5. Trevor

5

TREVOR

T revor was intensely jealous when Aaron informed him at school the next day that he wouldn't be taking piano lessons any more. Clara was busy talking to her girl friends across the classroom and ignoring them, except for wounded looks over her shoulder once in a while.

But Aaron didn't look at all happy with the decision. "I don't know. Now that I don't have lessons, I feel like I'm going to miss playing the piano."

Trevor chewed on that. He complained about piano lessons and practicing, too, but would he regret it if he asked his dad to drop them?

At recess, after sulking through science and phoning in a paper plate mask for social studies, Trevor went to the place they usually met to play at the edge of the school yard where the forest started.

"Let's play that we're bears and lions!" Aaron suggested, when he caught up.

Yes! Trevor's lion agreed.

"We shouldn't do that," Trevor cautioned, despite his lion's eagerness at the idea. "I promised my dad that we'd be more careful."

"Careful about what?" Clara had apparently been bored by the girls' quiet recess games and she stooped to pick up a pinecone as she approached.

"Aaron's not taking piano lessons anymore," Trevor said quickly.

Clara's eyes got big as she straightened up. "Why not ?"

"Money," Aaron said shortly, flashing Trevor a betrayed look. "And I didn't practice. And it was boring. I don't want to anymore." He sounded defensive.

Clara was more sympathetic than Trevor thought was appropriate. "I'm sorry," she said to Aaron. "That's…really sad." She said it very slowly, like it made her think about something.

"Clara practices," Trevor joked, not liking that both of his friends seemed down about something stupid like getting out of piano lessons forever. "Clara doesn't do anything but practice." He put his hands up in the air like a ballet dancer and swiveled his feet out and squatted in place.

She flushed. "I do other things."

Aaron laughed and made his own pose, kicking high in the air with his hands on his hips. "I'm a daaaaancer," he chortled.

For a moment, Trevor thought Clara was going to take offense at their teasing. Sometimes she did, but sometimes, like now, she only laughed and joined in. "Let me show you how to do it right! First position! Plié!"

Trevor and Aaron were terrible students, doing everything Clara told them to but exaggerated to a hundred as she clucked in mocking disapproval. Before long, they were all dancing around laughing so hard their sides hurt and the recess bell was ringing .

"What did you learn at school today?" Trevor's dad asked him when he got home at the end of the day. There was a tray of test cinnamon rolls on the kitchen table and Trevor fell eagerly onto one of them.

"I mumma letta gooay too."

"Want to swallow and try that again?"

Trevor licked sticky frosting off his fingers and swallowed. "I learned that Aaron's quitting piano and sometimes what you think you want isn't what you actually want, and I also learned the first three positions of ballet."

His dad blinked. "Are you thinking about taking ballet?"

"No," Trevor said, "but I think I'll go practice my piano, now." Maybe he could be a musician firefighter scientist doctor lawyer.