Band

Sophia and Bri walked with me down to the band room. It was a big room with five different levels of floors, just like a real band concert stand. It was huge could probably fit 80 students.

I went into the band office where a short man with a big belly was sitting at his desk with a IPhone. I cleared my throat. He looked up "NO YOU MAY NOT GO TO THE BATHROOM! LASHAR MADE ME GIVE THAT RULE YESTERDAY!"

"Um, I'm sorry, I'm Nessie, the new girl. The French horn player."

"Oh! Yes, sorry about that. You'll know what I'm talking about when you meet Lashar." he said, shuddering when he said Lashar' s name.

"Ok then... Can you help me get set up?"

"Sure sure" With that he got up and went into the band room. Since everyone was there, I counted all of them. 72! Wow thats a lot. All the percussion were on the top level, then trumpets, low brass and 2 tenor sax's on the row under percussion. In front of the trumpets were Alto sax's and 2 French Horns, below them were clarinets and one flute.

The teacher introduced himself as Mr. Cintron. He took me over to the other two French Horns. They were both boys. One was named Luke Armstrong, who looked like a short nerd, but hung out with the jocks, and the other kid was Rico, who was muttering something in Arabic about Luke talking to fast. When Rico saw me he immediately perked up. He then said in Arabic " Finally! Someone who can understand me!"

Mr. Cintron tapped me on the shoulder, "Do you have any idea what he's saying?". I replied " Yeah, he's saying 'finally! Someone who can understand me!' I speak Arabic so...". "Perfect! We need a translator around here! With all the budget cuts, we don't have notin round here!" he threw his hands up and walked to the band director platform.

A very chubby kid tapped me on the shoulder from behind. He had a tenor sax around his neck. " Hi I'm Lashar, I have chocolate in my pocket!". "Um... Interesting, I've heard a few things about you Lashar... How did you get the whole band suspend from the bathroom?". "Uhhhh, sorry I'm going through a tunnel, call me back later." Then he took his band book and jiggled it, making it sound bubbly. "I'm right next to you, and it sounds like bubbles!" I said.

Just then Mr. Cintron whistled "BAND! Ok, now today we are going to play... What Lashar?" Lashar had his hand raised. "Wait, I thought I told you no questions like a week ago!"

"Uhh, but Mr. Cintron, it's important!"

"No, in fact, no more talking for the rest of the class, and if you do, we all get detention."

Everyone gasped at that. After that, everyone told Lashar to keep his trap shut. Then Lashar nodded and started writing furiously on a piece of sticky note. After a few moments passed, he gave it to Brandon, the other tenor sax player. Brandon raised his hand.

Before he could say anything, Mr. Cintron said "LASHAR! That means no giving notes to Brandon!" Lashar then snatched the note from Brandon and handed it to Hannah, a stuck up clarinet player. "Or any of the band members!" Mr. Cintron said before Hannah took it. Lashar huffed and then got up with the note and put it in Mr. Cintron face. Mr. Cintron ignored him and walked away, motioning me into the hall. He took me into the small gym where there was a chair and music stand. "Ok, since you are new here, I need to see how well you play." he picked out a piece of music from the book, it was one line, it was so easy, it was 'C D E F F G A A G F E D C' I played it perfectly. He gave me a new piece. Again, I played it perfectly. This went on for 15 minutes. Finally he was out of paper. "Wow, I just gave you my last piece, and that was for the freshman at the high school!" I nodded "Thanks, I've been playing since I was five.". Five months that is, but he dosen't need to know… By that time the bell rung and I headed back to Mrs. Ripmasters room for math.