"I can't believe you lost a girl competition to a boy."  Evan sneered.  "I guess it goes to show how truly unfeminine you really are."

"And I can't believe that your public opinion wouldn't drop if I posted these pictures online."  I took out half a dozen 4 x 6s and waved them in front of his face.

"Give me those."  He demanded.

"Say please."  I growled.  There was no way in hell that I would simply hand over such wonderful blackmail.  These pictures alone give me a feeling of immense power, so much that I wanted to burst into an insane, supervillian laugh.  I stopped myself and fanned myself with the pictures.  

"Please."  Evan said it like a threat.

I gave them to him, and Evan promptly ripped them into little pieces, which scattered on the floor.  

"Why are you still smiling?" he asked, looking back at me.

"I've got them saved on my laptop, Adam's Mac, and several random school computers."

"You're a bitch."  

"Tell me something I don't know."  I forced another smile to my lip and walked off.  

As soon as I rounded a corner, someone began clapping.  "Very good."  The Second Violin applauded, wearing his jester mask and holding his violin case.  "You handled that quite nicely."

"Really?"

"Indeed so.  I was worried something had happened to you.  You haven't come to play with me in a while."  

"Ahh...well..." I began.

"It doesn't matter."  The Second Violin said sarcastically.  "So many times have the great men of our past been pushed aside.  They could hardly care if one student, no matter how competent, forswears the magnum opus and moves to something more important, like studying.  Knowing vectors and geometry and sesquipedalian phrases are far more important that mere music."

"Now you're making me feel guilty."

"That was most definitely the point."  

So that was how I ended up on the rooftop, playing a Bach duet with the Second Violin.  

"What do you do in your free time?" I asked him when we were done.

"I practice."

"Besides that."  

He shrugged.  "Sometimes I ride horses."

"Is that it?"

"Mostly."  He sighed.  "You'll find that there is very little time in life to worry about things like sports and money and grades.  I just do what I enjoy the most."

"So playing Bach on the rooftop with the only girl at an all-boys' school is up there in your list of favorite things?"

He laughed. "Actually I prefer Mendelssohn."