This is the actual first chapter of my story. Yay! Well, it's not that exciting...this is longer than the prologue, so that's a good thing! Enjoy!

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Summer Band

I awoke early in the morning. I searched through my drawers filled with shirts, shorts, and pants, and found a blue tank top and matching blue shorts. After I took a quick, refreshing shower, I got dressed in my chosen attire. I didn't bother to blow dry my brown hair, I usually let it air dry. I ate a quick breakfast consisting of eggs and bacon, grabbed my clarinet and water bottle, and rushed out the door to make sure my dad didn't leave without me.

The car ride felt like forever, even though it was only 10 minutes long. Finally, we arrived at Allen High School. I grinned and ran inside, straight towards the band hall. As soon as I stepped foot in the band hall, I noticed it was crammed with people, from freshman to seniors, from flutes to tubas. I glanced around, looking for a familiar face. I couldn't find one. I sighed and went to put my stuff down.

"Hey Christina!"

I turned around, searching for whoever called my name. I was relieved to see my friend, Anna, running towards me. Or, trying to run…seeing how so many people were in here. I ran up to greet her.

"Anna! I'm so glad to see you!" I practically choked her to death in the bear-hug I gave her.

"Chri-ina-can't-breathe-!" She coughed.

"Oops! Sorry! I just missed you so much!" I told her.

"Me too! Ooh! You cut your hair!" She exclaimed, examining the wavy texture of my shoulder-length hair and side bangs.

"Yup! I was tired of that old hair cut…"

"Well, I gotta go, Christina, I told Amie I would meet her over by the vending machines."

"K, bye!"

Anna walked away, her straight light brown hair swinging behind her. I glanced around the room for a second time, in the far corner, I saw Chris, Scott's younger, non-identical twin, dozing peacefully, his head tilted to the side, glasses askew. I giggled, and figured I better go wake him up.

"Chris," I said when I came up to him. He just twitched slightly. "Chris!"

Chris jerked awake and looked frantically around the room. "Where am I?!"

"The band hall, smart one," I teased.

"Oh, ok," He went back to sleep. I rolled my eyes.

"Could everyone please go into the auditorium!" Mr. Johnson, the band director, shouted. I pulled Chris up by the front of his shirt and dragged him into the auditorium, which was right down the hallway from the band hall. I set Chris down in one of the seats and I sat in the row behind him.

"Hmph!" Chris complained.

"What?" I asked innocently.

"You woke me up."

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"Now, hopefully everyone had a great summer! But now it's time to get focused again and make it a great year!" Mr. Alban, the other band director, looked expectantly at us all. "If you will separate into your own sections, the section leaders will hand out your warm-up packets, stand-tunes, and show music."

Everyone stood up and started going towards their section. I walked away from all of my friends; they were all brass, flutes, or saxophones. I saw Megan, the sophomore bass clarinet, and made a beeline towards her. She didn't look like she was in a very talkative mood, so I didn't make any greeting, and just sat down next to her. I've learned from past experiences that if she isn't talkative, she isn't nice, either.

She glanced at me, made a small noise of recognition, and continued to be silent.

"Christina?"

I looked up at the girl who said my name. She had red hair pulled up into a high ponytail and was very tall. "Yes?"

"Here's your warm-up packet." She handed me a packet about 10 or 12 pages long and my mouth dropped open. The longest packet we had in middle school was like, 3 pages long. This is going to be an interesting year…

After all was said and done, and we all had our music, Mr. Alban asked all the section leaders to come up on-stage to introduce themselves. I couldn't remember any of their names, just what instrument they played, and a few of them I remembered what class they were. The clarinet section had 3 section leaders, the tall red-haired girl was a senior; a junior, who has a sister that was in my band last year; and another senior with dark-brown hair.

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"Okay everybody, today we will work on forward march!" Mr. Alban announced. The entire band was outside in the parking lot. The directors had painted the parking lot to make it look like a football field.

Marching was pretty easy once you got the hang of it… we worked on forward march for…I don't know how long…I wish I brought a watch… Well, after we worked on marching for X number of minutes, we broke up into sections (again!) and worked on it some more. While we were having so much fun, it became lunch time, which meant we could go inside, where there was air conditioning.

Mr. Johnson unlocked the doors and we all rushed inside in an attempt to get to the air conditioned band hall. Of course, you don't normally feel the air with 200 people pushing you left and right and being practically forced in. So instead I fell back behind the group and fell into step next to Jae, my friend, who was Korean.

"It's soo hot outside! I think this would qualify for child abuse! Or would it be child labor? Because technically, we ARE working...kinda-" I started.

"Christina, no offence, but SHUT UP." Jae looked deadly serious, so she was obviously annoyed at me right now, until…

"Hahahahahaha!" Jae was laughing her head off…which was completely normal, actually. I laughed along with her. This happened a lot last year: I would say something stupid. Jae would act annoyed. Jae would start laughing. I would start laughing. It happened over and over again.

"Oh, by the way Christina," Jae said once we regained control, "Nariko and I are planning a sleepover this Friday right after band. But we don't know whose house we're going to use yet…but do you want to come?"

"That sounds awesome! I would love to come! Who's all going?" I asked.

Jae thought for a moment. "Well, obviously me, Nariko, and you. Let's see… Abby, Amie, and Katie. Yeah, I think that's it…"

"I take it you're not inviting Anna or Delilah?" I knew she wouldn't…Anna and Delilah are best friends, and Jae practically hates them…

"No."

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