The Rise - Chapter 20

As Leon leaves Justin’s room he walks past Veronica’s room with the door open. He stands staring inside the room noticing the light brown delicate violin. He remembers that exact violin from his childhood.

Justin, Veronica and Leon were all around eleven years old playing hide and seek in the Tundra mansion whilst their fathers were meeting. Justin was ‘it’ and he promptly covered his eyes with his arm and leaned his head on the wall. He started counting from twenty out loud. Just as Veronica was about to run to her hiding spot Leon grabs her arm and puts his finger to his mouth telling her to stay quite.

He quickly takes her outside to the backyard porch and grabs a dog bone. He throws it as far as he can into the backyard bushes prompting the resident Tundra bulldog to chase after it from the doghouse making noise and ruffling sounds in the bushes.

“Ten! Nine!…” continued Justin counting

Still holding her arm, Leon and Veronica already tip-toed upstairs whilst Veronica held her mouth trying to stop her giggling. They went into Veronica’s room leaving the door open. Veronica was about to speak when Leon put his finger on his mouth once again, then he pointed at the window in her room that gave a perfect view of the Tundra backyard.

Justin had already stopped counting. She was waiting eagerly for something to happen, when Justin suddenly appears on the back porch making his way towards the bushes trying to be as sneaky as possible hoping to scare the two. Veronica turns around towards Leon and opens her mouth exaggeratedly.

“He thinks were in the bushes!” she said

“No duh.” said Leon

“Shut up!” she said shoving him “But why are we in my room, it’s not even a real hiding spot”

“It’s obvious loser, Justin will check all the hardest spots first like closets and stuff, but the last place he’ll check is your room.” said Leon looking around Veronica’s room.

“Ooooh, You’re such a-” Veronica stops midway as Leon picks up her violin “Hey! put that down!” said Veronica reaching out to grab it. Leon quickly evades the grab holding onto the violin.

“Keep it down” said Leon still evading Veronica’s attempts to take back the violin.

“Leo, dad says it costs a fortune, please don’t play around with it.” she said giving up

“Can you even use it?” said Leon examining all its sides

“Uh, yeah!” she said snatching it whilst his attention was diverted on the violin.

She picks up the violin bow and jumps onto her bright pink bed with a plethora of pillows. She amateurishly places the violin onto her chin trying helplessly to adjust it properly onto her small body. She places the bow onto the violin strings and plays a terrible sound that makes Leon places his hands on his ears.

“You suck!” he said forgetting all about the hide and seek game

“Shut up, just wait, it takes me time to get the right feel” she said sticking her tongue out giving it another try

A slow melody quickly picked up the pace as she played an almost perfect symphony that had Leon mesmerized looking at her as she concentrated intensely on the strings. To Leon, those few seconds felt like hours as he allowed the tune to enchant him. She stopped playing and Leon, with a dumbfounded look on his face, felt like clapping but didn’t. The two were locking eyes with Veronica panting slightly when they felt a presence at the door. They turned around simultaneously and saw Justin standing there with a bone in his hand and the Tundra dog by his side.

“Are you guys even taking this seriously!” said Justin “I could hear the violin from all the way in the bushes.”

Leon and Veronica try to hold in their laughter.

Leon’s pushed suddenly into Veronica’s room as his daydream of his childhood is interrupted. He turns around to see Veronica closing the door.

“What are you doing?” he said whispering loudly

“Relax, Taylor’s been at our house since the morning, the two will still be in the room for a while” she said

“I have to tell him.” said Leon

“I know, and you will, but not right now. You need his help and my help. If you tell him, you’ll lose Justin, the election and me.” she said

“You don’t want me to tell him at all, don’t you.”

Veronica stays silent

“And another thing, you realize the girl you used as your little messenger for your note is on the student council right?” said Leon

“Don’t worry, she won’t rat. And even if George does find out, the worse he can do is spread rumors, and there’s already hundreds of those going around school about you anyway.”

“All I’m saying is if you want to keep this thing quite, you’re going to need to be more careful than that.” said Leon

Leon wasn’t only worried about how this will affect his relationship with Justin, but also how the school population will see him. Not only will it show to people that he is dishonest to his closest friends, but also that he’s in cahoots with the president of the newspaper club.

Veronica walks up towards Leon

“I know better than anyone what will happen to you and your chances in the election if people find out about this.” she said

Leon pauses.

“And what is ‘this’ anyway, Veronica…” said Leon

The sound of Justin’s door opening with the sudden murmurs of Justin and Taylor talking causes the two to suddenly freeze.

If you’re wondering what the violin song part Veronica played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBbL5n2i7iU [1:30-2:20]. This experience is what got Leon into classical music (Chp 5).

Also, I will be able to write a little more these next days God willing, which means I can release bonus chapters. I’ll still release the normal 4 chapters/week but if there are enough Power Stones the release schedule will be based on ranking:

Top 150: +1 Bonus Chapter

Top 100: +2 Bonus Chapter

Thanks for reading