detour. I could have saved so much time if you shot me a text!" Jax moaned, "I had to run because I was running late."
"To be honest, I forgot to send you a text. I'll remember tomorrow. Though if I had waited, we'd both have been late. So, really? Was it that bad of a thing?"
"I could've missed the bus!"
"But you didn't!"
"Well if I had, I would have been late for Everston and then what would I have done? We still have to get past security!"
Melissa laughed, "Well it's stupid to worry about that considering you're here. And the bus will be at any second. I'd say we won't be late for our first day."
In the span of five minutes, Melissa could officially say her whole life had been fully and utterly upturned. The first of the events had been a pencil she recognised from Everston's stationary collection had fallen directly into her palm. Which told her that her soulmate was here, at Everston. In her year. Which was well, inspiring a lot of emotions.
The second event was the fact that she had triggered the school's arm despite being a cipher. With no magical abilities at all. You know, the person with the lowest likelihood of triggering a security issue. Yeah, she'd still manage to trigger it. Worse than that? She'd triggered it because she had magic in here and was registered as a cipher. Not a Demone Scuro or whatever the Spero use. Pure magic.
Like? How does school’s technology muck up that badly? However, regardless of how much she complained, the security just looked at her with a lowered gaze and told her to boot her ass out of Everston pronto. Melissa worked! She worked hard for her place at Everston and now she’s going to lose it all over some dumb dance pad?
“You must have the wrong person! I. I’m a cipher! I have not used magic for a day in my life! What is wrong with you?”
Jax is also yelling about how Melissa isn’t a member of the Spero! He’s her best friend! He’d know! Thank you Jax for being the only person here with a sliver of common sense. If she was trying to be discreet or something she’d hack into the school computers! She wouldn’t bet on the school’s computer’s being this bad!
Eventually the security woman goes to collect a teacher. “To make sure you ain’t running away when we’re done with you!” She leaves two students, two first year boys to keep watch of her.
Jax, who stands beside her little bubble, whispers that the boy watching her is Quinston O’Kuzlo! Only the youngest two time winner of the Magiclicas Showdown. Melissa personally, finds herself staring at the blond guy who stands beside Quinston. His hair falls over his eyes and he stammers through his sentences, explaining the security issue and how they’re the most obvious choices with Quinston’s ice and fire and his own speed.
“I don’t think she’s going to do anything though.” Quinston states.
The cute boy looks at Melissa. He looks down at her pencil and then ignoring Quinston and ignoring the entire ‘Melissa is supposedly trapped in a bubble and can’t do anything’ situation asks, “Can, can I have your pencil? I lo- lost mine on the way here and I don’t want to look for it. If you need it that’s fi- fine too.” Melissa looks down at the Everston pencil in her hands and pokes the bubble with it. The boy’s eyes widen and he hurries to add, “When. When you get out of course!”
“I mean sure. It wasn’t mine to begin with. My soulmate lost theirs.” Melissa shrugged.
His face flushed bright red and nodded. “Then you should keep it. To, look out, for your soulmate. ”
Then they fall back into silence.
Security does come back! They come back with a soft spoken teacher with cat-like eyes. She looks Melissa up and down, turns to Quinston (who does nothing useful.) It’s invasive. What do any magiclicas think they’re going to find out by studying her? Or do they just have magic sensors? These aren’t things they teach in Cipher schools and Melissa wouldn’t care if she didn’t want them to stop.
“Let her go.” The teacher says. “She’s one of us, she’s a magiclicas.”
For one peaceful moment, Melissa’s heart stops. She breathes out, takes in the fact she’s not getting expelled. Then. And Only then, does she let the freight chain steamroll into her and wipe her out. The bubble pops and when Melissa hits the ground, she feels as if she has left the protective barrier for the first time ever. Jax, Quinston and the unnamed boy crowd around her. They ask if she’s okay.
Once they all get their confirmation yes she’s okay, just a little shocked. They leave her be. It’s the teacher, Miss Canidae, who leads Melissa around the school, to the new classrooms she’ll be learning in.
After Mr Foley’s first lesson, Melissa finds herself curled around her desk. She buries her head between her shoulders and weeps. It’s unfair and she wants to scream. She’s also smart enough to realise breaking her voice and alerting the teachers is just the last thing she wants to do. So Melissa is perfectly content to daydream about her Cipher classes and the amazing first day her soulmate must be having while she’s out here failing all her classes on day one.
The door creaks open. The boy from earlier, peaks his head around the door and when he spots Melissa alone, wanders in, looking around a little lost. He finds his destination in the seat beside Melissa. Where he proceeds to do nothing. Melissa can feel the fizzle and the crackle of his magic under the surface of the skin. She can practically see how the magic rushes through him as if waiting for a direction to go. Meanwhile, Melissa’s magic is so silent it may as well be dead.
They sit in silence for nearly five minutes. In those five minutes, Melissa pulls her head up and tears to stare at him. Tear tracks run down her cheeks but he doesn’t seem to notice.
“I’m, I’m Chase Walker.” The boy, Chase, says.
Melissa knew this already, from Kaya’s introduction to the class at the beginning of the day. She’d been more bothered on Quinston. It’s nice to hear the boy introduce himself. Because despite knowing his name Chase Walker has been ‘the boy who asked if he can borrow his pencil while she was pending arrest.’
Chase uses the silence to continue talking, “My magic, it lets me move really really fast. But, but I can’t use it today because my mum brought me a load of new run-running gear and I’ve already lost it. I was running late, don’t, don’t laugh.” And that makes Melissa laugh because how can someone with superspeed run late. Chase flushes again and reminds her that he asked her not to laugh.
“I’m sorry.” Melissa says between her giggles.
“It’s ok-okay. But yeah. I’m in Quinston’s shoes. And-and they’re plimsolls. So I couldn’t run, run around the school. Like I normally do.”
Now that is a fact Melissa hadn’t known about the oh so great Quinston. He wore plimsolls into school despite being a world class athlete? Who even was he?
“Yeah? That was your bad day? My bad day includes nearly being arrested and I guess you’re gonna get your pencil anyways.”
“Why, why would I get my pencil?”
“Because, I’m going to fail Mr Foley’s class? Then he’s going to expel me? I won’t even get to take high school? Who’s going to take me after I get expelled from Everston academy ?”
Chase chews on his bottom lip before he asks, “What is, is it you don’t understand? Maybe I can hel-help?”
Melissa sighs and pushes a lock of her hair out of her hair as she stares chase right into his purple eyes, that sing to her with desire to help. “I don’t know how my magic works? How do I even activate it? I’ve never done this before!” Her voice strains up a pitch and it sounds horrible even to her own ears.
Chase thinks for a moment. Melissa’s thankful he’s spending a second to actually remember what life was like before he was a brilliant student. No one else has been much help, let alone her own teacher.
He offers his hand and tilts his head when Melissa doesn’t reach for it. “I, I want to show you something.” He explains. So Melissa reaches out and takes his hand. Chase’s hand is warm and his finger curl around her’s to make sure she doesn’t slip away from his grasp. He moves out from his seat and pulls her up. “I used to really like running as a kid.” Chase explains.
“Your name’s ironic then? Chase Walker? ” He laughs and it’s not too low. He’d make a good singer, the kind of person Melissa’s heart dreams of dueting with. His voice suits it.
“Wait till you find out what my bro-brother can make you d-do!” he exclaims, tugging her up the spiral staircase to the glass floor above the blackboard.
“Oh whatever can he do? Make people walk?”
“Pre-pretty much.”
“Wait really!”
Chase nods. He steps out of the way. Melissa stands in the middle of the classroom, looking down at the desks below her. “So what do I do now Mr Walker?” Melissa asks, teasing him.
Chase looks down at his shoes and explains that maybe she should try doing something she likes doing! He likes running and his power’s running! Then there's Ivy and her botany. It isn’t always the case, he exaggerates. “Just lo-look at Quinston!” He uses as an example.
It’s hard to think of something that may be your superpower but in the end Melissa thinks of the number of vinyls that her soulmate must have received and she thinks she knows that if she asked him , he would say music. Similarly to how she would suggest running to her own.
So Melissa asks Chase if they can go down and turn on the jukebox. She’d take anything over singing acapella. It’s a little too much like singing in the shower and Chase does not need to hear that freestyle tonal death. Whatever plays on the jukebox will be better.
Chase puts on the wicked soundtrack. He doesn’t manage to skip to whatever track he loves (Melissa wants to know what song he loves. She thinks it will become her favourite soon after.)
Chase doesn’t skip the first song in time to miss the SHE’S DEAD! Cheer that opens the musical. He stares at her for a millisecond before he skips right to defying gravity.
And so, Melissa sings. Melissa sings like she’s never sung before. She pours everything into it until her lungs burn with fire. She can feel the piano dancing over her skin and she can feel the melody in her bloodstream.
The windows shatter. So does the target. And Chase stands by the jukebox with the largest smile on his face and it practically consumes him. Melissa runs down the stairs, skipping down them and wraps her arms around Chase and squeezes him with as much appreciation she can. “It worked!” She cheers! “That’s one of my favourites! Why do you just carry it around! Can I borrow it? I lost mine a few months ago and god this is insane. I broke the target.” She slows down as she stares at the rest of her destruction. “And the windows.” she tacks on, thinking through her words carefully.
Chase laughs. “Well my soulmate looses a lot of vinyls and also an Everston pamphlet a few weeks ago. I figured if I met her here, I could return it.”
Melissa picks up the vinyl and grins, “Well I lost my wicked vinyl two months ago. When did your soulmate loose hers?”
And Chase’s eyes widen. “Two-two months ago.”
Melissa grins as she grabs Chase’s hand and pulls him close to her.
“I think we might be soulmates.” Melissa says.
Chases inches closer to her, as if his life depends on her life force. As if he’s drawn to her the same way a musician pulls at guitar strings. Melissa can feel him breathing and she can feel the way his hair sticks up ever so slightly under her chin.
“Yeah. Yeah.” Chase says, “I think we are.”
There are butterflies in her stomach but that doesn’t stop her. She tilts Chase’s chin up, so he isn’t hiding in her neck, and takes a long shuddering breath.
Then she kisses him.
Chase draws in a sharp breath from his nose and hesitantly kisses back. They brush over each other, slowly and gently. Melissa doesn’t really know what she’s doing except that her heart is pumping, her hands are sweaty and everything is so warm. She feels like she’s flying. She grasps Chase’s fingers so their hands are locked tight. Chase’s hands are equally sweaty and if Melissa opened her eyes, she’d see that his cheeks were dusted pink. Tentatively, it deepens and Melissa’s lungs clench. She withdraws one of her hands and her fingers dance up his blazer before she cups his cheeks and they’re hot. Chase grins and Melissa starts to laugh from the sheer joy of it.
It’s the laugher that ends the kiss. Chase is smiling so hard that Melissa can’t see his eyes from how much they’ve squinted. He has dimples she realises and somehow that’s the most groundbreaking thing she’s discovered today. Her soulmate likes to run and he gets sweaty hands when kissing and he stutters over every other word. He likes wicked the musical but most importantly he has dimples.
“I think there’s sec-security cameras in here Mel-melissa.”
Melissa giggles and walks out of the classroom, Chase walking hand in her hand beside her. “I’m sure that isn’t the worst thing they’ve ever seen. Come on. I want to take you to this cafe. It’s so cool! Like 40’s diner theme and it does the best milkshakes. I need to see your reaction! And we can catch up! Talk you know.” Melissa shrugged her shoulders as she continued to move across the school. “Like soulmates do!”
Chase smiles and nods, “L-lead the way then.”
“Does this dress fit?” Melissa asks Ivy, who is on her phone but listening. “I mean it does, obviously but do you think he’d like the mermaid tail thing? You know so that when I spin it flares up. Do I look to much like a fish?”
It’s the final question that gets Ivy to look up from her phone and stare at Melissa like she’s lost her mind. “Mel.” Ivy states, “I don’t think Chase is going to care. You could turn up in a bin bag. Have you seen how that boy looks at you?”
Melissa groans, “Ivy, would I look better in a bin bag? You’re the fashionista. I think the blue of the dress doesn’t suit my hair but ah, I’m not sure.”
Ivy sighs and stands up. She moves Melissa’s hair to her side and unzips the dress at the back. “I have an idea. I don’t think this is working for you. Go back into your own clothes Mel. Then meet me outside.”
Ivy walks down the street, Melissa at her side. They talk the entire way. Ivy makes sly comments about Melissa’s crush to which Melissa pokes her in the ribs and grins back that it’s not as if Ivy has a leg to stand on. Melissa’s seen how she longingly stares at Kaya from across the classroom. Whatever’s going on there is far too complicated for Melissa to pry into and tear the roots out of. At least not until she’s on friendship level 20 at minimum. Instead Melissa says, “Come on you must have a crush on someone!”
“Well, I think your cypher friend, Jax right? Is pretty cute.” She says it way too carelessly and her cheeks don’t flush at all. Melissa can hear her heart pound at its regular pace.
“Good news is that I know exactly what will make Jax fall head over heels for you.” Melissa says, poking Ivy in the shoulder, “Looks like we’re both buying dresses for our winter formal dates.”
Ivy clicks her tongue, “No Mel. This is all about you. Anyways, it’s not like I could invite a Cypher to the winter formal. I’d be the school's laughing stock for eternity. My dad? He’d flip!”
Melissa laughs because she knows her dating pool had never included magiclicas until Chase. Anyways it’s not as if the two are soulmates since Jax’s wore a ton of hoodies and Ivy’s idea of a casual outfit looked like someone had puked up flowers on her school blouse and a tight skirt that looked like it was pulled from the school catalogue. It’s a shame since Jax would be elated but she lets him down when Ivy inevitably cracks under societal pressures and leaves him like the under her shoe. Melissa can’t hurt like Jax like that.
Ivy takes them to a charity shop. Ivy ‘My dad owns a lawyer company’ White walks into a thrift shop and walks around as if she knows the floorplan off by heart. With the speed she manages to find formal dresses, Melissa knows that Ivy does know the entire floor plan.
Melissa hopelessly hangs back behind Ivy and watches as she flips through dresses.
Melissa eventually grabs one of the blue sparkly dresses that leaves her arms bare and her legs plenty of room when she dances.
“What do you think of this dress?” Melissa asked, lifting it up for Ivy to see. Ivy’s eyes widen at the sparkles and she instantly shuffles Melissa into one of the changing rooms so she can try it on.
“Oh my god.” Ivy says as she takes a photo on her phone of how Melissa looks, in case she can’t get any on the big day. “Nothing I’ve seen has suited you that well. You’ve got to buy it! No, you wear it and I’ll pay for it! Oh and you have to help me find something. You have such great eye apparently. Who’d have known.”
Melissa laughs, “Do you want something purple? Something flowery perhaps? I don’t really know what clothes you like.”
“If I throw in a bouquet will you stop teasing me and help me.”
Melissa laughs as she extends her hand, as if this is the best business deal they’ll ever make. She gets a bouquet to give to Chase and Ivy gets a dress that will make the boys swoon.
At the end of the day, Ivy has a purple tank top and a white high-waisted skirt that raises to a flat surface when she spins fast enough. “I’d have to wear shorts underneath.” Ivy says.
“Or hold back on the spinning.” Melissa suggests though Ivy rolls her eyes. She plans on spinning the night away, just to show off the skirt.
Melissa has a bouquet of roses (with the thorns carefully cut off), Jasemines and pressed cherry blossoms from last spring. They’re wrapped in a heart printed plastic and tied off with one of Melissa’s own bows.
When Melissa walks into the winter formal, grasping the flowers so hard they may burst, she looks at Ivy for guidance. Ivy however has vanished into the midst of the crowd. Jax jumps Melissa as she waits by the chocolate fountain, watching the door for Chase to enter.
“Who got you those flowers?” He asks.
Melissa grinned as she spun to face Jax, a goofy smile on her face, “Ivy made me a bouquet. That I can give to Chase. I just haven't been able to see him yet…”
Jax places a hand on her shoulder and reassures her that Chase is an idiot if he doesn’t show up to dance with the prettiest girl he knows. “And if he doesn’t, you can take me onto the dance floor! That way you won’t look like a complete loser.” he offers as a compromise.
“Are you asking me to dance with you Jax?” Melissa asks. She wiggles her eyebrows so that Jax knows she does not see him that way. But they used to go together for all the dances at Cypher high and she might have to steal him away from his duties to keep up the tradition.
“I can’t unfortunately.” Jax states, “I’ve got to manage food. But at least I have access to the chocolate fountain!”
Melissa laughs, “Try it with strawberries I’ve heard they’re…” She trails off as she spots Chase. He’s in a full piece suit, red tie and all but he hasn’t tidied up his hair at all . “Oh Chase is here!” She exclaims. “I’ll see you around Jax!” before running off, n ot even turning around to spare a glance to her best friend ’s kicked puppy expression.
Melissa hands her bouquet to Chase, twirling her hair as he holds it in his own hands. “Oh oh. You-you didn’t hav-have too!” Chase bumbles out, “Thou-though it explains the the ro-roses I got yes-yester-yes-yesterday.”
“Oh my god! I lost one?” Melissa’s mouth hangs open.
Chase laughs, “Yeah. Wanna, go put, these in my my locker Mel-melissa. Then we can, can dance?”
Melissa grabs his hand. Chase shifts the bouquet so it’s only in one arm. Melissa doesn’t say yes but as they walk, sweaty palm in sweaty palm to Chase’s locker, it’s a yes enough.
Melissa receives a guitar pick one day after Evasinger’s practise. She’s sitting at the piano, fingers dancing across the keys, playing nothing in particular. Then BAM! There’s a guitar pick. The guitar pick gets lost between the keys and Melissa spends an embarrassing long amount of time trying to pull it out. Could she just buy Chase a new guitar pick? Yes. Is this her pride on the line (and possibly having to pay for an entire new piano?) Also yes.
She’s just got the pick between her fingernails when Chase opens the door and peaks his head in.
“Ha-have you gotten a gui-uitar pick by by chance?” he asks.
And the pick just slips out of Melissa’s fingernails. Just like that.
“Yeah it just fell down the piano.” Melissa responded, trying to get it out again with her nails. “You play?” because let’s be real, when you’re crouched down, eye to eye with the piano, failing to get a guitar pick in front of your soulmate, that isn’t what you want them focusing on. So small talk it is. Chase nods. So Melissa keeps on talking so he doesn’t watch her miss the fucking guitar clip the third time in the row. “So, when I have this pick, will you play a song? I’ll sing along if I know it.”
“Su-sure!”
Melissa does get the pick out but it’s fifthteen minutes, three conversation changes and six attempts from Chase to get her to stop trying later. He pulls out a record that Melissa doesn’t recognise as one of her own and places it on the record player.
“I thought you were going to play?” Melissa said, raising an eyebrow as she pushed himself onto the table.
Chase laughed, “I, well.” He pulled a guitar off one of the walls and strummed it. “I’m not sure- I I’ll compare.”
“Don’t put yourself down like that. Come on. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“You lau-laugh and decide I’m not go-good enough to b-be your bo-boy-boyfriend.”
“Well I’m not gonna do that. Come on, sing for me Chase.”
Perhaps the weirdest part of Chase singing was the fact he didn’t stutter at all. His voice shook, his hands shook hard enough to hit every other string wrong. He got every word out perfectly. In tune as well.
Despite not owning the album, Melissa does recognise the song he sings. Tangled was part of everyone’s childhood, she does in fact know every lyric to I see the light off by heart. After one minute of Chase singing alone, she joined in.
It’d be funny if it weren’t so heart pounding. Do you watch musical theatre? Do you know what the first duet means? It means this is who Melissa is going to love the rest of her life and oh her god. Blood rushes to her face as she grabs Chase’s hands (their sweating again) and begins to sway in tune with him.
Chase abandons his guitar and they’re just singing. They’re together, they’re close and in this moment Melissa realises: she never wants this moment to end . The world could burn and all that would matter would be that this music room stays still.
They stop singing, it fades out of them as they hold onto the last note.
“Have you ever paid attention to the sound of violins in the original?”
Melissa hooks her head over Chase’s. She can smell the vanilla in his hair and feel every hair he has and hasn’t brushed. “I haven’t.” she admits, “I always think about the lights and the reflection of the water. I’ve never thought of the music beyond the lyrics.”
“I’ll make you listen to it with me one day.” Chase says, grinning.
She could kiss him, Melissa realises. But there’s all the time in the world for that later. Besides that’d be a little too cheesy. So she drinks in the feeling of him near her and hugs him, holding Chase tight. He hooks his chin over her shoulder and hugs her back as fiercely.
“Do you wan-want to watch the m-movie aft-ter school?” Chase asks, breaking the moment. Melissa pulls away and grasps him by his shoulders and nods,
“There's nothing I’d rather do.”