Alfred sits by us again at lunch, and again Arthur, Vash, and Lili get up and leave. I have to find a way to get these two groups to coexist peacefully. Alfred watches my friends leave with a frown. I can tell he doesn't like the rejection.
"Don't worry. They'll come around," I tell him.
"I hope so," he says quietly. He starts to scarf down his hamburger. Our school serves three different lunches everyday. One is always hamburgers. Alfred gets that lunch everyday, and on top of that, he gets two.
"A-Alfred, do you mind if I sit here," a soft voice asks. I look up from my lunch to see Matthew sitting down next to Alfred.
"Sure bro!" Alfred says with a big grin. "Hey (y/n)! This is my little bro Matthew. HAHAHA!"
"You're a wide receiver," I say to Matthew. "You're amazing on the field."
"Oh, y-yes, thank you," he answers embarrassed. "I'm surprised you noticed."
I'm about to say something else when another football player sits down. He's probably the shortest guy on the team. "Hello Alfred. May I join you?"
"Of course Kiku!" Alfred turns back to me. "This is Kiku. He's one of our running backs."
"Nice to meet you," I say to Kiku.
"It's very nice to meet you Miss...?"
"(Y/n)," I tell him. He's the first one to actually say something when I introduce myself.
"It's a pleasure Miss (y/n)."
Alfred lets out a laugh. "HAHAHA! No need to be so formal Kiku."
"Oh, I'm sorry Alfred," the short player says timidly. I think Arthur would like Kiku since he's always going on about manners and being a gentleman.
"There you are Kiku," a booming voice says. I look up to see Ludwig and a goofy looking kid sitting down next to Kiku. I recognize the shorter kid with the curl as the one that was being yelled at for not running fast enough.
"(Y/n)," Ludwig greets me with a nod.
"So you're (y/n)?" the goofy looking kid asks. "Veeee~! My name's Feliciano, but you can call me Feli!"
"Nice to meet you," I tell him. This kid has as much energy as Alfred.
"So I guess you've met a lot of the junior players on varsity," Alfred says
to me with a smile. "When do I get to meet the section leaders?"
His question throws me off guard. I didn't expect him to want to meet the band kids. "I don't know. Later I guess." I shrug. "Well I'm gonna get going. I'll see you at rehearsal tonight." A few of the other players along with Alfred waves as I walked away. I guess they're really not that bad.
The rehearsal tonight is mainly focused on drilling the fieldshow. Folios are only allowed to check when we move in our music. We work only the movements to the show without the music. The tempo is set on the slow side to begin, and we work our way up until we can go at full speed. My saxophone squad has two underclassmen in it, but they manage to keep up pretty well. I'm proud of the effort the underclassmen in my section put in. There are a few airheads that gives me and Arthur a little trouble, but they usually work hard.
Out of the corner of my eye I see one of my saxophone freshmen struggling to keep up with her squad. I call the guy in the D position of my squad over. He's a senior like me, so I trust him to lead my squad while I help the freshman girl. I walk over to the freshman girl's squad and explain what I'm going to do to the squad leader.
"Here, come with me," I tell the girl. We walk off the field while the rest of the band continues to drill. "What are you having issues with?"
"Um...well it's going so fast," she says shyly. "It's hard to keep up."
"Okay," I say with a nod. "How about I count off the beats and you step off like you're going to move to your next spot. We'll increase the speed as we go."
She nods and stands at attention. I start counting beats and measures as she marks time. When I get to the measure she's supposed to move, she takes a hesitant step forward. By now she's already a half measure behind where she should be. I stop counting beats.
"I think I know what your problem is," I say with a smile. "You're not confident enough. You need to be confident about your movement, whether it's right or wrong. If you look good while doing it, it won't matter if you're wrong."
"Really?" she asks wide eyed.
I give her a reassuring smile. "Yup. You just gotta go for it."
"A-alright. I'll do my best."
I start counting again from the beginning of the piece. The freshman girl takes a step at the correct time the first time, the second time, and the third time. I stop counting when I get to the end of the piece. She looks at me in surprise.
"You did it," I tell her.
"Really? I did?" she asks excitedly. "I thought maybe I was doing it wrong."
I shake my head. "You got it spot on. Way to go!" I give her a big hug. "Now let's go faster."
The freshman girl does just fine for the rest of rehearsal. Her confidence has definitely increased, and it shows in her marching. She managed to step off at the right time going full speed. The band improved exponentially at this rehearsal. We can now run through the entire show with minimal hiccups. All that's left is adding the music and drilling that. It's a relief knowing the show won't be rushed this year. Last year the band couldn't pull it together until the last minute, and everyone was a nervous wreck during the show. It didn't end in failure, but it wasn't pretty either.
"Everyone is doing great!" Arthur praises once everyone is back in the band room. "Keep up the good work and section of the year is as good as ours!"
A few section members give excited whoops, and then the section disperses to leave. I talk to a few people briefly before looking around for Alfred. I had seen him up at the stadium, but I had lost track of him.
"Looking for someone?" Alfred asks from behind me.
I turn to face him. I've gotten used to him sneaking up behind me all the time. "Yeah, so what if I was?"
"HAHAHA!" Alfred laughs. "Ready to go?"
I nod. "So this is gonna be a regular thing now huh?"
"Which part are ya talking about?" he asks as the two of you start walking out of the band room.
"The taking me home bit," I clarify.
"Oh, yeah I guess it is." Alfred says with a smile. "I'm the hero, so it's only right that I take the pretty girl home."
I do my best not to blush at his compliment, but it's next to impossible. Even if I do have the littlest itty bitty crush on Alfred, that doesn't mean he has any feelings for me. I should just forget the whole thing. I climb into Alfred's truck, and he starts it up.
"So what was going on with you and that girl?" he asks as he pulls out of the school's parking lot.
"What do you mean?" I ask him confused. "I was just helping her out."
"Was she having problems?" Alfred asks curiously.
"Yeah. She wasn't confident about her timing, but we fixed that right up."
"I didn't even notice she was having trouble," he says.
"It's not a super obvious thing. You'd have to be looking at her specifically to notice it, but we do our best to watch out for each other in the band. We're a family."
"A family?" Alfred asks as he glances at me briefly.
"Yeah," I answer. "The band is one big family. Mr. Rome is like our dad, and the section leaders and drum majors are the big brothers and sisters. The freshmen are the babies," I say with a laugh. "We all take good care of each other."
"A family, huh," Alfred repeats. "That's cool. I like that a lot." He gives me a smile that makes my heart flutter. Stupid heart.
We arrive at my house not long after that. I make sure I have all my stuff before getting out of the truck. I'm almost to the door when Alfred calls my name.
"Hey (y/n)!"
I turn around and walk back to him. Maybe I forgot something after all. "What?"
"I didn't get to tell you goodnight," he says as he leans out his window.
"Oh, well goo-"
I don't get to finish my sentence because Alfred's lips are pressed against my own. The kiss is short but sweet.
"Goodnight (y/n)," Alfred says while looking me straight in the eyes. A small blush rises to his cheeks. "I'll see you at lunch." He pulls out of your driveway and drives away.
I stare at the truck as it drives away down the road. Did that really just happen? I touch my lips tentatively. Alfred tastes faintly like apple pie. So much for my itty bitty crush.