Music of the Night // Skii

[Skii Rose Reeve]

"Well you don't take lessons or anything, so really, you caught on pretty quickly. And people tend to have more talents than they know."

"No, that was good, really. When I first started learning, it took me forever to even grasp the concept of there being multiple C's on the same piano.""These things take practice. That's what you don't see, how much practice goes into it. You've only tried playing this bit what, three times so far? Both songs I was playing earlier were learned over the course of a number of months, and even so I had to learn one page at a time, one hand at a time. Even with longer songs, no matter how talented you are, you can't learn a whole song in a day. See? You are already impproving"


"Like I said, it just needs practice."

Skii sucked her lips in frustrated. She played the notes one last time. She played the sequence twice almost perfectly. She flipped her hair back and stood up. Skii leaned on the piano and messed with the cleaning stuff she had sat on top earlier.

"You are way to nice Max.... You scary nice.. I don't mean it mean like but I'm not use to nice..."

Skii got out her cleaning stuff and began to work on the piano's body. She let her hair fall down like as wall between her and where Max was.

Skii was use to either being put in the back round by her mother(s) and father or being in the spot light and being ridiculed for being younger and getting leads. She scrubbed harder at the piano's surface.

"Why do you call yourself Max if your real name is Joseph? If you don't mind me asking.. I like the name Joseph it makes you sound more dignified.."


Skii talked through her wall of hair. She was curious but felt bad for calling him scary nice. She felt bad for not really liking being complimented.

She walked around the piano to clean it on the other side. She chewed on the inside of her lip. She reached around and touched the scar that was hidden by her shirt. She laughed to her self. Her Father was an odd ball. It was weird just being here.

Skii scrubbed harder trying get the thoughts out of her head. She waited for Max's response anything to get the thoughts of home out of her head.

[Joseph "Max" Keys]

After playing the notes twice perfectly, Skii stood and started cleaning the piano. She made a comment about how he was 'too nice' and he laughed. "Well I don't see any reason why not to be." he told her. "Not being nice doesn't get you anywhere, now does it?" he bit his lip. "I dunno, it's kind of a family trait I guess. My mom was really nice, my dad's really nice, my sister's really nice..." He shrugged. "... and I'm really nice." It was weird, now that he thought about it. Most families were more diverse, but his? Everyone was into theater, if not an actor, everyone was really nice, everyone knew French... well Mischa only knew basic French, but she was learning... everyone was a shifter... if there was a "black sheep" of the family, it would have to be Max for being the only one with a dangerous shift (Max's dad was a turtle, his mom was a bird, and his sister Mischa was a ferret, while he was a black panther) and being the only one who was trying to be vegetarian (unsuccessfully)... but he never really felt like a black sheep, so he didn't consider himself one.

Why do you call yourself Max if your real name is Joseph? If you don't mind me asking.. I like the name Joseph it makes you sound more dignified..
"The name Max just fit me better I guess." he said. "There were a lot of Josephs in my elementary school. Some went by Joseph, some went by Joe or Joey. I wanted to be different, so I decided to have people call me Max." he told her. "Besides, the name Max just fits me better somehow, you know?" Alright, so technically, this was true. Technically. The full story was something that nobody but Max himself knew. Okay, so one other person knew the story... his best friend Leena. Well, former best friend. After Max's mother had died, Max shut out everyone, including Leena. Since then, Leena refused to speak to Max, regardless of how many times Max tried to get Leena to talk to him.

Leena was the only other person who knew the truth behind Max's name, and now they were no longer friends. How much did that suck? A lot.

[Skii Rose Reeve]

"Well I don't see any reason why not to be. Not being nice doesn't get you anywhere, now does it? I dunno, it's kind of a family trait I guess. My mom was really nice, my dad's really nice, my sister's really nice... and I'm really nice."


Skii gave her head a slight shake when she heard this comment. She had known a lot of people to get places with out being nice. Being nice was just a perk. When she did Sound of Music the women who played Maria wasn't that good. It happened that she had done some things with the director to get her part. Skii wrinkled her nose in remembrance. Though Skii had played a good Brigitta.

"The name Max just fit me better I guess. There were a lot of Josephs in my elementary school. Some went by Joseph, some went by Joe or Joey. I wanted to be different, so I decided to have people call me Max.Besides, the name Max just fits me better somehow, you know?"

"I guess I can see the Max but I really like Joseph."

Skii flipped back her hair taking away her wall. It was crazy to be mad at Max because he was nice. She just didn't understand why he was being nice. She hadn't really done anything to deserve all his nice comments.

"You know Max. You are really nice but I don't really think I've earned it you know. I played a few notes and cleaned the piano. But thats all I did. You played two wonderful songs and sang some too. I just.... I don't know."

Skii gathered up the cleaning supplies and went to store them away in her hiding place. she also went to get her shoes to put them back on. She out her stuff away and slipped on her shoes. When she got back to the stage she picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder. She then dug through it to find her Ipod.

When she found it she ran over to where Max sat and put one bud in her ear the other she offered to him.

"Take this."

She flipped threw her song.. All from Broadway shows, until she found one she was sure he would know too. She smiled as it started.

clickie for the song

[Joseph "Max" Keys]

Max noticed Skii's negative reaction when he spoke of how being nice doesn't get you anywhere and he sighed. "Alright, well sometimes not very nice things can get you places, but I try to be an honest, nice person. I'd rather not get a job or part and be a good person than do bad things to get a part I don't deserve." he said with a shrug. He had known people who got lead roles via blackmail or sleeping with the directors or some other similar method. But then again, what actor or actress didn't? Drama was full of drama -- both on stage and off stage.

He shrugged when she said she liked Joseph. "Ehh, well to each their own. I prefer Max. It's less... formal. I mean, I dunno, Joseph sounds like a gentleman's name and all, but Max sounds more like someone you'd want to have fun with, you know? And I see myself as a fun loving person." he shrugged again. "Although when it comes to getting a job, I would probably use the name Joseph."

Skii then mentioned how he was nice and she didn't deserve it and for the first time (in a while at least) Max realized how his constant niceness didn't always make everyone around him feel happy and good about themselves. It was odd to think that they lived in a society where people who were too nice were suspicious. "Well I dunno, I guess my mind works differently." he said biting his lip. "I mean, with me, you don't need to do anything to deserve niceness. If you do something that proves to me that you don't deserve niceness though, then... things are a little different." Max was a friendly person. He knew a lot of people and had many people on his side. But if you decided to cross that line and face him as a foe, you would realize that most other people would remain sided with Max. Which is why Max had very few (if any) enemies.

Max swiveled around on the piano bench when Skii ran off to put her cleaning stuff away. She then reappeared, shoes on this time, and sat next to him. He put the earbud to her iPod in his ear as per her instructions and listened. He noticed, over her shoulder, that it was full of Broadway music. She then selected a song, and based on the first few chords (without even looking at the iPod screen) he realized it was Light My Candle from RENT. A smile slowly spread on his face. This was one of his favorites, and he could picture everything that happened as it happened in the movie as the song progressed.