#session i

Königsberg Noise Manufactory - Session I

Broken Tape Records

Stephanie long decided that tutoring was the worst – but it looks so very good on transcripts. But as she pushed open the lab door her lips pulled into a soft smile at the figure draped over notebooks and texts, snoozing, the cinnamon curls of her shorn hair moving in time with her stunted breathing. It was the screech of metal on the sterile, jerked Elena from her catnap, blinking into the fading afternoon light in the second story of the science building. Stephanie pretended to not notice the flex of Elena’s arms as the taller girl stretched on the stool. 

 “Rise and shine darling, your spleen wait for no sleepy-heads,” her sing-song voice stirring Elena from her slumber. The shorter girl stretched out her back, cracking her neck while Stephanie winced. “Another late night with the band I’m guessing Miss Perez?” 

 “Oh, you know how it is, late nights that turn into dawn.” 

“Dawn? Do you realize how unhealthy that is?” Stephanie dumped her back onto the desk, the clunk of books and the crackling noise of a granola bar was a familiar noise to Elena who began to tug her Anatomy book out from under her own book bag.

 “Mai finally got the riff right; we were determined to nail it.” 

“Did you sleep at all?” 

“Right through Mrs. Roy’s English course, I have to say that The Great Gatsby is not as fun as Macbeth. I should’ve just taken Mr. Roy’s AP Lit course like he asked,” Stephanie rolled her eyes, for someone so seemingly stupid Elena had quite the grasp on her course work. Except for Anatomy, the reason she was taking it was indescribable. As far as the cheerleader could tell Elena didn’t need to take the course, she had more than enough sciences to graduate rather than slog through all the Med-pursing seniors in their year. 

 “Mrs. Roy is always so angry when people decide to sleep in their English classes.” 

“Then maybe she ought to use the same books for the last thirty years, even her prompts are the same she gave my brothers and they graduated ten years ago.” 

 “Tried and tested,” Stephanie parroted back mimicking the bird-at-dawn chirp of Mrs. Roy as she tapped her syllabus every morning. “The symbolism is so obvious even one of those body-thumpers you cheer for get it, and they don’t get anything but yard lines,” Elena yawned as she flicked through her notes, impeccably kept with different colored pens and carefully designed bullet points. 

 “I thought you’d appreciate the symbolism, you are a writer yourself,” she tapped the margins of the notebook, carefully inked strokes of words, melodies, “you’re quite good you know.” 

“I should write a song just for you then, y’know payback for teaching me all this stuff.” She tapped the carefully rendered skeleton on the open page.

Stephanie couldn’t help the blush on her cheeks, “Me, a song, don’t be silly. Besides I’ve heard your caterwauling, I’d much rather have Mai sing it to me all the same.” 

The Latina girl growled and smacked her palm playfully with a green gel pen, “Rude, see that I’ll even write a line for you.”

 “Whatever Perez, now list to me all the bones in the fingers.” 

“You hate me don’t you, that’s why you chose to torture me.” 

“You asked me to tutor you.”