Chapter 11
Zach pulled into the parking lot the next morning. Based off of the full parking lot, he was glad to see everyone had gotten his message about coming early to practice. Despite his momentary happiness he was not looking forward to the laborious process of cleanup, nor the large bill that would accompany all the replacements.
He climbed out of his beat-up car and saw a thin line of smoke rising from the school, its source appearing as though if it was coming from the band room. "Oh shit." Zach muttered, breaking out into a sprint. When he reached the other side of the school, he saw the drumline crowded around a small bonfire.
"I swear to God, if it's another freshman burning a mallet…." he grumbled, pushing through the crowd to put out the fire. Much to his surprise, he saw Jared standing over a pile of the vandalized drum heads, emptying a bottle of valve oil onto the growing flames. Curious, Zach went inside the band room and grinned in spite of himself. The old drum heads were gone, now replaced by better quality, and more expensive, heads. He reached into one of the stick bags and pulled out a drumstick, tapping around the edges of one of the snares. He repeated with the other drums and found they were perfectly tuned. "Bet the cymbals are still dead." He pulled open the drawer on the storage case containing them, and took a step back at the shiny metal that greeted his eyes. He picked one up turned it around, and ran outside.
Zach was in disbelief, but was sure a glance at the still-broken cymbals would bring him back down to Earth. Had anyone been around to witness it, they would have described Zach's face after he opened the cymbal bag as 'priceless.' "Who the hell bought brand new Zildjians?" Zach shouted as he ran outside, both pleased and horrified. "Does the idiot who did this know how expensive these are?" The cymbal players turned their heads and ran over to see the cymbal Zach was waving wildly in the air.
"Ooooooh" the cymbals said in awe. Zach handed it over to Amanda, one of the few cymbals he trusted, and approached the rest of the group.
"Who fixed everything?" He demanded. "I hope they know that there's no way that we'll be able to go to Dayton since we're now broke!"
"Jared did it," Ben explained. "And he used his own money." Zach's face flushed in anger.
"Don't think that just because you're able to throw around money means we're going to accept you!" Zach yelled at Jared. "Once someone's a Stonewall drummer, they're always a Stonewall drummer."
"Zach, cut it out!" Stefanie, bass drum one, said. "He hasn't done anything wrong."
"How are we supposed to know that he didn't set up this whole thing with his cronies, and then fixed it all in an effort to gain our trust?" Zach accused.
"Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?" Gary, another bass drum, interrupted. "You're essentially saying 'He's from Stonewall, which must mean he's a criminal!'"
"But for all we know –"
"That's right Zach, we don't know." Maddie said, coming up from behind Zach. Janie followed closely behind. "Sorry we're late. What did I miss?" She glanced toward the parking lot where the fire was, and grinned.
"You started a bonfire without me?" She teased. "I'm hurt."
"I didn't do it." Zach said. "He did."
"Nice." Maddie said, drawing out the word. Jared couldn't help but smile at her, and tried to ignore the butterflies hatching in his stomach. Meanwhile, Janie stood behind Maddie while cautiously peering over her shoulder at Zach. Zach refused to look at Janie, and there was a small pang in her stomach.
"Well, I think that this act clears Jared of all the things he was accused of yesterday." Cameron, one of the few seniors, said. "Who agrees?" Everyone except Zach raised their hands. When she saw Zach's hand down, Janie quickly brought hers down in an attempt to get back on his good side.
"Great, so we're all on the same page." Maddie said. "Now that this is all done, everyone get inside for drumline practice!" They all groaned, but trudged inside anyway. Maddie stopped Jared as he tried to go inside. "Hey, can you put out the bonfire first? Last year we did that with all the crappy mallets after final exams, and the fire-marshal came and got us in trouble with Mr. Johnson." She shook her head, laughing at the crazy memory. Maddie entered the band room and Jared went out into the middle of the parking lot, circling the growing fire while trying to think of a way to stop the blaze.
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Janie dared to look at Zach, now that the two of them were alone. They both had stayed to the side as everyone else went inside. "I think Maddie likes him." she commented, nodding her head toward Jared.
"Did you sleep with her too, or did she tell you that herself?" Zach said bitterly.
"Zach, that doesn't even make sense!" Janie shouted. "And I told you already, I did not cheat on you!" She looked at Jared. "His nose is too big."
Zach snorted against his will. "A bit vain, aren't we?" he asked.
"Hey, it's true." Janie shrugged. They stood there in awkward silence, shuffling their feet and avoiding eye contact. "So why don't you believe me?" she asked after a couple of minutes.
"Well… you have a history, you know?" Zach said.
"So do you." Janie retorted.
"I dunno. It freaks me out sometimes. I'm never entirely sure if you actually do give a shit about us or if this is another one of your flings." He said.
"You're not just a fling to me." Janie said. "I care about you so much, and I'd never want to hurt you in a million years." Her eyes got teary. "You're all I have now that Mark's gone." She started crying despite herself and Zach pulled her to his chest.
"I'm so sorry Janie." He whispered, petting her hair. A few minutes later Janie pulled her act together and looked up at Zach.
"Are we okay now?" she asked between sniffles
"Yeah, we are." he said, kissing her softly.
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Maddie peeked her head out the band door. "Janie get your -" she started shouting, but stopped when she saw that Janie and Zach had made up. "Isn't that something?" She murmured to herself, happy to see things had mended themselves. She noticed Jared had successfully ended the fire, and was now kicking the ashes and melted beads of aluminum about in the parking lot. As she had a practice to get started, she shouted "Jared, get your ass over here!" He looked up, and then ran over.
"Sorry." he muttered.
"I'm going to make you sorry in thirty seconds if you don't get behind your instrument in the next thirty seconds!" she threatened, swatting his head lightly with the back of her hand. He went inside and she followed after him, leaving Zach and Janie alone yet again.
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After warm-ups were finished, Maddie went to the copy room. She returned a few minutes later with a thick stack of papers. She noticed Zach and Janie had still not come in, and assumed that the two of them went out for lunch. She sighed, mildly annoyed that she now had to deal with both battery and pit.
"Um, you guys can go out and do your own thing." Maddie said, giving the battery their respective parts. "I don't know what the usual deal is with learning parts, so just break up and do sectionals, I guess." After the battery had left, Maddie went up front and addressed the pit from Mr. Johnson's stool.
"So, before I hand out parts one and two to our show, I'd like to explain this year's theme a little bit." Maddie said. "Our concept this year is about the classic elements: earth, wind, water, and fire. We also added 'light' as our closer. I know it's a pretty common theme, but I think our take on it is going to set it apart from any of the other schools that have done this show in the past."
"Chris and Adam wrote this show, just like they did last year. Zach and I also put in some input on the music considering how we're around you guys a heck of a lot more and know what you're capable of. Our first competition is in a little over a month, and I think if he have a good work ethic, we'll have all of this learned and memorized in no time. So are we good to go?"
There were a few nods from people, but overall everyone had glazed-over eyes.
"Can we get the music now?" Hannah, the pit's senior, bluntly asked. Maddie sighed, and handed out the appropriate parts.
"Marimba one for me…" she murmured, putting it on her stand, "Marimba one for Janie….." Janie's eyes widened at this, but took the part anyway. "Marimba two for Hannah…"
"Woah, wait a minute!" Hannah and Janie said at the same time.
"This can't be right." Hannah continued. "I'm a senior, a SENIOR damnit! What the hell gives you the right to give Janie my part?"
"It was never your part." Maddie explained. "Chris and I agree that Janie earned the part that she's on now."
"But-" Hannah began, but Maddie silenced her with one of her famous glares.
After Maddie finished handing out parts she beamed at everyone from behind her instrument, excited to get started. "Alrighty then. Let's go!"
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Three hours of practicing later, Jared felt like his hands were going to fall off. There were shiny red blisters on the outside of his middle fingers, and they throbbed painfully underneath the tight band-aids Maddie had put on a few minutes ago. He stared at his hands sadly for a few moments, and then resumed packing up his equipment. After throwing his music in a pile in the back of the percussion storage closet, Jared waved goodbye to Maddie.
"Don't forget: keep the band-aids on for tonight and then take them off after tomorrow morning. If you don't, your fingers will heal, but you'll get more blisters." Maddie reminded him. "And I'll know if you listened, since we have practice tomorrow after school... See you later Jared." At this, she picked up her mallet bag and left the band room, walking to her house.
"Damnit." Jared cursed, mostly because he was in the presence of other people. As he climbed into his mom's car, however, he was practically grinning from ear to ear.
Ah, the good old days of burning all the crappy/broken mallets at the end of marching band season :)
Now for the usual: I'll try to get the next chapter of this up A.S.A.P., yadda yadda yadda. Read and review, and I shall be yours.
~The Sound of Drums