Hello and welcome to Strange Music! This is my fanfiction about the very lovely movie Strange Magic that I watched a few days ago. I've been in a string quartet myself for many years, and I thought that the characters would thrive in this kind of setting. So,  I hope you enjoy the story!

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Marianne was determined to have a miserable time at her quartet practice. Her sister Dawn had scheduled another performance during the regularly scheduled practices, and had once again relied on Marianne to fill in for her. Marianne did, however, prefer to play in a group rather than as a solo, as Dawn practiced the violin more diligently than Marianne. For all of Marianne's skill, she had struggled to learn the first violin part for the piece that Dawn's quartet had been working on, the part that Dawn had given her three hours before the rehearsal. Marianne had not played with a quartet for months, since her harsh expulsion from the group that she had started herself. Dammit, Dawn, Marianne thought angrily, looking up at the house she hoped belonged to the cellist of Dawn's quartet, Strange Music. The address had been scribbled down hastily by Dawn's manager, Sunny, as he was nervously trying to hustle Dawn out the door and to the concert she was headlining, and Marianne had already been to two bad addresses. A short staircase led up to the front door, and in front of a small porch a cheery rock covered in flowers and paintings of birds proclaimed that the house belonged to the King's. Marianne sighed and flipped her violin case over her shoulder, climbing the stairs warily. The house was rather simple and even a bit worn-down, as some of the siding was turning green with moss and some vines climbed the sides of the house, no doubt due to the large oak trees that shaded the entire lot. Marianne cringed when she saw the doorbell, which was very nearly brown with filth. She opted to knock on the pure white door, the only thing that didn't look old and dirty. A rather raucous voice answered the knock, though the door didn't open.

"Is that my Dawn?" the voice squawked, sounding very female and rather low. Marianne winced a bit at it, and considered answering for a moment before heavy footsteps sounded, approaching the doorway.

"I told you, Mother," a deep voice answered, and Marianne could hear the locks being fiddled with. "Dawn is not coming. She has sent a substitute." It sounded annoyed and Marianne found herself being rather annoyed with this voice. The door was gently pulled open, and Marianne looked up. And up. And up. And there was the face of a young man who looked quite bored, though his icy blue eyes sharply darted over her face and to her violin. Marianne's first impression was that he was not very handsome; his hair was a deep brown, which should have complimented those piercing eyes, but just served to steep his face in shadow. His chin and nose were both very long, but his nose was straight and pointed, which should've looked regal but combined with his very thin cheeks and prominent cheekbones made him look thin and weary. "You are the violinist to substitute for Dawn?"

"Yeah, I'm her sister Marianne," Marianne replied to this deep-voiced, somewhat annoying man. She almost stuck her hand out to shake his, but a screen door prevented her from doing so.

"You're late," the man replied instead of offering a name, and opened the door for Marianne. "Stuff and Thang are already here."

"It'd be easier to find your house if I could actually see it from the road," Marianne replied by way of explanation, and swept by the man into a fairly small living room that she doubted that the quartet could play in comfortably. A taller, pleasantly plump young lady was tuning a violin and a very nervous-looking young man with incredibly thick glasses was sitting next to her with a viola, whispering to her.

"Well," the young man who had greeted Marianne at the door glared at her. "I'll do my best to be more accommodating next time." Every word dripped with unamused sarcasm. "Stuff, Thang, this is Marianne, Dawn's sister. She'll be playing with us. Marianne, this is Stephanie Crowley and Thomas Buckley."

"Call me Stuff," Stephanie shifted her violin to one hand in order to shake Marianne's. "Everyone does. Don't ask me how I got it. And just call him Thang...he won't answer to anything else." Stuff gestured to the man with bottle cap glasses.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Thang shook Marianne's hand as well, and he didn't quite seem to be so nervous anymore.

"I'm very honored to sit in with you all," Marianne smiled at the two, and frowned at the young man who had shown her in. "Though I don't think introductions are over yet."

"Oh, yeah, I'm Bog," the young man muttered, turning his frosty eyes to a cello that sat beside a chair at the far end of a semicircle of four chairs. "I'm the cellist."

"I can tell," Marianne replied stiffly, and unpacked her violin. "Let me tune before I give the A." She began fiddling with the pegs on her instrument, a bit embarrassed that it was so out of tune, and was interrupted by deep plucking. She looked up to see Bog strumming his cello and plucking out a tune that she didn't recognize. "Do you mind?" Marianne glared at Bog over her scroll.

"Hm?" Bog asked a bit absentmindedly. "Oh. I usually give the A, if you're ready to tune."

"Are you kidding me?" Marianne's patience was already being tested. "The first violinist always gives the A."

"I just figured since yours is out of tune, I'd do it this rehearsal as well," Bog shrugged, giving Marianne a challenging look. "Just so you can get the hang of playing with us, of course."

"This is only for this week," Marianne glared at Bog. "Dawn will be back next week and you guys can all go back to normal, or whatever 'normal' is for you."

"Ha!" Bog let out a short bark of laughter. "You come to the first rehearsal, you are a part of the group. Even if Dawn could make the rehearsal next week, you're the one we're going to be used to playing with. You're our first violinist, Marianne."

"No way," Marianne stood up from her chair and nearly dropped her violin. "I don't do ensembles."

"Look, you're first violin, and you'll get the solos that I don't," Bog replied, a hidden challenge in his words. "You won't have to worry about not being in the spotlight, Princess."

"I don't care about being in the spotlight," Marianne protested, frowning at Bog. "I just...don't play well with others, especially if they're like you."

"Miss Marianne," Stuff cleared her throat as though she was going to speak, but nudged Thang between the ribs. Some whispering ensued between the two:

You tell her, she likes you better.

Really? You think so?

Sure! Bog likes you better too.

That's so nice!

"We'd be very honored if you'd play with us," Thang spoke up boldly, a confidant look on his face. "Bog here can't seem to keep a violinist for more than one rehearsal."

"Thank you, Thang," Bog hissed, turning a very violent scowl on the violist, who turned back to Stuff and began whispering again. "However, if you're not up to the challenge, we do have some very important gigs coming up, and we don't have time for a little 'fairy princess'."

"Oh, I'm not the fairy princess here," Marianne growled, but she sat back down in the chair for the first violinist. "Just give me a damn A."

"With pleasure," Bog smirked. "Once you're tuned, maybe you feel like giving us a bit of a demonstration?" Marianne noticed that Stuff sighed heavily and rolled her eyes while Thang flinched. She looked back at Bog, whose smirk contained something a bit malicious.

"Of course," Marianne replied haughtily. "Just don't get too intimidated there, King." Bog scowled at the name but provided an A for Marianne, and she went on to tune her strings in succession, ending on her E string. All was silent for a moment as Marianne got herself into position, and when she was sure that all of the players' eyes were on her, she erupted into the violin solo from Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto 1. The melody was rather sickly sweet, and Marianne was concentrating on her vibrato when a deep sound cut through it all. Marianne was so shocked that she actually lowered her instrument and saw Bog simply bowing his open C string with a grin that screamed a challenge. Their eyes met, and Bog's fingers flew up the C major scale and then stopped on a Bb, the note jarring to the ears as he very slowly slid it right back up to C. Marianne was furious. She put her violin back into position and attacked the Mendelssohn again, with more vigor and more ferocity. No longer was this a sickly sweet ballad, but a fight that she was determined to win. As Marianne broke in the piece where the orchestra would play, Bog's C string rang out again and his eyes bore straight into Marianne's. She could not look away as Bog played the opening riff to AC/DC's Thunderstruck. Marianne was taken aback to say the least, and as the first verse began, he nodded to Marianne with a raised brow. There was a challenge in that look, a challenge that Marianne would not pass up. She brought her bow down on the strings with a crunch, and began the melody line. It's in C major, Marianne thought ruefully. He's playing with me. The melody was fairly simple to work out once she had figured out what key it was in, and as Bog kept a steady bass line going along with some chnks with his bow to mark rhythm, Marianne heard Thang's viola provide backup to Bog's line, and Stuff's confident playing added a playful duet to her melody. Marianne laughed, her eyes wide; it had been many months since she remembered actually having fun playing her violin. Eventually, however, the song had to end, and all members of the quartet were breathing heavily. Bog's eyes were locked on Marianne, and she met his stare with an upturned chin as if to say, "well? Do you deem me worthy?"

"That was awesome!" Thang gaped at Marianne. "That's the first time someone has passed the test that quickly!"

"It seems that Miss Marianne has a few tricks up her sleeve," Bog noted, looking curiously at this young lady, who was possibly just as talented as her famous sister. However, he had only heard of Dawn Primrose, or rather, she had heard of him. He scrutinized this sister, whose cheeks were flushed a lovely shade of red as her chest heaved with the exertion of playing. She certainly was not hard on the eyes, but Bog had noticed a bit of a slump in her shoulders that was rather familiar to him...the slump of defeat, of somebody that had given up. He'd be lying to himself if he said it didn't intrigue him.

"Well, Bog King?" Marianne flashed a cocky grin at the cellist and raised an eyebrow. The quiet man had been studying her and she couldn't help feeling uncomfortable as her thoughts flashed to another. Bog noticed that slump return and quickly cleared his throat.

"Not bad, princess," he teased right back, placing his bow on his stand and leaning on his cello. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to see how you fare in the first gig."

"Well, what is it?" Marianne asked impatiently.

"Your sister's manager hooked us up at one of those high-society tea parties," Stuff remarked excitedly. "We have to wear formal dress and everything! It's in a few months." Marianne noticed Bog shifting uncomfortably in his chair and thought with pleasure that he didn't seem to like what Stuff dubbed "high society". Boy, is he in for a surprise.

"Music," Bog stated firmly, and began handing out parts after gently laying his cello down on the carpet. "We'll play mostly Mozart and Haydn quartets so it'll be pretty light. I'm afraid Beethoven is a bit over the heads of our high-society friends." Marianne perked up a bit at Beethoven.

"I like Beethoven quartets over Mozart or Haydn," Marianne cut in excitedly. "We should definitely play a few of those!"

"Although I share your love of Beethoven," Bog nodded at the girl, "We cannot choose what we want to play; I got a list of approved music from the clients last week and bought the parts." Marianne's shoulders dropped a bit, but she would be lying to herself if she wasn't a bit excited to play with a group again, especially a group of such interesting people. "Also," Bog began, waving his hand in front of Marianne's face to get her attention. "I can't hold every rehearsal at my house..."

"Why not?" Marianne narrowed her eyes at the tall man.

"Because I—" Bog began, but was interrupted by that raucous voice Marianne had first heard when she knocked on the door.

"Of course you can have all of your rehearsals here, dear!" a comically short woman backed out of a swinging door with a tray of what looked like freshly baked cookies and four glasses of milk. Marianne nearly laughed out loud at the horrified expression on Bog's face. "Your friends are so lovely! What's your name, dear?" the woman turned to Marianne with a huge smile on her face.

"Mother, please," Bog glared at his mother and nearly growled. Marianne thought that she might throw up from trying not to laugh.

"Am I not allowed to meet your friends?" Bog's mother smiled serenely at her son. "I was just wondering who this very lovely young lady is."

"It's Dawn's sister Marianne," Bog's voice was clipped and he was sitting very stiffly in his chair. "Excuse us, Mother. This is a private rehearsal."

"What a mean son I have raised!" Bog's mother sniffled, placing the tray down on a nearby piano stool and deliberately slowly making her way back into what Marianne assumed was the kitchen. Bog was literally growling now and had his head in his large hands and by the time his mother glanced around for the third time he exploded.

"FINE! Just SIT on that bench and DON'T ask my group your silly questions," Bog roared, hands balling into fists. Marianne's eyes widened and she looked at Bog's mother, but Mrs. King just beamed at her son and sat on the piano bench with the tray beside her. Stuff and Thang just shared knowing looks and snorted. Marianne detected a weird lilt to Bog's voice, almost like an accent that his mother did not share. "The rehearsal's almost over anyways. Now, WHO wants to host next week's rehearsal?" Bog was still yelling a bit and Marianne flinched, which directed his gaze to her. "Is that a volunteer?"

"Whatever," Marianne muttered, glaring at Bog. "I'm not having it every week at my house, either. We're going to trade off." Bog lifted his leering brows in surprise but decided to keep his mouth closed.

"So the rehearsal's over!" Bog's mother exclaimed, hopping off of the bench and walking over to take Marianne's hand. "I'm Griselda. So, how old are you, dearie?"

"Mother!" Bog snarled, shooting another leer at his mother. "Leave Marianne alone."

"You never let me talk to any of your musician friends," Griselda sighed sadly. Marianne hid another giggle as she began packing her violin back up. She grabbed a cookie with one hand and shouldered her violin case with the other.

"Thanks for letting us practice here," Marianne nodded to Griselda and Bog. "It was nice meeting all of you."

"Your address," Bog didn't so much as glance up from where he was putting his cello back into a soft case on the floor. Marianne rolled her eyes and pulled a marker out of her pocket and grabbed one of Bog's long arms. She scrawled down the street and house number as well as her name and capped the marker. Bog looked at her, then his arm. "Gee, thanks."

"See you guys next week," Marianne waved at the members of her new ensemble and walked back out the door and into her car. She took a very deep breath and leaned her head on the steering wheel. Yes, she'd had a wonderful time with the little bit that they had all played together, but it had felt the same way in her own group. Dawn had certainly been worried that it might force Marianne into the near-hibernation that she'd been in after the breakup of the last quartet she'd played in. Marianne was determined to show Dawn, and this new group, that she was ready to let music back into her life.

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There it is! This first chapter is pretty long, but I just wanted to get the sort-of introduction part out of the way. I hope to post updates for this pretty regularly, but please let me know what you think about the instrument-character pairings! Thank you so much for reading!

Ciao from the mello-cellist. :)