Listen to the Band !
This is a Twilight FanFic done by yours truly, and it was made in honor to my dear, dear friends in the marching band at my own school (AKA, I'm writing it for them, but all of you other readers can read it to. In fact, that would make my day). If you haven't already gathered by the title and my previous comment, this is a story about marching band. Marching band camp, to be precise, considering as it's no fun when we're actually at school. Anyways, this is to all of those Pride of the Irish folks out there, and here is the summary:
An entire month at band camp – what could be more exciting? Music, marching, instruments… oh, and did I mention the wild parties the seniors throw every night? Bella Swan is a junior in high school, and is just starting out with the Pride of the Irish Marching Band because of a transfer she made. There she meets Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, and of course that illusive Edward Cullen that seems to be just starting out too. And for the heck of it, Carlisle and Esme are chaperones. What do you get? An awesome crowd of high school kids and a great blast! Rated T for mild kissing, canon pairings, and OOCish because I suck at writing Stephenie Meyer's characters and there are a whole bunch of characters based off of my own dear friends in there. Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight… as a creator. I bought it, yes, but I didn't make it. If I did, I wouldn't be here. XD All told from Bella's point of view.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to all of my friends in the band! This is for you guys. =]
Chapter 1: Arrival
Towing two large suitcases had never particularly been my love, especially up a long staircase that led up to a room that I didn't own and that another roommate was probably inhabiting already. I had never been quite so used to being in a camp with new people before, considering as I had done my past two years of marching band with people like Angela, Mike, Jessica, and Jacob. Now, I was at a completely new school with completely new people.
Not the greatest decision of my life.
When I had made the decision to come here with my father Charlie, I had wanted it to be because I wanted to spend some time with him. Now, if I looked back on it, I was just trying to escape the life I had left behind in Phoenix.
But was Anderson, Indiana much better? I wasn't so sure.
Well, my decision was practically made for me when I tripped over a step and let fly one of my suitcases. It went tumbling down a flight, and banged to a stop against one of the walls. I groaned and stumbled to my feet – this clumsiness of mine was getting to be rather irritating.
"Whose is this?" someone called from below. I glanced over my shoulder to see that a younger blonde girl was staring at it curiously.
I flushed. "It's mine," I answered. "I'm really sorry."
The girl's emerald green eyes met with my own, and she smiled. "Oh, alright. I'll help you." She bent down to wrap her hand around the handle and began lifting it up towards me, like it was some kind of mechanical reaction. I smiled gratefully.
"Really, you don't have to do that," I assured her. "I could go get it myself."
The girl smiled graciously. "Don't worry about it. It's the least we can do for a new member, even if you are a junior," she replied simply. She heaved the suitcase up to be level with me and the other one I had managed to hold on to. "My name's Josie Rochester. Are you on the floor just up here?"
"If it's floor D, then yeah," I said.
Josie's eyes brightened and she grinned widely. "Sweet! I'm on this floor too, but I have my stuff unpacked already. What room?"
"Room 18," I responded mechanically.
"Cool!" Josie seemed like the type who was easily excited, because in some miraculous way her grin got bigger. "My room is right across from yours. I'm almost always going to be there, with my roommate Clorissa. I think your roommate is already in your room – I think I heard somebody in there not too long ago. The tag said Alice Cullen, and she's really nice. She's in my section!" The sophomore looked quite proud of herself as she tugged the suitcase up the stairs and I followed anxiously.
"What do you play then?" I asked curiously. I personally played clarinet, and I really enjoyed it. Marching too, even though off the field I was clumsy enough to set off a nuclear bomb.
"Clarinet, of course," Josie exclaimed proudly. "Me and Meg, my clarinet, have been together for five years." Her chest puffed out slightly as she paused in her haul up the stairs. She grunted as she pulled it up the final step, and didn't offer to give it back to me. "But if you're room 18, then you're this way. Follow me."
She towed my suitcase away, leaving me with no choice but to follow. I looked around, seeing all of these room doors with names on them. Some people were out in the hallways, and one of them called to Josie as she walked past.
"Josie!" the girl called. "Stealing someone's suitcase?"
Josie grimaced and paused in her walking, glancing my way. "No, Audrey," she replied cheerfully. "I'm helping someone out." She gestured toward me – an odd contortion for someone with both hands full. "This is a new girl. She plays clarinet, like me! Any new flutes this year?"
The other girl, Audrey, grimaced. "No," she answered.
Josie beamed. "Well, there. I'm taking her to her room."
Audrey looked at me for the first time, and smiled warmly. "Then don't let me hold you up," she said. "But just to warn you – Josie's a little too excited for her own good. She's a bit…" She made a circle with her finger on the side of her head; Josie frowned almost in an angry fashion.
"Hey! I am not crazy! I'll get you at dinner, you jerk."
Audrey laughed and I smiled. Josie was obviously a well-liked band member. She pulled my suitcase down a couple rooms and set it down, gesturing towards a door with two names on it. Alice Cullen and Isabella Swan was what it said. Josie observed it for a moment and looked at me with another big smile on her face as she looked me up and down. I blushed; in Phoenix I never got this much attention.
"Isabella Swan, huh? From Phoenix?" she asked.
"I prefer Bella," I corrected her. "And yes, I'm from Phoenix."
"Lucky." Josie grimaced as she observed me again. "I don't know why you moved to Indiana, though. It's humid in the summer and freezing in winter. I'd love to live somewhere else." Without waiting for a response, she smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh! Sorry, you probably want to get into your room. I'm being a doushbag. Here, I'll introduce you and then I'll be off. Clorissa probably wants to watch a movie or something before dinner." She knocked on my door and a melodic voice trilled from inside,
"Yes? Come on in."
Josie grinned at me and opened the door. I peeked inside.
The room was fairly small, with two sets of bunk beds inside. But each only had one mattress on it, leaving plenty of room for suitcases. To the right of the door there was a small kitchen-like area with a few cabinets and two chairs. Already there was a small fridge tucked there on the counter, plugged in to one of the three outlets in the room. A large suitcase was in the corner by one of the beds, open and already half-empty. There were beautiful purple sheets on one of the beds – which I assumed came from the suitcase. And sitting on that mattress was a tiny pixie-like girl who was beaming at Josie and me.
Her hair was short and black, cut in almost an exotic way so it stuck out in every direction. She had a tiny frame; I doubted she could hold an instrument for too long without getting tired. Her eyes were an emerald green and her skin was somewhat pale, like mine was. She was wearing a pair of long jean shorts and a beautiful green blouse. She smiled at me.
"You must be Bella," she said, her voice charming as she hopped up from her bed. "I'm Alice Cullen. I can see you've already met Josie here." With this, Alice smiled at Josie, who beamed in return.
"I'm going to go check on Clorissa – are you going to sit with us at dinner?" she asked.
Alice smiled. "Of course I will. Sitting with my favorite clarinet is a duty I must oblige to." She bowed – which was an odd position for someone sitting down. Josie grinned and skipped out of the room leaving the two of us alone. I pulled my suitcases in and shut the door behind me.
"Hi!" Alice said brightly as I set my suitcases down next to hers. "I hope Josie didn't scare you. She's a bit overexcited – band camp is her favorite place in the world." Her voice sounded like a beautiful bird's chirping. "She doesn't have much fun at home, especially with being adopted and all of that… sorry, I'm babbling. Do you want to get settled first, or do you want to go meet everyone? I could introduce you to the kids who will be sitting with us at dinner, if you want. Or we could watch a movie like Josie and Clorissa are. It's your choice."
I blinked. Since when had anyone turned on the 'Nice' button? Had I been back at Phoenix, my roommate probably would have left already to go talk to her friends and leave me on my own. By the sounds of it, Alice had plenty to talk to – why was she sticking around to see what I wanted to do?
"Er… I'll unpack. You go on ahead," I told her as I bent down to unzip my suitcase full of everything I could manage to bring that would make me feel more at home. Flannel sheets (I knew it got warm, but flannel was fuzzy enough for me to go to sleep), alarm clock, pillows, and a few boxes of chocolate chip cookies made by my mother.
But Alice was suddenly at my side, plucking out the flannel sheets and taking them over to my bed. Confused, I stood up.
"No, no, no," Alice chirped as she spread the sheets out over my mattress. "It wouldn't be nice to leave you here to fend for yourself. I'll help you. Then, if we have time, I can show you around the floor and introduce you to a few of my friends. But by the looks of things, we'll probably have to go straight to dinner and then to concert practice. We won't be back to this room until about eight or nine." She tucked in the sheets around the corners and bounced back to me.
"What else do you need help with?" she asked cheerfully.
I looked at her as if she were insane – which, I was beginning to think she was. First Josie with my suitcase falling down the stairs, and now Alice was helping me unpack. What was going on here?
"I can get it, really," I insisted. I preferred being alone anyway. "I'll be alright. You can go see your friends."
"I'll see my friends at dinner," Alice told me as she stole my covers from out of my hands. She pranced over to the bed – I now noticed that when she walked, it was more like dancing. "After all, most of them are probably unpacking too. I don't want to disturb them, you know?"
I took out my pillows and threw them onto my bed. "Is there a closet in here?" I asked.
Alice now danced over to her bed and pointed to a dark oak sliding door. "There's a pretty decent-sized closet in here. I saved an entire rack for you, Bella. But I hope you don't mind if I look through your things every once in a while. I don't want you wearing anything horrid," she told me. As she said this, she opened up the door. I stared. She was so small, and yet she acted as if opening that huge door was nothing at all. I would never understand science – not in a million years. At least, not the sciences involving Alice.
I walked over and took a peek in. I think what Alice meant by one rack was one-fourth of the closet. Stylish outfits occupied most of it. Some of them I doubted were even her size. For instance, the pair of jeans that was on the hanger at the end. They were far too long for her to wear, I bet.
"What are these for?" I asked, gesturing to the longer and bigger sets of clothing.
Alice flushed slightly, looking embarrassed. "Well, I didn't know what your size was, and I figured you'd need some fashionable clothes. I hope you're not angry," she said.
My eyes widened. The only words I could really think were, 'Wow' and 'Why did she do this for me?' "Er… thanks," I said, completely taken by surprise. Even Angela, who had been my kindest friend back in Phoenix, had not done this sort of thing for me. Mainly it was because she could hardly afford it. By the amount of clothes Alice had, I figured she had plenty of money to spare. Especially since she was willing to spend it on me.
"No problem," she said, looking relieved that I accepted her kindness.
She helped me hang up some of my clothes – I kept most of them in my suitcase, since they would typically go into drawers at home. I set up my alarm clock and my laptop. By the time we were finished, it was ten minutes until dinner.
"Don't forget your lanyard," Alice warned me as she placed hers around her neck. "It has your room key, your food card, and your name tag on it. The directors need us to wear these for the first few days. Oh, and this pouch is where all of our marching charts go." I knew some of this – thought marching band camp in Phoenix only involved going to school for a few hours and working hard on marching and playing before going home. I wondered if it would be any fun here. There were no eager parents awaiting me when I got home to demand how my day had been and what I thought of the music.
That, in itself, was a relief.
"C'mon." In a bold gesture, Alice took my hand and led me outside. I tripped over the doorframe and crashed into someone across the hall. Alice didn't let go of my hand, so she was yanked back and fell backwards. We all fell into a heaping pile of human being.
"I'm so sorry," I gushed as I stumbled to my feet. The girl I had knocked over had dark brown hair that went down to her shoulders. She was wearing thick-framed black glasses and had deep hazel eyes. She got to her feet and brushed some of the dust off of her black and neon shirt. She smiled at me.
"It's okay," she said. "You're the new clarinet – Isabella, right?" Before I could answer, I was cut off.
"Sarah, Sarah!" cried someone. A girl with exceptionally light brown hair rushed around the corner now, her sapphire blue eyes wide as she took in her friend. "I heard you fall, are you okay?"
The girl, Sarah, laughed. "I'm fine, Abby, I'm fine." She turned to me again and laughed to see that my cheeks were a faint pink.
Alice danced to my side as if she had never fallen over. "Sarah, this is Bella. Bella, this is Sarah. She's a flute. The other one is Abby – she's a guard member," she explained briefly. I gave each girl a smile and Abby waved cheerfully.
"Hi!"
"Hi," I answered.
Sarah thrust out her hand and shook my own, her hazel eyes bright. "Nice to meet you," she said in what I assumed was an attempt at a formal tone. "Sorry for running into you. I probably should have been looking." I blinked in amazement. She was actually blaming herself for our pile-up? I had been the one to trip and make a fool of myself.
"Er…"
"Look, we should get to dinner," Alice interceded, grabbing my hand again as she shut the door to our room. "We don't want to be late, or all of our seats will be taken up at the table." She began leading me down the hall, and Abby and Sarah followed.
It was more or less about a four to five minute walk to the cafeteria. As we walked, I took the time to look around the campus and allow Alice to lead me to and fro about the sidewalk as she and the two girls behind me chattered about things that I didn't understand – like current relationships and scandals, and problems that other band kids were having.
The campus around us was rather nice. It was peaceful and quiet; with green grass and huge trees that shadowed the lawns. It'd be a good place to read, on Saturdays and Sundays that we had off. At least, that was what I had gathered from the schedule sent to us from the band instructor. The road was nicely paved, but we had to watch for cars as we waited to get to the other side and to the cafeteria. It was just then that I realized that Alice was talking to me now.
"-Emmett and Rosalie usually sit with us. There are some other people too. Abby and Sarah and Josie and Clorissa and Audrey and Slinky and Theresa and Emily. It sounds like a lot of people, but we always manage," Alice was saying.
"Oh," was all I could respond.
Alice was leading me into the cafeteria, Sarah and Abby behind us. A weird smell hit me and I realized that it was all the food coming from the actual dining area. Alice gestured for me to get into a line of people. I did so, and found that I needed to get my food card out. I fumbled with the plastic envelope it was in for a moment before finally getting it out. It was then I realized that Alice, Sarah, and Abby were all waving towards someone at the front of the line. I turned my head to see who they were waving to.
It was Josie, and she was waving back. Beside her was a smaller framed girl with thick glasses like Sarah's and dark brown hair that was tied back in a neat ponytail. Her eyes were a chocolate brown as she smiled serenely in our direction.
"That's Clorissa," Alice informed me. "She's Josie's roommate."
I remembered Josie mentioning something about Clorissa, and nodded knowingly. I was beginning to get the hang of this, if I was being honest with myself.
"So I've heard you're from Phoenix," the girl Sarah said as we were waiting in line. She smirked when I flushed slightly. "So what's it like? I bet it's better than here."
"Was it nice?" Abby asked.
"Oh, it was nice," I answered, remembering the non-humid air back in Arizona like a fantasy. "It wasn't as humid as it is here, and it was always warm – no matter what the time of year was. It wasn't that pretty, though. Everything was brown and dusty back there. Here, I think it's prettier. There's green, but not too much of it. I like it, except for the fact that your breathe water every time you take in a breath." Alice snickered as Sarah and Abby laughed. "But other than that, it's not bad."
"I'm glad you like it here," Abby said with sincerity. I smiled at her, and handed my card to the lady as she swiped it down her register.
"Thank you," I said politely, and stepped into the food line to gather my dinner. Alice, Sarah, and Abby were right behind me.
I found that there was a variety of food here. I grabbed a buttered roll and a hot dog – considering as I didn't want to eat too much on my first night. I didn't want these girls to get the wrong impression. But, as I was beginning to get used to, I was shocked.
All three girls piled up their plates with liberty, and I found that they didn't really care what I thought of their eating habits. Back in Phoenix, Jessica and her group of friends had scoffed when I brought back an entire meal to the table. It was reassuring to see that these girls weren't being picky about what they ate. Reassured, I just grabbed a small bowl of salad to add onto my meal. I waited for my three new friends as they finished collecting their food, and they came to join me.
"There's our table," Alice cheeped as she gestured with her head towards a table (well, two tables put together, really) in the corner already occupied by at least seven or eight people. I gawked at it and Alice smiled at me good-naturedly as Sarah and Abby shot past us to get to the table. She misinterpreted my stare.
"Don't worry, there will be enough room for you," she said.
Sure, I believed that. But the question going through my head was if they would all like me. Back in Phoenix, I had a hard time fitting in. Even though I already had a few friends here, it seemed as though I was pushing my limit. Was I?
"Guys, this is Bella. She's from Phoenix," Alice introduced me. She had me sit, and she sat beside me. I found that I was seated between her and one of the girls from before, Audrey. She smiled.
"Hey," came the nonchalant greeting from the others around the table.
"Oh, introductions!" Alice exclaimed. She looked apologetically at me, as if she were truly sorry that this was happening to me. She began gesturing to people around the table.
"You already know Josie, Sarah, and Abby." The three mentioned grinned at me. "The girl sitting next to Josie is Clorissa – she's a flute." It was the dark-haired girl that I remembered from earlier in the line. She gave me that same, serene smile. "That's Emily, a clarinet." A blonde like Josie, but with brown eyes instead of green, smiled cheerfully at me. "And next to her is Theresa; she's another clarinet." A girl with exceptionally light blonde hair and sharp blue-gray eyes looked up from the book she was reading. She grinned at me and turned back to her book.
I didn't think that I would remember all of these names. My eyes involuntarily moved to the next two. One was a dark-haired boy with a big bulky frame, and he was sitting next to Theresa. His arm was gently around the shoulders of the girl next to him – a breathtakingly beautiful blond whose hair was much richer than any of the other blondes at the table. Her eyes were a rich honey golden as she smiled at me. The boy's eyes were blue.
"That's Emmett and Rosalie," Alice clarified for me. "Emmett plays tuba and Rosalie's a trumpet. Darn brass."
Emmett scowled at her, but Rosalie was unaffected by the teasing remark.
"This here is Audrey," Alice said, dipping her head to the other girl next to me. "She's a flute too."
"Hi. We've met before," Audrey said with a small laugh. I managed a faint smile in return. She turned back to her French fries and popped one in her mouth casually.
"Don't forget about me!" a small blonde girl, whose hair was barely halfway down her neck, protested. Her chocolate brown eyes were sullen as she glared at Alice as if Alice had forgotten to give her a Christmas present.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Slinky," Alice apologized. I think they were almost the same size.
"Bella, this is Stephenie. She's a tuba like Emmett. We call her Slinky, though," Alice told me with a smile. Theresa, Audrey, and some of the others laughed quietly at the nickname.
I blinked, not catching on. "Why is she called that?" I asked.
"Because I fell down two flights of stairs last year when I was a freshman like a slinky!" Slinky exclaimed as if it were the best thing to be bragging about in the whole world.
"We think she might have suffered some brain damage from it," Audrey confided in me, loud enough for everyone to heard. The entire table chortled with laughter, except for Emmett. He frowned as he glared around at everyone.
"Hey! Don't make fun of my tuba buddy," he said, his voice deep like a grizzly bear's growl. That just made the table laugh even harder.
"We love you, Emmett," Emily giggled.
"Not as much as I do," Rosalie teased.
"Ugh. We don't need to hear about that," Theresa shot back, looking up from her book as everyone laughed.
"Bella doesn't need her mind damaged," Clorissa snickered.
I had the huge feeling that I was going to like it here. A lot.
EOC: That's it, my dearest friends. For now. I'll send you all e-mails through the school server or something whenever I get this thing updated. The next update will probably be around Christmas Eve to Christmas… depending on how long I'll be allowed to write. All of you guys will be more important, especially those of you who only had a line or two. I love you all, Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday, Clorissa! I love you all so much. – Josie
And for any of you random readers out there, thanks for reading. I love you guys too. XD 'Til next time. – Dark and Wild