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karatamTitle: This is the reason for dreaming (1/?)
Author:starbuck_river
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG (for this chapter)
Summary: HighSchool AU. Arizona is the new kid in school and Callie is one of the band geeks. Drama and hilarity ensue.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Shonda Rhimes. This is purely recreational.
A/N: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
darsfebruary for the awesome beta-job!
Arizona went through math class without incident; she was good at it, but it didn’t really interest her the way science always had. At lunch she met up with Matt in the cafeteria.
“Hey, little sis!” Arizona turned while standing in line for her food. Matt was sitting with a few other people, waving at her to join him. She nodded at him before turning back to the lunch lady.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?” The woman asked while shoving her ladle into a pot of something Arizona wasn’t quite sure was edible. She nodded, then flinched as the lunch lady plopped some of the ‘savoury stew’ onto her plate. “Welcome to Cedar Hill High.”
Arizona smiled meekly before making a quick exit from the line, heading toward her brother’s table. He turned toward her as she sat down beside him.
“Hey, Ari! Meet some of the guys on the football team: Brad, Josh, Nick and Ethan. They’re going to introduce me to the coach this afternoon, isn’t that great?” Matt had such a happy look on his face that Arizona couldn’t help but grin back at him. They had missed the team tryouts at the last two high schools they had been at, and Arizona just knew that Matt was itching to get back on the field. A pointed cough directed Arizona’s attention to the other people sitting at the table. “Oh, and these are a few of the cheerleaders: Ashley, Rachel and Emily.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and laughed at the slight glare she sent his way.
The cheerleaders were wearing their cheerleader outfits, something Arizona thought only happened in movies and TV shows. They were looking her up and down, clearly determining if she was worth their attention. Arizona stood nervously, wanting the approval of the most popular girls in school, not to mention her brother’s new friends. The girls glanced at each other, apparently coming to a decision. Ashley smiled and said, “We want you to tryout for cheerleading. We think it would just be the most adorable thing if you were a cheerleader and your brother was on the team. Don’t you think?” the two other girls nodded vigorously.
Arizona was hesitant, performing in front of crowds had never been her thing, but all the eyes looking at her were so expectant, except Matt’s. He was raising an eyebrow with a hint of a smile, Robbins’ code for ‘it’s all your decision, I’ll support you either way’. She looked back at Ashley and nodded, “Sure, when are tryouts?”
The rest of the lunch period passed in a blur of football plays and cheerleading choreography. She breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang, signalling the beginning of afternoon classes. Matt squeezed her shoulder before walking off to his class, leaving her to head to English.
~*~*~*~
English wasn’t her favourite class, but she had always done well. She just wished they didn’t always read such depressing books; she looked over the syllabus and sighed: suicide, death, depression and heartbreak. Arizona sighed, hoping that they could read something happy and uplifting. Looking at her teacher, a dour looking older gentleman wearing tweed, she thought not.
Arizona cracked open her ancient copy of the novel they were going to read, and resigned herself to be subjected to some angst.
~*~*~*~
Arizona loved music. She loved listening to recordings, seeing live concerts and she could appreciate other people playing instruments or singing. However, she was nearly tone-deaf and couldn’t play or sing to save her life. Her mother had enrolled her in piano lessons as a child, but her teacher refused to teach her after a few months. She really was that bad.
All through high school, Arizona had managed to escape taking a music class, but it seemed Cedar Hill High required everyone to take a music class to graduate, so Arizona was out of luck.
When she walked into the music room, she went straight to the office attached to the back. She knocked on the door and waited for the teacher to open it.
“Hi, I’m Arizona Robbins, and I’m new here. I just want to warn you I’m not so great with the whole music thing.”
“Hello, Arizona. I’m Mr. Morrison. No worries about not being experienced, we’ll find you something you can enjoy playing. Is there anything you’d like to try out?” Mr. Morrison was an older gentleman, with glasses perched on his nose and he was holding a pile of music scores in his hands.
“Um, something that is really easy and not very conspicuous?” Arizona would have really preferred to be the person flipping the pages, but figured that was not probable.
“Alright, how about something really easy for now, as you get used to the system? We don’t have anyone playing the triangle, and the percussionists can help you get into the swing of things.” Arizona nodded quickly in response and headed over to the percussion section.
The other kids all welcomed her and showed her the exact way to play the triangle, which was much more complex than Arizona had ever considered. She was looking through the music to try and figure out when she was supposed to do something when Mr. Morrison called for the class’s attention. She looked up and noticed something that made her face grow just a little bit warm.
Callie was standing across the room, holding a French horn and talking to some other students, who were each holding different instruments.
“Class! I’d like to introduce your section leaders for this year. They are in charge of their section and will help organize band practice and other events.” He gestured towards the group that Callie was in.
“Figures she’s good at the one thing I suck at.” Arizona suddenly felt the urge to pout, but shook her head and concentrated on Mr. Morrison again.
“Now would everyone turn to Variations in G, and we’ll get started.” Arizona was distracted for the next few minutes, focused on her part of the music, making sure she hit the triangle just right, she was a perfectionist after all.
Then came a break in everyone’s music except for a French horn solo, which made Arizona look up from her music. The entire class was facing the horn section as Callie brought her French horn to her lips and started to play. It was quite simply the most beautiful thing Arizona had ever heard. She was torn between closing her eyes to let the music just wash over her and keeping them open to stare at the girl with beguiling brown eyes.
Arizona made it through the rest of the class in a slight daze, nearly making her miss five separate cues, causing her to blush profusely. She found her eyes wandering to Callie, who hadn’t even seemed to notice they were in the same class, far more often than she expected. Every time it happened, she would shake her head to clear her thoughts and try to refocus, but before she knew it, she was staring again.
When the bell rang, signalling the end of the day, it surprised Arizona so much she jumped slightly, knocking over the cymbals against the gong, letting out a huge ringing crash. The entire class turned in their seats to look right at her, causing Arizona to blush so hard she thought her face would catch fire. She scrambled to pick the cymbals with the help of the other percussion students, who were all laughing good-naturedly. When she straightened, she noticed Callie looking right at her with a smile on her face. It was a big, happy, knee-weakening, heart-attack-inducing smile that suddenly made Arizona feel like she couldn’t breathe, which, of course, just made her blush harder.
She made herself busy by packing up her things into her bag and trying to pretend no one was looking in her direction. She made her way to the door and was nearly out of the room when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Hey, Arizona, nice job with the cymbals. Quite a first impression, don’t you think?” Callie was standing there, waiting for her answer with one corner of her mouth turned up in a teasing smile.
“Um, yeah, I’m not usually that clumsy, I was just, um, distracted…” she trailed off while forcing herself not to stare at Callie’s chest, which was harder than it had been with any of the other girls she had ever been attracted to before.
“Oh really?” Callie cocked an eyebrow and Arizona had the sudden, shocking, realization that Callie might actually be flirting with her.
And so she panicked, reverting to rambling, which she tended to do when flustered, “Yeah, um, you know, I’ve never played an instrument before, well, except for that piano when I was little, but I never really liked it very much, maybe that’s because of the music I played, or maybe it was the teacher, but anyways, it was just the triangle but it’s a lot more complicated than you would think by just looking at it, have you ever played it, no of course not, because you play the French horn and are amazing, so you were probably never relegated to the back of the band…” she had to stop to take a breath and noticed that Callie was attempting to hold back a laugh. “What?”
Callie started walking out into the hallway, clearly expecting Arizona to follow. “That was…a really long sentence. Thinks for the compliment though, I’ve been playing the French horn for about six years now, so I’ve had a lot of practice. But, honestly, my interest lies more in singing, musical theatre, mostly. Well, that and science. But the school doesn’t put on musicals anymore, none of the teachers are willing to plan it.” Callie shrugged, but Arizona noticed the slight furrow in her brow that betrayed that she really was rather upset by that fact. Callie shook her head and refocused on Arizona, “Well, anyways, I guess this means we’ll be seeing each other every day now, huh?”
Arizona nodded and opened her mouth to reply when a car horn honking distracted her. “Arizona! You coming?” Matt was standing by the car with a couple of the football players and cheerleaders, waving at Arizona to join him. When her noticed her standing next to Callie, he quirked his eyebrows up at her and smiled.
“Those your friends?” Arizona turned at the unexpectedly harsh tone in Callie’s tone. Callie was staring at the car, a dark look on her face.
“Um, sort of? I just met them today, I think Matt met them because he’s a big football jock and wants to try out. Everyone always loves Matt.” She smiled at her brother, her natural reaction to talking about him when they weren’t having some stupid sibling argument. “And the cheerleaders want me to try out for the squad, but I’m not sure how good I’ll be.” She laughed self-deprecatingly, not quite willing to ask why Callie seemed so upset.
“Oh, well, I’ll let you get to your friends,” Callie said as she backed away from Arizona and into the sea of students, “and I’m sure you’ll do just fine, Arizona.” She paused and her eyes cleared for a moment, twinkling with amusement, “You’ll look great in the uniform, anyways.” As Arizona stood there, unable to form words, Callie smiled and turned, disappearing into the crowd.
Arizona exhaled slowly and a smile gently tugged at the corner of her lips until she found herself grinning like mad. She walked over to the car and slid in next to Matt.
He nudged her with his elbow and caught her eye. “Good first day?” There was a knowing twinkle in his eye that made her blush for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
“Great first day,” she smiled back at him, laughing as he gunned the engine and peeled out of the parking lot, heading towards home.
Author:
starbuck_riverFandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG (for this chapter)
Summary: HighSchool AU. Arizona is the new kid in school and Callie is one of the band geeks. Drama and hilarity ensue.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Shonda Rhimes. This is purely recreational.
A/N: Thanks to
darsfebruary for the awesome beta-job!Arizona went through math class without incident; she was good at it, but it didn’t really interest her the way science always had. At lunch she met up with Matt in the cafeteria.
“Hey, little sis!” Arizona turned while standing in line for her food. Matt was sitting with a few other people, waving at her to join him. She nodded at him before turning back to the lunch lady.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?” The woman asked while shoving her ladle into a pot of something Arizona wasn’t quite sure was edible. She nodded, then flinched as the lunch lady plopped some of the ‘savoury stew’ onto her plate. “Welcome to Cedar Hill High.”
Arizona smiled meekly before making a quick exit from the line, heading toward her brother’s table. He turned toward her as she sat down beside him.
“Hey, Ari! Meet some of the guys on the football team: Brad, Josh, Nick and Ethan. They’re going to introduce me to the coach this afternoon, isn’t that great?” Matt had such a happy look on his face that Arizona couldn’t help but grin back at him. They had missed the team tryouts at the last two high schools they had been at, and Arizona just knew that Matt was itching to get back on the field. A pointed cough directed Arizona’s attention to the other people sitting at the table. “Oh, and these are a few of the cheerleaders: Ashley, Rachel and Emily.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and laughed at the slight glare she sent his way.
The cheerleaders were wearing their cheerleader outfits, something Arizona thought only happened in movies and TV shows. They were looking her up and down, clearly determining if she was worth their attention. Arizona stood nervously, wanting the approval of the most popular girls in school, not to mention her brother’s new friends. The girls glanced at each other, apparently coming to a decision. Ashley smiled and said, “We want you to tryout for cheerleading. We think it would just be the most adorable thing if you were a cheerleader and your brother was on the team. Don’t you think?” the two other girls nodded vigorously.
Arizona was hesitant, performing in front of crowds had never been her thing, but all the eyes looking at her were so expectant, except Matt’s. He was raising an eyebrow with a hint of a smile, Robbins’ code for ‘it’s all your decision, I’ll support you either way’. She looked back at Ashley and nodded, “Sure, when are tryouts?”
The rest of the lunch period passed in a blur of football plays and cheerleading choreography. She breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang, signalling the beginning of afternoon classes. Matt squeezed her shoulder before walking off to his class, leaving her to head to English.
~*~*~*~
English wasn’t her favourite class, but she had always done well. She just wished they didn’t always read such depressing books; she looked over the syllabus and sighed: suicide, death, depression and heartbreak. Arizona sighed, hoping that they could read something happy and uplifting. Looking at her teacher, a dour looking older gentleman wearing tweed, she thought not.
Arizona cracked open her ancient copy of the novel they were going to read, and resigned herself to be subjected to some angst.
~*~*~*~
Arizona loved music. She loved listening to recordings, seeing live concerts and she could appreciate other people playing instruments or singing. However, she was nearly tone-deaf and couldn’t play or sing to save her life. Her mother had enrolled her in piano lessons as a child, but her teacher refused to teach her after a few months. She really was that bad.
All through high school, Arizona had managed to escape taking a music class, but it seemed Cedar Hill High required everyone to take a music class to graduate, so Arizona was out of luck.
When she walked into the music room, she went straight to the office attached to the back. She knocked on the door and waited for the teacher to open it.
“Hi, I’m Arizona Robbins, and I’m new here. I just want to warn you I’m not so great with the whole music thing.”
“Hello, Arizona. I’m Mr. Morrison. No worries about not being experienced, we’ll find you something you can enjoy playing. Is there anything you’d like to try out?” Mr. Morrison was an older gentleman, with glasses perched on his nose and he was holding a pile of music scores in his hands.
“Um, something that is really easy and not very conspicuous?” Arizona would have really preferred to be the person flipping the pages, but figured that was not probable.
“Alright, how about something really easy for now, as you get used to the system? We don’t have anyone playing the triangle, and the percussionists can help you get into the swing of things.” Arizona nodded quickly in response and headed over to the percussion section.
The other kids all welcomed her and showed her the exact way to play the triangle, which was much more complex than Arizona had ever considered. She was looking through the music to try and figure out when she was supposed to do something when Mr. Morrison called for the class’s attention. She looked up and noticed something that made her face grow just a little bit warm.
Callie was standing across the room, holding a French horn and talking to some other students, who were each holding different instruments.
“Class! I’d like to introduce your section leaders for this year. They are in charge of their section and will help organize band practice and other events.” He gestured towards the group that Callie was in.
“Figures she’s good at the one thing I suck at.” Arizona suddenly felt the urge to pout, but shook her head and concentrated on Mr. Morrison again.
“Now would everyone turn to Variations in G, and we’ll get started.” Arizona was distracted for the next few minutes, focused on her part of the music, making sure she hit the triangle just right, she was a perfectionist after all.
Then came a break in everyone’s music except for a French horn solo, which made Arizona look up from her music. The entire class was facing the horn section as Callie brought her French horn to her lips and started to play. It was quite simply the most beautiful thing Arizona had ever heard. She was torn between closing her eyes to let the music just wash over her and keeping them open to stare at the girl with beguiling brown eyes.
Arizona made it through the rest of the class in a slight daze, nearly making her miss five separate cues, causing her to blush profusely. She found her eyes wandering to Callie, who hadn’t even seemed to notice they were in the same class, far more often than she expected. Every time it happened, she would shake her head to clear her thoughts and try to refocus, but before she knew it, she was staring again.
When the bell rang, signalling the end of the day, it surprised Arizona so much she jumped slightly, knocking over the cymbals against the gong, letting out a huge ringing crash. The entire class turned in their seats to look right at her, causing Arizona to blush so hard she thought her face would catch fire. She scrambled to pick the cymbals with the help of the other percussion students, who were all laughing good-naturedly. When she straightened, she noticed Callie looking right at her with a smile on her face. It was a big, happy, knee-weakening, heart-attack-inducing smile that suddenly made Arizona feel like she couldn’t breathe, which, of course, just made her blush harder.
She made herself busy by packing up her things into her bag and trying to pretend no one was looking in her direction. She made her way to the door and was nearly out of the room when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Hey, Arizona, nice job with the cymbals. Quite a first impression, don’t you think?” Callie was standing there, waiting for her answer with one corner of her mouth turned up in a teasing smile.
“Um, yeah, I’m not usually that clumsy, I was just, um, distracted…” she trailed off while forcing herself not to stare at Callie’s chest, which was harder than it had been with any of the other girls she had ever been attracted to before.
“Oh really?” Callie cocked an eyebrow and Arizona had the sudden, shocking, realization that Callie might actually be flirting with her.
And so she panicked, reverting to rambling, which she tended to do when flustered, “Yeah, um, you know, I’ve never played an instrument before, well, except for that piano when I was little, but I never really liked it very much, maybe that’s because of the music I played, or maybe it was the teacher, but anyways, it was just the triangle but it’s a lot more complicated than you would think by just looking at it, have you ever played it, no of course not, because you play the French horn and are amazing, so you were probably never relegated to the back of the band…” she had to stop to take a breath and noticed that Callie was attempting to hold back a laugh. “What?”
Callie started walking out into the hallway, clearly expecting Arizona to follow. “That was…a really long sentence. Thinks for the compliment though, I’ve been playing the French horn for about six years now, so I’ve had a lot of practice. But, honestly, my interest lies more in singing, musical theatre, mostly. Well, that and science. But the school doesn’t put on musicals anymore, none of the teachers are willing to plan it.” Callie shrugged, but Arizona noticed the slight furrow in her brow that betrayed that she really was rather upset by that fact. Callie shook her head and refocused on Arizona, “Well, anyways, I guess this means we’ll be seeing each other every day now, huh?”
Arizona nodded and opened her mouth to reply when a car horn honking distracted her. “Arizona! You coming?” Matt was standing by the car with a couple of the football players and cheerleaders, waving at Arizona to join him. When her noticed her standing next to Callie, he quirked his eyebrows up at her and smiled.
“Those your friends?” Arizona turned at the unexpectedly harsh tone in Callie’s tone. Callie was staring at the car, a dark look on her face.
“Um, sort of? I just met them today, I think Matt met them because he’s a big football jock and wants to try out. Everyone always loves Matt.” She smiled at her brother, her natural reaction to talking about him when they weren’t having some stupid sibling argument. “And the cheerleaders want me to try out for the squad, but I’m not sure how good I’ll be.” She laughed self-deprecatingly, not quite willing to ask why Callie seemed so upset.
“Oh, well, I’ll let you get to your friends,” Callie said as she backed away from Arizona and into the sea of students, “and I’m sure you’ll do just fine, Arizona.” She paused and her eyes cleared for a moment, twinkling with amusement, “You’ll look great in the uniform, anyways.” As Arizona stood there, unable to form words, Callie smiled and turned, disappearing into the crowd.
Arizona exhaled slowly and a smile gently tugged at the corner of her lips until she found herself grinning like mad. She walked over to the car and slid in next to Matt.
He nudged her with his elbow and caught her eye. “Good first day?” There was a knowing twinkle in his eye that made her blush for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
“Great first day,” she smiled back at him, laughing as he gunned the engine and peeled out of the parking lot, heading towards home.
