Sweet Harmony

by A. M. Evanston

  "I packed up all the things in your dorm room and talked to Mrs. Carmichael," her dad said, laying the suitcase by her bed. "We should be all set to leave tomorrow morning."

  "What time are we leaving?" she asked.

  "Our flight takes off at eight-thirty, so we'll have to be in a taxi by at least four," her dad said. "You know how New York City is. Just getting to the airport takes a while."

  She blew out a sigh and her dad's face fell.

  "Annamarie, are you sure you want to do this?" her dad asked. "You're acting awfully depressed for a person who is supposed to want to go home. I know as a father I should be hauling you out of here after what happened, but this is the first time I've ever seen you have friends and a boyfriend. I know I never said this to you, but when we were traveling, I always thought you looked so…so…lonely. I figured that's why you were always making trouble."

  The words seared her heart. She'd always thought her dad was too involved in his own music to notice.

  "I have to go back to London," she said. "I don't have another choice."

  "I know this isn't about your nightmares." Her dad stared at her, studying her face.

  Darn it. Her dad was so smart. She guessed one didn't become an esteemed concert pianist by being an idiot.

  "Just trust me when I say it's better that I leave," she said.

  "I do trust you." He chewed his bottom lip despite the words, then brightened. "I have something to tell you that will cheer you up."

  "What's that?" she asked.

  "You'll have somebody to pick on when we get back to London," her dad said. "I took your brother out of boarding school. He's waiting for us at home. I talked to him over the phone and he said he's worried sick about you."

  "Does he know about Mom?" she whispered.

  "He's a smart kid," her dad said. "I think he figured it out before you did. He just didn't call to scream at me like a certain someone."

  "I get my temper from you, Dad." She rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the jab. "How did he take coming home to London?"

  "Yuri is flexible." Her dad shrugged. "Like your mom, he makes friends everywhere. I never have to worry about him."

  Her dad gave her a silent look that suggested she was the one he worried about.

  "Dad, I—"

  The door opened and Jaiden walked in. In horror, she glanced at the suitcase on the floor. She hadn't wanted anybody to see that she was leaving, especially Jaiden. He might feel guilty enough to tell Daniel she was going home.

  "Annamarie, what's with the suitcase?" Jaiden asked.

  I guess I have some talking to do.

  "Hey, Dad, can I have some privacy with Jaiden for a moment?" she asked.

  "Yeah." Her dad squeezed her shoulder. "Stay tough, Annamarie."

  "Don't I always?" she asked.

  Her dad nodded and left the room, leaving her and Jaiden in a sea of awkwardness. She was having trouble finding the right words to say. It would help if her head didn't feel like it was filled with an army of stinging bees.

  Jaiden was the first to speak.

  "Are you going somewhere?" Jaiden asked.

  "I'm heading home to London," she said.

  "What?" The color drained out of Jaiden's face. He turned toward the door again. "Your dad is making you go, isn't he? I'll talk to him. Maybe he'll see reason."

  "Jaiden, wait." She hopped off the bed.

  The guy froze and turned around.

  "This isn't my dad's choice. It's mine," she said. "He was going to let me stay at the academy."

  For a moment Jaiden didn't speak. His normally bright green eyes were dark in his frustration.

  "Why?" Jaiden asked.

  "Because I'm not going to be the reason you and Daniel can't be friends anymore." Her heart broke with every word. "I've lived my entire life managing on my own. My parents were always too busy for me and I moved too much to get close to anyone. I'm not complaining. I got to see more in sixteen years than most get to see in an entire lifetime. But one thing I didn't have was friends. I'm not like my brother. I don't have the kind of personality that makes people like me right away, so I had to learn to deal with being completely on my own. That's why I loathe the idea of you and Daniel splitting up. You've been together your whole lives. I'm a newcomer and am sure as heck not going to come between you."

  "But you like Daniel, don't you?" Jaiden's hands were shaking.

  "Of course I do. It's so obvious that even he noticed." She blew out a sigh. "Don't you get it? I care more about him and you than I do about myself, so I'm leaving even though it hurts me. I know this won't be easy for Daniel at first, but after a few weeks, he'll forget I ever came to the academy."

  Jaiden looked like he was struggling to breathe.

  "There has to be another way," Jaiden whispered.

  "You were willing to go to Paris," she said. "You were going to lose me and Daniel. Now instead of losing us both, you'll just lose one of us."

  "Yeah, but…but…" Jaiden shook his head. "This isn't fair to you."

  "Life isn't fair." She smiled wryly. "Hasn't anybody ever told you that?"

  With a groan, Jaiden ran a hand through his hair.

  "I don't know if I can let you do this," Jaiden said.

  "Do you have another solution?" she asked.

  Jaiden met her eyes, crushed.

  "No," he whispered.

  "I didn't think so." She nodded. "Don't tell Daniel I'm leaving. I know he'll try to stop me."

  "Yeah, he definitely will," Jaiden said.

  "So you won't tell him?" she asked.

  At first, Jaiden didn't say anything.

  "Jaiden!" she cried, her voice quavering.

  "I won't tell him," he finally said.

  "Thank you." Her shoulders slumped in relief.

  "I've got to go," Jaiden said. "I can't look at you and know I'm the reason you're leaving."

  "Don't blame yourself." She tried to fight down the pain. "Daniel may be an arrogant idiot, but he deserves a girl a lot better than me."

  "Don't you get it?" Jaiden held her gaze. "There is no girl better than you. That's the reason why this mess started to begin with."

  Jaiden headed to the door. When he opened it, her dad almost fell into the room. It took her only a millisecond to realize the man had been eavesdropping.

  "Finally I see where you get your personality from," Jaiden muttered, drawing a similar conclusion.

  Jaiden walked past her dad who was trying hard to look at the ceiling.

  After Jaiden disappeared, her parent came into the room, his face pale. It was obvious from his expression he'd heard every word they'd said.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The next morning, Annamarie climbed out of the taxi and examined the New York City airport. Her dad jumped out of the cab too and collected their baggage from the trunk. The sun shining in her eyes made her horrible headache even worse. She pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her pocket. Even after she put them on, people stared as they passed by. It wasn't every day that someone saw a girl with a face like an eggplant.

  "You okay?" her dad asked as he led her through the front door of the airport.

  As she walked, she nodded. One lady was so busy staring at her bruised face that she almost ran into a wall.

  "People probably think you're a child abuser," she muttered.

  Her dad shook his head.

  "I've become good at ignoring dirty looks," he said. "Two weeks ago in an interview with a magazine reporter, your mother talked nonstop about what a terrible husband I was. It was five pages of glossy shame."

  "I'm sorry, Dad," she said.

  "There I go again making you worry about me," he said. "You know, I think I miss the old you. Last time we went on a flight together, you wore a gimp mask to scare everybody half to death. Every person on the plane stared."

  "I remember." She nodded, but couldn't manage a smile.

  "Your brother hid his head under his jacket because he was so embarras
sed." Her dad shook his head at the memory.

  That had been a fun flight. Her entertainment had ended when she was asked to take off the mask mid-route. Unfortunately, she wasn't in the mood for any pranks right now. She usually tried not to go emo, but right now, she wouldn't have been able to laugh if her life depended on it. It was just as well. Pranks in an airplane these days could get her arrested.

  She checked her baggage alongside her dad, then headed over to the security checkpoint. Just as she was about to join the line, she stopped, her heart thundering in her chest. This was it. She was leaving New York City. Daniel's face flashed in her mind. What was he doing right now? Sleeping, probably. She wondered if Jaiden was sleeping too. Maybe, maybe not. She'd seen the look on his face yesterday and knew he felt a lot of guilt.

  In a book or movie, this would be the perfect time for Daniel to come running. He would burst through the door and beg her to go back to the academy with him. Do I want him to bring me back? she wondered. She had to remind herself that this was for Daniel's own good.

  "Are you coming?" Her dad grabbed her arm, pulling her from her thoughts.

  "Oh. Um, yeah." She nodded, joining the security line.

  In the fifteen minutes it took to get through security, nobody came. She really was never going to see Daniel ever again.

  ****

  Annamarie stared out the airplane window at the city of London. It was almost midnight, so the city was alit with streetlamps. I missed this place, she thought, surprised by the fact. Her dad looked over her shoulder.

  "London again," her dad said.

  Her dad never called London home. He spent too much time touring.

  "How long do you have before you have to travel again?" she asked.

  Normally he never stayed in one place for longer than a few weeks.

  "Actually, I'm going to rest here for a while," her dad said. "I think I'm going to stop touring."

  "What?" she yelled so loud several people looked at her.

  Touring was her dad's life. He lived for the stage. Applause was his food and appreciative silence was his water.

  "Keep it down," her dad said.

  She grabbed his hands, choosing not to address his order.

  "Why are you giving up touring?" she asked. "It's not because of Mom, is it? Don't let her stupid actions put your career on hold."

  "Actually, your mother's actions have more than doubled my sales. It's all the publicity," her dad said bitterly. "No, I'm doing this because there's something even more important than playing the piano."

  "What's that?" Nothing took precedence over her dad's musical career. Nothing.

  The plane began to descend but she barely noticed.

  "You." Her dad stared down at his hands. "When I got the call and heard you were kidnapped, I was scared you were going to die. If I had cancelled my show in Toronto and come for you like I should have, then you never would have been hurt. Sometimes I think about what would have happened if Daniel hadn't saved you in time. Your death would have been my fault."

  "Dad, nothing was your fault," she said.

  The plane touched down. Tires screeched loudly as the plane slowed.

  "I know you say that, but it was," he said. "I realized that over the years I've been an awful father. I knew you were lonely, yet I didn't do anything about it. When you were being stalked, I put on a show instead of doing my duties as a parent. I love you more than I love music, even though I never made a point of showing it. It's only recently realized I need to get my priorities straight. That's why I'm going to take a break until you and Yuri are off at college."

  That was years of not playing. Years.

  "So you're giving up the piano?" The words hurt. She didn't want this.

  "Of course not." He touched her hand. "This is good news, not bad. Don't look so heartbroken. I'm not giving up anything. I'm just going to spend time at home writing some new and amazing songs while I look after you and Yuri. When I tour again, my album will be so killer I'll be more popular than before."

  The confidence in his prodigious abilities reminded her of Daniel. Even though she tried not to think about him, it was too hard not to. All she seemed to remember was the two of them arguing, but even those memories, the ones where she was screaming until she was pink in the face, made her want to hop on the next plane to New York City as fast as she could.

  But she couldn't do that.

  "Annamarie, are you listening?" Her dad nudged her, drawing her attention away from her thoughts.

  "Huh?" She blinked. "Ugh. Yeah."

  "I asked you what you think of my plan," her dad said.

  She must have been pretty deep in thought to not hear him ask the question.

  "I'm still worried about you, but it's your choice," she said. "Do you really think you'll be able to keep yourself occupied at the house? It's so quiet it might drive you crazy."

  The plane docked at the airport.

  "I don't think the house will be too quiet with you there," her dad said. "The longest you've gone without blowing something up has been five days."

  Good point. Unfortunately, she wasn't much in the mood to blow up anything anymore. That required gumption and energy. Right now, she had neither.

  "After I recover, I'll do my best to keep your life interesting." The problem was, her head may recover in a couple of weeks—her heart, probably not.

  "I was thinking about hiring a private karate teacher to train you once you're healthy again," her dad said. "Maybe you should have lessons five times a week. You have to be the best when you open your own dojo."

  Okay, aliens had abducted her real dad. Even the pain she felt about leaving New York was dulled by her surprise.

  "What do you mean you're going to hire a private karate teacher?" she said. "You hate the idea of me learning karate. You always have."

  "Like I said, I've learned a lot over the past couple of weeks." A sad smile crossed her dad's face. "I realized maybe karate is to you what the piano is to me. It was hard when my parents weren't supportive of my goals. Do you know what my dad wanted me to be?"

  She'd only met her grandpa once. The man was all rough edges.

  "Um, a drug dealer?" she asked timidly.

  Her dad let out a bark of laughter.

  "Oh, I've missed your jokes," her dad said. "No, not a drug dealer. A plumber. My dad told me that I'd make more money as a plumber than as a pianist."

  Funny how her dad was filthy rich now.

  "I didn't know that," she said.

  People were standing up to leave the plane. She and her dad grabbed their carry-ons and entered the aisle behind a large blonde woman.

  "Do you want to know something else?" her dad asked.

  "What's that?" She tightened her grip on her bag.

  "The reason why you and Grandpa Mo haven't spent much time together is because I'm a musician," her dad said. "My dad says being a pianist isn't a proper occupation for a man and won't speak to me."

  "That's ridiculous!" she cried. "How is it not a proper occupation?"

  "He believes that the only job for a man is something that involves hammers and nails," her dad muttered.

  "Or plungers," she said as the people in front of her filed out of the plane.

  "Or plungers," her dad agreed.

  She and her dad headed out of the airplane and into the terminal. Her dad wrapped one arm around her shoulder. Gee, he's been touchy-feely lately, she thought.

  "I keep talking about your Grandpa Mo now because, well, I'm guilty of the same thing he is," her dad said. "I thought being a karate sensei wasn't a job for a girl. But why isn't it? There isn't anything wrong about having the toughest daughter in London."

  The words mended her broken heart a little.

  "Thanks, Dad." She beamed at him.

  "You're welcome, sweetie." He grinned at her.

  She and her dad were silent all the way until she walked side-by-side with him out of the security checkpoint. As she eyeballed the baggage
claim sign, somebody called her name.

  "Annamarie!" her little brother, Yuri, cried.

  She searched the crowd and laid eyes on a scrawny kid in a dark suit standing next to the butler, Mr. Johnson. Her little brother looked the same as always—his black hair was slicked back, his tie was perfectly straight, and his shoes were so shiny they had the potential to blind people. Like usual, he was a debonair gentleman.

  "Yuri!" She raced over to her sibling then skidded to a stop.

  She and her brother weren't normally the touchy-feely type. Not unless they were wrestling over something. To her surprise, though, Yuri seized her and pulled her into a tight hug that made her gasp for air. Her dad walked up behind them, grinning.

  "You idiot," Yuri said. "How the heck did you get kidnapped? I was so scared I couldn't think straight. I even had to make Mr. Johnson pick out my clothes."

  "Were you worried about me?" she asked. "How sweet."

  "Hmph." Yuri went red and looked away.

  "Thanks, little bro." He loathed being called little bro because it made him sound uncivilized—which was exactly why she insisted on calling him that. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine."

  "I told you to address me as Yuri," he said.

  "Yeah, I suppose you did." She grinned, then mused his perfect black hair.

  "Dad, you know how hard I work to make my hair like yours." Yuri's face went even pinker as he fought to smooth his ebony locks. "Can't you tell Annamarie to act more her age?"

  "Act more your age, Annamarie," her dad said, but he was smirking too.

  Just as she was starting to feel like her old self again, she saw a tall person standing at the baggage claim with his back to her. Honey blond hair caught the light. It was Daniel. The idiot had come for her after all. She knew she shouldn't have been happy, but her heart sped up anyway. She wanted to see him.

  "Wait here," she said.

  As she raced toward Daniel, she grinned. She was going to see the guy's beautiful face again—then she'd kick him in the shin for flying all the way to come get her. When she reached the guy, she placed her hand on his arm.

  "Daniel, what are you doing here?"

  Daniel turned around. It was only then that she realized it wasn't Daniel at all. It was some guy with a mustache she didn't know.