Bailey had fumbled through practice trying to keep up. She had never seen a marching band up close before; she had always been too busy on the sidelines trying to get the crowd pumped rather than turn and watch the band. At halftime the cheerleaders had break, so she spent most of her time talking instead of watching the halftime show. Now things would be different. She would be part of the halftime show.

When she didn't have a triangle part in the music, she would pause to watch them march. It seemed so weird to her: they were rolling their feet and all in step. Sometimes she wished she were out there with them rather than standing on the side.

The color guard were a spectacle to her as well; the flags were white and green ( the school's colors ) and added to the whole picture and sort of made the whole thing come together. The school's majorettes were quite shoddy, and Bailey couldn't help but laugh at them every time they dropped their batons.

---

"Can you give me a ride today?" Bailey sprung up on Logan. They were inside putting all the equipment in its rightful place. Practice was over and everyone was filing out slowly but surely causing the band room to become more and more vacant.

Logan placed her xylo mallets in her bag and stood up to face Bailey. "I have a better idea. Why don't you spend the night? My parents are out of town so I have the house all to myself." She smiled. Bailey was stunned: the only people she had ever spent the night with were her ex-cheerleading buddies.

"Okay." She said simply, her face still petrified in disbelief.

-----

Bailey had walked away to put up the triangle, and Laney approached Logan warily. "You and Bailey are getting to be really good pals now, aren't you?"

"Ugh, I don't know. I'm not sure if I like her yet or not. So I invited her over to spend the night today. You know how my mom and dad went to Gatlinburg-"

"She's spending the night? How long has it been since I've been over there? You never invite me over anymore." Laney sulked, and Logan rolled her eyes.

"Don't be so jealous. Like I said, I don't even know if I like her yet or not. I'm just doing this to get to know her better."

"She's so different from you and me. Logan, just because she's in the band now doesn't mean she's not still a cheerleader. By that I mean she is still an A &B, and she always will be. We're who we are, and she's who she is. Don't let her spellbind you."

"You've always been like this." Logan snapped, picking up her bag and laying the strap across her shoulders. Laney put her hands on her hips.

"Like what?"

"Jealous. Every time I make a new friend you go berserk. It's like you don't want anyone else near me and you've got to get over that. I have such a hard time making new friends because of you. It's like you have to okay them first. It's not up to you who I can be friends with. Maybe I like Bailey."

"I thought you said you weren't sure."

"Well at least she doesn't run my life." And Logan walked off leaving Laney speechless.

---

Logan's house was secluded in the surreptitious realm of beauty; the moutains . It was a three-story ranch-style house with green shudders and a deck that overlooked the side of the mountain. Sometimes Logan would sit out there for hours just watching the geese fly overhead and the occasional deer coming out to poke their noses into the leaves looking for food. It was astonishingly stunning in the winter when the mountain was dipped in milky-white snow. It looked so fresh and pure, and the air was clean and crisp.

Logan put her keys into the front door and turned the knob. When they ambled into the house and Logan locked the door behind her, Bailey was taken aback by the beauty that was held inside.

"You're house is really lovely, Logan." She whispered, her eyes taking in all that surrounded her. There was the living room to the left, and Bailey could see the fireplace. The crackling of the warm orange flames was inviting; the whole house felt like home.

"We have a downstairs too, it's below ground. You can't see it from outside. That's where my room is. Shall we?" Logan began moving and Bailey followed, afraid she would get lost in such a castle.

They took some wooden stairs that spiraled downwards into darkness. Bailey held onto Logan's arm but Logan didn't mind. When they reached the bottom, Logan flipped a light switch and the whole vicinity lit up. The stairs had led into a large room with yet another fireplace ( this one wasn't burning ) and a small kitchen nearby.

"That's my kitchen." Logan explained, still on the move. "We'll fix us something to eat later. Oh, here's my room." She stopped and Bailey had overlooked the large white door. Logan tuned the knob and ventured inside, Bailey not too far behind. She turned on the lights.

"Wow." Bailey's eyes widened and her pupils became larger. If she hadn't know better, she would have thought she had just walked into a library. The ceiling arched up and there were rows and rows of shelves stacked high with books reaching towards it, as if they're grabbing fingers could not reach that high It reminded Bailey of children trying to reach for something over their heads they couldn't quite grasp.

Against a desolate wall sat a single bed. It was a girly-looking bed; pink with white sheets and a heart shaped pillow resting at the foot. On the bed there also sat a laptop.

Logan yawned and stretched out her arms. "Do you wanna watch a movie or something? That's what me and Lan- never mind. I have every movie there was ever made. I'm an addict." She ran and jumped onto her bed and, leaning over the edge, she felt around under it, then pulled out a wooden chest that was almost brimming with DVDs. Bailey remained where she was. She was not trying to show it but she was quite frankly jealous. Her own house was small compared to this one, almost belittled to nothing.

"What's the matter?" Logan asked, digging through the chest and pulling out Shrek. Bailey shrugged. "Nothing."

"Um.." Logan placed Shrek back into the chest and shoved it back under her bed. She sat up. "Why don't we just talk? I want to get to know you." Bailey had no objections to this. She loved to talk about herself. "Okay." She made her way over to the bed and sat down timidly on the edge. Logan raised an eyebrow.

"You can make yourself at home you know. My parents aren't here so it's not like we have to hold our breath." She picked up a pillow and through it on the floor. "Uh oh," she said then made a 'it doesn't matter' face. Bailey laughed.

"Okay." She took off a shoe.

"Ooh daring today are we?" They laughed. "So Bailey, tell me your life's story." Logan laid back and put her hands behind her head. Bailey cleared her throat and squirmed a bit.

"Okay, I'm warning you though, it's not all that interesting."

"Trust me, I'm all ears."

"Well, when I was little my parents got me a drum set for Christmas. I would spend hours at a time playing on that thing." She laughed to herself. "I remember it would drive my mom crazy. Sometimes my next door neighbor would come over and we'd pretend we were in a rock band. She was the singer.

" When I was in the sixth grade my mom insisted that I try out for cheerleading. I guess she wasn't too big on the whole drummer thing for her little girl. She wanted me to be a princess." She stopped.

"What does your mom think about you being in band now?"

"My mom's dead." Bailey answered quietly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry… "

"-It's not your fault. It's no one's fault. I used to tell myself it was mine, but it wasn't really anyone's. I guess I just told myself that so I would have someone to blame it on. I was so mad at the world. I remember the day I found out she killed herself I .." She stopped. "No one knows that. They don't know she killed herself; I let that slip out. Oh my gosh.." Bailey closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise. I would never do that."

Bailey opened her eyes and continued. "Thank you. I guess I never told anyone because I was, well you know, I was with the ones in school that were perfect. That was our image; no one would ever even suspect our lives weren't faultless. I don't care anymore though. I just don't care."

Logan sat there; she didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry, I'm pathetic, tell me about you now. Please." Bailey gave Logan a tug on her foot. Logan shrugged.

"There's not much to tell."

"I'm sure there is, I'd love to hear everything, every detail. We have all night."

---