Chapter One
A young man, roughly the age of 14 and is a freshman in high school, is lying peacefully asleep in his bed. His fairly built body and 6 foot height put his feet near the end of the bed. His brown hair isn't very long and his skin is very tan most of the year. The alarm clock on the nightstand shows 5:59. The silence is instantly shattered as the alarm clock rings loud and long.
"Ahh!" the kid yells as he is awoken up from his deep sleep. He yawns and shakes himself awake. As he looks at the clock and around his room, which is covered in many posters, trophies, and medals from the various sports he does.
The kid walks to his closet and grabs some clothes out of it and puts them on. He stumbles over his sheep dog, which is asleep at the foot of his bed on his way to the door. He walks downstairs with a yawn, rubbing his head. He finds his dad awake at the table reading the newspaper. His father is around the age of 45 and beard is growing slightly gray from age.
"Morning Hewey," he said, calling his son by one of his nicknames. Hewey smiled at his dad and shook his head.
"Morning old man," Hewey replied as he started packing his backpack. He slowly packs as his dad finishes the paper.
"Try not to miss the bus this morning like you did yesterday," his dad said as he put the paper down and said goodbye. He left and went into the garage and started his car. His dad was gone in a matter of minutes, speeding out of the garage and off into the street. He waves one last goodbye as he heads up the street, disappearing from view.
A few minutes' later, Hewey grabs his instrument and leaves his house, heading toward the bus stop at the top of the hill. He reaches the top of the hill and finds himself to be the first person there. One of his many friends comes up the street behind him, having left a few minutes later. The kid is short, stocky, and not very well built, though he is a good cross country sprinter and drummer.
"Morning Hewey," he said coming up behind and tossing a to him. He smiled as the muffin soared toward Hewey's head.
"Morning Drew," Hewey replied as he turned caught the muffin at the last second. He smiled and shook his head as he took a bite of the muffin.
Hewey and Drew have a short conversation, consisting of what classes they have and what kind of homework/ tests they didn't do or study for. The bus comes to a stop and Hewey laughs as he notices that other people have arrived while they were talking. The two get on the bus and sit across from each other. The bus ride is long but it seems very short to Hewey because he used the bus ride to study for the big history test he has first period.
The bus comes to a halt and Hewey hits his head on the seat in front of him. There were a few laughs coming from the people behind him but he ignores it. Muttering a curse and putting his pen light and history book away and he gets off the bus. Hewey and Drew continue their conversation as they walk to the band room. They pass many of their friends in the hall as they make their way to the band room. As they pass this one locker though, Hewey's eyes wander to the person who has it. The girl is opening her locker as he passes, so she doesn't notice him. The girl is a very beautiful freshman, who Hewey has known since he was in seventh grade, when he met her during band. She plays the piccolo in band and goes by the nickname Emy. Emy flicks her hair long dirty blonde hair back as they pass. They continue on and finally reach the band room.
"Good morning Hewey and Drew," the band director says when they enter the room. The band director was setting up the chairs for his first period class when Hewey volunteers to help.
"Good morning Mr. Burke," Hewey replies as he finishes and goes and gets his instrument out to go do his normal practicing. Drew walks in a few minutes later, his drum sticks still in his backpack as Hewey comes out of the back room holding his instrument after putting his case away. Hewey is a trumpet player, the same as his oldest brother was. He is also about to become one of the section leaders in the marching band, even though he is only a freshman.
A few minutes later one of their friends enter the room. She is another freshman who plays trumpet and is also in marching band. Her brown hair falls around her face and she tries in vain to get it to stay up but fails horribly. The girl can sometimes act very strangely but most of the time though she is just happy and hyper.
"Morning Beck," Hewey says as he finishes the scale. He lowers the instrument and puts it across his lap with a sigh.
"Hey Hewey," the girl says as she comes and sits next to him and waits for him to start practicing again.
Hewey practices for a few more minutes and then reviews for his history test again. A few minutes after he is done reviewing, the bell rings, signaling that they only have 5 minutes before they have to get to class. Hewey puts his instrument away and grabs his bag.
"Just remember, first day of marching band is after school tonight!" Hewey said with a laugh, as they left the band room. They spend a few more seconds, finish up another conversation before departing to the many different classes they have.
Chapter Two
The ringing of the school bell filled Hewey's ears as he was woken up from his sleep during the final period of the day. The teacher had given them the period off because she had left her schedule at home. Hewey sat up and hit his head on the back wall, causing the black haired girl next to him to laugh. He stood up and grabbed his things; his backpack was packed long before he took his nap. Hewey shook his head as he let the girl that had laughed at him by before leaving the room and going into the already filling hallway.
Leaving his Geometry classroom Hewey headed toward the band room. Finally, after all this waiting its finally started, he thought to himself as he turned the corner and ran straight into someone.
"Oh I'm sorry, let me help you," he said as he picked up the persons books.
"Thanks," the person said and as Hewey looked up it turned out to be the piccolo player from earlier. Grinning, Hewey handed her last book to her.
"Anytime," Hewey said slyly as she walked passed to where her locker was.
Hewey continued on to the band room where he threw his stuff down, and made a bed out of 4 empty chairs. He fell asleep in a matter of minutes, as the room around him filled up with the many eagerly awaiting people.
A few minutes later Hewey felt a slight jab in his side as one of the older section leaders punched him in the side. He immediately sat up and looked around for who did it.
"I am looking for a guy that goes by Hewey. Someone said you might know him," the section leader said as Hewey sat up.
"This is him, what do you need?" Hewey asked staring at the section leader from where he was sitting.
The section leader smiled and tossed a binder at him. "They have our show already picked out, here is the formations and crap were doing," he said opening the binder and showing him some of the pictures.
"The shows already been picked?" Hewey asked giving him a puzzled stare. "When do we get the music for it?" he asked shaking his head.
"We should get it later tod..." the section leader said before getting cut off by the band director, who had started making an announcement.
"I need everybody's attention," the band director called and the band slowly got quiet. "I need to see all the freshmen go over there and the rest of the band to come over here," he said showing the groups where to go. "I also need to see the section leaders for a quick meeting in my office," he said ending it and the rest of the band started talking again.
"Come on, we got a meeting," the section leader said, leading the way. Hewey followed him in silence, trying to avoid most of the people's eyes around him.
They reached the office and the section leader stepped in.
"Your not supposed to be here," one of the adults that were standing around the door said to Hewey.
"But I got this thing that they needed section leaders and so I went to the clinic and did all the stuff," Hewey pleaded, trying not to draw attention to himself.
"Sure, now wheres your proof of this?" the adult asked as Hewey reached into his bag and brought out a sheet of paper.
"Well I'll be damned, you are one. Now get in there, the meeting is starting," the adult said and before Hewey had a chance to react he pushed him into the room.
"Nice of you to join us Hewey," the director said as Hewey stumbled into the room. The room was filled with the various section leaders, all of them either juniors or seniors.
Hewey muttered an apology and sat down next to the section leader that had confronted him earlier. The director's speech was long and it went over the many details of what they were going to do this year. The ending included what they were going to do today, which was to teach and re teach the band how to march. The meeting concluded and they left the office, Hewey getting a few strange looks from the low brass and clarinet section leaders.
Chapter Three
"Detail attend hut!" Hewey's voice boomed across the section of the field they had and as one the trumpet section came to attention. Hewey sighed and waited for the other section leader to start.
"Alright now form a block, since we have nine people we make a 3 by 3 block, now move!" the other section leader yelled as the trumpet section moved into its block formation. The harshness of the section leaders tone made the section move quickly.
"Alright now on my count you forward march eight steps, backwards march eight steps, and then I call you to halt," the section leader said as he counted off the move. The block moved fairly well going forward but one person fell on the way back.
"Freshman get over here," the section leader said as he pointed to the freshman who had tripped. The freshman came up, looking slightly scared at the moment. "What is your name?" the section leader asked and waited for a reply.
"My names BJ," the freshman said shakily as he came to attention. As he stood at attention the section leader shook his head.
"Well that's a nice name, now drop and give me fifty pushups," the section leader said and the freshman dropped to the dirt.
Hewey bit his lip as the group circled around the section leaders and watched the kid do the fifty pushups. After about two minutes the kid was done with his pushups and was back on his feet, the front of his shirt covered in dirt.
"Has this taught you a lesson about screwing up?" the section leader asked cruelly and there were a few muttered responses.
A few minutes later the band director dismissed the weary band. BJ was standing alone and Hewey came over and started a conversation with him.
"Don't mind him, he is just acting this way for some odd reason," Hewey said trying to comfort him.
"How would you know, your only a freshman like me?" BJ said angrily and pushed Hewey out of his way as he left the field.
Hewey turned to try and say something but a hand on his shoulder held him back. He turned and it turned out to be a flute section leader with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Just let him go, he will be fine," she said removing the hand from his shoulder. "Why that section leader hasn't been fired has been beyond me. I think that's why they chose you," she said smiling and patting his shoulder.
Hewey shrugged and shook his head. "Yeah I was wondering why they had asked me to become one, my names Hewey by the way, what might yours be?" he asked, wondering what the girls name was.
"My names Brandi," she said smiling and they started to walk back to the band room, talking. They reached the band room and departed. Saying goodbye, Hewey put his instrument away and took the case with him as he went back into the main hallway.
This has been one very long day, he thought to himself and looking down at his watch. He muttered a curse as he noticed what the time was and started to run to the wrestling room.
Chapter Four
The shriek of a whistle sounded and Hewey sprinted across the room once again. Down and back he went, for what seemed to be the hundredth time this practice. Hewey wiped the sweat from his eyes and regained his breath. His teammates around him were all enjoying it more then he was. Hewey was about to become a starting wrestler on the varsity team but still had some major work to do in the off season.
"Oh so close, you were 1/10 of a second off, lets try again. Sprint!" the coach yelled and blew his whistle again and they flew off once again and ran down and back. Hewey came to a halt at the end and prayed that they had finally made it.
"Well look at this, you finally made it, take a water break," the coach said with a laugh as he put his stopwatch away and sat down against the wall. Hewey wiped the newly formed sweat on his face and walked out of the room into the cool refreshing halls.
"Can't believe you made that last one Hewey," a senior said with a grin as he patted Hewey's back and went to get some water.
"Yeah I didn't think I could either," Hewey replied with a grin and wiping his face on his shirt. He went to the water fountain and waited his turn in line. He leaned against a wall and touched his sweat soaked shirt, which nearly got stuck to the wall.
On his way back to the wrestling room he noticed that people were around and sometimes watching them when they had wrestled. Not noticing it before he now noticed some people from his band, not knowing that he was a wrestler.
Hewey re entered the wrestling room and talked with some of his wrestling friends for a few seconds before the coach called them back to practice. The next two hours that were left in practice were straight drilling. They drilled the moves they learned when they were on JV and some new moves. Those last two hours felt like they would drag on forever, at least that's what Hewey thought of them. After the practice was over the coach started his speech, which usually went on for about 10 minutes.
"That practice was so long and exhausting," Hewey said as they went into the locker room to shower. They put their stuff away and showered, discussing many of the things they did that night in the smelly locker room. As they were leaving, the senior that had came up to him earlier, made a very hilarious dumb blonde joke.
Hewey laughed at the seniors joke as they left the locker room. He said goodbye to the senior and started down a hallway. The door at the end of the hall opened and a group of girls walked through. Holy crap I know all of them, Hewey thought to himself as he saw and noticed that they were all in band. He spotted one of his friends in the group, a rather short and dark haired girl named Jess. She is kind of a preppy goth, who plays the mellophone in marching band. He also noticed the piccolo player he had a crush on was in the group. All of them stared at him as he passed but then went back to their conversations.
Hewey walked outside and waited for his dad to arrive. His dad arrived a few minutes later and he jumped in the back of the huge gray van.
"Have a good day?" his dad asked, not being able to tell if his hair was wet from the practice or from the shower.
"It was good, that test in history this morning was very easy," Hewey replied with a grin, his dad having reviewed it with him way too much to forget about it now.
"Well that's good. Moms supposed to have dinner ready by the time we get home," his dad said with a grin as he heard his son's stomach growl from the lack of food.
"Well that's good," Hewey replied as they left the parking lot and headed towards home.
Chapter 5
Hewey was sitting in a dimly lit room, during marching band practice. The time given to the sections were for passing off the music they had to have memorized.
Hewey sighed as he listened to Beck play her part in the opening to the show. He shook his head and waited for her to be done.
"Well Beck, you have a whole lot of work to do on that," he said pointing at the very hard music that he was barely able to do himself.
"Yes I will try harder next time," Beck replied and left the room. The next one to come in played it just a little bit better then Beck but had no tempo or anything.
"You got to work on that tempo, you speed up sometimes," Hewey said as he stopped playing. The kid nodded and left the room.
Hewey leaned back in his chair and yawned. Never knew it was going to be this hard, he thought to himself and noticed that his people were done for now. He got up and left the room and headed to the main room.
When he had arrived he found that his section leader and Brandi were in an argument about something.
"Why don't we settle this over a paintball game then?" he asked her angrily.
"Anytime, anywhere, anyplace," she replied coolly back to him, smiling.
"Tomorrow at noon at the local paintball range we shall settle this," he said glaring at her.
"Alright, tomorrow it is, good thing we don't have school that day," Brandi said with a laugh.
Hewey looked at the trumpet and flute/ piccolo players that had gathered around watching. Emy, the piccolo player he likes, turned and saw his confusion and started to explain the situation to him.
"But you outnumber us two to one," Hewey said with a sigh and Emy laughed.
"Well were a bunch of girls, you shouldn't lose against a bunch of girls should you?" she said smiling and patting him on the shoulder before the section leader dragged him and his section over to a corner.
"Alright guys and girls, we have a paintball game against the flutes. Now if we lose tomorrow I am going to have to go naked to school one day," he said shaking his head. "You will give your best because if you don't, I will find out," he said wearily.
Hewey glanced around at the group, which were barely suppressing smiles of joy. They could lose on purpose and they know I would cover for them, Hewey thought to himself and muttered a curse under his breath.
"Anyway, we have a lot of work to do, our arcs need to get better," the section leader said, changing the subject completely.
"And the passing off of the music should be done by Friday," Hewey added and sighed. "You guys need to work more on the things I said to work on and you guys will be fine," Hewey said smiling and shaking his head.
"Yes, listen to what Hewey says about the music and what I say about the show," the section leader said smiling and then turning and walking away.
"Alright guys, you heard him, we got lots of work to do, now lets get it done!" Hewey said smiling. He saw BJ and Beck were in a very interesting conversation so he started to lead the rest of the group back on task. Tomorrow will be a very interesting day, he thought to himself as he had them practice as a group a few times.
"Beck you're a bit sharp and BJ you're a tad flat," Hewey said when he heard them play together. He shook his head and moved on to the next pair who were relatively in tune with each other.