Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; I'm just forced to endure their presence. If, by some miracle of a chance, some one from my band stumbles upon this little story, I was PMS, pissed, and real
Author's note: this is basically just a rant about the week before, the day of, and the week after our 2006 Saturday Band Practice. Any resemblance of characters to people in the lives of readers is unintended and the readers have my sympathy.
Ok, every year my band, VHS Marching Band, has a Saturday practice the week before our first competition. We finish the drill, add visuals, perfect the music, and correct anything else that needs to be fixed. This year, our show writer (let's call him Andre) decided to come pay us a visit on our Saturday practice. For two weeks, my band director (Mr. H) has been telling us to fix our show as much as possible so we don't look like idiots when Andre comes. He kept referring to our Saturday practice as "Andre Day." He was so excited about "Andre Day." Of course we loving band students simply rolled our eyes and groaned, because we all knew that "Andre Day" was quite possibly going to be the most painful days of our lives (no TV show reference intended.)
The week leading up to "Andre Day" was extremely tense. We had just received the drill for the closer on Tuesday evening. The practice did not go well. We had to rehearse in the rain (joy). My section (clarinets, did I mention I am a clarinet?) absolutely cannot set a line, straight or diagonal, to save their lives. We only have one senior this year. Her name is Carrie. Carrie is one of the greatest people ever. She really knows what she's doing. The two juniors are Amy and Adair. I love Amy to death. She is always optimistic about everything. Adair cracks me up at every practice. She rocks my socks. Then there are the sophomores. Brittany, Callie, Jessica, Lisa, and myself. Gypsy is also considered a sophomore because she marched her eighth grade year, but she's really a high school freshmen. Meghan, Chelsea, and Cassidy are our freshies. Anyway, back to the story. The first two pages of the closer, we are in two diagonal lines. The lines sucked harder that a flipping Hoover. So Carrie tries to fix them. But Callie, whom I consider to be my friend outside of band practice, is extremely stubborn. And she is selfish and always has to get her way. And she can dish out the "put-downs" but she can't even take one as a joke. So Callie keeps telling Carrie that Callie is right because she is where the drill says. Carrie is like well just fit the form for right now we will fix it later. Callie refuses. But we go on to the next set before anything can be done. After a couple of run-throughs, Callie turns to Brittany and starts talking about how wrong everyone in front of them is. I hear my name being thrown around. So I turn and tell Callie not to worry about it, we are all wrong, and we know it. Well then she starts yelling at me to get right. I told her according to the people in front of me, I am right. She says something again on the next run-through. I had absolutely had it, so I turned around and told her to shut up, I knew I was wrong, but I couldn't fix it yet. Well since she can't take being told she is wrong, she refuses to talk to me for the next few days. We finally made up on Thursday. Thursday night practice goes by without incident, and we are off on Friday.
"Andre Day" was actually not bad at first. Andre cracked us all up, and we had fun learning the dance moves (our show is the tango) for Carmen. All day was fine and dandy, until about 7 o'clock when we went outside to put the moves on the field. Andre made us move over a yard line or something. When we reset the set to run through it again, more than half the band forgot to move over the extra yard line. But Callie, for some unknown reason, doesn't like Amy. So she something that rhymes with riches that Amy and Gypsy (we are in pairs at this point of the show) have set up wrong. I say Callie, so did the rest of the band. Well she gets all huffy and insults are exchanges and pill chills are recommended but not taken. Eventually Carrie calls me over and asks what is going on. I attempt to explain without being a, um, female dog that Callie is being a female dog. The rest of the night is full of accusations of people talking behind other people's back and all kinds of crap. I'm ready to stop talking to the people in my section. Then finally "Andre Day" ends. I go home and forget about it. Well today (Tuesday) the band director calls the clarinets over and says something about the people that skipped sectionals last Thursday (yes, Callie was involved as well as others but they had a reason it just wasn't a very good one). Then Carrie had to make a speech because people were talking about her behind her back, saying she wasn't a good section leader. So I am really dreading the drama of practice tonight.
In short, my clarinet section way to full of drama. People need to learn to keep their rhymes with lamb mouths shut and do what they are told. They need to not be so selfish and know when to admit they are wrong. I am so sick of having to be around these rhymes with witches. Not all of them, because it is not every one I listed. I like all of my section buddies. I just wish they would be a little nicer to each other. And me.
