It's been a total blast writing this novella with Somewei.

So, this chapter obviously disrupts the timeline of The Line Up…which I'm debating making changes to.

Keep an eye out for our upcoming sequel to Art of Sound, entitled Art of Music. Bronwyn and Vanessa's adventures continue the following summer when the girls join a new all girls Corps, the Cadettes.

AN: We do own the characters, just not DCI, although, wouldn't it be cool if we did?

Chapter 13: We've Just Been Introduced…

"Yes indeed I'm alone again,
and here come emptiness crashing in,
It's either love or hate
I can't fight in between.
It wouldn't have worked out anyway.
So now it's just another lonely day.
Further along we just may…
but for now it's just another lonely day."

- Ben Harper, Lonely Day (do yourself a favor and download this song)

Seeing Vanessa receive her award was one of the best feelings I've ever had. It was kind of one of those things like, when good things happen to good people – it makes you feel warm all over. From my vantage point, I saw Vanessa run offstage and get swept up in an enthusiastic hug from the waiting arms of Brannon. I started jumping around because this was finally it – the feeling that maybe my luck was finally changing… My actions must have been infectious because soon Isaac and Wilson were joining in. Brannon and Vanessa finished their celebration dance and waved up to me, which totally solidified my feelings.

Seeing the look on my roommates face when she came up the stands and recognized not only Wilson, then Isaac, was also a lot of fun. Brannon and I hadn't done that much to make the whole surprise happen, but I think her night was made even more special being able to share her highlight with people who obviously loved her. I know I would want that…

As we all sat down to hear the final scores called, my eyes unconsciously sought out the Crossmen on the field. We were too far away to distinguish any particular players, but I still felt a small rush knowing that Tony and I were at least in the same general area. I mean, of course we had both been in Pasadena all week, but I was suddenly having a very "Somewhere Out There" moment. My attention was broken when the scores were dramatically announced. After hearing the Blue Devils called in 2nd place after the 3rd place Vanguard, I was beyond excited. Even though I hadn't been a part of the Devils organization for very long, hadn't traveled with them or marched their show, there was a part of me that really felt like somehow my little group had a small part in the win. Looking over and locking eyes with Brannon and Vanessa, I knew they felt the same way. We had made our mark on this week, the internship, and the Blue Devils program. Who knew what the future would hold?

Getting out of the Rose Bowl together was a blur, but somehow, we (the five of us) made our way to the parking lot. Of course, I guessed that Isaac and Wilson were going to tag along for the evening. Not that I really minded, I mean, I thought it was an incredibly romantic gesture on Isaac's part to come and see his girlfriend, but a selfish part of me wished it was just my team. After tonight, who knew the next time we'd all three be together again? Pushing sad thoughts away, we got in line with the rest of the interns for our ride back to the hotel. As I was busily high-fiving the rest of the Blue Devils interns, I saw Laura and McDaniel blatantly trying to avoid us. Nodding to my team, I walked forward.

Laura looked up and said in a very phony tone, "Oh, Bronwyn, there you are."

"Yeah, sure, Laura," I replied, "Anyway, I hope you're ready to don some black and blue."

For the first time I could remember during the week, Laura couldn't come up with a response. I considered it a personal win.

McDaniel shuffled forward and said, "Congratulations."

Unbelievably, I thought I could hear a glimmer of an honest tone in his statement. Maybe he was finally starting to come around…

Vanessa smiled sweetly and stepped forward, and Brannon (ever supportive of V) began pulling out our earlier purchases from his backpack. My roommate smiled and said in a perfectly saccharine tone, "We fully expect you to show up to the party wearing what we've bought you."

Laura's hands went up and she said, "Really? You want to go through with that silly bet? I thought we were all just kidding around."

McDaniel shot her an intense look (one that I immediately recognized – and had used on the Pitlets just last week). I was starting to give the kid some credit. Gruffly, he replied, "We weren't kidding. We'll be there."

Fortunately for them, the bus pulled up. McDaniel took the bag, while Laura huffed to the back of the bus. It was too much – the three of us busted up laughing. While Isaac and Wilson looked us strangely, we were all wiping tears from our eyes. Somehow, it was a giant triumph on top of an already big win. I couldn't wait to get to the party.

After we quickly changed at the hotel, we were texted directions for the secret party location, and a half hour later, were ready to join the fun. At the party, I quickly got separated from Vanessa, Isaac, and Wilson. Oh well, I would find them and I'm pretty sure that Vanessa would appreciate the alone time with her friends from home. I chatted with some of the other people I knew from the week about the incredible performances I had seen during the evening, before I decided to try and meet back up with my roommate. I found Brannon sulking in a corner and asked, "Have you seen Vanessa?"

He answered, "She's talking to some dude."

"Isaac?"

"No, some other guy."

Whoever it was, Brannon was unhappy with him. Hmm…I wondered who the 'some dude' could be. I thought I knew everyone Vanessa knew here. Then it hit me – maybe it was Ted – her hero from the week! I had to meet him. I asked, "Where did you see her?"

"Just around the corner."

"Why don't you check out Laura?" I called out as I walked away, knowing that Brannon could probably use something to make him feel better.

When I turned the corner, I'm sure my eyes widened and I know my heart skipped a beat. How could they not? Tony Clarke was the very last person I expected to see talking to Vanessa.…okay, that's not quite true, it might have been more awkward to see Drew or something, but seriously, how could Tony be the guy who had been helping Vanessa all week? Wasn't he the guy who had pretty much single handedly messed up my first moments as Captain? Wasn't he the guy that stood me up for no reason?

Still…those memories slowly went out of my head when I got a good look at him… The summer had definitely treated my section mate well because there he stood staring back at me – all tan, with his dark brown hair grown shaggier and in desperate need of a trim, but other than that, all 5'10" of cute Antony Paul Clarke was standing in front of me.

I seemed to be the first one of us to get hold of my vocal cords, so I said with awkward authority, "Let's go – over here."

I glanced back briefly to see Vanessa, looking hopelessly apologetic back at me. Did she know that Tony was (for lack of better words) my Tony? And if she did, why hadn't she said anything to me about him?

Shaking my head, and pushing that thought to worry about at another time, we made our way through the revelers. I was glad the party was in full swing, as I had to somehow collect my thoughts. I had pictured seeing Tony again after the summer and all the various ways the conversation would go, but we had never met like this. Never in the middle of a giant party, never with my new friends present, and never without my familiar home settings. Here, in the middle of a giant DCI Finals party was not really what I had in mind. Being here I felt uncomfortable, and desperately wished for the percussion room back at Brookwood. Finally, Tony and I were able to find a semi-quiet place to talk. I wasn't sure if I could actually verbalize my emotions. I thought to a few moments ago, and it occurred to me that when Tony had seen me, he hadn't looked disgusted or mad, he had actually looked kind of glad (?!) to see me.

"You guys did really good," I offered as my lame icebreaker.

"Thanks," he said equally lamely.

And…then what? I guess if I was a normal girl, I would've launched into some sort of tirade about how Tony had gone from being my friend and Prom date to basically persona non gratta. I wanted to tell him that the whole reason he marched Crossmen this summer was because he couldn't handle whatever imaginary situation he had concocted that had been going on back at Brookwood…but I couldn't. I wanted to yell and scream and slap him in the face, but that was a conversation for another time. The most I could hope to get out of tonight was that maybe we could start the season on closer to normal circumstances. Squinting at my former friend in the late evening moonlight, I thought it could be a reality, but it all depended on what he said.

"How was your summer?" I asked like some sort of awkward freshman.

"We had a lot of fun," he replied vaguely.

We? Who exactly was included in that we? Was that 'we' a girl? I looked at Tony expectantly, but apparently he wasn't going to elaborate on that point.

"So did we," I blurted out.

Oops. Watching Tony's reaction I knew he immediately thought the 'we' was none other than Spence…which was exactly who I had been referring to. I mentally berated myself – good job, B, not even a minute into conversation and you bring up the one person you should've avoided!!! Of course, in all honesty, 'we' could refer to just about anyone – the snares, the Line, my friends, whoever. I guess that's the thing about going from enemies to friends to somewhere in between…you really know where to hurt the other person. I don't think anyone knew this better than Tony and I.

Distracting us for a moment, two girls across the courtyard giggled and yelled to get Tony's attention. I didn't take my eyes of his face, and strangely, his mouth didn't light up in one of his trademark slow grins or anything, he actually looked like he wanted the earth to swallow him up.

"Friends of yours?" I asked skeptically, and wished I could take back my tone and its obviously jealous overtones. Of course Tony had made friends over the summer. You couldn't ride on a bus with kids all summer and not expect to make friends. I guess I just thought that I sort of had the monopoly on being Tony's female friends…

But that was before…

Suddenly, the high from the week – the Finals and beating Laura and McDaniel came crashing down.

"Yes, actually."

Trying to change the subject, I said, "I wish I had brought you the show for this year."

"Yeah?"

"We've been working on an awesome book and the guys from Blue Devils helped tweak it even more!"

Damnit, I did it again. Over the summer I had gotten so used to being around Spence and working with him, it was no big deal for me to go around referring to us as 'we.'

"We?"

Great, and Tony was going to make me clarify.

I chewed on my lip for a moment before answering, "Umm…Spence let me help write the book."

"Really?"

It was a comment loaded with surprise and maybe even a little jealousy of his own. What a pair we were. Would now be the right time to ask him about what he thought he had seen in the Spring?

Crossing my arms across my chest I boasted, "Yeah, I think you're going to be impressed."

"Hmph."

Yeah, I expected that. Even being here a week, I knew that most of my sentences during the coming week were going to start with, "Well, at DCI they…" So, if Tony wanted to be all DCi-tastic, I could actually understand where he was coming from.

"Either way, w-I'm looking forward to seeing you back on the Line in a week."

Wait, what did I say? Why did I say that? Was I really looking forward to having Tony back on the Line? And in that moment, I realized that for better or worse, I did want Tony back…and not because of my messed up feelings for him. I wanted him back as a snare drummer – because he was the strongest one (next to me of course) and a great addition to not only my section, but my entire Line. I could only hope that he heard the honesty in my statement.

Tony looked at me for a moment, I think, to see if I was being facetious or sarcastic…basically two emotions I don't use when it comes to my Line. I'm always serious and honest. I'll bust my guys if they're screwing around, but I'll also tell them when they're doing a good job. Lucy was always one for a flip remark or flirty comment, but that just wasn't my style…and I think Tony knew that.

"Well, it'll be good to be back," he replied hesitantly.

My heart leapt into my throat. I hoped he really meant that and was not just saying it to say it. Argh! What was wrong with me?

"Do you really mean that?" I blurted out. Why didn't my mouth have a censor tonight? I had only had one cup of the "punch" that was going around. Seriously, we were only minutes back into a tentative truce and here I was just messing things up again.

Tony's yellow green eyes twinkled for a moment at me, as they had so many times before, and I felt better than I had in weeks. He smiled and said, "Yes, Flueger, I think it will be good to be back."

It was then that the girls who had been trying to get Tony's attention earlier, were back, and I decided that I should probably back out before I did something I would regret. Plus, I only had a few hours left to hang out with Vanessa.

"I'll see you in a week, Clarke."

"Until then, Flueger."

At this point, I usually would've thought nothing about leaning in for a hug, but that was before. I'm not sure Tony knew what to do either.

"Have a safe trip," I said lamely.

"You too," he responded.

I turned and walked away, aware that there were about fifty other things I wanted to tell and ask him. I guess they would have to wait.

Vanessa and I got back to our room ridiculously late. In fact, looking at the alarm clock, we decided to stay up since we were both on early shuttles….and we only had a few hours left together. We had both purposely left our packing until the end. After we had gotten done making the millionth joke at Laura and McDaniel's expense, the little flautist asked me the question I knew she had been dying to ask ever since Tony and I came back to the party, "What did you and Tony talk about?"

As late as it was, I decided to ignore the fact that Vanessa had known Tony was at Finals. Being an underclassman forced into directing, I figured that she already had enough to worry about during the week. Plus, it's not her fight to resolve.

I answered honestly, "I'm not sure."

"What does that mean?"

It occurred to me that Tony and I had the most messed up relationship of anyone I knew. It was complicated wrapped up in a big puzzle.

"Well, it wasn't a bad conversation."

Vanessa's eyes lit up, and I'm sure she imagined some sort of Hollywood ending where the girl forgives the guy for whatever he's messed up on and together they walk off into the sunset. Ha! As if! This was Tony and me we're talking about, after all.

I continued, "However, there's just too much going on that we can go back to where we were."

Vanessa's eyes went back down…and so did mine. I really would have done just about anything to get back to pre-Prom…before auditions…then I realized there was no use living in the past. I had gotten Captain, not Tony, and I had a Line to lead for the next couple of months – whether or not Tony was going to along with this fact was up to him, not me. So maybe it was a good thing that he wasn't going to be a part of Band Camp.

"But you'll be the first to know if that changes."

"Thanks, B. I know things will work out the way they are supposed to," she said confidently.

After a moment, I challenged, "What makes you so sure?"

"Trust me, I went through a lot last marching season…and I know."

I thought back to my sophomore year, about what I had been through and realized what she was saying. Sometimes, you just had to go with the flow and recognize that things will work out, just no always the way you think they will. Suddenly, our alarm beeped – 5AM, and we looked at each other and started laughing.

"I wish I could come back and do this again with you next year," I said when we had finished catching our breath.

"Me too."

"Too bad I'm 'aging out.'"

"I'm sure something will happen – I don't think it was any accident that the three of us meet this week."

I smiled fondly at Vanessa, "Exactly what I was thinking."

All packed, I laid back on the bed and said dramatically, "I can't believe I start band camp today!"

AN: Not to worry – this isn't the end, it's only the beginning. Epilogue to follow…