Competition
I threw myself into my practicing. Crescendo here, largo there. I tried to focus on the message of the song, but my mind quickly ran to other things.
Siblings could get so annoying sometimes. Even my brother could. We were pals, but he had things so much better than I did. He was smart; he could beat me in basketball; he didn’t even have acne problems! And he and Carey had been going together for a year now. Things were going great with them, and I really was happy for him. But it seemed like things came so much more easily for him. I was glad I was playing the piano and no one could tell that the scowl on my face was from my thoughts, not from the music. Although, frowning about “O Worship the King” just seemed somewhat odd.
But my frustration grew as I continued practicing. That last run just wasn’t coming together! I had practiced and practiced with the metronome, and my timing was still off. I didn’t think I would ever like 32 nd notes. They were just too tough to get right. And unfortunately the competition was in less than an hour.
That was the trouble with learning a piece on my own, I thought. My teacher—I still couldn’t believe this—had literally refused to help me learn a sacred piece. I had known she was opinionated, but that just blew me away. I sighed remembering it all. Maybe it had been a mistake to attempt it all on my own. Was this last run just another sign that it had been? That I had been foolishly trying to over-achieve once again?
My mom’s voice interrupted my practicing as she announced that it was time to go. I took one last glance through the music, slid off the bench, and walked out to the car. My little sister grabbed the front seat, which was fine with me, and stuck out her tongue at me. What her fascination with doing that was, I would never understand. But I figured I would be able to talk to Alicia better if I got in the back of the van, so I chose not to respond to her.
As my mom started the car, I pulled out my phone and dialed Alicia’s number. Her mom answered, and I chatted with her for a few minutes before asking for Alicia.
“She’s not here right now. I think she’s working on her calculus project.”
“Oh. Where is she doing that?”
“Oh, she’s over at Ben’s house. She’ll be at the competition though. Don’t worry.”
I certainly was worried. She was at Ben’s house again? I knew the two of them were the top of our class—something I certainly could not say about myself—but they had been spending a whole lot of time together lately. I trusted them both, but it still bothered me. My two closest friends were getting closer to each other and further away from me. Why did I feel like I was being stuck as the middleman?
I leaned my head on the back of the seat and ran my fingers through my hair. Why did relationships have to be so stressful? I couldn’t deal with this now, not on top of the competition. I decided to leave it in the Lord’s hands. I would hopefully see her once we were there, and maybe we could talk then. But even if something happened and we had no chance to talk, I needed to focus on the competition, not on Alicia.
My phone rang in my hands, startling me out of my reverie.
“Hello.”
“Hey little bro! How you doin’?”
“Hey Jason, I’m alright. Not too sure if I’m ready for this, though.”
“Aw, I’m sure you’ll do a great job! You’ve been practicing for months. And Carey and I will be there for you. And so will Alicia, right?”
“Well, I’m not too sure about that one. According to her mom, she will be. But I don’t know if that will help me focus on the music or not.”
“Hey, what’s up? Something wrong between you two?”
“Well, Jay, let me ask you this. If your girlfriend were spending a lot of time with your best friend, what would you do about it? Would it bother you?”
“Yeah it would bother me! I can’t imagine what I’d do if Carey were hanging out with Ken all the time! Why? Is that what Alicia’s been doing to you?” I told him what had happened when I called her, and how it was just a continuation of the last few weeks.
“So she’s that smart, huh? Well, hey, don’t let yourself get too preoccupied with it. You have a lot on your mind, like the piano competition, and you can’t afford to lose any more brain cells worrying about it. I’ll see you at the school, okay?” I hung up the phone and mused on his words. He was right; I shouldn’t let myself worry about any of it.
A few minutes later, we pulled into the school parking lot. I nervously got out of the car and walked into the auditorium, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for Alicia. Instead, I saw my name on the overhead as the first contestant of the night. Great! At least this way, I could get it over with and have time to think about other things.
I made my way to the room where I was competing—we got to play on the Baby Grand this year, which was pretty sweet. It had a nice tone, and the keys had about the right amount of resistance to make it an enjoyable instrument to play. I announced my name and the name of my piece for the judges, and made my way over to the bench.
As my hands hit the first chord, I forgot everyone else around me. The piano did have a beautiful tone. I was impressed. I flew through the first few sections of the piece; then I reached the difficult part. There were some nice runs in there, but they were tough to play just right. Somehow I managed to get through the first one, and I began my second run—the one with all the 32 nd notes. I prayed as my fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to will them into their places. Amazingly, they made it all the way through on the right notes!
I breathed a sigh of relief as I began the last section of my piece. It was almost over! These five minutes that I had been preparing for—six long months of living and breathing piano—were almost over. I shook my head in amazement as my fingers began the last run down the keyboard. This one had octaves, so it was still a little tough for me. But I hit the last chord of the run and realized I had done it! I had finished the piece. All that was left was—
Oh no! On the last two grace notes, my finger slipped and I hit a Bflat instead of an A. I felt like banging my head against the keyboard! It had gone so well, until those last two notes. It was finished, but I wasn’t too happy about the ending.
Well, I had never played a song perfectly yet. I guess I would just have to wait and see what the judges thought. Waiting was always the hardest part of anything. I decided to go find my brother and hang out with him and Carey. They could always get me laughing no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. And I had two hours to wait before they announced the winners. I glanced out the corner of eye as I left the room and saw Alicia sitting there. I hesitated a second, and then kept walking. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to her. That would have to wait until after the judging was over. I went to find Jason to see if I could calm down a little.
A few hours later, we were back in the auditorium, waiting for the judges to come out. And Alicia was there, sitting next to me as if nothing had ever happened. I folded and unfolded my program for what must have been the hundredth time that day. As she noticed my movement, she smiled and slid closer to me. Her touch on my hand was calm and reassuring.
“You were great up there, Dave,” she whispered. I swallowed nervously, wondering if I could believe her, wishing I would believe her. As much as I had been wondering about her lately, I had to admit that she was here, holding my hand, reassuring me. And yet, as I glanced over again, I noticed Ben sitting about three seats over from her. I got that unsettled feeling in my stomach again. I loved her . . . but was it in vain?
I jolted out of my thoughts as the judge walked on to the platform He gave his “We’re glad you’re here today” speech and began reading the names of the winners. I couldn’t listen. I tried daydreaming, but all I could hear was those two wrong notes I had played earlier.
I glanced over at Alicia again, and winced when I saw her smiling at Ben. Were they going to flirt right in front of me now? Couldn’t she leave that to when I wasn’t around? Or at least until after tonight?
My attention shifted back to the announcer. He was beginning the sacred piano category. I noticed my hands were trembling, and I tried to hide them. Alicia looked at me with such hopeful eyes, eyes that wanted me to win, eyes that struck deep into my being. How could I let her go?
And then suddenly she was pushing me to my feet. Had I actually gotten first place? Or did I just imagine I heard my name? I never got first; it couldn’t be me. Someone else always won ahead of me.
But as all my friends turned to look at me, I realized that things must have changed this time around. Somehow my feet carried me to the front of the auditorium, and I threw my arms around my music director. He gave me my trophy, and I felt tears forming in my eyes. It was so beautiful! And the applause was music to my ears.
Now if only things would go that well with Alicia . . .