Piano Forte

CHAPTER 3       

PREPPING

 

 

William was getting frustrated with his father. He’d called him Tuesday night after seeing who his roommate was. His father told him to live with it for the moment and he’d call back in a day or two. William knew that his father was in Dallas for a trio of concerts with the Dallas Symphony. He also knew that his father didn’t like dealing with family issues when he was preparing for or playing a concert series.

 

 Calling his mother wasn’t on William’s agenda. He already knew what his mother would say. “Talk to your father about it, sweetie.” He loved his mother, who was a sweet, well-meaning lady, but she was often more concerned with her charity work than her child raising chores.

 

The way William figured it, Friday was more than two days from Tuesday, so he should have heard from his father. The call he’d just attempted went into voicemail. Sure, he has a concert tonight, but the asshole could at least give me five minutes of his time, William fumed.

 

Kevin, his roommate, wandered into the room from the bathroom, naked except for the towel draped over his shoulders. The dormitory rooms for the middle, or lower, school were organized in a suite system, with four rooms built around a central bathroom, so a person didn’t have to get dressed to get from the shower to his room. Each side of the wing had an indoor hall that went from end-to-end. The wing was five stories with twenty rooms making up five suites.

 

William knew he was privileged to reside in the East Wing. It was a much better setup than the North Tower where the rest of the dorm rooms were located. Each floor had two large bathrooms. William never roomed in the Tower, but Kevin did in his first year at the school.

 

The high school, or upper school, was physically higher than the lower school. The middle school was on a flat plain while the high school was on a hill. The middle school was at the south side of the hill. The east side afforded a view across Puget Sound to Seattle and its environs as well as Mt. Rainier and the Cascades. A high-end housing development with a golf course abutted the Academy property at the base of the hill, while most of the north side was forest land.

 

“The best thing about the Tower,” Kevin giggled, “is I got to see a lot of boys naked. Not that I don’t get my chances in our suite.”

 

“I hope you plan to get dressed before you go to class,” William grumped.

 

“My morning English class was cancelled to give us more time to study for next week’s final. Like I’m going to use the time to study,” he grinned. “I’ve got Practice Room 7 reserved to practice for my trumpet final, so I thought I’d get breakfast with you and then come back here and jerk off.”

 

“I don’t get you. You always shower and then jerk off and get cum over you. I jerk off first, and then shower.”

 

“Let’s see, we’ve had this conversation a few dozen times and my answer is always the same: I like having my cum on me.” Kevin gave William a sexy smile. “And yours too, for that matter.”

 

“Are all gay boys as weird as you?”

 

“You know who most of the ones in seventh and eighth grade are, at least the ones who are my friends. What do you think?”

 

“I think the answer is yes.”

 

By that time Kevin was dressed in a t-shirt and black sweats. He wore no underpants or socks. He slipped on his sandals and told William he was ready to go to the dining hall to eat. Since he didn’t have class, Kevin didn’t have to wear approved school classroom attire. William, on the other hand, was wearing a tan polo shirt with the school logo stitched on the pocket over his left breast, dark brown Dockers, and black dress shoes. And he was wearing underpants (black boxer briefs with white trim) along with black socks.

 

“I dare you to jerk off in the dining room while we eat,” William told his roommate. It was a dare he made frequently. Kevin would do it only if he and William were the only students seated at a four-person table or Jonas, one of his gay friends sat with them.

 

“Only if you do it with me.”

 

“And my answer is going to be no once again.”

 

“Then my answer is no, too.”

 

“Oh, this is different. I thought you were really horny. I mean, usually you take my dare.”

 

“I am horny. But with just a week left in the school year, it’s time for you to put your money where your mouth is and the best meal for jerking off at is breakfast since it’s never as crowded as lunch and dinner. Time to put up or shut up.”

 

“If you do it this morning, I’ll fuck you tonight.”

 

“No, no, a thousand times no,” Kevin said with mock seriousness.

 

“We’ll see.”

 

William and Kevin found a four-person table, occupied by their friends Jonas Ferris and Chad Mason, with two empty seats awaiting them. William pointed to the sets. “We’re sitting there,” he announced as he and Kevin headed for the buffet line.

 

“That was our plan,” Jonas called after him.

 

Jonas and Chad were about halfway finished eating when William and Kevin returned. “I gave Kevin a dare,” William announced. Jonas and Chad knew what the dare was about without having to be told.

 

“Are you joining him if he does it?” Jonas asked. Like William and Kevin, Jonas was finishing eighth grade, but unlike them he was still thirteen. He was a talented artist. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become an architect. But, for now, he’d been able to persuade his father to allow him to attend Bainbridge for music rather than go to the Tahoma School of the Arts in Tacoma. Like Kevin, he was openly gay.

 

“Hell, no. I mean he’s the gay boy, not me. Why don’t you join him?”

 

“Because I have my uniform on and can’t do what he’s doing to himself right now, and he isn’t eating bacon and waffles.”

 

Kevin had his left hand inside his sweats and was rubbing his four-and-a-half-inch length of uncut teen cock. He looked up and grinned, grabbing a bite to eat with his right hand while his left hand pleasured him. “This takes skill and coordination,” Kevin let his friends know.

 

Chad, who was Jonas’s roommate, was also thirteen, but was a seventh grader. He was a quiet, introverted boy who played the clarinet. He was also a talented photographer.

 

William had asked if either one was going to music camp. Jonas said he was going to an art camp to keep his father happy while Chad said he would be coming for the one-week minicamp at Bainbridge. Chad and Jonas were lovers (although they had yet to have anal sex with each other) but Chad wasn’t sure he was gay. What he was sure of was that he liked having sex with Jonas.

 

“I knew he’d do it,” William said as Kevin’s hand played with himself while he ate.

 

“I dare Kevin to take his dick out of his sweats,” Jonas said breathlessly.

 

“You do it,” Kevin replied. “You’re the other gay boy at the table.”

 

“I’ve got my uniform on and it’s hard to get it out of my pants.”

 

“I’m sitting at a table of wusses.” While Kevin tried to be as sneaky with his motions as he could, anyone looking closely would know what he was doing. He was on the verge of creaming. He stopped, put his fork down, and gave his cock the attention it deserved.

 

“Oh, fucking yeah,” he whispered as his four-and-half inch rod of steel emptied his young teen cum into his sweat pants. “Oh, yeah, that was fucking good,” he breathed. “You pussies don’t know what you’re missing.”

 

“I know we don’t have our pants full of cum,” Jonas said.

 

“I’m going back to my room, plus this is why I wore black sweats. Nobody can see the wet spot.” He went back to eating his breakfast like nothing happened.

 

Just as the four boys got ready to leave the table, Michelle walked by and pointed at Kevin. “How can you stand him for a roommate,” she addressed William. “He’s got to be the grossest boy in the eighth grade. He can masturbate at breakfast, but he can’t make out with Lainie.” Lainie Johnson was Michelle’s roommate. She’d been flirting with Kevin for the last half of the school year.

 

“She can’t get it in her head that I’m gay,” Kevin said. “Which means I’m not gross.”

 

“Like, how can you know you’re gay if you haven’t tried it with a girl?” Michelle asked.

 

“I know because doing it with a guy rocks.” He looked around the table. He’d had anal sex with Jonas and William and traded blow jobs with Chad. “Even your boyfriend likes it.”

 

“Just not as much as doing it with you,” William said defensively.

 

“Prove it by coming to my room this afternoon, like at three o’clock.”

 

“I’ve got a meeting with Boardman about the piano final.”

 

“If you really thought sex with me was better than with Kevin you’d tell Boardman you can’t make it,” Michelle said in a huff as she turned and walked away.

 

“Women!” William wailed in frustration as he quoted his father. “How does anybody understand them?” Since nobody had an answer, the four boys left the table and headed for their respective nine o’clock destinations.

 

 

William’s phone lit up with an incoming call as he left his eleven o’clock math class for lunch. He saw it was his father. “Hey, dad, I’m in the school hall—I’ll call you back in a few.” William’s father was used to his son’s curt answers. He knew that use of phones in the halls and classrooms at the Academy was strictly forbidden and that William was taking a risk making even a quick reply.

 

Since the afternoon was sunny and warm, William walked into the courtyard and sat on a bench. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and returned his father’s call.

 

“What do you want, son? Be quick, I don’t have much time. I’ve got a lot going on.”

 

William squelched the urge to tell his father to use the time he had to go fuck himself. Knowing how his father operated, William got to the gist of the call without any preliminaries. “I’m gonna have a total dorky little nerd for a roommate at camp. I want a private room, or even better, I could go to Germany with you while you do the Salzburg Music Festival.”

 

“Salzburg is in Austria.”

 

“Same difference. They both speak German. Dad, this dork is only twelve and he probably plays with two fingers, plus he’s a scholarship camper. And you never take me with you on your trips. Kevin is going to Scandinavia with his parents and going to Erik Svenson in Oslo and they’re not even musicians and you never take me to hear anything,” William spilled out in almost a single breath. 

 

“We go to the Seattle Symphony every time they have a piano soloist and I seem to remember us seeing your grandfather play with the Chicago Symphony so don’t give me that shit. And you know I don’t have time to babysit you when I’m on the road.”

 

“Dad, I’m fourteen and I don’t need a fucking babysitter.”

 

“The answer to everything is no. There is no way I’m paying for a single room because you think you can’t live with somebody you’ve never even met. The summer camp is going to be a good thing for you. And you can put up with a boy from the lower class for four weeks. Who knows, he might even teach you manners.”

 

“That’s fucked and you know it. I’ve been to two of the camps and I won’t learn anything new.”

 

“But you’ll learn things better. I’ll tell you what, we have over a month between the end of camp and the start of the school year. If you can end the phone call without saying fuck again, I’ll think about fitting you into my schedule after the camp is done.”

 

“Yeah, well, I’ll keep you from thinking about putting me on your fucking schedule. Going to camp is going to be fucked, having a little fucker who probably pisses his bed at night is going to be fucked. So, don’t even fucking think about giving me your precious time, fuck you very much.” William pushed the red disconnect on his screen. He was too young to know about the great satisfaction a person could get from slamming the handset of a phone down on its cradle.

 

As William stomped to lunch he came across Michelle. He knew right then what he wanted that afternoon, and it wasn’t a lesson with Dr. Boardman, the head of the piano department. Since his dad had a problem making time for him, he was going to make time for Michelle to make up for it. He walked up to her. “If I text ‘go’ before three, be in your room and ready for me.” Michelle grinned and walked off to lunch.

 

David Delacroix stared at his phone as if it held the secret to communicating with his son. He kept wondering where he had gone wrong. He sent William to the best arts school in the Northwest, encouraged him to use his immense talents, gave him everything he needed, and he had turned into an ungrateful brat. He wished his wife took more of a role in raising him, because he simply didn’t have the time to come up with answers.

 

While Rene Zimmer was William’s regular piano teacher, he also had meetings with and received lessons from Dr. Boardman. Those lessons were geared to playing as a soloist with an orchestra. The forming of a student orchestra every summer was a draw for orchestra students from around the country as well as some from Canada.

 

William stopped by Boardman’s office on the way to class and was happy to see he was in. “Hey, Dr. B, I’m skipping our lesson today. I want to study for my science final.”

 

“Finals are next week, William. Do you plan on sleeping away the weekend?”

 

“I’ll work extra with Mrs. Zimmer tomorrow. I’m gonna see you during music camp anyway.”

 

Dr. Boardman gave William his best educator glare. William Delacroix inherited a great deal of talent from his famous father and grandfather, but he also appeared to have their big egos and accompanying arrogance. “Are you asking me if you can skip or are you telling me?”

 

“Um…I guess I’m asking you.” William knew that could be construed as a lie but decided to err on the side of caution.

 

“We both know that isn’t true. I assume you know the importance of your piano final. I don’t care what your lineage is, we both know you must perform on the keyboard for your grade. But I don’t have the time or patience to deal with what I know will be an unproductive lesson. I want to see you following your Monday morning final. Now get out of my sight.” William had his history final Monday morning. His keyboard final wasn’t until Wednesday morning.

 

William turned and left the professor’s office. He hated Dr. Boardman. His father had described him as a man who had the smarts to get a fancy PhD in Keyboard Arts but had the talent of a block of wood to go along with it. He much preferred Ms Zimmer as a teacher, but Dr. Boardman was the person who would be prepping him for his keyboard final. Dr. Boardman watched the handsome teen leave his office.  He had long ago concluded William Delacroix had not inherited one important trait his father and grandfather were noted for—their unquestionable work ethic.

 

  “go” William texted to Michelle as he walked through the courtyard separating the school from the East Wing of the dorms. He received a return text with in a minute saying, “sorry gotta cancel”.

 

“why”

 

“gotta c my flute teacher sorry”

 

William sat on a courtyard bench. Once again, he was fuming. Girls were such bitches, he thought. At least when a boy said he’d have sex with you that meant he’d have sex with you, not I’ll have sex with you unless I won’t. He’d been so hyped to fuck Michelle he was horny beyond belief. He knew Kevin had class all afternoon or he’d fuck his roommate who was always horny no matter how often he jerked off in the morning.

 

William had had sex with Jonas a few times. Usually it was in a three-way with Kevin, but they’d done it alone together too. He knew that while Jonas and Chad jerked off together and sucked each other, Chad was shy about having sex with him or Kevin. He texted Jonas, asking him if he was available at three.

 

“i got class but i know what u want sorry”

 

Fuck, William thought, everybody is horny but nobody can fuck. He decided to use his now open three o’clock hour for a major, multi-cum jerkoff session.

 

He went to his one and two o’clock classes, fighting a stubborn hard-on half the time. Once his two o’clock was finished, he headed for his dorm to take care of his urges.

 

As he entered the courtyard, William saw Christoff Sanger standing in the. courtyard near the main entrance to the girls’ section of the East Wing. Sanger was a sophomore. While it wasn’t forbidden to be at the middle school, high school students rarely came down the hill to visit. They were not allowed into the dorms, however.

 

Then he saw Michelle come out the dorm door and into the courtyard. She grinned when she saw Christoff and he returned the smile. They touched hands and started out of the courtyard to the school campus.

 

When Michelle saw William, she maintained her smile. “Christoff and I are going to practice together,” she told William without hesitation. Christoff was a piano student.

 

“You could have practiced with me,” William grumbled.

 

“But you weren’t available at three, remember?” In William’s mind, Michelle was telling so many lies she couldn’t keep her stories straight.

 

“Whatever. You guys have a fucking good time.”

 

The pair left without comment. William was so upset now, that he didn’t even feel like jerking off.

 

“Girls,” he muttered quietly to himself. “Who fucking needs them?” He thought about walking over to the school and see if there was a practice room available so he could bang on the keyboard, but decided with finals next week they were probably scheduled up. Banging on his electric keyboard wasn’t an option; it didn’t give him nearly the satisfaction. He decided to go to his room and shut out the miserable day by taking a nap.

 

That night Kevin was more than willing to let William take care of his pent-up horniness. William wished that Kevin was Michelle, but only because he and Michelle could kiss. Fucking either one felt great and whether with a girl or a guy fucking was just sex. But with a girl it was a smidge more because of the kissing. There was no way he would kiss a guy. Kissing a guy was gay, even with Kevin, whom he liked more than any friend he ever had.

 

 

Austin’s last class of the day was math. He enjoyed math. Because music was mathematical in many ways he had an affinity for the subject. He knew that unless he completely tanked his final he had an A cinched. When the bell ending class rang and Mr. Leslie dismissed the class, he headed for his locker. As he approached his locker, Austin saw Oliver Brown, his best friend, coming from the opposite direction. They were in the same home room, so their lockers were close together.

 

“Howdy, O,” Austin said with a wide grin.

 

“Hey, Austin. I’m so glad it’s Friday,” Oliver said.

 

“Why, so you can spend two days studying for finals?”

 

“Dude, what else is there to do before finals week? Unless…,”

 

“Unless what?”

 

“Unless you got nothing to do tomorrow.”

 

“Well, I’m seeing Mr. Fielding at ten and after lunch I better study for my science test. Why, do you have something going?”

 

“Yeah, I’m looking for an excuse not to spend all day studying by myself. I can say, ‘Hey, mom, Austin is coming over to study science with me.’ Then we can do what we want.”

 

Austin opened his locker. “Well, I’d have to check with my mom, but maybe I could come over after I play some stuff for Mr. Fielding.” Austin’s locker was two lockers away from Oliver’s. Since nobody was currently using the lockers in between them, they were able to talk freely.

 

“I thought you had piano, like, on two evenings, not on Saturday.”

 

“I do, but I want to play him the piece I picked to show my camp roommate I know how to play the piano.” Oliver and Austin shut their lockers simultaneously and started down the hallway for the main entrance together.  

 

“Dude, you’re worrying about him too much. I don’t know much about piano, but I know enough to know that all you gotta do is sit on the piano bench and that William dude will be in awe of you.” Oliver didn’t play the piano. He played the violin and was a decent violinist for an eleven-year-old.

 

He loved taking his violin to Austin’s house where they would make music together. Austin’s level of proficiency was far beyond Oliver’s, but he never looked down at his friend. They would find music that Oliver could play well and Austin either would play the piano accompaniment or improvise something.

 

“I figure I just need to have something ready. Mr. Fielder said he had some time open tomorrow morning to listen to what I have and he wouldn’t charge my mom for it if I promised to learn something he was going to show me.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“I dunno. But he said he it was a version for piano and violin.”

 

Josh Fielding knew of Austin’s close friendship with Oliver. He’d even listened to the two of them play together a couple of weeks ago. As he listened he came to two conclusions about Oliver. First, the boy had talent. Second, he needed to put in a lot of hard work to polish that talent. He thought about asking Mary Lassen, who was a string professor at the college, if she could recommend a better teacher for Oliver. He could see that Austin and Oliver had a great deal more karma between them than Austin and his recital partner Bridget Long, even though Bridget was a much better performer.

 

They went out to the bus zone where Austin would catch his bus. Oliver lived six blocks from the school and usually walked. Through the magic of texting, they ended up arranging for Oliver’s mother to pick up Austin at Mr. Fielding’s house after his lesson was finished. Austin would spend the rest of the day at Oliver’s and then spend the night. Life simply couldn’t be better for the two tweens.

 

Austin got off the bus and walked the two blocks to the small house where he lived. He looked at the length of the grass and knew that he and James would be put to work soon to cut it. He entered the house, gave his mother a quick hug, then went to his bedroom and changed.

 

He was grateful that his mother was earning enough for them to live in a house. After his father died she knew they couldn’t afford to live in the house Valerie Richards and her husband, Michael, had just purchased. They had declined mortgage insurance because they were young and were certain to live forever. That turned out to be a dreadful mistake.

 

Valerie had most of their belongings put into storage and rented space in a trailer court. The doublewide was tiny and Austin had to share a bedroom with James. But, in her way, she made sure that the space was clean, neat, and homey.

 

They lived in the trailer for a little over two years. Austin slept with James almost every night to fight his loneliness. To his credit, James often wanted to have his bed to himself, but the only times he turned his little brother away was when one of them was sick. Austin’s mother got promoted as an administrative assistant at the college. The raise, along with their insurance payments, allowed her to purchase the small house.

 

James was happy to have his own room, but Austin missed the comfort of his brother’s bed. He often wandered into James’ room at night. Their mother worked to wean Austin from his brother’s bed. The night visits became fewer and fewer until they stopped when the brothers were seven and ten years old.

 

That is, they stopped until James was twelve and realized that having his brother’s warm body in bed with him had given him a nice feeling. As a result, he sometimes invited Austin to sleep with him, which is how Austin learned masturbation, mutual masturbation, and dry humping. While James and his friend Frank masturbated each other, kissed on occasion, humped, and sometimes engaged in oral sex, James didn’t think it was right for him to go beyond jerking off and humping with his little brother.  

 

Austin changed into his sweat shorts and an old t-shirt. He went out to the living room and sat at the spinet piano. He sat on the bench and ran through his warmups. The work he wanted to perform to show William how good he could play was one of the encores on his favorite CD:  Evgeny Kissin’s CD of the two Chopin Piano Concertos. The encore he picked was the Waltz Number 14. It was a lively, but difficult little work. Since he would be playing the work for Mr. Fielding tomorrow, he wanted to run through it entirely from memory. He had learned the brief work entirely on his own and was eager to play it for his teacher.  As Austin saw the situation, if twelve-year-old Evgeny could play it, then so could twelve-year-old Austin.

 

He was feeling very good about his playing as he finished playing it for the fourth time. The waltz took just over two minutes to play. He could hardly wait to hear it on Mr. Fielding’s Steinway. While he was happy to have the spinet at home, its tone was nowhere near what the big concert grand produced. Mr. Fielding had found the spinet piano at an estate sale just after Austin had moved from the trailer to the house. He offered to buy it for Valerie Richards, but she would have none of it. They settled on him purchasing it and her making monthly payments. The piano was now paid for.

 

“Hey, that sounds good, bro,” James said as Austin finished a flawless playing of the waltz his fifth time through.

 

“When did you come in?” Austin asked.

 

“Just as you started up whichever time you’ve been playing this.”

 

“My fifth. This is what I’m going to play when I meet William to show him I’m a good pianist.”

 

“He’ll be impressed. Your fingers were flying over that keyboard.”

 

“I’m playing it for Josh tomorrow.” Austin was willing to use Josh Fielding’s first name when speaking to his brother, but for everybody else, he was Mr. Fielding. “Oh, and mom said I could spend the rest of the day and the night at Oliver’s.”

 

“Whoa, looks like mom’s gonna be alone tomorrow, since I’m spending the night at Frank’s house,” James said.

 

“You guys gonna mess around?”

 

“More than you and Oliver will. When are you going to show him what a BJ is about?”

 

“After you do more than just talk about BJs and show me what they’re about. Besides, he’s happy jerking off and rubbing off.”

 

“And you know this how?”

 

“I just know.”

 

“Whatever, bro. You’re missing some good times with your best buddy.”

 

“Last time we kissed when we rubbed off,” Austin confessed.

 

“Oh? Like in French kissing?”

 

“We decided that sticking your tongue into somebody’s mouth is too gross.”

 

“You and your boyfriend can kiss each other, but you can’t French kiss?”

 

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Austin stated emphatically. “Unless Frank is your boyfriend.”

 

“No way dude, we just like getting off together. You know we both have girlfriends.”

 

“Boys, it’s almost time for dinner.  Please washup and set the table,” their mother called out from the kitchen.

 

“If you ever want lessons in French kissing, come on by my room. I’d be happy to give them.”

 

“Do you and Frank kiss?”

 

“Why not? It’s practice. I know Cindy says I kiss great, so just like with you playing the piano, practice pays off.”

 

“Whatever, I’d rather have a BJ lesson. Anybody can kiss.” The boys stopped their conversation as they entered the little dining nook.

 

“It looks like I’m going to be spending Saturday night by myself,” Valerie said as they sat down to eat and said the blessing.

 

“Tomorrow’s a good time for you to get a hot date, Ma,” James grinned. “Me and Austin sure won’t be around to bother you.”

 

“My last date, hot or otherwise was back in January. I may decide to go out to a movie,” Valerie lamented.

 

“Good idea. Maybe you’ll get picked up in the popcorn line,” Austin said.

 

Valerie shook her head and then changed the subject in a motherly way. “The forecast is for rain through Tuesday.”

 

Before she could continue, James said, “And Austin and I will cut the grass as soon as it is dry enough.”

 

“That’s just what I was going to ask you to do.”

 

“We can read your mind, Mom,” Austin said.

 

“Which is why me and Austin know how bad you want a hot date.”

 

The chatter during the rest of dinner mercifully was about school, music, and Austin’s upcoming four-weeks at the Bainbridge Summer Music Camp.

 

 

The car stopped in front of Josh Fielding’s house. Valerie Richards kissed her younger son on his left cheek, sending him into paroxysms of embarrassment. “Mom, don’t do that—somebody might see.”

 

“Good. It’s never bad for a mother to show she loves her son.” She gave Austin a warm smile. “Never be embarrassed by love. It is a precious commodity to be savored wherever it appears. Enjoy your lesson, enjoy your time with Oliver, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

Austin stepped out of the car, stopped, and grinned at his mother. “Have a good time with the guy in the popcorn line,” he giggled.

 

“Don’t forget your bag in the trunk,” Valerie said in true mom fashion.

 

“Don’t worry. I was about to remind you not to drive off with it. Adults are more forgetful than kids.”

 

“Believe what you want to believe,” she said with a smile.

 

Austin got his overnight bag along with his backpack from the trunk and went up the walk to his piano teacher’s house. He was about to ring the doorbell when the door opened and a lady around his mother’s age walked out. She gave him a look that said, I didn’t know Josh taught little children, and headed down the walkway.

 

“Good morning, Austin. Right on time as usual,” Josh said.

 

“Good morning, Mr. Fielding. Who was that lady? I’ve never seen her before.”

 

“That was Mrs. Marshall. She sees me about once a month. She plays the organ and piano at the First Baptist Church.” And doesn’t have one-tenth the ability you do, he thought. But then very few do.

 

After Austin placed his overnight bag and backpack on the stand where he always set belongings, he took off his jacket and laid it over his bag. He took his backpack into the sunroom with him since it contained the music he needed for the day’s lesson. Austin switched the regular piano bench with his own, made sure everything was adjusted, and started into his warmups.

 

When he finished he said, “I have my piece to play for William, so he won’t think I’m a dork.”

“Austin, all anybody with an ear for music has to do is listen to your fingers on the keyboard and they would never equate you with a dork.”

 

“What if he doesn’t have an ear for music,”

 

“Don’t forget his pedigree. I suspect he’s been playing the piano in some way since he was a toddler. Before you play that piece, let’s get through our regular lesson.”

 

“But what if we run out of time?”

 

“You worry way too much, son. No matter what we will have time for whatever it is you taught yourself. Now, do you have today’s homework ready?”

 

“Yep.” Austin pulled a score for Mozart’s 10^th piano sonata out of his backpack, placed it on the piano’s music desk, and opened it. “I memorized the third movement because it’s my favorite and because of the camp assignment, but I’ve got the first two movements down.”

 

The summer campers had been sent an email with an assignment to bring three short works to play, or one movement from a longer work. He and Josh had chosen the Mozart. Austin was going to use the Chopin Waltz as his second and Josh was going to teach him the third one during the lesson.

 

Austin had only been required to memorize one movement of his choice. Considering his pupil’s brilliant memory, Josh was surprised he hadn’t memorized the entire sonata. But he also knew that Austin was still busy with school and had just finished playing for his spring soccer team.

 

 As much as he’d love to see Austin put one-hundred percent of his efforts into his piano music, he also understood that Austin was a twelve-year-old boy and had to be allowed to enjoy that part of his life. He also knew that he had little to complain about since Austin had never failed to come to his lesson fully prepared. Often, he found something extra which he taught himself to play, like his “present” for his summer camp roommate, which he would also use for his assignment.

 

Austin played the first two movements of the Mozart. While he made a few errors, his touch and interpretation showed off his talent. When he played the third movement, which he’d put more work into, the result was almost flawless. As often happened when he and the keyboard were totally in synch, he popped a boner. By the time he’d played the last notes, his little cock was throbbing.

 

“Beautiful, Austin, just beautiful,” his teacher said. “There’s not a great deal for me to suggest, but we’ll get to that after you’ve played your Chopin.”

 

Austin took a deep breath and went right into the waltz he had taught himself. As he got into the second minute of the two-minute work he felt his cock constrict. It was like he was having a mini-orgasm although it wasn’t as intense. Whatever he was feeling, it reflected his love for what he was doing.

 

He didn’t realize he had finished when he heard Josh say, “Amazing. Are you sure you taught that to yourself?”

 

“Every note,” Austin boasted.

 

“There are a couple of timing and fingering issues to fix and it will be perfection itself.” Austin grinned with pride.

 

Josh went through the issues with the Mozart sonata and had Austin play those parts over a couple more times. He demonstrated the change he thought Austin should make in the Chopin Waltz. Austin played it three more times, satisfying his teacher that he had it down.

 

“Now we need a short work from a third composer on your list,” Josh said.

 

“Beethoven?” Austin asked. He was Austin’s favorite composer, but except for a few short works (“Fur Elise” being one of them) Josh told Austin he wasn’t mature enough yet, both in his makeup or physically.

 

“Not yet. When you’re a teen we’ll get into your hero.”

 

“Then what?”

 

“Debussy. A short work that your roommate might not know. Debussy wrote it for his daughter as part of his ‘Children’s Corner’. It’s called the ‘Golliwog’s Cakewalk’.”

 

Next: Ready or Not

 

 Author's Note: If you interested in 12-year-old  Evgeny Kissin's recording of Chopin's two piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic, they are on RCA 09026-68378-2