Guitars and Birthdays Who: Jacoby and Bex When: Afternoon What: Guitar lessons Where: Jacoby's office Rating: PG
Jacoby sat in his office staring at the photo of him and his son on his desk. He should be grading papers, but he only had a class left to do. Softly playing in the background was Eric Clapton's 'If I saw You in Heaven.' Twirling the pen around in his hand he leaned back in his chair taking a deep breath. He'd have been 20 today. His boy would have been 20. "Riley," he murmured staring at the dark haired boy with bright blue eyes. He'd gotten his father's hair, but his mother's eyes. "You would have been a ladies man," he snorted. Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
After leaving Natalie's office, Bex hadn't wanted to return to her dorm. Nor was she feeling particularly social - she didn't want to seek out Chloe, or Callas, or KJ, or even Jeremy. She felt restless, and she wasn't sure what to do about it.
Bex wandered down the hallway, adjusting her backpack over one shoulder. When she passed one of the doors, she heard music faintly coming inside and she paused, recognizing the song. Eric Clapton; it was an easy song to recognize, but it made her curious. She glanced at the name on the door, and recognized it immediately. Without knowing why she was doing so, she found herself knocking lightly on the door.
Jacoby looked up, blinking for a moment. "Come in," he said putting the pen down. He shuffled a few papers, trying to look busy and not like he was about to curl up into a ball in the corner. Last thing he needed was giving someone leverage over him. Very least of all with his son.
Bex pushed open the door and entered, a little hesitantly, which was unlike her. Professor Holland was just a little bit intimidating, even to someone like Bex, who was not intimidated very easily. It wasn't that she was afraid of him, or anything like that; she just didn't know what to make of him, and that made her nervous. But it also made her curious about him, too, and besides, she could use the distraction. "Professor," she greeted him, closing the door behind her, though she didn't take a seat in the chair across from his desk. He looked busy, and a little irritated at her entrance, but she ignored that. "I was just passing by and I was wondering if we could, like, discuss the guitar, like we talked about." Sort of. On the internet, at least.
"Oh, um," Jacoby said blinking a bit more confused. "Sorry, you'll have to job my memory, I have quite a few students. What's your name?" He asked putting some papers in his folder. She looked familiar, so he'd at least seen her in class or the halls. Guitar, guitar, had he spoken to someone about a guitar? Not that he could really remember, but a lot of things had slipped his mind today. A few important things, but nothing that was going to land him a pink slip. "Please seat down. Ms. . ."
"O'Shaughnessy," she supplied, hesitating for a moment before she crossed over to the chair and sat down in it. "Bex, actually. We sort of discussed it on the internet. You know, the journals?" She watched him for a moment, and then added, "You totally don't remember, do you?"
"I vaguely remember a conversation about a guitar, but that's about it. Sorry, my brain's not really working today," he chuckled softly as he pushed his chair back and rolled over to a counter where his cd player was and turned it off. "Now what specifically did you have in mind?" Jacoby asked as he turned back to Bex.
"Well," said Bex, shifting slightly in her chair, "I was sort of hoping you'd be into taking on a guitar student. I'm a music major, and I play piano, but I was thinking that I should, you know, broaden my horizons ... or something. Plus I really want to learn." She gave him a sheepish smile; she wasn't used to asking for help often, but learning the guitar would be a welcome distraction from the rest of her life and, besides, she really did want to learn the instrument. "Great song, by the way," she added, nodding in the direction of the cd player, even though he'd turned it off.
"Yeah," he said making a quick face. "I don't usually teach music, only done it once," with his son almost over ten years ago. "What are you wanting to learn exactly?" On any other day he would have been hyper and happy, encouraging this, but today. . . today was going to get him in trouble if he wasn't careful.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Just ... how to play." It couldn't be too difficult, could it? She'd been playing piano for ten years; she didn't see how it would be harder to pick up another instrument.
"Well do you want to play classical guitar, rock guitar, pop, jazz, have any clue what genre you want to try?" This wasn't going to make things easier. "Or do you not have an idea about that either?" It was a good thing he didn't have a class after this today. He'd be pissing a lot of people off. "It's a little bit harder than just up and saying 'I want to learn how to play guitar.' You gotta have a goal in mind and no 'just playing guitar' is not a goal. You have to be more specific than that."
Bex's eyebrows lifted just slightly; she hadn't been expecting him to snap at her, but she wasn't that easily fazed, either. "Rock guitar," she informed him, her own tone slightly cooler than it had been a moment ago. "Electric and acoustic. My goal is to write songs, Professor, and I want to write them for more than just piano. I want a wider range." She tilted her head slightly at him. "Look, you don't have to do it if you don't want to," she added after a moment. "I just figured it couldn't hurt to ask."
"Sorry, it's been a long day," he sighed rubbing his face slightly. "Ok, do you know how to play any other instruments? It'll be easier to get the hang of if you do." Rolling back from his desk, he pushed his chair with him in it over to his file cabinet and dug around in it for a specific book. Grunting as he shoved the cabinet door closed he tapped his chin before getting up and going to his over head cabinets. Tossing his jacket off, he climbed onto the counter and reach up over the cabinets and plucked a book from a stack on top.
Hopping down with a huff he sat back down. "Ok here we go," he said handing her a book of Josh Denver tabs.
She accepted the book, opening it to flip through it a bit curiously. "Piano," she said, in response to his question. "I've played since I was eight. I know it backwards and forwards."
"Ok, so pretty much guitar is a bit simpler than the piano. I personally hate it, but to each his own," Jacoby said. "Ok, so basically you should start out on acoustic as it's actually harder than electric. The tabs there show you where to put your fingers and on which fret. Simple enough?"
"I think so," Bex said, skimming the pages in the book. She could understand a bit of what she was seeing, even if it was different than piano.
"Do you have a guitar yet?" Jacoby asked as he stretched a moment, earning a loud pop. "Eck," he made a face at the sound his back made.
"No, but I can get one," Bex replied, closing the book and looking back up at him, one eyebrow lifted. "You okay over there?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Jacoby said shaking it off. "Word of advice, don't get old." Digging in his closet and pulling out a slightly worn poster of Riley's that he'd kept. "Go to Wal-Mart and you can find these," he said showing off the poster of guitar chords. "This is mine and I only have one otherwise I would lend it to you."
"Sure," Bex said, studying the poster briefly so that she'd remember what to look for, even though the idea of going to Wal-Mart wasn't exactly one she relished. She didn't even think she'd been in a Wal-Mart before, but now was not the time to start behaving like her stuck-up mother. "No problem," she added.
Jacoby nodded as he turned and put it back in his closet. "Ok, now pretty much I'd say get the poster and your guitar then work on the chords. You can borrow Johnny Boy there and you can find more tablatures online for pretty good prices." Pointing to the book that was next to his picture, he stared at it for a brief moment before moving on. "If you have anymore questions, I'll do my best to answer them. You'll probably find me in my office more than online. Here's my office number as well to make sure I'm there with my hours," he said digging out a card and handing it to her.
She took the card, skimming it over quickly before she looked back up at him with a smile. "Thanks," she said sincerely. Her gaze lingered on him for a moment, before sliding to the picture on his desk, but she didn't ask - she didn't know if it was any of her business, even though she was filled with an odd kind of curiosity.
Instead of saying anything, she just got to her feet, slinging her backpack over one shoulder. "You'll probably hear from me pretty soon," she added.
"That's fine. I'll be here," Jacoby nodded. "It was a pleasure meeting with you Bex," he said offering his large tattooed hand. Most of the students here were put off by his appearance, it seemed she wasn't any different.
"You too, Professor." She took his hand and shook it firmly, and gave him one last smile before she turned and let herself out of the office.
At least she was more cooperative than June had been. Sighing he shook his head as she left, great another singer/song writer he was gonna be teaching out of class. Just great fun. Looking over at his son's picture again, he picked it up and kissed it lightly before putting it back down. "Happy Birthday Riley."