At 6 a.m sharp, Kurt Hummel sleepily walked into his teenage daughter, Paige's dark bedroom. Normally neither he nor his daughters would be awake at this time, but today was Paige's first day of band camp. He sat down on the edge of her bed and stroked her hair. "Honey, it's time to wake up." he said softly. Paige's eyelids began to flutter and she groaned as she flipped over and stuffed her head underneath the pillow. "No, no. Come on. You have to wake up. It's your first day of band." he said. Paige muttered something from underneath her pillow and Kurt laughed. "Alright, I'll be back. You have five more minutes." He said before walking out of her bedroom and down the hallway to the bathroom. He turned on the shower and placed her towel on the ground for her. He normally placed more responsibility on both of his daughters, but today he could sympathize with Paige's exhaustion. After doing that, he walked back to her room and pulled the covers off of her."Come on Paige, I've been more than nice here." he replied. She took the pillow off of her head and placed it on the other side of the bed. Her dirty blonde curly hair stuck out and all angles and she had barely opened her eyes.
"Fine, I'm up." she muttered as she stood up from her bed and lumbered down the hallway. Kurt laughed and went into the kitchen where his father, Burt was sitting at the kitchen table sipping his coffee.
"You get Paige to wake up?" he asked.
"I did. It was a battle, but she finally woke up." Kurt replied.
"Is she nervous for her first day of band camp?" Burt asked. Kurt thought about it.
"I don't know, but she's Paige. She usually is." Kurt replied.
"Come on, give her some credit. Bad things have happened in her life, she has a right to be nervous." Burt said. Kurt sighed and sat down at the table. He didn't have much time to spare. Being a single dad, he had a very busy life. In addition to work, both of his girls were very involved in their individual sports. Paige played flute in the band. With that came three weeks of band camp, early morning rehearsal, football games, and concerts. Ella, Kurt's 11 year old daughter, was a dancer and a perfectionist. She had dance classes three times a week and was on a competition team.
"When does Ella have dance tonight?" Burt asked.
"From 10 to 3 for her group lesson and then a private from 3 to 4 for her solo." Kurt replied.
"That kid dances way to much. 6 hours of dancing is way too much for an 11 year old." Burt replied gruffly.
"I know, but she loves it and you know that." Kurt replied. "Plus, you can't reason with that girl. She's so stubborn."
"Wonder where she gets that." Burt muttered under his breath.
"What was that, Dad?" Kurt asked smugly.
"Oh nothing." Burt said with a laugh. Kurt rolled his eyes. Paige came out of her bedroom a few minutes later. Her dirty blonde curly hair was pulled into tight pony tail. She had picked out a pair of denim shorts and a blue graphic tee.
"Hey, honey. Are your ready for band?" Kurt asked. She nodded.
"Ya nervous kid?" Burt asked. She tried to smile, but Burt saw right through her. "Come here."She went over and Burt patted his lap.
"Grandpa, I'm way too big to sit on your lap." She giggled.
"Try me." Burt replied. She smiled and sat down. "Now, listen. Band is going to be awesome. You're going to meet tons of friends." Burt encouraged. "Nothing bad is going to happen." She smiled and gave Burt a hug. Her grandpa alway knew how to calm her down.
"Alright, I need to get going. I don't want to be late and we have to pick up Ally" she replied.
"See you later,honey. You can tell me all about band when you get home." Burt replied.
" I will grandpa." She replied as she grabbed her water jug and her flute and headed out to the car. Kurt grabbed his keys off the counter and made his way towards the door.
"Carole, can you get Ella up for me?" he asked. She nodded back and went down the hall toward Ella's bedroom, while Kurt made his way to the car. Paige was waiting for him in the backseat of the car.
"Paige, do you want to sit in the front?" Kurt asked.
"No, I-I'm good." She stuttered as she put on her seatbelt and grabbed onto the handle on the door. Kurt sighed and got into the drivers seat and drove to get her best friend, Ally.
"Hi, Mr. Hummel." Ally said sweetly as she got into the car.
"Hi Ally." He replied. He really liked her. Out of all of Paige's friends, Ally was the nicest to her. She was also funny and made Paige laugh, which was almost an impossible task these days. As they made their way to band, Paige seemed to loosen up, but Kurt could see she was still nervous. He parked the car in the parking lot and Ally and Paige got out of the car. Kurt leaned his head out the window and turned to Paige. "Smile, It's going to be fine." he said softly.
"Thanks Daddy." Paige replied back before following Ally out of the parking lot and into the band room with the rest of the other band members. When they got into the band room they were overwhelmed with all the students crowded into the tiny room. Both Paige and Ally could tell that they were separated into instruments.
"I'll talk to you on a break, okay." Ally said before going to the other side of the room with the rest of the clarinets. Paige looked around nervously before finding the rest of the flutes. She saw her "friends" Brooke and Emily over in the midst the crowd of flutes. They waved over to her and she waved back with a fake smile on her face. Brooke and Emily were her friends, but sometimes they didn't act like it. They teased her and made fun of her and then claimed that they were just kidding, but Paige knew better. She nervously walked over and joined the rest of the flutes. Two of the seniors told the group that they were the section leaders.
"So, My name is Katherine, but please just call me Kat." the one girl replied.
"And I'm Hannah." The other girl said. "We're your section leaders, so if any of you have any questions you can come to us." she continued. Then they heard a very loud whistle and all the kids scrambled to get their to their seats. The whistle had come from a short man rushing down the stairs of the band room. He was wearing a school t- shirt, fashionable shorts, and all his hair was gelled down into a something that could only be described as a helmet.
"Who is that?" Paige whispered into Brooke's ear.
"That's Mr. Anderson, the band director...duh" Brooke said in a mean voice. Mr. Anderson sat down at a high chair behind a podium and clapped his hands.
"Quiet down!" He said loudly with a smile on his face. "Welcome to band camp guys! I am super excited for another awesome year! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mr. Anderson your band director." Then he pointed up at the top of the stairs. "That's Mr. Brooks, your assistant band director." he said. Paige looked up to where he was pointing. Unlike Mr. Anderson, Mr. Brooks looked big, mean, and scary. His face was stuck in a deep frown and he didn't look very excited to be there at all. "I don't want to spend a really long time in here because we have a lot of work to do if we want to make this years field show look amazing!" Mr. Anderson said."So, let's head out to the practice field." All of the kids got up from their seats and scrambled towards exit. They walked down the sidewalk to a field with white painted lines.
"Okay, today we're going to work on basics." Mr. Brooks said with a gruff voice. Paige didn't know what he meant by that, but she was about to find out. Marching was so hard. She could never figure out what foot to be on and just couldn't get the concepts that the upperclassmen found so easy to perform. It was also very hot outside. She was even beginning to feel lightheaded. Luckily, Mr. Anderson intervened and told them to take a five minute break. Paige walked over to the shade of a tree where her water jug was waiting for her. Ally walked over with her water bottle in hand and stood next to her.
"So, how are you doing with all these basics?" Paige asked her.
"I think it's pretty easy." Ally replied.
"Oh…" Paige said quietly. "Me too." She lied through her teeth. The whistle blew and all the kids rushed back onto the field. The rest of the day was all a blur and by the end of rehearsal she was ready to drop. They all went back into the air conditioned band room and sat down in their seats. Mr. Anderson took his seat back in the front of the room and blew his whistle. Silence came of the room and he started to talk.
"That was a great rehearsal gang!" he said. "I'm really impressed with what I saw and I'm sure that this is going to be a great year. Alright guys, rehearsal is over. Go home and get some rest so you're ready for tomorrow." After that Paige packed up her stuff and waited for Ally and then they went out and found Kurt's car.
"Hey girls! How was band?" he asked.
"It was awesome!" Ally replied.
"Yeah, it was fun." Paige said as she hopped in the car. Kurt could tell something was wrong with her, but it may have just been the fact that she was in the car.
"What did you guys do today?" Kurt asked.
"We learned how to march. It was cool." Ally replied. Overtime she had learned that it was a rare occasion for Paige to talk in the car, so she did it for her.
"Our band director, Mr. Anderson, is really nice." Ally continued. "He's pretty cute too, Mr. Hummel." She said with a smile. Kurt laughed. This was one of the reasons he loved Ally. She and Paige had been friends ever since they moved to Lima and he had come to realize that she had absolutely no filter, but he knew her intentions were in the right place. They dropped Ally off and then headed back home. They walked into the house and Kurt tried again to get Paige to talk.
"So, really, how was band?" he asked.
"It was good." Paige said. "Some of the marching is pretty hard and it was really hot, but other than that it was fine."
"That's good. I'm sure you'll get the marching down, honey. It was only your first day. Why don't you show me something?" Kurt said.
"Daddy, I'm just really tired." Paige said. "I just want to go lay down, before we have to get Ella from dance"
"Okay, honey that's fine." Kurt said. "Do you know when i'll get to see you do some marching?"
"Well, there's preview night on the friday of the last week. That's when we show the parents, but there's a band parent meeting tomorrow night." Paige replied.
"I'll make sure I can be there. I'll make grandma pick Ella up from dance tomorrow." Kurt replied. Paige nodded her head and went towards her bedroom to lay down. Within two hours, Burt was home from the garage.
"Hey, bud. Where's Paige?" he asked.
"She's in her room. Band camp really took a lot out of her." Kurt replied. "I was going to wake her up to go pick up Ella, but she hates the car so much and she's so exhausted."
"I'll make sure she's okay." Burt said. "Did it seem like she liked band?" he asked.
"I don't really know. I know she said she had some trouble marching, but it seemed like she liked it." Kurt replied. "Ally even felt the need to tell me that their band director was cute." he said with a laugh.
"Hey, you never know bud." Burt said. "Love can find you everywhere."
"Good try Dad, but I think Paige would kill me if I dated her band director." Kurt said. Burt shrugged his shoulders and walked away muttering something. Kurt couldn't believe what his father had said. He wasn't ready to be dating again and why would he chose Paige's teacher; He didn't even know if he was gay. It was just something that couldn't happen.