keyboard.
jacob has six sisters, three older and three younger. every single one of the seven kids took piano lessons from the same woman starting when each turned six. the woman's name was miss kirk. she was ancient, and the kids didn't think that just because they were young, and she had wrinkles and liver spots. she had a dog named spiffy that barked. spiffy has never bitten anyone, dog, insect, or human, in her life, but the kids were terrified of her never the less. jacob hated the piano lessons. his sisters did too.
jacob's parents were both teachers at the local high school. jacob's father taught advanced biology, and his mother taught geometry. jacob hated math and science. his sisters did not. jacob's sisters were all extremely brilliant little girls that grew up to lead their classes in high school. every single one of jacob's sisters was valedictorian of her class. jacob was glad to be in the top seventy-five percent of his class.
jacob's family was one of those that made sure family was more important than anything else. they went on extensive holidays to visit grandparents in kentucky, innumerable cousins passed through the house during thanksgiving. jacob used to make fun of his parents and aunts and uncles for not being able to control how many children they have. there wasn't any couple in jacob's family that had less than four children. jacob was invariably sent to his room for that comment.
jacob is intelligent, but he just didn't understand why math and science was important. jacob loved to read and write, especially poetry. his favorite was e. e. cummings. he thought it was hilarious that the poet refused to capitalize anything in his poems just because that's what he felt like doing. jacob took this idea into his life: he didn't do his math homework because that's what he felt like doing. his parents didn't like it, but they knew fighting him directly wouldn't help. they had spent their whole lives around children and understood how their minds worked.
for jacob's fifteenth birthday, his parents bought him a synthesizer. jacob hadn't had any musical interest or training besides miss kirk and her piano lessons, which he had rebelled against four years earlier. jacob tinkered around with his new possession, writing little songs and singing them to whomever was his love at that time in school. jacob's best friend, david, who plays the guitar in the steel puppies, lived next door to jacob. david suggested the summer when they were fifteen that they start a band, and so they did, because they felt like it. they called themselves the purple polka dots. one of jacob's sisters, the fourth one, had a dress that was hot pink with purple polka dots, and david thought it would look great on jacob's dog, and one night they did try the dress on the dog. the dog was a german shepard who had three puppies earlier in the year. jacob named all three "sam" and gave them to david who worked at the pet store.
the purple polka dots didn't turn jacob's life around. when he graduated from high school, he was barely passing his math and science courses. he had won several poetry contests though, and got into the same college as david. the two of them wrote four complete songs together, and all four were juvenile, but hilarious. the other two members of their band, a stoned kid that banged away on the drums named ashley and a quiet girl named courtney that played bass, went to a different college, and the band dis, you know, banded. ashley is now a rising quickly on the corporate ladder, already a v-p at a fortune 500 company. courtney is a back-up singer for artists. she lives in new york city.
jacob majored in american literature and had planned to write because that's what he felt like doing, but he joined the steel puppies because that's what he felt like doing that weekend.
jacob likes cats. he hates dogs, especially german shepards. the reason he had one as a kid was because his second sister loved them. they broke the law by not getting her spayed, which is why she had puppies.
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