-Billy, wake up. Your subject teacher has arrived, and I hope you pay attention in css, - said Agustina from the doorway to Billy, who was trying to cover his face with a pillow. It was awful how his mother's voice hammered every inch of his brain.

  -Just five more minutes, Mom, - said Billy, clearly exhausted. He had stayed up te pying the guitar, the acoustic guitar beside him merely a tool for honing his musical skills. Now he could py his main song, "Like a Stone," with some fluency, though he missed some notes. He tio py forcefully, sensing that many of his skills were about to explode.

  -My little sleepyhead should know that Mama will start giving him lots of kisses, lots of kisses in front of the teacher, and the teacher will know you're a mama's boy, - Agustina teased, kissing Billy on the bed. She teased further by taking ara step to abruptly open the curtains, although the sun didn't follow, the brightness from the curtains brought disfort, pierg through the previous deep darkness.

  -Just five minutes, - said Billy as the bell began t. He sprang up as his mom gnced down the hallway, and with more urgency, Billy hurried to the bathroom. It was eight in the m, an early hour.

  Mr. Kelly was a man of many talents, holding dual degrees in teag. He was an Irish teacher of Spanish and English but had profi most disciplines, including social sces, history, natural sces, and math up to the tenth grade. However, he could teae disarticutions.

  The bell rang again.

  -Good m, teacher. I'd like you to wait in the living room, - said Agustina, ushering him in as she dashed to the kit. As soon as Mr. Kelly sat down, he did two things: first, he took a seat, and sed, he spread out all the dots for today's css. Iingly, in the Arizona state prison, the young man had passed the primary exam for the seventh grade, but he was behind. He would have to deh and ninth grade into half a year.

  -Here's your breakfast. I 't tea ay stomach. The many times something like this has happened, I don't want you to say we mistreated you, - said Agustina, serving him some items, including a pte with an alfajor, fruit, and toast. - Do you want coffee, tea, juice, milk... you ask for anything, I did a big grocery ruerday. -

  -A gss of juice is fine, - said Mr. Kelly.

  -e, apple, rape? - asked Agustina from the kit.

  -e, - Mr. Kelly replied respectfully, noting Agustina's iy in serving the food.

  A blond young man quickly arrived, sitting at the dining table aing breakfast. Mr. Kelly nodded in aowledgment, taking a big bite of the alfajor, which sisted of two cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche, causing him some disfort. He decided to take a sip of juid nibble on the cookie.

  -Thank you for the meal, - said Mr. Kelly. After all, he was Irish; eating something he didn't like didn't matter. The cookie was soft, and he decided to eat calmly, fog only on his food, while Billy from afar with some curiosity, as he seemed to be a big shot judging by the fidentiality tract he had signed.

  -Thanks, Mom, but don't you have any eggs or meat? I'm really hungry, - said Billy.

  -You'll eat fruit, and don't fuss. Now it seems you have some csses to pay attention to, - said Agustina, smiling at Mr. Kelly, who was in his green polo shirt, also smiling.

  -We have many topics to cover, but I believe if we tackle them by hours, we finish the entire sylbus ihan a year, - said Mr. Kelly, gently, with his amiable demeanor.

  -Sounds great, - replied Billy. He already knew most of the sylbus; he just had to refresh his memory.

  ***

  Sometime ter, right after lunch, there was the eacher, a man wearing a button-up shirt and jeans. He cked any cheerfulness; his demeanor was different from Mr. Kelly's. Luckily for Billy, he was a more taleeacher than Spencer. Now he uood many things; Spencer's biased knowledge ofteo mistakes.

  -It's difficult to reciprocate when most of the time, you have little or no i in learning the right ay attention. Try to keep up with your pace, without giving too much importao things done. Many of the activities are a method, a process. Often, we want to skip steps. Whoever taught you had the idea of captivating you with creativity, but now it's business, - responded Auster, the music teacher. Fifty-nine years old, he was a stant challenge for many, but for Billy, he was just someone who would teach him a lot. Music was a craving, something indescribable that he had to pursue tinuously.

  -Let's get started then, - replied Billy, taking note of the scales he should or shouldn't follow. In many cases, it involved doing different activities.

  -I hate stupidity, - said Auster.

  -Let's tinue, - replied Billy, following the rapid rounds of music, pying fast, while Agustina listened from the kit, her sed room, as she used to call it. All she cared about ursuing her stant activity.

  Billy tinued cirg, again and again, with the utmost iy in the exercises. He mao perform them: basic scales, aitive scales, one by one, with great gusto.

  -What do you think, Mr. Auster? I'm one of the best, don't you think? - replied Billy, his fingers sliding. - you teach me to do gerokes? -

  -Let's stick to the basics, - responded Auster, not lying. In doing a stant activity, over and over, from basic strums, who would believe it? Perf strums, with his nails, with a pick, with fingers, the teacher showed him all, expining that ideally he should strum with a pick, but learn to perform different types of strums. Everyone should have a minimum knowledge to py the guitar; adaptation is what should be.

  -Now that you know how to strum, learn to perform the ten rhythms in basic strums, over and over, with each of the forms. When you master the basics perfectly, we move on to the intermediate course, along with the theoretical practice, - replied Auster, seeing some not identical abilities. Many young people had various skills but didn't practice the basiough. They made mistakes in the most basic things and acquired habits that preveheir hands from fitting perfectly.

  -The first chord is | D | A | E min:|| D. But since you're better at perf your activities, you'll listen to the rhythm first, then practi aric guitar. The strings are stronger and usually incredibly heavy, - replied Auster, demonstrating the brief strumming.

  -Don't worry, boss, - said Billy, taking note of eaethod. The csses extended until night; they paid him well, and he had to stop due to fatigue, but the boy remained active. His math books aside, his guitar is still active.

  ...