Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 01:57:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Aiken Liam Subject: Sams Life: Chapter Three: Pedal Problems This story involves homosexual relationships between minors. If this is illegal in your area, please do not read on. This story is a work of fiction. Any characters, places, events, ideas, etc. in this story are strictly fiction and do not exist. This story is (c) 2008 Aikenliam. Any and all rights reserved. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to email me at aikenliam@ymail.com. "Sam! You're going to be late! Get up!" Crap. It's 7:00! What the hell? Why's mom still home? She goes to work at 6:00. I get up and head downstairs. Mom's at the sink washing dishes. What? I did all the dishes last night! "Mom, what are you doing?" "I'm doing the dishes! What do you think I'm doing?" She turns around to face me, and there's blood dripping from her eyes. "Shit, mom!" There's a noise coming from somewhere. The door bell? I can't really hear it. Mom start's coming at me with a knife, covered in blue liquid. What the hell? That noise! Make it stop! My heart's beating like crazy! What the hell! BEEP BEEP BEEP!! The clock on my bedside table says 5:45. What a freaking dream. Damn. I go through the usual process of getting myself ready. When I get ready to do my hair, I wonder what it'd look like if I combed it different. I try several different styles, but end up combing it a little to the side, and forward. It's different, but whatever. It's one of my little ways of keeping things mixed up. Blah. That kid wasn't on the bus this morning. All well. I didn't really feel like being someone's best friend at the moment, so I didn't mind. Orchestra today. I'm really excited. We're going to actually play some music. Blah. "Okay folks, we've really got to start getting ready faster," Mr. Chance was slightly aggravated. "If we're going to play any music, we need to start playing earlier. Now, lets get started. We'll start with the organ concerto. Sam, why don't you show Kyle the auditorium organ and practice the organ concerto. The digital's in there, too. You'll just have to connect it to the sound system." I get up and grab the bag that has all the cables for the digital and Mr. Chance hands me the key to the console. The orchestra starts playing. Kyle's waiting at the door. He follows me to the auditorium. I turn all the lights on and head towards the stage. "I thought this was a real pipe organ. I don't see any pipes," Kyle says, looking around. "Come on, I'll show you." Back stage, I set the bag down and head for the back room. I take the key out of my pocket and unlock the door. Inside is the huge console. Thank god it's on wheels! "Will you help me with this?" "Yeah!" We roll the console through the curtain onto the stage. There is a connection box in the floor that connects the console to the electronic valves on the pipes. I open the box and stand to look for the cables. Kyle's bent over, digging through the bag. Man...the fabric of his shorts wrap nicely around him. "There are so many wires in here...I'm not sure what's what." "Bring the bag over here." I'm soo blushing! He stand up and carries the bag over to me. He's kind of smiling. Kinda makes me blush more. "This cable is for the console power. The big bundle of different colored cables is for the pipes. The others are for the digital. The colors all match up with the plugs on the organ and in this box. If you hook the console up, I'll hook it to the box." "Okay." Once that was done, I get a pole out of the organ room. It`s about ten feet long and has a hook on the end. Kyle follows me down the steps off the stage. "See those wood slats up there?" There are panels of wood slats, just above my head. These panels are like the tops of roll-top desks. "You hook this pole on that loop on the left side and pull it down." I hook the loop and pull it down. As I pull the loop down, the rolling slats roll up, revealing pipes. There are six panels that I pull up on each side of the auditorium. We walk back to the stage and head toward the curtain chains. The chain closest to the wall is labeled "ORGAN." I pull it until it stops. We walk back to the edge of the stage and I show Kyle the panels above the curtain that have retracted, revealing more pipes. "This thing is massive!" "Yeah, wait till you play it! It's amazing. It was custom built last year. They wanted to be able to cover the pipes so that they wouldn't get messed with by kids. Come on, I'll show you how to turn the blowers on." I show him the control in the back room. He presses the "Run" button and we hear the wind chests filling up with air. We walk back to the console. He opens the top. While he studies the stops, I go back to the organ room and get the pedal board. "If you go back into that room, there's a bench against the wall." "Okay." He goes behind the curtain, toward the organ room. I lay the pedal board down and connect it to the organ. The contacts won't line up just right. I get down on my knees and line them up with the console and they click right in. I get up and turn around. Kyle's standing there with the bench and a little grin on his face. Is he blushing? "All set. I'm gonna get the digital hooked up and we'll get started." He starts messing around on the organ, listening to the stops, pistons, and couplers. I get more cables out of the bag and connect the digital to the connecters in the box on the floor. I run up to the sound room upstairs. I turn the sound system on and slide the "Organ" volume up all the way. I run back down to the console and power it up and kick my shoes off. "Okay, lets start." The music that came out of that auditorium was amazing! It turns out that while one is playing slow, melodic tunes, the other plays short staccato. It sounds amazing! We come to a part where Kyle has a bunch of staccato pedal notes and he kind of fumbles them. I look at his feet and he's sliding them everywhere. I stop playing. "If you do more heel-to-toe, it works better." "Well, I'm concentrating more on my right foot. I'm not used to pedaling with both feet. Can you show mow what you're doing?" He slides over to make room on the bench. Is he really wanting me to sit next to him like that? Shit. I'm blushing. I work up the nerve to get up and sit next to him. Our hips are touching. Is this really happening? "Well, I sort of play like this. I move my feet around, but loose my balance. I'm not used to sitting to the side like this. I lean back and put my hands on the back of the bench for stability. I don't even realize that my left arm is almost around Kyle's back. I start pedaling to show my technique. Kyle leans back and puts his hands on the back of the bench as well, making our arms cross. When he leans back, he's against my arm. Oh, it feels good. I could stay here forever. He's getting it! His feet are moving much more smoothly. "Wow, that helped a lot," he says, "Thanks!" "Any time." We're looking at each other. His eyes are green. I've never noticed them before. He's smiling. I'm blushing. Is this normal? The bell rings. "Shit! Help me!" I say. We scurry to put the console away and close the pipe chambers. I lock everything in the organ room and run up to the sound booth. I turn the organ channel down and shut the system down. I run back down to the auditorium, where Kyle is waiting with my books. "I put your violin away. It's in the instrument room," he says as he hands me my books. "Thanks!" "Any time," he says with a smile. "We got a lot worked out," I smile back. "Yeah! Thanks for the help on that pedal work. I really appreciate it." "Hey, any time, Kyle." "Hey, what are you doing Thursday night?" "Nothing, I think. Why?" I'm really nervous... "Well, I was wondering if maybe you'd wanna come over and play video games or something. My sister's having some kind of basement party with her little friends, so I'm either gonna be really bored or get dragged downstairs. That would totally blow." Oh shit. I'm so nervous. Did he really just ask me over? "Yeah, I'll ask my parents. I'm sure it'll be okay since there's no school on Friday." "Cool," he says with that smile. "See ya." "Yeah, see ya."