What you see is never what you're gonna get.

justprompts : Wrapped Around Your Finger by The Police
 

The school's conservatory is almost like a graveyard after hours. Empty seats all lined up in neat little rows like headstones in the darkness and even with the house lights on, everything just seems lonely and dead. Some people find beauty in empty theaters- Julian's pretty sure he's not one of them. Still, practicing during school hours just means he has to deal with the fact that there are so many other children better than him and being constantly reminded that there's something out there that he's not the absolute best at drives him crazy. Better to practice in the haunting, lifeless theater than under the scrutiny and mocking jeers of his classmates.

Ages ago, he learned the ignoble art of sneaking out of the dormitories and how to pick the locks on the conservatory doors and if the school's staff has any idea what he's been up to, they keep that information to themselves, but it's not like he gives them any indication he was ever there and the cleaning staff, even they ever bother with the conservatory after midnight, are probably superstitious enough to think the mysterious piano playing to be caused by errant spirits.

On go the houselights, up he vanishes into the light booth to get the stage lights, and then he walks down the path between the rows of empty seats, stepping lightly as if he were well and truly tiptoeing in a graveyard after midnight, up the stairs, and then onto the stage where the school's piano lies in wait, taunting him. He slides himself onto the bench, lifts the lid, and runs his fingers across the ivory. He's memorized every damn note down to the letter and yet applying himself to the task of playing a song just gives him a basic, simple sound- nothing pretty, nothing particularly noteworthy at all. The spark of creativity isn't there- he's too left-brained. Every one of his teachers has an excuse for why he can't do it.

That simply isn't good enough.