The Owl Hous fanfic(Raeda) Raine's Gender Journey chapter 5: The Most Important Performance

Previous chapters:

Chapter 1: The Egg Cracks

Chapter 2: mom

Chapter 3: Our Secret Place

Chapter 4: Family Dinner

The next morning, I met Eda and Lilith at our usual spot, my girlfriend grabbed my hand, and we walked to school holding hands. I talked to Lilith about her research in psychology as I found the topic to be very interesting. Eda, on the other hand, was only slightly interested, just enough to find out what would make a good prank. The whole time she went out of her way to not call me by, well, any name.

It wasn't long before we arrived at school. We had a few minutes before it was time to go to class.

"Cadence, want to go to the space for a bit?" she whispered, knowing that today could be a really stressful day, especially in the morning, where I'd have to perform, over the past few nights I've gotten pretty good a short but elegant piece I made sure that I had the sheet music four times before leaving my house. I just nodded, smiling at the sound of my name. She pushed aside some bushes and drew the entrance symbol, and we were in a place that few people knew existed.

She pulled me against a wall and wrapped her arm around me, I nestled into her side completely comfortable and relaxed.

"I came up with a new idea for a spell that would make our lives much easier," she grinned at me.

"What?" I was getting excited, while also slightly worried when I looked up and saw that glint in her golden eyes.

"I've been playing with illusion magic, and I think I can make it look like the door is open and we're just talking, if we mix that with a silencing spell and some bard magic to add sounds of us talking, we can do whatever we want even when we need a babysitter," she beamed. She kissed my forehead. Babysitter is what she calls the adult supervision my parents require me to have at all times.

"I'd like that, but we need to test it out before actually using it," I was excited as well, but I was worried about getting caught by my parents.

"Don't worry Cadence, I already volunteered Lily," she informed me. Something told me that Lilith had no idea about this. I also knew that Lilith would do anything to help her and our relationship and may help her understand love.

We heard the bell ring and begrudgingly got up. Time for class.

"Kiss for the road Cadence?" she asked.

"Yeah," I stood on my tiptoes to try to reach her lips, she still had to bend down for our lips to connect. I couldn't wait for my growth spurt. It was just a small quick kiss, but it gave me the confidence to go to deal with my classmates.

"See you at lunch?" I asked.

"Of course! Will you be in the bard's room or the lunch room today?"

"I- um the bard's room?" it came out more like a question than the answer to one.

"She grabbed my hands, it will be fine and if you want me to pull any pranks on him let me know, I've got a few ideas in my head right now."

"We'll see," I smiled back. She gave my hands another squeeze, she must have noticed that the smile didn't reach my eyes, but we didn't have time for that. We had to get to our classes, and we parted ways exiting the space through different doors.

I sat down in my seat in the front of the room, away from my bully Lucas. Who moved over to sit next to me, I tried to ignore him.

"Ho-how are y-you?" he badly imitated my stutter. His friends laughed. The class will start any second now, I silently repeated to myself, and at lunch, I get to be alone with Eda again.

The normal teacher, Mr. Ryzon, two other teachers, and Principal Faust came into the room, and everyone quickly went to their seats when he entered. "I brought in principal Faust, Mrs. Flurry, and Mr. Carveson with me today. That is because, as you should know, today you will be picking your instrument. This is the instrument that you will be focusing on for the rest of your time at Hexside, and what most of you will be playing for the rest of your lives. You already know all about that. Of course, you need to play a piece to prove that you can play whatever you will be focusing on. In previous years if you didn't play well you would get one-on-one lessons until you've reached that level, but this year, at principal Faust's insistence, that you will play a short original piece for the class. This can not be something you have played in prior classes. He also told me not to tell you about this to ensure that you actually know how to play. The three of us will be judging your performance to see if it is up to the high stander of Hexide. If we do not find your performance satisfactory, you will either be expelled for the rest of the year and have to be enrolled again next year, or get sent to the baby track. If your performance is satisfactory, which I believe it will be for all of you, it will be the same as it has been in previous years as I told you. You will spend part of the day separated into strings taught by myself, Mr. Carveson will take the brass player, and Mrs. Flurry will take the woodwind students. We will tell you how you did after lunch. We will proceed in alphabetical order," Mr. Ryzon told us, he looked at me as he said the last part knowing that I'd need time to settle down. My heart was beating a mile a minute it had to be an original piece I can't use the existing song that I've been practicing I can't mess up this performance up if I do my parents will kill me! They can't hold the standards too high it's not like they can expel or demote an entire class can they? Faust did like expelling students, but I did bring Hexide a few blue ribbons from the IFWOT. Well, at least it is in alphabetical order and Whispers was near the end of the alphabet. I'd have some time to regain some composure and calm down before it's my turn. I wasn't paying attention to my classmate's play I was too busy trying to calm down, and my hands were shaking I cant play with shaky hands! This one impromptu performance can destroy my life. I was wondering if I should play the flute, I had more experience with it, it would be safer than the violin but then I'd be with Lucas it would only be part of the day I will be fine Mr. Ryzon is generally pretty good at stopping him but I wouldn't be with him we would be with Mrs. Flurry, I remember hearing rumors that she is a tough teacher and not much better than the principal when it comes to caring about the students, I can't be with her she would have no sympathy for my stage fright and anxiety. I had to take my chances with the violin, then I could stay with caring Mr. Ryzon.

Before I knew it was my turn to perform. I stood up and I could feel the principal and the new teacher's eyes staring at me. I tried and failed making the circle to summon my instrument, I took a deep breath and did it again successfully this time. I arranged the instrument and closed my eyes pretending that I was performing for my girlfriend, I pictured her relaxing on that beanbag looking at me without judgment, just love. My hands stopped shaking, and I started playing. I fell into a musical trance, I don't remember what I played I just let my fingers move across the strings as I move the bow back and forth to the tempo in my mind. Apparently, I was playing longer than I thought I was because Mr. Ryzon was, telling me to stop. which scared me what if it had had me stop because it was bad? Embarrassed, I quickly sat back down and looked down at my desk. The other adults left the room, and Mr. Ryzon started teaching until lunch. I didn't look up from my desk the entire time.

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AN

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Sorry for the wall of text...

I hope that you like this chapter, if you're caught up, I have several other stories for The Owl House out and more to come! Subscribe so you don’t the next chapter! To find the stories I already posted, along with my other works, go to THIS LINK containing an organized easy to navigate google document.

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-----Ben