Excitement, that's what I felt as the Band parent passed me my plume. Even though my mouth was sore from playing for two quarters. This was the band's time to shine. Half time, possibly the most exciting time for high school Marchers. I put my plume on top of my hat. I made sure my gloves were on the correct hand. My uniform scraped at my skin, but I didn't care about how uncomfortable it made me.
Have I performed thousands of times before? Yes, I have. But this feeling of excitement never wore off.
"Go into field entree position!" One of our Senior drum majors yelled. The band marched to the east end of the field. The props lined up, 3 rows of white, painted platforms with a tightrope painted on them. The other band finished their show. We applauded. The lead drum line marcher started tapping on his drum.
"Left, Left, Left." I said, to myself, and to the marcher in front of me. We made it to the middle of the field. Our director yelled out into the speakers. "AND WELCOME TO THE FIELD, GUARDIAN HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND!" The people in the stands applauded. I took in a deep breath. Our drum majors did their salute, and went to their podium, that was our que to go to set 0.
Front ensemble started playing, and people that weren't playing, counted. "One, two, three." I heard the trumpet player to my right say, in almost a whisper.
Our time to start marching came, me and my shadow, took insanely tiny steps. "One, two, three, four." I counted. We got to our set. We held, front ensemble played, we marched again. We got to our set, and held again. We started marching.
"Horns up." I said, and heard others around me call, in a hushed voice. I moistened my clarinets reed. And started playing.
The audience soon disappeared from my mind. I was at monday evening rehearsal, at this stadium, and this was the last thing we were doing. Soon, the show ended. I was brought back to the here and now. The audience roared and cheered in appreciation. They loved our performance. The drumline tapped us off for us to run into GHS, we did. We played the fight song twice, and the second time out of around, G marched off the field, then H, then S, until it was a jumbled up line of marchers. The fight song ended, the student section applauded, as well as the other Raider fans. There was a smile on my face.
"The Guardian Pride Band would like to wish the Lubbock cooper band the best of luck this season in competition." Our directer called into the mic as the band walked back to the designated section for the band.
"Alright, woodwinds and drumline start packing up your stuff, we are leaving for denton!" Our Second in command director called. I packed up my clarinet in my case, and took off my hat, and jacket, and put my hat, in my hat box. Leaving my grey shirt on, and overalls. I grabbed my jacket.
"The Guardian Pride band will be departing to leave for competition." The announcer said. "The Guardian student body, and competing student body wishes the Guardian Pride Band the best of luck." I picked up my clarinet case, and left the stands, and headed over to my bus. Dropping my hatbox off with the loading crew first. I got on the bus, and slowly fell asleep.