Play!

III

By now, Brett was convinced Eddy Chen was the son or some sort of close relative to the conductor of the Sydney con orchestra, even though the name suggested otherwise. 

How else was this guy so late to the start of orchestra camp, in which he played a major role?
"Where's Chen?", Mr. Thames had whispered to Mr. Jones just loud enough that Brett could hear. 
"Oh…", Mr. Jones had mouthed, had stroked his chin while the frown between his eyebrows had deepened, "Must be late. I'm sure he’ll show up… Anyway!", he had then shouted to the whole orchestra, "Today, we're going to start with Mozart. You'll notice that Mr. Thames is going to conduct the whole concert. I'm just here to keep you guys…", stern looks towards the Sydney con students with a glint of mischief, bringing forth giggles from the orchestra, "in check and to assist Mr. Thames with my wisdom and experience." He'd slapped the much younger Mr. Thames hard on his shoulder, who joined in the chuckles and returned the favour with a small bump with his fist.

And now, they were almost an hour into rehearsing the first movement of Mozart's 25th Symphony without anyone having taken the seat next to Brett. And Brett, being busy with leading his section and the orchestra to the best of his ability, wondered why he even cared.

"I bet he's a diva. Thinks he can get away with anything!", Lauren, principal violist of the Queensland con orchestra, put out there during their first break, voice travelling far enough for anyone in a radius of ten meters to hear. 
"Shhhh, dude! Not so loud!", Cole warned, emphasizing his words with a set of hand gestures, "You'll make enemies before you know it."
"Who cares? We won't see them after three weeks anyway."
"It doesn't matter anyway, why this guy's not here", Brett sighed, his sitting posture so terrible his mum would be screaming at him if she'd seen. 
"He's the other contestant! How do you not care?", she said, volume not decreased one bit. Brett secretly had a theory that she had to make up for her non-projecting instrument by talking very loudly all the time. Her comment however, showed that his deadpaness was working well despite the storm of curiosity and anxiety raging inside him. Not that he'd ever admit it, of course.
"Not like we can change anything", Brett shrugged, his gaze locked on the white table top with stains here and there from countless coffee drops and tasteless cafeteria lunches.
“True!”, Lauren yelled, causing Cole to jump, “In fact, we should be thankful! Your chances are better like this!”
“God, the last thing I need is a hype crew, Lauren!”, Brett groaned and rubbed his tired eyes. His orchestra fellas vocally rooting for him would only add to his problems, Brett was sure. Two sides fighting for their representative to win and the organizers could kiss their strengthening-relationship-dream goodbye once and for all.
“We’re here to get to know other musicians and build relationships”, Cole agreed, “I bet the other guy has a good reason why he’s not here yet. Maybe he’s sick.”
Lauren tsked at them. “You guys are boring.”

Eddy Chen still hadn't shown up by the time they had started rehearsals again. Brett had decided to immerse himself fully into the music and all the things he had to pay attention to as a concertmaster, which worked well enough. His experiences in this position were limited to his last year at the Queensland Youth Orchestra, since Patrick from third year, who now sat behind Brett, normally held the concertmaster's chair at the con. Brett was glad he was a chill dude who didn't really care that he hadn't gotten the soloist's spot. He wasn't even sure if Patrick had applied. Usually, third years were busy with their thesis and solo recitals and didn't have time for other projects.
Mr. Thames was patient, told Brett and the orchestra clearly where he wanted the music to go and when they had played through the first half of the first movement, Brett really started to have fun.

They were just about to tackle the second half, when a loud bang startled the whole crew. Brett, and everyone else basically, turned around, wide eyes shooting to the side of the hall where a door was swinging back and forth. A mop of black hair practically flew towards the conductor's stand, coming to a halt just in front, whipping up and down with how hard the person underneath had to breath. 
Mr. Thames blinked rapidly at the new arrival while Mr. Jones sprang up from his chair and quickly came upfront. 

"Mr. Chen at last!" With open arms he stepped to the poor guy still gulping down air. "We were awaiting you."
"I…", the guy of whom Brett just saw the back, bent over and hands propped on his knees, huffed, "Sorry… I overslept… and then… missed… bus…"
"No problem, Mr. Chen. We're glad you're here", Mr. Jones thused, laid a hand on the guy's back and led him to his seat. 
"You can sit here, first desk second. We're rehearsing Mozart 25. I hope you've practiced."
The guy nodded, let himself plop down next to Brett and inhaled deeply while the orchestra started to move again as the awkwardness of the moment passed. 
Brett looked him up and down. Asian, just like Brett himself, but tall. His hair wasn't as black on closer inspection. It was more of a dark brown colour, probably courtesy of him having dyed it some time ago. Dark eyelashes were fluttering minutely around closed, feline eyes because of how much he was still breathing.
Brett straightened his back. "Hi!"
The guy turned his head and opened his eyes a bit, looking like he hadn't had that extra sleep at all. 
"Hi", he mumbled.
"I'm Brett Yang! Apparently, we're supposed to work together this week."
"Eddy Chen", the other mumbled, "Guess so."
Was it just him or did that dude seem majorly pissed?
"You overslept?", Brett tried.
"Didn't I just say so?", Eddy grumbled, picked up his silver violin case with a violet cover, swung it on his lap and opened the clasps. 
"Okay…", Brett mouthed, eyebrows raised to meet his fringes.

Now, Brett finally knew who the other person he was going to compete against was. It was a huge bummer though, that this guy, Eddy Chen, turned out to be a cold, unfriendly prick, at least based on this first encounter…