Voices and Faintings

"Hey Logan, what did you think about the director?"

"Kinda weird really, Sarah. He's seems hard but nice."

"He scared the living crap out of me. I hope I don't die this year."

"You won't die, but at least you're not the only flute."

"Yea, but I'm really scared. Tomorrow are we going to start marching?"

"Probably, it's marching band for a reason."

"OH be quiet Logan. And quit teasing me."

"But you're so fun to tease because you're a blond."

"Grr. I hope you faint tomorrow."

"Thank you and good night."

"Yea, 'night Logan."

"Okay kids, we're heading out to the field today, and because the football field isn't finished, we're going to have to pass it to go to the practice field. Let's head out."

Everyone that had been there the day before was there again. We all figured that because we had gotten the letters for band camp a week before hand some of them just couldn't make it.

Some of us were dressed appropriately in shorts and tennis shoes, other in jeaned pants, and one person, Angel, had decided to wear a skirt. This was going to be a fun day out on the field.

When we got there some were already sweating from the quarter mile walk to the field. Jen had laid down her sweatshirt with her mallets and Angel had put her cellphone on top of it.

"When I call you're name please come and stand in that place." He got us into a block formation and began going through the basics of marching. The senior and few sophomores helped give demonstrations of different maneuvers.

"Mr. Ebert, how do you want us to hold our sticks, sir?" Justin spoke up while in a parade rest position.

"In opposite directions in front of you. Jen, where are your mallets?"

"Over on the sideline, sir."

"Give me twenty push-ups and go and get them. I did not say you could leave them over there."

"Yes, sir." Jen grumbled. She did them with a little trouble, not having done them all summer, and ran to go and get her mallets. This guy would surely kill us all, if he was really like this.

By the end of practice, we were all sweating, hot, and very tired.

"You all did very good for a first day. I've seen band directors leave their kids standing at attention for thirty minutes to an hour. I figure because that most of you are not used to this, that would basically be murder." Like he hadn't already. At least two of us were swaying with ache.

Thud.

Someone had fallen over, but none of us wanted to get in trouble, so we didn't look to see who.

"Charlie. I didn't say we may rest. Charlie, you're going to owe me push-ups, now get up. Charlie?" No movement. "Charlie?" Mr. Ebert walked quickly over to the kid. "Everyone, at-ease." No one moved because we didn't know what to do. None of us had really seen anyone faint close-up before. "You can move kids. Anyone who feels faint also, please sit down."

A couple of kids sat down, but most of still started with awe. A boy that was helping out ran up to Mr. Ebert. "Do you want me to go and get some water?"

"Yes, and run. The doors should be unlocked."

The boy ran off and the rest of us sat down. Charlie had finally awoken with a very confused look on his face. "What happened?"

"You fainted Chuck. You feel better now? Water's on it's way."

"That hurt." He sat up slowly and rubbed the back of his head. He had fallen straight over like a wooden board.

We waited for over ten minutes and the boy still hadn't showed up.

"Okay, let's start heading back since, he doesn't seem to want to come all the way back here. Someone have Sarah lean on them, she looks pretty out of it also. And keep together just incase someone decides to faint also."

No one else had fainted, but this was something we were all going to remember. About half way back to the school, we ran into the boy.

"You're a bit late Pat. Give some of the water to Chuck, and the rest to Sarah. Sarah, for goodness sake lean on someone."

Patrick followed the orders very quickly and Sarah went to go lean on Logan. We were all pretty quiet the rest of the way back, but some were chit-chatting about random events.

When we all got back to the band room, most of us just laid right there on the nice cool floor.

"Okay, people, I don't know if we are going to have a practice tomorrow, because Hurricane Andrew is coming near us, but the next day we'll have a practice for sure."

Slowly our parents came to pick us up. We were all kind of nervous about Andrew, but after today, we were still dead scared of the evilness Mr. Ebert might invoke on us, but we were slowly warming up to him. He might not be that bad. Or, he might be worse as the weeks went on.

Author's Note:

The phone conversation I made up. I'm gonna try not to give out any clues as to who I am, so good luck if you have a guess at it. Charlie really did faint, and Sarah probably went to go lean on Logan. (They were a couple at the time.)

FrostFighter – thanks for e-mailing me. Let me know if I've screwed anything up so I can change it to the way it's supposed to be.

Onyx Rose – same goes for you.

Thanks for reading everyone.