Chapter 4She Ruined All Practice Pianos One Day Before My Music Audition

Fired up by Oliver's unhinged speech, the class's blind arrogance came roaring back.

"He's right. Those judges are ancient anyway. Their hearing is probably shot. What we are doing is called avant-garde styling."

"Violet definitely snitched to the professor because she knows we're going to outplay her. What a manipulative psycho."

Professor Harrison was shaking with a rage so intense his face was flushed crimson.

With the exam less than twelve hours away, he knew escalating this to security would result in a massive scandal that he couldn't control.

"Fine. Have it your way."

Professor Harrison snatched his clipboard and stormed toward the door, leaving them with one final, icy warning.

"Since you all think pitch is a joke, go ahead and see what happens tomorrow. Do not come crawling back to my office crying when reality hits you."

The second the door clicked shut, Oliver's true colors flared.

He lunged across the room, grabbing my jaw with a brutal, crushing grip.

"Did you enjoy the show, Violet?"

His fingers dug painfully into my cheeks. Tears involuntarily pricked the corners of my eyes from the sheer force.

"Tell me, did you slip the old man a text while we weren't looking?"

He tilted his head, his eyes burning with absolute, nauseating disgust.

"I am warning you. Drop the pathetic little schemes."

"Even if you complain to the president of the academy, it won't do a thing. Didn't you just see us run that old coward out of the room?"

"Don't think that just because you practice twenty hours a day, you can play savior and boss Lola around."

Lola stood up, dusting off her skirt. She wrapped her arms around Oliver's bicep and spoke in her saccharine voice.

"Oliver, don't be so mean to Violet."

"But you know... Lola feels like if we really want to promote this gentle aesthetic, just tuning this one room definitely isn't enough."

She turned her head, a flash of psychotic obsession gleaming in her eyes.

"Why don't we detune every single piano in the audition building? That way, every candidate in the state can experience Lola's beautiful aesthetic."

Her absurd, insane proposal plunged the noisy room into dead silence.

The students who had been cheering just moments ago suddenly looked conflicted and deeply terrified.

"Lola, messing with our own practice room is one thing, but if we mess with the official exam pianos... that's a massive federal-level academic crime."

"If they catch us on the security cameras, or if we get caught in the act, our lives are literally over. We'll be blacklisted forever."

A quiet girl in the back whispered, her voice trembling violently.

This was the state audition. It was the moment that decided their entire careers.

The atmosphere in the room turned suffocatingly tense as everyone mentally weighed the risks.

At that critical moment, Oliver shoved my face away and stepped up like a conquering hero.

"What are you all so afraid of? An exam this big has maintenance staff checking the rooms constantly."

"If we tune them down tonight, and they don't notice tomorrow morning, it proves the judges don't actually care about pitch. If they do notice, they'll just fix it before the exam starts."

He beat his chest, his voice echoing off the walls.

"We are doing this to help Lola achieve her ultimate artistic vision. We are going to give those rigid, boring judges the surprise of a lifetime. This is performance art."

Hearing his twisted logic, the crowd found their psychological safety net. Their hesitation vanished, replaced by a sick, fanatical fever.

"He's right. The judges aren't deaf. They'll definitely double-check the rooms."

"Let's go. Let's go bless the whole state with Lola's aesthetic. Let's show everyone what true art is."

"For Lola's dream. Let's go."

The entire class looked completely brainwashed. Cheering and screaming, they swarmed around Lola and Oliver, sprinting out of the room like a pack of rabid animals heading for the audition halls.