7

Rumba, that’s what’s running through my head as I roll out of bed, the smooth ocarina tunes swirling through the air, in the strange dance that represented the sunrise of the morning. I swayed across the floor taping my feet to the, drums and the birds outside whistling to the sound of the horn, I clap in perfect sync and spin, whispering the words to today’s song, “Me Huele a Rumba”. As I get to the chorus I sing a little louder gathering my things for my day at school and tapping my way downstairs. Today’s going to be a good day, I can feel it in the music of the Earth, as I shuffle to the last measures I throw open the fridge and grab a glass of orange juice. With all the talk of Spanish art in Music it seems that I was bound to find a song that fit one of the following days. A merengue slides into my mind; the one we’ve been practicing for cultural day is “One Love” by Bob Marley. I feel it slow me down as I glide out to the bus stop, math homework in hand and lunch in the other. I get on the bus, belting out the last lines in the song and landing in the seat next to Lugg, he’s staring at the back of Rocky’s head, like he can’t get something out of his mind. I can’t really figure out what he’s staring at, so I join him in examining her back. Nothing has changed though, her infamous Skittles jacket and its famous catch-phrase being bent to her will. Her long auburn hair lying across her shoulders in a curly wave, her entire attitude like a new rap song about a strange moment in a club that quickly become an unending euphemism about a dance between two people. It fits her though; she has that kind of attitude, a bit on the strange side with a chaotic underlying personality. Finding nothing unusual with her I turn to Lugg, and say in the most melodious voice I can conger, “Why so interested, more than ten times a fortnight you proclaim your undying adoration for Gretel.” Looking more confused than he did before he turned his shaggy head my direction and said, “It’s what she wasn’t wearing this morning, and every other morning. It makes it very hard to be completely faithful to Gretel, that and the weird thing I created this morning.” He hands it to me cautiously, this bundled heap of circuits, plastic and wire. I palm it for weight and hand it back to him asking, “So, what is it?”