For a few years, both in college and after, I was a private music instructor at several of the local schools. Saxophone was my specialty. I would travel from school to school giving music lessons.
After a few years I decided to give it up because it was a hard way to make a living, and honestly it provided no social life. I needed to be around people my own age more often. It was mostly junior high kids, and while I liked some of them, I much preferred teaching the high schoolers. They were more mature and usually better musicians, though not always.
I was constantly getting calls to take on more students, and if I could work them in my cramped schedule I would usually take them on. About mid-year I got a call from a high school saying that they had two students who needed lessons and they couldn't find any other teacher. It happened that I could work them in fairly easily, but it also meant that I had to get up before the butt crack of dawn to do the lessons at 7:15 in the morning. Anyway, I get to the school for the first time and meet the students. Apparently they are both seniors and neither had had any kind of lessons before which does not bode well for their playing abilities.
The first kid had no promise, but I taught him nonetheless – after all it was money coming in. Then I met the second student. Her name was Amanda, and she was definitely different. Her playing was so-so, but she had ambition to make music a career. It was her appearance that got me though. She was tall, slender, with long brown hair that reached her waist. Not your classic beauty, but there was something I liked. It was probably the fact that she was a complete goth. Black makeup, boots, and fishnet sleeves, which I could only assume was part of an entire fishnet outfit (which I would have love to have seen). I had overheard some of my other students mentioning her and calling her "vampire girl." Now you would think from my straight-laced demeanor that I wouldn't have been interested in a girl like this, but you would be wrong. There is something about the whole goth look that I find entirely hot. The odd thing about Amanda was she didn't have the goth attitude of morbid sullenness, instead she was bubbly and effervescent. Anyway, as she was my student, I was on a strict hands-off policy. I know teachers who have done things, and I would never want to compromise my job or my ability to not be in prison.
She wasn't a great player by any means. In fact she was one of the worst seniors I had ever taught, but she truly loved music and her goal was to attend the prestigious music school in the area to become a band director. I helped her as much as I could by challenging her to harder and harder music. All the while, I kept dropping hints that she might want to peruse other options as the life of a musician isn't an easy one. Coupling that with her seeming lack of talent on her instrument, I felt like she should really look into other areas. Amanda just laughed at these suggestions and said she was going to do it come hell or high water. You have to admire the persistence of that girl. Eventually she did get accepted into that school as a provisional music student. She would have to show the professors there how much she could improve in the next year or so before she was fully accepted into the program.
Fast forward a few years. Amanda and I have stayed in touch, albeit at random short intervals. I follow her progress through college and hear how her playing is going. She would call me up randomly to tell me what was going on in her life. I was hoping that these calls might be a little more than just visiting. I sensed a little bit of flirtation in those chats. It wouldn't be the first time a student had a crush on a teacher. We became friends on Facebook. I think I was the one who friended her first. It may just be that kind of creepy teacher-student thing, but I communicated with several of my students that way, in fact with some it is how we arranged lessons.
Out of the blue one day, she called me up. We had a nice chat, but this time she had a purpose. It turns out that she was selling knives for some marketing company. I think this company suckers in a lot of broke college kids for what is basically a telemarketing job. Anyway, we talk about the knives and she wants to know if she can come over and give me a demonstration. I obviously didn't need any knives, but I obliged, mostly to catch up with her. We arranged a day and time for her to come over and peddle her wares.
