Thinking Out Loud -CHAP.02--BIGHERO6-

  The following night at the café was a quiz night. Chihiro spent most of the day working on a new piece of music that she'd begun composing. She had the first few stanzas down, but couldn't find a suitable theme to bridge them together, let alone anything after that. When she got fed up of staring at a blank page, she left the house and went shopping instead. At least, her version of shopping.

  She wasn't particularly a fan of shopping. When most people went shopping, they ended up returning with plenty of things that they didn't need, having wasted their money on impulse buys. Chihiro didn't want to do that. She needed to save her money for the new piano she wanted, not waste it. Besides, there was nothing else she could possibly want to get. What she liked to do when shopping was simply use the opportunity to wander round aimlessly and daydream. Her mind worked so much better when she'd had time to clear it.

  At least, it usually did. After she came back and made a quick sandwich for lunch, she sat back down at the old piano, only to continue staring at the page like she'd never moved. This composition had clearly decided to be difficult. Chihiro knew from past frustrations that you couldn't force your muse. Her muse was apparently on a day off, so she decided to give up on it for now and try again tomorrow.

  When the evening rolled round, Chihiro dressed in her best navy skirt, teamed with a loose sleeved, floaty blouse and matching lace-up dolly shoes that looked a little like ballet slippers. She attempted to tame her hair by pulling it all up high on one side, but it just seemed to like being naturally untidy and strands had already started to fall loose before she'd even left the house. She gave up on appearance - none of that would change the fact that she supposedly looked miserable anyway - and headed out.

  She relished the walk down to the café. Partly because it gave her more opportunity to clear her head and partly because the air was crisp and fresh. Apparently, it was going to be the only dry day that week until the weekend. Chihiro hated the rain. She seemed to have the inherent ability to land her feet in every puddle she tried to avoid. Soggy feet were pretty much the bane of her existence.

  She got there a little earlier than she needed to. She liked the extra time to set up, just in case the piano needed any tuning. Cass had wanted her there an hour before the quiz night started, as she was to set up and then play whilst customers were coming in for the event, but even she seemed surprised to see Chihiro there so early. "Wow, anyone would think you're almost eager to come to work," she commented lightly.

  Chihiro just shrugged. "I do like working." At least she did now anyway.

  Cass smiled. "Well, a happy staff is the first step to a good working environment. Make yourself at home and get settled in. Would you like a hot drink?"

  Chihiro declined the offer and busied herself with setting up at the piano instead. She tested the sound, but the piano didn't need tuning in the slightest. That wasn't unusual. Very rarely had she actually made use of the extra time she allowed for tuning. She pulled out all of her sheet music and sorted them into the order that she was going to use tonight. It didn't take too long. Once she was ready, she tinkered away on the keys a little and watched the clientele who were already in the café. Tonight, it seemed to mostly be college students. They all appeared to be around her age. She didn't see either of Cass's nephews though. She wondered what it would be like to live above a working establishment like this. Noisy, for a start.

  Once more people started to come in, Cass motioned across the room for Chihiro to start playing early. Chihiro was happy with that. She began with the same favourite sad piece of hers that she'd played at the restaurant on the same night that Cass had hired her. Once her fingers started moving, everyone in the room that she'd been watching vanished as she slipped inside her own mind, filled with nothing but the melody and a ghost image of the notes in front of her.

  When it finished, she continued straight into a composition of her own that had actually been inspired by that sad piece. The difference was unnoticeable - she flowed from one to the other like moving from one chapter of a book to the next. It was easy to see where she'd gotten her inspiration from. She included a few more pieces of her own music amongst her session, as well as some classic movie scores like Cass had suggested. They were primarily going to be used for the movie night, but if this quiz was anything like ones she'd taken part in, she figured they'd be appropriate for this too. She stuck to the basics. A bit of John Williams and Alan Silvestri.

  It didn't feel like very long before Cass was motioning again for her to stop. The phrase 'losing yourself in the music' really was a true thing. It had always been that way for Chihiro. She finished the song she was playing. When she looked up, she saw the room had filled without her noticing. It was even busier than yesterday. It wasn't all just college students either now. She recognised a couple of faces from the beat poetry night. They were clearly friends of Cass. That or they just really liked the café.

  She started tidying some of her music away, leaving the other half for when she had to play again after the quiz had ended, but she didn't get very far before Cass came over and stopped her. "No, no, don't worry about that now. You can do that later, otherwise you'll miss out on the quiz."

  "Err, the quiz?" Chihiro repeated uncertainly. She was expected to participate too? She wasn't very good at quizzes. Her general knowledge was awful.

  "Yep. Groups of three or more and my nephews need a third," Cass insisted. "If I can find where one of them has disappeared to..." As Cass was technically her boss for the week, Chihiro wasn't sure if she could really say no, so she allowed the kooky baker to push her in the direction of one of the tables, before she headed towards the stairs, calling, "Hiro! I saw you here just a second ago!"

  Chihiro found herself standing in front of the table where Cass's other nephew, Tadashi, was sat. "Oh, hi..."

  He smiled at her. "So you got roped into the quiz too, huh?"

  "I'm not sure how," said Chihiro, hovering awkwardly. "I'm supposed to be working; not playing."

  "Well, I only popped back to grab something. Now I'm participating," Tadashi chuckled. "Next time I'll have to make it more Mission Impossible in order to get upstairs safely."

  Chihiro smiled. "I'd say I could try and hide you behind the piano, but apparently that doesn't work or I wouldn't be part of the team too."

  Tadashi laughed. "Why don't you sit down?"

  Chihiro did so, smoothing down her skirt self-consciously. She'd never really been much of a people person. She wasn't a complete hermit - she could interact when spoken to and she was happy to let her guard down once she was more comfortable around someone - but she wasn't used to engaging in more than just brief, casual conversation with strangers. The realisation made her feel somewhat stupid. Everybody she knew had started off as strangers. It was just that she'd known all of the same people for so long that she couldn't really remember being at that stage with them. Her social life had never been particularly adventurous. More of a routine really.

  She glanced back in search of Cass, but she'd now disappeared completely. Most likely upstairs in search of her other nephew, who had clearly attempted a more daring escape. "I don't know if I'll be much use," she confessed to Tadashi. "I'm not very good at quizzes."

  "That's okay," Tadashi assured. "I'll take any science questions, you can cover music and we'll count on Hiro to take care of movies and TV."

  "What about if world politics comes up?"

  "Hmm, then we'll have to wing it."

  Chihiro couldn't help but smile again. She didn't know why she felt so nervous. Tadashi had a very easy manner about him. He was pleasant to talk to. She cast around to recall what he'd told her yesterday. "How's your project going?"

  "Awful," he said with a laugh. "I've hit a few problems that I just can't seem to get around. That's why I didn't really want to get roped into the quiz, but I guess it might help to get away from it for a bit."

  Chihiro understood that feeling completely. When you hit the point where you were constantly trying to force something, it was time to take a break. Forced work never showed your true potential. "I know the feeling."

  "I'm guessing you must get it with composing," Tadashi said, understanding.

  "Oh, um, yeah." She wasn't sure why, but Chihiro had never really liked discussing her compositions with people, particularly those she didn't know very well. It was just such a personal thing to her. Still, she tried to venture a little more. "Whenever I get that problem, I generally tend to give up and go for a walk instead. It usually helps to go back after a while with fresh eyes. Well... I guess ears, in my case."

  They were interrupted by Hiro joining them sulkily. He sank into the seat next to Tadashi with a bump. "Why do we have to do this? I made a much more daring escape attempt than you did and she still caught me."

  "Well, Aunt Cass is a force to be reckoned with."

  The woman in question soon swung by their table with quiz sheets and ballpoint pens. She seemed satisfied that Hiro was where he was supposed to be. "Pick your team name, guys," she said, slapping down a sheet and dishing out the pens. "We'll be starting the first round in five minutes."

  "You're sure you don't want anymore music?" Chihiro tried.

  "I doubt we'd even hear it over this racket," said Cass, oblivious to Chihiro's ploy, jabbing a thumb towards the two tables behind her that were loudly discussing team names.

  "Nice try," Tadashi said teasingly as Cass moved onto the next table.

  "Aunt Cass doesn't let anyone get away that easily," Hiro agreed, pushing the sheet away from him.

  Tadashi obligingly picked up one of the pens. "So what are we thinking for a name? Team Reluctant?"

  Hiro snorted. "I'm good with that."

  "You don't think we'll be expected to participate in all of the events this week, do you?" said Chihiro worriedly. A quiz was one thing, but just the idea of the speed dating was setting alarm bells off in her head.

  "If that's Aunt Cass's plan, then I'm gonna start pulling all-nighters at the university," Tadashi decided.

  There was a sharp screech through the speakers that were set up at the front of the café, followed by Cass giving the microphone a bang and then sheepishly apologising. Judging by the fact that she'd done the exact same thing yesterday when setting up for the beat poetry night, Chihiro was guessing it was a common thing. At least she wasn't the only one who didn't get along with technology.

  "Thank you everyone for coming," Cass said into the microphone, once she'd managed to adjust the sound. "Let's get this quiz underway. Our first round is on world politics..."

  "Hey, you weren't peeking at her question list, were you?" Tadashi gave Chihiro an amused look.

  Chihiro shook her head quickly. "I think I must have jinxed it."

  "We're doomed," Hiro groaned.

  They managed to muddle their way through the first set of questions. Following that were rounds on geography and history. Chihiro still felt she wasn't much help. History had never interested her and she wasn't well versed in geography, besides the basics of continents. She'd only ever visited two different cities. Fortunately, it turned out that Hiro was just as smart as his brother and the two of them were easily able to cover those topics.

  "Next up is the music round," Cass announced over the speakers.

  "Looks like it's your time to shine, Chihiro," Tadashi said encouragingly. Chihiro still wasn't so sure. If the questions were on anything that was currently in the charts, then she wouldn't have a clue.

  "Question number one," Cass began. "Which musical icon had a stillborn twin brother named Jessie?"

  "I actually know that one!" Chihiro exclaimed suddenly.

  She sounded so surprised by it that Tadashi laughed. He pushed the pen and quiz sheet in front of her. "Then go for it."

  His handwriting was neat, unlike Chihiro's usual scrawl. She didn't want to ruin the quiz sheet with it, so she concentrated on keeping her writing tidier than usual as she carefully printed out the name 'Elvis Presley'. To her delight, she knew nearly all of the answers to the music questions. The only one that felled her was one asking which Kardashian was married to Kanye West. She took a stab at it, but apparently, there were a lot of Kardashians.

  Cass led them into the next round, which was on soap operas. This time, there was a collective groan from what sounded like most of the males in the room. "You don't watch soaps, do you?" Hiro asked hopefully.

  Chihiro shook her head. She didn't watch much TV at all. She'd always preferred movies. "Sorry."

  "I think we really are doomed," Tadashi chuckled. "Trust Aunt Cass to pull this one out."

  Their team ended up coming in third place, once Cass had tallied up the results - she shot them a frown when she read out their team name, which they all laughed at. Having an entire round on soap operas had killed off whatever lead they might have gained. Personally, Chihiro didn't think they'd done too badly. She'd done quizzes when she'd been in school and some with her family when she was younger, but she'd never ranked anywhere higher than near last before.

  "Thanks for participating, guys," Cass said as she came over to their table afterwards, ignoring Hiro muttering that she hadn't given them any choice. "Chihiro, can I get you back on the piano for the next twenty minutes until we close?"

  "Oh, of course!" Chihiro jumped up and hurried back over to the piano, hastily rearranging her music.

  By the time Cass was closing up the café, Chihiro was feeling quite happy. The quiz had actually been quite fun - even if she hadn't known a lot of the answers - she was still thoroughly enjoying getting to play whatever music she liked and two college girls had even come up to her before they'd left and told her how beautiful they'd found the last piece that she'd played. As it had been one of her own compositions, she was over the moon.

  "Hey, Aunt Cass; I'm gonna head on back to the university for a while to get some more work done," Tadashi informed his aunt. He'd spent the last twenty minutes packing away the speakers and microphone for her and then stacking up some of the extra chairs. Hiro had made his speedy departure upstairs the moment he'd been free from the quiz.

  "It's already pretty late..." Cass reproached. "Just make sure you don't work yourself too hard."

  "With the way I'm going, that shouldn't be a problem," Tadashi laughed. He waved over to Chihiro, who was packing away her music. "See you tomorrow, teammate."

  "See you tomorrow," Chihiro responded politely. "I hope you have better luck with your project."

  "Thanks," he smiled. "I hope you have better luck with your composition."

  Chihiro's hand faltered over her sheet music. She watched over the top of the piano as Tadashi left, trying to remember if she'd even mentioned that she was currently struggling with a composition.

                                                           *

  The following morning, Chihiro was dismayed to learn that her muse was still evading her. She stared at the mostly blank page for almost an hour before deciding to give up and go for a walk again, seeing as the rainy weather forecast didn't seem to have caught up yet. She took a different route this time. Rather than going through the city centre, she went round one of the back roads where the music store was that was holding the piano she wanted to buy once she had enough money. Maybe going for another look at it might give her some of the inspiration she needed.

  She preferred the quieter streets. Because she tended to daydream a lot and get easily distracted, it meant there were less people for her to be likely to bump into. She meandered quietly along the back streets, letting her mind wander and glancing inside store windows as she passed, in the hopes of spying anything that could possibly provide inspirational value. She walked by an old-fashioned cake shop, but very purposely strode past without looking inside. That was one thing she definitely didn't need to spend her money on.

  She could smell the strong, fragrant scent of coffee before even reaching the small Starbucks branch that sat on the corner. She'd never really been a fan of coffee, but she'd always quite liked the smell. Her eyes roved over the room through the window as she passed. She stopped when she spotted a familiar looking baseball cap, realising with surprise that she recognised one of the patrons just beyond the window.

  She hovered outside, unsure if she should stop and say hello or just keep walking. He looked like he was working - his head bowed over a book and a mug of coffee - so maybe she shouldn't disturb him. Whilst she was deliberating, as if he knew somebody was there, he looked up and Chihiro immediately felt her face colour. Now it was going to look like she'd just been standing there and watching him. But he smiled and waved her inside.

  The scent of coffee was even stronger indoors. She ducked past the queue leading towards the serving counter and made her way over to Tadashi's table. He looked tired. His eyes were shadowed and the beginnings of stubble were starting to creep across his face, like the first time she'd saw him. The book he was perusing was held open at a complicated diagram that she couldn't even begin to make sense of.

  "I'm guessing your project's still not going so well?"

  "That easy to tell, huh?" he smiled ruefully. "What about you? How's the composing going?"

  "Well, apparently my muse has gone on vacation, so I'm just trying to find inspiration from anything right now," Chihiro confessed. "There's a little music store around here and they have the most beautiful piano for sale that I'm hoping to buy when I eventually have enough money, but for now, I thought if I went down for another look, it might just get the creativity flowing..." She realised that she'd carried on rambling without really meaning to. She already knew that most people didn't understand what was going on inside her head. "Um, I mean, I know that sounds kind of weird..."

  "Doesn't sound weird to me," Tadashi assured her. "Creativity's not always the most cooperative. Sometimes you have to actively find ways to make that inspiration come to you, rather than just waiting for it to happen."

  "Err, right..." said Chihiro, surprised. She couldn't say she really knew anything about robotics, but she felt a little silly for never realising there was clearly creativity involved.

  "Did you want to sit down?" Tadashi offered, kicking out the seat that was opposite him.

  "Oh, no, I can see you're still working. I didn't mean to disturb you or anything - I just thought I'd come and say hi." She realised that sounded lame, so she hastily looked around, thinking of anything else to say. "Though I think your aunt might feel betrayed if she knew you were in a chain place like this."

  Tadashi laughed. "I know; I feel guilty just being here. I needed to get away from my lab for a while and I love Aunt Cass, but she doesn't always get that sometimes I just need some space to work. I mean, the quiz last night was fun, but it wasn't really something I intended to get roped into."

  "I can't say I did either," Chihiro agreed.

  He laughed again. "Once we're finished with the think tank at the university, then I'll happily do as many quizzes as she wants. Just as long as there's no more soap opera rounds."

  "I think that was more for the benefit of her friends than anyone else," said Chihiro. The women from the beat poetry night had been one of the teams last night. Chihiro could remember hearing them talking about some show she'd never heard of, which had turned out to be one of the soaps there'd been a lot of questions on.

  "Yeah, did you notice how they won? I think it must have been a fix," Tadashi joked.

  "Definitely a fix," Chihiro smiled. "Anyway, I really am going to stop disturbing you now and let you get on with your work."

  "Well, I hope the music store can make you feel a little more inspired," said Tadashi. He then chuckled. "Or maybe the speed dating will later."

  Chihiro made a face. "I'm sincerely hoping your aunt won't want me to participate in that as well."

  "Try hiding under the piano this time," Tadashi laughed.

  "Hmm, thanks for the advice. If I get desperate, I just might try that."

  Tadashi grinned. "And maybe don't tell Aunt Cass that you saw me in here."

  Chihiro rearranged her bag over her shoulder and put on her best innocent look as she was walking away. "Saw you where?"