September 2012
Things feel different for Nicole as she walks through the front doors of her high school. It was the first day of her senior year, and the first time since 9th grade she had Noah back with her in school. She hoped with the news he dropped of a second-generation cast this would be the end of reality shows for him and he would focus on healing himself from the trauma of losing their parents. She could tell this whole experience had made him even more numb, as he was now dealing with the trauma of his parents and the ups and downs that came with the reality television industry. As the two of them put some things in their locker, she saw Abigail running towards Nicole to give her a hug.
"Can you believe it? Our senior year!" Abigail exclaimed. "It's our last first day of school, and soon we'll have our last first football game, last first band competition, last first winter concert, and then-" Nicole stopped her.
"Okay, okay, one thing at a time." Nicole laughed. She motioned over to Noah, who was staying quiet as he listened to the two girls conversing. "Abigail, this is my brother, Noah." Abigail gasped.
"Oh, yes, your brother! The famous Noah!" She shakes Noah's hand, much to his dismay, but he puts on a happy face anyway. "It's so nice to finally meet you! I haven't heard much about you, but I'm sure we'll get to know each other better." Just as Noah was about to say something back, the warning bell rang.
"Oh, I better go. I don't want to be late for the first day. I'll see you at lunch, okay?" Abigail waves and begins to walk in the other direction before Nicole could say anything further. Noah has finally gotten his locker to work and pops it open while looking at Nicole.
"Does she ever stop talking?" Noah asked. Nicole gave a slight chuckle.
"She's just a very enthusiastic person." As she opens up her locker, she gets her car keys out of her bag and hands them over to Noah before putting her instrument case away. Over the summer, Nicole and Noah had gotten a car, half with the money Noah had made from his reality show endeavors. "I have band practice after school. Can you pick me up, or should I catch a ride with Abigail?"
"I'll pick you up. Not like I have anything else to do." Noah stated. Nicole frowned and lowered her voice.
"I know you said you wanted to lay low this year, but you should really consider doing an art club or something." She whispers. "You should do something fun considering you haven't been in school in-person for the last few years." Noah looked angry at Nicole.
"I don't want to do anything extra at this stupid school. I'm just here to go to class and go home." She sighed as he walked away to his first class. Nicole knew there was no use in arguing or bartering with him; after their parents' deaths, he said he would never paint again, and two years later, he wasn't even close to breaking this habit now.
One Month Later
Nicole peered around the hustle and bustle of the band room as her section got ready to walk outside for the school's first home game. Though she had lots of support in her section, as well as Brett, who was clarinet section leader for the year, she was still extremely nervous. She's never done anything this big before, and was worried she'd miss a step and embarrass herself in front of the whole school. She looked down at her uniform, which consisted of black bibbers over a white shirt and black dinkles, and gripped her clarinet tight as Brett went over how the night would go.
"So it's just like we've practiced; we'll march out with the band and go to the far end of the home bleachers, then Abigail and the assistant drum majors will motion for when we're to play each song." Brett explained. "When there's ten minutes left of the second quarter, we'll start heading off the bleachers to set up and play our competition show at halftime. Sound good?" Everyone nodded. "Everyone put their water, instrument music stand, and spare reeds up at the bleachers already?" Everyone put their thumb up at Brett. "Perfect. Any questions?" Before Nicole could ask something, Abigail came over to their section. She was wearing her drum major uniform and gloves.
"Is everyone ready to start lining up?" She asked. The clarinet section nodded and Brett gave her a thumbs up. She smiled and went up to Nicole's ear as she began to say something to her.
"Good luck, Nicole. I know you'll do great for your first home game!" The two friends flash a smile at each other as she starts walking over to the next section.
As everyone began to form a line and walk outside, Nicole's heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest and onto the floor, and before she could freak out internally, Brett walked beside her.
"Hey, I know you're nervous." He said to her. Though she was closer to Abigail than Brett, she and Brett had their moments of close friendship. When Abigail had to take on the role of drum major at the start of band camp, Brett gave her an extra hand in navigating marching band and always offered to give her some extra practice sessions.
"How can you tell?" She asked smoothly.
"Because you scrunch your nose and rub your lips together when you do." She felt a little embarrassed and felt her cheeks go red, because this was exactly what she was doing.
"I was just wetting my lips to make sure my reed will work all right tonight." Brett patted her on the shoulder. Since they were now outside at the end of the line, they began to walk with the rest of the band in formation, and Abigail, the assistant drum majors, and the band director began to lead everyone towards the bleachers.
"You're gonna do great. Abigail and I taught you well."
As they head up the top of the bleachers, she could see a fence dividing them between the rest of the football game attendees. She peers over to see her family sitting nearby - Hannah and Spencer, her three and five-year-old niece and nephew, Bethany and Joshua, and, though she could hardly believe it, Noah. She knew that deep down Noah would always love and support her, even in the worst of his depression, but she still couldn't believe he would attend such a big school-wide event. Bethany began to notice Nicole staring over at them and gave her a wink, then pointed to Joshua to show him where she was. The kids noticed her too and yelled out her name as Joshua flashed her a smile, and she gave a short laugh to herself as she heard Bethany explain to the kids that Nicole couldn't respond. The band begins to stand up as the announcer is about to kick off the game, and with Abigail's cue, everyone raised their instruments up to prepare the national anthem. They begin playing, and suddenly, her worry is melting away.
After the football game, Abigail, Brett, and Nicole walk out of the band room and into the courtyard of their high school, where Nicole's family waited for her. The three friends were significantly sweaty from the night they had, and had changed out of their game night attire and were in jeans and a white t-shirt. Joshua was holding a sleeping Hannah in his arms, and Spencer was standing with Noah holding his hand.
"That was so good, Nicole!" Bethany said as she gave her a hug.
"Great job out there." Joshua said, who was holding a sleeping Hannah in his arms.
"Abigail, Brett, always good to see you again. You were all wonderful out there!" Bethany said to Nicole's friends.
"Thank you." Abigail said. Brett kneeled down to Spencer, who was standing next to Noah holding his hand.
"How'd you like the game, little man?" Brett asked.
"It was so cool!" He exclaimed. "My dad got me a snow cone!" Spencer opened his mouth and showed off his tongue, which was blue. Abigail kneeled down with Brett.
"Woah, look at that! That's awesome! Are you gonna come to the next game?" Abigail asked.
Spencer looks over to Bethany. "Can we, mommy?"
"Of course we can." She says to him. Brett reaches out Spencer's hand and gives him a big high-five.
Abigail and Brett were the only people who knew about Nicole's unique situation regarding her parents. She almost didn't want to tell them, out of fear that they would treat her differently, or that they would tell other people in the band and risk her promise to Noah about keeping their situation a secret being broken, but thankfully, Abigail and Brett stayed loyal and didn't discuss this with anyone else.
"We were going to stop for ice cream if you wanted to come with us." Bethany mentioned to Abigail and Brett.
"Aw, I wish we could." Abigail begins. "We have to stay for a section leader meeting."
"No worries! Oh, let me get a picture of you three before you go! You all look so cute." Bethany begins to dig into her purse for her camera, then when she has it she motions for the three of them to come in front of her. Nicole gets in the middle of Brett and Abigail and begin smiling for the camera.
"Okay, one… two… three!" She takes a few pictures of them and the three disbanded. "Great! I'll have Nicole send you some copies." She puts her camera back in her bag as Nicole says goodbye to Abigail and Brett.
"This was a great first game!" Abigail said as she hugged Nicole. "I'm sure Brett will tell me all about how amazing you were."
"Oh stop, you're the drum major. You were the whole star of the show." Nicole smiled.
"You're too kind. I'll see you on Monday." Abigail said.
"Bye, Nicole." Brett waved as the two of them walked off, and she turned back to her family. Noah gave a half smile as she went in for a side hug with him.
"You looked like a totally different person up there." He says to her. They look up to Joshua as he begins speaking.
"We should probably get going before Hannah wakes back up." He whispered. Nothing could take the smile off of Nicole's face as they walked out to the car for the night.