Chapter 3

~Kelcey 7:45am

Kelcey purposely left early so Tyler couldn't yell at her again She walked into the band room at 7:55 and smiled smugly at Tyler. He just glared at her. Kelcey looked around, but didn't see Nick anywhere.

"Hey Kelcey," a voice said behind her. She looked behind her and saw Josh.

"Oh, hi Josh. How are you?" Kelcey put her stick bag down on a chair and turned around to face Josh.

"I'm alright. What about you?"

"I'm great. But I'm a weirdo and I actually like band camp." She shrugged.

"I can't say that I feel the same. Sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"I just don't like band that much."

"Don't worry it gets better as time goes on. At least it did for me."

"Thanks. I'll remember that." Josh smiled. "Well I better go."

"Okay, I'll see you later." Kelcey watched Josh walk away then tuned to grab her stick bag, but it was gone. She looked around, but no one was paying any attention to her.

~Nick 8:00am

When Nick saw that Kelcey put her sticks down he couldn't resist taking them. She always took his sticks last year if he left them laying around. Now he walked up behind Kelcey.

"Hey Kel," he said. She turned. "Hey are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just can't find my sticks."

"You of all people should know not to leave your stuff sitting out." Nick couldn't resist grinning, it was about time he got some pay back.

"Where are they?" Kelcey yelled shaking Nick's shoulders. He pulled away and walked over to the drum cabinet that was a few feet away. He opened a drawer and pulled out the bag.

"Maybe now you know how I felt," Nick said giving her her bag back.

"Yeah, I do. I'll try not to steal your bag anymore, or even your sticks."

"I'd appreciate that. Are you ready for another day of band camp?"

"Of course. I'm the one who actually likes this stuff."

"I'm not liking it as much, but it'll probably get better after school starts."

"Yeah, well, I hope so."

"Do you want to have another drum off today?"

"That would be breaking tradition."

"We don't have a tradition for the second day of camp."

"That's okay. Today is practice day, since you interrupted my practice yesterday."

"Hey, it was tradition that ruined your practice." Nick laughed.

"Okay, fine. But I really do need to practice."

"Okay. Well we better figure this out later. We need to get outside."

~Kelcey 4:15pm

Kelcey went into the band room after short nap and got her snare. She heard Nick practicing something on marimba in the drum room. She put her snare back down and quietly opened the door to the drum room. Nick looked up, then went right back to his music. Kelcey listened and applauded when he finished.

"Hey," Kelcey said walking over to see what music Nick was looking at. "What are you still doing here? Camp was over an hour ago."

"Yeah, I know. I was just working on this marimba piece I was writing."

"You wrote this?" Kelcey picked up the music, but Nick quickly grabbed it from her hand. "Hey!"

"Sorry, it's not done yet. But as soon as it's done, you'll be the first to see it."

"Thank you." Kelcey sat down on the only chair in the drum room.

"Any if you're nice to me I'll let you play the duet with me."

"It's going to be a duet?"

"Yeah. It's going to be awesome." Kelcey started laughing. "What's so funny."

"Tiffany told me that percussionists have the biggest egos, and I think you just proved her right, despite how long I argued with her, trying to convince her otherwise."

"Hey! It is going to be great. You just wait."

"Oh I will. Don't worry. But I've got to practice now. So maybe I'll see you later."

"Yeah. Okay see you then."

Kelcey got her snare again and headed out to the same spot she found yesterday.

~Nick 4:00pm

Nick put his mallets down and stretched. He looked at his watch and realized that he had been playing his piece for almost an hour. He thought about seeing if he could find Kelcey, but he knew that she wanted to practice today. He stretched again then started one more time. He had to figure out what the second part would be. Then he had to convince Kelcey to play it with him.

Nick was about finished with the song when he heard the door open. He turned quickly and realized it was Kelcey. He messed up the next few measures, but tried to act like he wanted it that way. When he ended he was surprised to hear Kelcey clapping. He smiled to himself before turning to face Kelcey.

When Kelcey left to practice he thought about asking her if he could practice with her, but chickened out at the last minute. He watched her leave and thought that she hesitate for just a minute before opening the door. Nick smiled to himself and got out some manuscript paper to work on the duet/second part. Seeing Kelcey seemed to inspire him and he wrote out about fifteen measures before putting his paper down and going off to find her.

~Nick 4:45pm

Nick found Kelcey laying down in the shade next to her snare. He watched her for a few minutes then softly kicked the bottom of her shoe. She jumped and Nick laughed. She glared at Nick then closed her eyes again.

"Hey," Nick said sitting down next to her. "I thought you were practicing."

"I was, but I'm taking a break." She sat up and stretched. "What are you doing?"

"Well I seem to remember that I owe you a drink from yesterday."

"That's right you do. So, where is it?"

"Not here. I was actually wondering if you wanted to get some dinner."

"Um sure. But, I still have a lot to memorize."

"That's fine. We can drive in separate cars, because I've got to get home."

"Okay. Well let me put my snare away."

"Okay, let's go then." Nick stood up and offered his hand to Kelcey. He pulled her up and grabbed her snare.

"You don't have to take that."

"It's alright." They both waked back to the music building and then headed to their separate cars.

~Kelcey 5:00pm

Kelcey followed Nick out of the parking lot wondering why all of the sudden he decides that they need to get dinner. She shrugged and turned up her radio. Kelcey got stuck at a light and watched Nick get lost in all the traffic. She hoped he would realize that she had no idea where they were going and pull over to wait for her.

Kelcey made it thorough the light but realized that something had happened ahead of her. Traffic was backed up and there weren't any cars going through the intersection. Kelcey was so far away it was hard to see what was happening. She tried to see if Nick was somewhere ahead of her, but she couldn't see his little white truck anywhere. Traffic was finally moving, but slowly, everyone was turning off the main road. After driving about fifteen feet ahead Kelcey had to stop again. Ths time she could see what had happened. There was a car off to the side of the road with a smashed front end, an suv with the side smashed in and a white truck on it's side.

Kelcey realized she wasn't breathing. She let out a long breath and tried to see if it was Nick's truck, but all she could see was the bottom of the truck. She heard honking and realized that people were waiting for her to move. She turned off on the side street and parked her car. She sat in her car and tried not to cry. It couldn't be Nick, there was no way it could be him. She put her hands to her face and tried to relax, but her heart was breathing so fast. Someone, or something tapped on her window, she jumped and looked up not knowing what to expect.

~Nick 5:10pm

Nick knew he shouldn't have gone through the yellow light, but there was no way he could stop. He got stopped at the next light and decided that he better pullover so Kelcey could find him again. Nick looked down to change the station on his radio, but cars started honking at him. He quickly looked up and saw that the light was green. He started to go through the intersection, but quickly slammed on his brakes when he saw an suv that he knew was going to run the light.

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It's kind of a cliffhanger, sorry. I've got to have something to keep everyone interested.

*Serene Hope- Thanks for the review. And you're right it is going to be more than a triangle. And I'm actually a sax player too, but I guess I have a secret desire to become a percussionist. Anyway, thanks for the review, I'm glad you like it.