A/n- Seems appropriate to have this posted in the middle of winter, dreaming of high summer. :)
I woke up the next morning alone on Phil's air mattress. The gym was still dark, and my eyes took a minute to peer through the gloom. I looked over and saw that Matt's bed was empty too.
I sat up just as the girl who had yelled for lights out last night walked into the gym. I could only see her silhouette against the light of the door for a split second before she flipped the light switches on. I lay back down on Phil's mattress, trying not be noticed. I'm sure a girl on the boy's side, especially a girl who most people didn't even recognize, would not be welcomed. The girl who turned the lights on called out over the groaning forms that were being relentlessly pulled back into consciousness.
"Good morning. It is seven o'clock. Breakfast is by the truck. You have one hour to eat and be on the rehearsal field. The field is still out in BFN, so make sure you leave early."
I used the confusion that followed the girl's announcement to get back on the girl's side of the gym, where Ali was sitting up on her bed, stretching. I don't know how the rest of the corps was feeling, but I definitely did not get enough sleep. She smiled when she saw me.
"I hope you didn't keep Phil up all night," she said. "He'll be grumpy all through rehearsal today." I shook my head.
"He was the one keeping me up," I said. Ali laughed. She had a very pretty laugh, and it was easy to smile back at her. "Where did they go, anyway?"
"The boys had to go make sure the field was still lined for practice today. They're probably eating right now." She looked around at the gym that was mostly empty. "We should go too." I followed her across the floor through No Man's Land and out the doors. The sun was already up and hot. I held my hand up to shield my eyes, waiting for them to adjust.
In the few seconds I stood there, Ali disappeared and rematerialized in the huge line that was forming. I saw Matt and Phil, along with some other guys already sitting on the curb next to the truck. They were already only in green gym shorts, shoving entire pancakes down their faces as fast as they could. I didn't know if I wanted to go sit with them. Were you supposed to talk to some one you just shared an air mattress with? What if he regretted his decision? I was saved from having to find out the answer to any of these awkward questions when my dad came around the truck. He too was shirtless, but smiling as he saw me and came over.
"Did you sleep ok?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.
"No thanks to you or Mom," I said, watching the boys eat their cereal with plastic forks. Phil looked over and caught my eye. He smiled and blew a kiss at me, making me blush. My dad followed my stare to glare at Matt and his friend. This only made the group of them start to laugh. One boy almost pushed Phil over, and Matt pretended to throw a sausage patty at him. Dad just shook his head.
"Looks like the euph line will be doing pushups today," he said. The boys just waved at him and laughed harder.
"It's your fault," I retorted. "You and Mom left me all alone in a gym full of crazy people, and he was the only one I knew at the time." He just shook his head again and started to walk back to the truck, grumbling to himself. I heard "tell your mother" and smiled. There was nothing he could tell Mom without being a hypocrite, so I followed him to the truck. The mob of hungry teenagers had thinned enough that I could see my mother's face through the crowd. She was refilling a giant plastic tub of cereal. I cut around the front of the line to stand behind the tables with the other women who were serving breakfast. Mom saw me and grinned. She walked over with the half full bag of cereal in her hand.
"So I heard you had quite the night last night," she said, smirking.
"Ha, ha," I grumbled. I had thought news spread through high school like a wildfire; it was nothing compared to this. She just laughed though and handed me a bowl.
"We're out of spoons at the moment, so find a fork," she told me. There were very few kids in line now, and most of them were done eating. I saw yet more tall and skinny boys emptying the trash bags, hauling them off to a dumpster somewhere. I was guessing they were drummers, due to the peculiar tan on their six-packed stomachs. People were coming back out of the gym with hats and backpacks on, water jugs in hand. Some of them had horns, while others carried long bags with flags and sabers hanging out the ends. I watched them walk off down the road behind a cluster of trees and disappear from view.
"There are still some pancakes and sausage pucks left," my mother told me. Dad reappeared with a cereal bowl in his hand as I was helping myself to some of the lukewarm pancakes in a tin tray. I didn't think I could stomach the "sausage pucks" this early in the morning. He looked at his watch.
"It's seven forty-five," he said warningly to the members who were still eating on the ground. They nodded and inhaled the rest of the food that had been on their plates before running back into the gym. They burst out seconds later, sprinting for the rehearsal field, wherever it was. Dad watched them go, chasing the last of his cereal around the bowl with a fork.
"Are you going to stay here with your mom?" he asked me. My mother came up next to me and answered without consulting me.
"I think she'll stay here with me for a while, cleaning up and getting ready for lunch. You guys only have a couple three hour blocks, right?" she asked. My dad nodded, looking at the whiteboard that was propped against the truck with the day's schedule scrawled across it. "Then we'll go watch the final run through, and leave when you guys do." I grimaced at being told what to do, but my parents didn't seem to notice. My dad stooped down to peck my forehead before simultaneously kissed my mom while throwing his cereal bowl away.
"You guys are amazing. See you later." He picked up a backpack from the curb and trotted down in the direction the members had taken a few minutes before. I watched him disappear around the bend, wishing I could go with him. I found myself wondering what the corps was doing as I sat on the asphalt in the shade of the cook truck. The group of cook moms was taking a brief rest, sitting in camp chairs grouped in a circle in the shade. Phil's face floated through my mind as I wrestled with a particularly rubbery piece of pancake. I was contemplating the likelihood of being able to sneak off to watch him when the women apparently finished their coffee break.
A sturdy lady with dark hair got off her camp chair and stretched, which was the signal for the others to also rise. Within seconds, it seemed, the long table in front of me was cleared. I stood there, feeling like I was in the way. Someone noticed I wasn't doing anything, and handed me a large container like my mom had had earlier. I had no idea what to do with it, other than fill it from the tubs that the corps had eaten out of. I put the full container back in a side cabinet of the truck. Seeing my chance, I tried to make a break for it. One of the cook staff noticed as I sidled down the other side of the truck and called me over to help her. I sighed and turned back towards the work that I had been volunteered to do.
Somehow, I ended up being dragged back into the cook truck. I was handed a sponge by one of the many bustling women and positioned next to a sink I probably could have bathed in. For eating so much food, there were surprisingly few dishes to wash. I finished drying everything, handing it off to yet someone else who knew where it all went. A large grin split my face. I was free! I got through the door and turned down the stairs when I ran into my mother who had a box full of tortillas in her arms.
"Lunch time is going to be soon. You want to chop stuff up?" she asked. I knew it wasn't really a question. By the time I finished chopping, mixing, and washing again, the corps was trooping back up the hill to eat again. I tried to look for Matt or Phil, but I couldn't see them in the first wave of sweaty members. The first bowls of food disappeared, and I was sent running for refills. I didn't get a chance to look for them again before they refilled their water jugs to head back to the field for their final block before they left.
"Hello, beautiful," Phil winked at me as he leaned over his jug. The water gushed out of the hose, sending a light mist back out of the opening. He seemed to be in the opportune position to have the spray cover his body. "I'll see you after we've cleaned up." He straightened, tightening the lid to the bucket.
"I wish I could be out there too," I said, staring in the direction of the retreating members.
"Not right now you don't," he said. "Everyone's pretty edgy, and the heat isn't helping." I didn't notice the heat or the humidity anymore. I guess I got used to it without knowing. I shrugged. "You're seeing a glimpse of what corps is really about," he continued. "Everyone always thinks we just appear out of buses in uniform, and then go to the next show. They don't realize the time we spend out in the sun and the heat, killing ourselves to be here." He grinned down at me. "Ah well," he said, picking up his silver horn. "Sometimes I get lucky and there are cute girls that just appear out of nowhere. See you in three hours." He turned and left down the hill. I watched the sheen of sweat reflect back off of his muscled back, smiling to myself.
A/n- Good luck to everyone with camps coming up. :)
