Let's Skip Marching Band!!!
(This really did happen.)
Note: The names have been changed to protect the (some what) innocent.
It was a Thursday night and I had marching band practice from five-thirty to eight. I also had play practice for the Diary of Anne Frank that same night from four to six. Uh-oh! I think there may be a problem.
There were six of us that were in marching band. (one clarinet, one tuba, one tener sax, two percussionists, and a flag girl.) Luckily, our band teacher, Mr. Rowan allowed us to be late to the practice.
All right then, fast forward through play practice. (This is in fact a marching band story so I will not put you to sleep with details on how the practice went.)
After play practice, we all agreed that we were hungry, in other words (since we are big highschool students) we were STARVING!!! But, unfortunately, we did not have enough time to eat. Or did we?
Mr. VanDaan (I am using our stage names.) pointed out that we could always say that our play practice ran late as long as none of us showed up for marching band practice. You see, if one of us came to practice then Mr. Rowan would become suspicous.
So we were going to skip out on marching band. (not entirely we'd just show up later.) Here is the reason why. This was are last practice of the season, in other words, this was the last night that Mr. Rowan could beat our 2004 show into us, and oh boy! did he beat it into us. At our last practice we literally spent a half an hour going over TWO sets!!! Ok, so you are probably thinking "well it was the last practice why couldn't you just tough it out!" I understand why you would say that but I do not like standing outside in the cold with a clarinet that is going flat, marching the same two sets for a half an hour! Sorry, but if you were in my marching shoes, you would probably feel the same way.
Anyway (to get back onto the subject) we decide on going to McDonalds to satisfy our teenage hunger. Even though McDonalds is conviently locate next to a grocery store that is next to the highschool, we decided on taking Mr. VanDaan's car to get there.
Here was our seating arrangement. Mr. VanDaan in the driver seat, (after all it is his car.) Mr. Frank in the passenger's seat, Anne Frank sitting in his lap, Miep (that's me) in the back behind Mr. VanDaan, Mr. Kraler in the middle, and Margo. In other words, tiny car, six highschool marching band student packed in, me panic.
Dangerous; Yes. Legal; Probably not.
I do not like getting into trouble and I still to this day do not know what the HELL went through my mind when I agreed to take part in that crazy trip.
In order to get to McDonalds we had to get across the student parking lot (which was thankfully empty except for a few cars) and cross a some what busy street. (And hope that a police car didn't catch us) It was a short trip that took very little time but it gave me enough time to panic.
So we are driving across the student parking lot and here comes the panic. (Here's the short version in dialogue form of the car ride from HELL!)
"You guys we can't do this! What if we get caught?" Miep asked.
"Don't worry we are not going to get caught," Mr. VanDaan replied.
"What if a police car sees us? I don't want to get in trouble," Miep said.
"Miep calm down," Anne said.
"We'll be fine," Mr. Frank said. "We're not going to get into trouble."
"We are breaking the law," Miep said.
"Have you ever broken the law before or gotten into trouble?" Mr. Kraler asked.
"No! I can't," Miep replied.
"Why not?" Mr. Kraler asked.
(This is what really happens when I panic. I just start to spit things out.)
"I can't get arrested! I don't want to go to jail! I have a reputation that would affect my parents! My dad's a doctor. I'm a christian! I'M A VIRGIN!!!
All conversation up front automatically stops after I said that last line. Unfortunately since they were so loud all they seemed to hear was "I can't get arrested, I'm a virgin!" which they found very hilarious.
"We're all virgins," Mr. Frank called back to me as we pulled up into the McDonald's parking lot.
We got out of Mr. VanDaan's car and walked into McDonalds with them behind me echoing "I can't get arrested, I'm a virgin."
Things went somewhat smoothly in McDonalds, and when I say somewhat smoothly I mean that no policemen came into arrest us, we didn't make too much noise that we got kicked out of McDonalds, and I was able to get myself calmed down a bit.
By this time it was six-thirty and I was urging the whole gang to quickly eat what they had order so we could get going.
The car ride back to the student parking lot went a lot better then before except I sat down hard on Mr. VanDaan's clarinet that I swear was not there when we got out of the car. (and why would a tuba player be keeping a clarinet in his car?)
We got out of the car and walked quickly into the band room hoping that no one from the marching band saw us.
In the band room, we quickly put our instruments together except for Margo, Mr. Kraler and Mr. VanDaan. Margo went to fetch her flag in the store room and the tubas are kept out in the hallway for easy access and the drummers were practicing upstairs in the Chorus room. (which really is next to the band room but there are five steps that lead up to it.)
When we were about ready to go Mr. VanDaan appeared in the doorway with his tuba and called. "Come on bitches!!!!!!!!" After he said that he realized that the drummers were in the chorus room and they and their college student teacher had all heard him and were staring at him.
We ran out of the band room trying hard to control our laughter and slowing made our way to the football field where the marching band was practicing, not sets from the show, but marching steps like glide step, side step, this step, that step and so on.
So we took our places in the lines of marchers and the practice continued.
Fortunately, Mr. Rowan did not ask why we were so late (play practice ended at six and we did not get to marching band practice until six forty-five.) and every once in a while Mr. VanDaan, Mr. Kraler, or Anne would bring up the "I can't get arrested, I'm a virgin!" pick up line for a life landing me the temporary nickname 'Virgil'.
The moral of this story: maybe it would be best not to skip half of marching band practice no matter how boring it may seem.
The End.
BlueDragonGirl1: I'm not really that great with writing about my life's experiences so sorry if it was a bit boring. I mostly write fiction. And I apologize if this did not really seem marching band related but we were skipping half of MARCHING BAND practice and the six of us were in MARCHING BAND so I thought it would be best to put it under the marching band category. R&R please.