Chapter 3
Jared leaned his head against the cool car door window, refusing to talk to his mom. It was not fair, Jared thought, that his friends' last memory of him would be him puking in Steven's car on the way home from a disastrous going away party.
"Rainy days and Mondays always let me down." Jared's mom sang along with the radio.
"Tell me about it," Jared muttered, knowing this had to have been the worst Monday in the history of Mondays.
"What was that sweetie?" she asked, turning off the radio.
"Nothing mom." he sighed. He resumed his former position, staring out the window. Jared sat up suddenly as he turned onto the road where his school was. "Are we going the right way?" he asked.
"We're taking a detour." his mom said, pulling up to the front of the school.
"Why are we here?" Jared asked. He had wanted to make this move as painless as possible, and seeing the school again wasn't helping whatsoever.
"So you can say goodbye to your friends." his mom said. "Hurry up - you have 15 minutes." Jared nodded, hopping out of the car and running toward the band room. He had to hurry otherwise he'd miss the drumline at the end of their practice. He opened the band room door, and sighed with relief when they were all still in there. They were sitting around in the back, chatting and laughing with each other. Off to the side Jared saw a boy sitting by himself and assumed he was the new bass drummer that had taken his place. It was nice to see, for Jared at least, that this boy wasn't being easily accepted by the rest of the drumline
Jared attempted to close the band room door quietly but instead it made a huge bang, attracting everyone's attention. They snapped their heads, and beamed when they saw Jared. They all got up and hurried over to him, Olivia leading the pack.
"Hey guys." Jared said as they gathered around him.
"Jared, we wanted to give this to you." Olivia said, handing Jared a long, thin box. He carefully lifted off the lid and took out two drumsticks, tears coming to his eyes. They were the school's colors, with a small S printed on the end in gold.
"I thought they were only for snares." he said, in complete awe of his gift.
"We all know how much you wanted to play snare," Olivia said. "And we felt you deserved them, after all you've done for the line."
"It was a unanimous vote." Brian said.
"From both sections." Steven added.
"Thank you." Jared whispered, running his hand along the smooth, blue-painted wood.
"Come here you." Olivia said, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. The other girls joined in immediately, and the guys reluctantly joined the giant group hug.
Jared head his mom honk the car horn outside, and the group disbanded. "Thank you guys," Jared said, "For everything." He walked out to the car, giving a small wave before climbing in.
"Cheer up Jared." his mom said, pulling away. "Eastwood is a really nice high school. You'll enjoy it there."
"Of course I will." Jared said, trying to humor her. About twenty minutes later, Jared's mom pulled onto the driveway of a huge house.
"We're here." she said, climbing out and fumbling around in her purse for the house keys.
"Are you sure?" Jared asked, eying the place. It was huge and Jared could tell it had at least three floors. "How could we afford this?" he asked, suddenly worried. This was a lot bigger than their old apartment.
"I told you, I got a raise." His mom explained, unlocking the door, "That's why we had to move."
Jared walked inside the house, and the main entrance stunned him. The floors were shiny hardwood, and a miniature chandelier hung from the ceiling. "Your room is on the third floor, first room on the left." she said. Jared quickly went up the steps, eager to see what his new room looked like. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, he couldn't help but laugh at how he was currently acting like an over-excited four year old. He opened the door, revealing a large room. To his dismay all of the walls were painted lime green, which was incidentally his favorite color when he was four; seeing how he was now eleven years older, he thought it was absolutely atrocious. An air mattress lay on the floor which was made of the same type of hardwood as the entrance, and there was a big window which gave a nice view of the woods and the pool behind the house.
"Wait, we have a pool?" he shouted, looking out the window a second time to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"Yes, we do." his mom said, coming into the room. "Do you like the walls?"
"It's very..." he hesitated, "bright."
"You can change them, if you want." his mom said, oblivious to Jared's skeptical looks at the walls. "The old residents who lived here left a lot of paint for us to use if we wanted. It's in the garage."
Jared nodded, then ran down to the garage. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.
.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.o0O0o.
A few days later, on Wednesday, Maddie mentally counted the heads of the pit members, making sure they were all here for practice. "Where's Janie?" she asked. Everyone turned their heads toward the back of the band room, where Janie was making out with Zach. "Janie, get your ass over here!" Maddie shouted.
Janie stopped and looked up, hearing her name. She groaned, rolling her eyes, and gave Zach one more kiss. "Gotta go," she whispered, "Thorn's at it again." – a reference to Maddie's middle name. Zach laughed, squeezing Janie's hand.
"See ya babe." he said, kissing the top of her head. Janie walked across the band room, taking her position behind a marimba.
"How many times have I told you to be on time?" Maddie said, pissed off.
"A lot...?" Janie asked.
Maddie shook her head, preparing her usual spiel on attendance and tardiness, but Mr. Johnson came out of his office. "Maddie, can I see you a moment, please?" he asked. Maddie nodded and walked into the office, closing the door behind her.
"I understand we have a shortage of people in pit?" he asked, folding his hands.
"Unfortunately." Maddie sighed. "We need one more person, to play bells, xylophone, and possibly chimes if Chris gets around to writing a part for them."
"In that case, I have some good news for you." he said. "We have a transfer student who auditioned for drumline. While he didn't audition for pit, I'm sure he'd do alright."
"If he doesn't know how to play, he can always learn." Maddie added, excited by the news.
"Especially with someone as talented as you teaching him." Mr. Johnson said. Maddie's face fell.
"Excuse me?" she asked, making sure she heard him right.
"You heard me. This boy doesn't really know how to read treble clef, as he says he's been doing bass drum or snare his whole life. Also, he doesn't know how to play a mallet instrument, so we need to get him caught up as quickly as possible." Mr. Johnson explained. "You will teach him every Tuesday and Thursday 3:00-5:00, until we both agree he is capable enough to continue on his own. Understand?" Maddie nodded, and he smiled. "Good. Now he'll be here any minute, so that will be all." Maddie left the office, closing the door shut, trying not to slam it in frustration. How the hell was she supposed to keep up her already falling grades if all her time was spent with drumline?
She looked to the door, and saw a boy with reddish-brown hair standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. "You must be Jared." she said, going over and extending a hand. When he didn't shake it or respond in any manner she awkwardly returned it to her side. "I'm Maddie, the pit section leader."
"That's nice." Jared said, not really paying attention. "Where's center snare?"
"Zach?" Maddie asked. "He's the one who's currently fooling around on quads. But you don't really need to know him as much, since you'll be in pit."
"What?" Jared shouted. "But Mr. Johnson said - "
"You made drumline. Knowing him, I'm sure he never said what instrument," Maddie interrupted. "Look, if you want to battle it out with him, go right ahead. He's in his office right now."
Jared stormed off into the office, slamming the door behind him. A few minutes later he came out with a look of defeat on his face. "Where do I start?" he muttered, bright pink.
I'm pretty happy with how quickly I got this out. Chapter Four is on its way.
As usual, thanks for reviewing!
~The Sound of Drums