Hidden Talents

(This takes place in the afternoon. After school. The day after the ice cream social.)

Melissa was still surprised by all the attention Doug was given her. Not just the attention but the fact that he was trying to date her and not just mess around with her. It was giving her an in with the popular kids, so much that she was invited to sit with them at lunch.

It was nice but, at the same time, the girl couldn’t understand any of it. She had not only never been popular; she had been relentlessly targeted by other girls at her old school. She had never really had friends and guys had seen her as someone to use for a good time not someone to date. She had been known as a party girl. It was a reputation she had earned but still, it made the days, at school, long and not someplace she had wanted to be.

Really, her realms of salvation had been her siblings, her family. They saw her as she was. They were able to see right through her facade of the party girl and to the girl underneath, the girl that was only like that because of how much she felt she wasn’t worth more than that.

Her biological father had done such a job on her self esteem that even after years of being in a loving family who cared about her and years of therapy; Melissa could never seem to shake the idea that she just wasn’t worth more, that she didn’t deserve more than being the girl that gave guys a good time.

This thought, that she wasn’t good enough, managed to find its way into every aspect of her life. She had only done cheerleading, originally, because it was a way to meet guys. Turned out she was better at it than she thought she was but her mind always intercepted wondering if she was really good enough to be on the team.

She was now in a new school and she was being given a fresh start; no one here knew her from her old school and while she was sure they could look her up online, no one had bothered, at least not yet. Not until, maybe, something happened and everything that was being built up at this moment all came crashing down around her. Something she had convinced herself would happen.

Her siblings weren’t here, at this school with her, they were back in Seattle and while she knew she could call them, the girl really didn’t want to. What could she say, after all, that everything was going well and it was making her nervous? That sounded crazy, even to her.

So, instead, once cheerleading practice was over, Melissa headed back to her dorm room. She got cleaned up and, being it after school hours, got changed into something that wasn’t her uniform, jeans and a nice looking but shirt, and headed down to the music room.

The music teacher had been nice and said she could use the practice rooms if she signed up for one. For reasons, which Melissa didn’t exactly understand, the music teacher wanted her in music class. Melissa, despite being repeatedly told she was talented by her family, didn’t exactly believe it. She couldn’t bring herself to believe she was as good as she had been told.

Maybe, the fact that she could play by ear but had never learned to read music had something to do with why she thought that way but more likely it was leftover from when she was younger.

She made it to the music room and had been assigned Practice Room 3. In the room was a piano but she had also brought her guitar. The blonde girl went into the room and closed the door behind her. She didn’t open the guitar, instead, she warmed up the piano making sure it was in tune, which it was, before starting.

Hitting the keys on the piano as the melody played out, she started to sing. Her voice was good; really good but like everything else when it came to her, she didn’t know how good she really was. It was a favorite song of hers; even if it was a few years old. She would use it up as a warm-up before doing the song she was working on.

As Melissa belted out her acoustic version of Sia’s Chandelier and her fingers made easy work of notes on the piano, the door to the practice room cracked up just slightly. What Melissa didn’t know was that the door had been having some issues since yesterday. She didn’t know because the music teacher hadn’t been told about it.

Melissa being lost in the music and the crack being just enough for the sound to leave the practice room into the main music room. Anyone entering the room could hear her but outside the room not so much as the door to the music room was closed but not locked.

She didn’t notice at all that someone had walked into the music room and had no clue that he could hear her.