The water was extremely hot and came out with a ton of pressure. Everybody took their showers as quick as possible then got out of the hot water.
After the first few minutes showering together with a group of people isn't so bad. We all talked about our days and where we are from while in the shower. It was more of a social thing than anything.
Once we changed into our pajamas and brushed our teeth Megan and I walked back to the cafeteria to get ready for bed.
As soon as we both laid down on our beds the lights were turned out.
"Wake up time is at 7. Sleep tight ladies." A colorguard tech told us as she turned out the lights.
As soon as I closed my eyes I felt myself drift to sleep.
"Good morning Bluecoats." The same colorguard tech called out as we slowly woke up. "Breakfast is in 30 minutes."
Everybody slowly started to get up. Megan decided to take another morning shower, I didn't feel like waiting around for her so I walked to breakfast alone.
Breakfast was being served in the same place as snack. Today's breakfast consisted of cereal, orange juice, and fruit. I looked around to see if Michael was already in line, he wasn't so I decided to just hop in line.
I was about half way up in the line when Michael joined the line. I got out of line and joined him.
"Good morning." I told him as I walked over to him.
"Morning. Sleep well?" He asked.
"I was so tired after sectionals I slept like a dead person." I laughed.
Michael chuckled. "Today are the individual auditions, are you ready?" He asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be I guess. Do you know how many spots are open?" I asked him curiously.
"There was a huge age out class last year. And a ton of people left to join more elite corps. In the euphs I think we are marching 12 this year. There are about 8 vets that returned. So about 4 spots up for grabs." Michael told me.
"Do vets always get contracts?" I asked him.
"Most of the time, yeah. Don't worry. You have a good shot at getting it." Michael said.
"There are 22 rookies to get 4 spots! There's no way."
"Just believe in yourself. You might be surprised."
We got to the front of the line and grabbed our food. I only grabbed cereal and juice. Michael grabbed a plate full of fruit, I looked at him oddly.
"What? I don't like cereal. I'm also lactose intolerant." Michael told me as we found a spot to sit against a wall.
"Where is everyone?" I looked around and didn't see any of Michael's friends.
"Probably still sleeping." Michael told me as he started peeling an orange. "Let's get to know each other a little better. How about I ask a question, then you ask one, then we repeat?"
"Sure. You start." I told him as I took a bite of my cereal.
"What's your full name?" He asked.
"Hannah Grace Wagner." I told him. "What's yours?"
"Michael Christopher Archer." He told me with a confident smile.
"Do you speak any other languages?" I asked.
"Nope." He told me.
"Me neither." I said.
"March any other corps?" Michael asked.
"Nope."
"I marched a DCA corps before coming here. It's my second year with the 'Coats." He replied.
"Are you still in high school or college?" I asked. I honestly didn't know.
"College, I go to Ohio State actually. Music ed. major." He told me.
"I'm only a junior in high school…" I told him.
"We're only two years apart if you think about it. When's your birthday?" He asked.
"March 17. St. Patrick's Day." I told him.
"You must be lucky then. Mine's July 25." He told me.
We were nearing the end of our breakfast.
"Is there a way I can practice my audition materials before we get started?" I asked Michael.
"Yeah, PT starts at 9. We have about 45 minutes until then. I bet we can find an empty stairwell or something for you to practice." He told me.
"Yeah, that works. Let me just finish my cereal." I told him. Just as I finished Michael's friend group came up over with their breakfast.
"Hey guys." Jim said as the group walked over to sit down next to us.
"Hannah and I were actually going to practice our audition music before we get started." Michael said as he got up.
"Sorry, I hope we can talk during lunch." I told them as I got up.
Michael and I walked to the trashcan to throw away our trash. Then we went to go get our horns.
After we got our horns and our music we walked around the school to find a stairwell or empty classroom we could practice in.
After walking all around the school we managed to find an empty classroom. We turned on the lights and closed the door. I sat my music down on a desk.
"I have an idea, what if we had mock auditions? I'll listen to you play and give you feedback, then you listen to me and give me feedback? He offered.
"Yeah that sounds good. I'll start." I said. Michael nodded his head and sat down in a desk. I got my music on the desk and held my horn up to play. Honestly, I've been practicing so much that I had the music memorized.
I took a deep breath then started playing the exercises and excerpts from the book. I tried to play with the best tone I could, but it still didn't seem like it was enough.
I finished my first excerpt.
"Stop." Michael cut me off. "Try holding your horn a bit higher, and have a bigger arch with your hands." He came over and pushed my elbows up and moved my hands in a bigger arch. His hands were soft and comforting. A complete contrast to this stressful camp.
"Try that." He said. I played the rest of my excerpts. I had to admit, I sounded a lot better after he helped me.
"How was that?" I asked.
"Not too bad. Just make sure to really bring out the dynamics and accents. Your tone is really nice." He smiled at me.
"I wanna hear you play now." I requested.
"Okay." Michael quickly emptied his spit valve and took in a breath. He played the music almost perfectly. I didn't want him to stop, it sounded so full.
"How was that?" He asked. I hadn't even noticed he stopped playing. I was completely out of it when he played.
"Beautiful." I commented. I looked at the clock in the room, it was 8:50. We had to start heading back. "We better head back."
We walked back and put our horns back. Everyone was gathered in the gym.
"Okay Bluecoats!" The corps director spoke as Michael and I sat down. "We're going to start some PT in sections. Go back to where you had your sectionals last night and get to some nice morning PT."
Michael and I walked back to the aux gym where we were last night for sectionals.
"Bring it in" Patrick said, we all stood around him.
"We're going to head outside for some running. As we start running I want everyone to find a partner or two. It's always easier to run in pairs. We're going for a 10 minute jog. Remember this is a jog. Don't go too fast. After the 10 minutes we'll do breathing gym, then finish with static stretching. Let's head out." Patrick announced to us. The entire hornline made their way outside.
"Follow me." Patrick said as he started running.
We all started running, I decided to run with Michael since he was really the only person I knew well.
The vets ran in the front, while the rookies took the back. Some people were very out of shape and started walking. Michael and I managed to stay in the middle-front of the herd.
"Is this pace too fast?" Michael asked me.
"No, I was on cross country in middle school. I'm used to running. We could even go a little bit faster if you want." I told him.
"Doesn't matter to me." He said, even though I could tell he was getting tired. I decided to pick up the pace just a little. I was barely breaking a sweat and I could see Michael was struggling to catch his breath. But he kept up with me.
After 10 minutes of jogging Patrick stopped in the middle of a field.
"Inhale and exhale with my hand." Patrick said. He lifted his hand and we all inhaled, when we lowered his hand we exhaled. "Now we're going to breath in for four, out for four. In, two, three, four, out, two, three four."
We continued this for about 5 minutes.
"Each camp we'll add something new to breathing gym. Now time for static stretching. Sit." We all sat down.
For the rest of the PT block we did various stretches. Once PT block was over we headed back to the aux gym.
"Individual audition time!" Patrick said cheery. Everybody grab your horn and we'll start warming up.
We all set up a similar horn arc as we did last night. We played various long tones and scales. I was almost shaking, I wasn't ready for my auditions.
"We're going to start the individual auditions now. You're only going to be auditioning on your playing today, not your marching yet. The caption head, Sean, is going to be hearing the auditions. While auditions are going on I'll be working with the rest of the hornline."
Sean came into the room with a clipboard. "Are you ready to get started?" He asked Patrick. Patrick nodded his head.
"Okay, I'll start off with the first auditionee. Michael Archer?" Michael quickly smiled at me then walked with Sean to the audition room.
I hated being last, I would much rather get it over with than wait around. While auditions were going on Patrick worked with the rest of the low brass on tone, intonation, and blending. We had yet to start on any marching, which seemed a bit odd since this is a drum corps.
After about 5 minutes Michael came back into the gym. He have me a thumbs up and walked back to his spot in the arc.
After what seemed like forever, my name was called.
"Hannah Wagner." Sean said, looking down at his clipboard. I nervously walked up to him.
Sean lead me into a classroom down the hall from the gym. There was a stand in the front of the room with a binder with the music in it. It had all the excerpts we were supposed to play in it.
"You can play a few notes before we get started." Sean told me. I played up the B flat scale, making sure to use a lot of air to support my sound. "Ready?" Sean asked when I stopped playing.
"Yep." Was all I said, I was almost shaking from my nerves.
"If you don't mind, play the two prepared excerpts in the binder." Sean said.
I opened the binder and found the two excerpts we were supposed to prepare, one was lyrical and the other was technical.
I played the lyrical one first, I tried to play the notes with a full sound and payed attention to the dynamics, I was about halfway through when Sean cut me off.
"That's enough. Go onto the technical piece." Sean demanded. I turned the page and went to the other excerpt.
The technical piece was full of sixteenth notes and chromatic fingerings. A few times my notes cracked. I was only a few bars in when Sean once again cut me off.
"That's all. Thank you." Sean told me as he wrote on this clipboard.
"Thank you." I said as I walked out of the room. I didn't know why he kept cutting me off, I assumed it was bad. There goes my chance of marching. I kept telling myself as I walked back to the gym with the rest of the low brass.
I was the last auditionee for the low brass. When I walked in Patrick saw me and called everyone over to him. I walked to join the group.
"Good job this morning. I'm sure all your auditions went well. Again, don't worry. That audition is not going to make your break your chances. You still have all weekend to redeem yourself. Go to have lunch, meet back here at 1:30. After lunch we start marching. Go ahead and put your horns in stacks. I recommend putting your gloves on top your horn so you know which is yours. Ready, break." Patrick said as we all walked out of the gym for lunch.
I walked over to Michael. We both put our horns down.
"So… How'd it go?" Michael asked as we walked to the hallway for lunch.
"Bad, he kept cutting me off. I wasn't even halfway done with either excerpt and he cut me off.
"Bad? That's good! That means he has already heard enough. That means you really impressed him within your first few bars of music. Hannah, that's a good sign. Don't fret over it." Michael tried to tell me as we walked to the food line.
Today's lunch consisted of hot dogs, salad, and potato salad. There was also the usual PB&J.
I took a hot dog and salad. I wasn't in the mood for potatoes. Michael on the other hand took a hot dog bun and put mustard in it. No hotdog, just bread and mustard. He also took salad and potatoes.
"No hotdog?" I asked him as we walked to find a place to sit.
"I'm not a big hotdog person. Besides, mustard and bread is good. Have you ever tried it?" He said.
"No, but I love mustard." Looking down at my hotdog was was smothered in mustard.
"Don't knock it 'till you try it." Michael told me as we sat down in our usual spot against the wall.
A few moments after we sat down Michael's friends came over, Jim and Chase. No Chris.
"Where's Chris?" Michael asked. Chris was the mellophone player.
"He started throwing up, he ended up going home." Jim said as he sat down.
"Poor guy. I hope he feels better." I said.
"You like mustard?" Chase asked as he looked at my hotdog.
"Yeah, it's my favorite. Mustard has such a good taste and only a few calories." I said, taking a bite of my hotdog.
"You shouldn't worry about calories, I think you're just fine." Michael told me. I didn't know what to say to that.
Chase gave Michael a strange look. "So Hannah, how old are you again?" Chase asked, breaking the awkward tension.
"16. My birthday's in March though." I told Chase.
"No way, mine too! March 16." Chase said.
"March 17. Pretty close." I told him.
"Almost twins! We'll if you weren't born three years after me. I'm 19. Sophomore at North Texas for music ed." Chase said.
"It seems like everyone here is going for music ed." I gave a small laugh.
"I'm a junior at Ole Miss for English. I want to be an editor for a publishing company." Jim said.
"16 though, isn't that a little young?" Chase asked.
"My brother started when he was this age, so did my dad. Plus it doesn't hurt just to show up to auditions." I told him.
"Does your brother still march?" Chase asked.
"Yeah, it's his age out year with The Cadets. He'll be a six year vet when he ages out." I told him.
"What does he play?" Chase asked again.
"Mello." I said.
"No way! My girlfriend is on the mello line. Maybe they know each other." Chase said.
"I can ask." I told him.
"So do you know George Hopkins personally? Being from Allentown and having family marched The Cadets?" Jim asked. George Hopkins was a pretty big deal in DCI. He was like a celebrity. Although most people made memes out of him and took silly pictures with him.
"I've seen him at all those dumb Cadet banquets and alumni dinners. But that's it. Why?" I asked.
"Nothing, just curious." Jim said.
Michael as yet to say anything since the whole mustard comment. He just silently sat there eating his mustard bread and salad.