However badly I was feeling after post-Homecoming rehearsal, I got over it fast. The next weekend was our annual L.A. trip, which I always looked forward to. We got our rooming assignments, and me and Laura were staying with Brittany and Shelby, two of our junior staff who'd graduated the year before.

The Tuesday of that week we started with music indoors, so we didn't have to run. Once outside, we worked on parts of the ballad and the closer. At the very end of rehearsal we did an arc at the top of the bleachers so we could hear our show played with reverb. It was pretty cool.

Thursday we ran three laps at the beginning of rehearsal, and then began with a basics block. From there we moved on to working chunks of our show. Our final run was dirty, but totally exciting and fun. Everyone was pumped for our trip.

The next morning I walked into the band room and tossed my duffel bag and my guitar case along the back wall. Mr. Gunter had given me permission to bring my guitar and play worship songs in the lobby. I also had a fleece blanket with me, since I knew how cold the buses got. After sitting impatiently through four classes, I headed happily to the band room at the beginning of lunch to grab my stuff and load the buses. Josh helped me haul my guitar out, and I slid it under the bus and tossed my duffel bug on top. Then we boarded the buses and sat around chatting until we finally pulled out.

The ride down was fairly uneventful. The only major thing was that there was a huge fire in the Rancho Cucamonga hills. Yep, you got it—it was the beginning of the huge Southern California fires. We were staying in Ontario, which was near Rancho Cucamonga. We first noticed it when we saw a huge pillar of smoke rising in the otherwise clear sky. No one really thought anything of it, and we drove on.

When we got to our hotel, we were allowed to go across the street to the Ontario Mall, a huge round mall that had about every store you could possibly imagine. It was fun walking around and looking at all the shops, especially the one with glow-in-the-dark stuff.

Around 9:00 me, Laura, and Josh headed back, grabbed our stuff from underneath the buses, and went inside. We got our keys from Mrs. Wiens, took our stuff up to our rooms, and then headed back downstairs with my guitar. We sat on the couches in the lobby, and I got out my guitar and started to play worship songs. Laura flipped through songs in my binder till she found ones she liked. Soon Leah, Christina, Tom, Daniel, and Caitlyn had joined our little impromptu worship. At one point Mrs. Christie, Caitlyn's mom, came up to me and told me that the lady at the front desk was really glad to hear us worshipping because she hadn't gone to church that week, so having worship in the lobby was like going to church for her. It was cool to hear that. Eventually though, Mrs. Wiens told us to go to bed and we dispersed our separate ways.

The next morning Laura and I rolled out of bed to take showers (Brittany and Shelby had said they didn't need to). They went around un-taping doors while we showered and headed down to breakfast. After breakfast we all hung out in the lobby for a while. We were standing by the front door when I happened to glance outside. At first I thought it was overcast, then it looked like a dust storm. But then I realized it was smoke. There were bits of ash blowing around in the air, and the entire sky was a dark gray. Even the sun looked red through the haze. It was disgusting.

After what seemed like ages, Mr. Gunter called us outside. When the door opened, we were hit by the putrid smell of ash and smoke. We gathered around Mr. Gunter, and some people turned the other way so as not to get ash in their eyes. I put my sunglasses on even though I didn't need them.

"Obviously we have a problem," Mr. Gunter began. "We're not really sure what to do. Ontario High School, where we were originally supposed to practice, is in the middle of the smoke. That's out of the question, so we called Valley View to find out if they have an extra field for us. They do, and they're out of the smoke, so we're going to go there for a couple hours. Then we're going to come back and get you guys inside to rest and eat, then go back for the show."

We got on the buses and drove about half an hour to Valley View High School. When it looked like we were out of the smoke, I turned around and looked back. The entire horizon looked like it was covered in huge gray storm clouds.

At Valley View we climbed off the buses and got our hands stamped. Then we grabbed our cases from the trailer and headed out to the football field. After doing a few minutes of basics, we were called in.

"The officials have told us that they want to preserve the chalk lines as much as possible before the show," Mr. Wilson told us. "So we're going to practice from the end zone to the 50. It's going to be challenging on your part, but you can overcome."

Rehearsal began then, with a lot of water breaks because it was so hot. It was probably the one time our instructors ever told us to walk back to our sets instead of running. Our overall rehearsal time was cut in half, but no one minded because of the heat.

When we were done, we got back on the buses and headed back into the smoke inferno where our hotel was. We all ran from the buses to the hotel, holding our breath so as to breath as little smoke as possible. Once inside, we all gasped in the nice cool air conditioning, then got in line for lunch.

After lunch Laura and I headed back up to our room to shower off all the smoke, ash, and sweat. While she was in the shower Sandra came to visit us, and we messed around with my guitar till it was my turn for the shower.

After a couple hours of rest, relaxation, and breathing good air, we re- boarded the buses and went back to Valley View. There we got into uniform, I got wired up, and we had our warm-up block and arc. We did most of our warm-ups without jackets and hats. By the time we'd finished the block and before we'd even begun to play, I was dying of thirst. I looked around for someone who might have water. This was in vain, though. We were all in uniform. Then I saw Brandyn and Shelby disappear, and a few minutes later they reappeared with packages of water bottles. They began passing them out among sections, and as I gulped down half a bottle I was mentally praising God. However, it was gone within 10 minutes, sucked up by the brutal L.A. heat. But there was more water.

At the end of our warm-up, Mr. Wilson called us in. "You'll always remember this show," he said, with a playful smile on his face. "Marching your hearts out while L.A. is burning down around you." We all snickered, and he continued. "It's a distraction, just like the heat, but if you discipline your minds you won't be affected by it like a lot of other bands here will."

With that we marched over and did our show. The overall show was very good, except for one brass circle in the ballad being five yards off. We managed to recover, though. As we marched off I felt the sweat running down my face and knew it was well deserved.

We didn't get to go back for awards, since we would be on our way to Disneyland as soon as we knew the results. Instead we got out of uniform and loaded the trailer and the buses. Caitlyn, Jenny, and Krysta stayed in the stadium for awards. After forever they climbed onto our bus, Caitlyn in the front. It went silent for a moment before Caitlyn squealed, "We got sweepstakes!"

Everyone cheered, and she went on to say that we had won every caption award except percussion, which we'd lost by a tenth of a point. After more cheering, Caitlyn and the guard girls made their way to the back of the bus and we were rolling out of the parking lot and on our way to Disneyland. Jenny and Krysta couldn't stop talking about their "Best Auxiliary" award, which Valley Christian hadn't won in years.

At Disneyland we hopped off the buses and got tickets from Mrs. Wiens. I formed a group with Laura, Josh, Leah, Christina, and Shevata. By the time we got into the park it was about 8:30 at night, so we didn't have much time. We managed to go on Indiana Jones, Star Tours, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then at 10:00 we went to see Fantasmic, the light show on the lake. We had fun watching it until they stopped it because of the wind. At 11:00 we met up with all the other Valley kids to go on Jungle Cruise, a Valley band trip tradition. If you can imagine 80 band kids at 11:00 at night on a water ride with all the corny jokes and fake animals and stuff, it was a blast. At midnight we met right inside the entrance, did a head count, and left for the hotel. On the way back Laura, Caitlyn, Jenny, Sarah, and I sang hymns.

In the morning we got up, showered, breakfasted, and went to church at Saddleback. Saddleback is about the hugest church you can imagine. It's so big that people have to sit in several different locations outside the main worship hall and watch on TV screens. We'd been there once before, and I loved it. The speaker that morning was really good too.

We'd barely boarded the buses and pulled out of the parking lot at Saddleback when we pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. No one noticed until after we'd been sitting for about 20 minutes. "Why are we stopped?" asked Jamie, a very blonde clarinet player. Richard, one of our instructors, turned around and yelled back, "The other bus hit a little kid."

Everyone laughed, knowing he was kidding. But Jamie, being the blonde that she was, gasped, "Are you serious?" She got her answer when she realized that we were all laughing hysterically.

We didn't get underway for another 20 minutes or so, so to amuse ourselves we told brainteasers and did other mind puzzles. At one point we had about half the bus trying to figure out a brainteaser.

Once we finally got going again, we had a fun ride back. We watched "Toy Story 2" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and just had fun chatting with each other. For about the last half hour of the ride, Sarah decided to come sit on Laura and me, and we were all in a really hyper mood. Ben was sitting in front of us, so he decided to play a game called the "Laura Laura Laura WHACK" game. It basically involved him chanting Laura's name over and over until he decided to smack one of us on the forehead. Finally when Caitlyn asked what in the world he was doing and he decided to demonstrate, he tried to whack my forehead but missed and hit me in the eye. After much laughter and him going, "Oh my gosh, are you okay??? I'm sorry!!!" we decided to give up the game.

Ahh, band trips. Fire, lack of sleep, Disneyland, general band craziness—and we even managed to win the competition. Yes, I'd say it was a successful trip. And now we had our three biggest shows to look forward to.