Gemotions

The notification chimed during a particularly tedious piano practice session. Mrs. Petrov, her music teacher, on Facebook. A slow smile spread across her face. A sense of something approaching triumph welled within her.

She immediately began posting a series of videos of herself playing deliberately out-of-tune scales and deliberately awkward renditions of classical pieces. She knew Mrs. Petrov took pride in her students, so she took care to play as badly as possible.

She carefully chose the most dissonant chords and played at a tempo calculated to annoy. She added captions that were overly apologetic, feigning ignorance of music theory. She savored the thought of the teacher’s pained expression, imagining it in her mind.