47. Creation

One day, when they were just hanging out in the band room after school, Jaden sat down at the piano and began playing a song Jesse had never heard him play before.

"That was beautiful," Jesse said as he finished. "What was it?"

"Thanks! It was – um... I – I wrote it myself," Jaden said with an uncharacteristic stammer. He grinned broadly and changed the subject, and Jesse let it go.

A few weeks later, Jaden presented him with a stack of papers and said, "Happy birthday!" It was the sheet music to an original composition entitled, "Jesse's Theme".

48. Childhood

"You know, I actually started off on clarinet, back in sixth grade," Jaden revealed.

Jesse tried to picture it. "Really? Why'd you switch?"

"Well, one day, the clarinet wasn't working, and I didn't know how to fix it, so I asked an older band kid. And then he told me to put it in hot water."

Jesse stared. "...You didn't."

Jaden blushed. "I boiled it in a pot. Switched to percussion the next day."

51. Sport

"Well, that's one of the reasons I joined marching band in the first place." Jaden got a sheepish look on his face. "I heard it counts as a sport and my parents told me they'd stop making me go to dance classes if I did a sport."

52. Deep in Thought

Once, Jesse turned to see Jaden staring at him, his eyes intense but distant.

"...Jay? What's up?"

"Just thinkin'," was the vague reply.

"About?"

He blinked and diverted his gaze. "Stuff."

54. Tower

When Jaden and Jesse realized they had the band room all to themselves after school, the first thing they did was begin stacking the chairs on top of each other, competing to see who could create the highest tower.

Ten minutes later, Jesse gloated from his taller throne, while Jaden insisted that he only lost because he was a few inches shorter than Jesse.

57. Sacrifice

At the end of the parade, Jesse took one look at Jaden's exhausted face, and offered to switch instruments with him for the walk back to the buses. Five minutes of carrying the bass drum later, he resolved never to complain about sore arms again.

58. Kick in the Head

When Jaden left Jesse to go refill his plate of food, he was cornered by Aster.

"Dude," he said in an undertone, a smug look on his face, "he so totally wants you."

Jaden's head went fuzzy and his brow furrowed in confusion. "Who wants what?"

"Jesse. Wants. You."

"Oh. What for?"

A sigh. "No, I mean, he likes you."

"Well, yeah, we are friends – "

"He likes you in a sexual way."

Jaden blinked, heat rushing to his cheeks. "You say some weird stuff, Aster." He turned and went to stuff his face with food and tried to forget that conversation ever happened.

A/N: "Childhood" is based off of a post I saw from Story Monday of the Music Problems blog on Tumblr. And "Kick in the Head" is basically the story of how I got my first boyfriend. That is all. XD