There was a music store somewhere around here, she just knew it. Her private instructor told her it would be between a clothing store and a knick knack place. Too bad that's what most malls are made of.

Joellie didn't have her cello with her, but carried herself in a way that suggested it might be there. The hunched shoulders that came with carting the case around never really seemed to leave her off the stage. When she was playing, however, you'd think she had a board tied to her back.

Her red hair was in frizzy braids, indicating that she didn't much care about her looks today. That was only emphasised by the baggy sweatpants she wore(clearly much too big for her) and white, short-sleeved undershirt. Well, it was meant as an undershirt but it really worked both ways.

She had her wallet in a zipped back pocket and had already taken it out a few times while she walked along the pathway. Joellie hadn't found the music store yet, but that didn't mean she was bored.

A young man with a rather sleepy expression was seated on one of the many benches that were scattered throughout the mall. He had his guitar across his knees and was trying to affix a new string to it - well, her, as he would correct you if you presumed to call his guitar an object.

He'd been doing a lot of playing, as always, and a string was bound to break sometime. As special as the guitar was, she wasn't invincible. This had driven Teague to the mall to seek out some new strings - if one had gone, the others were bound to follow suit.

He frowned in concentration, ignoring the dark strands of his hair that were hanging in his face and obscuring his vision. As if to match his hair, he was dressed kind of darkly - a black t-shirt over a grey t-shirt, both torn from use, and a pair of black jeans with the same kind of wear-and-tear. His hands were mostly covered by a pair of fraying fingerless gloves. His sneakers were ratty grey-blue things.
All in all, he looked like he'd fallen into a dark night and had forgotten to wash it off himself the next morning.

When she noticed him, she was still a couple of stores down the way. She saw the string, saw the guitar and made the connection.

It must have come from somewhere.

"Excuse me?" she ventured a hello.

She took a sip from a white water bottle, waiting to be acknowledged. Well, she was still a little ways off, he probably hadn't even known he was being spoken to. So she tried again, this time while she was actually within a normal distance for conversation.

"Excuse me, where'd you get your strings?"

He finished his little task before he looked up - it took a few seconds, but he didn't want the string to snap off. Teague slowly raised his head and focused her with his drowsy smoke-blue eyes. He gestured to his guitar with his free hand.

"Strings?" he said thoughtfully, "These?"

He jerked a thumb in the general direction of the store.

"'S thataway - not far down the next hall. Do you want me to show you, or do you think you can find it?" he said politely.

"No, that's ok. I think I'll manage on my own."

Now if that was all she was going to say, we'd have a very short role-play on our hands, wouldn't we? Fortunately for the authors, she's a little more curious then that.

"Um..d'you need any help tuning that?" she's never tuned a guitar before and would very much like to try. After all, she has very near to perfect pitch and for some strange reason likes tuning things.

She took another sip from her water bottle. Actually, it's apple juice inside the water bottle. But the point is that it's in a water bottle and she's drinking it.

"Sure, why not," he said, smiling. He didn't need her help, actually, but it would be rude of him to refuse. "Pull up a seat, and let's give it a try."

He plucked experimentally at the newly-replaced string, letting the sound play out. A slight twitch of his (slightly pointed) ear was partially masked by his hair. That didn't sound right.
He blinked up at the girl. "What do you think? Sharp, or flat?... -And what's your name, by the way?"

She sat down on the bench, leaning slightly towards him and the instrument. When the string was plucked, she backed away slightly with her eyes squinted.

"Well...what note is it supposed to be?" She didn't know the strings of a guitar if it wasn't apparant. It could either be very sharp or slightly flat, at least she thought so.

"Oh, whoops, sorry. I'm Joellie, nice to meet you. And your name?"

"It's supposed to be an E," he said, smirking and fiddling with the string. "You can call me Teague. Pleased to meet you, Joellie - what brings you to the mall, if I may be so bold?"

He gave the string a flick.

"There, how's that sound?"

Her eyes twitched again.

"It's just a tiny bit sharp.." just enough to be really annoying.

Once he corrected it, she gave her consent. It was close enough that she couldn't tell. Good enough.

"I'm here to get some sheet music and rosin. My instructor mentioned the music store, said the stuff I needed would all be there. It's not over priced, is it?"

He shrugged, seeming content enough with the tuning to put his guitar safely away in her - yes, her - case, to bring out and perhaps re-tune later. He could be obsessive when it came to his guitar.

"The music store's prices,... we-elllll, I wouldn't know. I've never done any comparison shopping, but I've heard the prices are considered reasonable, as far as prices go," Teague said lazily, gazing for a moment at the ceiling, as if it was ctually interesting. Then he looked back at Joellie again.
"You're getting rosin? For what purpose?... What I mean is, what instrument do you play?"

Joellie understood. In fact, if she couldn't get her cello perfectly in tune, she'd hold up the orchestra just so she could. It was her special cello, her baby as much as Lucinda was Teague's.

"I play the cello up at Keaton. I'm just dropping by to get some excercise books and, of course, rosin."

She smiled a bit, enjoying conversation even if it wasn't substantial.

"Cello, huh? I should've guessed," he grinned at her, raising an eyebrow, "You sort of look like a person who plays cello, you know that?... Maybe it's just me imagining things, but you look like a cellist. Or, maybe a violinist,...no definitely cellist."

Teague was smirking a little - he had on a funny look that made it impossible to tell if he was just joking or not.

"Anyway - are you any good at it?"

"I look like a cellist? Wow, never heard that one before. Thanks, I guess."

A group of gaggly teenaged girls walked past, apparantly the first time they'd been to the mall without their parents. Call them preteens, actually. Bayfield was safe enough(but only sometimes. Never talk to strange people and you'd be alright. Of course, Joellie wasn't exactly adhering to that but Teague didn't seem strange: he was a musician!).

"Yeah, I'm pretty good, I guess. I'm second chair and it's only my first year but I'm nowhere near good enough. Are you any good?"

"You're welcome," he smiled, casting only the briefest of glances at the kids going past. It seemed to him he recognized a few of them, but imaybe he was just imagining things. Preteens tended to look alike to him.

"...Am I any good?..."
He drummed his fingers on the guitar case, frowning thoughtfully.
"I don't know. I could be better, that's for sure."

"We could all be better," she said, looking up at the ceiling, "Even people like Edgar Mayer and Yo Yo Ma could be better. I bet even Andre Watts needs to learn a thing or two."

Yes, they were all classical musicians, top of their game and top in their field(bass, cello and piano, respectively). But everyone has something that still needs to be worked on, no matter what it is, and that thought gave her hope that she could learn faster and better. She wants to get to the point in her playing that the things she still needs to learn are the things that no one knows yet.

She flicked her wrist to catch the time and knew she only had a short while left.

"Well, it's been really nice talking to you, but I've got a class in an hour and I need to get these things. Maybe we can get together and jam sometime."

Or not, but it's possible even if they don't make plans. People can always meet by chance again.

He mused over her reply for a moment before he caught on to her last words.

"...Oh, you're in a hurry? Then by all means, get going," Teague nodded, smirking. He stopped drumming on the guitar case and folded his fingers together, resting them on one knee. "Sure, let's meet up sometime. Could be fun."

"Alright! I'll see you then!" Nope. It'd didn't matter at all that they'd not even exchanged numbers(she never remembered to call back, anyway) or even e-mail adresses. They'd meet again..sometime.

Joellie was in a cheerful mood as she got off the bench and bounced down the walkway. Maybe she'd get some music this time that actually challeneged her.