Chapter III –
Disclaimer!
From here on out, any similarities to any band organizations that the author, Dirty Snoopy, has been involved with, either past or present.....is a dirty shame. :-P
Charlie Brown slowly walked down the hallway of his school. A week had passed, and it was now the day of the first band practice. Charlie Brown was worried. He had an instrument that no one had ever heard of, and he was quite certain that like all other situations he managed to get himself into, this too would end badly.
It seemed to take forever for Charlie Brown to finally make his way to the end of the hallway, where the band room was located. The big doors seemed quite intimidating as he slowly raised his hand up and pushed on the door to enter the room.
Charlie Brown entered the room and looked around. Kids were all around talking and laughing and showing each other their brand new instruments. Charlie Brown was immediately greeted by Linus.
"Hey Charlie Brown!" Linus yelled excitedly as he. "You're finally here! This is so great! The whole gang is here." Linus then ran off to join Pig-Pen, who was also holding a trombone.
"I wonder if there are any more people playing mellophone?" Charlie Brown wondered to himself.
"Hey Chuck!" called a familiar voice from across the room. It was Peppermint Patty. Marcie followed not far behind as she proudly carried her new set of cymbals.
"Glad you made it to practice, Chuck!" Peppermint Patty said excitedly. "Guess what! Mr. Dunlap wrote a great cadence set for the drumline! How about that, Chuck? It sounds great, and I can't wait to learn to play it. It's gonna be so fun...that is if Marcie here gets her act together."
"Hello Charles." said Marcie in her usual polite manner. Look at what I can do...."
CRASH Marcie, smiling proudly as she clashed her cymbals together, sending both Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown falling backwards due to the force of the sound.
"Now Marcie," Peppermint Patty lectured, "What did I tell you? You only cymbal crash when I tell you to cymbal crash. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, Sir" Marcie said, still smiling.
"Stop calling me 'Sir'!"
Charlie Brown left the pair as the argued over the word 'sir', and continued to look for someone else who was going to be in his section.
"Hey kid!" said a husky looking girl as she poked Charlie Brown on the shoulder. "Looks like you're the only other mellophone here," Charlie Brown immediately recognized the girl. It was Molly Volley, Snoopy's mixed doubles tennis partner from the previous summer.
"Molly Volley...Hi." Charlie Brown said, a little surprised to see her.
"I remember you. You're friends with that funny looking kid that was my mixed doubles tennis partner. I saw him here earlier. He's a pretty good trumpet player. A better trumpet player than he is a tennis player, that's for sure. Hey, by the way, you better not be thinking of how fat my legs are!"
"Of course not," Charlie Brown said nervously. "Why would I think that?"
"You just better not!" she demanded. "I'm gonna be your section leader, and if I catch you thinking about how fat I am, I'll make life miserable for you!"
"Good grief!" was all Charlie Brown could say.
"Anyway," Molly Volley continued in a much calmer voice, "I suppose you'd like to tell me how you got to play mellophone?"
"Well," began Charlie Brown, "I really wanted a trumpet, or a saxophone, or even a trombone. But by the time I got here to get an instrument, they were all out of everything. The only instrument Mr. Dunlap had left was this mellophone. So if I wanted to be in band, I had to take it."
"Well, I guess that sort of thing happens," said Molly Volley.
"Is that why you got to play mellophone?" asked Charlie Brown.
"No...actually, I just picked mello because it's the only instrument with a bell big enough to tape music onto...incase we can't get it all memorized in time. If you just tape the music on to the bell, that hides the music, and no one ever knows that you're reading from it."
"I see," said Charlie Brown.
"OK, Kid," Molly Volley said in an authoritative tone, "Let me show you around. Here is where we sit during music rehearsal. This is your music stand, and this is my music stand. And if you kick my music stand once I'll clobber you!"
"I'll be careful."
"Around here, Kid" she continued, "Our director doesn't let us do theme shows for halftime."
"What kind of music do we get to play then?" asked Charlie Brown.
"Well last year we played Malaguena, Spain, Winds of Sonora, and Olvidar. The year before that, we played Echano, Santana, Stiletto, and Estancia." Molly Volley explained.
"Definitely not thematic," said Charlie Brown.
Just then Mr. Dunlap called the students to attention, and asked them to be seated. Charlie Brown took his seat next to Molly Volley.
"We get our new music for this season today," Said Molly Volley. "This better be good!"
The students waited patiently but excitedly as Lucy and Violet helped distribute the music. Molly Volley frowned as Lucy gave her the music for the mellophone section.
"Santana again?" she grumbled. "Not only did we play this song two years ago, but we played a song last year that sounded almost exactly like it! What else do we have here? Malaga, Tiger of San Pedro, and Spanish Nightmare? I guess we're not doing a theme show again this year."
Meanwhile, in the trumpet section, Lucy was giving Snoopy his music. Snoopy was also disappointed at the season's music selection, as he thought, "Aww man! I wanted to do a Chuck Mangione show!"
Woodstock, who was sitting next to Snoopy, with a piccolo trumpet, (because he is obviously too small for a regular sized trumpet) decided to add his two cents.
"!!!!! !! !!!!!?" he asked.
"No Woodstock. I don't think we get to play 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square.'" Snoopy answered.
"!! !!!!!?" Woodstock asked.
"No, I don't think we are going to play Birdland either." Snoopy replied.
After all of the music was distributed, Mr. Dunlap addressed the students. He began to discuss all of the rules, events, and general information for their upcoming marching band season. Charlie Brown listened to Mr. Dunlap's speech as he looked around the band room. As he did so, he decided that he was enjoying his band experience, so far, at least. Suddenly, Charlie Brown realized that, although it had just started, his entire marching band experience was about to change forever. For in the front of the room, sat the Little Red Haired Girl. In her hands, she held a clarinet.
At first, Charlie Brown was excited. "How great is this?" thought Charlie Brown. "Just think of all the extra time I'll get to spend around the Little Red Haired Girl." But soon, Charlie Brown's excitement turned to worry and anxiety. "What if I sound really bad when I play my instrument?" he thought to himself. "Then she won't be impressed. What if we're marching and I trip over my own two feet? Then she'll probably laugh at me. That would be absolutely humiliating. What if I do something really stupid? Then she'll probably think I'm really dumb." Charlie Brown slumped in his chair.
"Hey Kid! Get ready to play!" Molly Volley said, interrupting his anxious thoughts.
Taking the cue from Mr. Dunlap the band began to play. Suddenly, staves of musical notes began to fill the air. Upon taking notice of this phenomenon, Snoopy happily sprung up from his chair and began dancing on the musical staves. Leaping from staff to staff, he continued his happy dance, completely oblivious of the glares he was getting from everyone else in the room. It was only after a few minutes he noticed this, when he fell through one of the staffs after it disappeared because everyone had stopped playing. Instead of playing, all of the students glared at the beagle. Snoopy turned red with embarrassment and sheepishly returned to his seat.
The rest of the rehearsal continued without incident.
Later that evening, Charlie Brown was home reading a book when Sally came into the room looking very aggravated.
"Big Brother!" she demanded. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't I tell you what?" Charlie Brown answered.
"Why didn't you tell me the color guard doesn't use the rifles to guard anything?" She cried. "I was so embarrassed. This other girl was there, taking out long poles and flags, and I asked, 'Are we going to guard these? I thought we were going to guard the instruments,' and she started laughing at me!"
"So what did you do?" Charlie Brown asked.
"I hit her over the head with my flag pole!" She said proudly.
"Well, it seems that you don't remember," began Charlie Brown, "I did try to tell you exactly what the color guard does. But you wouldn't listen!"
"But you're my big brother," Sally complained, "You're supposed to make me listen to you!"
"Good grief! Well, in any case, if you're going to be in the marching band, you are going to have to learn to listen to people when they tell you things. They give you a lot of instructions, and if you don't listen carefully, you won't know what to do. Then you can get into trouble if you don't know what's going on." Charlie Brown tried to explain. "So what happened after that?"
"Well, we learned to drop spin. It was a lot of fun, but my arms are really tired." She answered. "How did things go with your telephone?"
"Not telephone, Sally! Mellophone!" Charlie Brown said in frustration.
"Oh," said Sally. "I was wondering how you could play a telephone as an instrument. Anyway, I'm happy because my Sweet Baboo is in the band too. Maybe next time we have practice, he will play a song just for me!"
Suddenly, they heard a voice from across the neighborhood, "I am NOT you're sweet baboo! And I wouldn't play a song for you if you were the Queen of England!"
"Isn't he the cutest thing?" she said adoringly.
"Good grief," said Charlie Brown as he headed to bed for the night. "What a marching band this is going to turn out to be. This is going to be even stranger than my baseball team. A dog who plays trumpet, not to mention half the trumpet section is consisted of birds. A girl in the color guard who doesn't even know what a color guard actually does. And then there's the Little Red Haired Girl. How on earth am I going to impress the Little Red Haired Girl?"
Disclaimer!
From here on out, any similarities to any band organizations that the author, Dirty Snoopy, has been involved with, either past or present.....is a dirty shame. :-P
Charlie Brown slowly walked down the hallway of his school. A week had passed, and it was now the day of the first band practice. Charlie Brown was worried. He had an instrument that no one had ever heard of, and he was quite certain that like all other situations he managed to get himself into, this too would end badly.
It seemed to take forever for Charlie Brown to finally make his way to the end of the hallway, where the band room was located. The big doors seemed quite intimidating as he slowly raised his hand up and pushed on the door to enter the room.
Charlie Brown entered the room and looked around. Kids were all around talking and laughing and showing each other their brand new instruments. Charlie Brown was immediately greeted by Linus.
"Hey Charlie Brown!" Linus yelled excitedly as he. "You're finally here! This is so great! The whole gang is here." Linus then ran off to join Pig-Pen, who was also holding a trombone.
"I wonder if there are any more people playing mellophone?" Charlie Brown wondered to himself.
"Hey Chuck!" called a familiar voice from across the room. It was Peppermint Patty. Marcie followed not far behind as she proudly carried her new set of cymbals.
"Glad you made it to practice, Chuck!" Peppermint Patty said excitedly. "Guess what! Mr. Dunlap wrote a great cadence set for the drumline! How about that, Chuck? It sounds great, and I can't wait to learn to play it. It's gonna be so fun...that is if Marcie here gets her act together."
"Hello Charles." said Marcie in her usual polite manner. Look at what I can do...."
CRASH Marcie, smiling proudly as she clashed her cymbals together, sending both Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown falling backwards due to the force of the sound.
"Now Marcie," Peppermint Patty lectured, "What did I tell you? You only cymbal crash when I tell you to cymbal crash. Do you understand that?"
"Yes, Sir" Marcie said, still smiling.
"Stop calling me 'Sir'!"
Charlie Brown left the pair as the argued over the word 'sir', and continued to look for someone else who was going to be in his section.
"Hey kid!" said a husky looking girl as she poked Charlie Brown on the shoulder. "Looks like you're the only other mellophone here," Charlie Brown immediately recognized the girl. It was Molly Volley, Snoopy's mixed doubles tennis partner from the previous summer.
"Molly Volley...Hi." Charlie Brown said, a little surprised to see her.
"I remember you. You're friends with that funny looking kid that was my mixed doubles tennis partner. I saw him here earlier. He's a pretty good trumpet player. A better trumpet player than he is a tennis player, that's for sure. Hey, by the way, you better not be thinking of how fat my legs are!"
"Of course not," Charlie Brown said nervously. "Why would I think that?"
"You just better not!" she demanded. "I'm gonna be your section leader, and if I catch you thinking about how fat I am, I'll make life miserable for you!"
"Good grief!" was all Charlie Brown could say.
"Anyway," Molly Volley continued in a much calmer voice, "I suppose you'd like to tell me how you got to play mellophone?"
"Well," began Charlie Brown, "I really wanted a trumpet, or a saxophone, or even a trombone. But by the time I got here to get an instrument, they were all out of everything. The only instrument Mr. Dunlap had left was this mellophone. So if I wanted to be in band, I had to take it."
"Well, I guess that sort of thing happens," said Molly Volley.
"Is that why you got to play mellophone?" asked Charlie Brown.
"No...actually, I just picked mello because it's the only instrument with a bell big enough to tape music onto...incase we can't get it all memorized in time. If you just tape the music on to the bell, that hides the music, and no one ever knows that you're reading from it."
"I see," said Charlie Brown.
"OK, Kid," Molly Volley said in an authoritative tone, "Let me show you around. Here is where we sit during music rehearsal. This is your music stand, and this is my music stand. And if you kick my music stand once I'll clobber you!"
"I'll be careful."
"Around here, Kid" she continued, "Our director doesn't let us do theme shows for halftime."
"What kind of music do we get to play then?" asked Charlie Brown.
"Well last year we played Malaguena, Spain, Winds of Sonora, and Olvidar. The year before that, we played Echano, Santana, Stiletto, and Estancia." Molly Volley explained.
"Definitely not thematic," said Charlie Brown.
Just then Mr. Dunlap called the students to attention, and asked them to be seated. Charlie Brown took his seat next to Molly Volley.
"We get our new music for this season today," Said Molly Volley. "This better be good!"
The students waited patiently but excitedly as Lucy and Violet helped distribute the music. Molly Volley frowned as Lucy gave her the music for the mellophone section.
"Santana again?" she grumbled. "Not only did we play this song two years ago, but we played a song last year that sounded almost exactly like it! What else do we have here? Malaga, Tiger of San Pedro, and Spanish Nightmare? I guess we're not doing a theme show again this year."
Meanwhile, in the trumpet section, Lucy was giving Snoopy his music. Snoopy was also disappointed at the season's music selection, as he thought, "Aww man! I wanted to do a Chuck Mangione show!"
Woodstock, who was sitting next to Snoopy, with a piccolo trumpet, (because he is obviously too small for a regular sized trumpet) decided to add his two cents.
"!!!!! !! !!!!!?" he asked.
"No Woodstock. I don't think we get to play 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square.'" Snoopy answered.
"!! !!!!!?" Woodstock asked.
"No, I don't think we are going to play Birdland either." Snoopy replied.
After all of the music was distributed, Mr. Dunlap addressed the students. He began to discuss all of the rules, events, and general information for their upcoming marching band season. Charlie Brown listened to Mr. Dunlap's speech as he looked around the band room. As he did so, he decided that he was enjoying his band experience, so far, at least. Suddenly, Charlie Brown realized that, although it had just started, his entire marching band experience was about to change forever. For in the front of the room, sat the Little Red Haired Girl. In her hands, she held a clarinet.
At first, Charlie Brown was excited. "How great is this?" thought Charlie Brown. "Just think of all the extra time I'll get to spend around the Little Red Haired Girl." But soon, Charlie Brown's excitement turned to worry and anxiety. "What if I sound really bad when I play my instrument?" he thought to himself. "Then she won't be impressed. What if we're marching and I trip over my own two feet? Then she'll probably laugh at me. That would be absolutely humiliating. What if I do something really stupid? Then she'll probably think I'm really dumb." Charlie Brown slumped in his chair.
"Hey Kid! Get ready to play!" Molly Volley said, interrupting his anxious thoughts.
Taking the cue from Mr. Dunlap the band began to play. Suddenly, staves of musical notes began to fill the air. Upon taking notice of this phenomenon, Snoopy happily sprung up from his chair and began dancing on the musical staves. Leaping from staff to staff, he continued his happy dance, completely oblivious of the glares he was getting from everyone else in the room. It was only after a few minutes he noticed this, when he fell through one of the staffs after it disappeared because everyone had stopped playing. Instead of playing, all of the students glared at the beagle. Snoopy turned red with embarrassment and sheepishly returned to his seat.
The rest of the rehearsal continued without incident.
Later that evening, Charlie Brown was home reading a book when Sally came into the room looking very aggravated.
"Big Brother!" she demanded. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't I tell you what?" Charlie Brown answered.
"Why didn't you tell me the color guard doesn't use the rifles to guard anything?" She cried. "I was so embarrassed. This other girl was there, taking out long poles and flags, and I asked, 'Are we going to guard these? I thought we were going to guard the instruments,' and she started laughing at me!"
"So what did you do?" Charlie Brown asked.
"I hit her over the head with my flag pole!" She said proudly.
"Well, it seems that you don't remember," began Charlie Brown, "I did try to tell you exactly what the color guard does. But you wouldn't listen!"
"But you're my big brother," Sally complained, "You're supposed to make me listen to you!"
"Good grief! Well, in any case, if you're going to be in the marching band, you are going to have to learn to listen to people when they tell you things. They give you a lot of instructions, and if you don't listen carefully, you won't know what to do. Then you can get into trouble if you don't know what's going on." Charlie Brown tried to explain. "So what happened after that?"
"Well, we learned to drop spin. It was a lot of fun, but my arms are really tired." She answered. "How did things go with your telephone?"
"Not telephone, Sally! Mellophone!" Charlie Brown said in frustration.
"Oh," said Sally. "I was wondering how you could play a telephone as an instrument. Anyway, I'm happy because my Sweet Baboo is in the band too. Maybe next time we have practice, he will play a song just for me!"
Suddenly, they heard a voice from across the neighborhood, "I am NOT you're sweet baboo! And I wouldn't play a song for you if you were the Queen of England!"
"Isn't he the cutest thing?" she said adoringly.
"Good grief," said Charlie Brown as he headed to bed for the night. "What a marching band this is going to turn out to be. This is going to be even stranger than my baseball team. A dog who plays trumpet, not to mention half the trumpet section is consisted of birds. A girl in the color guard who doesn't even know what a color guard actually does. And then there's the Little Red Haired Girl. How on earth am I going to impress the Little Red Haired Girl?"