Chapter 11

(Playing inside)

I ran to the band room through the pouring rain. We were definitely staying inside. I sighed at the prospect of having to wait another day to see Mia's face when she unrolled her flag.

I took my instrument out and walked over to Gerry.

"Calvin must not be here," I whispered slyly, "you're not flirting with him."

Gerry smiled cunningly and retorted, "At least I'm within my league." She finished her statement with a nod of her head towards Will.

"What do you mean—is it obvious" I stuttered.

"Not really," Gerry whispered back, "but sometimes you just stare at the guy –although he is something to stare at."

I started sorting through my memory for moments that I might have done any staring. I quickly stopped: too many possible incidents were popping up.

"Don't look so worried! Nobody but me notices. I mean…all freshmen girls do that…you'll get use to him—maybe," Gerry said with a wide grin.

Just at that moment Calvin walked into the band room. I waved at him at him and Gerry quickly walked over to him. Then I sat down in my sit between Chris and Dimitri.

"Well hello beautiful. How'd things go with Jack?" Chris asked as I sat down.

I faked an air of authority, "Darling, I am perfect in all ways."

Dimitri smiled slightly, probably because I almost aborted the mission before I even saw Jack, but he kept silent about it.

"Oh, and that random chick that stopped at my truck?" started Dimitri.

"Penny," I answered, "I don't know what to do with that girl."

"Chris," he turned to Chris to explain his situation, "there I was quietly sitting in my truck and some chick calls my name—next thing I knew she was leaning into my truck and on my walkie talkie!"

"She's not a crazed freak, I promise," I laughed.

"So did you get any info?" asked Chris.

"Just one thing," I replied, "what should I look for anyway?"

"The key is actually pretty odd. It's a green cross," answered Will from behind me.

"Let's start with the production number," announced Gina from the podium.

In other words the lowbrass section had almost nothing to do. We played a little in the beginning a bit in the middle and the last note. So after the part in the beginning I completely relaxed in my chair.

However, I forgot all about Chris. He gave me a thumb's up—the signal of thumb war. I agreed by giving him a thumb's up back.

It started off as thumb war, but then he poked my stomach and the object of the game suddenly changed. I was defending my stomach while I vainly tried to punch his stomach. But then he grabbed my arm and held it behind my back.

"You are a cheating…cheater," I accused as I frantically defended myself.

"You are a just a sore loser," he gasped as he started tickling my stomach.

Dimitri was silently laughing at us and Will was shaking his head.

Then it happened. I lost my balance and my chair tumbled from beneath me.

"Oops!" Chris exclaimed softly as he started picking me up.

I saw the tubas trying extremely hard to stifle their laughter and Will's scolding look, but I was laughing deep inside. We all knew it was bound to happen.

"The good news is no one else noticed," laughed Gerry as the tears of laughter flooded from her eyes.

She was right. The song was at a very intense part and everyone that was actually playing was completely involved in keeping in time. Only the lowbrass section was aware of my fall.

I didn't have much time to think about it because I had only two measures until I had to start playing.