{OPEN} A New Song

There was music escaping from the door of the music room, which really shouldn’t come as a surprise, that was the point of a music room, right ? Somehow, Caroline had expected the place to be empty, like most rooms she had seen since the beginning of today’s exploration. It was already her third day at this school and yet she still managed to find new rooms when she was exploring.
She was wearing her “Funny day” outfit, which meant a long blue jean and a customized shirt, figuring a video game character – GLaDOS from Portal – singing “Do you want to build a chamber test ?” on a black background.

To be fair though, she was looking for this one since she had heard there was a music room. She didn’t know why exactly, certainly not to dance because, well… the wheelchair would have prevented that. And she didn’t sing one song since the accident. The simplest explanation would probably be that she was bored already and just wanted to know every part of the school before the start of the year.

However, there was clearly a problem : someone was in there. If the music wasn’t already giving it away, as soon as she came closer, she saw that the door wasn’t even closed. From outside, she could recognize the melody and the instrument. A piano, no doubt. Maybe someone was listening to something, or maybe even playing, if there was a piano in there. She wasn’t sure she should enter, as she didn’t want to interrupt anything. Luckily, today, she used her wheelchair on automatic – no need for her arms – which made it a lot less noisy. She could enter without being spotted, right ?
Slowly, she pushed the door and managed to enter the room without hitting anything with her wheelchair, which wasn’t such a victory in this school, since clearly the door had been meant to be easily manageable for people in wheelchairs.

There was someone in there. A teenager just like her, sitting at the piano, so he was probably the one playing. Caroline needed a few seconds more to see that he was indeed the one, his fingers moving on the keyboard as the music went. The French girl didn’t want to interrupt, so she just stood there, slightly turning her wheelchair so she could look around the whole room. There were instruments sitting there, waiting to be played with, probably the biggest and heaviest of the school, which couldn’t be moved easily.
Caroline kindly waited for the end of the music. Then decided that maybe she shouldn’t stand there waiting to be seen. Quietly, almost like she didn’t want to break some kind of atmosphere, she said.

“Hi. Sorry. Didn’t want to interrupt.”

When the boy turned to face her, she couldn't help but see his eye. The one that was scarred anyway. It was white, almost grey, looking at her like any normal eye would do, only she was almost sure that this one couldn't see her. The other, however, was apparently okay, focusing on her as the boy was talking to her. Apart from that, he seemed pretty normal. He was probably younger than her, judging by his height. He was wearing a pretty simple jacket and his hair was a mess, intentionally or not. A normal teenager, she would have said, if it wasn't for the eye.
Like her, he didn't have the chance of hiding his “problem”, he was forced to show it for the world to see. Well, it was okay, she supposed. Yeah, she couldn't imagine what it was like to see with only one eye, but it didn't disfigured him. Girls could love a scar on a face, right ? She had no idea, but she supposed that it was okay on him.

The french girl smiled to him nonetheless, he answered quite gently after all and probably deserved a good smile, right ? For a second, she thought he was looking right at her chest – which would also be normal for a guy but still not very polite – but then he made the comment about her shirt. Genuine or a clever way to hide his look ? She decided to go with the first option.

“Thanks. It's a drawing from a friend of mine, I made the joke. I'm Caroline by the way. Nice to meet you.”

Though she spoke a fine English, she still had a strong french accent that she had no idea how to hide. She didn't care much, though.

“And yeah, the music was quite alright. I don't think I knew it already, what was it ?”

“My friend the Yellowtail.” She never heard of that one. It was quite good, from what she had heard. Apparently, Zee was quite a proficient musician. Probably a member of a band or something. For her part, she never did quite that, although she sang a lot. There wasn't a lot of band like this in her previous school and she never tried anything. There was a music club, but it was very focused on instruments and not too much on voices. So, it was really boring after a while, but there was this girl with the guitar...
Shaking her head to get out of her memories, she answered quickly.

“Well, the adaptation sounds pretty cool so I guess it's a success.”

He then turned around to play again, for a second she wondered if he was being rude but then she easily recognized the tone. Unconsciously, she started to tap the rythme on the arms of her chair.
The french girl heard his question and smiled softly. She could answer that quite easily, but woud she dear ? It has been a long time since she hadn't sing, but this one song, she knew it perfectly. Her voice was soft and always ended up pretty well with GlaDOS singing. But, it has been so long.

“Not really, actually...”

She waited a few seconds, to find the good moment and then opened her mouth again.

♫ Aperture Science !
We do what we must
Because we can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead ♫

♪ But there's no sense crying over
every mistake ♪

She kept on going for a few moments, her voice strangley stronger than she had expected. She wasn't so bad after all. Plus, when she was singing, her accent almost entirely disappeard, only to reappear when she talked again.

“Sorry. I hadn't practiced for a while.”

Although, she was still smiling.

Caroline smiled, not really proudly. That was one of the few things she didn’t like to brag about, even as a joke. She was pretty good though, no point denying that, but still she could be better. Her voice wasn’t a gift, it was the result of a lot of work. Work she did only because she enjoyed that. Still, she didn’t want to take too much pride in that. Especially now. She didn’t even got to the end of the song, because she was afraid her voice would break before. It has been too long since the last time.

“Well, I guess you could say that.”

She shut her mouth until he was done with the tone and turned to her. The French girl shrugged before turning her wheelchair around to take a look at the whole room.

“Nah. Just play what you want. I’ll just… look around, see what is there. I’m guessing there is a music club, not sure yet I want to take part in this.”

He started the song from earlier again, Caroline didn’t mind, it was a nice tone too. She couldn’t sing on it of course, but it was nice to hear. She was taking a look at a violin when the music stopped. Instinctively, she turned to Zee to check on him, but he simply stood up from the piano.

The young woman looked at him for a few seconds, but it was more than enough to realize that his stretching was probably not without reason. He was limping. So, he had a total of two problems. That and his eyes, unlucky boy.
Their looks crossed and Caroline stopped instantly to look at his legs. Rude, yes. She still needed some time to completely understand how to react in a school like this. He probably didn’t want to talk about that, so she played it off, as usual, by joking.

“Yeah, do that. I’ll accompany you but…” She said, stretching only her arms. “I don’t have much to do.”

She laughed slowly and turned around in her wheelchair, looking for another instrument.

“So, do you only play Piano or do you have other talents ? Not that you played badly, of course. I’m just curious.”

The young woman started to laugh mockingly, clearly disinterested in the music room. She rolled toward Mizo and stopped two meters away from him, still squinting.

"That's not a challenge, that's a warning. I wouldn't want to see you humiliated after what you'll go through... Mizo, heh ?"

She was smiling. It maybe wasn't the best approach to someone, but it was a new school, she had all the time in the world to figure out how to act. Plus, they were probably both new to all of this, new friendships tended to be forged easily and quickly at the start of a school year.

"I do hope you took your SNES with you here, though. I couldn't choose which console take so I just took a laptop with a emulators, but it's not the same."

To be fair, she also brought one of the next gen console and the laptop was also here to allow her to write and simply have fun on internet, but still, she also got numerous emulators installed on the damn thing.