Variations on a Sousa March

“Mr. Pants?!”

The splash zone of Sonata’s exaggerated spit-take of chocolate milk was, fortunately, not directed at her two fellow sirens. She was quickly keeling over against the lunch table in a fit of laughter, joined by Adagio’s snickering despite Aria being poised to continue speaking.

“Alright, alright, let her talk. I want to know more about this Mr. Pants, and Aria’s fantastic choice of class.” Adagio pat Sonata’s head from across the table to calm her down, resting her head on her hand with a smirk to Aria while the giggling came to an end “Pff..M-Mr..Pants!” Sonata barely gasped out through giggles, composing herself with a deep breath shortly afterwards. She gave Aria a patient smile, waving her hand towards her. “Okay okay, keep going!”

Aria groaned at the sight of their smiles, Adagio’s in particular being irritating. How was it so easy for her to be so smug? “First off, his name is Fancy Pants or something,” Aria began. A quick glare stopped any new giggles coming from Sonata. “And yeah, it’s band class. With those weird gold colored instruments.”

Sonata nearly jumped out of her seat, her face now almost smushing right against Aria’s. “Like in the movies?!” Sonata practically yelled right in her face, earning her a pink hand against her face that sat her back down. “Ugh, splash zone, ‘Nata!” Aria exclaimed, wiping specks of saliva off of her cheek with a groan. “..and, yeah, like that one movie.” Anticipating another exclamation from Sonata, she quickly continued. “Not exactly like it! He isn’t a con man trying to sell us instruments and uniforms. You watched that stupid movie too much, ‘Nata..”

“But how else would I know pool tables are sinful?”

Adagio cleared her throat to catch the two’s attention, a grin coming to her face once their eyes were on her. “Yes, yes, that movie was very educational. Buuuut, from what we know of these instruments you’re going to be playing..” Aria barely squirmed, but it was enough for Adagio to pounce. “You’re going to be learning how to blow? It’s about time, really, it’s a great skill for any girl to have—”

“S-Shut up! It’s not like that!”

“Really? You know, I walked by the music room just two days ago and saw you blowing pretty hard. Are you getting any better at it? If you’re good enough, you can make a real killing out of it.” Adagio’s grin had become wicked at this point. Aria unknowingly gave her near infinite material to tease her with, and she was absolutely reveling in it.

Aria’s frown had grown to a grimace, the hot sensation coming to her cheeks only embarrassing her even further. “Y-Yeah, well..takes one to..gah! Just quit it, ‘Dagi!” Aria was practically speaking through her gritted teeth, the remarks about blowing clearly striking a nerve in her. A blue hand patting at her shoulder caused her gaze to switch from Adagio’s uber-smug grin to a pouting Sonata.

“Come oooon! Tell us more! Like..what kinda pants does Mr. Pants wear? Why’dja even swap to that class in the first place?” Sonata begged, ready to shake Aria by the shoulder to hear more if her hand wasn’t already nudged off.

“W-Well..that Zecora lady called me into her office and started going on about my ‘credits’ or whatever. Something about our ‘special case’ as students, or whatever.” The sirens each had a very fickle understanding of how complicated their situation as students was, Aria especially. All she knew was the one reason they bothered to attend, and how the student body of CHS collectively decided to avoid them as much as possible. It was why they had a table all to themselves, and why some redhead chick literally screamed and ran away from Aria just a few days ago.

“So,” Aria continued. “I tell her to do whatever the hell she needs to do and I leave. Next thing I know, Doodle is saying I got switched outta his class and into Concert Band or whatever. I got math in the damn mornings now..” Aria grumbled. She was pretty smart when it came to the odd ways mathematics worked, but having to process all those numbers at seven-thirty in the morning had to be a crime in this world.

“Hmm..” Adagio hummed, finger on her chin as she feigned thinking. Both Aria and Sonata knew this as a sign of Adagio coming up with something racy. “You have it for the last period, don’t you?” Adagio asked. “Once the bell rings..you’ll be learning how to blow again, ri~ight?” Cue the devious grin and Aria fuming once more.

“I-It’s blowing into a damn mouthpiece! Not a..whatever!”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll be blowing into a piece, alright.” A little vague on Adagio’s part, but it still got a rise out of Aria. Sonata’s giggling was clearly driving Adagio to push it further. But before she could make a comment about Mr. Pants’s pants coming off, the bell abruptly rang and students were rising from their tables and unfinished lunches to their final class.

“Tsk. Oh, well!” Adagio exclaimed. “Sonata and I will be investigating these ‘clubs’ the humans here enjoy congregating in. After school, that is. Take the van home, we’ll walk.”

Aria rolled her eyes, yet subconsciously felt for the keys to their ‘tour bus’ in her back pocket. Once she was sure Sonata hadn’t somehow nabbed them, she rose from the lunch table with her backpack in tow. “Yeah. Was gonna drive off if you guys were late, anyways.”

The three sirens exchanged their goodbyes, parting ways to their final classes of the day. Aria, in particular, was headed upstairs to the music room.

“Ugh, stupid..freakin’..” Aria grunted as she fumbled with the aged latches on the instrument case, taking a moment to force them open and heave the instrument into her lap.

A tuba.

Being told to simply pick an instrument when first coming to the class was a bit of a jarring introduction to band, but it did allow her to choose the one instrument that was practically in the back of the class. Best of all, Mr. Pants couldn’t see her very well from across the rows of students ahead of her. It was easier than ever to slack off!

Right on cue, a pure white colored man with royal blue hair clad in a suit and bowtie that was far too formal for a highschool concert band class. “Ahem. Students, please, quiet down!” Mr. Pants began, and Aria immediately tuned out. Sure, maybe what he prattled on about was important, but it’s not like he bothered to teach her the basics of tuba beyond the very basics. From what little she listened to, the beginning of class was always reserved for going on about recent events, small talk to the more talkative students, and a reminder of the future concert the whole class was practicing for. Blegh.

The next few minutes passed by rather uneventfully. Aria clumsily played the tuba that weighed down in her lap, ignoring the looks she got from people ahead of her turning back to see who was making all the mistakes. And the subsequent panic those people expressed, turning forward almost immediately upon seeing Aria.

But then, it was time to play that dreaded song. The one that frustrated her to no end.

Up on the top of the page was the name of the song in big, bold letters.

Liberty Bell.

Play fast here, play slow there, but not too slow! Play a weird note there, but don’t play it like the other weird note! The symbols of the notes were fine, Aria was vaguely familiar with them thanks to her skills with the guitar. It was all the other foreign notes that she hated.

“Tch..” Aria clicked her tongue and sat back in her chair, tuba coming down to rest in her lap as Mr. Pants addressed the section of flutes. She wasn’t quite sure how anyone was supposed to remember any of these weird symbols, much less why her instrument sounded so bad compared to everyone else.

“Dammit..hate Sousa marches..”

Aria side-eye’d the new voice she heard to her left, seeing a green girl clad in a striped sweater who similarly had a tuba in her lap. She was leaning over it and squinting at the sheet music in front of her, brown eyes affixed on the same section Aria was having trouble with. “Sousa?” Aria half-heartedly asked. “Think it says ‘Liberty Bell’ right on top.”

The green girl only turned to Aria with a somewhat confused look, revealing she had a pretty serious case of eyebags. “Well..it says ‘John Philip Sousa’ right in the corner. He composed this one.” The girl said, pointing to the corner of her own sheet music. Aria looked and saw the very same name on her sheet, seeing ‘composed by’ just above the name. It brought a faint tinge of red to her cheek, now that she saw how obvious it was.. “R-Right. Yeah. I hate ‘im too, I guess..”

Great recovery.

“..uhm, do you still need help?” The girl asked, still looking at Aria. “..What?” Aria responded, confused. Why was this random chick talking to her like they knew each other? And why hadn’t she been scared off by the sight of one of the big scary sirens?

“I asked you if you needed help last class. Er..you don’t remember?” Aria had now fully turned her head towards her, giving her a look that must have been a mix of confusion and her usual scowl. “..we met last class. Remember? Wallflower Blush?” Wallflower gave a frown as she pointed to herself, as if that would jog Aria’s memory.

Surprisingly enough, it did! Aria facepalmed with a groan as the memory came back to her. Wallflower noticed she was struggling and taught her the basics of the tuba and offered to help her if needed. Most importantly of all, she was so damn nice. Well, nice as in she didn’t have the usual reaction of being mortified by the sight of the most mild-mannered siren. “Yeah..sorry about that..” Aria spoke through gritted teeth, still covering her face with her facepalm hand to avoid unintentionally scowling at Wallflower. Once the embarrassment that twisted her gut into knots was mostly gone, she dragged her hand down to look at Wallflower once again.

Wallflower was wearing a deep frown, her eye bags seeming even darker as she began to turn back to her sheet music. “It’s. Fine..happens all the time.” Wallflower sighed, starting to shift her body back to facing forward.

Suddenly, Aria spoke up. “Hey! Uh..” Aria reigned herself back in, returning to her relaxed position once she realized she almost lunged for Wallflower. This was a good start, right? Supposedly, situations like this were what friendships were built off of. “..I get it. It, uh, used to happen to me too. It sucked.” Aria said.

“..Really?”

Aria sensed Wallflower was rather doubtful of whether or not she could sympathize, yet bit her tongue to avoid saying something rude. “Yeah.” Aria began. “..uh, before I say anything. You know who I am? And my friends?”

Wallflower immediately nodded, now facing Aria once again. “You’re Aria. I know your friends too, you kinda did that whole..uhm, y’know..a while back.” Wallflower said. Aria must have made another scowly face, judging by how Wallflower was looking down with a meek expression. “Yeah. We did that thing.” Aria sighed, immediately regretting the amount of vitriol in her tone. “Sorry..” Eager to rid the air of the awkward silence between them, Aria spoke again. “ You. Don’t seem too concerned. About sitting next to..one of us.”

Wallflower shook her head, pushing the tuba off of her and resting it on the floor to face Aria completely. “I can sympathize, I guess..about what happened to you.” she mumbled, gaze falling down to the floor.

Aria scoffed in response. “No offense, but what happened to us after the Battle is pretty unique to us.” She glanced back to a silent Wallflower, quickly taking notice of how dejected she looked all of a sudden.

Damnit, why’d I have to say that..and why do I feel bad about it now?!

“..Hey, c’mon. If you cry during a class like this, you’d be a total dweeb.” Aria quickly added, almost spitting it out. It got a snort out of Wallflower which, oddly enough, made Aria feel..nice? It was similar to how she felt when spending quality time with Adagio and Sonata..

“I am a dweeb.” Wallflower replied through a stifled smile. That seemed to do the trick.. Aria fought against the smirk pulling at her lips, biting her cheek to resist the urge. “..Saying I sympathize with you wasn’t really a good answer, was it?” Wallflower began. “I-I do sympathize! Let’s just say I had..something similar happen. And, in a way, I can sympathize with how you guys are trying to be better people now?”

“..alright,” Aria hesitantly began. “Still, don’t know why you sympathize at all—”

The song suddenly beginning once again was enough to interrupt the girls mid-conversation, Pants conducting once again. This time, Aria was playing even worse. And for some reason, it bugged her. If she was going to play this tuba thing for the rest of the year, she wanted to at least be good at it. “Psst.” Aria leaned over to Wallflower, mouth separating from the mouthpiece. “You’d better still be offering to teach me how to play this thing.”

“..how about after school?” Wallflower replied.

Aria squinted, hesitant now. Why couldn’t they just practice in the music room right then and there? All they had been doing was play the song over and over until they got it right, anyways. “If you don’t mean after school in here, I’ll say no.”

Wallflower sighed as if she knew Aria was going to object. “Mr. Pants locks the music room after school. Only a few people have a key, so..maybe at your place? Before you ask about going to mine, it’s..not really an option.”

By now, Aria was full on glaring just because of the mere notion of bringing Wallflower to her house. The house she lived in with Sonata, and more importantly Adagio. She’d never hear the end of it after ‘oooh, bringing a girl home?’ Then again, they’d be home late thanks to the club thing..

“..Fine.

“Wallflower, you have to be there! You’re the president!” Roseluck nearly yelled, firmly grabbing Wallflower’s shoulders as if she was about to run away. “You have to..explain what gardening club is about and all that! Because you’re the president of the club!”

Wallflower sighed, yet forced herself to look into the eyes of Roseluck and Ditzy. She hated having to disappoint her only two real friends this way.. “I’m sorry. But..I made a promise. I can’t be here today, but I will be here tomorrow. Besides! You and Ditzy know more than enough to give a good introduction to gardening!”

Ditzy hummed, a finger tapping on her chin as she thought of her words carefully. After a brief moment, she spoke with an uncertain smile. “Uhmm..but you’re the one who teaches us all the stuff, right? You might leave a better first impression, aaand..it’s a little odd for the best gardener to not be at her own club. We’ve only got today and tomorrow to try and recruit new members, after all.”
“Yes, but‒okay, just listen.” Wallflower murmured, the two girls leaning in with anticipation. “..if things go well, then..I might have a new friend after this, okay?”

Ditzy immediately squee’d and grabbed Roseluck’s shoulders, rapidly shaking her around in pure excitement. “Wally’s getting a new friend! Ooh, it’s finally happeniiing! Does this mean we call off ‘Operation: Get Wallflower a New Friend?’”

“Operation what?” Wallflower asked in slight confusion.

“Nothing!” Roseluck blurted out. She gently took Ditzy’s hands off of her shoulders, but she was smiling nearly as wide now. “Sooo, new friend now, huh? That’s great! Still sucks you won’t be here today, but oh well.” Her eyes went down to the tuba case Wallflower was lugging around behind her, only now noticing it. “Someone in band class?”

“Uhm..yeah.” Wallflower drawled. Somehow, she knew how the two‒especially Roseluck‒would react if she knew who it was. Time to change the subject. “Aaanyways. If you’ll really miss me and want me there today, how about a photo to show people? You can introduce me, and a photo of me is about as interesting as the real me in person.”

“Wallflower..” Ditzy frowned, taking hold of Wallflower’s wrists to idly swing them around. “Remember what we talked about?”

“Right, right, sorry..” Wallflower mumbled. “No more self deprecating. Sorry.”

“We’re sad you can’t be there because you are interesting, okaaay? But if it’s for a new friend, it’s a little less sad for us.” Ditzy finished it off with a smile and a boop to Wallflower’s nose. “Boop!” Wallflower could not resist giving a tiny smile.

“Alright, alright,” Roseluck interrupted. “A photo is actually a good idea if you can’t be there. Just give me a secooond..” She pulled her phone out as Ditzy stepped away, peering to the screen as Roseluck fumbled with the camera.

“Okay!” Roseluck exclaimed, holding the phone up. “Saaay..cheese!” Wallflower rolled her eyes, yet she did force a tiny smile to at least look nice. Hopefully the dark circles under her eyes didn’t detract from the little smile.

“Hmm..yeah, this’ll work!” Roseluck smiled, eyes glossing over the screen for a moment before she suddenly froze. In an instant she was nearly as pale as a ghost, nearly dropping her phone if Ditzy wasn’t there to keep her standing.

“Roseluck?! Are you ohkay?” Ditzy asked, looking at the photo for anything wrong. Roseluck only squeaked in reply.

“Hey, dweeb. Let’s go.” Aria walked up behind Wallflower, keys to the Dazzlings’ ‘tour bus’ in hand. “I got mine in the back already. It’s not too far, so..let’s go already.”

Wallflower nodded, heaving her tuba case up with a grunt. “See you two tomorrow!” With that, she was walking by Aria’s side to the van with a faint smile. A real smile.

“..s-she..Wall..A-Aria..f-f-freh..nds..” Roseluck sputtered. Ditzy fanned her with her hand in an attempt to soothe her. “There, there..”

Wallflower adjusted into the passenger seat of the crudely spray painted van, fastening her seatbelt in unison with Aria. “Er, you sure Sonata and Adagio won’t mind?” Wallflower asked. Saying those names so casually felt..a little odd.

“Yeah. They’re staying after school. Plus, they gotta walk. We’ll be alone for a while.” Aria casually stated. Then her cheeks became all rosy. “N-Not..like that. Just, uh. Y’know. Just us. A-As in they won’t, uh, bother us.”

“..r-right, I get it.”

Aria’s grip on the wheel tightened as she realized she hadn’t even started the van yet, twisting the ignition and pulling out of the parking lot to their destination. She didn’t want for things to be awkward, but for a moment the only thing they could hear was the humming of the engine.

“..so, why are you guys attending CHS at all?”

“You really want to know?”

Wallflower didn’t expect such a blunt response, especially from Aria. Judging by their interactions from today, that is. “Uh, yeah..I’m just. Curious. After what I did, I never wanted to come back again..” She muttered. “Oh, gosh, it’s pretty selfish of me to ask you, huh?”

Aria elected not to poke or prod about what exactly Wallflower meant. That was a friendship thing, right? And honesty. If she wanted to keep Wallflower around, she had to be honest. “Nah. I get it. I’m guessing you did some evil magic thing too, but you don’t gotta tell me.” Aria quickly glanced over to see Wallflower practically shrink in her seat. If she wasn’t buckled up, she’d probably curl into herself even more. “Hey, not judging you or anything, alright? Whatever you did probably wasn’t as bad as trying to take over..the world. Or something. Don’t even know why we were going for that instead of trying to go back home..”

“It was..bad..really bad..I still don’t, uh..” Wallflower trailed off almost immediately. Touchy subject. Aria had to pivot the conversation! “It’s fine.” Aria abruptly spat out. “Don’t gotta tell me if it’s..bad. But I’ll tell you why we came back. You listening?” Aria saw her nodding out of the corner of her eye, allowing herself a tiny smirk thanks to the sight.

“We were gonna keep doing what we did at Starswirled. Like, sing. But with autotune and the vocal loops, all that stuff. Turns out the internet didn’t care about what we did here at the Battle, just the fact we lip synced and stuff. Though our whole magic thing would have been more well known, too” Aria’s smirk only grew as she spoke, it was just too funny. Mass mind control? Not a problem. Lying about their singing? Blacklisted from all their booked events. “Why come back here, of all places?” Aria continued. “Dunno. We were bored. And..wanted to make friends, I guess. See what’s so good about it.”

“Have you made any?”

“..What do you think?” Aria winced at the unintended vitriol she put into her words. Pumping the brakes to stop at the nearing red light, the van came to a stop. “That red girl. What’s her name?”

“Roseluck.” Wallflower answered. “..has she reacted like that before? Seeing you, I mean. She’s a little skittish, really.”

“Mhm. Should have seen her when I was just walking with Adagio and Sonata, she ran.” Aria briefly chuckled, stopping once she was done replaying the memory. “It’s..frustrating. People can’t see we’ve been trying to change, but it’s not like we’ll be all ‘ooh, friendship’ or whatever. ‘Specially towards the Rainbooms. Apparently not liking the people who ruined our damn voices still makes us evil, but it sucks! I know I’m not gonna change how I am just for friendship, screw that! I’ll be as angry about our voices as I wanna be cuz it feels good—“

Hooonk!

Aria slammed her foot on the gas, the van lurching forward and across the intersection. They were sitting still at the now green light for a few seconds.

“I..didn’t mean to say all that.” Aria murmured. What just happened?

“Driving helps people loosen up, I think.” Wallflower remarked. “But, uh, I understand how you feel. It makes me feel bad, but..I kinda like to hate—or, be angry, I guess. At the end of the day, everyone can at least definitively hate something. It might not be objectively good, but it’s..therapeutic, sometimes. In healthy amounts, that is!”

“Wow. That was kinda eloquent.” Aria smirked and took a left hand turn. Almost there. “I had you pinned as a meek dweeb, not a..kinda spiteful dweeb. You really gotta tell me the magic stuff you got up to someday.”

Aria saw Wallflower smile right out of the corner of her eye, feeling that odd little warmth again. “Does that mean we’ll be hanging out more?” Wallflower asked.

In the neighborhood now.

“Dunno. Is that..something you’d do?”

Pulling up to the house.

“Hmm..sure, but that means we’ll be friends. And you’ll be the third friend I’ve made by myself.”

Turning a corner.

“That’s pretty pathetic. If I agree, you have to be my first friend I’ve made by myself, dweeb.”

Into the driveway.

“Okay, deal.”

Park.

The Dazzlings lived in a two story house with a basement, the open floor plan leaving things rather spacious. The entire floor in the living room and kitchen was covered in gaudy rugs haphazardly laid everywhere, the original wood paneling occasionally peeking out. The walls were covered in splotches of paint of varying colors, probably being white originally. At the very least, the furniture looked normal..

“..now that we’re friends, is it okay for me to say this looks kinda horrendous?” Wallflower carried her tuba case inside and kicked her aged sneakers off, noticing Aria was doing the same with her boots.

Aria actually snorted, yet quickly stifled her reaction as she picked her own tuba case up. “snrhk..y-yeah. I tried painting it gray, then Sonata wanted bright yellow. Then I tried purple, and she tried red. I was just doing it out of spite after a while. C’mon, we can practice in my room.”
Wallflower lugged her case upstairs with an exerted groan, noodle arms giving in by the time they made it up and down the hallway. Aria opened the door to her room, revealing a rather modest bedroom with scarce decoration. The only notable thing was the queen sized bed—the room was pretty normal otherwise. Dresser, impressive looking computer tower and monitor on a desk, closet mostly full of duplicates of Aria’s usual outfit, vanity table collecting dust..

“Woah!” Wallflower ran over to a corner of Aria’s room, getting on her knees to admire the beauty of.. “Is this a Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2 with the Telecaster headstock?! Ooh, and you painted the body with purple acrylic?” Wallflower gawked, practically drooling over the guitar on its stand, turning to face Aria with a nervous smile after enough awkward silence had passed.

“Uh, yeah. Spent a fortune on it, but we kinda got the money with our gems. Back when we had ‘em.” Aria approached and picked the guitar up from its stand, holding it firmly while running her fingers along the neck. “I picked up playing when we first came to this world. I liked it, so I ended up playing it for our backing tracks. It’s fun.” Aria said, slipping it back onto its stand with a gentle touch.

Wallflower stood back up, eyes still on the guitar before eventually moving to meet Aria’s gaze. Uhoh, pretty eyes. Was this the first time they made eye contact? Damnit, she’s hot! “U-Uh, yeah, I uh, know a little bit..” Wallflower stammered, eyes immediately shooting back down to the floor again. “I’ve only uh..ever played acoustic though..not very good, either. I’ve always wanted a Vintera Tele, but..y’know, too expensive. I’ve always wanted a Warmoth custom too, but, still. Expensive..”

Deathly afraid of another awkward pause, Wallflower hastily moved from the So-Cal to the tuba cases that lay at the foot of Aria’s bed. “S-So! How about I, uh, teach you now? I brought our sheet music, so..”

“Just don’t teach me with the letter names or whatever. I can’t remember them at all.”

After sympathizing over not knowing how to play an F sharp and being called a dweeb, Wallflower began her amateur lesson over each of the notes and quickly drilling the fingerings into Aria’s head, followed by teaching her the correct way to blow into the mouthpiece. Their shared frustrations over Sousa’s stylistic choices quickly devolved into finding any reason to not continue practicing Sousa, tuba's stored way. After enough begging and promises not to break or stain anything, Wallflower earned herself a free guitar lesson on the So-Cal.

“Okay, so do I—”

“Not yet, still need to plug it in. Thought you’d know, dweeb.” Aria teased, the hidden and stifled smile still able to be heard in her voice.

Wallflower continued to fidget with the guitar in her lap, the strap around her neck just in case. It was like holding a baby..a very expensive, acrylic baby. With a Telecaster headstock. With a click of the plug inserted into the Marshall amp, Aria returned to her seat on the bed. Her eyes were on Wallflower’s fingers on the frets as she scooted a bit closer. “Okay, show me what you know first.”

“Hmm..oh-kay..I think I remember how to do thiiiis..” Wallflower murmured, fingers gliding along the frets to find a familiar position. “Yeah, something like this. Right?”

“..mh, yeah, looks kinda like a chord.”

Wallflower moved her other hand to prepare to strum, taking a deep breath in anticipation. Something about playing an electric for the first time felt oddly ceremonial..

Suddenly, the door flung open, smacking into the wall. “‘Riaaaa!” Sonata belted. “We’re home! ‘Dagi and I went to the club thing and—” She paused the very moment she saw what was going on. Aria. And another girl. On her bed together. Holding her precious guitar. “..oo~ooh!”

“What’s going on up there?” Adagio yelled from downstairs, the sound of her footsteps quickly ascending. “Did you walk in on her again? While she was ge—” Adagio peered through the doorway and over Sonata’s shoulder, a devilish grin immediately forming on her face.

“Inviting a girl over while we’re gone?” Adagio teased, leaning against the doorframe while Sonata was already snickering. “So, who is she? Can we trust her with you? You can leave the door locked, if you really need to.”
“It..It’s not like that!” Aria snapped back, already fuming.

“Snrk..you’re blushing, ‘Ria!” Sonata giggled through her hand, genuinely trying not to laugh. “It’s totally ohkay if you’ve got a secret girlfriend, y’know!”

“She ISN’T—..just, drop it already!”

“Oh, come on, Aria. We really don’t mind! We just wished you told us.” Adagio teased even further, going over to give Aria a nice and snuggly hug. “It’s perfectly okay for you to be in love with another girl, you know.”

“I’M NOT!” Aria barked, immediately trying to wiggle free from the hug. Any attempts to escape were rendered useless as Sonata immediately joined in, smushing Wallflower right up against Aria in a hug sandwich. “‘Ria’s got a girlfriend, ‘Ria’s got a girlfriend!”

Aria didn’t stop fighting back, yet it was impossible to escape the smush. “D-Damnit, ‘Nata, quit pushing her against me! Wallflower, just—damnit, let her put the guitar down, ‘Nata!”

“Sorry!”

Wallflower was too busy smiling like an idiot to hear her. Something about being sandwiched into a hug made her feel all..tingly and warm inside. She liked it. “Does this mean the guitar lesson’s over?”

“Ooh, teaching her how to use her fingers, Aria?”

“Why does she get to touch your guitar and I can’t?”

“GET OFFA ME!”

Author's Note:

This is the first story I’ve written in a very, very long time. I’d like to think I’ve improved, but I’m probably very rusty. Feedback is definitely appreciated! Stroking my ego is also appreciated.

If you liked this story, I may or may not write a multi-chapter sequel. Just don’t expect a first chapter too soon, because writing this took me four days and I have a terrible work ethic. Seriously, writing this really didn’t need to take so long. Limiting myself to chapters might help.

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