The light was beaming through the window of the cellist’s room, landing on her gray silk sheets, and lighting the room with a nice yellow colour. The warmth of the sun woke Octavia, who instantly looked at her alarm clock: it was 7 am. Good. She wasn’t late, thank god. She slipped out of bed, her white pajamas feeling soft on her skin, as a small draught touched her cheek and made her chill. She opened her dresser, picked a slightly grayer skirt than the one she was wearing yesterday, as well as a plain white shirt and her purple bowtie. After taking off her night clothes, she put on her underwear, followed by her skirt and shirt, and by the rest of her usual outfit.
Once this was done, she grabbed the bag she had prepared last evening, as well as her cello case. Bringing the latter yesterday was proven to be useless, but now that she had her complete schedule, she knew she had music class today, and she was excited about it, for many reasons. First, she would finally be able to play the cello at school, in a slightly more… relaxing place than the manor. Then, she would most likely hear the three other girls playing their instruments. If she remembered well, Lyra was playing the lyre, Bon-Bon the piano, and Vinyl.... well she had yet to understand what Vinyl’s instrument consisted of. She had no idea what a “DJ” was, but according to Bon-Bon, it was related to music somehow.
Octavia got out of her room, and started walking through the old hallway of the southeast wing. In the morning light, the manor was actually quite beautiful. The dim light was passing through the thin curtains, illuminating the red shades of the carpet. Octavia reached the large stone stairs, and came down to arrive in the main hall. She then headed towards the kitchen where a small breakfast, consisting of an orange juice and a toast with cherry marmelade, was waiting for her. Dana made these for her every morning, before leaving to take care of her other duties. Now that Octavia wasn’t in boarding school anymore, she was more than happy to enjoy this little daily treat.
At exactly 7:30, the driver silently entered the hall, waiting for his bosses daughter, his hands jointed in his back, no emotion appearing on his face.
Octavia joined him, as he held the door of the manor, followed the the car’s. Her mother decided that, for the beginning of the year at least, Octavia should be brought at school by car, to avoid obnoxious bus schedules. Moreover, she wanted to have someone to blame in case Octavia was late, but it hadn’t happened yet.
The man drove silently for about forty minutes, before stopping in front of Canterlot High School. The classes were starting at 8:30, and there weren’t many people around yet. The other students were more like Vinyl, and arrived only five minutes before the bell rang. Probably better this way. Octavia didn’t know much about other people’s habits, but she guessed that having her own driver bringing her to school was unusual.
“Have a good day!”
The driver only nodded with a shade of a smile, and the car disappeared around the corner.
“Wow girl, how can you have your own personal driver and shit, but no phone? You have to rearrange your priorities, Tavi!”
Octavia turned around in surprise. It was Lyra, followed by Vinyl, both looking at the cellist in amazement. She should have seen that coming.
Wait, what did Lyra just call her?
“Oh Hello Lyra, Hello Vinyl, how are the two of you doing?”
Vinyl signed Lyra to answer Octavia’s greetings.
“Good! Finally we’re gonna have serious business! Music classes! I’ve been waiting so fucking long for these, and so has Vinyl!”
Blushing while listening to the mint-skinned girl’s language, Octavia asked another question:
“Hum, Lyra… if I may ask, what was that strange nickname you pronounced a few moments ago?”
“What? Ah, Tavi! You like it? It’s Vinyl’s idea, she thought it was a nice lil’ nickname to give you! I’ve to say it’s pretty cute.”
Octavia’s cheeks suddenly tinged in a deep pink: “Hum… I… I couldn’t possibly get used to that. Isn’t “Octavia” good enough? I don’t think such a nickname is appropriate.”
“Whoooo chill girl!” Vinyl wrote on her notepad “It’s just a cute nickname, and I think it suits you well!”
Octavia sure wasn’t used to that kind of compliments, nor did she ever get a nickname, even from her family.
She wasn’t used to getting gifts either, that’s why she was more than surprised to see a small package handed to her by Vinyl, as well as a small message attached to it: “It’s not much, one of my old ones, but I bought a small SD and a SIM card! Hope you don’t hate it <3”
Before she could ask what any of this meant, she was urged by the two girls to open the small box. Her curiosity taking over, she took off the small pieces of transparent tape and lifted the black cardboard cover, to discover a small piece of blue plastic, decorated with a little screen and some digits.
“Oh… Oh my! Is that?... Is this…?”
“Yup girl, your own cell phone!” Lyra announced, smiling “I mean, it’s one of Vinyl’s crappy old phones, but eh, better than nothing am I right?”
Octavia was almost as speechless as Vinyl. She got her a phone? Like this? No questions asked, after just one lunch and a few minutes of conversation?Weren’t these expensive? She guessed this one probably didn’t cost that much, but still, she had never held a cell phone before, and this girl she barely knew just offered one to her?
“Oh… Vinyl… I… I couldn’t possibly accept such a present. This is too much, and you probably need it for yourself!”
The DJ made a few signs for Lyra to translate:
“She said she has a better one now. Her job pays pretty well. And she says not to worry, that you’ll need it.”
Before Octavia could say anything, Vinyl handled her a small piece of paper: “Hey, I’ve put my cell number, along with Lyra’s and Bon-Bon’s in the phone, your own number can be found in the phone settings!”
Octavia had really basic knowledge of how this thing worked, since the house landline kinda looked like a cell phone, but she was still shocked with disbelief, shocked by the generosity these girls, especially Vinyl, were showing towards her, who probably wasn’t deserving such kindness.
“But… But what would my parents say about this? I am not allowed to have a device like this one, there must be a reason!”
“Your parents don’t really have to know about this, do they?” said Lyra with a smile “They probably won’t mind, will they? And if they’re as butthurt as you describe, you can always hide it. A phone is pretty easy to stash.”
Octavia was struck with terror. Lie to her parents? Hide something from them? She had never done such a crime in her entire life, and was incapable of lying. Though she had never tried. That made her start to wonder about her relationship with Vinyl and the others: was it really a good idea, or was it toxic for her? If they encouraged her to hide things from her parents, who knows what they could try to make her do in the future?
“I appreciate your kindness, I really do, there are no words that could describe it, but I can’t accept this. I’d hate having so much responsibility, especially if it’s your phone, Vinyl.”
“It’s yours now Tavi, not mine” Vinyl wrote “Oh before I forgot…”
As Octavia was reading this, the blue-haired girl searched in her bag before handling her a black charger.
“It’s great!” said Lyra with a big smile on her face “We’re finally gonna be able to talk with you! I mean, text with you…” she said while looking at Vinyl with a smirk.
“I’d love to, but what are we supposed to talk about, that we cannot say in person?”
Lyra and Vinyl both bursted into laughter, one loudly and the one still looking and sounding like she was gasping for air. Lyra wiped a tear from her eye:
“I dunno dude, whatever we want! That’s the fucking point! Like, we want to hang out, we just call you!”
“I’m sorry… “hang out”??”
Octavia saw Vinyl face, both amused and moved, like she was in front of a little kitty. She didn’t know anything about normal people’s life, did she?
“You know, go watch a movie, have lunch in the park, go in a strip club, that kind of stuff!”
As Vinyl punched Lyra in the shoulder, Octavia blushed even deeper. She didn’t know what this kind of establishment was, but she could easily figure. Lyra really didn’t have any taboos.”
“I never really… hung out with anyone before…”
Vinyl suddenly put her arm around Octavia’s neck, her left hand resting on the blushing cellist’s shoulder while her right hand was writing a few words:
“Well, Tavi, this is about to change! Starting today, we’re helping you discovering true life!”
}--oO0Oo--{
The music room was packed with people. Octavia wouldn’t have guessed there were so many students in CHS who played instruments. Amongst them were some faces she recognized: Vinyl, Lyra and Bon-Bon of course, but also that rainbow-haired girl she had seen around a few times, a yellow-skinned guy with blue hair and his friend who was wearing blue sunglasses, matching with his 80’s mustache.
“Good morning students, I’m glad you chose to pursue the music classes this year!” said a tall, purple-skinned and blue-haired man, his right hand laying on a gigantic golden harp “I am Mr. Nandermane, and I’ll be your music class supervisor for this year! Yes, I know, I said “supervisor”: I am technically not a teacher, except if you want to learn about tablatures or, more specifically, harp. In fact, these two hours per week are more “practicing your talent” than strictly speaking courses. Everyone here has something to bring in order to make this year the most interesting possible!”
This man sure was motivated, and so was Octavia. She could finally feel the pleasure of playing the cello, of feeling the movement of the bow against the strings, of doing something she liked to do.
But for the moment, she was too concentrated on Vinyl’s instrument. She didn’t know what it was yet, but had no idea of what it could be: it was still in her bag, and had an obvious rectangular shape… Was it a xylophone? No, that wouldn’t be Vinyl’s style… A small synthesizer maybe? That would be more likely. She didn’t want to urge her, so she just waited as everyone started getting their instruments of of their bags, and dispersed around the room. When Vinyl finally opened her backpack, she got out the strangest object Octavia had ever seen.
Vinyl noticed the confused look on the cellist’s face, laid down the object, and wrote with an amused grin on her face:
“What? You’ve never seen turntables before?”
Turntables? What in the world were these? Vinyl’s strange instrument looked like a mashup between a keyboard and two gramophone black disc plates, everything placed on a thick metal rectangle. What sort of sound was supposed to come out of this? Octavia didn’t know a lot about technology, but this was completely beyond her understanding.
“I can’t say I have, Vinyl… What in the heavens is this instrument? I have a fair amount of knowledge on music, but it’s the first time I see something of the sort…”
Suddenly, Vinyl’s face brightened, as if she just remembered something. She put down her notepad and pulled out her phone from her jeans, before typing at an incredible speed, even faster than her writing. Octavia then heard a short buzzing sound coming from inside her bag, and realized that Vinyl had just sent her her very first text message. It took her a few seconds to navigate through all the menus and options, using the dramatically small buttons, before the message appeared on screen:
“Heeeyyyy Tavi! See? Told u it’d be faster with a phone! :) So, you’ve never seen turntables right? Shame, but I cant say it surprises me. These arent music instruments per say, they are more like computers: I’m a DJ u know?”
Wow. Octavia barely understood anything in this text, but she had one major question:
“I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I understand: what is a “deed-jay”?”
If Vinyl could scream, all the glass items in CHS probably would have exploded at this moment. Vinyl’s faced was split between disbelief and deep horror, as she looked at the cellist with wide eyes. She then sent another, small text:
“Just follow me.”
Octavia started walking behind Vinyl as she was heading toward what looked like some sort of computer. Once arrived, Vinyl sat on the ground, plugged a few cables into her strange instrument, then plugged some black headphones she took from her bag, and started turning dials, pushing buttons, and moving the two black circles, in a way Octavia had never seen, with both her hands and a concentrated look on her face.
After about five minutes of enigmatic manipulations, Vinyl, who still hadn’t said a word, just handled the headphones to Octavia, along with a brief note:
“Try this.”
Octavia had never put headphones before, but she had seen enough people wearing those to know how she was supposed to. She placed them on her head, and Vinyl pressed a small black button.