I didn’t want to be here. I slumped further into my seat as my little sister took a steadying breath. My parents sat next to me, grim-faced and cold eyed. “Why am I here again?” I muttered, pulling uncomfortably at the neck of this ridiculous monkey-suit. My father didn’t look away from my little sister. “Because we told you to come.” “Oh, yeah.” I said. “I remember now.” I glared at them, sliding down even further. “I told you that I had plans tonight at least – hmm, what was it? Two week ago? And you ignored me.” “Your sister needs your support.” My mother said, eyes like a hawk watching its pray. “She’s ten years old,” I rolled my eyes. “Give her a break.” “She’s a piano prodigy, boy. She’ll do far more in life than you could ever dream of.” My little sister didn’t look like she was going to succeed. She stood next to the stage in her little black dress that my mother had insisted she wear, twisting her slim fingers through her hair. My mother clucked disapprovingly. “She’s going to mess up all my hard work,” she said. “Go over and get her to stand up straight,” my father instructed. “She’s slouching. That’s horrible for her posture.” He stared at me. I just grinned and slid down so that my knees were on the floor and my back was resting on the seat. “I don’t know whatever you’re talking about, father.” My father’s eyes were icy, but he looked away. He’d already given up on moulding me into being the perfect son. My sister, on the other hand… I watched as my mother moved quickly through the seats, heels no-doubt clicking loudly over the current performance. As I turned my attention to the stage, I felt a thread of admiration creep up to me. The kid was good; his fingers slid over the piano keys with surprising grace for one so chubby. His eyes were closed in concentration and a thin sheen of sweat glittered like diamonds over his forehead. Still, he looked like he was enjoying himself. I thumped to the ground so that I was sitting with my neck leaning against the seat. How anyone could enjoy a life like that was a mystery to me. My father gave me a cutting look that never failed to make me sneer. “Sit up properly, boy, and shut up!” he hissed. I ignored him, of course, instead choosing to focus on my little sister. Mother had begun to chew her out, and the poor thing looked close to tears. “Jeez,” I groaned. “Can’t you people let her take a break? You’ve been forcing her to play in recitals for the last month. She hates them.” “She’ll get used to them,” my father said. “It’s just a bit of stage fright.” I smirked at his utter naivety. “Just a bit of stage fright, huh?” I parroted. “Man, you really don’t have a clue, do you?” My father didn’t deign to respond, and I was just fine with that. I winked up at the woman sitting on my other side, who had been watching us with thinly-disguised amusement. “That used to be me, y’know,” I nodded over to my little sister, who was desperately trying to stand up properly. “Not at the piano, though. Can’t play the damn thing to save my life. Nah, it was all violin, baby.” My father choked and stared at the woman. “I apologise, ma’am…” he started. “I hated it. I’d be forced to play for hours on end. Sometimes my fingers bled. I can’t stand to even look at our music room, now.” “Really?” the woman said, eyebrow arched elegantly. “Mhm,” I nodded lazily. “They made me start performing when I was seven.” I rolled my eyes. “Worst year of my life. I quit, after that.” “Your parents let you?” I snorted. “God, no. But what were they going to do, when I refused to touch the thing? They’d try to make me go to recitals, and I’d kick up such a fuss that they’d be so embarrassed they’d take me home.” “He’s always been a wayward child,” my father inserted desperately, looking uncomfortable. “A failure at everything he tries. It’s no surprise, really, that he was unable to meet our expectations.” A flash of real regret slid onto his face. “Perhaps we should not have set them so high.” “Awh, pops, don’t look like that.” I grinned up at him, and then turned back to the woman. “What he’s not telling you is that I’d been accepted into a Cambridge summer course for archaeology.” “He got lucky,” my father assured her hastily. “Besides, archaeology has no real finesse, like violin playing. He did mediocre and was accepted because no one else applied. I smiled. “Sure, sure. Believe what you like.” I said. “Hey, like, she’s about to go on.” My father’s attention snapped away from me to look at my little sister like a bird of prey. “Get a life, Dad,” I muttered, allowing my head to lean back onto the seat, so I could look at the ceiling. The lights swam before my eyes, and I grinned. “I guess it’s time to go wish her good luck, then.” “Don’t you dare,” my father warned as I heaved myself up. “You’ll only make her more nervous. The last thing she needs is someone like you going over there.” “Really?” I lazily jumped over his outstretched legs and walked to the aisle. “See ya, pops.” He looked furious, but made no move to follow me. He knew as well as I did that if he came, there would be a shouting match. He wouldn’t want to ruin my poor little sister’s recital. Mother looked fit to slap the little girl. The old bat of a woman was hissing furiously into her ear, pretty face twisted poisonously, and I knew that I had to get her away before she ruined both of our plans. “What’s up?” I said, grabbing my little sister and twirling her around, so that I was between her and Mother. She let out a small, breathless laugh, and hugged close to my leg. “How dare you!” my mother growled, reaching out to take her back. “Go and sit down with Dad,” I said. “I’ll make sure she’s ready.” Mother looked furious. “I don’t think so!” she spat. “Please? Mummy?” my little sister peeked out from behind me, all brown curls and blue eyes. My mother visibly softened. “Alright.” She said. “But you’d better perform to the best of your abilities, my love. We’ve got a lot riding on this one.” My little sister nodded. “I know.” As soon as our mother left, she buried her face into my leg. “I don’t want to go on stage.” “I know,” I smiled. I could feel her heart beating through my pants, terrified. It wasn’t just the plan she had come up with; she always threw up right after a performance. Never before – my parents had been so ashamed the one time she had vomited before that they hadn’t let her go to school for a month. What she was prepared to do – what she had planned to do – astounded me. Defiance, in my family, was not to be tolerated. Obedience and excellence were demanded. To purposefully fall below the bar that my parents had set – and to do so in such a way that it was obviously deliberate… The plan that she had hatched just before the concert was daring. And terrifying. I wouldn’t have the guts to do it. She truly amazed me, sometimes. “Do you think this will make it better?” she asked. “Nope,” my smile was sad. “In fact, I think this will make it worse.” My little sister paused. “Okay, then.” I bit my lip. “You sure about this? It’s only going to make them angry.” “But it’ll make me feel better.” She said. “Go back and sit with them. I’ll be fine.” I nodded and left. I managed to get to my seat just as she walked on stage. There was a polite smattering of applause, and her face turned petrified. “Oh, no you don’t,” I muttered, and jumped to my feet and clapped my hands for all I was worth. My parents cringed away from the curious looks we were getting, but my sister grinned. “…performing Erik Satie’s “Vexations…” ‘Vexations’ was one hell of a piece that could send me to sleep within the first minute. I had seen my little sister cry more than once because of this damned thing. She sat down and let out a long breath. “You can do it!” I shouted, amounting to a ripple of applause. My little sister gave a brave nod, and then struck the first key. Mum’s face turned white. “That’s not…” she started. G CC C D EE E D C DE C… The itsy bitsy spider Climbs up the water spout… I had never been so proud. … Author’s Note: Okay, I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote this. Still, it was fun. Hope that it was an okay piece of writing! Also, thanks so much to Liz uli who pointed out a lot of my really stupid mistakes *cringes* (sorry about that). I hope this one is better! Please review! I need desperately to improve!