Roderich walked into the orchestra room and got out his violin like every other morning. His day started and ended with music, as he preferred it, with orchestra and piano practice. As other orchestra members filed into the room Roderich warmed up his fingers for class. He, of course, was first chair violinist and he took great pride in that fact. He was considered a musical prodigy in orchestra, playing only the hardest solos and pieces of music ever written for violin. The other orchestra students were amazed at his skill and the teacher consulted him for advice whenever it was needed.
He got his music out and was about to work on his part, the hardest part of course, when he heard a group of girls talking.
"Can you believe the band has to do so many games this year?" Said one of the female violists as she tuned her viola.
"Yeah, it's a lot football games. And that's only for marching band. Imagine how many they have to do for pep band when basketball season starts." The group shook their heads and tuned their instruments. The orchestra was a tightly woven group, thus most of them knew everyone's name by heart. They could talk about anything and know that they were safe. "And they have so many members too. Isn't it hard to fit so many people in one room? No wonder they all complain so much about each other." Roderich couldn't help but scoff silently. The band geeks are so uncivilized, he thought. Can't they at least be a little bit more, I don't know, polite to the other members of their little band?
"And they're still looking for more members! As if their classes aren't crowded enough…" said one of the girls as she tuned her instrument. "They have over 80 members in both concert bands and over 100 in wind ensemble! And they have the nerve to ask for more people?" They all shook their heads again but Roderich's attention drifted to what they had said. The band was looking for more members? Why? They're so big already… he thought. Before he could go over to the girls that were talking the teacher started to do the warm ups and scales.
During lunch Roderich sat by a few of his friends, or rather the only people who were willing to sit with him. Elizaveta got out her lunch while Ludwig attempted to ignore Feliciano's incessant chattering. He decided to ask them about band since all three of them were part of it.
"Eliza?" She looked up from her sandwich to him. "I was just wondering… what's band like?" All three of his friends nearly choked on their lunches.
Elizaveta was the first to talk. "W-why do you want to know?" She said with a nervous smile.
"Well I heard the band was looking for new members and I was just wondering why." He said slowly. He raised an eyebrow as his friends breathed a sigh of relief. "And I was thinking of joining."
At this point Ludwig spit his coffee out onto Feliciano, making the Italian squeak in surprise. They all said in unison, "y-you want to do what?!" He looked at them strangely.
Roderich stared at them for a moment. "Well I was going to just observe until next year since I don't actually know how to play a wind instrument. Just sit in on the marching band practices and listen to the music and watch. I wouldn't actually be joining I just find it interesting." The other three seemed to still be on edge. Ludwig stood up and started to walk away.
"I-I have to go tell bruder something about next class – he forgot to do his homework." He went over to gilbert's table, where he was chatting with Francis and Antonio, and dragged him out of the lunch room hurriedly, gilbert stumbling behind him. After a few minutes they came back, looking calm, but both of them were paler than usual—and that was saying something. When Ludwig returned, Roderich raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything. For the rest of the lunch period, they ate and chatted about their usual things.
After lunch, Roderich decided he'd take advantage of the fact that he had his next class with the albino and that he sat next to him every day. When Roderich sat down in his seat, gilbert was working diligently on the homework for tomorrow, which he would let Antonio and Francis copy later. It always amazed Roderich how gilbert was able to get the next day's homework from the teacher before the class started. The brunette turned to the albino next to him and examined his worksheet.
"How on earth do you manage to get the worksheets from the teachers before the beginning of class?" Gilbert smirked.
"I'm just awesome like that, Roddy. You must have learned that that's always the answer by now." Roderich shook his head.
"I should have learned by now, but you know that I can't help but ask. Did you charm our science teacher into giving you that or did you simply ask?" Gilbert shook his head this time.
"Honestly, Roddy, if you're going to ask me questions, then you might as well as me for tutoring. God knows you need it, especially in this particular class."
Roderich's cheeks turned bright red and he huffed. "I-it's not my fault music is easier for me to understand than this chemistry stuff!" Gilbert laughed quietly.
"Hey, Roddy," he said, getting the brunette's attention. "Do me a favor and take notes for me tomorrow. I'm not gonna be here—I have stuff I need to do tomorrow." Roderich nodded his head reluctantly. He often had to take notes for the albino in all their classes because the albino was absent and the only explanation he ever got was 'I have stuff to do.' He nodded.
"I'll give you the notes when you get back, then." He wanted to try to ask but he knew gilbert would cut him off. He tried anyway. "Gilbert, why are you always taking days off—"
"I'd rather not talk about it." There it was: the same response he'd get no matter how many times he'd ask the question. Roderich sighed and gilbert finished the worksheet, getting up to hand it to the teacher, only to get another one that they were doing tomorrow. He sat back down next to Roderich and put the sheet in his backpack, turning towards Roderich afterwards. Roderich took the opportunity to ask another question.
"So what was it Ludwig had to drag you out of the lunch room and tell you so quickly? Did he tell you about my recent interest in band and marching band?" Gilbert couldn't help but laugh.
"Ja, he told me and he seemed to think that I cared. Why the sudden interest in band, anyway?" Roderich shrugged.
"I heard some violinists talking about it and about how the band was looking for more marching band members. I was curious to see how the band works. I mean, everyone seems so close in band, like everyone knows each other and I was just trying to find out if I could sit in on one of the practices or something." Gilbert shook his head and rested his head on a fist as he leaned his arm on the lab table they shared.
"I wouldn't recommend it for someone like you." Roderich raised an eyebrow at the German, wondering why he would say that. Gilbert sighed. "It's not a place for someone like you. You like classical music. Marching band doesn't do that. Marching band is pop songs and jazz and songs to please the crowd." Roderich kept his eyebrow raised at the German, about to ask how he knew this when the bell rang and class started. The teacher greeted the class and started to write on the board, the class starting to take out their notebooks.
Roderich reluctantly took out his notebook and copied down what was on the board for the day. He glanced at gilbert, who was diligently copying the notes from the board. He wondered again briefly how gilbert knew what went on in marching band. The teacher started talking about chemistry and Roderich sighed. Though he did relatively well in all his classes, his science class was the one class he could not manage to keep a good grade. He took good notes, paid attention in class, did all his homework but could not, for the life of him, keep a decent grade.
It felt like forever had passed before the class finally ended and Roderich and gilbert parted ways until their next class after next period. He walked away from gilbert but looked back and saw quite the strange sight.
Gilbert was limping.