It was hard to believe, but it was the end of the year at North. That meant the seniors were graduating, which meant it was time to say good bye to Roberto, Amanda, and Keith. In Lily's opinion, they were the three reasons the section had stuck together so long. 1- Roberto kept them together musically. 2- Amanda gave them someone to be angry towards together (though Lily wasn't so sure that was a good thing). 3- Keith kept the mood light and everyone laughing. Lily was astounded to think she was really going to miss them. They had come a long way. Next year, they would do the same for Kristin and Kelsey. Then Mary and Bailey, the year after that. And then- well, it wasn't so far into the future that Lily would graduate too.
She was really going to miss them. They were like a family to Lily, their own dysfunctional, twisted family. Roberto and Amanda were like divorced parents: always in charge, and constantly fighting with each other. Keith was the fun uncle who let them get away with anything, and usually helped. Kristin and Kelsey were reliable older sisters, and Bailey and Mary were twins. As for Lily, she was the baby of the group. But they were her family, and she like them no matter what kinds of crazy things they did.
In band, seniors were excused from rehearsing the songs to be played. That left Bailey and Kristin on the first part, Mary and Lily, on second, and Kelsey on third (during graduation, she would be joined by the top player from Symphonic Band). Lily knew that even though Bailey and Kristin had beat Mary in the past, it was unfair to have them sitting in front of her. Mary had earned her spot.
The seniors did stay for parts of rehearsals: to practice the senior song, which they would play as a group at graduation. Roberto, Amanda, and Keith played first, second, and third respectively. Rehearsals were easy, but it wasn't as much fun to play without the seniors. Lily was glad she got to spend more time with Mary, however. Kesley had ligament damage on her left foot, so when she left early, Lily took her folder. She was still doing everything she could for the section.
The only interesting day was when the trumpets decided they wanted to play Music from the Incredibles, a piece that was in the Grad Band folders, but wasn't on the list of songs. "Pretty, please?" begged a junior called Woody. Mr. Doorbell, the former student teacher was there that day. Mr. Doorbell wasn't his real name, but Roberto had started calling him that during marching. Lily wasn't sure she remembered his real name. Mr. Doorbell made a compromise.
"One more run through of this piece, and then we can play it until the bell." There were only four minutes left in the period, but they could still play. It was some of the best playing and most fun they'd had in Grad Band. No one heard the bell ring. Mr. Doorbell ended up writing a pass for each class, not each individual person. Lily was the only one in her Spanish class, so she got her own pass. Inside, she gave it to her teacher (who was used to getting many passes for Lily coming in late from band after arguing with Mr. Locke).
"Maria," she said, using Lily's Spanish name. "¡Tú está muy feliz!" Lily grinned. Her teacher was used to seeing her close to tears when she came in late. Lily had taken her by surprise.
"¡Sí!" she shouted happily, sitting down and taking out her homework (which she had done in the band room the day before).
Graduation was Lily's first Band Staff job. She arrived early to help Alexa and the new staff set up the field. She was still yawning when she walked into the band room. Of course, there was no time to sleep. She was given a stand rack to push out to the field. She and the other staff members scrambled for a good two hours setting up chairs and stands, and putting out folders with clothespins to keep music from flying also had to set up chairs with labels for seniors. It was a long job.
Mr. Locke had to go to his son's graduation, and would not be able to attend. He left Mr. Doorbell in charge, giving him only the scores and a badly drawn seating chart. It definitely confused Lily. Back in the band room, the Staff had some time before the rest of the band arrived. They played Uno.
"Uno!" Lily shouted again.
"I hate you, Lily!" shouted Jake, the new junior drum major. But in a few turns, Lily was up to 5 cards.
Later, Amanda ran into her while setting her clarinet up. She was wearing her yellow robe, and seemed nicer today. "Excuse me for being curious," she said, "But what are you guys doing for tradition this year?" Lily's face went blank. Her brow furrowed as she thought. Tradition, tradition, no, she couldn't think of anything. "What tradition?" she finally asked.
"Oh, they must not have discussed this yet," Amanda said. "Well, every year, when they call out the name of someone in band, their section plays something short. A few notes, maybe a trill. The thing is, band kids get the last laugh. Athletes are the powerful ones during the year, but they can't throw balls or tackle people during graduation. So band kids always get to leave the impression." Lily nodded. This sounded kind of fun. Amanda left abruptly, and Lily went to join the rest of the clarinets.
Everyone was seated in the 100-degree heat, when Lily noticed there was a problem. "Kelsey, Kristin?" she asked to the people nearest her. "Where's Keith's clarinet?" They did double-takes, and then Mary and Bailey joined them.
"I don't know," Kristin said. "I thought it was out here!" All five girls dropped their sandals at their seats and sprinted barefoot towards the building in their dresses and skirts. Inside the band room, they shouted Keith's name. He turned from the computer where he had been talking to a tuba player to shout "Here!" just as loudly. The girls stopped, and put their hands on their knees to steady themselves. "Keith!" Lily managed to say. "We're starting! Where's your clarinet?" His expression changed instantly.
"Oh!" He ran into the instrument room to get his case, then ran out, setting it up quickly. Lily had just grabbed it, and they were headed out the back door when Roberto came in. "Keith? Where are you?" It turned out he was late all around.
Back outside, the band played 4 pieces. They were all movie medleys, and really easy in Lily's opinion. But some of the concert band members were dragging them down. They weren't as loud, but sounded twice as good in Wind Ensemble. Then Mr. Doorbell cued Pomp and Circumstance.
The graduating class had over a 1000 people, so they played for a very long time. Lily was bored and tired of playing. One by one, seniors crossed the field and took their spots with the band to prepare the senior song. Keith sat down next to Kelsey, and picked up his clarinet to warm up. When they stopped, he whispered, "I'm probably the only person who's every played their own graduation procession." Amanda sat next to Mary and Lily, and Roberto by Bailey and Kristin.
The senior song, entitled American Celebration, was kind of sad. There were a lot of triplets, which Lily usually loved, but today, they dragged. It was the last day! After the song ended, Roberto, Amanda, and Keith stood up. Silently, they walked to their seats in the group of senior. All the clarinets were sad, but not like the ones from Wind Ensemble. Bailey was rubbing her eyes. Kristin was pushing random keys on her clarinet so she didn't have to watch them walk away. Kelsey watched them leave, while Mary looked at the ground. Lily watched everyone at once.
Once the speeches started, they temporarily forgot about the seniors leaving. Lily had put on sunscreen of SPF 50 when she arrived in the morning, but none of clarinets who arrived later had. Bailey had brought a bottle, but it was SPF 8. They all applied it liberally, especially since the abnormal heat had them wearing skimpy dress and tank tops. It was so hot, the sunscreen bottle had practically melted. Lily touched the stand, and yanked her hand back because it burned. Lily was glad she hadn't brought out her new wooden clarinet.
Mary kept playing with the clothespins on the stand, and the two halves would fall apart. She would sheepishly give them to Lily to try to fix them, which she did saying, "Don't break them anymore!" Mary of course, continued to do so.
When they started calling names for diplomas, all band members watched the program. Lily had been the only clarinet to grab one, so she and the other Wind Ensemble clarinets planned what to play for the seniors.
"We should do something special for Roberto, since he's section leader and all," Kristin suggested. Lily nodded in agreement, and slowly, everyone joined her. They decided to play the short opening bars to Music from the Incredibles.
"Let's do something smaller for Keith and Amanda," Bailey said.
"A trill," Kelsey suggested. They agreed, and started to choose the kind of trill to play.
"Let's make it minor," Lily said. "And obnoxiously high-pitched. Like Eb to E?"
"That's going to be fun," Mary said. They passed the word throughout the section, and made sure every clarinet knew what they were doing. Lily was excited.
Keith's name was called first, as his last name started with C. For a few people in front of him, the clarinets waited with anticipation, clarinets up, watching Lily's list. When he was finally announced, they went wild, playing the annoying trill as loud as possible. It was only a few seconds long, but long enough for Keith to hear and know it was for him. After that, they had a wait. Roberto and Amanda both had last names beginning with M.
When Roberto was finally called, they played the two measure section. Since no one but the Wind Ensemble clarinets had played it before, no one managed to get it out but the five of them. They were loud, but other names were being called. Roberto told them later that he hadn't heard anything except the other graduates around him.
Amanda was a little harder. When the class president flipped to the next page of graduate names, he skipped ahead into the P's. He apologized for his mistake and went back to the M's, but in doing so, he skipped Amanda's name and went on to the next person. When he apologized again, and announced Amanda, the clarinets went nuts one last time. It was the same trill they played for Keith, but the feeling behind it was different. Keith's was lighter, whereas Amanda's had more of an accented quality. Lily wasn't sure why she thought that since it was only two seconds, but she did. They had to wait a long time afterward for the rest of the names, and then they played the recessional.
Mr. Locke, being the geek he was, chose to have the Jedi March from Star Wars as the recessional. There was a clarinet soli section in there, which made Lily excited. She had never seen Star Wars, however. Mr. Locke called the clarinets on not being able to play it. "Haven't you guys heard this before?" he shouted. Lily shook her head, he rolled his eyes, and made a "loser" symbol on his forehead that made Lily, along with the rest of the clarinets, giggle. When you have an all-female clarinet section, there's a lot more giggling going on.
After the song ended, the graduates threw their caps into the air, green and gold mixing. Lily watched with awe. It looked just like it did in pictures. Then, the graduates slowly made their way to friends and family. Band geeks, of course, when straight toward the band.
The first person Lily saw was Nate. He gave her a bone-crushing hug. "You're going to squish me," she muttered. When he backed off to give her time to breathe, she asked, "Am I ever going to see you again?" That was Lily's biggest fear about graduation. She didn't know if she'd ever see her friends again.
"Of course," he said. "I'm not done creeping on you." Lily giggled, and ran off towards the clarinet section. She found Amanda first, who was trying not to cry. They hugged, which only made Amanda try even harder.
"I've bequeathed all my Math Decathlon notes to Tom," she said, naming another member of the team and the newly promoted senior drum major. "Good luck with being a librarian. Do you have my number?" Lily shook her head. The only numbers of people in the clarinet section she had were Bailey, Mary, and Keith. "Well, get it from Jane or Janie or someone. I'm really going to miss you." Lily doubted that. She thought Amanda was just being rather nostalgic. She later learned that neither Jane nor Janie had her number, but she didn't need Amanda's help to run the library. If she had questions, she would ask Alexa.
She wandered over to where Roberto was saying good bye to Mary and Bailey. "Come on, Mary," he said. "That was the most awkward hug ever. Let's try that again." She blushed. "Sorry." They hugged again, and it was actually a normal hug that time. Then Roberto turned to Lily, and they hugged as well. Lily was sure she was hugging more people that day than she had her whole freshman year.
"Bye, Roberto," she said. He gave her an offended look.
"What?" he asked. "Do you want to see me again?" Lily shrugged. "I don't know," she said. He looked even more offended, so she expanded her sentence.
"Yeah, I want to see you, but without pressure. Not to perform together or anything, at least, not for a very long time. But for fun." He nodded. He understood. Lily's gazed followed the crowd until she found Keith. She gave him a hug too, just to complete her daily tally.
"I'm going to miss you, Keith," she said. She was going to miss Keith most of all, even though she hung out with him a lot with a large group of assorted friends.
"Hey," he demanded. "Don't think that way. We're still going to hang out. After all, we still haven't had our last clarinet meeting." Lily perked up. She didn't have to say good bye forever just yet.
AN: This is a bit of a shout-out to the clarinets in my band who graduated last year. Al, Kev, Abs, I'm really going to miss you guys this year! In case you need a translation of the Spanish, Lily's teacher said that Lily was happy, and she said yes, she was. I didn't go into a lot of the music details in this chapter because they didn't matter. The important part was that it was time to say good bye. One more chapter left. I can't believe it. How do the clarinets choose to end the year? Will it be on a good note, or will everyone be upset? Review please, and I'll grant the next chapter a little quicker (it's already written, after all).