Fanon:The Good Ones-Chapter 31

Virtuosity
I was sitting on the checkered blanket, cradling an old acoustic guitar I had picked up from my dad when he moved. It was mine from when I lived in Riverview. I was surprised he remembered something like that.

"And now he tells me that he wants to propose to her!" said Jupiter, finishing off his life story at the present, with Kai's hopeful proposal to Lola. "He's a filthy slime and he just wants her money, but she's too obsessed with fame and fortune to pay any attention to the child she WILLINGLY adopted."

"Don't put yourself down over something that you can't change, Jupiter," Brigit said consolingly. "At least you see through Kai's disguise."

"Too bad she doesn't," he said. He had grown up a lot. His hair had grown out and the only blue left in his hair was at the tips. Everything else was back to its normal black. "The only other person who understands is Moxie, and she doesn't even like me!"

Suddenly something dawned on me. "Doesn't your mom even care where you are?"

Jupiter shrugged. "Nah. I told her I would be at a friend's house for the night. She didn't seem to care."

I raised an eyebrow. "Which friend?" Wondering why? You'll find out soon enough.

"Well, I told her I'd be staying at Deidre's house," said Jupiter.

I laughed. Deidre Littler was the girl that Jupiter had a crush on since the first day they had met; he just never told anybody about it. The only problem was that the closest thing they had to a conversation was in the second grade, when she asked him for a quarter-simoleon because she didn't have enough to buy snack at the lunch counter. He had deluded his mother into believing that she was his best friend and that they hung out all the time at school. And she was too busy with everything else to really care.

"Oh, Pierce, don't be mean to him," Brigit teased, playfully pushing me. Contessa was, meanwhile, looking at her fingers in awe. Babies. "he just needs a little more... confidence."

Jupiter twiddled his thumbs. Then he noticed my guitar.

"That's a nice guitar you have there."

I smiled. "Thanks. I got it from my... Dad... I know what it feels like to not have a parent, Jupiter. I... My mom died when I was little."

Brigit changed the subject. "Why don't you play for us Pierce?" she said. "I hear you were pretty good back in the day."

I gave her a sy smile. "I haven't played in forever. We'll see how it goes."

As soon as I touched my fingers to the strings, I realized that I had been missing out on something I had loved all my life. Music. Not something that came out of the radio, but something that I made. My old guitar brought back the memories, the dreams, the high school band. I figured out what I could do when I wasn't working. There was always something to do, you just had to find out what it was.

And I had found my calling.