This isn't a true story... (unlike half the fics on here) and there are no "sugar highs" or bus rides. Sorry :( I hope you'll read/like it anyway.
Summary: When Sable goes to band camp and when she meets her old friend Hayden it brings back some memories that she almost wishes she could forget.
Disclaimer: The characters are, as a matter of fact, mine. :D Yay.
"So, you got me to join again because…" Sarah demanded of me while picking at her nails.
"Because it'll be fun!" I answered her merrily. I looked around the crowded band room and grinned. One of the few joys of my summer- Band Camp. Two glorious words that to me and to the other sixty or so bandies in the room meant two and a half full weeks of nothing but marching, music and molestation (of the friendly sort). Sarah glared half-heartedly at me for a moment before relenting at my smile.
She cheekily took my trumpet case and clumsily picked it up and carried it a few feet before setting it down next to the wall and taking a seat on it. A relieved sigh was audible as she sat down. "Eight o'clock in the freaking morning Sam, are you trying to kill me?" My head bobbed in an unconscious 'Yes', which I was thankful she decided to ignore.
I walked to where she was sitting on my trumpet case and leaned up against the wall before sliding down to join her. I was slightly afraid that the Gemeinhardt case wouldn't be able to take our combined weight, thankfully the fifteen- year –old hinges only gave a pitiful whine.
"So when are you going to let me met these other friends of yours?" asked Sarah.
I glanced at her; obnoxious pink converse, petite jean shorts paired with a faded Abercrombie and Fitch sweatshirt with frayed shoulder from when she cut off the sleeves earlier in the summer, and the gaudy plastic sunglasses that covered more than half her face, shaded by a tweed cabby hat that I was assured to be the height of fashion; and decided maybe never. She caught me looking and shot me a look.
"What? Aren't they going to like me?" She pulled a compact mirror out of her pocket and examined her pronounced features. Her cheekbones normally pale were colored with deep rouge that made her look feverish; she had a matching color lipstick and insisted on leaving her 'mark' with it. I had several on various things in my room.
"No, they will…" She puckered her lips at the mirror and reapplied the lipstick, "You're just…not what they're expecting." Sarah raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow, enough so it could be seen over her massive shades. "No offense." She made to slap me on the shoulder but a shadow fell over us and she stopped.
"Hiya Sabe!"
I stood up and went to wrap the boy in a hug but wimped out at the last minute and tried to change it to a hand shake. The result was an awkward trip/jerk followed by a weird hand-touch thing. "What's up Hayden? It's been a while!"
He snorted loudly, "Yeah, it's been a long time," A small blush covered my face. Somewhere on the ground Sarah snorted.
Hayden was my friend, one of my best aside from Sarah and to most people he was known to be one of two things; 1) A musical genius or 2) gorgeous.
To me, he was both. He'd started playing saxophone in the second grade at a local music school and since then has sky rocketed. After a year of private lessons he started playing in his elementary school with the rest of his age group. His teacher, Mrs. Andrest, was blown away and immediately set him up as the lead sax in the sixth grade band.
Hayden and Ms. Andrest formed a close teacher-pupil relationship; she would introduce him to new pieces and composers and he would make her happy by spending time with the aging spinster. He was constantly telling me stories of her days as a conductor to a large orchestra that had dispersed over the last thirty years.
When he reached the sixth grade he was a member of two swing bands and a small sax ensemble with people more than twice his age. When he started middle school his new band teacher also saw his talent right away. This new teacher started Hayden on clarinet and tenor saxophone and he'd mastered both in a month and half. From then on Hayden would pick up instruments like M & M's. Now a senior he played in six ensembles not including marching and concert band.
Whilst all this was happening he'd never become arrogant in his talent. In fact the opposite, I've known him to go as far as to deny it. Before a lot of people knew him they took his modesty as supercilious but once Hayden starts talking you can't help but like him. He's reckless and silly and clever and can't stay still, he's always up for a joke and constantly laughing and it's unusual to find a person who won't laugh with him.
I met him in eighth grade at an Honors Band Festival; we'd been paired together to share music and a stand as 1st Saxophones. During the long rehearsal we had long breaks every hour and a half and he'd keep us both entertained while we played. Like a game of follow the leader he'd start playing a section or a piece and I'd immediately join, while the rest of the band sat around chatting or snacking on the carrot sticks that were handed out. He made me laugh and I kept him from driving teachers and directors up the wall. It was a rare occasion when he got me to unfetter; my uptight nature had been ground into me since I was about five. It was a knee-jerk reaction for me to calm and soothe over like a unforgiving, one-minded, steamrolling fun sucker.
But that night at the concert he convinced me to sneak outside at intermission after he nabbed a liter of coke and a plate of cookies. And we sat on the percussion moving trucks bumper, talking about music and our friends who had no interest in it. I told him about Sarah-my best friend- and he told me about his brother Etienne who was most obviously the most important person for him.
Etienne was three and a half at the time and was already set on becoming his big brother in miniature. The one thing he'd asked for, for Christmas was a saxophone. Hayden instead bought him a toy one and took one of his old reeds and a cheap mouth piece and ligature and taught Etienne to make a squawking noise on it.
The next few years I heard numerous stories about Etienne apparently he was quite the little bugger. There was one time Hayden came home from school to find Etienne sobbing his little heart out lying on Hayden's bed because he had an ear ache and missed his "Big bwadda", and another when he had a nightmare about sharks after sneaking into the living room while their parents were watching Jaws, but he was too afraid to go all the way to the parents' bedroom; the time when he stole gelatin from the kitchen and ate it all before throwing it all up on his bed. Or when he still wet the bed and would wake up in the middle of the night and need to shower and then share Hayden's bed. The stories of Etienne were endless and it seemed like I heard a new one every day.
I knew of Etienne for two years before I met him as whenever I came over, Etienne was always sleeping or with his mother or babysitter.
So I always offered to give Hayden rides home when I figured there'd be a chance to see Etienne. So Hayden and I had gone out for ice cream with a couple friends at Baskin Robins and I gave him a ride home
"Feel like coming in for a second? I've been meaning to give you back your CD…" Hayden offered sheepishly.
I rolled my eyes fondly, "Yeah, it's about time too."
He ruffled my hair in its ponytail and hopped out of the car, "Come on, eh?" I pulled myself off the sticky leather seats of my Kia and followed.
"Yeah, yeah, coming," I wiped the sweat off the back of my neck and flipped up my sunglasses.
I whistled quietly once we were inside, "I never get over this place it's huge."
And it was. It was a big brick thing with four bedrooms and bathrooms over three main floors. The floor was rosewood and the walls were eccentric colors, lime green in the kitchen, royal blue in the bathroom, orange in the living room. There were absurd little ornaments everywhere, a dog statue coat rack by the door; a globe shaped fish bowl, with out any fish on the mantle place; a record player set up on the first step of the stairs. My favorite is the reed sculpture that seems to travel around the house. It started as two single broken reeds stuck together with orbit gum and it kept growing and now it's about forty reeds and tons of tiny pieces of white gum.
Hayden shrugged, "Yeah well…" I rolled my eyes again.
"So will I be able to meet the little guy this time?" I asked curiously.
Hayden grinned, "I'll have to see how he's feeling, maybe if you're lucky." I grudgingly accepted and we headed up to Hayden's room.
He pushed the door open carelessly and we trouped into his room. The walls were plain white in his room, but they were bizarrely bright and covered in posters; The Jersey Surf, The Killers, Maynard Ferguson, The Beatles, The Blue Devils… the list goes on and on. His floor was covered in CD cases, broken reeds, torn music, an old lyre, (A/N: A thing that holds up music while your marching) and some clothes; socks, t-shirts and stuff. In the corner of his room there was a window and window seat that held his sax, tenor, trumpet, clarinet and soprano sax and trumpet, plus his thousands of sheets of music.
I pushed my way threw all the junk on the floor and made for the instruments. I brushed my hand over the trumpet case to the latches and opened it. Hayden came over too and grabbed his soprano out of the case. I took the mouth piece and blew warm into it for a couple seconds and then buzzed my lips and made a loud duck noise. I laughed and another small giggle joined me.
I turned to Hayden with an amused look thinking it was him laughing but he was gazing over my shoulder. "Hi!"
"Um, Sable? This is my brother, Etienne."
I spun around and found myself glancing down at a familiar face. Almond shaped, brown eyes, a flat nose and almost ruddy skin, I gasped aloud in realization. iThis /i was Etienne? The lively boy I've felt like I'd known forever? iHayden's /i brother had Downs.
After I left Hayden's house that day I'd spent four hours with the two brothers waiting for some sort of explanation as to why, after all the stories I'd heard of Etienne, Hayden had never bothered to mention that his brother was, indeed, special. I was, to say the least, hurt, that he hadn't trusted me enough to meet his brother. I was particularly sure that he hadn't planned on me meeting him today, judging by the uncomfortable look that his face was twisted into for the rest of that afternoon.
Nevertheless, I idid/i have a lot of fun with Etienne. He was cute but stubborn but loved to play. He especially liked legos and blocks. The three of us built quite a town with Etienne's huge supply of building tools. It surprised me how tedious he was with getting the blocks exactly even or making sure that the towers were precisely the same height.
When it came my time to leave I gave Etienne a hug goodbye and a promise to come over soon and Hayden walked me to my car.
"Ya know I never did get my CD…" I said jokingly.
He nodded his agreement, "Next time then."
We stood in silence for a minute until we both jumped to break the silence at the same time.
"Why didn't you—"
"Are you going to—"
"You can go first," he said, I nodded as amicably as I could.
"You never told me about your brother," I said cautiously.
He glared at me, "I told you everything that was important." I shied away from his angry look. I rubbed my hand on the cool of the roof my car.
"Okay…" we drifted into silence again, except this time neither of us said anything.
"Well, I'd better be going then," I dug my keys out of my pockets, "I'll see you later."
Since then I had barely talked to Hayden, for almost two years. I came over once more to visit Etienne, but afterwards it was too awkward. Sometimes we'd talk during band since we shared the same section but most times we kept away from each other. With Hayden gone for the most part I became best friends with Sarah.
I was brought back to Hayden and my current conversation by a stomp on my foot and an annoyed cry of "Sable!" Hayden had a CD case in his hands and he was holding it out to me.
"I do believe this is yours." A slightly mangled case that very clearly contained A MIX OF SABLE'S FAVORITES, "I really have been meaning to get it back to you."
I grinned widely, "Thank you, good sir, I appreciate the thought," He rolled his eyes.
Sarah interrupted, "Well, should we go set up or whatever?" I elbowed her in the side and smile cheerfully.
"Sure thing," She scowled darkly at me but I laughed anyways, because I knew that Hayden had forgiven me and that maybe, we'd finally be okay.
Yes, totally lame ending I know.
I was planning on continuing and not randomly ending abruptly but I wrote this for a contest and didn't have time before I had to turn it in.
Ah well, do what you will with it.