Aria stared at herself in the mirror as she prepared for another day at school. For the first time since starting high school, Aria was actually looking forward to school. It was her first year in high school, and so far, it had been the worst year in her life. After another student had found one of her poems that focused on a lesbian romance, it had seemed like the entire school had risen up against her.
Her mother had died during childbirth, leaving her with a father that hadn't even wanted a child to begin with, a fact he pointed out regularly. Of course, he treated her with almost inhuman courtesy now, ever since Heidi had done whatever it was she had done. Her dad couldn't even look at a bottle of alcohol anymore without immediately getting queasy.
Unable to keep an excited smile from her face, she left the house and began the short walk to the school. Today she was going to the studio with Heidi and Autumn after school. Autumn had assured her that regardless of how talentless she might feel, Heidi would flip a switch in her head and turn her into a musical goddess. Aria believed her too—she had witnessed firsthand Heidi's ability to alter the mind on a psychological level. A few days ago, she couldn't overcome her fear of what all of the other students thought of her sexual identity. Then Heidi did something, and suddenly she had no fear. It was like she could see how insignificant and immature the opinions of the other students were, and how amazing her own self-worth was.
A collective transformation had occurred to the social structure at the school. She discovered throughout the day that rather than avoiding her or giving her disparaging looks, many people were seeking her out to ask her questions about Heidi, with no questions at all about her sexuality. It was like she was just another student, a student many of them wanted to befriend.
Heidi was an immediate celebrity, though nobody dared to interact with her directly. Everyone seemed to think Aria and Autumn were their best chances of gaining some kind of association with Heidi. People had learned to stop trying to take pictures of Heidi early on. There were dozens of phones that were good for nothing but paper weights after taking a picture of Heidi. The few remaining owners of working phones had wisely learned that taking her picture was not a good idea.
Principal Wiley was back at school already, with no sign of her gunshot wound. Word had already spread that Heidi had somehow miraculously healed her. Of course, anything even remotely strange was being attributed to Heidi now.
Speculation ran wild on who or what Heidi was. Aria had to admit that she was also curious. In the few minutes of alone time she had with Autumn the previous day, she had asked Autumn what she knew about Heidi's abilities. Autumn had just shrugged and said, "absolutely nothing, and I don't care either. She's my friend, and that's good enough for me."
Aria's admiration for Autumn had immediately leveled up. All of this attention and Autumn didn't care about increasing her own popularity or profiting from her friend's fame in the least. That was a friend Aria would like to have.
The day seemed to fly by unnaturally fast. Normally, Aria counted each second until the end of the day. Now, she could only marvel as she left her final class. Where had the time gone? Is this what school was like for normal people? She hoped so, and she really hoped she continued to be included in the 'normal' demographic.
The substitute music teacher was already packing his accoutrements and preparing to leave when Aria walked in. He looked at her and frowned.
"Can I help you?" he asked, sounding impatient.
"Um, yeah," Aria replied, losing some of her confidence. "I was going to start practicing here after hours with Heidi and Autumn."
"You aren't on the list that Miss Devons left me," he replied shortly. "Sorry."
"Is there a problem with her joining us?" Heidi asked him as she entered the room.
He stiffened as he met her gaze, and the arrogance left his eyes, replaced by sudden uncertainty. Heidi radiated confidence like a nuclear blast. She held his gaze, her eyes boring into him.
"No, I'm sure it will be fine," he replied hastily, shouldering his bag and quickly exiting the room.
"What was his problem?" Autumn muttered as she stared at the door he had just exited.
"He's got a grudge against the world," Heidi replied, shaking her head disdainfully. "A false sense of entitlement has soured his outlook on life. Instead of seeing how good he has it in life, he focuses on what he believes he should have had given to him by his parents, government, etc.…"
"That's a miserable way to live your life," Autumn noted sadly.
"And misery loves company," Heidi agreed. "Hence, his acerbic attitude."
Aria didn't ask how Heidi knew the inner workings of the man's mind. She took her cue from Autumn and just accepted it as part of Heidi's innate makeup.
"Which instrument would you like to learn?" Autumn asked her with a grin.
Aria stared at the room full of instruments blankly, overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. Her eyes settled on the guitars, but she hesitated. Autumn was already specializing in guitar; she didn't want to seem to be mindlessly choosing the same thing.
"If you're unsure, I would suggest guitar or piano," Heidi suggested lightly. "There's plenty of time to learn others if you change your mind."
Aria nodded and pointed to one of the guitars. "How about this one?"
"Sure," Heidi agreed encouragingly. "Now Autumn will have someone besides me to practice with."
Aria picked up the guitar and studied it, feeling a sense of helplessness as she stared at the fretboard. "So you put your fingers on the strings here?"
She looked up, then let out a gasp when she saw Heidi standing inches away from her. Heidi gently touched the skin between her eyes and suddenly everything went blurry. There was an inverted boom that made her feel like her bones had just been liquified. The lights flickered and a flare of auroral discharge danced in the air between the two of them. The sensation only lasted a second before clarity returned. And clarity it was, like nothing she had ever experienced before. The colors in the room were sharper, her hearing keener, and she could feel every minor air current as it moved across her skin.
As she stared at the guitar that had seemed like an incomprehensible math formula, it suddenly all made sense. She could see how pressing the strings against the frets would lock the string to a higher frequency, how the body would resonate with the tone of each strum.
She looked up at Heidi, who was smiling down at her. "Is it really that easy?"
"Told you," Autumn laughed from where she stood behind Heidi. "Let's get started."
Aria sank into a trancelike state as she spent the next two hours learning scales and chords on the acoustic guitar. By the end of two hours, even Heidi was surprised at how quickly she was picking it up. Autumn was beside herself with glee, insisting that she start vocal training the next day.
As they left the school, Aria couldn't stop grinning. This had definitely been the best day ever. It continued to improve as she joined Autumn at Heidi's house for dinner. Heidi's mother was one of the most amazing women she had ever met. She had often fantasized about what it would have been like to have a mother, and judging by the warmth permeating the dinner table as Mrs. Rockwell beamed at the three of them, she had been missing a lot. When Aria revealed that her mother had died during childbirth, Mrs. Rockwell's eyes had filled with tears, and she had impulsively reached out a hand and placed it on Aria's.
It had been a surprising discovery that one of her former tormentors, Lucinda, was Heidi's sister. She sat at the far end of the table avoiding eye contact with anyone. She seemed withdrawn to the point of depression, a feeling Aria knew all too well.
Mr. Rockwell was very engaging as well, asking her about her interests and even surprising her when he revealed his own interest in poetry. She blushed a brilliant shade of red when he asked if she had any of her poetry with her, but Heidi just nodded at her encouragingly. She hesitantly pulled up one of her poems on her phone and handed it to him. She waited nervously as he read it, expecting immediate disapproval when he discovered it was about two women in love with each other. He surprised her when his stoic features broke into a pleased smile, and he handed it back to her.
"I hope you are submitting these to a poetry forum online somewhere," Mr. Rockwell told her, his eyes full of sincerity. "This is far too beautiful to keep to yourself."
Aria blushed a sunset at the praise. She couldn't keep a smile from lighting her face. "Thanks. I think I'm a little too self-conscious for that though."
"They'll be great song material," Heidi declared, her eyes twinkling. "We'll have to play with some of them tomorrow and find a song to match them to."
"Have you heard Heidi's music?" Aria asked the Rockwell couple curiously.
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Rockwell asked with a questioningly look at Heidi. "I'll confess, I'm not sure what she's listening to these days."
"No, not what she's listening to," Aria said with a grin. "What she's composing."
"Composing?" her mom repeated in surprise. "I thought you just started learning to play at the start of the school year, Heidi?"
"You haven't shown them any of your songs?" Aria asked Heidi in surprise. "Now that is truly criminal."
"Heidi?" her dad asked with a raised eyebrow. "You've been composing?"
"Well, I was hoping to have a little more mastery over the orchestral elements before sharing it with you," Heidi admitted with a shrug.
"Spoken like a true perfectionist," Autumn chuckled with a playful nudge to Heidi's shoulder. "Your music brought my mom to tears."
"Let's hear it," Mrs. Rockwell said impatiently. "You do have some of it with you I assume?"
"I have a few of the songs on my phone," Autumn answered for Heidi with a grin. "Though it would be best to listen to it on better speakers."
"Plug it into the kitchen dock," Mrs. Rockwell told her. "It's a Bose system and has excellent sound."
Aria watched with interest as Autumn plugged her phone into the dock. She had only heard them perform at the guitar store and had yet to hear any of the full orchestral arrangements.
Mrs. Rockwell gasped as the intro of orchestral instruments made a powerful overture into the main theme of the song. Then Heidi's glorious voice poured out of the speakers like liquid gold, making any other sound mundane in comparison. Autumn's voice joined in with a counter harmony and the song went from fantastical to a deeply moving religious experience. Lucinda sat at the end of the table, eyes wide and mouth hanging open in an almost comical expression. Mr. Rockwell had unshed tears in his eyes as the song pushed at the boundaries of reality. Aria felt tears spilling down her own cheeks as she was caught up in an ageless tale of light and hope. When the song finished the room was deathly silent, as if everyone in the room was afraid to defile the air with common speech after something so sacred.
"It's still a work in progress," Heidi broke the silence with a shrug. "I'm having a hard time giving voice to some of the themes with the instruments available. I could really use a choir."
Aria slowly shook her head in amazement. She found it hard to believe that anything could improve upon what she had just heard.
"I had no idea," Mrs. Rockwell said with a sniff as she wiped at her eyes with a tissue. "Heidi, that was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Where did you learn how to play all of those instruments?"
"YouTube," Heid replied with another shrug. "There are whole channels dedicated to teaching anything and everything you could ever want to learn about music."
"That was beautiful," Lucinda whispered from the far end of the table, her face filled with wonder.
"Thank you," Heidi replied, smiling at Lucinda affectionately. "Your opinion means a lot to me."
Lucinda blushed, looking uncertain of how to respond.
"We need to get you some instruments to play at home," Mr. Rockwell declared firmly. "There is no reason for you to only be able to play at school."
"That would be wonderful, dad," Heidi said, her eyes filled with some kind of hidden meaning. "It helps me adapt to new concepts with a lot greater ease."
He nodded, seeming to understand something that the rest of them did not. "Make a list of what instruments you would like. We'll work on acquiring them throughout the year."
Aria marveled at the change that had come over Lucinda. Music truly was a magical language, capable of transforming a person in ways that language alone could never hope to achieve.