Growth and hindrances.

That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen, you know? Bringing your instrument to school, playing it and gathering an audience… Those are just daydreams. At least, I always thought so. Maybe it was a fluke, a rare event, the 0.001% GET on a gacha roll, but goddammit… It was one of those before and afters, even if it took me a few years to realize it. It was the start of a very important realization.

The bell rang to signal the end of the first recess. My classmates all booed and whined at it, and I shared the sentiment.

“Are you gonna play bass at the talent show?” Mark asked me.

“Ah? W-Well, see…”

“You should, man!” one of my classmates joined in, giving me a thumbs up. It was the one who started drumming on his desk.

“Yeah, I bet you’d do really well!” his friend said.

“I’m…” God, now that the playing had stopped, I realized there were so many eyes on me. One, two, three, four… seven people not including the people I already knew. Hell, it was almost half our class. I swallowed hard and pushed through. “I’m… actually playing the guitar. I’ll play the bass on video, though.”

“Oh, that’s right, you play guitar,” said one of the girls. “What are you playing?”

“A… A s-song from a g-game…” I said fearfully. It wasn’t a popular song, after all. No matter how well I played, it wouldn’t get a reaction like this.

“No one else from our class is participating, right?” Amanda said. “That makes you our representative, Oliver.”

I smiled shyly. “I’ll… try not to disappoint.”

“We’ll cheer for you!” Lena said.

“Break a leg, man.”

“You better get first place!”

“T-Thank you.”

I didn’t know how to deal with all this… support. It came out of nowhere and answering with the distant, polite smile I wore at work felt inappropriate. For all I had grown, I still had a lot to work on.

People began to return to their seats, the excitement slowly fading as the little event left their minds. Then, as I was putting away my bass, I spotted someone outside the classroom. Julian Jenking was glaring at me from behind the door, his hostility clear in his face and without a doubt directed entirely at me. When I met his eyes, he clicked his tongue, scoffed and left.

I brushed that aside before I started getting ideas. It was nothing new that the guy didn’t like me, but since I didn’t like him either, it was no skin off my back if he was upset over something.

Yeah, I was wrong about that one.

It happened that very next day. I found out at my house after school, when Grace, Mila and Noelle came to hang out.

We were in my room. I was practicing guitar, Isabelle was on my computer, messing with the editing software, Mila and Noelle were playing with Cake and taking pictures and videos of her, and Grace was looking at her phone. That was when the latter asked, in a very casual tone, a very strange question.

“Oliver, are you cheating on us?” She was still looking at her phone.

I nearly dropped my guitar. I stared at Grace with blinking eyes and a stupefied expression. “Um… No, I’m not?” I answered.

Grace nodded. “Figured.”

“Where the hell did that come from?” Isabelle asked her.

“Yeah.” Mila nodded, crossing her arms and frowning at Grace. “What are you looking at?”

“Lena just texted me saying someone told her that they saw Oliver and Abigail making out.”

“Huh?” Noelle exclaimed, tilting her head in confusion.

“Who the fuck even is Abigail?” I asked, indignation swelling in my chest.

“A girl from my class,” Isabelle said. She then blinked. “Oh. Oooh.”

Grace nodded. “Get it now?”

“I don’t,” Noelle said. “What’s going on?”

“Abigail is a girl that absolutely fucking hates my guts,” Grace said.

“And mine and Sarah’s by extention,” Mila added.

“She’s the one who most prominently spread mean rumors about them,” Isabelle said. “We’re friends, kind of. We talk a lot at school, but not outside. I believed the rumors because of her.”

“So… this is a rumor to get us to mistrust Oliver?” Noelle quickly inferred.

Grace nodded. “Most likely.”

“But… Why?” I asked. “Just because she hates you?”

“Possible, but the timing is…” Grace pursed her lips and tapped her chin. “Time to do some digging, I guess. I’ll need to ask some questions tomorrow.”

“Let me help,” Isabelle said. “I’ll talk to Abigail, see what she has to say.”

“Thanks. It'd be hard for me to get anything worthwhile out of her.”

Noelle’s phone buzzed. She looked at it and her eyes widened. “W-What the hell? One of the council members is asking me if it’s true that Oliver cheated on me.”

“Same here,” Mila said.

My jaw dropped.

“Yep. It’s spreading quickly. For now, just tell them it’s a stupid rumor.” Grace moved from her seat on the bed and scooted a little further away from me. “Mila, Noelle, sit down at the other side, but not too close.”

Mila chuckled and did as told. “What are you planning?”

“Whatever is happening, we’ll take advantage of it. Isabelle, can you record Oliver playing something popular?”

“Sure.”

“Huh? Something popular?”

“Yeah. Even better if it sounds impressive.”

“Play the Free Bird solo,” Isabelle said. “That’ll be a hit.”

“You can play the Free Bird solo?” Noelle asked.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. It took me like a year to get it down, but I can.”

“Then play that,” Grace said. “Isabelle, we need to barely be in frame. Enough that people can tell it’s us, but not enough that we’re stealing spotlight.”

Isabelle nodded. “Okay, I think I have an idea of what you want to do.”

I didn’t. I had no idea what was happening, but I did what Grace asked of me.

None of them even questioned me when I said I wasn’t cheating. They trusted me. Why wouldn’t I trust Grace if she had a plan?

I played the Free Bird solo on camera. Even I had to admit it came out really well.

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