The weekend soon passed with groans and complaints about homework and
going out to have some sort of fun if there was time. The week soon greeted
the rest of the guard as they had practice after practice with the fear of
the owl coming in to their practice and changing another guard member-okay,
three more guard members because there are three practices a week-into a
writing utensil before the first competition. So far, it proved false.
Katie was beyond thrilled with being able to hold practice without a guard
member disappearing and having to spend the next practice fixing holes in
the show. The rest of the guard was thrilled as well… but scared. Sure they
had bought themselves more time, but the time would soon come when they
would be markers.
"NO! What was that?" Katie yelled as the guard finished a run-through of the show as their Friday practice came to an end.
"Um, that was a practice." Caitlin said.
"I'm aware of that. That's how you're going to perform tomorrow?"
Everyone looked at each other with silence. They knew they were in big trouble. "Tomorrow I don't want to see drops. Especially on flags. I will come out there and beat you myself with the flag that you dropped."
The four flags all flinched. Three out of four-Michaele, Lindsay, and Helanna-knew they weren't going to drop, but they weren't so sure about Stephanie. Ever since she tripped and hurt her ankle on the flag Jacque had left out, all she did was complain. Especially with spring break coming up that next week and no practice, she might as well get lazy. Not to mention she was going to have her tonsils taken out. She'd be a mime complainer now. Thank bob she wasn't as bad as Jackie though. No one was as bad as Jacque. Everyone was actually happy she was a marker and stuck in her clarinet locker.
Not to mention the guard-Marie in particular-was happy that Levi was now a digested pink crayon that gave Becca's dog such problems that he had to go the vet for medicine . They weren't too happy about losing Megan to the trash can, but accidents happen. Lets just say Marie, Rachelle nor Caitlin will be playing softball anytime soon with their ability to catch.
"Okay, tomorrow I want to see energy into this show. Go home and go to sleep! I'll see you here at 7am!" The guard scurried away as Katie remembered one more thought. "NO JEANS!"
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "I'm going to wear jeans tomorrow, are you?"
Michaele looked up at her friend as she threw her flag into her new spiffy flag bag her mom just finished for her the other night. "After we perform, yeah. I am not going to walk around Scottsdale Fashion Square in flower pajama pants!"
"Hot guys…"
"That's my reasoning right there!"
The girls laughed as they walked out of the gym and towards the band room to wait for their rides.
The next morning…
Michaele yawned as she collected herself and her belongings out of her mom's car in the parking lot of Washington High. Looking around, she saw a slew of cars and the guard all standing around talking.
"MICAHELE!" Lindsay hopped over to her friend.
"Hi Lindsay!" Michaele tried to greet Lindsay with the same enthusiasm, but it was seven in the morning. Who was cheery at seven in the morning?
"Okay, do I have everyone?" Katie asked as she looked around the parking lot.
"I'm here!" Rachelle announced.
"Thanks for notifying me."
"No problem!" She giggled and ran away.
Lindsay and Michaele looked at each other. There was no way they were going to survive this day. With exhaustion and annoying contacts in their eyes, they headed towards Becca's mom's car and got inside since they weren't taking a school van to the competition. Everyone was upset that they couldn't take a van, but it'd be better that way since they all didn't have to get along if they didn't want to.
"Look! I brought Funk Monk!" Lindsay exclaimed as she took out a little monkey from her gym bag.
"FUNK MONK!" Michaele exclaimed.
"Spank it! Spank it!"
She laughed and obliged to her friend's request. Lindsay smiled with glee as she thrusted the monkey towards the gap between the front seat and shouted at Becca. "Spank it! Spank my monkey!" Becca looked back at her weird before giving in to please the ever-hyper Lindsay. Becca's mom sat there in the driver's seat with a look of puzzlement on her face.
They soon pulled up at a stoplight and waited for the light to change. Michaele, Becca, and Lindsay were all chatting. Suddenly, Lindsay turned back in her seat and sat Funk Monk on the back and noticed that Katie was behind them.
"It's Katie!" All the girls waved at Katie. She waved back.
"Lets make Funk Monk dance!" Lindsay said as Michaele laughed. So Lindsay began to make Funk Monk dance. Katie and her beanie baby Pooh bear that sat on her dash board was then picked up and got in on the act and a "dance off" occurred as they waited for the long light to turn green. It did and they were off again to their competition.
An hour later the guard found themselves unloading their flag bags and gym bags in the parking lot of Coronado HS, the home of their first competition.
"I wish Chris was here…" Marie said as Michaele walked towards her and Rachelle with Rebecca and Lindsay in tow.
"Don't worry, our performance will be fine. It's going to be okay." Rachelle said. Michaele nodded and hoped for the best. Chris had left on Thursday night to go to California for some cheer thing, leaving the remaining girls to perform the show themselves. It was a good thing the owl hadn't shown up lately or they would have been less people performing on their first competition.
"Okay kids! We're going to go check in and I don't want anyone leaving my sight, is that understood?" Katie yelled.
They all nodded and followed their instructor to the table where they were to check in. After they were all stamped and ready to go inside the gym to begin to wait until their first performance of their uncompleted show.
"Soloist, you need to be getting ready…" Katie went on as everyone settled down in the stands.
"I'm going sleepy." Michaele yawned as she set her flag bag and gym bag down on the floor between the bleachers. Taking out her headphones, she slipped them on and tried to make herself comfortable without ruining her "crazy hair". That didn't work very well because she fell off the bleacher in a crazy drop. "Scratch that idea."
Lindsay and Stephanie laughed at her.
"Can you help me with my hair?" Stephanie asked.
"I will." Lindsay said.
"I'm no good at braiding." Michaele said as she attempted to lie down once more.
"I'll help." Rachelle said.
The girls began to braid Stephanie's hair and Michaele tried to sleep. Too bad Helanna and her stupid friends were there making noise. Not to mention that Irish guy. Who's friend was he?
"Wake-up! Marie is on for her solo!" Lindsay shook her awake.
Michaele sat up and watched her captain perform her solo. It was pretty good. Then Becca came on and did her solo. After her performance Katie announced it was time to start getting make-up on, so Michaele and Lindsay began to put on their make-up. As they did, Caitlin came and sat next to them.
"Hi."
Michaele looked over at Caitlin like she had just said, "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!" and stood up on top of the bleachers and banged her chest with her fist. Why was Caitlin actually talking to Michaele? She thought that she was annoyed with her or something. I mean, sitting at lunch with someone and being in guard with that same person can get a little… annoying.
"Uh, hi Caitlin. What can I do for you?"
"I was wondering if I could borrow some blush."
"Sure." Michaele handed over her blush and it's brush to Caitlin.
"Thanks." And with that she got up and went back to her seat a row behind her on the right and began to put on the blush.
"What was that?" Lindsay asked. "I thought you said that you thought that she was annoyed with you or something."
"That's what I thought too." Michaele shrugged and went to apply her purple eye shadow in the dramatic and stage-like way that Katie had wanted it done.
Soon Caitlin had come back with the blush and Marie and Becca had come back into the stands to get ready for their show. Michaele had soon finished her make-up, as did Lindsay, with the occasional touch-ups due to Katie's request.
"WASHINGTON! Get your equipment, lets go warm-up!" Katie announced as another Coronado duet finished.
Everyone gathered their flags, rifles, sabers, and plastic saxophone and went outside to warm-up in the bitter wind until they could get a chance to utilize the warm-up gym.
Michaele and Lindsay were practicing their solo together as Katie sprayed everyone with glitter hairspray and others practiced their moves on the cement block they occupied. A soundly wind came rushing through the guard that caused their gray silks to smack them in their faces. Helanna yelled as she tried to find her way out of her flag (since she was so small) and Stephanie laughed. Her own flag began to flutter around her face and was soon stuck around her face. Stephanie screamed and attempted to get the flag off her face, but only with the consequence of getting a smear of red lipstick all over her sliver/gray silk.
"Ah man…" Stephanie muttered as she pushed the flag and the end of the pole on which it was taped to towards the ground. Helanna laughed.
All of a sudden, that wind began to become louder and stronger. Screams began to emerge from the Washington guard as it whipped the flags in their faces and the rifles that were being tossed in the air came down and smacked toes and heads on their way back from the windy sky. Glitter hairspray began to fly away from where Katie stood as she attempted to put the glitter into Rachelle's hair. A loud sudden scream came from the grass area where Caitlin and Marie stood. The guard looked over to the two screaming girls and saw what they were screaming about. The owl was coming down from the sky with the large gust of wind following it.
"HOLY MOTHER OF CHEESE!" Helanna screamed as she went to take shelter in a gap between two corners of a building.
Katie began to hyperventilate. "NOT NOW!"
Marie scream and ran as it came down towards her and Caitlin. Poor Caitlin didn't even get a chance to run as it swooped down on her and attacked her glittery red hair. She began to scream and wave her arms about. Soon, she stopped and looked in a daze. The owl backed off and screeched as he watched her with interest as he hovered above her with the air cascading around her.
Caitlin finally let out a blood-curling scream as the owl circled her. She waved her hands wildly with some colorful choices of words escaping from her mouth. She jumped up and down in her circle and then as her choice of speech stopped, she began to…
Sing! Caitlin was singing! But what was it?
"What is she doing?!" Lindsay yelled.
"I don't know!" Michaele answered back as they fled closer to watch Caitlin and what she was doing.
Caitlin began to sing and dance… louder and louder she sang and the more and more she danced. She began to sing audibly…
"Come on baby, let's do the twist! (ohh bop bop) Come on bbbbaabbbyyyy, let's do the twist! Come on a little girl, it goes like this!" As she sang, she twisted over to her right with her left leg bent slightly up and then towards the left with the right leg mimicking the same as her left. The dance and singing became faster and faster and she soon sounded like a chipmunk! Faster and faster she went, screaming, singing, twisting, and moving her hands about her.
A sudden cloud of dust swirled around her like a tornado and SWISH! It expanded and collapsed around Caitlin. Swirling down to the ground, they found…
"A PENCIL! Right before my competition, she gets turned into a pencil?!" Katie screamed as she rushed over to pick up the transfigured utensil that was once Caitlin. "Why me…" She looked in a daze and fell to the ground. "WHY ME?!" She looked up heaven-ward and screamed. She collapsed to the ground in a fit of tears as other guards looked at the Washington Winterguard like they were psycho.
The owl flew off with satisfaction as the guard all huddled around Katie to try and console her. They knew they were in trouble now. But how to fix it within twenty minutes of a performance? What where they going to do?
"Don't worry Katie, I know what to do out there without Caitlin and Chris." Rachelle tried reassuringly. This only made Katie cry harder.
Katie's mom came over and took her daughter and tried to comfort her. It didn't help. "I think we better get over to the warm-up area." The guard agreed as they packed up their stuff and moved towards the warm-up gym.
Everyone was silent as they moved their bodies, equipment, and backdrops to the gym.
"Why don't we go get inspected first for the props?" Lindsay suggested. Katie's replay was a nod as they walked towards the inspection area first. After the complaints of the mothers running the inspection area, they taped the edges of the toy box and the latter before moving to the warm-up gym.
Setting up in the gym, they found Corona del Sol with their huge guard finish warming up. Canyon del Oro and Washington ended up having to share the gym because of how behind the competition was. It's a good thing that they were both so small. CDO had six and Washington had seven competing that day.
Just as Katie had finally recollected herself, she set herself in front of the guard to clap out the show. They clapped it out and Helanna, Lindsay, and Michaele all got the work. But poor Stephanie was behind a little. They broke off into sections after Katie decided they were doing poorly and Michaele counted for them as she watched the other three. It was okay, but they could be better. Soon enough, it was time for them to go perform their show.
"I'm so nervous!" Stephanie said.
"It's not that bad." Lindsay stated.
"I don't know if we're going to do so well. I mean, Caitlin just got turned into a marker! That's bad karma if you ask me. I don't know if Rachelle is up to doing this by herself." Helanna stated.
"Relax guys, it'll be okay. Just go out there and perform the way we would if there were eleven of us, fifty of us, or just five of us. It'll be fine. I promise." Michaele tried to reassure.
They all nodded as they got together with the rest of the guard and headed towards the gym to perform for a crowd for the first time. Walking into the hallway that headed into the gym, they waited with equipment and baited breath.
A sudden small hoot came from the ceiling of the Coronado hallway. Stephanie looked up and gasped. "Helanna..." She tugged on her shirt.
"Not now, we're about to go on." Helanna said.
"Helanna, the owl. I think I just saw it."
"That's not funny."
Just then, the guard was announced as the next guard. The backdrops and the guard began to walk out towards the floor just as Stephanie saw the owl approaching her. She slowly walked behind the rest of the guard, but they kept on trying to get her to go out onto the floor. She began to shake with fear as the owl swooped down from its perch and sat on her head just as she was about to go out onto the floor. She dropped her backdrop and went screaming out of the door and onto the side of the floor, flapping her arms around her. The audience's attention went to her as the guard unnoticeably set up their props. All getting into their sets, Stephanie began to scream and claw at herself. Soon, she began to do a dance. A crazy dance that owned a song…
"I don't want to be a chicken, I don't want to be a duck, so kiss my butt..." She sang as she moved her arms about and clapped. Katie noticed her movement and started to scream.
"NO! NOT THE CHICKEN DANCE! NOT NOW!!!" She cried.
Stephanie's chicken dance became faster and faster as Stephanie became confused and kept on running into the wall and beating herself over the head with her flag. Faster and faster and faster and then BAM! The flag dropped from her grip as she staggered away from the wall. Yellow feathers began to fall above her in a cascade as Stephanie screamed. Katie cried as the whole audience gasped with shock and the guard finally saw what was happening.
Before they could stop it, the last yellow feather floated towards the floor and dissolved into thin air. Where Stephanie once stood was a purple grape scented Harry Potter marker. Katie erupted into tears again.
"OH MY GOD!" Mike, one of the prop helpers, screamed. "What do you want us to do?!"
"GO! The show must go on!!!" She sobbed.
Mike got attention of the guard and told them to perform. The music announcer guy stood there with the microphone near his open mouth. Feedback echoed into the audience as they groaned and covered their ears.
"Uh, judges… are you ready?" The announcer squeaked. They nodded. "Washington Winterguard, are you ready?" They meekly set in their stances.
"You may now take the floor in competition." He set down the microphone and muttered to himself 'the things I see these days!' with a confused look on his face.
Katie still cried as she sat by the entrance door with the marker clutched in her hand. The prop helpers all stood in the back watching with puzzlement. What was going on with the Washington Winterguard?
*DUH-DUH-DUHHHH! Cliffhanger. Sorry it took me so long to write this. I planned to finish it over Spring Break, which was… four weeks ago but I didn't like where the chapter was going, so I deleted it and started over again. Then there's this little thing called homework and guard. Yep, can't write a guard story without being in guard. And competitions. Yep… Well, I hope you liked this chapter! I want to see four or five more reviews before I post the next chapter. Thanks to Kanoi, Hestia, and MissKrisBlu1988 for reviewing. There was an anonymous review, but they were mean so I deleted it. From now on, rude people who are too chicken to give me their name can't review. Ha ha. And no, WHS are not cheaters because we're not the Washington HS Marching Band. We're the Purple Pride Marching Band, so you don't even know who we are so you can't call us a cheater. Ha ha, cheater.
"NO! What was that?" Katie yelled as the guard finished a run-through of the show as their Friday practice came to an end.
"Um, that was a practice." Caitlin said.
"I'm aware of that. That's how you're going to perform tomorrow?"
Everyone looked at each other with silence. They knew they were in big trouble. "Tomorrow I don't want to see drops. Especially on flags. I will come out there and beat you myself with the flag that you dropped."
The four flags all flinched. Three out of four-Michaele, Lindsay, and Helanna-knew they weren't going to drop, but they weren't so sure about Stephanie. Ever since she tripped and hurt her ankle on the flag Jacque had left out, all she did was complain. Especially with spring break coming up that next week and no practice, she might as well get lazy. Not to mention she was going to have her tonsils taken out. She'd be a mime complainer now. Thank bob she wasn't as bad as Jackie though. No one was as bad as Jacque. Everyone was actually happy she was a marker and stuck in her clarinet locker.
Not to mention the guard-Marie in particular-was happy that Levi was now a digested pink crayon that gave Becca's dog such problems that he had to go the vet for medicine . They weren't too happy about losing Megan to the trash can, but accidents happen. Lets just say Marie, Rachelle nor Caitlin will be playing softball anytime soon with their ability to catch.
"Okay, tomorrow I want to see energy into this show. Go home and go to sleep! I'll see you here at 7am!" The guard scurried away as Katie remembered one more thought. "NO JEANS!"
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "I'm going to wear jeans tomorrow, are you?"
Michaele looked up at her friend as she threw her flag into her new spiffy flag bag her mom just finished for her the other night. "After we perform, yeah. I am not going to walk around Scottsdale Fashion Square in flower pajama pants!"
"Hot guys…"
"That's my reasoning right there!"
The girls laughed as they walked out of the gym and towards the band room to wait for their rides.
The next morning…
Michaele yawned as she collected herself and her belongings out of her mom's car in the parking lot of Washington High. Looking around, she saw a slew of cars and the guard all standing around talking.
"MICAHELE!" Lindsay hopped over to her friend.
"Hi Lindsay!" Michaele tried to greet Lindsay with the same enthusiasm, but it was seven in the morning. Who was cheery at seven in the morning?
"Okay, do I have everyone?" Katie asked as she looked around the parking lot.
"I'm here!" Rachelle announced.
"Thanks for notifying me."
"No problem!" She giggled and ran away.
Lindsay and Michaele looked at each other. There was no way they were going to survive this day. With exhaustion and annoying contacts in their eyes, they headed towards Becca's mom's car and got inside since they weren't taking a school van to the competition. Everyone was upset that they couldn't take a van, but it'd be better that way since they all didn't have to get along if they didn't want to.
"Look! I brought Funk Monk!" Lindsay exclaimed as she took out a little monkey from her gym bag.
"FUNK MONK!" Michaele exclaimed.
"Spank it! Spank it!"
She laughed and obliged to her friend's request. Lindsay smiled with glee as she thrusted the monkey towards the gap between the front seat and shouted at Becca. "Spank it! Spank my monkey!" Becca looked back at her weird before giving in to please the ever-hyper Lindsay. Becca's mom sat there in the driver's seat with a look of puzzlement on her face.
They soon pulled up at a stoplight and waited for the light to change. Michaele, Becca, and Lindsay were all chatting. Suddenly, Lindsay turned back in her seat and sat Funk Monk on the back and noticed that Katie was behind them.
"It's Katie!" All the girls waved at Katie. She waved back.
"Lets make Funk Monk dance!" Lindsay said as Michaele laughed. So Lindsay began to make Funk Monk dance. Katie and her beanie baby Pooh bear that sat on her dash board was then picked up and got in on the act and a "dance off" occurred as they waited for the long light to turn green. It did and they were off again to their competition.
An hour later the guard found themselves unloading their flag bags and gym bags in the parking lot of Coronado HS, the home of their first competition.
"I wish Chris was here…" Marie said as Michaele walked towards her and Rachelle with Rebecca and Lindsay in tow.
"Don't worry, our performance will be fine. It's going to be okay." Rachelle said. Michaele nodded and hoped for the best. Chris had left on Thursday night to go to California for some cheer thing, leaving the remaining girls to perform the show themselves. It was a good thing the owl hadn't shown up lately or they would have been less people performing on their first competition.
"Okay kids! We're going to go check in and I don't want anyone leaving my sight, is that understood?" Katie yelled.
They all nodded and followed their instructor to the table where they were to check in. After they were all stamped and ready to go inside the gym to begin to wait until their first performance of their uncompleted show.
"Soloist, you need to be getting ready…" Katie went on as everyone settled down in the stands.
"I'm going sleepy." Michaele yawned as she set her flag bag and gym bag down on the floor between the bleachers. Taking out her headphones, she slipped them on and tried to make herself comfortable without ruining her "crazy hair". That didn't work very well because she fell off the bleacher in a crazy drop. "Scratch that idea."
Lindsay and Stephanie laughed at her.
"Can you help me with my hair?" Stephanie asked.
"I will." Lindsay said.
"I'm no good at braiding." Michaele said as she attempted to lie down once more.
"I'll help." Rachelle said.
The girls began to braid Stephanie's hair and Michaele tried to sleep. Too bad Helanna and her stupid friends were there making noise. Not to mention that Irish guy. Who's friend was he?
"Wake-up! Marie is on for her solo!" Lindsay shook her awake.
Michaele sat up and watched her captain perform her solo. It was pretty good. Then Becca came on and did her solo. After her performance Katie announced it was time to start getting make-up on, so Michaele and Lindsay began to put on their make-up. As they did, Caitlin came and sat next to them.
"Hi."
Michaele looked over at Caitlin like she had just said, "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!" and stood up on top of the bleachers and banged her chest with her fist. Why was Caitlin actually talking to Michaele? She thought that she was annoyed with her or something. I mean, sitting at lunch with someone and being in guard with that same person can get a little… annoying.
"Uh, hi Caitlin. What can I do for you?"
"I was wondering if I could borrow some blush."
"Sure." Michaele handed over her blush and it's brush to Caitlin.
"Thanks." And with that she got up and went back to her seat a row behind her on the right and began to put on the blush.
"What was that?" Lindsay asked. "I thought you said that you thought that she was annoyed with you or something."
"That's what I thought too." Michaele shrugged and went to apply her purple eye shadow in the dramatic and stage-like way that Katie had wanted it done.
Soon Caitlin had come back with the blush and Marie and Becca had come back into the stands to get ready for their show. Michaele had soon finished her make-up, as did Lindsay, with the occasional touch-ups due to Katie's request.
"WASHINGTON! Get your equipment, lets go warm-up!" Katie announced as another Coronado duet finished.
Everyone gathered their flags, rifles, sabers, and plastic saxophone and went outside to warm-up in the bitter wind until they could get a chance to utilize the warm-up gym.
Michaele and Lindsay were practicing their solo together as Katie sprayed everyone with glitter hairspray and others practiced their moves on the cement block they occupied. A soundly wind came rushing through the guard that caused their gray silks to smack them in their faces. Helanna yelled as she tried to find her way out of her flag (since she was so small) and Stephanie laughed. Her own flag began to flutter around her face and was soon stuck around her face. Stephanie screamed and attempted to get the flag off her face, but only with the consequence of getting a smear of red lipstick all over her sliver/gray silk.
"Ah man…" Stephanie muttered as she pushed the flag and the end of the pole on which it was taped to towards the ground. Helanna laughed.
All of a sudden, that wind began to become louder and stronger. Screams began to emerge from the Washington guard as it whipped the flags in their faces and the rifles that were being tossed in the air came down and smacked toes and heads on their way back from the windy sky. Glitter hairspray began to fly away from where Katie stood as she attempted to put the glitter into Rachelle's hair. A loud sudden scream came from the grass area where Caitlin and Marie stood. The guard looked over to the two screaming girls and saw what they were screaming about. The owl was coming down from the sky with the large gust of wind following it.
"HOLY MOTHER OF CHEESE!" Helanna screamed as she went to take shelter in a gap between two corners of a building.
Katie began to hyperventilate. "NOT NOW!"
Marie scream and ran as it came down towards her and Caitlin. Poor Caitlin didn't even get a chance to run as it swooped down on her and attacked her glittery red hair. She began to scream and wave her arms about. Soon, she stopped and looked in a daze. The owl backed off and screeched as he watched her with interest as he hovered above her with the air cascading around her.
Caitlin finally let out a blood-curling scream as the owl circled her. She waved her hands wildly with some colorful choices of words escaping from her mouth. She jumped up and down in her circle and then as her choice of speech stopped, she began to…
Sing! Caitlin was singing! But what was it?
"What is she doing?!" Lindsay yelled.
"I don't know!" Michaele answered back as they fled closer to watch Caitlin and what she was doing.
Caitlin began to sing and dance… louder and louder she sang and the more and more she danced. She began to sing audibly…
"Come on baby, let's do the twist! (ohh bop bop) Come on bbbbaabbbyyyy, let's do the twist! Come on a little girl, it goes like this!" As she sang, she twisted over to her right with her left leg bent slightly up and then towards the left with the right leg mimicking the same as her left. The dance and singing became faster and faster and she soon sounded like a chipmunk! Faster and faster she went, screaming, singing, twisting, and moving her hands about her.
A sudden cloud of dust swirled around her like a tornado and SWISH! It expanded and collapsed around Caitlin. Swirling down to the ground, they found…
"A PENCIL! Right before my competition, she gets turned into a pencil?!" Katie screamed as she rushed over to pick up the transfigured utensil that was once Caitlin. "Why me…" She looked in a daze and fell to the ground. "WHY ME?!" She looked up heaven-ward and screamed. She collapsed to the ground in a fit of tears as other guards looked at the Washington Winterguard like they were psycho.
The owl flew off with satisfaction as the guard all huddled around Katie to try and console her. They knew they were in trouble now. But how to fix it within twenty minutes of a performance? What where they going to do?
"Don't worry Katie, I know what to do out there without Caitlin and Chris." Rachelle tried reassuringly. This only made Katie cry harder.
Katie's mom came over and took her daughter and tried to comfort her. It didn't help. "I think we better get over to the warm-up area." The guard agreed as they packed up their stuff and moved towards the warm-up gym.
Everyone was silent as they moved their bodies, equipment, and backdrops to the gym.
"Why don't we go get inspected first for the props?" Lindsay suggested. Katie's replay was a nod as they walked towards the inspection area first. After the complaints of the mothers running the inspection area, they taped the edges of the toy box and the latter before moving to the warm-up gym.
Setting up in the gym, they found Corona del Sol with their huge guard finish warming up. Canyon del Oro and Washington ended up having to share the gym because of how behind the competition was. It's a good thing that they were both so small. CDO had six and Washington had seven competing that day.
Just as Katie had finally recollected herself, she set herself in front of the guard to clap out the show. They clapped it out and Helanna, Lindsay, and Michaele all got the work. But poor Stephanie was behind a little. They broke off into sections after Katie decided they were doing poorly and Michaele counted for them as she watched the other three. It was okay, but they could be better. Soon enough, it was time for them to go perform their show.
"I'm so nervous!" Stephanie said.
"It's not that bad." Lindsay stated.
"I don't know if we're going to do so well. I mean, Caitlin just got turned into a marker! That's bad karma if you ask me. I don't know if Rachelle is up to doing this by herself." Helanna stated.
"Relax guys, it'll be okay. Just go out there and perform the way we would if there were eleven of us, fifty of us, or just five of us. It'll be fine. I promise." Michaele tried to reassure.
They all nodded as they got together with the rest of the guard and headed towards the gym to perform for a crowd for the first time. Walking into the hallway that headed into the gym, they waited with equipment and baited breath.
A sudden small hoot came from the ceiling of the Coronado hallway. Stephanie looked up and gasped. "Helanna..." She tugged on her shirt.
"Not now, we're about to go on." Helanna said.
"Helanna, the owl. I think I just saw it."
"That's not funny."
Just then, the guard was announced as the next guard. The backdrops and the guard began to walk out towards the floor just as Stephanie saw the owl approaching her. She slowly walked behind the rest of the guard, but they kept on trying to get her to go out onto the floor. She began to shake with fear as the owl swooped down from its perch and sat on her head just as she was about to go out onto the floor. She dropped her backdrop and went screaming out of the door and onto the side of the floor, flapping her arms around her. The audience's attention went to her as the guard unnoticeably set up their props. All getting into their sets, Stephanie began to scream and claw at herself. Soon, she began to do a dance. A crazy dance that owned a song…
"I don't want to be a chicken, I don't want to be a duck, so kiss my butt..." She sang as she moved her arms about and clapped. Katie noticed her movement and started to scream.
"NO! NOT THE CHICKEN DANCE! NOT NOW!!!" She cried.
Stephanie's chicken dance became faster and faster as Stephanie became confused and kept on running into the wall and beating herself over the head with her flag. Faster and faster and faster and then BAM! The flag dropped from her grip as she staggered away from the wall. Yellow feathers began to fall above her in a cascade as Stephanie screamed. Katie cried as the whole audience gasped with shock and the guard finally saw what was happening.
Before they could stop it, the last yellow feather floated towards the floor and dissolved into thin air. Where Stephanie once stood was a purple grape scented Harry Potter marker. Katie erupted into tears again.
"OH MY GOD!" Mike, one of the prop helpers, screamed. "What do you want us to do?!"
"GO! The show must go on!!!" She sobbed.
Mike got attention of the guard and told them to perform. The music announcer guy stood there with the microphone near his open mouth. Feedback echoed into the audience as they groaned and covered their ears.
"Uh, judges… are you ready?" The announcer squeaked. They nodded. "Washington Winterguard, are you ready?" They meekly set in their stances.
"You may now take the floor in competition." He set down the microphone and muttered to himself 'the things I see these days!' with a confused look on his face.
Katie still cried as she sat by the entrance door with the marker clutched in her hand. The prop helpers all stood in the back watching with puzzlement. What was going on with the Washington Winterguard?
*DUH-DUH-DUHHHH! Cliffhanger. Sorry it took me so long to write this. I planned to finish it over Spring Break, which was… four weeks ago but I didn't like where the chapter was going, so I deleted it and started over again. Then there's this little thing called homework and guard. Yep, can't write a guard story without being in guard. And competitions. Yep… Well, I hope you liked this chapter! I want to see four or five more reviews before I post the next chapter. Thanks to Kanoi, Hestia, and MissKrisBlu1988 for reviewing. There was an anonymous review, but they were mean so I deleted it. From now on, rude people who are too chicken to give me their name can't review. Ha ha. And no, WHS are not cheaters because we're not the Washington HS Marching Band. We're the Purple Pride Marching Band, so you don't even know who we are so you can't call us a cheater. Ha ha, cheater.