emotion, devotion, to causing a comotion

[baby kristyn curtis]

Sitting down at the piano Baby gently placed her hands on the keys before starting. She began with simple scales to get her fingers all warmed up. Normally she didn't begin with this, but some kids at school had told her that it was always best to start with a warm up. She didn't understand why, but she decided to give it a try anyway. Scales got boring fast though. It wasn't that hard to go up and down the keys even with all the different sharps and flats.

Once Baby had made it up to high C she decided to play some random chords. She wasn't in the mood yet to play a real song and didn't have one in mind to play. At the moment she was having fun fooling around with all the different sounds the piano could make.

[darrell shaynee curtis]

Darrell was upstairs in his room when he heard the sound of the piano. Normally you wouldn't hear this comming from a house full of boys, but he had to remind himself that he had a little sister. He got up off his bed and slowly made his way downstairs. As he took the last step, he saw Baby out of the corner of his eyes playing on the piano.
There had been times where he considered selling the piano so they could afford more things, but he knew Baby loved it. And if it meant keeping her off the streets where she could get jumped, he would keep it. He leaned against the banister, not putting all his weight on it because he knew it wasn't that sturdy. He stood in silence, watching his 7 year old sister play, a smile crept onto his face.

[baby kristyn curtis]

Baby continued to play the chords until it eventually began to be an actual song. She didn't even notice that this had happened. Like always she let her fingers take over and do all the thinking for her. It was a lot more enjoyable to play this way when you didn't have to think. She wished a lot more things in life could be like playing the piano, especially school. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't pick up on the material as easily as the other students in her class did. Baby felt someone watching her. There was always at least one brother in the house when she was home. For some strange reason they didn't like to leave her alone, go figure. Turning around she saw it was her oldest brother Darrell.
"Hey Darry." Baby said giving him her biggest smile

[darrell shaynee curtis]

Darrell gave Baby a nod, "Hey." It always made him feel good when he saw her smile. His job wasn't easy and sometimes he felt like his brothers didn't care about what he did for the family. With Baby, it was different. He knew she cared about what he did for the family and didn't seem to take things for granted. "What are you play there?" he asked her, signling towards the piano. He had been able to buy her a couple of piano books, so she had something to play. He knew though that she just liked to make up songs on her own and they actually seemed to fit together and didn't sound sloppy.

[baby kristyn curtis]

Baby had to think for a moment trying to remember what she had just played. That tended to happen a lot too. Since she didn't always pay attention to what she had be playing she tended to forget the song. "Bach's Minuet in G major." she shrugged once she had remembered. For her it wasn't that hard of a song, she had been playing it for a really long time now so it was one of the songs her fingers new best. She tried her best to learn a new song at least once a month. It didn't take her long to learn it, but she had to take her time perfecting the notes so they sounded just right. "Do you have a request?" she asked her big brother

[darrell shaynee curtis]

Darrell shook his head. He never had the musical background, so he didn't know any songs that she played. "Nope, why don't you just surprise me with something," he told her. He walked from the staircase over to the couch and sat down. He propped his feet up on the table, even though he normally scolded his brothers for doing the same thing. He had always been amazed that at the age of 7, she had been able to learn what he assumed were hard songs to play on the piano.

[baby kristyn curtis]

"Okie dok." Baby giggled as she watched her brother sit down on the couch. "You better not let Sodapop and Ponyboy see you sitting like that. They'll start complaining." she warned him. Many times had the youngest Curtis seen her two middle brothers get in trouble for putting their feet on the table. She probably would have done it too, but her legs were still too short to reach it.
Thinking for a moment Baby had to decide what song to play for Darry. She wanted something happy and light because her oldest brother had too much sadness in his life and didn't need any more. Finally she figured out the perfect piece. Turning back around to face the piano she began.

[darrell shaynee curtis]

Darrelll let out a small chuckle as the youngest member scolded him for putting his feet up. He sat up straighter on the couch and put his feet down. "Yes mam," he told her, trying to use his serious voice. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on Baby's music. He always enjoyed listening to her play, finding her music rather soothing. His life was stressful and he had the tendency to let others see how the stress affected him. Listening to Baby play made him forget about all the chores he was responsible for.

[baby kristyn curtis]

Baby continued playing the song. Even though her brain had picked in and not her fingers she was still able to get lost in the melody and rythem of the tune. It made her feel relaxed and hopefully it was having the same effect on Darry. She played the last few chords of the song and turned around to see her brother's reaction. He appeared to be a lot more relaxed then before. Quietly she jumped off the bench and headed over to where Darry was sitting.
"What did you think?" Baby asked sitting down on top of the table.

[darrell shaynee curtis]

"I liked it," Darrell told her, giving her a smile, "and even though that relaxed me, it doesn't mean you can sit on the table." He made sure that if one of his siblings couldn't do something in the house, then none of them could do it. That included not sitting on furniture that wasn't meant to be sat on. He leaned over and picked Baby up, placing her on the couch. "Thats better," he told her, smiling gently. He had to remember that he had to use a different tone with her than he normally would use when talking to his brothers.

[baby kristyn curtis]

"But you only said no feet on the table, you never said anything about butts." Baby told her brother. Okay, so she wasn't 100% sure that he hadn't said anything about sitting on the table, but it was still worth a shot even if it was a long one. She climed up onto Darry's lap and leaned against his chest. "It's quiet." she commented. There tended to be a lot of noise in the house, it was a strange thing when there was no sound.

[darrell shaynee curtis]

Darry hadn't even noticed that it was quiet in the house. He wasn't used to this. Normally with two teenage boys in the house, plus with their friends, there was always some sort of noise being made. "Yea it is," he told her, running his hand through her hair. He took a deep breath in, letting it out slowly. He stared down at Baby and smiled. In his mind he thought he did a good job of raising her, but at times he wished his parents were there. There was only so much he could teach her and he couldn't even begin to imagine her as a teenager. A teenage boy and a teenage girl were completely different and he had no experience living with a teenage girl before.

[baby kristyn curtis]

"It's weird." Baby commented putting emphasize on weird. Her entire life there was always some sort of noise going on in the house. And it was always loud noise too. Between music or the TV blairing and doors being slamed it was amazing stuff got done around the house. Not that she minded, there was a comfort to all the loudness in the house. It made things feellike they were normal. "Where is everyone?" she asked looking up at Darry

[darrell shaynee curtis]

Darry didn't exactly know where his two brothers were. They tended to go off and do their own thing even though Darry had told them to tell him where they were heading to. "They're either up in their rooms or out somewhere with friends," he told her. The frist was probably not true because there would be some noise comming from upstairs. However, he hoped they werent out with their friends because they had tendancies to get into fights and Darry didn't want to worry about getting a phone call from the police.

[baby kristyn curtis]

"Oh." was Baby's only response. She knew that was going to be her brother's answer, but there was still slight hope that he knew where the other two curtises were. "So it's just us in the house then?" she asked still looking up at Darry. She knew that her other two brothers were not in the house, it was too quiet. Which ment that they were somewhere around town.