Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Chamber Group ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

" I'm so late!" Sakura rushed upstairs. " It's nine twenty! I'm so late!"
" That you are." Said Yuri from the piano. " Luckily, Sensei isn't here."
" Really? He's that late?"
" Iie. He's not coming today. Obviously you didn't stop to read the notice on the door."

Sakura blinked, then put down her violin, opening the door.

On it, was clear words.

Taichi Noyse Would Not Be Here Today. Lessons Would Be Made Up.

Blinking, Sakura blushed. " Oh."

" Ohayo Sakura-chan." Anzu came in. " It's a good thing Noyse isn't here yet. Did you hear that Yoshihara's conducting our orchestra today?"
" Hoe?" Sakura blinked. " He is?"
" Hai. Terada is absent on an emergency and he couldn't come. I couldn't come last time to the concert because I was having my private lesson. How did it go?"
" The Symphony Orchestra concert?" Yuri cried, distressed. " Ugh! It was last week?"
" Hai." Sakura nodded. " We performed the Rachmaninov. Finally."
" I did want to go there." Yuri sat down, very unhappy.
" Don't you worry."
" We're going to the room where the Conducting II class is." Anzu continued. " It's at one this time. Yoshihara wanted us to go up to the sixth floor. They say we're performing Swan Lake."
" Swan Lake, by Tchaikovsky? The ballet? Really?" Sakura jumped up. " That is so cool!"
" Hey, we're not performing the whole ballet, mind you. We're only performing about five to seven suites."
" But still, Swan Lake is one of the most beautiful pieces of work ever written."
" I know." Anzu agreed. " Shall we practice?"

The orchestra was basically a mess, with the conducting class standing or sitting among them. The orchestral players wove among them. Sakura noticed a strange, tall and lanky looking boy, holding a violin and viola and looking from one to the other, as if wondering which he should play. He was obviously from the Conducting class.

Setting her case in the back of the room she opened it and took out her violin.
" Konnichiwa, Sakura-san."
" Hoe?" Sakura looked around. " Oh, Konnichiwa, Syaoran-kun. Oh, right, you're in the conducting class, hai?"
" Hai." Syaoran grinned. " One of my friends suggested we play the Swan Lake along with you-you know, to mess you all up."

Sakura giggled. " Naughty!" She sighed. " This is going to be hard."
" Swan Lake is hard." Syaoran agreed, " But after a few tries it should be easier. Tchaikovsky loves his orchestras, repeating the same melody over and over again."

Sakura laughed. " Ah well, this is a chance for you to see what orchestras are like when they meet the a piece for the first time, iie?"
" I can't wait." Was the boy's reply.

" Alright. I'm going to take attendance." Yoshihara sat on his stool. Syaoran smiled. It seems every conductor likes stools, for some reason.
" Kinomoto Sakura?"
" Here!"
" Wakabayashi Yoko?"
" Here!"

Syaoran sat down beside his friend Liang.
" Just the attendance is going to take him a good fifteen minutes." The boy muttered.
" Mm." Liang agreed. " Funny. Why is the winner of the competition not the concertmistress?"
" The Concertmistress won last year."
" Oh. You know her?"
" Hai. Her name's Kinomoto Sakura. You know Kinomoto Touya?"
" The tall cello player? Of course!"
" Well, she's his sister."
" Oh! Sweet! But...I don't see any resemblance..."
" There is none."
" Oh."

" Alright, let's give this piece a try." Yoshihara held his baton up. Syaoran glanced at the clock. One Fifteen, just as he imagined.

Yoshihara gave an upbeat. The violins and violas began. Yoshihara cut off immediately.
" I want it to have an accent. See sforzando? DI dididididididi. Try again, strings only."

The strings began. Syaoran looked at the double bass before him, as the cellos and the basses plucked. The oboe started.
" Strings!" he told the oboe player. " Are you a string player? You don't look like one." The pianists in the conducting class laughed.
" Try again." Yoshihara gave an upbeat. The violins started, the basses and the cellos plucked, and the conductor, in his nasal voice, began singing the other parts.
" Deeee da da da da deeee da deeeeee da deeeeee da di da da di dum," Syaoran winced. The conductor would not make a good singer. He totally ruined the whole piece.
" ...Deee da deee da Duuum! Dom dum dum dum Duuuum du duuum du duuum di duu di du di duuum!" Syaoran blinked as the first suite was finished. Well, at least the conductor has good pitch, even if his nasal quality wasn't really wanted.
" Very good." Yoshihara turned the pages back to the original one.

Syaoran turned to Liang. " Is he talking about himself or the orchestra?" He whispered. Liang chuckled.

" Alright, the woodwinds and the brass can join in." Yoshihara lifted his baton and waited.

The violins started. The cellos began plucking. The oboe began the famous oboe solo, and the harp didn't know what to do. Yoshihara cut off.
" Too early." He told the harpist. Syaoran and Liang were laughing to themselves. This is too terrible.

By the time the violins had the melody, the high woodwinds were playing the harmonic chords. Yoshihara stopped them as the students of the other class laughed hysterically. It was quiet, so no one minded.

" You're all out of tune!" He cried. " Let me hear your B." The flutist looked at him smugly.
" We don't have the first flute part." He said.
" Oh? Well, why didn't you tell me before?"
" He said he was going to get us some." The student answered, referring to the fat guy that had been handing out the parts.
" Oh, so he ran out. I'm pretty sure it's B, though, since it's in my score." The conducting students laughed.
" Let me hear your B."

The flute played.
" Flat." Yoshihara said flatly. The flutist pushed his mouthpiece in so the pitch would be higher.
" Sharp."
" Flat."
" Sharp."

Syaoran and Liang started laughing again. " First it's flat, then it's sharp." Syaoran whispered. " This would take a while.

Yoshihara grimaced at the last one. " Hmmm...alright, that's okay I guess. Let me hear both of you."

" Bbbb!"
" Okay. Let me hear that F."
" Flat."
" You're sharp. Let me hear both of you."
" You're both flat. You're flatter then him."

Liang whispered to Syaoran. " He spent ten minutes on the flutes. Wonder what he's going to do with the oboes."

Syaoran blinked. " Not going to be too soon."
" You're flat!"
" Sharp!"

Liang scratched his nose. " Wish I brought a camcorder."
" Tomoyo would have brought it." Rika whispered to Syaoran, the two having known each other already. " She's crazy about taping things. Shoot! Only half an hour and I would have to go. Darn!"

Syaoran looked at his watch. " Hm." He thought. The orchestra continued.

" Very good." Yoshihara stood up. " Now, we're going to the waltz. Conducting class, I told you about this. Conducting in one is the nightmare of the orchestra..." And the teacher went on about how the orchestra was used to having every beat signaled for them. Rika sighed and closed her eyes. She was so tired.

Thirty minutes later Syaoran nudged her.
" We better get going." He told her.

Rika looked at the clock. " Oh." She stood up. Liang nodded at Syaoran before turning back to the orchestra. The two exited the room as Yoshihara continued tunings the trumpets.

" I'm having a concert next week." Syaoran grumbled.
" Really?" Sakura asked, waiting with him patiently in the lobby for their siblings. " Didn't you already have one last week?"
" Hai."
" Then why have another? So fast?"
" Because ever since this year started I've been having a concert every two weeks."
" Oh good heavens!" Sakura blinked. " But last time you were pretty good. I loved the Toccata, although it's contemporary music."
" I liked it too. But not the concert. It was mushed up!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. " Now I know why you have stagefright." She scolded gently. " You expect too much of yourself."

Syaoran glared at her and then turned away. " My sisters are so late."
" So's my brother."
" You guys were horrible today."
" I know! It wasn't that hard, but the woodwinds messed up everything."
" It wasn't just the woodwinds. Did you hear the timpani? The guy's banging all over the place. And I don't know about you, but you violins made some really funny chords on the Spanish Dance-"

Sakura slapped Syaoran's arm with her bookbag and Syaoran winced, laughing.
" Ow! Should have seen that coming! Crazy girl's resorting to ee!" Syaoran dodged. Sakura laughed and slipped her bookbag over her shoulder again.
" I played everything right, what are you talking about? I'm always right!"
" Wishful thinking." Syaoran laughed as Sakura threatened to slap his arm again, with her bookbag as her weapon.

" So, did you work on the Prokofiev?"
" Your piece?"
" Hai."
" Actually, we did, but only for ten minutes because that's all the time left. Yoshihara spent a lot of time tuning the woodwinds and brasses."
" Hm. I didn't know that conductors tune each blower at a time."
" Well, they do, if they have the care, which they usually do. Yoshihara isn't that bad."
" Hai, with all the terrible rumors about him-but they say he's a lot better now. You should have seen him ten years ago. He'll yell at you for hours just for being late, and you know that high school for music and arts that he use to go to? They say that he quitted? He was actually fired, because his temper was so out of control. I guess it had something to do with his midlife crisis or something."
" Really? I'm glad I got here only four years ago!"

Syaoran laughed. " Correction, you're glad you're only twelve. I'm glad I'm only twelve, although I'm not glad I'm a boy when it comes to his conducting class. For some reason Yoshihara's so biased-he's so easy on girls last year, never yelled at them once; but this year in my class there are no girls so I guess he laid all his easiness on...me."
" That's the advantage of being young."
" Hai, so true."
" My brother is taking a long time."
" So are my sisters. Do you suppose they met?"
" I don't know. Don't care really."
" Oh well."
" So when's your concert?"
" You mean the one next week?"
" What else?"
" Oh, ano...around five."
" Where is it? I might want to come. My lesson ends at five."
" Oh. It's in the sixth floor-room 506."
" Oh, the...Yathnin Hall?"
" Hai."
" Why isn't anyone playing in the Yagami Hall anymore?"
" I played there last month." Syaoran answered. " The day when they announced the winners of the competition? But didn't you hear? Sometime after that week, a rich guy named Motou bought the hall and decided to reconstruct it. It's going to be called Motou Hall now."
" Nani? So it would be as if Yagami Hall has never been." Sakura swallowed and looked down. " I can't believe it."
" Come. I'll show you." Syaoran put his bags down. " You take your violin, but you can leave that other bag down. You don't have any money in there, do you?"
" Iie."
" Alright then. Only a baka would steal those things. Come on." Syaoran led the girl to the elevators, and pressed the floor's button. He led her to the front of the hall and opened the door.

" Zzzzz! Zzzzz!" A drill sounded. Sakura peeked in and gasped. Instead of the nice, cream colored walls of the hall she knew and everyone else knew for at least fourteen years, there was a harsh white color that blazed her eyes, with pale brown floors covered with dust.
" Oh!" She cried. She retreated out and Syaoran closed the door.
" Hai." Syaoran nodded. " Pity, really." He smiled sadly. " This is our world, Sakura. There's no such thing as memory. It's all about money."

" Syaodi!" Syaoran's sister's scolded.
" Kaijuu!" Touya scolded.
" You left your books here!"
" Well," Sakura blinked sheepishly, " It's not like anyone's going to steal it-"
" You don't understand." Said Syaoran's oldest sister. " There are idiots in this school. Some idiot might have thought there was money and just took it. Other idiots might have thought these bookbags were theirs."

Syaoran and Sakura looked at each other.
" Another example." Syaoran answered, and then they parted ways.