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Anne pushed open the door to the music shop, a sole mission on her mind. She wanted to pick up some new song sheets for the children she tutored. Nothing extremely difficult, but simply different than the current line-up she had going. Some of the kids were actually advancing enough that a few more difficult pieces wouldn't hurt, but the rest were complaining about playing the same songs over and over. Anne could understand their frustration; she had always hated playing some of the basic songs multiple times a week. And, since she was still on another mission to avoid going home to sit in awkward silence with Eos until Aurora got home, Anne didn't mind taking a bus down to the shopping district to browse her favorite music shop. Perhaps she'd even find some music pieces for herself to play with. Anne didn't get to play the piana for herself nearly as much as she wanted. It had something to do with her not wanting to spend time at home unless she was sure she was alone. <p>

Music was playing overhead as Anne made her way over to the wall. The kids were probably tired of playing classical music. Only a few of them seemed to appreciate the classics. They might find playing the same piece of music over again fun if they were playing something they liked... like a more modern piece of music. Anne was a bit behind on modern music, but she knew any of the sheets located in the racks on the wall were the latest pop and rock songs. It wouldn't be hard to go through and read some of the music and decide which of it would be easy for her to learn, and then easy for her to teach to someone else. <p>

To some degree it did bother Anne that she wasn't like others her age. She didn't listen to modern music, she didn't like to go out and party, she wasn't very fond of speaking her mind, and she stressed whenever she was in a large crowd. Claire had been something of a god-send when she had first befriended her -- not that Anne regretted her friendship with the older girl one bit. She knew it was unfair of her to place any blame on Claire for what had happened between herself and Eos. Anne had been the one to allow herself to be dragged out that night, and she had allowed herself to drink a bunch of alcohol... In the end, it was mostly Anne's fault, no matter how small a part of her insisted Claire had pressured her to do something out of the norm that night. <p>

Anne shook her head as she realized where her thoughts were headed. Now wasn't the time to fret about what had happened. She was supposed to be concentrating on picking out new pieces of music. Refocusing, Anne began to shuffle through some of the sheets, her gaze scanning the notes and counting the beat in her head. She kept on like this for a good twenty minutes, her mouth moving wordlessly as she counted, and her head bobbing every so often when she decided that the song would be easy to teach to some of her students. By the time she reached the end of the row, Anne had found three pieces of music she felt would be worth purchasing. She glanced at her watch, a frown appearing on her face as she realized how little time had passed. She didn't want to go too crazy with new music pieces... <p>

Glancing around, Anne found herself moving toward the classical music sheets, deciding that maybe she'd find something for herself now. That could easily take her some more time -- hopefully an hour or more. She would have to find something to do after this, though, if Anne wanted to continue to avoid talking to Eos about what had happened that night. <p>

The dark haired woman reached a hand out to rifle through some of the sheets now before her, concentrating solely on finding something she didn't already have in her music library.

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[dohtml]<center><div style="width:400px; text-align:justify;">Amara had to stop being talked into favors. She never thought she would be a person to get talked into favors in the first place. The blonde was way too stubborn to listen to any favors. At least, that was what she thought. Apparently that was not the case because after being instructed to go out and pick up some new music sheets for work, here she was. It was not that hard, and she was due for picking up a few music scores for herself anyway. Still, it hurt her stubborn pride to be talked into something so easily. She pursed her lips, checking the street one more time. Coming down to the music store was something she hardly did. Her own stash of music sheets, the piano and everything else in her collection satisfied her needs. More often than not, her mother was the one who bought new pieces for her to try out. Why on earth, she had no idea but the woman was the one who convinced her to take piano lessons in the first place.
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She entered the store, hazel eyes scanning the area. Her boss told her to buy some new sheets to store at the club. Simple enough, and honestly if she was lazy Amara could have easily grabbed a few of the music scores at home and brought them in. The problem was she was sure the crazy old man had most of them in the storage room anyway. There was an annoying process where he had to approve every piece that was played in his establishment. OK, that was simple enough and within his right. Except Amara couldn’t see where something can be denied. It was not like anybody was singing and can fit a few choice words in there. She bit her lip, holding in the sigh of exasperation. She just had to deal with it. The annoying favors had to stop but she had nothing she can do about it. The job paid well enough, and she got flexible hours to fit her racing in. So really, she had no right to complain.
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She walked to the back of room, scanning the instrument titles until she found ones set for the piano. There were plenty. The twenty-three year old could not remember which ones she owned, or which ones the club did not own. Once she started looking, Amara was sure she could remember. Scanning a few of the contemporary titles, over half her work was doing classical, she figured that would be a safe bet that they will be a safe bet on the ‘did not have’ category. The next thing she checked was the skill level, aiming for some of the intermediate pieces. There, three on the shelf that looked promising. Her mind drifted toward vindictive while wondering if she should get only one when she was asked to specifically pick up at least four. She should have been given some titles to work with, and she already stretched her nice and polite side coming here in the first place. Picking up simply one, she turned to move over to the classical section. She stopped short, almost bumping into the other woman there. Yes, Amara had noticed her but she did not realize they both moved to be in bumping range. First reaction was to be annoyed but she managed to bite back a stinging response. “I’m sorry,” she apologized instead, taking a step back to appropriate personal space range.</div>[/dohtml]

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It was pretty easy for Anne to lose sight of where she was and what she was doing when music was involved. Or anything else that required her full attention, for that matter. Anne was simply the sort of woman that could be absorbed into the atmosphere around her, only coming back to reality when someone pulled her out again. Or when she did something stupid, like almost bump into another person. Anne blinked in surprise, her thoughts moving away from music scores to the sound of an apology being spoken to her. Glancing to the side, Anne realized there was someone else there. She had only vaguely been aware of the fact that someone else was even in the store with her in the first place, which probably wasn't a good sign of her attention span today. Anne ought to be more aware of her surroundings, especially so as not to seem rude if one of the store's workers came to ask her if she was finding everything all right. <p>

Anne gave a small shake of her head, trying not to appear as though she had just been startled. "Oh, no, I'm sorry as well. I wasn't paying attention... I was, well, engrossed in my search, I guess. I should have been watching where I was wandering." The fact that she hadn't bumped into something, knocking things over was probably a bit of a surprise since Anne hadn't been paying attention at all to what she was doing. She felt extremely silly now as a result. While it could happen accidentally while walking in a crowd -- there was never any room to turn around or walk around a person -- inside a store where she and this blonde woman were the only two customers, well, it was embarrassing that the other woman had been forced to apologize first. Anne felt as though she was being a slight nuisance, especially since the blonde woman looked slightly irritated. It didn't even cross Anne's mind that the irritation might not be toward her, however. <p>

"I can move out of the way if you're looking for something specific," stated Anne, the words spilling out of her mouth rather quickly. "I'm sort of browsing at the moment, trying to pick out some sheets that some of the kids I tutor can play on the piano..." She felt herself blush as she realized she was actually explaining her situation to a complete stranger, the likes of which probably didn't care what Anne was there for. But since Anne had already started, she felt she ought to continue -- at least to make it abundantly clear that she didn't intend to be in the other woman's way if she knew what she was looking for. Just because Anne was there first didn't mean she ought to be allowed to wander aimlessly, being in the way of the other woman. It would be better to let the other woman get what she wanted, moving to another area for music, and then resume her random search after the woman was gone. <p>

With those thoughts in her mind, Anne rushed on. "What I mean is, if you know what you're looking for, I don't mind moving aside. It'll probably take me awhile to figure out what I want, or can use, and I'd hate to be in the way." The dark haired woman didn't know how bad that sounded, or if it would make the other woman take any sort of offense, but she felt marginally better for having thrown the offer out there just in case. The awkwardness she felt at saying anything at all, though, was one very good reason why Anne didn't socialize with people very often. She often made a slight fool of herself, coming off as a meek person. And while she could be described as being meek, even Anne didn't want that to be the first impression people got from her.

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[dohtml]<center><div style="width:400px; text-align:justify;">Amara waved off the apology. Yes, it was nice to hear the other woman apologize as well. The fault probably went equally both ways. Actually, with her thought on it, the twenty-three year old felt that most of it was not on her. She made the wise decision not to say anything on the subject. She could tell that the woman she bumped into sounded nervous and apologetic enough. The twenty-three year old did enjoy a good rant, she was annoyed enough at her boss to start, but not to put anybody down. Alternatively, she gave the best reassuring smile she could muster, not very well for someone like her, yet she tried. Waiting a split second later to see if the woman would go for the music sheets again, she reached out for the one she was looking at. Briefly, her eyes scanned the title and contents. The piece looked doable. That was one down, a few more to go.
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The blonde glanced up momentarily when the brunette continued speaking. Amara would have thought it was better to just leave it where it was without going on. That way, the whole thing would be over and down with. She shrugged while focusing back toward the rows of music. “No worries, honestly, this would do until I decide what else I need. If you want to grab anything I won’t stop you.” She was in no rush at all. She wasn’t even here for herself. Perhaps, if she came here with her own intentions to buy something Amara would have gotten more annoyed at someone being in her way. As it was at the moment, her boss was the one who needed the new music and she could make him wait. She was not due to go to work for a while anyway. Her mind wandered briefly, thinking about what else she could get. Yep, she could take all the time in the world. No rush, Amara had no other pressing things to do.
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Amara rolled her eyes at the other woman continued to go on with apologizing and saying she would get out of the way. She was tempted to say shut up, but there was no reason to get angry at a stranger. People who rambled their life stories and current situation were annoying. There were two types of people who did that: some prim idiots who thought small talk like that mattered, or people who were going on because they were nervous. Amara figured it was the latter and trying to shut those people up usually led them to be more nervous, and the ramble and apologies will continue more profusely than before. Amara was too blunt and not very social adept but twenty-three years of life and a headmistresses for a mother taught her enough on figuring out basic social observations.
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Her eyes went to the music once more. “Don’t worry about it,” she repeated. Great, eventually she will start sounding like a broken record as well. “Like I said, I don’t know what else I am going to get. I’m not here for myself either. I am picking something up for work and since I do not have any specifics it will take me a while to decide.” She looked at the shelf, lost in thought for a moment. “What level are your students at? This may be a little too advanced for kids starting out.” Ha, she could imagine bringing in beginnings music to the club. That would be good payback for a well-off location; however, she would likely embarrass herself as well.</div>[/dohtml]

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Anne felt as though she was babbling, or that she had certainly said more than she should. Almost instantly she wished she could take some of it back. A simple apology would have sufficed, but her nerves had gotten the best of her, and whenever that happened, Anne found herself nervously babbling like an idiot. It was no wonder she didn't like to go out and do things; she only made herself look silly. At twenty-three she really ought to have a better handle on herself, or at the very least be capable of sounding like an adult... <p>

She felt even more embarrassed when it sounded as though the other woman was a little annoyed by Anne's incessant babbling. She opened her mouth as though to apologize yet again, but quickly thought better of it and shut it. There was no use pissing someone off -- she had already said sorry, so it was best to leave it at that. Of course, Anne felt more than a little odd being told to grab what she wanted. While that was why she was there, she wasn't sure how to operate with someone hovering at her side. Being this self-conscience was ridiculous. The woman was telling her she wasn't in a rush, but Anne couldn't help but feel that it would be wise to quickly grab what she needed and move on. The trouble, unfortunately, was that Anne didn't necessarily know what she was looking for. <p>

"Well, if you're sure," she hedged after a moment. "I don't really have anything in mind that I'm looking for -- I was merely hoping to get a few new pieces so my student wasn't playing the same songs over and over. It's easy to assume oneself a master of something if it's the only thing you've been learning... I feel like more variety would do them some good, as well as show me I can actually teach more than one or two songs." That was the first time Anne had ever actually admitted she had some doubts about her status as a piano teacher. Since she wasn't doing it full time Anne often worried that perhaps she wasn't the best teacher out there. She didn't need to be perfect or anything, but surely there were better trained professionals that could do more than she could when it came to teaching the piano. <p>

At the question about her student, Anne replied, "Oh, well, they vary. I have a few just starting out, but I already have beginner pieces. Right now I'm looking for some of my more advanced students... They aren't likely to ever play in a grand concert hall or anything, but they're beyond the basic scales and classical music stage. I want to keep them engaged, so I thought picking up some modern day pieces would help. Nothing too complicated, though... It probably would have helped if I listened to more modern day music, myself. I'm mostly just reading the notes and tempos to see if any of these pieces will work." And now that she was thinking about it, Anne worried that perhaps she ought to listen to the songs rather than just go by what was written there. What if she got something wrong and made it unrecognizable? <p>

"Do you really think some of these might be too difficult?" Her eyes drifted over the sheets in her hands, her eyebrows knitting together. This was probably why she had stuck to classical music this long; she at least knew classical music -- a more modern approach to things might throw her off and get her fired as a piano teacher, and that was the last thing Anne wanted for herself.

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[dohtml]<center><div style="width:400px; text-align:justify;">Amara wished sometimes that she was less intimidating. It wasn’t that often, to be sure. Usually, that worked in her favor, but when she made people overly nervous it was annoying. She did not know how to handle the situations. The whole thing would start making her feel awkward. First thing she could do was step back some more but she was still looking for music sheets for herself. Amara wanted to put the blame on the other woman, but that would be a little cruel. So instead, she put the blame on her boss. There were plenty of other productive activities that she could be doing. The blonde gave another brief smile, “Yes, I’m sure,” she replied. One thing was clear and that was neither knew what they wanted, and they will be standing around, really doing nothing, until that was figured out. As she moved slightly out of the way, she started to look at other titles she needed.
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“Well, neither of us is buying for ourselves then,” She stated after the other woman said she was buying for her student. She thought maybe she could do a couple of suggestions though none immediately came to mind. Amara did have private lessons but when asked she would say she was mostly self-taught. There just was not enough patience there to handle lessons or let alone teach them. So, her mind went blank when trying to think. The next obvious thing to do was ask about what kind of music she was looking for after asking the level. However, Amara believed in not intruding when it came to everyday life. Plus, if she offered to help out making a decision then failed to come with something on her end she would look like an idiot. The best thing was to keep quiet and if a piece came to her mind then she could suggest it.
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She looked at the shelf of music while listening to the dark haired woman to finish talking. Receiving an answer to what kind of music anyway, she gave a brief nod. Amara did know a few modern pieces because that was a good portion of what she played while at work. The largest majority was still the classics, but she knew enough modern tunes, mostly some that she played on her own time. Amara picked up a piece that looked promising for her own purposes, narrowing her eyes slightly as she flipped through it. “What kind of movies do they like to listen to? You could ask them that instead of buying something they won’t like seeing that is why you’re looking for modern pieces. Some soundtrack music is simple enough to learn, depending on what the piece is.” That would work, for her, not as much. She had to assume there would be people at work that would dislike, or like, a certain movie or type of music. That’s why she had to go general. Nevertheless, for a student learning and only playing for themselves the decision did not seem that far off.
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She shrugged, putting the piece of music back and glancing at the other woman’s music. “How would I know? I never heard any of them play so it would be hard to give an answer there. If it is, you can keep it for another student or wait until he or she is good enough to play it.” That was simple enough to understand, right? She thought it would be better to get something that was harder and could grow into playing later than having something too easy that would antiquate level of skill as soon as someone played it.</div>[/dohtml]

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True, Anne wasn't buying anything for herself. She rarely did when it came to music. It was kind of funny to think of that, because as a piano instructor, and a player, one would think Anne would be more inclined to pick up new pieces of music to challenge herself as well. Or even music that she liked to hear. It honestly wouldn't hurt her to pick something out that she might like to play, even if she didn't have any of the pupils she taught play it. Something just for her would be nice. Anne didn't have any ideas right now, of course, but she decided that on her next free day -- a truly free day with no distractions -- she would come back to the shop and see if she couldn't pick out a few pieces for herself. She really did love playing the piano, so it was high time she picked out things she might want to play to herself on days when she needed the piano to distract her from her thoughts. <p>

"I hadn't considered music from movies," she admitted. "That's a good idea. A really good one. Off-hand I don't know what they like, as in favorites, but I would like to think that almost every child would be familiar with Disney, right? That's fairly universal, and they might get a slight kick out of playing a few tunes." And Disney ought to be fairly easy to learn, or at least have a few simple pieces that wouldn't be hard to teach. Anne's eyes gazed over some of the titles in front of her, eventually settling on the section where some Disney scores were. She reached out a hand and rifled through the sheets, a few familiar names from films popping out at her. She was glad the idea had been suggested, because Anne honestly hadn't even thought of it. She might have stumbled across it with a little more searching, but having the idea sort of planted in her mind now made it easier to decide what she would settle on today. Plus, it would also get her out of the way of the other woman, something Anne was relieved by. She didn't want to feel underfoot for too long. <p>

This was especially important considering how silly she felt having asked about the pieces she had already picked out. The other woman was right; she really wouldn't know if Anne's pupils could play any of these pieces without knowing them and where they were with their piano playing. Anne hadn't been thinking when she had asked that, but now she felt herself turning a slight pink color as a result. Because of that reason Anne wanted to hurry and pick out music and go -- she didn't want to further embarrass herself. Still, the idea of playing a piece, whatever piece she chose, before trying it out with her students was the best way to decide if a student would be able to play it at all. "Yeah, I'll definitely do that," she agreed. <p>

"And I think I'll go with a couple of these." She had pulled out a few sheets from Disney films, figuring that the three she had picked out would be easy enough, or at least a good start. "I can always come back later for more, or get some requests in from my students as well. But thank-you for the ideas, they're greatly appreciated. And good luck picking out your own music -- hopefully it'll be as easy as mine was, though I wish I could give you some advice. But, seeing how indecisive I was for pieces for my students, I probably wouldn't be much help."

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