Marching Band.
For most of us band geeks, this is the very meaning of life for most of our year. It's sweat, tears, blood, strained muscles, shouted orders and heavy instruments. But it's also something so much more, something that goes even deeper than the laughter, jokes, bus rides, football games and parades. It's a feeling that you know that you must sacrifice so much for the good of the band, but when you receive that shiny, gleaming trophy in front of hundreds of people, you know that you never want to be a part of anything else.
This is a story that takes place right in the thick of all this madness, with a shy but beautiful pit player, and an extremely sweet guy, who just happens to be the first male marching flute player and section leader in Qualmire Marching band history. Although at first they both knew little about each other, or about relationships in general, they fell in love. This is the story of how two band geeks survive a year of life, loss, fights, jealousy, long practices, late nights, and Marching Band.
Chapter One: The Section Leader Who Made History"Can you believe this?" A curly, blonde-headed flute player remarked angrily to her black-hared, petite friend, looking at the listings for a brand new Qualmire Marching Band Season. Or QMB, as the members and fans affectionately called it. "I work my BUTT off for three long years in this band, and how do they repay me? By screwing me over and picking some transfer student, whom no one has ever seen, as section leader! What the hell are they thinking?"
"I don't know Amberly. They say that he's really good, and apparently got a perfect score on his audition for section leader."
Amberly was still fuming, "I would've gotten a perfect score too! If it weren't for the fact that Mr. Crevett and Mr. Raducci are out to get me! You know they never liked me Corinne!"
The short girl shrugged, "Well, I 'm just glad that nothing like that's going on in the Clarinet section, I'm not section leader and that suits me just fine. I can do without all this drama."
"Wow, you're very sympathetic, well that new guy better watch his back, I'm not going to be taken any orders from some kid who thinks he's good, and if I have anything to say about it…"
Amberly and Corinne disappeared around the corner, still arguing fiercely about the new Flute section leader, as a dark eyed girl peered around the corner. She was very pretty, with delicate features and high cheekbones, and her hair was a rich color of auburn. She had a thoughtful look on her face as she thought about what she just overheard. So the new flute section leader is a guy! That's a first! No wonder Amberly is ticked, all anyone's heard the last few years is about what she would do as section leader, even the Pit kids like me have heard, and we're not even on the field! This year should be interesting.
"Kallie, what have you heard about the new Flute section leader?"
The Pit section leader looked up at the Bell player in surprise. "What was that Jenn?"
"I heard Amberly bitching about it before practice this morning, she's pretty upset."
Kallie laughed, "Oh yeah. But I have to say I would have felt really bad for the other flutes if she were their section leader. Especially the rookies, she would make more than one of them cry!"
"That's for sure!" James called from the corner were he was practicing his timpani part, "Amberly would turn into such a dictator if anyone gave her any power at all, and then band directors know this."
"But I don't envy that new guy though." Said Ryan, the Pit's cymbal player,"Sure, he might be section leader, but that's no guarantee that the Flutes will really respect him, and Amberly is sure going to give him hell for being better than her!"
The xylophone player Katie and the vibraphone player Allison walked in the door and overheard the conversation. Katie laughed and shook her head so her long dark hair swished all over the place, "No one has beaten Amberly for first chair flute since third grade! She was positive that she would be section leader come senior year, but what she doesn't know is that all the flutes play slightly less than their best when it comes to chair auditions. Were lucky that this guy isn't from our school, because he would be just as intimidated by her as all the others."
"Why haven't we seen him yet?" Allison asked, "Today is the first official day of practices after all."
"Well, band camp doesn't technically start until Wednesday, and since he had to move from all the way out of state, well, he was told that he it would be okay to come in time for Band Camp to begin. In the meantime…."
"Amberly is acting like the Supreme Empress of the Universe, and is giving the flutes pushups for even coughing!" James finished Kallie's sentence, laughing, "No one gave her orders to be temporary section leader, but she probably figures it's her only chance to act like she's in charge until the actual authority gets here!"
Everyone laughed at this, most of all Jenn who, even though she never admitted it to anyone, Amberly had always scared her a little bit, and she wasn't even in the flute section! She could always hear Amberly shouting furiously at the flutes during concert band in school, even all the way in the back of the room in the percussion section.
I've never been happier to be in the Pit section than I have this year! And I can't wait to see this guy that everyone is talking about it!
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So, I hope all of you guys enjoyed the first chapter! This story is very loosely based on my own experiences in my school's Marching Band! Which is called QMB, for short! I took some of the actual people I know, and tweaked their names, and the instruments they play. Some of the people are actual real people though, but I did make up some people, though I wont tell you whom! But yes, the character Jenn is me! So I hope you guys like this story enough to read another chapter of it! Till next time fellow band geeks!
