Disclaimer: For the most part, I don't own any of these people. Tear. Well, I did add and subtract to some of their personalities, but for the most part I don't own them. I did, however, change names so that I won't get yelled at.

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The Best Days of Our Lives

Chapter One: And So It Begins - August 24, 2002

"Aaah!" I shouted, bracing myself for what was about to happen.

"Oh, man, she fell!"

"Look at the rut!"

"Jill, are you okay?"

"Oh, God," I mumbled as I slipped out of the bass drum harness. I looked around me. There were about five people staring intently at me. The only familiar face was my best friend since forever, Lena Randall. I put a hand to my chin and looked at the blood on my fingers. I tried to open my jaw, but instead there was a striking pain going through it. "No..." I managed to say and started to cry.

"Someone go and get Miss Anderson," said someone. I was too busy crying in embarrassment and pain to notice who said it.

"Come on, Jill, it'll be all right," Lena said to me.

"Spit out the blood!" someone said. I obliged and almost puked when I saw the blood from where I bit down on my cheek.

"Let me help you up, Jill," said someone, and they grabbed my arm. I looked to see one of our drum majors, Jerod Leonard, helping me to my feet.

"She's coming with the car," said a freshman whose name I hadn't caught.

"You're going to be okay," Lena said.

"Good," I said, and then I put a hand to my jaw. With my luck, I had probably busted it.

"I'll carry your drum back," Jerod offered.

"Thanks," I muttered. I still wasn't all to clear on what happened.

Miss Anderson's car pulled up along side us. "What happened?" she asked, near nervous breakdown.

"Jill fell with the bass drum," Jerod said, helping me to the car.

"She tripped in the tire rut back there," Lena said, pointing to a large rut in the grass.

"All right, thanks," Miss Anderson said. "You going to be okay, Jill?"

"Uh huh?" I said, putting my hand by my chin again. It was quite painful to move my jaw yet.

Miss Anderson took off and instantly started talking. "From what I can tell, you took a nasty spill back there. You must have knocked your chin on the front of the harness. I really shouldn't have put you on the largest drum - it's more for someone taller, I think. Well, from what people have said, to wear one of those drums feels exactly like you're pregnant. I wouldn't know first hand, of course. I'll get you some ice as soon as we get back. Is your ankle okay? I saw you were limping slightly."

"I think I twisted it," I said, trying to move my jaw as little as possible. Miss Anderson seemed to notice what I was trying to do.

"You probably knocked your jaw slightly out of socket from the impact of the fall. Just keep moving it and it will eventually pop back in," she said, looking at me through her rearview mirror.

"Great...," I said, sighing. "You know how much crap I'm going to get for this?"

Miss Anderson laughed and said, "Yeah, I'd expect it. It's not everyday someone falls with a bass drum."

"And it had to be me," I said with a slight smile, that sent shooting pains through my jaw, as we pulled into the school parking lot. I should explain. We were all at summer marching band practice. The field that we practice on (the actual football field) is over at the elementary school. Why? I have no idea.

Miss Anderson helped me limp out of the car and hurried into the school, leaving me to limp alone. I started toward the entrance of the school.

"Whoa, what happened?" asked my friend, Dennis.

"I fell with the bass drum," I said, continuing towards the school, longing for some ice for my aching ankle.

Dennis immediately fell into hysterics. "Are you serious? Oh, man, Jill! I knew you were a klutz, but falling with a bass drum?"

"You're not helping the situation, Dennis," I said, narrowing my eyes, and closing the door to the school in his face.

"Hey!" he yelled to me. I wisely chose to ignore him.

I slowly made my way down to the band room, wincing every time I put weight on my right foot. I got a few strange looks from people, which I brushed off. I could just imagine what I looked like. Tear stained cheeks, my hair falling out of my pony-tail, a bloody chin, a fat lip (from what I could tell), grass stained jeans, and I was limping. A regular hottie, I knew it.

I went into the room, and I sat down on one of the steps. Miss Anderson practically lobbed a bag of ice at me. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah," I said, lifting up my pant leg and revealing some pretty bad grass burn on my calf. I couldn't believe that I could be klutzy enough as to fall with the bass drum. I mean, come on.

"Hey, are you okay, Jill?" It was a junior named Shelby Owen that I knew from when I was in Concert Band. We were also together on the drum-line, she was on cymbals, though, and so we didn't work together as much.

"Yeah, I will be," I said, looking up at her. "Hey, have you seen Laura Jenkins? I'm supposed to get a ride home with her."

"I don't think she's come back from the field yet. But, my brothers are going to leave without me, so I'll see you later, okay?" Shelby said, hurrying out of the door.

I put the ice on my ankle, instantly feeling numbness. I felt like a doofus. I was the first casualty of an otherwise completely safe marching season. It kind of figures that it would have been me. Laura walked in and breezed past, not noticing me sitting on the floor. I watched her walk over to the bass drum closet and slide her own drum in. Wish we were all so lucky. Just then, Lena and Jerod walked in.

"I suddenly feel your pain," Jerod said to me, readjusting the drum on his shoulders. "Where does this go?"

"Top shelf, all the way to the left," I said, pointing to the closet.

"Okay, thanks," Jerod said.

"No, believe me, thank YOU," I said, smiling. Lena sat next to me.

"Do you want any Tylenol or anything?" she asked. Lena always seemed to know when I needed something. She always knew when something was wrong with me and she always knew what I needed to make it better.

"Yes, actually," I admitted. "I have a really bad migraine right now."



"I don't blame you," Lena said, digging in her purse for some sweet relief for me. "I'm sure that falling when you're wearing a bass drum isn't the most pleasant experience."

"No, I can't say that it is," I said as she poured two caplets into my hand. Then she handed me my water bottle; I had dropped it when I fell. "I got your folder, too," she said, lifting up her own folder to reveal mine.

"Thank you," I said, gulping down the Tylenol. Jerod walked over to us.

"Nice ice bag," he said, pointing to my leg. I laughed, noticing that Miss Anderson had just poured some ice into a Wal-Mart bag.

"Real classy," I said with a smirk.

"I don't think you can really have an ice bag with class," Lena said, laughing.

"No, you could probably get one in a silk bag with pretty trim," Jerod said, using his hands to demonstrate the size of the bag.

Lena and I both gave him a strange look. "And you would know this...how?"

"I've got connections," Jerod said, nodding knowingly.

"Jerod, Miss Anderson wants to talk with us," Briana, the other Drum Major, said with an air of authority that never seemed to leave her. To be truthful, I didn't like Briana all that much. She's really nice, sure, but she wasn't exactly the type of person that I would have picked for Drum Major. But, to each his (or her) own.

When Briana disappeared into Miss Anderson's office, Jerod made a face and said, "One of you two had better get Drum Major next year instead of her," before he followed Briana into the office.

Lena and I both laughed. Jerod was the over-all favorite of everyone's for Drum Major. He was actually truthful in his criticism, while Briana would tell us that we were good, even if we sucked (Something that happened quite frequently in our drum line. Actually, it would happen until the day we performed - then we would play perfectly.).

"Well, I better go find my sister," Lena said, getting to her feet. She offered a hand to help me up and I took it. Lena's sister was like my own sister. I looked up to her as a sister and as a friend. She was always someone that I would go to when I needed advice or a shoulder to lean on.

"I need to find Laura," I said. Lena hugged me (we always hugged when we said good-bye - it was habit), and she went off to find her sister.

I saw Laura talking to some fellow sophomores, all of which I was pretty good friends with. When I approached, Andrea Taylor said, "You're looking pretty shifty, there, limping like that, Jill." 'Pretty shifty' was a strange inside joke that Andrea and I had picked up when we went on our Band/Choir trip down to Chicago.

"Oh yeah," I said with a smile.

"Jill, are you okay?" Laura asked me, her eyes filled with concern.

"Yeah, but I won't be if anyone else asks me that," I said with a grin.

"Hey, Jill are you-" started three different people at the same time.

I held up a hand and said, "You are so lucky that I hurt myself, otherwise I'd beat the crap out of you all."

"Sure, you would," Laura said. "But, we better go before my mom comes in here and starts hurting ME. See yah later," she said and waved over her shoulder.

I walked with Laura and put my folder into my band locker. "Oh, dammit," I said. "I think I left my mallets down by the field again."

"Again?" Laura asked with a laugh. "We can just have Aaron take us down there before practice tomorrow." Aaron was the percussion section leader and was a senior.

"He is going to give me so much crap for falling tomorrow, isn't he?" I asked.

"Between Aaron and Jake, you're really going to wish you hadn't fallen," Laura said as we reached the door to the band room.

"Jill, wait a second!" came Jerod's voice. "Hey, I have your mallets." He held out my mallets. I had marked my mallets with rubber bands around the handles so I always knew that they were mine.

"Oh, thanks, you just saved us a trip from going to the field with your brother tomorrow," I said, taking the mallets from him. Aaron was Jerod's older brother.

"Ha, well, you're welcome," he said with a smirk. "See you guys tomorrow."

"Yep, bye," I said and limped out of the room with Laura.