Chapter Theme Music: Silken Twine ~ Amethystium124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjL3wWM5NA
<01/04/2011 - 14:45 | Saffrin Middle School (Music), Austell, GA, USA>124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQn3C3j5fHZ
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"These guitars are so lame, and they break too easy." I can't stand having to practice with these basic acoustic guitars. I wasn't expecting anything too special for a middle school music class, but when I think of guitars, only the hard rock electric guitars excite me. I've practiced with these class substitutes instead, and I'd feel the same playing a banjo. Not only that, but the strings on these things really do break way too often. I bet real rock stars don't have to put up with that cheap quality crap as often as this.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrtNdD7lBI0
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"Well what about... Hey! Is that a real piano?" Lumina almost confused me with the way my eyes drifted like that. She's curious about this music class, even though it has little to offer. In the center of the class, right where the teacher sits, there is this large piano just sitting at the front of the room.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN2EXxoJpth
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"Don't get all excited for that electric piece of crap. You can't call something like that a piano."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9303W6Flry
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"So then, it's not a piano?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlept1u2f2h
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I'm amazed she hasn't learned this much already. "It may look like a piano, but a real piano has several elevation levels. The proper term is grand piano. When you ask for something acting like it's all exquisite, it needs to be in the same class as a grand piano." I only care for one reason. Those who lived around the 1800's and early 1900's were people of refinement, people who wore excellent fashion of clothing, decorated living spaces better than anyone I've ever seen, and mostly upheld honor. I learned this much on my own, not from some memory transfer crap Lumina pulled earlier. The grand piano is not something to be mocked, but the electric piano does just that, less it be called a kid's toy.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSovysKgCR7
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"I'm not that stuck up! Why are you so hung up on a piano anyway?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqeX334FI9F
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"I happen to appreciate proper instruments... Sorry if that offends you." My sarcastic side showed itself again, just to tell Lumina I really wasn't sorry. It's her fault for not knowing something so basic.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKWbqOKu2vG
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"Okay, no need to dork out on me... Hey, you should sit down there and play something."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8NLMBeQ1f
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What, now? In that seat? "But that's the teacher's seat. Besides, I barely know any of the keys."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFpVaZMzfes
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"Oh, so you can't play the piano, but you'll leverage its history against me? Some connoisseur you are."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN138MH3qng
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"Shut up already!"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRdfdMzYa1D
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"Your teacher is late anyway. What's a couple of keys going to hurt?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJ6YfXsfUB
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I glanced around, slowly moving my feet towards the stool for the piano. I was a bit blown away by how easily Lumina made short work of my attempt to sound all smart and classical. She'll pull no punches to either make fun of me or embarrass me, but never in a way where it would do permanent damage. It's more playful than anything. I try it on her every time, but fail nine times out of ten to push her buttons.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79LKmS7APm
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"You're doing it? What song are you going to play?" Lumina sounds way too excited for my imminent performance. I just told her I don't know how to properly play yet, and she thinks I'm going to just Beethoven my way through this? We'll be lucky if I can play Pop Goes the Weasel.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHAgDHqd4as
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"I don't know. The only tunes I can remember how to play are easy game tunes, that and the theme for the Halloween Movie, the scary one."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG0TOCcV3JG
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"I don't know that movie though."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9tG0BZMxSE
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"Play something Reed!"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzn2xEr8a47
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I straightened my back, realizing that I was already sitting down on the stool, attracting half the attention of the class. People were now anticipating that I was going to just start randomly playing the piano, which I was. Either way, I felt a little strange being up here now, with Malica cheering me on from a distance.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZ1yOg6fZW
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"I forgot she was in this class too."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo4JMBccU1s
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"Somehow we both did." Malica is becoming a little less memorable to me lately, not that it's a bad thing after all she did to me many months ago. I wonder if she— Oh crap! My attention darted to the door, as the teacher was now walking in. But here I am, sitting in her seat touching her fake piano. I've got only a few seconds before I'm asked to get out of it!124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUFzhJ5k73o
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"Ah, fuck it! Here goes whatever!" My hands went straight into the piano, playing the first tune that came to mind. Since it wasn't exactly expected that a student would be playing at all, Ms. Patterna didn't try to stop me right away. She was curious to hear what this was about to be too.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdjHcVVnBP8
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Unfortunately for us both, the first thing that came to mind was the theme song for Halloween, the movie. I played it perfectly for the sixteen seconds it lasted without stopping, and the entire class blared at us with laughter. It was only then that I realized how special the timing of it all was. The theme of the song of a scary movie, and Ms. Patterna entering the classroom just before I started, made it appear to everyone in the room that my choice of music was a joke to associate dread and fear between this music and the music teacher. She was already giving me that mad Karen look, though I wasn't really as intimidated as she wanted me to be, and that's because I felt much better having accidentally made the whole class laugh at the unintended joke.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdk6miilVC9
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"Really Reed? Get out of my chair!"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdTZCFcpVjc
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No arguments here. I stood up, feeling both defeated and accomplished at the same time. I knew Patterna would not hold it against me. Plus, I just proved to myself that I can play any song I want by memory if I practice for it long enough, despite being unable to read notes. Once I finally sat down again, the teacher prepared to begin as if nothing happened.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKOoUGkGwh
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"What just happened? I thought it was pretty good." Has she really not seen an orchestra before? That was as tacky as I could be.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5oM086NnHl
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Still, it also seems Lumina doesn't understand the association, since she doesn't know the movie at all. "I'll explain the reference later. But, feel free to stay for the ear piercing string blowout." You ever hear twenty-two acoustic guitars going crazy at once out of sequence? It's quite the therapy, for a lunatic at least.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5ePDzM4BD
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"And, that's my cue to leave."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJhnSS7q8UA
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I nearly chuckled at how easy she gave into the weakness of chaotic noise. I mean, it's not like I can focus on her from this point on anyway, not once we start the guitars. Still, she's been doing that thing of hers a little too often lately. "Don't forget. You can only phase out the connection three total times per day, and only two times within the same hour."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM239CXxExp
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"You realize I'm the one who taught you that, right? Oh, whatever. See you soon!"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb8lyKM1jEr
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Just like that, she was out again. Lumina can phase the connection, allowing her to live her own life again while waiting on my life to become just interesting enough to hang out with me again. I got to say, if she finds talking to me that interesting, then the Altiri must be bored to all hell up there.
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<01/04/2011 - 15:39 | (Enroute), Austell, GA, USA>124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmtMZcxBdnp
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You know, looking outside the window and into the incredible Earth atmosphere seems so different these days. I never knew how much more there was to the infinite cosmos of the world, that and the sky over here itself. Even though I'm sitting by myself on the bus ride home, I'm enjoying the serenity this time.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLUWdJ9lOba
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"Hi Reed!"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOUA3qVTX0D
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"Dagh-ah!" My heart jumped through my chest, as I nearly fell backwards out of my own seat. Before I could register what happened, the people in all adjacent sides from my seat turned around and laughed right at my face. I could even hear Lumina laughing at me too, just after I figured out what was going on.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUl8cWN5Z1z
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"What the hell was that for?" Lumina was about to collapse in laughter as she interrogated my reaction.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Nqv71WqSu
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She can't seriously be asking that! I've never felt so nervous in all my life. Why did she have to just scare me like that? I'm not used to hearing full volume telepathy with that much energy after minutes of dead silence. Anyone would have jumped out of their seat in a panic!124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpXfEMr2IT
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"Hehe! You okay? Sit on a thumbtack?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHNEhP3OAoN
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I turned my face to the idiot girl holding her head above the seat behind me. "No I did not sit on a thumbtack. Mind your own business!" I wanted to sound cold just now, but it was hard to hide how much I was blushing from embarrassment. I don't do well with jump scares like that. Now everyone must think I'm a dork.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9jBCdCAMsX
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"Guess you don't like those kinds of surprises."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJG5IJyPYXp
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"Just warn me first whenever you do that. I can't tell when you phase the connection back in. I literally have no way to know."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZdMecHOHc
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"Where's the fun in that? Haha! Made you jump!" Her voice just went back to that of a tom girl, just so that she could rub it in more.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzCaaD0SUr
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Curse you Lumina! Man, I'm so embarrassed that she of all people so easily got me to jump like that. It's worse because she could do it again at any time, even in the middle of class. Why do you enjoy torturing me Lumina? "Man, when I get up there..."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRLcVeI4ST6
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"What? Are you going to build a rocket and fly your way over here?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYkzBQ4g9Ea
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"No, but I'll find a way to tell Junko that you're due an ass kicking." I don't know them too well, but I think Junko is a strong and willing fighter in the Cy-Stars.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9bqxVtozdu
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"And who do you think would be kicking who's ass in the end?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJEqmNqULP
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Is she saying she could take her sister in combat? "You can't seriously be that strong."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTbiMzR2YNN
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"You can say that knowing that I can literally punch two-inches through all earth metals?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq0OjMxuS7v
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"Yeah, well then maybe I'll have to kick your ass instead. I'm curious enough to find out which one of us would win." I already know a human like me can't compare, but I still have my own pride to protect here.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm47X692J8Z
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"Oh sure. Just whip out one of your lucid dreams again and find out who wins in the end."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kNWoQ8ZHe
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I wanted to keep this going for longer. It may sound like Lumina and I are fighting or arguing, but we're actually having fun to see who can mouth off to each other the most and win. But when she spoke about lucid dreams, it reminded me too much about the past to keep the prior flow going. "You know those lucid dreams stopped, ever since the end of the purge."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ug96jnsok
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"Yeah, I figured that might happen... What was it like, having lucid dreams?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY9exWupNbx
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I remembered all too well. Those dreams were the most vivid moments I've ever had in my life, but the details were finally getting too fuzzy to read again. "It was unexpected. I never once got to control the elements of the dream like others theorized would happen. The only control I had was of myself. It's all filled with stuff from your subconscious, but it happens on its own. If you lucid dream, you can't control any of it. You're just there for the ride, in a more bunkered down kind of experience."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyNXhR6VFo
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"Sounds nice. I wish I could dream, even if it is a normal dream. It sure would help with the boredom I have up here."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtpaHWJd7bM
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"That's right! You Altiri don't ever sleep. That means you're actually awake for three times the duration I am in a lifetime."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPu6CUhYawT
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"Yeah..." I didn't want to pry, but Lumina sounded really sad just now when she replied... "Sometimes, I wonder which is better. To live in a boring reality with crazy dreams, or to live a crazy reality with no dreams."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhfjdkeOsJt
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I could tell something was off. I'm not good dealing with sadness, not when it comes from others. But for Lumina, I can at least let her see things my way. "Look up out there." I fixed my gaze to the sky through the bus window like I did before, with a cloud formation that was most beautiful for today.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr5srSCmevn
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"I had trouble sleeping in the past, but now, all I have to do is imagine myself flying through the cosmos. I never used to do that, but I do now, because it feels so soothing... You have the ability to at least daydream, right?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNZZOQ2DXf
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"Always..." Such desperation and longing in her voice only made it harder for me to determine how she felt.124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrId3Ob0oj2
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"Yeah, well here's a news flash. Dreaming can really suck sometimes. It can be amazing if it gets real and good, but it can also be random and horrible at the same time. You never know which dream you get, and sometimes, even good dreams tear us up inside, dangling desirable but impossible futures before us."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡietWL96kA3
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"So, you drift to sleep now by pretending that you are drifting alone in space?"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPFXOjUKIpG
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"In the sky at least... But if I'm being honest, I think that actually makes it take longer for me to sleep. I get to sleep easier that way, but it takes so much longer too. When all the lights are out and everything, it can take me between two or three hours to finally phase to sleep."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCAzcpMUoSZ
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"That's a little too long."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzp4LyaMQX
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See? Sleep isn't all that it's cracked up to be. That's two or three hours I could have spent doing something else, something more constructive maybe. But if I don't at least use it to wind down, I won't sleep period. "Well, if I can't sleep, I can't sleep."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0P4k2tcKE
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"I kind of feel responsible for that. I mean, I had you all worried about all of these space aliens and stuff. Then my voice drops on you from the sky. You probably keep yourself up at night with montrums of us."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rIR3mg0Le
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"What's done is done. I don't blame you for that. When you learn something, you can't unlearn it. In this case, I'm better off knowing than not knowing."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF56EzLEMAo
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"I'm glad you think so."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNR4kVjWwZ
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I know so Lumina. I finally understand why I care about the Altiri so much now. It took a lot of time for me to realize it, but I've been trying to imagine what life would have been like if I rejected my decision to call her back that day, to pretend like it never happened... And I can't envision that possibility anymore. Maybe I've gotten too used to this, but it's too late to change that now. "Look, I have you now. And I'm not stupid. I know that I've slowly been getting smarter the longer we hang out together."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIytdoqxImU
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"Nmhm," she nodded, "You were always smart Reed. You just needed someone to bring that out in you, the confidence to learn and handle everything properly."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBku2t41G3
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"Come on. I would have been a dumb tard without you in my head all the time. I'm still totally lacking street smarts, but that's only because you have none of it to offer. But that's beside the point. I may have had more friends without you coming into my life, but at the same time, it was you who taught me how to have the confidence to speak to other humans... It's too bad that I can't make any of them friends, since the things I want to say now will just get me laughed at or ridiculed. I can't prove your existence to anybody!"124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDcWhBdU9FG
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"I know. It's not a good idea to tell them this if they won't believe it. But maybe someday, you'll find somebody who will accept your reality."124Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVmRugYOlBN
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"That's the day I want to fast-forward to... But I guess as long as you're here with me, I can wait a little longer."
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