Cut Time
by. Poisoned Scarlet

Summary: She never knew Soul could be such a good teacher.
Rating: K.
Genre: Friendship.
Authors Note: No joke, this is exactly how my instrument teacher taught me. He is awesome at teaching – I was totally musically illiterate, much like Maka, but ten minutes later I came out of that classroom knowing how to read more than half of one of those song books XD
Story Notes: Time-line? What is this time-line you speak of...?

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater.

"G—no, B?" Maka murmured to herself, isolated in her room. She hadn't come out since she arrived home, Friday, and it was now nearing dinner time on a Saturday. She refused to leave her room until she learned the proper notes and memorized the entire staff: lines and spaces and all.

Being a three star meister had been the second best thing that happened to her – the first being when Soul finally managed to devour Arachne's soul and converted into the Deathscythe as how he had been promised to. And with Soul already a Deathscythe, and her steady but impressive progress as a meister, this current chapter of her life was flowing along fantastically.

Until she discovered that three star meister's had to take an assortment of extra-curricular classes in order to be accepted into other universities should they decide not to attend Shibusen University.

Although she was adamant on attending Shibusen U, which was just a different, larger, building toward the back of the enormous school in Death City, she was still expected to take at least three extra-curricular classes since, by the time one gained three stars, most had taken care of the core classes but still had at least a year of schooling left over.

And lazing around was not an option in Shibusen, not that Maka minded.

Except for this particular class.

"Ugh..." Maka reviewed her notes silently, immersed in her task and ignoring the headache that had begun to develop behind her eyes. Her bedroom door creaked open and her partner poked his head inside curiously, having not seen his meister even once since yesterday evening.

"Maka?"

She didn't bother looking up. "Not now, Soul, I'm busy."

He frowned, entering the room and closing the door quietly behind him. He padded over to her side, peering down at her work and automatically recognizing the symbols on the page. She had two worksheets, an assortment of music notes beside them to guide her, but one of the worksheets was already filled out...

"Number ten is wrong - it's C." Soul pointed out, to the dot in the middle of the space of the staff.

"What? No way, it's D!"

"No, look closely." Soul pointed to the dot. "It's there to trick you. You were looking at the line, which is D, but not the space, which is C. The five lines on the staff correspond to E G B D F while the four spaces are F A C E..." He trailed off, seeing the confusion that briefly crossed her face.

He smiled, wryly. He wasn't very surprised she was so confused – not only was learning the notes puzzling but it was Maka...

Maka stared at the problem then rounded her lips in realization. "Oh, you're right! It is C!" She erased her wrong answer and wrote down the correct one, going over the rest and only needing to erase once more when she made the same mistake.

"So, this is what you're learning in that music class?" Soul asked, hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, in retrospect, it's not that difficult at all." She commented, before frowning. "But memorizing all the letters is...hard." She dryly looked at the sheet where she had hastily written down the proper tremble clef and bass clef notes. The professor hadn't really given them adequate time to memorize the changing notes but he had already begun giving them homework, which was growing increasingly more difficult with each page.

"No, it's not." Soul snorted. "For treble clef, it would be E G B D F. For bass clef, it would be G B D F A. Then for the spaces... treble clef is F A C E and bass clef is A C E G." He recited easily, without problem, and Maka groaned, already lost.

"He never taught us the spaces thing..." Maka mumbled, slumping forward. "I'm trying to figure it out by myself but, for once, the book isn't really helping me. It has other things he hasn't taught us yet or skipped over..."

Soul was silent for a second before he smirked. "Then I'll teach you."

Maka raised a skeptical brow. "You'll teach me? You can barely stay awake during class, I don't think you should be doing any teaching..."

Soul shot her a brief glare. "I know this stuff like the back of my hand, Maka, I think I can teach you without screwing up too badly."

"Too badly?" Maka uneasily repeated.

Soul grinned, toothily. "Yeah, the most that can happen is I confuse the notes and you end up flunking your—whoa!" He barely managed to dodge a thwack to his skull.

"You better not screw up, Soul Eater!" She shrieked, raising her book again.

"Okay, okay! I won't!" He quickly amended, rolling his eyes at her theatrics. "Geez, take a joke..."

"Just teach me." Maka crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you sure you can do it?"

"Yeah, you'll know this stuff in less than five minutes. I'll teach it to you my way, the cool way." He confidently stated, leaning against the edge of her desk again.

"Your way?" She asked, curiously.

He nodded. "Alright, hold out your right hand." He held out his own right hand and she copied him, curious as to what he was going to do with it. "Five fingers, five spaces." He reminded her. "Repeat after me: Every Good Boy Does Fine."

Maka blinked, incredulous. "What?"

"Just do it." He insisted.

"Fine, whatever... Every Good Boy Does Fine." She repeated, precisely.

"Alright, repeat it a couple of times by yourself until you're confident you know it." Soul instructed, waiting a few minutes as Maka silently memorized the simple rhyme. "Done?" At her nod, he continued: "Good. Now, the staff has exactly five lines. Let's pretend each of your fingers is a line—!" Starting from his pinkie, he recited: "Repeat after me: Every Good Boy Does Fine," until he ended on his thumb, Maka imitating him. "You got that?"

"Every Good Boy Does Fine." Maka said, with a slight smile, going through all her fingers until she ended on her thumb. "Yes!"

"Sweet. Now, tell me the letters only."

Maka stared blankly at him.

Soul chuckled. "Starting from your pinkie: E G B D F." He counted them off. "Your turn."

"E G... B D F." Maka slowly repeated, understanding what he was doing, and surprised by the ingenuity of his teaching method.

"Now, I'm gonna' say a number, and you're going to tell me the word. Remember: Every Good Boy Does Fine." Soul reminded her, after watching her practice quietly by herself. "You think you can handle it?" He smirked at her firm nod. "One."

"Every."

"Two"

"Good."

"Five."

Maka hesitated. "Fine."

"Four."

"Boy—no, Does!"

Soul grinned. "Uh huh – three."

"Boy!" Maka smiled sheepishly.

"Cool, now you're gonna' tell me the letter." Soul began, holding up his right hand to help her out. "Two."

Maka hesitated again, trying to remember the letter that went along with the word. "...G."

"Four."

"Um, D."

"Two."

"G."

"Five."

"F."

"Three."

"D—no, B!" Maka winced. Those two letters sounded far too much alike for her liking.

Soul just snickered. "One."

"E."

"Nice, you didn't screw up as badly as thought you would."

Maka glared. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Chill – a lot of people get confused, that's all." Soul calmly said, her anger ebbing when he gave her one of his rare smiles. "You're doing great. Now, tell me the letters again."

"E G B D F." She repeated, and grinned; excited she had learned it so easily, far more easily than when she was repeating it monotonously in her head.

"Two?"

"G!"

"Five?"

"F!"

"One."

"E!" Maka laughed, making him smile a little more.

"Three."

Maka hesitated for a split second. "B!"

Soul grinned. "Congrats, you've just memorized the treble clef."

Maka's smile grew more radiant as she giggled. "That's so cool!" She squealed, making him grin crookedly. She didn't appear to have noticed she used his favourite word. "It really did take five minutes!"

"Yeah, told you so..." He smugly said. "But do you know the bass clef?"

Maka stared, lost again. "... Huh?"

Soul laughed and pulled up a stool that was pushed to a corner by her bed, deciding he'd rather spend his evening teaching her the basics of music than hang out with Black Star in the basketball courts.

"Okay... repeat after me," Soul said, starting the process over again. His rose his right hand again. "This is bass clef, got it? Don't confuse bass with treble – one is low, one is pitched. You know that much, right?" She nodded, and he continued: "Good Boys Do Fine Always." He flicked off each finger as he said it, starting from his pinkie again.

Maka gawked. "Hey! That sounds way too similar to the last one!"

"Yeah, well, that's how my piano instructor taught me so that's how I'm gonna' teach you!" He winced. Not cool – there went impressing her...

"I knew it! I knew you couldn't have made that up all by yourself!" Maka accused. "You're not that smart!"

Ignoring the blatant jab at his intelligence, Soul growled: "Hey! Do you wanna' learn it or not, idiot?"

She sighed, deciding she would not get another golden opportunity like this. Angering him would only negatively affect her and she needed to pass this class with an A if she wanted to keep her straight A's. "Yeah... Okay, fine." She smiled, her green eyes shimmering happily. "What was it again?"

Maka decided, a few hours later, that she wouldn't mind her music class that much anymore.

Not as long as Soul taught her what the teacher failed to after-school.