The last few days had been quite the rush for Vinyl. Between packing her clothes and selling all the stuff she couldn't or wouldn't bring with her, she had nearly missed her 'Congratulations for a new job' and 'Good luck in the capital' party organized by her mother and her friends.
Announcing them what the job she had been hired for consisted of had been the most memorable moment of the party. Vinyl couldn't stop laughing for about fifteen minutes when all their jaws tried to touch the floor simultaneously at the news of her becoming a teacher. It took her another good fifteen minutes to convince them that it wasn't a joke. After that, she had partied like she hadn't in the past two months, finally relieved from all the stress her previous situation had built up in her.
The morning after that party had been a lot easier than her usual after party mornings were in her memories. Probably due to the fact that two months of a constant decreasing number of gigs and parties had refilled her reserves of sleep. Not getting slowed down by such trivial matters, she finished her packing, and took the road to Canterlot a bit before eleven. The journey hadn't been too long, only four hours on the highway.
It could have been faster with the train though, but Vinyl wouldn't have left her motorcycle in a cargo wagon for all the bits of the world, in theory at least. She had arranged for a van to meet her with the stuff that couldn't fit in her travel bag or in her bike's trunk; her turntables and a couple of boxes of her clothes and records, at the big intersection that lead to Echelon Hills; the fancy suburbs in which Vito Philharmonica was living with his daughter.
"DIO CANE, Rarity! Dove cavolo sono i fattorini tuoi?" [GODDAMN IT, Rarity! Where the hell are your delivery boys?] Vinyl shouted angrily as soon as someone on the other end of the line finally picked up. "Hanno già un ora di ritardo!" [They're already one hour late!]
"Vincenza, Darling." Rarity answered with a very annoyed tone. "While I do think that your voice is prettier in Italian, I'd rather be yelled at in a language that I understand."
"Raaa!" Vinyl growled. "Where are your delivery boys? I've been waiting for them for nearly one hour!"
"I suppose they got delayed on their way there." Rarity suggested calmly. "They had a very important delivery to do on the other side of Canterlot, you know? They are only bringing your stuff because it's on their way and as a personal favor from me to you." She added with a small chastising undertone.
"Considering I let you have all the contents of my bar before I left, I see it more like a service I paid for." Vinyl argued vigorously.
"I fail to see how a couple of bottles of cheap alcohol are worth an express delivery from Manehatten to Canterlot." Rarity replied with a somewhat condescending tone.
"Rarity, didn't your fiancée teach you the value of honesty?" Vinyl asked smugly. "There was enough booze in my bar to get AJ drunk for at least ten times. That's clearly more than 'just' a couple of bottles and, FYI, they weren't cheap!"
"Fine!" Rarity conceded quickly. "I'll admit it, I'm more in your debt than you're in mine! Happy?"
"Not really. Rare, are your boys gonna get here fast or not?" Vinyl asked with a sigh. "I've already called Mr Philharmonica to postpone our appointment to four thirty, and it's already...." She checked her watch. "...four twenty!"
"That's.... rather problematic." Rarity said uneasily.
"You think?" Vinyl replied sarcastically.
"Ok, listen." Rarity said softly. "Go to his house already. I have the address you gave me to send you your mail, I'll call to tell them to go straight to this address."
"Va bene." [Ok.] Vinyl let out with a small sigh. "You do that and I'm off to his house. Ci sentiamo presto!" [Let's hear from each other soon!]
"Parfait, ma chère." [Perfect, my dear.] Rarity answered casually. "N'oublie pas de mettre ton casque!" [Don't forget to put your helmet on!] Vinyl blinked for a second or two at Rarity's sudden change of language.
"Rarity, puis-je te rappeler que nous étions ensemble aux cours de français?" [Rarity, may I remind you that we took French classes together?] Vinyl asked with a chuckle. "If you want to annoy me by speaking in another language, at least pick one I don't speak!" She added mockingly.
Rarity remained silent for a couple of seconds. "Goodbye, Vincenza." She finally said with a sour and irritated voice before hanging up.
"Oh, Rarity!" Vinyl giggled while she put her cellphone in her pocket. "You're just too easy!"
Vinyl put her helmet back on and started her engine. Her white and electric blue motorcycle hummed loudly as she tested the accelerator a couple of times before starting up and speeding away on the quiet road of the upper district of Canterlot.
She didn't meet much more traffic as a lot of local residents were apparently still away on holidays so she decided to speed up a bit. She was running late,after all. She flicked a valve on her handlebars open with her right thumb, revealing a small bright red button. She positioned her thumb above said button with a malevolent grin.
"Time to drop the bass!" She whispered playfully with a short chuckle before pushing the red button.
The motorcycle gained an incredible boost of speed accompanied with a loud explosion that sounded like a 'wub'. As her bike was soaring through the streets at top speed, Vinyl let out a short happy shout and took the road that climbed up to Echelon Hills.
Little did she know that the town police had started a campaign against exceeding the speed limit on this very day, and that a police patrol was busy setting up a mobile speed camera a couple hundred meters ahead of her.
"Okay.... Almost done." A young trainee whispered, holding his tongue between his lips as he finished setting the camera on its tripod.
Vinyl passed in front of the camera with a loud whir, causing a strong gush of wind that knocked over both the policeman to be and his camera. The young man, quite startled by that, looked up and only caught a small glimpse of the offending biker as she turned around the curve of the mountain road. He quickly grabbed the radio on his belt and lifted to his mouth.
"Sir! Sir! A biker's coming to you at top speed!" He said with hurry. "He knocked my speed camera over!"
Around a mile or two further ahead, a veteran police officer picked his radio up.
"Did you catch his license plate?" He asked abruptly.
"No. He passed too fast! I couldn't see it!" The trainee explained.
"You gotta keep your eyes open, kid." The veteran said with wisdom and a pinch of condescension as he heard a whirring sound coming closer. "You'll get the hang of it with experience." He added with a chuckle before turning around to face the road.
He only saw a white, black and blue blur passing in front of him and disappearing at the end of the curve of the road. He blinked profusely as the sound of the bike became more and more distant. He heard his trainee asking through the radio if he, being the one with experience, had managed to catch the license plate with an obvious mocking tone. The veteran officer couldn't bear to answer his question.
"Alora... if I remember the map correctly,..." Vinyl whispered to herself as she entered Echelon Hills, at a more reasonable speed. "...it's second road to the right,..." She turned right at good intersection. "...third one to the left,..." She turned left. "...second to the right again and last front gate in the dead end."
Vinyl slowed down as she entered the dead end. She quickly found the Philharmonica residence's front gate as it was the only one with a stylized P surrounded by musical notes in the middle. Vinyl lifted her visor and let out a long impressed whistle as she glanced around the property.
"Caspita! Non scherzava a proposito delle numerose stanze!" [Good Heavens! He wasn't kidding about the numerous rooms!] Vinyl whispered in awe.
The property had a rather large garden that circle a two-story mansion that could easily provide accommodation for a family of ten people. The garden was clearly well-maintained by a landscape gardener as numerous bushes and shrubs were trimmed in the form of animals or humans with different poses. Vinyl even saw one trimmed to look like a music note. The mansion was made of red bricks with white window frames and sills. Vinyl rang the gate's bell.
"Hello, can I help you?" The slightly distorted voice of Vito Philharmonica asked with curiosity through the intercom.
"It's me, Mr Philharmonica, Vincenza Scratch." Vinyl replied quickly.
"Ha, my dear, I wasn't expecting you on a motorcycle!" He said happily before a sharp buzz came from the intercom and the gate opened itself. "Follow the path to the garage. I'll meet you there."
Vinyl drove her bike along the path to an underground garage which was already open for her. She parked her bike in the in the empty spot, next to a black sedan. She dismounted her bike and took her helmet off, shaking her head vigorously so that her now flattened hair returned to its usual messy spikes. She unhooked her black shoulder travel-bag tightly pressed on her back from the special clip of her white and blue biker jacket, and put it on the ground before stretching her back.
"Nice bike!" Vito commented cheerfully as he entered the garage. He was a tall man in between his early and mid forties with short black grizzled hair. "Pleased to finally meet you in person, Vincenza." He smiled as he extended his hand to Vinyl who happily shook it.
"The pleasure's all mine." Vinyl said happily. "Really nice house you have there."
"Thank you!" Vito noticed Vinyl's travel bag. "That's all the luggage you've got?" He asked with confusion. "I understood that you weren't going to bring much with you, but isn't that a bit minimal?"
"Oh, no! That's just the part I took with me." Vinyl explained. "I was supposed to meet up with the van that carries the rest of my stuff, basically the reason I called you to say I was late."
"And where's it now?"
"On its way here I hope." Vinyl chuckled awkwardly.
"Anyway, follow me." Vito said before he climbed up the staircase that lead to the house, waving at Vinyl to come after him. "I'll give you a short tour of the house."
"Just a second." Vinyl said before taking her biker jacket off with a relieved sigh.
After nearly five hours on the road under the summer sun, it was quickly becoming too hot for Vinyl to stay with her jacket on. She put her jacket down on her bike seat and kneeled down search for her deodorant in her bag. After refreshing herself a bit, she climbed up the stairs to join Vito who was expecting her in the hall.
He quickly showed her everything there was to know about the house; where the alarm console was and how to enable and disable it, where the fridge was, the living room with the huge flat screen which made Vinyl regretting about having left her games console to Rarity's little sister, and so on. Once the tour of ground floor done, he invited Vinyl in his office.
"Please, have a seat." He said calmly, motioning to the chair in front of his desk.
Vinyl sat down in silence while he sat on his chair, across Vinyl's. He search in one of his desk's drawers and pulled a large and thick brown envelope he passed on to Vinyl.
"What's that?" Vinyl asked with curiosity as she took the envelope.
"The file containing all the information regarding the start of the new school year." Vito explained casually. "It has all you need to know about our school rules, the program you must follow during the school year, the list of your students, their history within our school, the planning for the first day, etc."
"I must read all that for the start of the year?" Vinyl asked with wide eyes.
"Normally you should!" Vito nodded with a short chuckle. "But, I think that only the school general rules and maybe the planning of the first day would be enough."
"Phew," Vinyl whistled with relief before opening the envelope and seeing that the school rules was the thickest pack of sheets in the envelope. "Awww." She whined quietly while Vito was chuckling.
"Got any questions?" He asked as Vinyl flicked through all the documents she had received.
"Solo una..." [Just one...] Vinyl said when her eyes fell on her class composition. "Is it normal that there are only ten students in a senior class?"
"Yes." Vito nodded. "Our musical formation isn't as popular as in the past and the school policy's to only let the bests move up to the next grade."
"Scelta interesante..." [Interesting choice...] Vinyl commented slowly, her eyes reading through the list of her future students. "Hang on!..." She said as she stopped on a familiar name. "Your daughter's gonna be in my class?" She asked with surprise.
"Yes, is that a problem?"
"Not really... I'm just surprised because I'm going to stay here..." Vinyl explained. "Wouldn't that be a sort of conflict or something? I mean, a teacher living at one of her students' house and all."
"I see your point, but I can assure there would be no problems." Vito assured. "I've been in the school board for a long time, long before Octavia started to attend. I've always kept the school business as a private matter and she never tried to get informations out of me."
"Mmmok!" Vinyl shrugged. "Se siete sicuro, mi va pure a me!" [If you're sure, it's fine by me as well!]
"Huh, are you going to do that a lot?" He asked with a small chuckle.
"Do what?" Vinyl asked, genuinely confused.
"Switching language every now and then." Vito explained. "I'm ok with it because I understand what you say, but I'm afraid no student of yours is going to do the same if you do that in the classroom."
"Oh, right!" Vinyl face-palmed. "Sorry! It's a bad habit I took from my mother." She explained. "Well, if it happens, your daughter will just have to play the interpreter." She added with a small laugh.
"I wouldn't count on that, she can't speak Italian." Vito said casually. "She doesn't see the utility of it, so she doesn't want to learn it."
"Sul serio?" [Seriously?] Vinyl asked with dumbfounded expression. "Well, that's a bit sad." She added softly.
"Yeah, I know but what can you do?" Vito shrugged with a sigh. "Non li piace ne anche il calcio." [She doesn't even like football.]
Vinyl froze with eyes as wide as a saucers. "Come scusa?" [Beg pardon?] She asked in total disbelief.
"I must have done something wrong along the way." He said with a defeated tone.
"Hey, now. I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong." Vinyl assured. "If it's not her thing, then it's just not her thing." Vinyl stood up and patted his back gently. "Don't feel bad about it! With some luck, her kids are gonna be real 'tifosi one day. Those things can jump a generation, you know?"
"That's sweet of you to say that." Vito smiled softly. "Grazie." [Thank you.]
"Prego." [You're welcome.] Vinyl said quietly, smiling back.
They heard the noise of a lock followed by the one of the front door being open.
"Father, I'm home!" A young woman, Vito's daughter most likely, shouted from the hall. "There's a van from Carousel Boutique waiting outside the house, they're saying they have some packages for Miss Scratch!"
"Ha! Finally." Vinyl said before going straight outside the office with Vito in tow. "I'll take care of that and be back in a few minutes." Vito nodded and went to the living room to see his daughter while Vinyl went outside the house.
She spotted the two deliverymen busy unloading her belongings out of their van to put it on the sidewalk, a few meters from the front door. The fact they were doing that without real care for her stuff excessively upset Vinyl. When she saw one of them letting the box labeled 'Vinyl Records' drop on the floor, she snapped.
"Hey! Easy on the box, pal!" She shouted angrily. "What's in there's worth more than you can gain in a year!"
"Sorry, miss." The offending deliverer said in a apologetic tone.
Under Vinyl's supervision, they unloaded her turntables with a much greater care than they had displayed earlier. In a matter of seconds, Vinyl's turntables were on top of her three moving boxes; two for her clothes and one for her records. They proposed to carry them inside, but Vinyl refused. They weren't careful for just unloading two meters away from the van, She didn't want to test their luck all the way to Vito's house and to her room. After she thanked them for the delivery, one of the deliverer remained in front of her with an expecting look while the others sat on the passenger seat of the van.
"....." Vinyl stared at him in silence. "What're you waiting for?"
"A little something for the bother." He said as it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"You're expecting a tip?" Vinyl asked with a cocked eyebrow. He nodded. "After being nearly two hours late and maybe damaging my records collection?"
"It was a hell of a detour to get around these parts." He explained uneasily, his confidence slowly falling apart under the DJ's dark glare. "Beside,...they're just a bunch of old vinyl records..."
"Only a bunch of old vinyl records?" Vinyl asked furiously.
"Well, huh yeah, I mean...." Vinyl showed her right hand, slowly closing her fingers one by one as a countdown. "I'll just go!" He said before darting back to the van.
"That'd be better." Vinyl said with a smirk as the van moved off and exited the property. She picked her turntables up and went to house. "Note to self, tell Rarity about her rude deliverers." She whispered as she entered the hall.
"They didn't offer to carry your stuff here?" Vito asked with surprise as he saw her carrying her turntables.
"They're clothes delivery boys, they aren't movers." Vinyl explained with a shrug. "Do you mind telling me where I can put these?"
"You can put them in the music room." He said. "First floor, last door on the left." He explained before heading to the exit. "I'll bring the rest to your room."
"I can do it myself." Vinyl interjected. "No need for ya to do that."
"Non sense!" He said with a smile. "It'll be done quicker this way." Vinyl accepted his offer and climbed up the stairs. "Octavia! Can you come and give me a hand here?" He called before going outside.
"I'm coming, Father!" Octavia replied from the living room.
Vinyl found the door of the music room right where Vito had said she would. She entered the room and noticed an empty desk which was large enough to support her turntables. She quickly put them on it before glancing around. She noticed that the ceiling was shaped in a small dome, probably for acoustics. Vinyl clapped her hands together.
"Not bad..." She commented with a nod as the sound of the clap resonated harmoniously through the room. "What do we have here?" She said with interest as she spotted a state-of-the-art complete sound system. "Mitico! That's some good stuff!" She commented happily, kneeling down in order to inspect its settings. "Mhhmm, the settings are weird...."
"Not really, Miss Scratch!" Octavia said as she walked in. "They're perfect for analyzing a piece."
"That's what I said." Vinyl chuckled before standing up. "They're weird!"
Vinyl turned around to face the newcomer. She locked her gaze on Octavia while Octavia locked hers on the DJ.
E piu carina què pensavo! [She's cuter than I thought.] Vinyl commented in her head matter-of-factly. Granted, I only based my thought on the ten seconds I heard her speaking on the phone.
THAT's the musician to whom Father has offered a job and allowed to stay here? Octavia thought with disgust while her face remained impassible.
At least, I got one thing right from the phone... She's an old-fashioned one.
She looks like one of those thugs you see in movies.
Perfectly straightened long black hair....She must be the kind of gal who needs two hours in the bathroom every morning. 'Fantastico'! [Great!] Vinyl thought in annoyance.
Is she one of those rock and roll musician? ... No, it can't be. Father only works with classical musicians ...What kind of musician and woman has her hair dyed in blue?! ... Does she even brush them? It looks like a huge mess of blue straws..
She's a senior..or at least she'll be one in a couple of days...So she must be seventeen, maybe eighteen.....What kind of seventeen year old girl dresses in a full black suit with a white blouse in the middle of summer?
It's the first time she met Father... For her first meeting with her new employer, she dresses with low-waisted ripped jeans,... is that her underwear that I see? How crude!.... a loose white tank top and.... Are those metal knuckles on her gloves? She got a tattoo ... PON-3? What does that mean?
I grew up with Rarity as a friend.... I can recognize an uptight woman from miles away, and that girl could be the illustration of uptightness in a dictionary
What's the term they use in movies.... Punk?...Right, that's it! She's a punk! No, she's the essence of punk!
Ahora, calma ti, Vincenza... La sta giudicando solo con la sua apparenza.. [Now, easy, Vincenza... You're judging her solely on her looks.]
...What am I thinking? I've only seen this woman for about a minute and I'm labeling her when she only said a few words to me...
She sounded friendly on the phone... Maybe a bit distant, then again, who wouldn't when a stranger phones you? At least, she was very polite with me...
Octavia, You've seen that heavy box she had labeled 'Vinyl Records'... She must have a great musical background to have that many records...
... She kinda wear the black suit nicely... It 'suits' her well... Haha! Get it? It suits her well..... I'm mentally explaining and laughing at my own jokes... I must be more tired from the journey than I first thought.
Father told she made the road from Manehatten to here all by herself... It's quite normal she put on clothes in which she was comfortable...
"Octavia!" Vito called from the hall. "I just received an important phone call from Melody, I must head out. Can I count on you to help Vincenza to settle down?"
"Huh..." Octavia took a few seconds to recover from her mental debate about Vinyl. "Sure thing, Father."
"I'll be back for dinner!" He said before going down to the garage to get his car.
"So, Miss Scratch..." Octavia started.
"You can stop with the Miss thing, Ottavia." Vinyl said quickly with a smile. "Call me Vincenza or Vinyl."
"Why Vinyl?" Octavia asked, frowning a bit at the odd pronunciation of her name.
"That's my nickname." Vinyl explained. "Since I started to DJ, my friends call me that. Clever, ain't it?"
"Sort of." Octavia admitted slowly. "Anyway, would you like me to help you settle your things in your room?"
"That's nice of you but I'd rather do that myself. You probably have better things to do." Vinyl said slowly. "On the other hand, I'd like very much if you could show me where the bathroom is." She pulled her top to take a loud whiff of her scent. "I'm in a desperate need for a shower after all this time on the road!" She said casually, waving the air in front of her nose with her hand.
Octavia tried her best to not wince at the DJ sniffing herself. "Sure! It's at the other end of the corridor, on the left. There's a sign with 'bathroom' written on it. You can't miss it."
"Thanks! Just need to go down in the garage to get rest of my stuff and I'm good to go." Vinyl said, heading toward the staircase.
Octavia closed the door of the music room and went her own bedroom, just across the bathroom. She grabbed a book before sitting cosily on her bed. She went through the first pages when she was startled by a loud music coming from across the corridor. She walked to the bathroom door and knocked on it forcibly.
"Vincenza! Could you please turn the volume down a notch?" Octavia asked. "It's too loud!" She added, drumming more intensely on the door. "Vincenza!" She shouted with a growing anger. "Vincenza, do you hear me?"
As Vinyl didn't seem to hear her, a fuming and frustrated Octavia kicked the door open, much to her own surprise. Apparently, Vinyl hadn't closed it very well, nor did she bother to lock it. When she walked in the bathroom, Octavia didn't pay attention to the DJ's clothes or travel bag on the floor, nor to the shadow of the very same DJ on the shower curtain.
Her gaze focused on the mp3 player which was the source of the deafening music as it was connected to a travel speaker on the cupboard below the sink. Octavia unplugged the player from its speaker, thus turning the music off.
"She's spinning records every day and...." Vinyl interrupted her singing when the music came to a stop. "Chè cavolo e sucesso?" [What the hell happened?] She muttered before passing her head through the curtains and spotting Octavia with her mp3 in the hand. "Hey, what gives?" She asked with anger.
"That was too loud!" Octavia snapped.
"Oh, just because the music I listen to is too loud for you, you have the right to walk in the bathroom while I'm in the shower?" Vinyl asked sarcastically. "You could've knocked nonetheless!"
"I did knock!" Octavia argued firmly. "Also, you didn't even lock the door!"
"Still no reason to walk in without being invited to just shut my music off!"
"You call that music?" Octavia asked in a sarcastic bewilderment. "Who composed such a mish-mash of sounds? DJ ..huh.. Noise?"
"Hey! DJ NOI-53 can't even begin to be compared to the Living Tombstone!" Vinyl shouted. "Take that back immediately."
"Huh?" Octavia let out in a genuine bewilderment this time. "There's actually someone whose stage name is DJ Noise?" She asked with curiosity.
"Well, he's only a rookie for the moment." Vinyl commented in a professional tone. "A little rough at changing tracks and at the drops, but he'll go far with some prac.... What the fuck am I even telling you that?" She shouted to no one in particular. "Put my player back in the speaker and get the hell out!"
"No!" Octavia said with vigor. "Not if you're going to assault my ears with what you call music!"
"Porca put....!" [The start of a curse involving a hooker] Vinyl bit her lips furiously. "Fine, keep it until I'm done! We'll discuss about it when I'm out of the shower!"
"Fine then, have a good shower!" Octavia said before leaving the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.
"Mocciosa altezzosa!" [Stuck-up brat!] Vinyl muttered to herself.
"Rude punk!" Octavia groaned as she entered her bedroom.
