The sound of the violin sang out past the closed door of her room. As Ava’s practicing continued, her frustration heightened. Her bow moved faster and faster, her technique became sloppier, and soon enough she had stopped playing and was resting her violin impatiently on her knee. “I hate auditions!” Ava mumbled to herself. Her captivating brown eyes stared at the page jam-packed full of difficult music. It seemed unapproachable. “How am I ever going to do this?” Jumping up, Ava hung her violin on a small horseshoe shaped hook on the wall and went down to the kitchen for a snack.
“Oh good!” a voice behind her broke the silence. It was her brother, Hunter. His blue eyes gleamed with mischief. “The awful sounds of the high violin have stopped! I might not go deaf after all!”
“Oh come on, it’s not that bad is it?” Ava said between bites of the peach she was munching on, but then looked at him in distress. “I don’t know what to do!”
“You know what you should do? Switch to viola or cello! Then you wouldn’t have to play miserably high!”
“Do you always have to be so sarcastic?” Ava’s mood was not going to be changed.
“Do you always have to be so serious? Chill out and just play the music, then get a second violin chair so that you wont have to play high anymore!” He grinned triumphantly.
“Your not much help,” she grumbled as she began to head back to her room. Ava sat once again before her music stand. “Start out slow.” She told herself. For the next hour, the clicks of a metronome and her careful playing could be heard as she practiced the difficult sections.
“Um, hi. I’m here for the violin auditions.” Ava looked across the table at the man in charge of sign up.
“Okay, nice and early! You can warm up in that room over there, just make sure to be tuned and ready to play outside your audition room 5 minutes before your audition time.” The man turned and began writing on one of the papers spread across the table.
“Thanks.”
In the practice room, twenty or so musician worked diligently at their music, each taking no notice of the other musicians. Ava’s foot tapped nervously as she tuned her violin and began to run through her music. As her fingers habitually shifted to each place, she realized in surprise that the other violinists in the room were struggling with their music, just like she had. Suddenly she felt a boost of confidence. Maybe she had a chance! Playing harder than ever, the ringing sound of her violin echoed through the big room, announcing her presence. Ava practiced until the time came for her to sit outside the audition room, then she stood, picked up her music, and went to sign in to the audition room.
.“Hi.” Ava walked up to the cheerful looking lady next to the violin audition room.
“Hello, are you Ava for the 8:05 audition?” the woman asked, looking up from her clipboard.
“Yup!” Ava tried to appear confident.
“Ok! I will let you know when it’s your turn to play. You have about five minutes.”
“Thanks.”
Five minutes later, Ava was standing just inside the door of her room. A few feet ahead of her was a music stand and a curtain that was draped in front of her judge. She set her music on the stand, and began to play, feeling a mixture of doubt yet confidence. Her violin echoed through the room and rang loudly on the high notes. She messed up a few times, but soon it was over.
As Ava walked out of the room and put away her violin, she felt a wave of relief wash over her. “At last its over!” she breathed, “I guess that wasn’t too bad.”
“Hey.” A voice to her right startled her. She looked over to see a friendly face looking back. “I’m Ella.” She smiled.
“Ava.” Her face lit up. It looked like her year wasn’t going to be so bad after all.