"Watch out!" I yelled. Mark, our baritone, quickly turned around and ducked as a big duffel bag flew past his head. He poked his head back up.

"Whew, you really saved me there. At least LAST time I went on the band trip, I was ON the trip when I got hurt." He said, laughing. He and I had been stuck with loading duty while the rest of the band lazed around.

"Hey, uh, done with those bags yet?" Andrew, the bari sax asked. We glared at him.

"Gee, I dunno! There's, oh, 100 plus people in Band and CHORUS! And girls insist on packing every single frickin' thing they own!" Mark said. "We're on it!"

"Whatever." Andrew said, Charlie, the first trumpet walked over.

"Here, I'll help you guys out." He said, tossing a couple under the bus in the little compartment.

"I'll help too." Dan, a trombone said, tossing another in.

"Hey, so will I." Catlin, a soprano for Chorus said and in almost no time we had all the bags in there. We stood against the side of the bus catching our breath when the band director walked up.

"Alright! Now let's load instruments!" Mark's eyes widened.

"NOOO!"

About an hour later, we were on the road! "Alright, remember, it's a 22 hour bus drive, so get comfortable!"

"Without stopping?!"

"No Eric you brain dead monkey! We're stopping about every three to four hours." Our band director calls us brain dead monkeys when we act stupid. He then put a DVD in. "I need to entertain you some way." I decided it was iPod time. I put the earphones, took out my stuffed husky named Angel, and used her as a pillow. Jonathan, my friend, poked me on the shoulder. My eyes opened.

"What?"

"I'm excited!"

"Good for you." I said, then tried to go to sleep again. Again I was poked.

"What state are we in?"

"We left, like, 20 minutes ago. Chances are we're still in Illinois. Either that or the driver used to be a cabbie in New York." He stared at me as Janice laughed. "She gets it!"

"Well, she's a flute! Flutes are smart!" Cade was sitting two rows up.

"OW! IT BURNS!" She was holding a lighter. I took it from her and pointed.

"Then why the hell is SHE here?"

"Oh…okay."

"Now let me sleep FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" I leaned back and turned my iPod back on. He poked me again and I didn't open my eyes or stir. "Do that again and just see what happens." Well, nothing else happened.

About three hours later, we pulled into a parking lot on the edge of Indiana. It was pretty much the middle of nowhere, and I ain't kiddin'. This is, like, the definition of Cowtown. We stepped out of the bus and I looked around. "A mall?"

"We gotta eat sometime!" Eric said. "Come on, we can go and burn it down…or just get something to eat."

"Good choice." I said. "Very wise man." We walked in and walked through a corridor thing. "Where's the elevator?" I asked. "IT'S NOT HERE!" Dan, a trumpet, poked me and pointed. A giant sign pointed to an elevator and in bright lights said "FOOD COURT". "Hehe…right." I said. "I totally knew that."

"And this is why you are special."

We ate a little bit, I wasn't hungry so I didn't. "Let's go to Hot Topic!" Eric announced. Sophia, Nicole, Dan and I looked up.

"Wha?" Nicole asked.

"HOT TOPIC!" He yelled, louder. Just in case you didn't hear him the first time.

"Yes! Let's!" I said, picking up a fork and holding it like a sword. "Onward!"

"Bye." Sophia said, waving. So Eric, Dan, and I marched across the mall to a map, where we FINALLY found the damn store. But by the time we got there, we had 10 minutes to get back to the bus.

"Crud."

"Do you remember how to get back there?" Dan asked. "Please say yes."

"Oh, double-crud."

"Well, that's comforting!" Eric said.

"Go read the damn map." I said and we found one. "Food court all da way…ober dere." I said, sounding like a little kid.

"Life is never boring around you, is it?"

"Ha-ha, no."

We walked ALL THE WAY across the mall and the only thing that told us where we were was our favorite neon blinding sign. "We made it!"

"About five minutes late." Triple crud. We found the others and kind of merged into the group, acting like we had been there the whole time. But the busses were on the other side of the parking lot so we had to walk to them. On the way, one of our percussionists, Adam, almost got hit by a car.

"Damn, I lost the pool." I said when he ran out of the way. "Nah well, the trip is still young."