A/N: Love and peace to all who've stuck with me this far! I've suffered extreme writers' block with pretty much all of my solo projects but the other night I sat down and wrote two chapters to this and started on a third! Hope you all continue reading this and I'm still looking for your suggestions and ideas! ~Xifa
Chapter V: Commander Leonhart Kills the Bandies
They hadn't even made it to dinner, although that's where they should have been. In fact, they hadn't really left the band room. They lounged around the front yard of building 9A, the building in which the band room was located. The park benches and most of the ground were littered with band campers, and had been utterly silent for about an hour with only the occasional 'Hojo, don't poke me with that drumstick' or 'Rufus, quit snoring' to break the silence. After an hour spent recovering on the front yard, however, the bandies were beginning to recover.
"Yuffie, are you okay?" Shera asked from her seat on the edge of the park bench next to Cid.
Yuffie had laid sprawled out across the warm, summer's green grass in complete silence, a shock to everyone. Her oboe case was serving a job it wasn't used to but did quite well at—a pillow to the exhausted girl.
"He hates me more than all of you put together," Yuffie moaned. "I had to do more push-ups than any of the other guys who didn't know their scales! And all because of that stupid music incident! I was gonna sell it back to those flutists!"
Sephiroth stared down at her with a merciless gaze. He was the only one of the campers who wasn't exhausted. He'd known all of his scales, but when he was unable to tell Commander Leonhart how many measures were in the song 'Ecstatic Dance of the Chocobo in Chocobo Paradise' then the commander had forced him to do push-ups. Then sit-ups. Then run laps. Sephiroth had been the only camper that the commander hadn't been able to exhaust, so while the rest of the campers were in the front yard feeling like they were going to die, Sephiroth had merely been enjoying the afternoon breeze.
"I can't believe that," Tifa shook her head. "Just because some of the campers didn't know every single one of their scales doesn't give him any right to force us to do push-ups until we answered all of his stupid questions right."
Barret and Cid put in their very colorful opinion.
"You know, Cid, it wasn't that bad…" Sephiroth smiled.
Cid glared up at Sephiroth and gave him another one of this trademark colorful opinions. Sephiroth merely smiled.
"They'll be serving dinner soon and it looks like some of the other students are leaving," Sephiroth commented. "Perhaps we should get moving too."
"Let's mosey," Cloud shrugged, standing up. Cid stood as well, mumbling something under his breath.
"What is it this time, Cid?" Shera asked.
"'Let's mosey'," Cid mocked Cloud. "Couldn't he be a little more normal about it and say something like 'Move out' or 'Let's go'?"
"Move out," Cloud rolled his eyes, shrugging. Aerith couldn't help but smile.
"Are you coming, Yuffie?" Vincent asked as they all grabbed their instrument cases to leave.
"We're leaving," Sephiroth patiently reminded the young ninja, who hadn't moved a muscle.
"You'll have to carry me, 'cause I'm not goin' anywhere," Yuffie mumbled.
Sephiroth surprised everyone by actually obliging to the girl's wishes, picking her up in one swift motion, grabbing both his tenor sax and her oboe, and carrying her to the cafeteria area.
~//~
"Let's revolt," Yuffie said at dinner.
The group—Barret, Cid, Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Shera, Vincent, and Sephiroth this time—all glanced up. After two chocolate milkshakes and a sandwich, Yuffie was back to her usual self.
"Revolt?" Tifa echoed.
"Against Quistis and her boring theory classes, Zidane and his horrible band jokes, Fujin and her awful wake-up calls, and Commander Leonhart…Commander Leonhart…."
"Yuffie, we have three days left. You mean to tell me you're gonna organize the entire band in time?" Shera asked skeptically.
"Dang straight!" Yuffie jumped up. "We'll arrange into form into seven groups!" She pulled out nothing less than Commander Leonhart's seating chart.
"How'd you come across that?!" Cid exclaimed.
"I have my ways," Yuffie shrugged. "We'll have seven groups, anyways, and you all will be one group. I'll stick with this group the most. This'll be group 'All Creation'."
"Why group 'All Creation'?" Sephiroth asked.
"I dunno, but it sounds cool, yeah?" Yuffie smiled. "We'll have group 'Greased Lightning' who'll be in charge of carrying out the offensive part of our mission…you know, like taping Commander Leonhart's baton to the ceiling or something like that. They'll be the piccolos, flutes, clarinets, and oboes…" Yuffie made small marks on the seating charts as she spoke. "Group 'Clear Tranquil', composed of alto clarinets, soprano saxes, English horns, French horns, and alto saxophones," she continued, "will serve as a distraction so that 'Greased Lightning' can get their job done. I'd put alto flutes in that category too but Aerith, you're the only one of us in the entire band who plays one."
"I understand, Yuffie," Aerith smiled good-naturedly.
"Group 'Landscaper', the baritone saxophones, bassoons, and bass clarinets will serve as a back-up to 'Clear Tranquil'. Group 'Gauntlet' will be the percussionists, guitarists, and keyboardists, along with all other mallet instruments. They can be our defensive group. We'll have a group of trombones, baritones and tubas to be group 'Bloodfest' and they can do backups for the group 'Doom of the Living', which will be cornets and trumpets."
"That's a good title for them," Shera couldn't help but smile as she commented.
"What'll they do?" Cloud asked.
"They," Yuffie said mysteriously, "will be in charge of…wreaking havoc."
"They'll do a good job at it too," Barret mumbled.
Sephiroth let out a laugh masked as a sneeze. Everyone stared at him for a second before looking back to Yuffie.
"It's almost believable," Sephiroth commented.
"Maybe," Tifa mused thoughtfully, "our group can oversee the other groups."
"Great idea!" Yuffie beamed. "Aerith, you get Greased Lightning. Vincent, you get Clear Tranquil. Sephiroth—Landscaper, Barret—Bloodfest, Cid—Gauntlet, Cloud—Doom of the Living," Cloud made a face as Yuffie announced this, hardly noticible but still there. "Who's left? Tifa and Shera? Tifa, you work with Sephiroth. Shera can work with Cid. The rest of you can handle this."
"Are you suggesting I can't handle this alone?!" Cid frowned.
"Whoa, are you getting a little defensive or what?" Yuffie giggled. "Now sidekicks Tifa and Shera…would you go find Nanaki for me? He can be my sidekick since he's so smart and all."
"Better not send Shera, she might break something…again…" Cid snickered, since Shera was obviously known for her always-broken bass clarinet. Shera slapped him which got an 'Ooooh!' out of Yuffie, and walked off with Tifa.
"I'll go left, you go right, meetcha here in fifteen," Shera smiled.
"Okay," Tifa nodded, walking off towards the right.
"Nanaki? Nanaki?" She called, looking everywhere but in front of her, which resulted in a collision with a person in front of her, as that action typically does.
"Ugh, and just where exactly are you going?" Elena, another clarinet player, sneered. "Oh, it's you," she laughed. "Hey, Squeaky."
Tifa frowned and turned slightly red. It was practically a third octave note! And she'd only squeaked once playing the entire song! Elena never squeaked because Elena never played, at all, ever! She just moved her fingers at the right time!
"Excuse me," Tifa tried to move past her, but Elena moved back in front of her.
"Where are you going?" she frowned.
"What's it to you?!!" Tifa exclaimed, but seeing as how Elena didn't plan on moving, she sighed. "I'm looking for a friend, okay?"
"A freak, more likely, if they're from your group. I swear, I can't figure out why Cloud and Sephiroth hand out with you all! Which one of those idiots are you looking for? The annoying little thief? The demonic looking guy? The girl with the broken bass clarinet or the origami girl that's always fixing it?"
"Elena!" Tifa frowned, suddenly outraged. "Look at your friends! I mean, Rude plays the 'Wipeout' solo at any chance he gets, no matter what the song says! Go away!"
"There's no need to get angry," Elena pouted, storming off.
"Were you calling my name?" Nanaki walked up to Tifa.
"Yeah. Yuffie wants you," she explained as the two started walking back. Elena had one that fight…
But Tifa would get her revenge.
~//~
A/n: Wow, me fingers hurt after typing all that! Well, what do you think? Is it okay? I'm kind of out of practice…haven't typed on this in forever…hopefully the formatting will turn out better now! If it doesn't, somebody please tell me! . Again, love and peace to the one's who've stuck with me and are still reading, and everyone who sent me a band camp story! (I'm still open to those. And I am going to use them! If you send me one or two, I will use at least one of those! Sometimes it just takes me a bit because I have to wait for the right moment…but I will use them!) Thanks again everyone! ^-^ ~Xifa