Chapter One- The Kiss…
She climbed the final rungs of the large tower and looked out; the sweat that had been forming in beads on her forehead was now beginning to run down her face as the mid-morning North Carolina sun beat down upon her face. "Band, ATTEN-HUT!," she cried, and watched as the members of the Oak Hill High School marching band snapped immediately to the attention position. She then remained silently at attention herself as the director climbed to the top with his mega-phone. "good-morning band, welcome to some of you to your first time in a competitive marching band, and welcome all of you upperclassmen to a brand new teaching experience, and to all of you seniors, welcome to your final year in this program, hopefully you will all rise to the occasion of teach the freshmen how we doing things around here," he said, looking to the line of seniors in front. He put the mega-phone down and looked to his drum major, "Amber, I want these freshmen to know how to march 8 to 5 properly backwards and forwards sometime in the next 4 hours, not perfect but darn close, now get to it," he said as he took his leave and stepped off of the drum major tower. "Well, John, you heard the man, looks like we have our work cut out for us, shall we get started?" she said and looked John in the eyes. He stared back at her with a hint of evil in his eye, remembering the horrible basics blocks in the early morning heat of his previous years of high school, "oh you know it!"
"SECTION LEADERS!!!! TOWER, NOW!!!!!" Amber cried. "WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING!?! LISTEN TO THAT, DO YOU HEAR IT? THEY ARE TALKING! THEY CANNOT BE DOING THAT AND MARCHING AT THE SAME TIME YOU KNOW THAT, FIX IT!" she sat down with a sigh. "And it begins…," said John sitting down next to her. "yeah, tell me about it, they are learning though, but we all know what happens if they don't get the discipline they need very early on, remember last year?" replied Amber. "Ouch, yeah I do, they just wouldn't listen….but that will be different this year, I am going to be the Nazi bitch from hell! Muahahah!" she replied with a laugh. "Drum major….maam….uh," whimpered the small freshmen Jacob, coming up to Amber on the bench. Amber and John both roared with laughter at his attempt, with John laughing so hard that he fell backwards off of the bench and started rolling off the ground. "Jacob…you…can….just…call…me Amber, whew!" she replied while trying to re-gain her breath in between her words. He looked at her and blushed knowing that he had messed up "Okay, Amber, I have a question….do you have to stay on your toes the whole time you are marching backwards?" "The whole time Jake, the whole time," she quickly replied, "see, we make you march on your toes so that way you do not fall when we finally get to Astroturf or even on asphalt, if you catch a rock or a bump, you are a goner!" "oh, ok, thanks manda!" He said then ran back to the trumpet section, ending his short water break. "Oh Amanda, how much I am going to miss this next year," John said and ran off to help the flute section that seemed to be having some trouble.
Amanda climbed to the top of the Drum Major tower and called the band to attention. Even though the band was worn out, down, and tired from the rough day of practice, they all snapped to attention like it was still 7:00am and the day was beginning. "GREAT GUYS I LOVE THE ENTHUSIASM!!!! YOU GUYS HAVE A GOOD NIGHT AND I WILL SEE YOU ALL BRIGHT EYED AND BUSHY TAILED TOMORROW!!!!!" she said at the top of her lungs, then called the band to parade rest and attention one more time before letting the director dismiss them. She climbed down the tower with John following closely behind and began to collect her drill chart binder, water, cell-phone, hat and sunglasses. Before she knew it the sun had finally set over the horizon and the sky turned the blue-grey color it turns just before the blanket of darkness falls over the land. "Hey amanda! MEET YOU AT THE CAR," Jordan, her younger brother and section leader of the trumpets yelled as he jogged over the hill chasing after one of his buddies. Before she knew it, she and John were the only two left on the field as night time crept closer and closer. "Well, Amanda, I think we had a first good day, don't you," he said taking a seat on the bench next to Amanda who had been catching her breath. "Yeah, the frosh are coming along nicely…three sets down, only eighty-two more to go...," she said with a slight smile looking at John. "Amanda, there has always been something that I wanted to tell you, and now I think I am just going to do it. I think that you are one of the most incredible girls that I have ever met, you are always so nice to everyone, and I think that you are beautiful," he said taking her hand in his. Shocked Amanda looked back at him, "uh…well…thank you Joh." Before she knew it had happened John had leaned in and kissed her on the lips. He pulled back almost as quickly as he had kissed her saying, "goodnight amber." John got up and walked away not looking back even once. Amber sat on the bench, shocked by what had just happened…she fought to regain her breath…
"Amber, you alright?" Jordan asked when Amber finally got back to the car. "Yeah…I'm uh fine," she replied quickly. "oh ok, god you are so weird," he said, "Let's hit up Mickey d's before we head home sis, my treat?" "Yeah that sounds good," she replied and drove the two of them to McDonalds. She went through drive through since both of them were too tired to actually go inside and eat. She gave the food to Jordan who immediately picking through it. Normally, she would have been rather pissed off at him for this since this was the new car in the family, but tonight was different; she had only one thing on her mind, that kiss….