It was Tuesday morning, and Stephanie walked into the Royal Academy, clutching the handle of her violin case. A large part of her wished fervently she would've stayed at Lydia's place again today.

Stephanie wouldn't deny the fact that she was avoiding Kyle. The last thing she wanted at the moment was to talk to him or for him to confront her, and so she proceeded to avoid the Royal Academy all of yesterday, even though she was itching to practice her violin. Monday passed by in a pretty boring manner, and by Tuesday Stephanie couldn't handle another moment of sitting around alone in the apartment, bored out of her mind. She decided going to the Academy to practice her violin was worth the risk, despite her reluctance to run into Kyle.

Stephanie walked down the corridor, passing by students and teachers as she went. She was about to head toward the practice rooms, but before she could turn toward the staircase leading toward where they were, she saw Chloe Alistair emerge from around the corner.

Stephanie hadn't seen much of Chloe since the news of her argument with Kyle was leaked to the public. From what Stephanie had heard, Chloe had chosen to just ignore everything and pretend that she hadn't been caught in an argument with Kyle insisting on faking a relationship with him just for the public's attention. Stephanie had overheard some students in the past few weeks talking about Chloe in rather unflattering terms, so she had assumed Chloe had decided to lay low for a bit after her name had been proverbially dragged through the mud.

Stephanie couldn't bring herself to care too much about the story, however. It was hard to feel too bad for a woman who'd essentially dug her own grave.

Chloe passed by Stephanie in the corridor, casting her a dismissive glance before doing a double-take, glaring at her as she went. Stephanie wasn't quite sure what to make of that, so she kept walking forward, keeping her eyes focused ahead. She wondered vaguely if Chloe knew about her and Kyle, but figured it likely didn't matter much anyway since she and Kyle weren't exactly on speaking terms right now. Chloe couldn't really do anything to hurt their relationship anyway.

Stephanie decided to avoid going down to the practice rooms, where Chloe had just been, and instead decided to find an empty performance hall upstairs to practice in. She wasn't sure why, but the practice rooms just didn't really appeal to her at the moment.

Pretty much all the small performance halls were empty, and Stephanie picked one that didn't appear to have any upcoming classes or workshops on the schedule. She walked up to the dais at the front of the room with the piano and music stand, and set down her violin case in a nearby chair so she could set up.

Stephanie had a hard time picking out what music she wanted to practice, but ended up settling on Der Erlkönig – one of the hardest pieces in the violin repertoire, and probably the most difficult thing Stephanie could have attempted to play. She had bought this sheet music on a whim a few months ago since she wanted to challenge herself - she likely would never be able to play the whole piece, but she figured she could at least try to learn the first few lines. 

Stephanie wanted a challenge today, and focusing all her energy on learning the notes on this one piece would help her take her mind off of Kyle and her whole complicated relationship with him.

Der Erlkönig

Stephanie attempted to play the first few lines of the piece, and she felt herself struggling quite a bit. The music was written to sound like two violins playing simultaneously, so she had to rapidly play chords while also bowing the melody on the same strings, bending her fingers in an awkward manner that almost made her cramp up. After trying and failing to play the first line, Stephanie shook her hand out and flexed her fingers before putting them back on the violin so she could try again.

She continued to struggle through the first few lines, and she stopped again so she could try one more time, but at that moment she heard someone speak to her from the doorway of the performance hall:

"Sounds difficult."

She recognized that voice, and her heart dropped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kyle hadn't been able to find Stephanie that morning in the practice rooms, and so he dejectedly went back upstairs, figuring she probably wasn't coming in today. In the vain hope that maybe she had taken up one of the performance halls, he went up to the third floor to check out if any of those rooms were occupied.

Most of them were empty, but at the end of the corridor he heard someone struggling to play something on the violin. It sounded quite bad, meaning it probably wasn't Stephanie playing, but Kyle decided to approach the room anyway just to make sure.

Kyle peeked through the doorway and almost fell over in shock to see that the person playing so badly actually was Stephanie. It was no wonder, too, since the piece she was playing seemed to require ridiculous chord progressions and fingering. Kyle was surprised she was attempting to play something so difficult, but he couldn't help but lean against the doorway and watch Stephanie struggle to play the piece of music, her adorable face screwed up in concentration.

"Sounds difficult," he said once she stopped for a second time.

Stephanie seemed to freeze up the moment she heard his voice – she didn't even have to look over at him, and Kyle couldn't help but smirk slightly. She finally turned to look over at him, her expression unreadable.

"...It's Der Erlkönig," she said after a moment, bringing her violin and bow down. Kyle raised his eyebrows.

"That's one of the most difficult pieces ever written for violin," he noted, moving from the doorway and walking toward her. "Have you ever played it before?"

"Obviously not." Stephanie said sardonically. "Did you not hear me playing a few moments ago?" 

"Most violin masters can't even play Der Erlkönig," Kyle said fairly, stopping in front of the dais. "You did a good job for your first attempt."

"And if you were an actual violin master, I would take that as a compliment," Stephanie said sarcastically. Kyle couldn't help but grin – he had missed her playful snarkiness.

After a moment, however, his smile faded. He knew he needed to speak with her about what he had said to her about the string quartet, but he was having a hard time finding the right words. Apologizing wasn't easy, and he didn't know how hurt Stephanie still was from all of this. He decided to just take a deep breath and plunge forward, hoping she wouldn't hate him. "Stephanie," he began, gazing up at her, and she looked back at him, her expression inscrutable. "I was actually just looking for you, and I'm glad I found you here. I was hoping we could talk..."

Before he could continue, however, the doors of the performance hall banged open, and he and Stephanie turned around. Chloe, Professor Lyndon, and (to Kyle's surprise) the Dean of Students, Elizabeth Kenny, walked through the doorway.

Kyle and Stephanie watched as the three of them approached. Chloe had an odd look on her face: a strange combination of triumph and determination as she gazed up at Stephanie. Kyle watched her warily as she and the other two women walked toward them.

"I told you she would be in here," Chloe said to the other two women with a smug grin on her face, her eyes flashing toward Stephanie. "Hello Miss Ryan."

Kyle turned to Stephanie, who was looking at Chloe with trepidation. "Is something wrong?" she asked, her voice hesitant.

Chloe turned toward Professor Kenny, who cleared her throat, looking uncomfortable.

"Miss Ryan," she said, her voice rather formal. "Ms. Alistair has informed us that you have been practicing your violin here at the Royal Academy over the past few months. Is this true?"

Stephanie froze, not saying anything. Kyle immediately knew that something was wrong, and he frowned disapprovingly. "I'm sorry, what is this regarding?" he demanded, his authoritative voice making it clear he didn't approve of this confrontation.

Professor Kenny cleared her throat again, her eyes darting toward Kyle. "Forgive me, Mr. Lancaster. Ms. Alistair has recently made us aware of an issue she feels we must address immediately..."

"And what issue would that be?" Kyle said challengingly. "Because I don't think you mean Stephanie practicing violin here at the Academy...?"

"Kyle," Stephanie said warningly.

"I'm sorry, but this is a matter of security," Professor Kenny said, her voice growing more firm as she glanced between Kyle and Stephanie. "This young woman does not currently attend the Royal Academy, nor has she been accepted to any of our music programs, and yet I've been informed that she has been utilizing resources meant exclusively for Royal Academy students, professors, and administrators."

"Elizabeth, she's a musician," Professor Lyndon stated, her voice angry as she gestured toward Stephanie. "She auditioned for my string quartet. She's not some random person off the street!"

"I fail to see how that's relevant," Chloe snapped, placing her hands on her hips as she glared at Lyndon. "She didn't even make your quartet."

Kyle glared at Chloe, his anger rising. This was clearly her attempt to get back at him for what the public was saying about her, and he wasn't going to stand for it.

Before he could speak up, however, the doors of the performance hall burst open again and Lydia rushed into the room, looking harried. "Steph!" she called out as she hurried toward them. "Professor Kenny! This isn't Stephanie's fault. Don't make her leave, I'm the one who invited her here in the first place...!"

"Lydia, don't," Stephanie said firmly. "I'll just leave. I don't want to cause any problems."

"You weren't causing any problems," Kyle countered, his voice angry as he glared over at Professor Kenny. "The administration here is just too spineless not to stand up to a bitter shrew who brings in money to their school."

"How dare you!" Chloe snapped, though Professor Kenny just looked away guiltily. "You just don't want to admit your little girlfriend has been breaking the rules for months now...!"

"Enough!" Stephanie called out, and everybody finally quieted. "Kyle, Lydia, Professor Lyndon – I appreciate you guys trying to defend me, but it's unnecessary. I was never looking to cause any problems here. I can just go quietly."

Professor Kenny looked rather relieved at that prospect. "We appreciate that, Miss Ryan. And we promise not to take further action against you once you're off the premises. The last thing we want is a lawsuit."

Kyle blanched, glaring at Professor Kenny. "A lawsuit?"

"Kyle," Stephanie said, giving him a warning look.

"She's threatening litigation," Kyle argued, swinging around to Stephanie incredulously. "You shouldn't have to take this...!"

"Kyle, I'm going back to America."

Kyle froze, and everyone in the room seemed to go silent as she said those words. His heart started pounding in his ribcage as he stared at her. "What?"

"I was only planning on staying in London for a few months," Stephanie said, avoiding eye contact with him. "I wasn't going to be practicing my violin here for much longer anyway. My friend's wedding is happening in three weeks, and my tickets are booked already." She looked back up at him, her expression sincere. "I'm sorry."

Kyle didn't say anything, and Stephanie silently gathered up her things. Lydia moved forward to help her, and two of them made their way out of the performance hall, followed by the two professors and Chloe. Kyle stood alone in the room, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he might never see Stephanie again.