Chasing Butterflies Chapter 49: A Helping Hand (Patreon)

Olivia wasted no time assembling her flute and moving toward the practice rooms. There were three of them, all located along one side of the currently empty band room. The muffled sounds of a trumpet practicing runs and a piccolo's birdsong struggled to escape the first two. Apparently, she wasn't the only one with this idea.

She picked out the last empty room and stepped inside. The door resisted slightly, requiring a more hearty tug to finally click shut. When it did, all other noise dropped away, leaving her with the sound of her own breathing as company.

Olivia took a second to soak the feeling in. It was easy to forget just how noisy the campus was. There were always kids voices chatting animatedly and shouting in the distance, not to mention the bells and the slamming of doors. Most of the time it was easy enough to tune out the din. But that didn't mean she lacked appreciation for the blessed quiet. Especially with her choice of elective.

After a moment, she shuffled through her music. Her thoughts strayed back toward Alyssa and her antics. The section leader's petty vindictiveness was clearly a response to their confrontation this morning. But would it last?

Probably. It wouldn't surprise me too much. Heck, at this point, I suspect she’d keep harboring that grudge even if I cut ties with Trisha. It’s become more personal, since she probably feels like I embarrassed her in front of other people.

That wasn't too unexpected. It would certainly be annoying if the girl carried her personal grievances into practice, but even then Olivia should be able to avoid paying her much mind. They weren't really forced to interact too much outside of sectionals. Well, usually.

Even if Alyssa did decide to press the issue, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Olivia had seen far nastier in the workplace and some of those old moms' groups she'd been invited to. The latter she'd politely noped out of as soon as the power dynamics became evident. This, at least, was a pretty straightforward issue with pretty straightforward avenues of attack.

I do wonder if she realizes just how unsubtle she's being, though. Is she trying to be brazen to show off her "influence"? Or does she truly believe that no one realizes what she's doing?

She could nip it in the bud. Theoretically. Alyssa and her most ardent supporters outwardly hated the “popular crowd,” but they were exactly the kind who would drop everything to be a part of it. Isolating the girl by giving her “friends” such opportunities would leave her stranded way more effectively than she was trying to do to Olivia, not to mention sting way harder. But then she’d have to leverage Trisha’s social standing and popularity, which was not something she wanted to do. Especially to get back at people who she barely knew or cared about.

It was an idle thought that she shelved immediately. If anything, she was a bit grateful for the clumsiness of the girl. If someone as socially savvy as Trisha tried the same thing... Well, Olivia still probably wouldn't care. She already felt like a complete pariah among these teenagers, after all. Though after the homecoming afterparty, maybe that wasn't entirely true anymore.

Shrugging, Olivia set the thoughts aside. Aside from the implications this all had for the timeline, it wasn't really a bother. Instead, she lifted the flute to her mouth and began to play.

The mysterious melodies of the second movement reverberated through the small space. Olivia focused her entire attention on making music. Yet the results weren't quite as she'd hoped. The high notes sounded a bit too shrill while the flowing melodies felt like sticky tar rather than water.

She lowered her flute and grimaced. That's what I get for not warming up, I guess.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for her to fix that deficiency. Rather than try to brute-force things, she decided to switch tactics. Her flute rose to her lips once more, and her fingers flew through the runs of the first movement.

Only then was she finally able to lose herself in the practice. The sections were far more challenging from a technical standpoint. Yet they also required less of her focus to sound good. It was a nice compromise, given the short amount of time she had, and it wasn’t like she lacked things to perfect and smooth out there.

Time passed. Eventually, a knock at the door interrupted her practice. The noise startled Olivia out of her trancelike state. Through the window, Naomi gave her a small smile and a wave.

At a gesture from Olivia, Naomi cracked open the door. The senior piccolo player poked her head inside. "Hello. Forgive me for interrupting."

"No problem. Is there something you need?" Olivia asked.

"Not particularly. I merely wanted to mention that you sound quite good. You're managing those runs very well."

Olivia blinked with surprise. "Oh. Thank you. That's very kind of you to say."

"Not at all," Naomi said. "I am merely making an observation."

"Well, it's kind of you to tell me your observation." Olivia chuckled. "I wish I could say I was doing half this well with second movement."

Naomi cocked her head in confusion. "Second movement?"

"Yeah. I'm having so much trouble with it. Playing fast is one thing, but making the slow stuff sound good... Some of those octave jumps are so hard to get smooth, and those long sustains feel like they stagnate. And that's without even mentioning breath control..." She explained with a shrug. "I know this is only one part of the larger piece, but I still want it to sound good on its own."

Naomi gave her a strange look. Then, the piccolo started laughing. Loud, genuine laughter the likes of which Olivia had never seen from the girl before.

"Oh, that's wonderful. Simply wonderful! Finding second movement more difficult than the first? Truly?"

"...Yes?" Olivia replied hesitantly.

"Oh, forgive me again." Naomi wiped a tear from her eye. "I don't mean to laugh. You don't know how refreshing it is to hear such a sentiment."

The piccolo collected herself and sighed. "Well. If you don't mind, then perhaps I can offer some advice?"

Olivia perked up. Advice from Naomi? The piccolo may still be a teenager, but she was also the most accomplished musician among the flutes, arguably among the entire band. Advice from her would be worth its weight in gold.

"Of course! If you're not busy, of course."

Naomi's smile seemed warmer than before. "I am never too busy to help an aspiring musician. Now. To start, let's have you play through some of the sections that are proving most troublesome..."

***

The bell rang far too soon. But not before Olivia managed to get her fill of musical help from Naomi.

As expected, the piccolo player's advice was incredible. A simple observation about repositioning her tongue already had Olivia's sound quality improving, which was frankly unbelievable. Over the few minutes they spent practicing, Olivia learned enough that she'd need to spend the next few days digesting it all.

Naomi left Olivia with a few sets of exercises to work on as the bell rang and they began packing up. Olivia gave her a sincerely grateful nod. "Thank you so much. Really."

"Of course. It was a pleasure practicing with you." Naomi responded with a smile. "If you’re ever interested, I would be more than happy to assist you again in the future. Simply say the word."

Olivia beamed. "I might just take you up on that."

Flute wasn't something that had followed her past high school. She'd tried to keep playing for a bit in college, but it simply wasn't the same. Still, she did like the music. Maybe this time she'd keep up with it, if only as a hobby.

The boys liked hearing me play, but only Cash would ever ask me to bring out the flute. I wouldn't mind being able to give him a better performance. And Hazel, if she ends up enjoying it.

If they're still around.

The two girls left the practice room and said their goodbyes. A stream of band kids was already flooding in through the main doors to retrieve books from their lockers. Looking around briefly, Olivia spotted Alyssa among them. The stout section leader finally made eye contact, glaring between her and Naomi before pointedly turning away.

Olivia just shook her head. Naomi was the only other senior flute, meaning she held almost as much authority as Alyssa herself. Sure, she wasn’t section leader in name, but seniority counted for a whole lot in such cases. She’d already seen that much in the power dynamics between junior section leaders and the older students they sometimes struggled to wrangle.

All that was to say that Olivia may have inadvertently set herself up with a nice bulwark against Alyssa’s campaign of pettiness—and a great practice partner, too. Heck, maybe she’d even make a beeline for the practice rooms in the future. It had been just that beneficial.

After swapping her flute for her backpack, Olivia hurried toward PE and got changed. The gym was mercifully close to the band room, meaning that even while running behind Olivia had no trouble getting changed and onto the floor in time. Mr. Wolfe paced along the numbers printed on the floor, marking absences on his clipboard.

"Sean? Sean Michaels?”

"Wait, wait, wait! I'm here!"

The redheaded boy shouted. He abandoned the group of friends he’d been chatting with and sprinted for his number, skidding to a halt atop the painted digits. He shot Mr. Wolfe a cheeky grin. The gym teacher just glared and continued on.

Olivia giggled. The de-facto leader of her volleyball team’s male half had a bit of a rebellious streak. Luckily, he was charismatic enough to get away with it.

"All right. We're starting a new sport today." He announced when he'd finished. "Basketball."

A few cheers rose up from the assembled high schoolers. It was understandable. Olivia herself had begun to get a bit tired of volleyball after three weeks with the sport, even with a few Friday runs to break it up. But based on the number of matching groans, its replacement wasn't universally appreciated.

Mr. Wolfe continued. "Boys over there, girls over here. Split up into teams of five. You've got three minutes, or I'm picking for you. Let's go!"

The kids rose to their feet and immediately clustered together into familiar groups. Well, mostly familiar. The stipulation of five per team meant that at least a few groups would end up fragmented and split across other ones, if they weren't reorganized entirely.

Thirty-one girls. That means six teams of five this time, with one team of six.

The numbers meant the possibility of her trio managing to stick together were all too slim. Most of the teams forming around her were the same groups of four that had gathered together for volleyball, their members circling and as they looked to pick up one more member. Maybe if they succeeded, Olivia's group could join up with one of the resulting trios and snatch that six-person slot? Otherwise, they'd need to find a duo willing to join up with them.

She turned to look for Luna and Miranda. The former fidgeted nervously at the edge of the crowd while the latter had yet to move from her number, tapping her foot in annoyance. Olivia began to head toward them and talk over the situation when she was intercepted.

"Hey!" A lean, athletic girl raised her hand in greeting. Candace was her name. "Olivia, right? Wanna join up with us?"

Candace jerked a thumb toward the rest of her team. It was the group of athletes that had proven so dominant at volleyball. Four people in total, with room for one more member.

Olivia grimaced internally. It made total sense. Her trio of misfits was the most obvious source of individual members, and she was probably the least objectionable one. Still...

Miranda probably won't care one way or another. I doubt she even likes me to begin with. But Luna... I don't want to just leave her behind. We were just starting to get her out of her shell the tiniest bit. If she gets picked up by some random team, she'll just fade right back into the background.

"Hey! Are you trying to steal my teammate?"

To Olivia's surprise, it was Trisha who strode up next, smiling with her usual brand of self-assurance.

Trisha looked between Candace and Olivia. Candace raised an eyebrow. "Your teammate? Since when?"

"Since now. Obviously."

"Wow. I didn't realize my volleyball skills were good enough to get me scouted." Olivia joked.

Trisha rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease. We don't even get points for winning, you know."

"Doesn't mean it's any less satisfying." Candace pointed out.

"It totally does. Besides, PE's like, the only class where socializing is the point. Of course I want to be on a team with my friend!"

Olivia couldn't help but stare as Trisha beamed. This, at least, wasn't a total surprise. Especially not after this morning. But it still somehow caught her off guard that Trisha had zero reservations about calling them friends.

Then again, Cash was quite insistent that him and his classmate both liking tigers was plenty of justification for them being best friends. So maybe there's less that goes into this stuff than I tend to think, even at this age.

Olivia glanced one more time toward her two former teammates. They remained at the fringes of the gym, neither moving closer to each other or to another team. Miranda scowled at any team that so much as looked her way, while Luna kept stealing surreptitious glances at Olivia.

"Sorry, Candace." Olivia gave an apologetic smile. I appreciate the offer, though. Really."

Candace sighed. “Dang. Well, worth a shot. Good luck, then.”The athlete retreated back to her team without pressing the issue. Trisha preened at the small victory. "Perfect! C'mon, let's go tell Wolfe!"

"Actually... How many people are on your team?" Olivia asked.

"Five. Me, Clara, Julie, Shelly, and you. Why?" Trisha arched an eyebrow. "Please tell me you don't wanna drag that goth chick along, too."

Olivia chuckled. "No. I don't really like Shelly, but I also don't want her dead. I wanted to bring in Luna."

"Luna?" Trisha nodded toward the fidgeting flute. "The quiet girl?"

"Yup. We're bandmates, and she's just recently started coming out of her shell a bit more. I'm worried about losing all that progress and confidence if she gets stuck with people she doesn't know."

Trisha sighed and shook her head. "You do know that it's not your job to help everyone, right?"

"I'm not." Olivia protested. "Just, y'know. The people I feel like I can help."

Trisha waved a dismissive hand. "Fine, fine. She seems nice enough anyway."

Olivia grinned and waved the flute over. Luna started, then hurried forward with obvious surprise.

"Hey Luna, this is Trisha. Trisha, Luna."

"Um... Hi?" Luna asked.

Trisha shot her a smile. "Nice to meet you! C'mon. We gotta go talk to Wolfe if we wanna grab that six-person spot."

The cheerleader hurried away, golden curls bouncing with every step. Olivia turned to follow as Luna tugged on her sleeve.

"...What's going on?"

"Oh! Right. We're joining Trisha's team."

"...We? As in, both of us?"

"Yup. If you're ok with it, of course."

Luna stared at her blankly, the information seeming to break her brain a little. "O-of course. I just..."

"Hey! Hurry it on up!"

Olivia looked over. The rest of their team stood a few feet away, with Trisha having rejoined them. Their careful hair and makeup looked completely at odds with their relatively unflattering PE uniforms, though one had tied the hem of the shirt in an attempt to make it stylish.

Shelly tapped her foot impatiently, her once swollen nose now back to its usual size. She still glared daggers at Olivia as though she were personally responsible for the injury. Next to her, Trisha's eyes were narrowed ever so slightly at the girl’s rude outburst.

As they approached, Trisha made introductions between them and the rest of her team. When she finished, Shelly rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Whatever."

Luna cringed back slightly at the girl's obvious disdain. But Olivia stood tall, her smile intact. "Nice to meet you, too. Your nose looks like it's almost healed, by the way."

Shelly scowled. Olivia noted the way her fingers instinctually twitched as though to touch her face. But before she could respond with a barb of her own, Trisha stepped in. "C'mon! The other teams are already making their way over."

The group hurried toward the gray-haired PE teacher alongside other groups as they finished forming up. When they arrived, the burly man looked them over and shook his head.

"Already got a six team. One of you's gotta go."

He nodded over to the team in question. They looked to have just beat Trisha's group to the punch.

"Ugh, figures." Shelly scoffed. "Well?"

Her attention immediately swung to Luna and Olivia. Olivia grimaced. Despite Shelly's snarkiness, they were the obvious choices to cut. Especially Luna. She didn't have any direct connections to anyone else here. That meant that even if Olivia did volunteer to leave herself, the shy flute would be left stranded with a bunch of people she didn't know---at least one of which already had a predisposition against her.

Is that worse than making her find a different group of strangers? Maybe. But then again, letting her be cast off so quickly after getting her hopes up...

The smart thing would be to apologize to Luna and have her find a different group, or more realistically, just have Wolfe place her in a different team. But that felt like abandoning the girl---exactly what she'd been trying to avoid.

"You sure we can't have six?" Trisha asked sweetly. "Pleeeease?"

The teacher remained unmoved. "And leave a team of four? Nope. Sorry."

The cheerleader sighed and looked across her group. "Well... I guess it can't be helped."

Olivia stepped forward, ready to volunteer. Letting Luna be kicked out would deal too big a blow. Trisha might not agree with it, but at the very least she had to offer.

But before she could open her mouth, Trisha rounded on the team. Her gaze settled not on Olivia or Luna, but on Shelly.

"Sorry, Shell."