The First Day of Band Camp

Chapter 1.

Sarah Edwards arrived at the campus dorms, this was her first day of marching band spat camp. College marching band none the less. She was so excited, and a little nervous. She watched all the people swarming about, with their huge luggage carts, and their proud parents helping them get situated.

Her parents met her in the commons area with the rest of her luggage. They helped her carry them up to her dorm. Once she was all unpacked, she kissed her parents goodbye. Soon after her parents left, her roommate showed up.

"Hi, I'm Lara Smith." The sweet girl announced, holding out her hand.

Sarah smiled. "Hi, I'm Sarah Edwards. What instrument do you play?"

"I play flute." Lara replied.

"Hey me too!" Sarah said excitedly. "I'm so excited for this to start. I've always wanted to be in this band!"

"Really?" Lara replied. "I come from Colorado, so I've never heard of this band, but I love marching band, and I've heard this was a good band."

Sarah nodded. "It's awesome! I went to their indoor show last year, it was sooo amazing!"

As soon as Sarah finished her sentence another girl walked passed their room. She paused and smiled. "Hi, I'm Beth, a bunch of us are going out to lunch before the meeting. You girls want to come?" She asked.

Lara and Sarah nodded.

"Great, we'll meet at chipotle in a half hour!" Beth said happily.

Sarah and Lara finished getting unpacked. They grabbed their dorm keys and headed to Chipotle. They found Beth sitting at a table with a few people. Beth smiled when she saw them.

"Hey guys! This is Maureen, aka "Mo" She plays Trumpet."

The girl named Mo smiled at them, and shook their hands.

"This is Andy, he plays trumpet too, and that's Jenn, and Lynn. They play flute." Beth finished. "So what instruments do you two play? I didn't catch your names either."

Sarah smiled. "My names Sarah, and I play flute." She shook each of their hands.

Lara went next. "Im Lara, and I play flute too." She said shyly.

"Great to meet you too." The others said. "Lets order food."

They ordered their food, and ate. Sarah wasn't very hungry for the excitement was too much. Though she knew she would regret it later. They talked for a while, about what their majors were, and stuff about the University. Beth was giving them tips about getting around.

Finally, when they were all finished, they headed back to the dorms for a meeting. They met with the band director, and he gave them the layout of the day. They would have marching practice in a half hour, then a music rehearsal. The auditions weren't until the next day.

Sarah trembled when she thought of auditions. –I have to play infront of the director??- She thought nervously. –And my section leader and assistant section leader?- She tried not to think about it much, because the thought made her almost sick.

Once the director was finished, they all grabbed their instruments and headed to marching practice. It was a lot more grueling than Sarah imagined. They spent two hours learning basics. It was all repetition.

During the break, Sarah met all the other flutes. There was Lynn, Lara, Erin, Jenn, Beth, Melissa, John, Mike, Jan, Betsy, Elizabeth, and Rose. A lot of people to learn, but they all seemed really nice… at least at first. Jenn was her assistant section leader, and Melissa was the section leader, Beth was a rank liutenant.

Practice had finally ended, after what seemed like ages. Sarah's legs were screaming with pain. "Maybe I should have worked out more over the summer." She teased with the other flutes.

"Yeah, I'm pretty out of shape myself." Lynn replied laughing.

They all walked back together to the dorms for dinner. Dinner was pretty good, better than Sarah had expected. The dorm food was better than high school, but they still served the same things over again, occasionally. They all sat at a table in the middle of the cafeteria. It was filled with all band people, for the regular students weren't coming to the college for another few days.

Sarah looked around, checking the place out for any cute boys. There were a few… Sarah would just have to work up the courage to ask them out. "Is this the whole band?" She asked curiously.

"No, this is just rookies and leaders." Jenn replied.

"Rookies?" Sarah replied somewhat confused.

"That's what we call first years… you guys." Beth piped in.

"So… there are more!?" Sarah asked amazed. For the band was already a good 120 people at this point.

"Oh yeah, about another 150 more." Jenn said smiling. "The vets don't get here till tomorrow."

"Wow! That's like 300 people!" Lara said, with the same amazement in her eyes.

"Yep, just about." Jenn chuckled.

"I love this band!" John said excitedly. "I went to a home football game last year, it's sooo amazing! I wanna be drum major someday!"

Jenn laughed. "Well John, Im glad you have that much enthusiasum!" She said happily. "And its nice to have a guy in our section for a change! It gets kinda crazy with all girls" She chuckled.

Sarah nodded in agreement. She checked her watch. "Woah, music rehearsal is in a half hour, Im gonna get going." She replied.

"Ok, see you later." Jenn smiled.

Sarah said goodbye to the flutes and headed quickly back to her dorm room. She grabbed her instrument and music, Lara had caught up with her by then, and they both headed to the auditorium. The auditorium was a few blocks from their dorms. They would get really used to walking around campus by the end of the week.

They arrived at the auditorium. It was huge! It had a huge stage, and a wide open seating area with velvet seats and wide isles. It even had a balcony, and a chandelier. Not to mention the outside of the auditorium was amazing. It was a big Pentagon shaped building with the words. "Cyrus Northrup Memorial Auditorium" engraved on the top. It had a clock, on the top with a bell that would chime every 15 minutes. There were huge pillars infront of the massive entrance doors. It was a very Romanesque type building.

As the band arrived, they all sat down on the stage. When they played their first notes, Sarah was in total awe. The notes bounced around the auditorium, and the band sounded enormous. Sarah would never forget the first time they played their school fight song as a band. It was stunning. Sarah was so excited to be apart of this band, and of this college.

The noise died down, and their director began to speak, he was giving directions as to how they should play. Suddenly Sarahs cell phone went off. –Shit- She thought. The whole band started laughing, her director looked in her direction. She quickly shuffled through her bags for her phone, she thought she had turned it off, when in fact she had turned on the speaker button.

"Hello!?" A really loud voice chimed out of the cell phone.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Sarah could feel her cheeks burning red, for the phone was so loud that it echoed around the auditorium. The band started cackling. She quickly turned it off and threw it in her backpack and slunk into her seat. She slid down low and put her head in her arms, curled up. –Well… that was great…- She thought.

Finally the band turned their attention back to the director. Sarah finished practice and tried to forget about the embarrassing incident. Once practice was over Sarah headed back to the dorms with Lara. Exhausted from the day, they both just showered and crawled into bed with a thud.

"Wow, a lot has happened today." Lara commented softly.

Sarah nodded slowly. "Yeah, it really has."

"I'm glad I'm in this band." Lara said happily.

"Me too." Sarah said, feeling herself drifting off to sleep. "Me too..."