I’m King

6) music for the soul

Things had been running as smoothly as anyone could expect. Nothing was without its problems but with each new issue, The Council dealt with it. In a month of running things, Gia had become slightly more comfortable as Head of Heads. At least that’s what Kiki had taken to calling her. There was a big discussion one evening on what Gia actually was. She wasn’t any traditional type of country leader so Kiki landed on Head of Heads until they could figure out exactly what to call her.

Schools were still arriving and their community boarder had expanded significantly. Luckily Kat had managed to sort out all of the housing. The entire Council would be under one roof. Gia had insisted her brother would also be in the house and her brother had insisted he would stay with his friends. So, with them; Conrad’s brother and co.; as well as Kiki’s sister; not to mention everyone’s significant others; the house was a rock concert every night. Gia’s house had always been quiet growing up. It had always been their small family of 4 so the house of a million was a big adjustment. Especially since people seemed to come and go as they pleased. Random people in and out at all hours of the day. For that exact reason, Gia decided to take up residence in Mrs Jeffrey’s office for working. She spent most of the day in that office, except for a few hours where she would train with defence. She enjoyed these moments the most. Aside from that, she spent her evenings surrounded by people in the house. Any one was welcome to join the after dinner gathering so often the living room had more people than it could hold but they made space for everyone.

On this particular day, Gia had been feeling very uneasy. She had been unusually quiet at dinner and had skipped the after-dinner gathering. She tried her best to go to bed but a gnawing feeling tugged at her. So, she decided to dig through the room. She spent so little time in here, she had no idea what was in any of the cupboards. It was the first time she truly looked at the room.

The sleeping part was extremely extravagant. It had a massive king size bed in the centre of one wall. Along the next wall, it had cabinets that came to about hip height with trinkets on the top and paintings on the wall above it. The next wall had chairs and the door to the bathroom and walking in closet (which could have been a bedroom itself) and the last wall was lined with glass doors that lead onto a veranda with big wicker chairs and other furniture. It was a very nice room.

Gia started with the cabinets on the wall. Most of them had absolute junk in them. Well, junk to her. It was trinkets from the couple's life: Nick-Naks from travels; old letters and photos. Like taking a walk through the ages. In the very last set of cabinets, she came across a record player with old records stacked and labelled neatly. This was probably the best thing she could have found! With the cell service going down, the cloud also went which meant no more online music. She pulled placed the old, very heavy, record player on the table and plugged it into the socket hidden between the bed and the cabinets. The light blankets on. Gia dug through the records that were in the same cabinet as the record player. She found one called Movie Soundtracks of the 50’s. She carefully placed the record on the turning thing. It took a few tries but eventually she managed to get it to work.

A Dream is a Wish your Heart makes

When you’re fast asleep

Cinderella’s voice filled the room after the gorgeous intro music. It brought a smile to Gia’s voice. She kept going through the cabinets to find more modern records. She knew that records were coming back into fashion but were the people in this room teenage girls? Halsey, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift? Gia wasn’t complaining. For all her aversions towards typical teenage girl things, she rather enjoyed Halsey. She put those nuggets aside for later and headed to the bathroom.

Potions and elixirs of all kind were in the cupboards under the sink. And Drugs. A lot of Drugs. Painkillers of all kinds. A very handy thing to have. Gia hadn't had her period yet, probably because of all the stress, but when the time came, these painkillers would come in handy.

Then onto the walk-in closet. It reminded her of the one from The Princess Diaries. It could have been its own shop at Eastgate, that’s how big it was. And filled to the brim with clothes. Such beautiful clothes. What Gia would give to wear such pretty dresses. And the shoes! This must have been a gift for all her hard work because the shoes were exactly her size. She pulled a pair of the prettiest platforms off their place under the dresses to admire them. When she put them back, they hit a blockage. She pulled them back out and found a Louis Vuitton shoe box. She carefully pulled the box out but instead of finding pretty red bottom shoes she found a cassette player and a bunch of cassettes. Gia laughed in astonishment. These people were such hoarders. By some dumb luck the thing was charged. Gia put the headphones on and pressed play.

Pump up the Jam

Pump it up

Gia couldn’t help her giggles of joy. What else is in this room? She started pulling shoes out and throwing things out of draws. She found boxes of mix tapes from the 80’s; beauty things from the 90’s (as well as some very pornographic puzzles); and all forms of devices from the 2000’s, including a radio with a CD player. She quickly took it to where the record player was to swap the plugs and pressed play.

I used to rule the world

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Gia flopped onto her back. A goofy grin lit up her face as she stretched out on the plush carpet and closed her eyes.

Never an honest word

But that was when I ruled the world

A soft nock at the closed door sounded before it scaped softly against the carpet. Gia turned her head to see who it was.

“Gia,” Matteo’s voice filled the room before he did, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gia did not move from her spot on the comfy floor.

“Is that music?” Matt came in. Of course, the i***t left the door open as he sat on the bed.

“I found a bunch of things in the cupboards,” Gia tapped her foot in time to the music. She watched her the blur of pink socks contrast against the neutral bedroom wall. She had always had a tendency to lay with her feet propped up on the wall, “Feel like listening to anything specific?”

“This is fine,” Matt yawned all stretched out on my bed.

“It felt so wrong, it felt so right. Don’t mean I'm in love tonight,” Kiki sung as she slid dramatically into the room singing into an imaginary mic, “I kissed a girl and I liked it. Danum nunum.”

Gia smiled widely and joined in, “Ain’t no big deal. Its innocent.”

Kiki dramatically flopped onto the floor next to Gia. She rested her head on Gia’s torso. The two continued to sing and giggle at their dramatics.

“It's a thief in the night to come and grab you.”

“It can creep up inside you and consume you.”

“A disease of the mind, it can control you.”

“It's too close for comfort, yeah.”

Eventually Gia placed a soft homemade CD into the radio and the two fell into a relaxed silence. Gia could hear Matt’s even breathing in his sleep.

“Hey,” Kat said softly as she come in the door, “You disappeared.”

“Mhmm,” Kiki had already started to drift into dreamland so wasn’t too chatty with Kat.

“I found an old CD player with CD’s,” Gia explained quietly, “wanna stay and listen?”

Kat nodded with a childish smile. She took up a spot on the bed next to Matt.

Soon Gia could hear all three of them breathing heavy, rhythmic breaths. She could even here Kat’s small snores. Every now and then her brother would mumble something in his sleep.

If I just lay, If I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Her mom loved this song. Gia hadn’t missed her mom. She’d been so busy she didn’t have time to. But in this quiet moment, her heart shattered. For the first time in the time since The Blackout, Gia mourned. She mourned her mom. She mourned her dad. She mourned her life. And her future.

Loud footsteps sounded down the hall. Gia’s room was the only one on this storey of the house so she drew the conclusion that it must be Matt’s friends coming to look for him. The door was open and the noise travelled. The boys finally arrived at the door.

“Shhh,” Gia said softly with finger to her lips. The CD playing was only soft, calm music so she made an offer to the rowdy boys, “if you grab a pillow, you boys can come lay in here and listen to the music. But be quiet.”

Some of the boys went off to grab pillows and came back to settle in the room while others left and did not return. The rest came in without cushions, bargaining with friends to bring one for them. Gia’s room was now filled with quiet fifteen-year-old boys. That was like finding a freaking unicorn eaten golden apples with rainbow filling. Teenage boys were never quiet. So, Gia took it as a win.

Most of the boys had been struggling to sleep since The Blackout. She understood why. She still struggled to fall asleep. So, Gia and the council took turns sitting in the doorframe to their room and softly reading to them at night. It worked for some of the boys and even some of the council members would sit in the dimly lit hall to listen. But it turns out music worked even better because after about an hour and a CD change, all of the boys were sound asleep.

Gia, however was still awake. She swung her legs down from the wall to stand up and picked her way through to the door.

The clock in the kitchen read 1:42. The rest of the house was fast asleep. Gi just stood in the kitchen. What was she doing? She was not the right person for this. She suddenly felt like she was burning alive. She slipped to sit on the cool floor. She often had these. An Existential Crisis. She’d been having these breakdowns for years. This feeling that life had no meaning and she had no identity or purpose. Worse, it felt like what she was doing had no meaning. There was no meaning to life. Which was a very bad thing to have when so many people depended on her.

Gia sighed and tilted her head back to lean on the cabinets behind her.

She could do this. She had to do this. Eventually this feeling would pass. She hoped this feeling would pass.