A/N: Ello, everybody! It's Chibi Scissorwoman, author of Abuse and Obsession with Scissors, back with another story! ^_^
This one has come from my uberly-twisted band geek brain... It has decided to put the Subordinates, Alyssa, and Dennis in high school marching band. Of course chaos will ensue... oh dear Lord, what have I done... lol.
This is a crackfic, not meant to be taken entirely seriously... There's quite a bit of comedy in this one, I think. ^^ Here's chapter one, and I don't own anything Clock Tower 3 related except Lenora Skeffington... she is mine. Enjoy!
~~~~~~Chapter One~~~~~~
What on earth did I get myself into?
Sixteen-year-old Lenora Skeffington stood nervously in the doorway of the band room. Her clarinet case was in her hands in front of her, her honey-blonde hair in its typical style of half-down, half-braided. Even though she and everyone else in the room were wearing the same uniform, a green blazer and either a plaid skirt on the girls and black pants on the boys, Lenora felt completely out of place in here.
She didn't feel this way with her old band; not at all. In fact, she was happy there, with all her seemingly normal friends. Well, she had been. She'd been perfectly happy with her life, before her parents had had an argument. She'd come home from school one day to find everything she owned packed away in boxes and her mother at the kitchen table, telling her they were moving. That had been about a week ago, and now she was here. What was this school called? Hamilton High... Burroughs Academy... Something like that. She couldn't remember.
"Yo!" called a rough voice. Lenora looked up to see a black-haired boy in the back, propped up on a trombone. "You gonna come in the room, blondie, or just stand there staring like an idiot?"
Lenora blushed lightly, but didn't move. Honestly, she had no idea where her section was. Her eyes swept around the room, trying to find a friendly face. She was so nervous looking around that she didn't think she'd ever find one... then she caught the gaze of a short-haired blonde girl holding a flute. She smiled, and Lenora meekly shuffled over to her.
"Are you new?" the blonde girl asked. Lenora nodded. Normally she wasn't this shy, but... "Ah, I see. Well, my name's Alyssa Hamilton. What's yours?"
"L-Lenora Skeffington," Lenora said, feeling a bit of her nervousness go away.
"Nice to meet you, Lenora," said Alyssa. "What instrument do you play?"
"Clarinet," Lenora replied, holding up her instrument case. Alyssa looked at it for a second, then nodded.
"The clarinet section is over there," she said, pointing to the other side of the room. "In front of the tenor saxes. Sit next to the girl with black hair -- she'll help you out."
Lenora nodded. "Thanks," she said. Alyssa nodded, and Lenora nervously walked over to where Alyssa had pointed.
The tenor saxophone players stared at her as she walked through the room, and her heart raced as she sat down next to the black-haired girl Alyssa had mentioned.
As soon as Lenora had sat down, the girl turned to her. "Who're you?" she asked. "What're you doing in my section?"
Lenora flinched. This girl was as pale as her, had dark eyes, hair up in a peculiar style, and -- this was the strangest -- scars all over her legs. What was she -- a cutter?
"I'm Lenora Skeffington," Lenora replied after a moment. "I'm new here -- just started today. I'm a clarinet." The girl's eyes immediately brightened.
"Oh, you're a newbie!" she exclaimed. "Well, hi there, newbie! I'm Jemima Burroughs! Sorry for scaring you -- honestly, I thought you were a flute."
"Why would you think that?" Lenora asked, opening her case and sticking the wooden reed in her mouth as she began to assemble the instrument.
"Because," Jemima said, shifting around in her seat and leaning forward, "you were talking to Alyssa Hamilton. She's the flute section leader, and she loves to recruit others for her section. Half the flutes in there used to be clarinets, but then they decided to change their minds halfway through pep season last year and went to flutes." Lenora nodded. She knew what that was like. It'd happened all the time in her old band... people would switch sections all the time. Occasionally it had been because of actual want, but most of the time it was by peer pressure or hatred of the people in the odl section. Her old band was full of cliques; each section was basically its own clique. It'd driven Lenora crazy, but she'd learned to live with it. Was this band full of cliques, too?
Before she got a chance to ask Jemima, a tall, burly man came up and stood at the head of the class. His semilong gray hair was pulled back into a small ponytail, and Lenora concluded by his stance that he was the band director.
He raised his hands, and the room silenced.
"I am Mr. Burroughs," he announced. His voice echoed through the room, its deepness reverberating in Lenora's chest. "I only say this because I see we have a new clarinet player!" He pointed at the clarinets, and Jemima nudged her.
"Stand up!" she muttered. Lenora hurriedly got to her feet, and she felt Jemima push her up to the front. She nervously stood beside Mr. Burroughs, feeling overwhelmed by his height as she looked out at the band.
"This is Lenora Skeffington," Mr. Burroughs said, clapping a massive hand on her shoulder. "This is her first day here; she's new, so don't frighten her too much!" Everyone chuckled, and Lenora paled. Did this band have an initiation ritual just like her old one did?
"Just remember, Lenora," continued Mr. Burroughs after the laughter had died down, "if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask. Jemima is the clarinet section leader, so you'll be reporting to her." Jemima waved, and the director added, "What part did you play in your old band?"
"First," Lenora replied; she'd always played first part, even in middle school. She'd often heard that first part was the hardest, but she'd never had a problem with it. It was almost too easy for her.
Mr. Burroughs nodded. "Then you will sit next to Jemima; you'll be first part, second chair. Now go."
He clapped her on the shoulder once more, and Lenora quickly hurried back to her seat.
"I think he likes you," Jemima muttered as Lenora sat back down. Lenora laughed nervously as the girl began thumbing through her music. She brought out a book of scales and exercises, and Lenora looked at it.
"Think you can play that?" Jemima grinned as Lenora examined the notes, the arpeggios, the thirds, the intervals. She then looked up at the section leader.
"You kidding?" she asked. "B flat major scale? Simple as pie."
She raised her instrument just as Mr. Burroughs raised his hand. The band director counted them off, then started conducting. The whole band instantly began playing. Lenora chose to play the higher octave, playing the scale with Jemima in absolute perfection. She'd done this so many times... She'd memorized this whole scale, top to bottom, both octaves, way back in her first year of middle school. Now, she played it effortlessly, letting the notes fly from her instrument as easily as clouds floated in the sky.
When they played the last note, Mr. Burroughs cut them off. "Good," he said. "Now... get out the drill music." He turned his back as papers shuffled, everyone looking for their drill music.
"Drill music?" Lenora asked. "I don't have any drill music."
"Of course you don't," Jemima replied. "You just got here. You can share mine until you get your own." Lenora nodded, and Jemima pulled three small sheets of music out and put them on the stand. Lenora leaned forward and examined the music.
Theme from Mission Impossible, Jump in the Line, and Play That Funky Music. Lenora stared in confusion. These pieces of music didn't have anything in common!"
"What's the theme?" she asked. Jemima stared at her.
"The what?"
"The theme. Of your marching show."
"Don't have one. Mr. Burroughs wants us to stand out among other bands, and so he never picks a theme. He just picks random songs and has us do the drill for it."
Lenora slowly nodded. That was sincerely odd... To not have a theme for a marching show was like playing without dynamics: just a large, jumbled mess that only an idiot could call music.
The bell rung several minutes later, after they had all easily finished the last song. As Lenora was putting away her instrument, she was suddenly confronted by a boy from the trumpet section. To her surprise, the boy looked like a male version of Jemima: he had the same black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin, and his hair was tied back as Jemima's was, except his was a plain small bun. He smiled at Lenora, showing bright white teeth.
"Who're you?" Lenora asked as Jemima took her clarinet case.
"Ralph Burroughs!" the boy declared. It clicked in Lenora's head: they looked alike, had the same last name...
"Are you and Jemima twins?" she asked. Ralph grinned.
"You guessed it!" he exclaimed. "And you're the new girl! Lenora Skeffington! Ah, don't worry, Lenora, Jemima and I'll help you out!"
"Harassing a girl again, are you, Scissorman?" asked another black-haired boy, walking over. Lenora recognized him as the one who'd shouted at her when she walked in.
"Not doing anything of the sort, Chopper!" Ralph replied, grinning at him. "Just introducing myself to my dear new friend Lenora!" He threw an arm around her shoulders, just as Jemima came back and did the same.
The boy he called Chopper stared down at Lenora, boring into her with his dark brown eyes. Lenora stared back fearlessly, her own dark green eyes narrowed. After a moment he said, "Scissorman... how can she be your dear new friend if you know nothing about her?"
Lenora tilted her head. "You don't have to know anything about someone to be their friend, Chopper," she snapped. Ralph let out a wild laugh, while Chopper's eyes narrowed.
"Ah, I like you, Lenora!" Ralph declared. "You should come eat with us at lunch!"
"Don't worry, she will!" Jemima told him. Chopper sighed and held out his hand.
"Harold Powell," he said, taking Lenora's hand and shaking it. "Senior. Trombonist. See you later."
He picked up his backpack and left the room.
"Aw, don't mind Chopper," said Jemima as the three of them finally left the band room. "He's always grumpy. Corroder's the same way. What do you have second hour?"
"Uh..." Lenora rummaged in her messenger bag, withdrew a sheet of paper, and read it. "P.E. with... Mr. Norton?"
Ralph and Jemima grimaced, looking at each other.
"What?" Lenora asked. "What is it?"
"You've got a class with Alyssa Hamilton," Jemima replied.
"And Dennis Owen," Ralph added. "He's in the band, plays alto sax --"
"--and they're some of the most annoying people in the school," Jemima finished. "Hamilton's all goody-goody all the time, and Owen is an absolute idiot."
"Most think they're together, with the way they act around each other," said Ralph. "They'll try to get you on their side, but don't listen to them. We're your better friends."
Lenora was confused. Utterly, utterly confused. "Their side? What--"
"All right, well, you're here!" exclaimed Jemima, stopping in front of a set of double doors,. "Don't worry, little Lenora, I'll be waiting for you after this hour! We have third hour algebra together, I saw, so I'll be here to pick you up!"
"Bye bye, Lenora!" Ralph added, opening the door. They then pushed Lenora in, laughing.
