Let the Invasion of Florida Begin! (DISCLAIMER: Do not own any franchises, colleges, etc. mentioned.) (NOTE: This chapter contains romantic, mushy scenes. Skip them if you wish.)

Taking in a breath of evening air and gazing upon the several charter buses parked near the curb, Zephyr's heart beat faster than usual. Tonight, the Dieci band was leaving for Orlando to play at a bowl game and hang out at several theme parks in the area. It was winter break as well; the infamous Florida heat would not be a problem. Although the flute player could not exactly explain why, she had always loved traveling at night and in the early morning. And what excited her more, she was traveling with some of her best friends eighteen hours to "the happiest place on Earth."

She took her bags into the band hall, dropped them off in her brass circle's general area, picked up her uniform, and waited for company. Kayla Selmer and Catalena Celeborn were the first to arrive. These two borderline-insane sophomores, along with Leslie Selmer, the head drum major, were her roommates for the next four nights or so. As she imagined the chaos, she smirked.

Next came Charlie Daily and Desmond Milton, her two bus captain partners. Zephyr had to admit, Desmond was not very high on her list of preferred company, but listening to him was interesting.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Benjamin Walker pick up his uniform. The two hugged and greeted each other as if they had been friends for years instead of a few weeks. When she thought back, she found it funny to remember that she hadn't known his name, face, or instrument three months prior. She guessed what had really helped their friendship along was region band day and their almost non-stop texting since the holiday started.

Soon enough, Mr. Oakley ordered everyone to go load the buses and the adventure began.

As soon as Zephyr and Chase Bates, among several others, finished re-arranging everyone's luggage in the compartment under the bus so that none of it would fall or create a major problem, they boarded the vehicle and waited for last-minute preparations.

Zephyr and her group of friends were situated near the front. Zephyr sat next to Catalena, in front of them sat the Selmer sisters, behind them were Charlie and Ben, and across from the flautist and horn player were Chihiro Natsuki, sophomore trumpet player, and Ann Magnolia, freshman flute player.

The bus started moving, lights flickered off, and much of the band tried to go to sleep. Zephyr slipped into dreamland listening to Charlie and Ben's conversation about World of Warcraft.

A sudden jolt woke Zephyr from her slumber. She sighed and guessed that was one of the many setbacks of sleeping on a moving object.

Outside, the sun had not completely risen yet, and conditions were a little foggy. The sky was painted a steel blue with a plethora of dull clouds, and the roads were relatively empty and quiet. About half of the trees looked like they were dead, their sharp spindly claws scratching the air above them. The scene speeding past her window reminded her too much of Silent Hill – any moment now, birds would flap their wings and fly away desperately while everything inexplicably transformed into something dark, scary, and covered in blood.

"Hey."

The flute player turned around and smiled at the image of Ben's head resting in the space between her head restraint and the window. It seemed quite convenient that they had a conversation spot away from the rest of the sleeping band members. "Hey there," she answered.

"Couldn't sleep either?"

"No. Stupid bus woke me up. Um … can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Don't see why not."

"Well …" Did she really want to say this? "I really like this guy, but ... he's kinda got a girlfriend. They seem really happy together and I don't want to ruin that. ... Then there's this other guy who I think I like, but maybe we'd be better off as friends. What do I do?"

Ben blinked and sighed, breaking eye contact. He was not prepared for a question like this. After several minutes of contemplation, he spoke. "If you really like the first guy, then try to go for it. Maybe you can wait until they break up. Or you can get together with the close friend and break it off when the girlfriend guy's single. I'd really just try to stay friends with the second guy for now."

She was crazy. She did want to do this. "Do you have any guesses as to who they might be?"

"Um. Are they band guys?"

"And freshmen."

In his mind, he narrowed down the candidates. Ben was surprised to notice that Zephyr was only friends with three male band fish. And one of them – Scott Dennis – was more qualified for "adorable house pet" than "boyfriend." But maybe she wasn't friends with the first one …

"I-I don't know who the first one is," he guessed, "but … is the close friend me?"

Her eyes darted away from his, and slowly, she nodded her head.

"Oh." Ben felt the blood rush to his face. "Then … who was the other guy?"

The flautist pointed at Charlie before whispering, "I'll try to get back to sleep now. Thanks." And with that, she turned around and closed her eyes.

Ben laid his back against the seat and reprocessed their conversation. Suddenly, it made sense that only Zephyr could evoke this strange emotion from him. The trombone player was glad that she was more direct than the rest of her section – he would have been too shy to take any actions.

The band stopping for meals was quite a sight. Usually, half of the buses went to one restaurant and the other half went to another one nearby to avoid swamping the workers. A second method was letting the band members choose from an area of fast food places while the buses sat in a nearby parking lot.

However, dinner on the way there was different. Mr. Oakley had called a larger restaurant in advance, so the entire band would be dining at a buffet-type restaurant. Luckily, Zephyr and her friends sprinted in, beating the rest of the large band.

As they sat down, Zephyr asked, "So, my fishies, how's your first band trip?"

"Mm," Charlie mumbled through his full mouth. "Trippin'."

"Pretty good," Ben answered while he tapped her foot under the table. In response, she kicked him softly, and the playful banter continued. By the end of dinner, Zephyr was sure that she had several new bruises on her leg.

Soon, her group finished dinner, and they wandered outside. They passed by the line to get in, and they were shocked that several members of the band had not even paid for their buffet yet.

"Makes me glad that we got here early," chuckled Catalena.

While waiting for the rest of their massive band to finish up dinner, they hung around outside. Several of the trumpets who had eaten began a game of ultimate Frisbee, which Zephyr figured was the official section sport.

Daydreaming and listening to her iPod, Zephyr stared out her window in an effort to keep her motion sickness at bay. Occasionally, she would glance back at the occupants of her bus: Kayla and Leslie were buried in their own conversation or watching a movie, Catalena was either reading or talking to Chihiro, Charlie listened to his own iPod while reading a graphic novel called Watchmen, and Ben watched Iron Man on the bus televisions. The flautist couldn't help but notice that his arm was resting between hers and Catalena's head restraints, leaving his hand next to hers.

She studied the moving trees and clouds, but found herself drawn to his hand. Did he want her to do something? Was this another answer to her earlier question? After several minutes of contemplation, she nudged his hand. Slowly, he took her hand in his and smiled at her.

Leslie collected the key cards for their room and signaled to her roommates to follow her into the hotel. To her surprise, the hotel did not seem to have staircases (it was later revealed that the stairs were only used in emergencies), leaving three elevators to transport the Dieci band and a band from Pennsylvania to their rooms.

The head drum major rolled her eyes and sighed; disorganization was slowly becoming a pet peeve of hers, and the massive blob of band members waiting for a free elevator made it worse. As the minutes ticked by, she felt her bags becoming heavier and heavier. She glanced at a nearby map and saw that there were six levels in the hotel, along with several large ballrooms and meeting rooms, and a random Starbucks. "One around every corner," she chuckled to herself.

Soon enough, the traffic slowed, and she was able to climb into an elevator. Once they had reached their room, the Selmer sisters claimed the bed closest to the window (the view was not spectacular; Leslie saw cars speeding along roads every day) and Zephyr and Catalena settled for the bed nearest the bathroom and entrance.

Reminding everyone that they had to wake up around five o'clock the next morning, Leslie turned out the lights and everyone closed their eyes and waited to slip into slumber land.

At least, for a while.

After chucking a pillow halfway across the room, Leslie screamed, "HORSE!"

In another room, a somewhat similar thing occurred, but with sophomore French horn Edward Raleigh yelling, "DHUT!"

Trying to ignore the rising Florida sun and the fact that she hadn't memorized the show tune (a medley of Santana songs), Zephyr took her spot in the high school stands along with many other flautists from all over the country and half-heartedly played through the mass band warm-up and run-throughs of the show tune.

As she was bumbling through most of the song, she glanced around at the odd instrumentation. One couldn't really deviate from the typical flutes and trumpets, but some schools apparently used concert euphoniums instead of baritones, and there were even modified tubas supported on one shoulder instead of sousaphones.

The head director cut off the band, and ordered the huge band into sectionals, pointing out which section practiced where. The flutes, luckily, were under the shade of trees and protected from the inevitable noon sun. After playing through the show tune (again and again and again …), the sectional director gave the flutes time to sit down and mingle with other schools.

Upon sitting down, one of the flautists from Pennsylvania complained, "It's too hot …"

Having lived through at least fourteen humid, 100-plus degrees summers, the eighty degrees and no humidity in Florida was nothing for the Texan Dieci band; they couldn't help but snicker.

Ben leaned forward and conversed with Zephyr through the space between her head restraint and the window. He was telling her some stories about his sister when he heard groans and cheers from the back of the bus. Curious, he and Zephyr turned around.

Two hangers had been placed on ridges on the overhead compartments. Every time the bus braked to a stop (which was quite often; the traffic leading to the stadium was terrible), the hangers would slide down towards the front. Ben rooted for the one on the left; unfortunately, it got caught on someone's bag and the hanger on the right won.

As a freshman, he was amazed at how easily this band was amused.

Zephyr and Ben continued their conversation in their hidden hollow while the rest of the band was not paying much attention. Charlie was reading Watchmen and Catalena had draped her band hoodie over her head to blot out the sun while she caught up on sleep.

The flautist chuckled at a story the trombonist told, and an awkward silence quickly settled over the two. They gazed into each other's eyes, hearts pounding at an accelerated rate. Some part of Zephyr knew that they were probably moving too fast for her standards, the other part decided it did not care.

After a year of repairing her broken heart, the kiss was innocent and refreshing.

Seats for the bowl game were assigned at random; if one wanted to move closer to friends, someone had to switch spots. To their joy, Zephyr and Ben got seats next to each other and decided that they would get dinner from one of the many food stands under the stadium seats several minutes into the third quarter.

When the band was called down to get ready from the halftime show, almost an entire section of the stands disappeared and reappeared at the other end of the stadium, ready to march onto the field. Many people were amazed at the number of students wearing emerald green and navy blue uniforms, and eventually pulled a Dieci student over to ask where they were from. Every time, at least one person concluded, "Well, everything's bigger in Texas."

The high school kids were not told that there would be fireworks bursting in the sky during their performance. Band members who didn't bother to memorize the tune and didn't want to try watched the fireworks instead of the director. Others jumped a foot in the air and screamed when the first explosion illuminated the night sky.

Between the college marching bands, playing for thousands of people, and of course, the drunken football fans, Zephyr thought the bowl game was an interesting experience.

The bands decided to leave a little early to avoid being swamped by post-game traffic. There really was no reason to stay; unless Wisconsin could pull off a miracle, Florida State would claim the victory. On the bus, everyone discussed the events of the game with each other while Ben and Zephyr continued their conversation in their private space, with Charlie occasionally chiming in.

Charlie glanced out the window and smirked. "Hey, will you look at that?" he scoffed. The other two looked up and saw a man wobbling to and fro, obviously drunk. A woman, who they assumed was his wife, was laughing so hard, her face had turned a blotchy red. The man stumbled and almost fell, and another man, presumably a friend, caught him.

"Those drunk football fans," chuckled Ben. As if he had heard him, the drunken man turned to see three curious faces peering at him from behind bus windows. A huge, silly grin materialized on his face and he jumped for joy, apparently ecstatic that he had an audience. He started to dance clumsily as he caught the attention of more band members. All who saw him laughed … even Mr. Oakley.

"And that's why you stay away from alcohol," the band director stated.

Charlie and his Universal Studios group - Victoria, Max, and the rest of the euphoniums - approached The Hulk with great enthusiasm; the screams of terrified roller coaster riders only made them more excited.

As the chatter in his group began to subside, the freshman tilted his head back to study the tracks. "If I die on this," he said absentmindedly, "I'm going to be pissed."

The others could only laugh at their freshman's randomosity.

As a group of band members boarded the Dueling Dragons before her, Leslie grinned and acted on her band geek impulse.

She clapped four times and screamed, "Band, TEN-HUT!"

"HUT!" The band geeks on the roller coaster – among them Scott Daily – immediately went to attention, despite being on one of the most lively roller coasters in Universal Studios.

"Let's see how long you can keep that up," the head drum major snickered.

As she predicted, all of them abandoned the attention position at the beginning of the first drop.

When the itineraries and sets of rules were passed out earlier that year, Zephyr could not see herself breaking or abusing any of the rules, especially the "no public displays of affection" rule. And yet, here she was, with Ben's arm perpetually around her waist. The flautist concluded that she would be richer than Bill Gates if she had received a nickel for every time the others in her group screamed "PDA!"

While grabbing a little dinner in Universal Studios, Ben pulled her into his lap while they were waiting for food. She protested weakly, but gave up when he rested his head on her shoulder and pressed his cheek against hers.

Leslie sat down at the table and rolled her eyes at the couple. She smiled as one of the best sarcastic comments of the year materialized in her head.

"Hey Ben!" she called. "I have two tickets to this concert next week, and since you're single, I was wondering if you would go with me?"

The two underclassmen guffawed, along with any band member in sight and within earshot.

After a long day of riding roller coasters and having as much fun a freshman could have, Charlie settled down in his sleeping bag at the foot of Max's bed. There were only two beds, and boys, for whatever reason, felt uncomfortable sharing one. Max and another senior had claimed the beds, while their other roommate dried off the bottom of the bathtub and slept there.

In the middle of the night, a bright flash woke Charlie up, and he saw that a dim, green light illuminated the area behind the television. Max had opened his eyes and wondered about the mysterious light as well.

Without thinking, Charlie spouted out, "You know, it'd be scary if the TV just said 'Bullshit!' and exploded."

Overall, Catalena enjoyed her Florida group, but Zephyr's new attachment to Ben bothered her. While trying to ignore the new couple, she spotted a lonely little clarinet player. What was his name? Scott Dennis, unanimously voted as "Most Adorable Freshman." Where was his group?

Catalena waved him over. "Hey, Scott! Where'd your group go?"

He blinked rapidly, a quirky trait of his that made him all the cuter. "Um … I dunno."

"Well, why don'tcha join up with us for a while?" she suggested.

The clarinet freshman remained with their group for the remainder of the trip and until the last day of school. It seemed that there was more to him than his appearance belied; he was quite the comedian, and was almost as random as Charlie. Upon finding a small, bejeweled replica of Cinderella Castle costing well over five thousand dollars in a remote corner of a glass store, he commented, "Those better be freaking diamonds."

The band had gathered in what could be considered the central hub of the Magic Kingdom to watch the day's firework finale. Zephyr and Ben had managed to catch up with Catalena, Chihiro, and Scott. While they waited for the Parade of Lights to reach them and the fireworks to start, they found amusement in the changing colors of Cinderella Castle.

"What color is it now, Scotty?" giggled Catalena.

"Um … blue?" he said in that quiet, whispery voice of his.

"No, it's purple," Chihiro corrected.

"Oh. Still looks blue, though," maintained Scott. "I'm a little colorblind."

"Really?" chimed in Ben.

"Yeah," Scott confirmed sheepishly. "I've never been able to see purple. It always looks like a weird shade of blue."

"Oh …" murmured Catalena. "So … what color is the castle now?"

"Um … blue?"

"No, it's purple!" Catalena chuckled. Scott smiled.

As the sun was setting on the day of the band's return, the teenagers became increasingly loopy and delusional. Zephyr had never remembered The Mummy being very humorous, yet her bus laughed at every other line. In fact, almost everyone would laugh uproariously at absolutely nothing.

When the time came to leave the bus behind and distribute the luggage, Zephyr's heart became heavy with sorrow. Those had to have been the best days of her life; she would do or give anything to relive them over and over again. However, that was not possible, and she would have to hang onto the memories for as long as she was able. As soon as the area was cleared of band members and their baggage, Zephyr turned around to grab her belongings, only to see Ben waiting for her.

"Hello there, beautiful," he greeted.

She smiled and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers. Maybe she had expected to come back home with a shirt, a birthday present for her brother, or a Christmas ornament, but she never dreamed of bringing home a new boyfriend.