Ch.12-Dave and North Columbus

The rest of the weekend after Northwood was so much fun. I was in such good spirits. I went shopping at the mall and found some great Colorguard shirts. I arrived Monday morning at school feeling better than usual, not yet aware of what was to come. Every morning when I get to school I go to the band room. This morning when I arrived, the band room was empty. There are usually 3 or 4 people that are in there every morning. I put all my guard stuff in my cubby and sat down in my chair.

About 10 minutes later someone finally showed up. It was Dave. Dave was not the person I really wanted to talk to then, but I needed someone to talk to. Dave sat down beside me. We started talking about random things at first. Then Dave started talking about Saturday night.

"I'm sorry for coming on to you Saturday Maria." Dave said.

"I know, it's okay." I said but I was thinking, "No it's not!"

"I really do like you Maria. Sometimes I even think I love you. It's weird though. I liked you for so long before we went out. Then when we did go out I was so happy, but when you broke up with me Maria, it broke my heart. I have still not let you go yet."

"Dave, I Love Parker. I was afraid of breaking your heart, and I'm sorry that I did. I had to do what was best for me. I couldn't stop comparing you to Parker. I realized that if I was going to do that to you, you deserved so much better. I would never appreciate how you really were if all I did was want what Parker gave me."

"I know, I know Maria. I just can't let you go. I want you so bad. I know that I could make you so much more happier than Parker every could. I could also treat you so much better. You're all I have ever wanted Maria, and so much more."

"No I'm not Dave. I'm weird, I think too much, I'm not funny at all, and I'm no good for you Dave."

"Yes you are Maria. You can't convince me otherwise. I think your great." He started to move closer.

I backed up and said "Dave; I won't go out with you. I don't like you as much as you like me. I'm sorry."

"Oh Maria, I love how you talk." He came closer to me and I couldn't move any farther away.

All of a sudden Dave kissed me. I pushed him away and slapped him. Then I heard something that made my heart stop. Parker's voice.

"Dave, what are you doing?" Parker yelled.

"Uh..um..what are you talking about Parker?" He answered back.

"I saw you kiss her Dave." Parker walked closer, "what in the hell did you think you were doing?"

"I'm sorry Parker, I...I.."

"You what?" Parker said as he walked closer.

"I promise it'll never happen again Parker. I just..."

"You're damn right it will never happen again! Because I'm going to kick your ass."

With that said Parker jumped at Dave and knocked him on the ground. Parker started hitting him as I screamed as loud as I could. I tried to pry Parker off of Dave as Dave hit Parker in the nose. I wasn't strong enough to break the two apart. The door opened to the band room and J came running in. At that moment Parker turned and Dave hit me instead of Parker. I fell to ground in pain. I remember getting hit and waking up, nothing more. Parker said that I came around five minutes after I got hit. I saw Dave sitting in corner shaking. When I looked over at Dave, Parker saw him too and went for him. He hit one good time before J grabbed him.

I just laid back and felt guilty. Guilty that I caused the fight, guilty that I got myself hurt, guilt for getting Parker and Dave hurt. I had never felt so bad in life. I watched as some band kids started coming in as J took Parker into his office, I ran into the guard closet. The guard closet was where anyone in guard went if they felt bad, needed to cry, needed to talk, needed anything at all. It was our safe haven. I went in there and cried until I couldn't cry anymore. It was what I needed. I guessed that I was in there for two periods before I came out. It was during lunch when I came out. J was the only one in there. I walked into his office and sat down.

"You know that I could right you up for skipping?" J said.

"I don't care, go ahead." I replied carelessly.

"You know I wouldn't do that, especially this late in the seasons. Tell me what happened Maria."

I explained everything to J. J always knew everything going on in the band no matter what. We all found him so easy to talk to.

"I figure everyone in the band will know by tomorrow." I said.

"Probably," he said "but I promise I won't tell."

"Thanks J." I left his office and the band room and went into lunch.

J had told me that Dave and Parker were sent home for 3 days. He was happy it wasn't longer because it would have affected our competitions, J was just going to sit them out at the football game. I wasn't really sure I wanted to see either of them at lunch either. I had one of those weird band-aid things on my nose because Dave messed it up. I went and sat with my usual friends at lunch. Ashanti and Morgan tried so hard to get me to tell them what happened, but I couldn't. I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't talk about it. I guess because I was feeling guilty.

I went home and went to bed. I told my mom I ran into a wall at school. I thought that was a good story myself. I have run into a couple walls before. I called Parker and talked to him for awhile. He apologized to me for everything.

"I should have never hit him Maria." He said "I'm sorry. I if wouldn't of hit him you wouldn't have gotten hit."

"Parker it's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. Things just happen sometimes. I would like it if you Dave apologized to each other though, and stopped this crap."

"I will if he will Maria. You mean the world to me."

"I know and Dave is my friend and you are my boyfriend. I don't want ya'll to fight over me."

"Okay, I'll call Dave tonight and talk to him."

The next day at school I had a whole bunch of band people coming up to me and asking me what happened. I just told them there was a fight. The day went by okay though and band practice was hot as usual. I got chewed out my captains because I didn't stay after for practice. I guess they hadn't heard yet. We practice for an hour after the rest of the band left. We accomplished nothing as usual. We usually practice and then just sit around talk. It was our way of letting our stress.

The whole week we practice for the competition. The competition was at North Columbus High School. We were going to have to go early Saturday morning because we were in a parade there too. We weren't able to practice Saturday morning so J wanted to make sure we had enough practice before it. It was a three-hour drive to North Columbus, it was right on the border of North and South Carolina.

Bright and early Saturday morning we loaded the busses. It wasn't out of state, so we couldn't take a Charter Bus. Surprisingly enough Dave sat in front of Parker and me again. I fell asleep on Parker. Almost everybody was asleep for an hour or too, I even woke up to some snoring a couple of times. When the bus was awake we all started singing. J told us that there was no reason we shouldn't win Grand Champions today, so we were getting hyped. I was beginning to think everything would be okay again. Parker and me were okay; we were kind of shaky though. I hadn't talked to Dave.

We got to North Columbus at 9:00 and got ready for the parade. The guard dressed in our wind suits to stay semi-warm while walking and the band in their regular uniforms. There were about 15-20 bands there. Some of the bands we had seen before at other competitions or football games. The Parade went very smooth. It was so long though, and boring. Parades are never the most fun thing to do. After the parade we went and ate lunch at a local mall. Then we went to the actual North Columbus competition.

We changed and warmed up as soon as we got there. We were in class AA again. We had an hour and 5 bands to go. When our time came we marched on the North Columbus field with our heads held high. Our runners planted our flags so we marched in with the band. Our show started.

"Knoxville High School," I heard "you may now take the field for competition." That was something I would never get tired of hearing.

We all ran out onto the field that was ours for the next fifteen minutes. The show went almost flawless. J said he didn't see any major flaws with the band, just off stepping, but it was fixed immediately. We sat and watched the rest of the bands when we were done. It really didn't seem like the bands were as good as the others we competed against, or us even. We sat and waited for the awards to start after the home band played. One of our band captains walked backwards onto the field and videotaped us. We all waved. We sat back and anxiously awaited the awards.

They got to A, then to AA. They started again with the ratings. A few bands were called before us and they got 2 excellent, 1 superior and 1 good so far.

"Knoxville High School" the announcer announced again "Superior!"

We all jumped up and down and screamed. We all saw Ryan (the captain) turn his camera towards us and we all cheered to the camera. The best we had gotten so far. We ended up sweeping our category all over again. It felt so great. Winning, after all our hard work, felt really good. They took an intermission before they announced the class winnings and the Grand Champions. Ryan ran over to us and pointed the camera at us. Another one of our captains sat beside a senior clarinet. They started to interview him like a newscast.

"How does it feel to be winning Andrew?" Mike the captain asked.

"It feels great WOOO!" Andrew yelled.

"You think we'll win Grand Champs?"

"Hell yeah!"

Five minutes after Ryan ran around with camera they started with the awards again. They did it somewhat different this time. They announced Jack Time High as the overall A champs and us as the AA class champs. They announced the 2 top AAA and AAAA band winners also. Here came something we had never had before.

"The top band out of both A and AA classes is" the announcer said "Knoxville High School!"

We started to scream again. That gave us an even better chance to win Grand Champions. We were up against another really good school though. They came over the loud speaker and started to announce the Grand Champions.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. What you all been waiting anxiously for. Sorry about this, but we have to wait for the total calculations."

We waited for the announcer to come back. I swore to myself that if I saw that man in public I would slap him for this.

"Okay people, we have the winner here. The Grand Champions of the 2004 North Columbus High School Band Classic Competition is..."