Tales of Band Camp
Chapter 2
Sarah arose early the next morning. It was the second day of Spat camp, and today the vets would be arriving. She looked at the clock and groaned, 6:30am… the earliest she had gotten up all summer. They had to make it to practice by 8am, and she still wanted to shower and eat breakfast.
She grabbed her shower things and headed to the bathroom down the hall. There was a short line. Most people decided to take a shower the night before. She jumped in the shower and let the cool water wake her up. Feeling refreshed, she changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and laced up her tennis shoes and dried her hair. It was pretty hot out today, probably a good 90 degrees, and the sun was out. She put on some sun block and grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed out the door. She met up with the other flutes at the practice field.
"Hey flutes, had a good sleep?" Jenn asked.
They all nodded in response.
"Good, today's gonna be all marching." She told them.
Everyone groaned.
"It's not that bad once you get into it, but it is tough." She sympathized.
Just then the director called on the megaphone "Two Minutes! Block Band! Leaders set positions."
Jenn, Beth and Melissa grabbed their sheets of paper with the positions labeled on them.
"Ok John, you stand here, Sarah, you over here, Betsy, over here." Melissa began placing them. "These will be your block band positions… this is not the parade block however." She finished.
"Ok!" The Drum Major Shouted. "We'll start with 28 jumping jacks!"
The whole band started at the same time, shouting "One!… Two!… Three!" Etc.
"Ok, take a lap around the field!" The drum major shouted.
The whole band groaned, and started jogging.
When they all piled back to their positions, panting and heaving, the drum major called them to attention.
"Wow… I really am out of shape." Sarah said to John, laughing.
"Ba-and! Ah-ten-tion!" The drum major shouted, calling the band to attention.
"One! Two!" The band called instantly, going into attention. Sarah became immediately quiet, focusing her attention straight ahead, and trying not to let the mosquitoes bother her.
They began doing basics for the rest of practice. Learning left faces, right faces, left box drills, and right box drills. Right box drills were rather tough for Sarah, considering you didn't just normally turn right. You had to do a full 270 swing on each turn with your whole body.
Practice finally ended. Sarah was panting as she gathered her stuff up by the flute tree. This band had specific spots designated for each section. There was a trumpet tree, a flute tree, etc. Just one of the many traditions Sarah was about to learn.
They all walked back to the dorms together to go eat lunch. It was still the usual, though Sarah noticed some things were in there that they had used on yesterdays lunch, to her disgust. After eating they headed back to practice, this time to the auditorium for a quick meeting.
"So when do we get to learn the cadences?" John asked bouncing up and down, as they walked along the busy streets.
"What are cadences?" Lara asked.
"Oh, I've heard 'em on the bands CD! They are really cool! They are a bunch of chants and sayings that each section does with the drums while they march." Sarah said excitedly.
John nodded in agreement. "I can't wait to do them!"
Jenn chuckled. "Well… you'll do them soon…" She smiled, eyes shifting a little. "But, Beth, Melissa and I have to hurry up. We'll see you at the meeting."
As Melissa, Beth and Jenn hurried along to the meeting, the first years looked at each other somewhat confused.
"What do you think that was about?" Lynn asked with a puzzled look.
"I don't know, but it sounds a little suspicious." Sarah replied.
"You think the leaders are planning something against us?" Lara asked.
"We'll find out…" John concluded.
They all walked together the rest of the way, all wondering what lay in store for them. As they made their way through the auditorium, they realized that only the first years were seated on the stage. Sarah glanced at Lynn with a raised eyebrow. They all took their seats. As soon as everyone was seated their director stood up.
"Hello everyone. Congratulations on finishing rookie camp." He smiled. "The rest is pretty easy, you just have auditions for music placement tomorrow, and then its just learning our halftime show for the game, and a bit of parade marching." He motioned to the line of people standing next to him. "I'd like you to meet these fine people standing next to me, the University football coach, the sports director, and the president of the University."
Everyone stood up and gave a small inspiring speech, some were funny, and others were a bit boring. Sarah leaned over to Lynn. "So… where are the others?" Lynn only shrugged back.
Just as Sarah asked that, they heard 5 sharp whistles, followed by "Ah, One, Two, Three, UP!!!" shouted by what seemed like a good 200 people. The rookies looked around wildly to find out where it was coming from. Suddenly drums started thundering through the walls, and 200 people came pouring out of the doors, shouting the cadences and cheers of the band. "Here we go!!!!!!"
Sarah was so excited she was about to cry. All 200 of them were marching right in front of the rookies on the stage. She could feel the drums pounding in her heart. She could hardly contain herself…
Finally the band all screamed "Face and Halt!!" There was a short silence, and the rookie class stood up cheering. When everything died down, the director stood up again.
"Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you all are about to become part of!" He said excitedly. "Ok, now that you are all here, lets begin rehearsal."
After the much chattering of excitement from the first years, they all settled down, and began rehearsal again. This time, it was a full 300 people. It sounded better than ever, and Sarah, having come from a high school band of only 30 people, it was amazing!
After rehearsal, the vets started buzzing around the stage. "Alright! First years outside!" They screamed.
Sarah looked around in confusion. Following John Lynn and Lara out the door, Jenn and Beth were ushering them out. They wandered outside of the auditorium, and lined up along the street. Melissa placed them in an order similar to the block band of practice.
"What's going on?" Sarah asked.
"You'll find out." Jenn chuckled.
John was literally bouncing up and down. "You think we get to do the cadences?" He asked Sarah excitedly.
Sarah smiled. "I hope so!"
They heard the same 5 sharp whistles that they did back in the auditorium. The drums sounded again, and everyone started marching forward.
"Yes we are!" John exclaimed.
Sarah laughed at his excitement. "We're such band geeks."
Suddenly the whole band yelled "Ah-One-two-Three-up!!!"
They marched down the street, waking up the entire campus with the loud banging of their drums; It was like one big party. Sarah was desperately trying to keep up.
"Just follow what we do." Jenn said smiling. "You'll catch on quick."
"This is how we do things in this band, we throw you in and see how you do it." Beth chuckled. "You learn faster that way."
They continued marching through the streets, past the frat houses. The young men and women came out of their houses and started cheering.
"This is awesome!" John commented, as he was trying to follow what Jenn and Beth were doing.
They marched all the way back to the courtyard of the dorms which they were staying in.
Finally the band all yelled. "Face and Halt!"
"That was amazing!" Sarah said happily.
The trumpets started playing their little fanfares, and the whole band started dancing around. Next the trombones played their songs with the tubas, and then the whole band played selections from last year's repertoire. The first years didn't know the songs, so they just danced around with each other, enjoying the moment.
"This has to be the coolest band I have ever seen." Lara chuckled.
"Told ya so." Sarah replied.
After about an hour of playing around, the band finally stopped playing. "Good job guys!" The drum major yelled.
The crowd dispersed, and headed back to the dorms. Sarah, John and Lynn were all talking excitedly about their little adventure.
"Great job guys." Jenn said happily. "You'll get to do it again tomorrow during practice, so don't worry, you'll all get good at it."
"Thanks Jenn." Sarah replied. She was suddenly overcome with sleepiness and yawned. "Well, I'm gonna head to bed."
She said goodbye to the others, and went straight back to her dorm room. She quickly changed into her pajamas, and fell straight into bed. That was about the coolest thing she had ever experienced, and it was only about to get better.