Secret Society of The Flute Key

Okay, so maybe putting blue ink on the mouthpiece of Clara's trumpet, resulting her to have a blue ring around her mouth for the rest of the day was a bad idea; but it was freaking hilarious to me, anyway. It was the first day of band camp. I had been in the marching band for three years already and was ready to enjoy my fourth. Clara didn't talk to me for about ten minutes, but being best friends, eventually she gave in and stopped being mad. She always forgave me.

We were in the band room waiting to head outside for drills. Clara and I took turns giving nick names to all the freshmen and it turned out to be an interesting way of passing the time.

"Helium Lips." Clara whispered, indicating a red headed flute player with the biggest lips I had ever seen. Her bottom lip wiggled when she talked, and I thought it was going to bounce up and break her nose.

"Okay everyone, we're about to go outside for drills. First I want to talk to you all about our season this year." Faja stood looking wise and sage on his podium. All the seniors called him Faja because he was like a father to us: we had known him for three and for some of us four years. He looked much older and his brown beard was peppered with gray.

"We have a great collaboration of music picked out for you guys this year. What do you think about Winnie The Pooh?" There was silence as we all took in those words. "Muah ha, just kiddin'! What do you guys think about Metallica?!" There was an uproar and several senior guys stood up and began jumping on their toes as if they had springs on the bottom of their feet.

"You're the man, Daddio!" Jeb, one of our two snare drum players ( he had a twin ), always called Faja "daddio".

"I knew you all would like it. Our opener is 'Back in Black.' …Amy, could you bring out the uniform?" Our student teacher who was almost as tall as my dad ( who is six foot four ) hurried off to the uniform room, only to return with a uniform bag in her hands. She handed it to Faja.

"Tell me what you think, this is our uniform for this year." Faja slowly unzipped the bag. I was anxious: one of my favorite things about band was that we got to have a new uniform every year and keep them. I had my last three hanging lovingly in my closet. ..The bag came off.

Everyone erupted in screams and applause. I was especially happy because my signature colors were red and black; I was into the whole "rebel" thing. Our uniforms had black pants with a red skull on one of the bottom legs. The jackets were red with a black tie. I had never seen a uniform with a tie before. I decided I didn't care as long as it had a tie on it. Me and Clara exchanged excited and amused looks.

--

The whole band, which consisted of about two-hundred kids, ( most of them were freshmen ) headed outside to start drill practice. I was ready to laugh at all the puny freshmen who didn't know how to march. Last year we had a guy trying to march and it looked like he was break dancing.

"I see you have your water bottle, Shea." Clara commented as we made our way to the football field. I smiled and started to stroke it.

"Yep- it's still lucky and has been since the eighth grade. His name is still Murphy."

"What kind of name is 'Murphy' for a water bottle?

"A good one. He likes it. He says it suits him nicely." I kissed 'Murphy' then took a swig of water from his face. "Ah."

"Oh Shea. Why did I ever befriend you?" Clara patted me on the head.

"Look!" I gasped and pointed with my pinky finger ( I always used my pinky finger. It was just one of my many quirks. ). "Do you see what I see?" Clara squinted in the direction of my pinky.

"You mean two hamburger buns?" Ms.Dillard was bent over. She was the middle school's band director and a bit on the heavy side. She came to camp to help instruct. I remember having her in middle school; Clara and I made up a theme song for her and we'd sing it under our breath every time she'd walk by. We pretty much despised her.

"Ew, yeah, well that's a sight but it's not the one I'm talking about." I continued. "Who does that look like to you?" I kept my pinky finger in a locked and loaded position. Clara put her hand over her eyes to block the sun and squinted.

"What?"

"The girl in the black shirt and converses."

"Hey, she kind of looks like Breathmint." ( We always called Lacy 'Breathmint" because her breath was always minty fresh ).

"My point exactly. Should we go talk to her?" I grabbed Clara's arm and with Murphy in the other hand, started in a run.

"Wait Shea don't run so fast! You know running gives me rashes!"

We skidded to a stop in front of the Breathmint look-alike. She stared at us with one eyebrow raised. Clara, panting, introduced us. "Hey..phew..my name is..huff..Clara..and this..ah..is Shea." Clara collapsed to the ground and laid there at our feet. I gave Shea a little kick and then turned my attention to the new girl.

"Do you have a sister named Lacy?"

"Breathmint?"

"Good ole Breathmint. Are you her sister or something because you look just like her. I know she has a younger sister because she always complained about her and ..there was this one time..it's pretty funny actually.." I chuckled. "..her younger sister had to wear rubber pants to bed because.." I stopped talking because the girl was staring at me open-mouthed. I shut my mouth.

"The rubber pants were mine, yeah. My name's Sarah." She didn't look to friendly anymore.

"I'm going to call you Rubber." I said simply, then bent down to help Clara to her feet. I noticed Clara had tied my shoe laces together. "Darn you Clara and your shoe-knotting ways."

Rubber stared at the two of us. "You two are..interesting."

"This is Murphy." I held out my water bottle to her. Before Rubber could comment on my odd-water-bottle-naming-ways, Faja blew his whistle which meant get into drill block. It was time to march.