A Stranger Is Just A Friend You Haven't Met
From her youngest years to her current teens, Vinyl Scratch had always been fascinated by the color blue. And when she decided she would become the world's most famous DJ, she dyed her hair the same shade and always wore clothes to match, usually light colors. Her go to color recently had been white. Today, while she was sitting in her backyard, she saw a girl walking by with jet black hair.
"Excuse me, can you help me find this house?" the voice called out.
Vinyl looked up and saw a girl with jet black hair standing at the edge of her property, holding a piece of paper with an address on it.
"Sure thing!" Vinyl called back, putting down her guitar and walking over to the girl. "What's the address?"
The girl handed her the piece of paper, and Vinyl quickly scanned it. As expected, she had recently moved into the vicinity and was still getting used to the area. Vinyl offered to help her search, familiar with the location.
"It's just a few houses down," she said, pointing in the direction of the address. "I can show you if you want."
The girl nodded gratefully, and they walked down the street together. As they walked, Vinyl couldn't help but notice how striking the girl's black hair was against her pale skin. She wondered what her name was.
"I'm Vinyl, by the way," she said, holding out her hand. Her parents had always taught her a good handshake was the way to start a friendship.
The girl shook it. "Octavia," she said.
Vinyl smiled. "That's a cool name."
As they approached the house, Vinyl noticed that Octavia seemed hesitant to go inside.
"Is everything okay?" she asked.
Octavia shrugged. "I'm just a little nervous. I don't know anyone here."
Vinyl grinned. "Well, now you know me. And honestly, I'm all you need to know. Not just 'cause I know everybody, but because I'm pretty awesome."
Octavia laughed. "Well Scratch, I suppose I must say I am quite lucky to have met you. Now, would you like to come inside?"
After they went inside, Octavia cordially offered Vinyl a drink, tea in this case, an interesting offer from Vinyl's usual drinks. Usually it was some sort of soda, or even some lemonade in the recent hot months. But the offer alone kept her intrigued about Octavia enough to accept.
The two children hit it off immediately, talking about their shared love of music and fashion, comparing tastes in style of both of them. This devolved into discussing the differences in media types, and resulting in an invitation from Vinyl to Octavia to see the records collection at Vinyl's house.
"It's one of a kind." Vinyl bragged, "No other one like it."
"Well, school does not start for another month." Octavia commented, "With that it would seem I have plenty of time to spend seeing things like this alleged collection. Should we do it tomorrow?"
Vinyl grinned, "I'll be here bright and early tomorrow!"
Early turned out to be more so afternoon. And the two aspiring musicians were side-tracked as Vinyl gave Octavia the tour of the neighborhood. A park here, playground there, and the final stop was a pond that was the halfway point between both of their houses.
The sweltering sun beat down on the children, and Vinyl's antics got the better of them. Octavia had gotten too close to the water, enthralled by a group of tadpoles swimming near where she had perched herself on the dock positioned over the pond. This had left her open for a surprise attack.
"Gotcha!" Vinyl screeched, tackling her new friend into the water.
"Ahh!" Octavia glared at her friend, treading water next to her. "Come on Scratch! That was uncouth of you!"
"Pssh," Vinyl waved it off with a swipe of her hand, sprinkling water droplets on Octavia. "You know we could both use a cool off. Plus, I've got plenty of clothes at my house, you can change into those."
Octavia sighed, resigning to her fate. "Aright, I suppos-eek!" The cellist jumped, her splashing dousing Vinyl in water again. "Something just touched me!"
Vinyl didn't get a chance to respond, not even make a sassy comment before Octavia swam feverently out of the pond. Striding away with Vinyl in tow, they silently made the rest of the way to her house. The sun dried them off for the most part before they stepped foot in the house. Harmony Scratch, Vinyl's mother, ushered them into the shower, providing some more tasteful clothes from before Vinyl's current indie stint for Octavia to wear.
The short day, or as short as a small antic like pond diving, established one thing for Vinyl about Octavia; easing her into more things that would get her out of her shell would be the best plan.
Drinking the home-made lemonade from her mom gave the starting point for the next idea.
Shelving the idea for when she had everything prepared, Vinyl engrossed herself in the small talk they had started. It had become talk about their dreams and where they would like to perform for concerts. Vinyl wanted to become a famous DJ, performing to a crowd of thousands at the famous Arasankan EDM get together. Octavia dreamed of becoming a classical cellist, performing solo in front of the elite, staking her claim in the hall of classical musicians with her skills.
It was a good discussion to end their time playing together. Even on the walk back to Octavia's house, Vinyl finished up their talk.
"Ya know, I've never heard any Arasankan performances that had, like, classical music in them." Vinyl said, interrupting the comfortable silence that had enveloped them during their walk. "I bet we could make something completely new, it would take us to the center stage there."
Octavia hummed, considering the idea. "Let us see how school goes first. I think I would like to get into high school and finish that before we do anything sudden."
"So you're saying you're up for it." Vinyl grinned, taking the bait. "We don't start freshman year for another couple months. That's plenty of time to try stuff out, put a little something something together."
The next few weeks were just that; a couple hours each day, Vinyl and Octavia attempted to combine their vastly different genres into one. It was slow, and only resulted in a couple nice sounding bits and clips. But they held hope, music wasn't about instant results. The time would come when it would click.
It didn't take long for Vinyl to become restless again, too many hours stuck inside without any dopamine rushes.
"Alright, time to get some dough for this venture!" Vinyl stood up suddenly, going to the nearby closet with all her pre-prepared ingredients. "Here Octy, take these, I'll grab the table and chairs."
Within a couple dozen minutes they were positioned outside. A table and lemonade stood tall near the sidewalk, a sign saying lemonade $1 for 1 cup, music tips appreciated was on the side facing the sidewalk. Vinyl had placed several chairs in the yard, having them curve into a U-shape around the duo. Her beginner DJ setup was placed on a fold-out table, and Octavia's cello was placed on a clean picnic blanket.
"I cannot say I am sure about this Vinyl." Octavia said, voicing her concerns almost immediately after they were set up.
"Don't worry about it," Vinyl replied, continuing to mess around with her own set up. "What's the worst that's gonna happen? Granny Smith gives a bad yelp review?"
It was enough to quiet the rebuttals. They began a few minutes after, Vinyl setting the pace with her sounds. Octavia filled in, allowing a sort of free form music to come of their show. Passerby slowly trickled in, some sat in their premier seating, some stopped for a listen and to drop a tip.
Some other kids that had been dragged along from their parents warmed up and began dancing. The tip jar had begun to fill up, and after a couple hours the lemonade was gone and so were their attendees.
It was exactly what Vinyl had wanted from the experience, she could tell Octavia thought the same. She just wasn't voicing it. "Same time next month, yeah Tavi?"
Octavia shuffled her feet, her head down to the ground, "Oh, I do not know for sure Vee. You see, I have to study some of the reading we will have when we start."
"Right." Vinyl scoffed. "We both know that those readings aren't even summer ones. You don't need to start them, especially you Octavia."
"Possibly..."
"Come on, that went great!" Vinyl grabbed Octavia's hands, bringing her closer. "This can be our testbed. We'll know if we're getting where we need to be to start posting this stuff if we keep this up each month."
"Yes, well..."
Vinyl swung their hands side to side, "Just give it a chance, I tend to be right about these things you know. Just like I was about putting that Nutella chocolate in those biscuits. Even your cultured tastebuds had to admit it was pretty great."
"That would be true..." Octavia admitted. "Alright, I suppose we can continue. Next month will be fine."
The next month came quickly, especially with school on the horizon. A couple small adventures superimposed with antics occurred, a small prank on Octavia's stingy neighbor was a highlight of their week. That wasn't to say it was only Vinyl influencing Octavia. Each day had become stamped with a stipulation; no play until summer homework had been completed.
It was a good trade, and even their parents had begun to notice.
"Don't let that Philharmonica girl get away, I like her." Vinyl's mother commented one morning.
"I know, I know mom. Don't think she doesn't let me forget it either." Vinyl grumbled.
But the most surprising occurrence of their progressing friendship came only a week before school was going to start. It had been sudden, no relation to their ongoing discussion about if there were any differences to electronically made cello noises and original ones. Vinyl had been fine with the sharp turn of the conversation, she knew she was right anyways.
"Would you happen to have any of that vivacious blue hair dye around?" Octavia said, looking pointedly at the said hair affected by the dye.
"Is this some sort of word of the day thing?" Vinyl cocked an eyebrow at her friend's antics. "Or are you actually serious."
"That would in fact be the latter, Scratch."
"So, you're saying you'd like to dye your hair." Vinyl couldn't get past the idea. It didn't want to materialize into reality. "I'm gonna go get it, because that would be wicked. But how 'bout you use that time to make sure that's what you'd want."
A couple minutes later, and a second confirmation came about. "I am certain Vinyl. A tasteful length of hair, something to signify my debut into high school."
"Most people just try a sport out." Vinyl said deadpan.
"It would only be a strip of hair Vee," Octavia deflected, "There would hardly be any repercussions, and it would not be permanent."
"You've already talked about this with your parental units, yeah?" Vinyl asked, giving it one last chance. "There's no problem with your fancy pants concerts in front of, well, Fancy Pants?"
Vinyl wasn't used to being the reasonable one.
"Yes, of course I discussed it with my parents. This result is the compromise." Octavia, grabbed the box of dye. "And I would hope that my talents with the cello would overshadow any preconceived notions about a strand of hair."
With the counterarguments run dry, the preparation to dye Octavia's hair began. Since it was only a lone strand of hair, enough to be noticeable but not distasteful, the dye process didn't take long. Not nearly close to how long Vinyl had to spend dying her own.
"Splendid." Octavia swished hair hair around, the blue standing out among her black hair. "Exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you Vinyl."
"Anytime, Tavi." Vinyl wrapped her arms around her friend, "Who needs friendship bracelets when you've got a best friend that dyes their hair with you."
"Best friend huh?" Octavia said, looking at Vinyl.
"Well it was either that or co-producer." Vinyl replied, squeezing Octavia.
"I think that I would prefer best friend. Much more pleasant." Octavia slipped out of the embrace. "We don't even have a name for our group anyhow."
"Something to do with the color blue." Vinyl grinned.
"Something to do with the color blue." Octavia said back, grinning as well.
