A/N…ok I'm starting to forget some of the things that happened at band camp, so the chapter's might not seem "complete" but I will to my best to get the details in that I remember! And if you see this: ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ or parentheses it just mean's I'm putting in a break, to state my own opinion or add a authors note…
Day One at Band Camp
One by one, all the bags, fans, and other luggage, were chucked down from the u-haul to anonymous people who placed them in a pile on the ground. I stood nearby, waiting for my luggage to appear in the slowly escalating pile of luggage in front of me. After a little while of waiting I decided to go to the other side of the u-haul, to see if my baggage ended up in the pile on that side. Sure enough, I found my suitcase and fan right in the middle of the pile. I lugged it over by Jessica's stuff and waited for my tote bag to show up.
After waiting, very impatiently, for what seemed like an hour, ok so it was only about maybe 20 or 30 minuets, they started to unload the stands. I though 'wait a minuet! That can't be right! My tote bag hasn't showed up yet, I know, maybe there's still more luggage in there, and they're just grabbing what's closest' I made myself believe that, although I'd also complained a lot to Jessica, about me not being able to find my bag. While everyone else was finding their luggage, and some even started to take theirs to their cabin, I frantically waited for my bag to turn up. Then Mr. Beherman, our director, said that we should just leave our bags were they were, and head into the auditorium for a short little meeting. So, we finished unloading the U-haul, and then headed inside to the auditorium. True to his word, we had a little meeting, were the do's and don'ts were told to us, the staff was introduced to us, rules were stated, and we were told the basic routine of the day. Then we were dismissed to get our luggage to our cabins.
I walked out briskly, hoping to find my luggage, but it was to no avail. My tote bag had mysteriously gone missing. I told this to another friend, and she said,
"You know what?"
"What?"
"Someone probably just took it by mistake thinking it was theirs,"
"I hope so…" I said praying that she was right. I was positive that I had thrown my tote bag into the U-haul. While I was worrying about were my luggage was, I was also wondering who my senior was.
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You see it's a tradition that, the seniors of the band, get to pick an upcoming freshman, to be their slave while at band camp. They then get to boss the freshman around, and the freshman have to listen to them. Of course the seniors can't do anything that might hurt the freshman in any way, physical or emotionally, but they still did do some funny stuff to us. And take in mind this is all just for fun, so we had fun doing this stuff, but back to the story…
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As I was looking around for my bag, my senior walked up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around a smiled, because my senior was one of my best friend's older sister. Stacie.
"Hi, I'm you senior!" she said with a smile on her face.
"Really?"
"Yep!"
"Cool!" I said, then she asked me to help take her luggage up the hill to the seniors cabins. I said ok, and she pointed out what I could carry.
"If you can pick up that suitcase," she pointed to a rather large suitcase that looked packed to it's full extent, "Then that's all you have to carry. I can carry the rest."
"Alright," I said while lifting the suitcase up. I was right, it must have been packed tight, because it weighed a ton. But I managed to carry it, because I was used to carrying heavy stuff. So slowly we made our way up the hill to the senior's cabin's were Stacie was staying. It seemed like a long trek to her cabin, carrying the heavy luggage mad it though, and happily set the heavy baggage down, said good bye, and went to get my own luggage.
When I got back to my luggage, I desperately looked around once more to see if my tote bag would mysteriously show up, but it didn't. One of my friends said I should probably tell Mrs. Willeman about it, so I did. Mrs. Willeman was the person in charge of like medicine and that kind of stuff, I knew she'd help me find my missing luggage. I'm not the kind that enjoys going up to grown ups and asking something, because I'm a terribly shy person, but I made up my mind and went up to tell her about it.
"Um…..Mrs. Willeman?"
"Yes?"
"Um….I can't seem to find my tote bag…"
"What color is it?"
"Blue"
"and what does it look like?"
I proceeded to tell her what my tote bag looked like, and she also took a quick glance around to see if it was there, when she didn't see it, she said,
"Alright, I'll have an announcement about it tonight during actives,"
"Ok, thank you!" I said.
"You Welcome"
Then I went and got my luggage, and headed towards my cabin, cabin number 55! The cabin consisted of two stories, the first story had a front and back porch with clotheslines, a kitchen, small living room place, a bathroom, and a room; that was the room were Mrs. Vollmer, our cabin leader, was staying. The upstairs just consisted of two bedrooms and a bathroom. The room on the left had two double beds a dresser, and the air conditioner; Heather, Kelly, and Trisha stayed in that room. The other room had four double beds, and two dressers; me, Jessica, Lindsay, Mackenzie, Anna, Tina, and Christy stayed in that room.
When I got into the room, the room was an exhibit of mess. All our luggage was sprawled everywhere on the ground (which goes to show that the floor IS the biggest shelf in a house) and at the same time we were taking things out so it looked twice as messy. ( I don't know what the other room looked like, but I'm sure it was cleaner that ours!) After we got a little settled in, we went down to Kimmel Hall to have some lunch. Then we had to go get our instruments and set books, and head down to the field. Were we marched and marched. (the time we spent getting settled and such was basically our free time for the first day…if I remember right) We marched for a few hours, then got some free time. During our free time, some seniors came to our cabin, and told us to put on some clothes that were darker in color; so that our "undergarments" wouldn't show. WE all knew what that meant, it meant that we were about to have part of our freshman initiation; THE MARCH INTO THE LAKE!
The freshmen again gathered together by the lake front parking lot. Then we were told to get into lines of 4. After that was settled out they taught us a song that they wanted us to sing while we marched into the lake. The song went like this:
"Bow down before the ones I serve! I'm gonna get what I deserve!"
Then after learning it, they had us march down to the pier. Upon reaching the pier, we were told to halt, and then they told us to get into a single line. Once we were in a single line we were told to take off our shoes and socks. Then we were off marching again. This time, though, we were heading straight for the lake; no more stopping points! The spectators of this were the juniors, sophomores, the staff, and, of course, the SENIORS! One by one we marched up the pier, and jumped into the lake. (may I say the water wasn't that bad either….at least it wasn't freezing cold!) As soon as all the freshman were in, the seniors then made the chaperones go in! What a sight we must have made to our onlookers!! Only after about a minuet or so, the seniors let us get out, and we went back to our cabins to get changed and head to lunch.
After lunch, we went out to the field and marched for what seemed like endless hours! Finally we were given a break, and went to have a little free time. Cabin number 55 took the free time to clean up just a little their cabin. We spent most of the free time just looking around the place. The rest of the day consisted of sectionals, mass band, marching on the field, dinner, and a short break before our "night activates" ( I'm not completely sure if they were exactly in that order though)
During our short break, we went to put our instruments and set book away, then we all met in the "Concert hall", which was located in the same building as the auditorium. It was time for our night activity….and what fun was waiting for us!! I found Mrs. Willeman and asked her if my tote bag had showed up, some of the other chaperones were around and over heard me. Mrs. Tanner said her cabin had an extra bag that might be mine, so I went with her to see if it was. Sure enough when she took me to the "mysterious bag" that was mine! I had found it! I then put the bag by the door, and followed the other freshmen, who were being escorted into the "drum room". While in the "drum room" , our seniors each gave us a custom made shirt. (mine was a "modified" picture of me sticking my tongue out…it was put on the front…with a goofy hat, eyebrows, glasses, and a mustache…and on the back it said CAUTION I AM A FRESHMAN AND PRONE TO STUPIDITY!….it's now my favorite shirt!! lmao) Nick, I think he was the senior class representative, told us what our activity was.
Each freshman was given a paper bag to put over their head, but before we put the bag over our head, they taught us a little dance. Every time a senior said " BLING BLING!" the freshmen had to do a little dance. We had to say "Jigga what uh! Jigga what uh! Jigga what uh!" and while we were saying that we'd have to shake our butts first to the right, then the left, and finally the middle. That was our little dance. (lovely right? But it sure was fun to do!! Hehe) So we knew what to do, they demonstrated it for us, then had us do it until they were satisfied that it was good. Then we were told to put the bags on our heads, and place you hands on the person in front of you. We made a long line, and were guided outside to the awaiting audience…the sophomores, Juniors, and chaperones. When all the freshmen were out, we were spread out by our seniors. The Nick yelled as loud as he could over the cheering spectators,
"YOU HAVE SOMETHING ON YOU THAT YOU DON'T NEED! THE OBJECT OF THIS GAME IS TO TAKE OFF THE SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED!"
Then, we were off. I felt on my back to make sure no one had stuck a sign on my back, and felt nothing but my shirt. So I proceeded to think, I peeked under my bag a few times. But quickly put it back on, because before we left the drum room, the seniors told us we weren't supposed to take off our bags. Then I thought to myself…what doesn't belong? 'I have shoes a shirt, pants, and everything else, what doesn't belong!!?' Then it dawned on me. THE BAG!!! That's what didn't belong! So I quickly took the bag off my head and my senior came over to congratulate me…surprisingly people were taking off their shoes and stuff…I swear it looked like a strip club! I stood by and helped another of my friends with the simple task! She was having real trouble so I screamed at the top of my lunges
" USE YOU HEAD!!!"
That got her thinking, and she quickly flung off her bag, and we had a good laugh. Soon there was only one person left who hadn't figured it out yet….Sean!! (god I laugh so hard every time I think of this next scene! And you'll see what I mean!) Every one was gather around Sean, cheering him on and trying to help him. Then suddenly, he did the most hilarious thing, although it was kind of gross too, he literally started to strip! He had already taken his shoes and socks off, and then, right in front of us he proceeded to take off his shirt!!! He had two shirts on though, but he took one, then the other off!!! Everyone was so socked, but we all started to laugh. Finally nick came up to him and said,
"Take off you bag!!"
And obediently, Sean took it off. He stood there seeing all of us laugh and he started to blush! At least I could tell he was. Then he saw the humor in all of it, and he too joined in the laughter. (I don't remember much of the rest of the night, but I do remember one other thing that happened) Periodically the seniors would come over to the freshman and yell "BOW DOWN!!" and so we'd all have to bow down and start singing, "bow down before the ones I serve! I'm gonna get what I deserve!". Finally the night activates were over. So every one started to leave. Before I left, I made sure that I grabbed my found tote bag, and then headed to my cabin.
In our cabin, we had a "mass cleaning effort" to do! Our room was still a BIG mess. And I mean big. We had clothes laying out of suitcases, our suitcases were all scattered on the floor, most open, and we had this and that all over the place. Our room got our booties in high gear and started to clean up. Surprisingly, we got our room looking in really good shape, in what seemed like no time. Of course in between the clean-up, we were called to the living room to be told the rules of the cabin and that stuff. But nonetheless, our room was looking, in what I would call, top shape by the time we were done.
Finally we had to decided when we were going to take a shower, considering we only had one shower to share between eleven people! We somehow managed to work things out, and everyone got to take a shower…ok so maybe not in the same day like some of us would take showers in the morning others at night. But finally, after the last person took their shower for the night, we got into our pj's and kind of got ready for bed. After some idle chat, and brushing of teeth, we all finally got ourselves tucked into bed. We ended up talking then fighting a little bit, but finally got some shut eye. Or at least the other girls did. Me, on the other hand, did nothing more that just rest my eyes. And even thought I just rested my eyes, I was still wide awake the next day. I also woke up at like 5 something in the morning.
A/N ok that concludes the my first day at band camp! So much fun right? Lol but ne way's I hope you enjoyed it!! And I hope I can still remember what happened so I can keep my story going! I'll try to post more asap!
