Play to the Future
Chapter 2
The phone rang, bringing 14-year-old Alexis out of Dreamland. Groaning, she got up and stumbled over to the telephone to answer it.
"Hello?"
The caller was a classmate asking about Question No. 15 in the Maths worksheet; was it a typo error, another one of the teacher's insanity fits or just plain difficult? Alexis's eyes roved around the room as she listened, and as they settled on the clock, she suddenly felt very awake.
"Well?" her caller asked.
Alexis swore into the phone.
"I'M LATE FOR BAND!"
"So?" questioned the non-bandie.
Slamming down the receiver, the teen ran towards the door, only to remember her instrument. Executing a sharp U-turn on the staircase landing, Alexis zipped back into her room, grabbed her oboe and exited the house.
One of the advantages of living near to school was that it was within cycling distance; but today the school seemed twice as far away. All Alexis could think of as she pedalled were the hundred or so pushups that would almost definitely be awaiting her.
The new band major had been growing stricter. Just two days ago he had made Hazel, a clarinettist, do 200 pushups for falling asleep during one of his long, boring lectures. Gone were the days of ten, twenty, even ninety pushups. Coming were those of the old band major and his five hundred or more. He might have been dead and buried, but his spirit still seemed to live on…
Wistfully, Alexis remembered her now dead bandmates. Jeslyn, Marc, Joel, Corinne, the old band major and the two oboists… Of those, she had only been close to Jeslyn and Joel, probably because they were from the same section as her – flutes and oboes. Jeslyn had been one year her junior, but still they had managed to be good friends. Only Jeslyn knew that she used to play the flute, but decided to switch to oboe after she'd graduated because she didn't want to march anymore. And Jeslyn had sacrificed herself for her friends, not knowing the little good it had done.
As for Joel, Joel the Lord of the Rings fan, he had been one of the most dedicated band members Alexis knew. Even after leaving school, he had joined the alumni band and would come quite frequently to visit them, to play, to give them tips or just help in whatever areas they needed. No one ever told him to come, and yet he had done so by his own will, remaining as much a part of the band as anyone else… that is, until The Reed killed him.
But the events of a certain murderous oboe reed were past and gone; and it was no use thinking about them anymore.
Alexis cycled through the school gate, dumped her bicycle by the wall and ran upstairs to the band room, not noticing the rest of the band busily (and not very successfully) trying to flatten the lumpy school field.
Upstairs was strangely quiet. Usually at that time, the place would be filled with the sounds of various musical instruments… but not today.
Alexis opened the door. Inside was dark; the lights were off, but the air-conditioning was still running. Someone was going to have to pay for that later.
"Hello?"
No response.
The girl flipped on the lights and tiptoed in, shutting the door behind her. Where was everybody? They weren't marching that day… or were they? The instruments were still lying in various positions all over the room, so probably not. It was almost as if the room's occupants had left in a hurry… as if someone or something had scared them away…
Alexis let her oboe slip off her shoulders to the floor, and walked over to the drawn windows to see if she could find any traces of the band. She couldn't see much from there. Sighing, Alexis turned to leave, when she spotted a flute lying unnoticed on the table.
Perhaps she hated to admit it… but she missed the flute dearly, ever since she stopped playing it. True, she loved the oboe as well, but Alexis had never really gotten over her previous instrument even though it had been her own choice to quit playing it. And she had not touched, much less played, a flute in two years…
If someone were to come in then, she would be in big trouble and she knew it, but for the moment she didn't care. The flute seemed to be calling out to her, beckoning her, as Alexis's fingers closed slowly over the shiny instrument and brought it to her lips. It felt different somehow, but a flute was a flute… wasn't it?
Meanwhile…
"I bet you a hundred dollars that we're the only band which has been made to flatten the lumps in their school field because they did a lousy job when burying the members killed by a rabid oboe reed," Martyn commented, bringing his shovel down hard on a lump. It barely budged.
David rolled his eyes. "You don't HAVE a hundred dollars."
"Yeah, but that's beside the point. I mean, this is totally stupid, dude!"
The two of them dug on in silence for a while more before Martyn spoke again. "You don't happen to have any water around, do you?" Martyn asked. "I'm getting really thirsty here."
"I've got some in the band room."
"I meant, do you have any HERE."
"In that case, no."
Martyn sighed. "I suppose there's always the water coo…"
"And the water coolers are all not working," David cut in.
"What?"
"The school admin said that they'd cut off our water supply until we flattened the lumps in the field." David shrugged. "But you could always sneak into the band room and get my water bottle. Bring it down. I'm thirsty too."
The two boys stared at the band major. He was adapting to his post fast; before being elected band major, Sean had just been one of the band. Now, however, he was lounging on the grass the other side of the field under the shade of an umbrella, his shovel lying by his side as he watched his pitiful subjects go about their work.
The coast was clear. David and Martyn exchanged grins, and the latter hurried off, unnoticed, to the school building.
Martyn whistled the tune of a random band piece as he ascended the stairs to the band room. He checked a water cooler on the way and found that it was indeed, as David had said, not working.
He swung open the band room door. Funny… the lights and air-conditioning were on. Someone would have to pay for that later. Martyn started to go look for David's water bottle, when what he saw stopped him in his tracks.
Someone else was already in the room.
Cautiously, Martyn walked in and turned. At the other side stood a girl getting ready to play a flute, her back facing him. She didn't look like any of the flautists; which could only mean one thing. Somebody had just taken advantage of Sean's absence to break the golden rule of band.
She hadn't seen him yet. Martyn gave a sly smile. He would be able to catch that rule-breaker red-handed… Slowly, he crept up towards her and clamped a hand down on her shoulder just as she played a note, a middle B-flat.
The girl whipped around in shock – Martyn saw that she was one of the new recruits… what's-her-name… Alexis – but his triumph in catching her was short lived. All of a sudden he felt a shockwave run through his body and the room began to dissolve, spinning and shifting around him as the flute- time machine was activated – sending the two of them five years into the past.
TO BE CONTINUED…
ChibiSkunkSaria: Yup, another death. Morbidness is fun. ^_^
Irish Bug: What's so original about 'The Musical Twilight Zone'? Rod Serling will turn in his grave and his descendants will come after me… I already can get my hands on a flute. My brother plays it in band. ^_^