"Good," Mr. Kester announced to the band in the parking lot. "There were tempo issues at the beginning but Andrew got you guys back on. Lines and intervals were pretty good. It was… well it was good. We won't know anything until five."

"Ow! Jimmy! You're on my pants!"

"Palmer, give me my other Dinkle!"

"This is my Dinkle! Your Dinkle is over there!"

"Allison, do have a brush?"

"Sure. Can I borrow your eyeliner?"

"What's eyeliner? Oh nice boxers Sean."

"Hey! Don't look! Wait… Um Lola, I think this is yours…"

Lola snatched the pink bra from Sean's hands and shoved it in her backpack. In the past four years of the high school's existence the band kids had found that trying to create coed busses for changing wasted a lot of time. So everyone got on his or her assigned bus and did the best they could not to show anything. I was proud to say that I had perfected the fine art of changing on a coed bus.

"Allison!" Lola yelled at me. "When did you get changed?"

"Just now! You slow-pokes. Now I'm leaving before I have to see any more goofy band geeks in their underwear!" I told Lola laughing.

"No! Wait for us!" Sean said as he stood us up quickly in his seat while trying to zip up his uniform on his hanger.

Eventually everyone had their pants on and their uniforms hung up to the satisfaction of the uniform band moms. The six of us ran back to the stadium in jeans, our Paris Sketches shirts, and Dinkles to join the rest of our band. We all hurried into the stadium to catch the beginning of the 6th band performing that day.

"Oh did you see in that one part at the end of the 3rd movement where the trombones…" Lola started to say but the average-sized, Maryland band on the field had stopped her mid sentence. A voice from the press box was narrating parts of the patriotic show. It was an effect we had never seen before. "Patriotic shows never make finals. It's not very creative and too cheesy," observed the sousaphone section leader. That may have been true but the band still executed an intricate marching style that Frost could only dream of.

By the lunch break we were beginning to doubt ourselves. Several bands had narration, scatter effects, and a lot of visuals.

"We can't compete with this!" Scarlet whined to us as the six of us waited for the first band of the second half of preliminaries to begin.

"We don't have the bling, bling," Jimmy added bluntly as the very large band with the black and red uniforms continued to set up.

"Yah and look at the size of this band! I bet they've been marching since January. And they probably have eight or nine competitions this season," Ryan said looking as if he thought he hadn't fulfilled his duty to us as a section leader.

"Look! They have a tree! What's up with using trees as props? There's been 3 bands with trees already." Sean pointed out.

Lola just let out a deep sigh as if she was lost for words. I looked past my friends at the band coming over the hill to perform. That's how it was all morning. A band would be performing while the next band could be seen marching over the hill far in the distance awaiting their chance to march.

"So you've lost all faith?" I asked slowly. "All hope, all pride in what you do? We are a marching band! No one believes in us! Not the football team, not the school, not the stupid kid in my algebra class. And I would know being a former cheerleader. But if we don't believe in ourselves no one will! Do you even remember how we got here? It was because a judge believed in us. Some random judge. Just to be here I would say is an honor!"

My friends looked at me with anxious expressions before focusing their attention back on the 4th tree band of the afternoon who I thought had spectacular visuals. My friends believed in themselves. There was no doubt about it. However, since we went duringthe first half and were now being forced to watch the most amazing bands on the east coast, we were not as confident as usual. During the second half of the preliminaries we saw some of the most elaborate marching shows imaginable. They were all spectacular but some were so musical, it made me wonder how they pulled it off at football games when they performed for the, shall we say, non musical population. By 4:00 we had seen 6 bands with narration, 5 bands with trees, 3 bands with state champion color guard, and 2 bands that used their uniforms as part of overall effect.

Thirty years from now I probably won't remember much detail about this competition. What I will remember is the silly bus ride, watching the country's best bands for an entire Saturday afternoon with my best friends, and the 6 bands that showed up with trees. Mostly I'll remember how I felt on the field that day and how the music had touched me a way that it never had before. I will also remember how energized I was with the thrill of anticipation as my friends and I waited for five o'clock when the top ten bands on the east coast would be announced.

A/N: I'm glad so many of you liked the last chapter! Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. The story should be finished in another 3 or so chapters. I've know I've been saying that for half the story but I really mean it this time. :) Enjoy and R&R! xoxo