i remember everything, so who are you?

[self_composed]

Bella attends her classes with faultless punctuality, every time. She sits in the second or third row on an aisle in the middle section of seats, in the classes that take place in big auditorium lecture halls like the main section of Bio; she's willing to put herself closer to the professors in smaller classes like OS and of course her flute chair (third; she hasn't been quite ridiculously showoffy enough to climb beyond yet) is assigned. But right now, she is in Bio, learning tidbits about auxin and tropisms that the textbook didn't cover fully. She's running at about one and a half speed, just enough that she can trivially listen to and process the lecture against her memory of the text while also permitting some mind-wandering. She liiiiiikes her cognitive speedup power.

Comments

[self_composed]

"Problems with dynamics and phrasing, more - they have the correct number of violins as far as I know."

[regularsized]

"Ahhh. Well, that's good, I guess. No one wants too many violins."

[self_composed]

"They'd be terrible clutter." Bella's moseying towards the door now. She does not wish to be late to orchestra, or wish to use magic to be not-late.

[regularsized]

Bridget is cheerfully following!

"What do you play?"

[self_composed]

"Flute!" Bella says. She pulls the case out of her bag. "I'm third chair."

[regularsized]

"Is that like third place?"

[self_composed]

"Maybe? I'm not sure what you're thinking of. It's not exactly special; only the first chair per section does anything that everyone else doesn't. It sort of means that they think I'm not quite as good as the occupant of second chair and a little better than the occupant of fourth chair."

[regularsized]

"So, exactly like third place, then."

[self_composed]

"Sure."

[regularsized]

"I guess the real question is, third place out of how many flutes?"

[self_composed]

"Four. Orchestras usually don't have that many, but the conductor really likes woodwinds, and even our fourth chair is really good so it'd be a pity to kick him out."

[regularsized]

"A surplus, you might say."

[self_composed]

"Yes. But only of flutes, not of violins. There are lots more violins and there are supposed to be."

[regularsized]

"I wonder why."

[self_composed]

"Well, there are two sections of violins, and only one of flutes, but their individual sections are bigger too. I'm not sure why. I guess they just get lots of emphasis in orchestral music."

The music building is a ways away from the science area. They are about halfway there.

[regularsized]

"It's a mystery," Bridget says agreeably. "We can only speculate."

[self_composed]

"Well, we could also ask a historian of music, or maybe a music theorist," Bella shrugs. "If we really cared."

[regularsized]

"And do you know any of those?"

[self_composed]

"No, but I bet there's one on campus or in regular contact with someone who is. I just don't care enough to seek them out."

[regularsized]

"So, back to speculating, then," Bridget agrees.

[self_composed]

"Flutes can be very piercing. Maybe we'd overwhelm the strings in quantity."

[regularsized]

"That sounds like a reasonable theory."

[self_composed]

And there's the building. "It was nice to meet you."

[regularsized]

"Nice to meet you, too, Bella."

[self_composed]

"Likewise, Bridget. See you next bio class. Or lab if you go to lab and wind up in my section." Bella waves and heads in to listen to the extended violin sectional.

Her lab section meets the next day. And who should be there but Bridget. "Hi. Are you just hanging out or are you going to do the lab?" Bella asks her.