Thank you to those of you who reviewed, and to those of you who read and didn't bother to review( and anybody who wishes to do so in the future)- I WILL SEND MY HUMAN EATING, MUTATED CHEERLEADER FRIENDS AFTER YOU TO MEET YOU IN A DARK ALLEY: ) thank you to all who reviewed:

To Amethyst eyed Bass Clarinet Player- Don't worry about it, its cool if your internet was down, what matters is that you got a chance to review anyway! There is alot of romance in this chapter, so I hope it is to your liking. There is even more romance to come. I'm happy that you have been reading it for so long, thanks for the support.

To Julia- I'm glad you like it so far! Its nice to know that there is another girl in texas who plays tuba other than my sister! It's going to get better from here, so please keep reading. I like your email address, by the way. : )

To Squiddie- Yes, it is going to be everything it was and more! Thanks for the review. Hope you enjoy yours( nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

Well, here is chapter six, thanks to all who reviewed. Enjoy!

Chapter 6:

The Trombone

That Fell

From Heaven

Today was Friday, Danny's last day here, and the day of the Fall Dance. We had already dispersed to our after-school activities, not to see each other again until to the time we had planned to meet. I went to the band hall to warm- up and set up for my private lesson. The band hall was vacant, save for a few band members putting their instruments together to head over to the practice rooms, and others grabbing their instruments to take home. I dropped my backpack off beside the door, grabbed my instrument off the shelf, took my music off the rack, and made my way to an empty practice room.

I peeked through the windows of all the practice rooms one by one, to find an empty one. I recognized almost everyone as I went: two frenchies, a flute player, a couple of trumpet players, a percussionist on a snare, and my private lesson's instructor and Anna were in the room towards the end. I got to the second- to- the- last room and looked in to see someone I didn't recognize. He was a trombone player, appeared to be a year older than me, and had a powerful and strong tone. There, I listened for a while in admiration, until, I realized that I was standing with my jaw dropped. Embarassed, I went to the last practice room, which was empty, at the end of the hall.

I warmed up, did a few scales, then ran through my performance pieces. While doing this, I stopped occasionally to listen to the other people practicing. The trombonist stood out the most with his beautiful resonating tone. His sound was bright and characterized to the piece of music. You could tell he was having fun with the music. There was the sound of Anna on her tuba, and one of the trumpets working on a complicated rhythm, but the were just sounds in the background of a beautiful image. It was like a rhapsody of talent and character rolled into one harmony. So, ... pretty...

I snapped back to reality, enough to work on a few measures in my region music that had been bugging me. I didn't want to overwork my embrochure on the high notes in my solo, so after I was content with my accomplishments on the piece, I put my instrument down and my music back in my folder. I hummed some of my music( to get the tune as a second nature), and decided to see if Ms. Gonzales needed any help with anything. I put my instrument back in its case and placed my music next to it, ready for when my teacher called me.

Before I could even reach the door, Ms. Gonzales stepped in.

"Kaylee, are you busy?"

"No, I just warmed up for my lesson."

"Do you think you could help Andre out with something? I'm really busy and Mr. Geraldo isn't here."

"Sure. I'll help in any way I can."

"Thanks. He is right next door. He plays trombone."

I picked up my instrument and music and moved over the next practice room, where Ms. Gonzales had indicated. When I entered the room, I saw the trombone player I had been listening to earlier. Suddenly, I didn't feel quite as confident about this.

"Andre, this is Kaylee, she'll help you with anything you have trouble with. If you need me, I'll be in the office." With that, she closed the door to the room and left me with him.

He had black hair, brown eyes, milk chocolate colored skin, and was about four inches taller than me. He had an intelligent look in his eyes, and an aura that seemed to say, 'Hi, I won't bite, but I'll let you come at your own pace. I won't push you.' He seemed like a nice person.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey."

"So, what are you having trouble with?"

"I'm not sure. When I play it it sounds a little funny, but I can't place a finger on what it is. Here, I'll play it for you."

He was so calm and cool about having someone younger than him help him with his playing. I mean, sure, it is only one year difference, but you don't see many guys that don't feel tinged about it.

He played through the piece of music he was having trouble with, with few stumbles. I almost melted at the sound of that tone, it was so beautiful. I could not begin to count how many musicians would kill to have a natural tone like that (I was one of them). As he played, I read along the piece of music to make sure of correct rhythms and positions, and listened attentively to see exactly where the problem area was.

He put his instrument at rest when he reached the end of the piece, and looked at me to see what I thought about it. I could see what he meant about something in it sounding a little funny; I had heard it as I was following along.

"So, what do you think?" he said.

"Hmmm..." I said, trying to place my finger on the spot. I found it. He is going to hit himself when he sees what it is.

"Play measure ten through fourteen a couple of times and I think you will see what it is."

He looked at me a little funny, but did not protest, and just did what I told him to do. His brought his instrument up and started playing it through. Man, that sound was kryptonite!

He stopped when he saw what it was, and smiled.

"I can't believe it," he said, looking a little embarrassed about it,"I was just a little out of tune!" I couldn't help but laugh. he started laughing, too.

"Thanks for helping me out," he said to me.

"Your welcome. Was there any other piece of music you needed help with?" I wanted to help some more, if I could.

"Naw, thanks, though. " He started to put away his things and gather his music together. "That was the only one that I was having trouble with," he was still smiling at me,"I cannot believe I missed that."

"Hey, it happens to all of us," I said sympathetically, and smiled. Conversationally, I said the following, "So, what are you going to do after you put your instrument away?"

"Don't know. I'll think of something. What are you going to be doing?"

" I've got a lesson then I'm going to meet some of my friends and go to the dance later on. Are you going?" I kind of hoped that he was going. It was fun being around him, even though I only just met him, I laughed so easily.

"Yep, I'm going to head over there a little later on with someone."

"A date?"

"No, not a girl," he said shaking his head," just a friend." I was a little relieved at that. Some of the girls around here got a little nasty about other people being with their boyfriends. Personally, I think that they are just insecure, but I still didn't want them after me. Messing with their boyfriends was most commonly know as Suicide.

The door opened, and my private lesson instructor, Mr. Andrews, poked his head in. I guess Anna was through with her lesson.

"Ready, Kaylee?"

"Yep."

"I've got a new exercise for you that I'm going to go get so, I'll meet you in the practice room next door, okay?"

"Okay," I answered. He pulled his head out of the doorway and closed the door. I could hear his footsteps fade off in the direction of the office.

I turned to Andre, "I've gotta go," I said," It was nice meeting you."

"You, too."

I was about to head out the door, when I turned to him one last time, "See you later, Andre."

"See you Kaylee."

I grabbed my instrument and music, and went in the next room for my lesson.

"Okay, here it is," Mr. Andrews said, walking back in." This should help you get a little more comfortable with playing those really high notes." I heard and understood every word he said. I even played the new music correctly, but my mind was elsewhere.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Hey, Ariel!" I shouted over to her and waved her over in my direction. Danny was right behind her. Big surprise there.

"Anybody know where Jackie and Deven are?" I asked them when the got to where I was.

"Right here."

"What?" Startled, I turned to see both of them right behind me. "How'd you? Whatever, let's just go."

"Right behind you."

"Please. Don't be."

"Why not?"

"Cuz, I said so." We all walked together towards the cafeteria.

We heard the dance long before we saw it. By the time we got to the door, we could feel the bass on the music. As we walked in, two student council members asked for our tickets and put a red stamp on each of our hands. "So that they could keep track of who paid," is what they said. Sure. You know, you can transfer those stamps if they are fresh, or moistened.

"Hey you guys,um, Danny and I are going to go dance for a bit, okay?" Ariel said.

I spread out my hands. "It's your night, spend it as you wish."

"We'll be right over there if you need us, then!" she motioned over to the huge crowd of people on the dance floor, all moving to the beat of the music. They both went off, hand in hand, wanting nothing more than to have a good time. It was enough to make you smile, at just how much they enjoyed each other.

"It's sad, you know," Jackie said to me," to know that this is probably going to be the last time they are going to get to spend time with each other."

I sighed,"I know. I don't what she is going to do when he leaves," I watched them blend in with the crowd of dancers,"I don't even want to imagine the kind of grief this is going to put her through."

There was a small silence.

"C'mon, we can't ruin it by being gloomy. Let's go have some fun!" Jackie grabbed Deven,"Let's go dance, I love this song!" The beginning of that familiar song could be heard blaring from the speakers. 'Gasolina!' was the only word I could understand of the fast lyrics, but the tune was incredibly catchy. Jackie pulled Deven onto the dancefloor, leaving me alone.

I felt a little out of place. What were you supposed to do if you didn't have a dance partner at a dance? I had to keep myself occupied, so I found a place for my backpack at one of the tables that skirted the walls of the cafeteria; there were chaperones, and other people that I trusted, there to watch it. Now what?

I decided to go find Jackie and Deven and go hang out with them. They weren't a couple, so it wouldn't be intruding. It was dificult getting through the crowd, because everyone was so close together. When I had gotten to the heart of the dancefloor, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned around to see who it was, and found Andre behind me.

"Hello, again." I said (this is an understatement, being that a scream was barely audible over the music,but writing that we were screaming each time we spoke, may give the image a the feel of a headache. It's no fun like that, anyway). He seemed to be alone. Didn't he say he was with someone? "Where's your friend?"

"He's with his girlfriend," he said, pointing behind him. I looked and saw a couple dancing together. Either that, or they were siamese twins. Anyway, I turned back to Andre when he spoke next, "So, did your friends show? You looked like you were looking for somebody."

"Yeah they came, they just are off dancing somewhere. They just kinda left me here to go dance with-" how exactly could I phrase this?"- each other," I said finally.

"So, they just left you to do whatever?"he asked. I nodded.

"Pretty much, yeah." I reconsidered how that probably sounded. "They need their time together. I mean, one of them is leaving for good, and I don't want to be in the way of their last romantic night together, you know?"

Confessions in the middle of a pounding dance floor. A little odd, but somehow, perfectly normal. The music was getting to me, as the song changed and I suddenly have the insatiable urge to move with the music.

I looked up at Andre, who was also getting lost in the beat.

"Wanna dance?"

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacrossssssssstttheeeeffffloorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Ariel and Danny had been dancing pretty energetically up until this point, not pausing for anything, not even to catch their breath. 'That 'gasolina' song was the perfect warm -up,' Ariel thought to herself,' and really catchy'. She smiled at Danny as sweat rolled down his temple. She just wanted to dance forever.

The song changed to a slow song; after nonstop fast songs, a slow song was ideal. She came closer to Danny and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he placed his arms at her waist. They let themselves be enveloped in the song.

"I love you," Danny whispered in her ear. Those words were like a sweet summery wind at the heart of autumn. They warmed the cold that the winter was to bring. No, she didn't want to think about the cold winter frost. It was just too much right now. She wished that there were only two seasons, but parents, jobs, and schools had added two more. It was just unfair.

"I love you, too, Danny," she whispered back. She was almost choked with the words, the words that were going to make this even more difficult. But what could she say? The words were true, and the first of a thousand things she wished to say to him. So many things to express her passion. She loved this man so much. It was a passion that was going to kill her.

They leaned into each other, buried in the feeling of the moment. The song continued on, everlasting, the moment to never leave. At first, her lips brushed his, then a mere second later, their lips were in full contact, burning with the concentrated affection of the night and every day of their love for each other, all focused into one moment. All time seemed to stop so that their contact may never be broken. Nobody else existed, and nothing stirred in the distance. Ariel smiled in her mind as she truly realized that no matter the distance, they were never to be broken apart.

oooofffffffffiiiinnnnnaaaaccccornerrrrrrooofffftttheeeeddancefloorrr...

Jackie and Deven had been having alot of fun dancing, but slow songs just weren't their style, being friends, not a couple. They decided to go look for me, because they had lost me when the rushed off to dance. 'Nice of you to remember me,' and 'Did you have fun, you know, just the two of you, no bothersome third party?' would be the kind of things I would be saying a few weeks later when we look back on this moment, but until then, the situation was, that they were done dancing (for the meantime), and were looking for me.

"Where'd Kaylee go?" Deven asked. They had made their way back to the spot they had left me, assuming I hadn't moved.

"I thought we had left her right here," Jackie said, a little puzzled. Deven's brow furrowed as he thought about where I could have gone. He didn't think that I had planned on meeting anyone else here, that being the kind of thing I would have told them. Being in any sort of trouble was unlikely, and he didn't think the band hall was open(that was the usual place that I went when I had nothing on hand to do).

"Maybe she went dancing," Jackie reasoned.

"I don't think she would just go off and dance with some random guy," Deven replied. The song changed again, after having played two slow songs. This song was an upbeat song to really make you swerve.

"Well, I'm sure she will turn up, soon," Jackie looked back over at the dancefloor. "C'mon-" she stopped. Something had caught her eye in the crowd of moving bodies. She was ultimately surprised by what she saw. No,she thought to herself, that can't be her. But it was.

"What is it?" Deven hadn't seen what Jackie was gawking at, at the moment. She jerked his face in the direction of her gaze, to show him exactly what was the thing that had made her cut her sentence short. He searched the crowd for a bit before resting his gaze on something that totally blew him away. 'How...?'was what he had planned to say, but he was at a loss for words.

bbbbackkkkkttttoooottttheeeehhhearttttoooffftttheeedddancefloorrrr...

Andre and I had been dancing, joking, and having a great time together. As it turns out, he was a great dancer, too. I don't think that I was dancing too well, but with him, I just didn't care. It was that really saucy song that made you get up and dance in ways you never thought you could, and it was working its magic on me. Around the middle of the song, his hands ended up on my waist and my arms around his neck and shoulders. We were dancing in beat with the music and not planning on stopping any time soon.

Closer and closer we got to each other, until our bodies were touching. We were having a great time, together. I could see over his shoulder and saw nothing but people in every direction. People dancing, moving, talking, and laughing. Some people I recognized, while others were unfamiliar. They were all each in their own worlds with their friends or partners, oblivious to anything outside of their personal bubble. Somebody seemed to be missing, but I didn't mind it, I just wanted to return to my little bubble, which consisted of two people. Me and Andre.

"Andre, let go of that girl, and come on," an voice with unauthorized entry said. It was Andre's friend, from before, with his girlfriend right behind him. They were going somewhere and wanted to take Andre with them. we stopped dancing for a moment and I turned around to see them, and to let them talk. Andre shook his head, no, never removing his hands or pulling away for a moment. His friend made a face, and left with the girlfriend trailing behind him. I smiled.

"Thanks," I said to Andre. Was he really having that much fun with me?

"Don't mention it," he said and we went back to our little reality. I know that the moment had alot to do with it, but I think I was falling in love with him. Crazy. I leaned my head on his shoulder and we continued dancing.

oooneeeemmmoreeeettimeeeee...

"There you guys are!" Danny said as he and Ariel spotted Jackie and Deven on the outskirts of the crowd. There was no answer from them. They had recovered from the little shock, but were attentively watching like soap opera fans lost in the drama. Occasionally they would say things like, 'She could do that?', 'They are allowed to go that far with the dance moves?', and 'She could do that?' I found it rather amusing when they told me about it later, but at the moment I was their centervision. Well, we were their centervision.

"What are they looking at?" Ariel asked. Danny followed their gaze and pointed us out to her. She stared for a while, then began to laugh.

"Is she doing what I think she is doing?" Danny asked.

"She hooked up with someone!" Ariel said enthusiastically.

"Does she even know him?" Jackie asked.

"She will once this is over," Danny muttered.

They stood in silence for a while, watching, observing, waiting for the right time to go over there and start the questioning. Who was he? Did she just meet him here? Is this how she gets when she is lonely? or in Danny's case, If every girl got lonely like that...

As if reading his mind, Ariel leaned over and said, "Don't get any ideas Danny- boy."

"I wasn't. I was just contemplating the possibility of us going back and dancing again any time soon."

"Of course we-"

"Look he's leaving!" Jackie interrrupted Ariel in mid-sentence.

"What?" she said, "What happened, I wasn't watching."

"I don't know," Jackie said, shrugging her shoulders, "He just looked like he saw something, said something to her, and left."

"Why would he do that?" said Danny. "They were doing so well... "

"Let's go talk to her," Deven said in a voice that was barely audible. He had been silent through all of this, and hadn't said a word up until this point. They glanced at him, nodded, and all headed toward the spot where I stood.

Me...

I looked up to see them rushing towards me, running into people on the way. Had they been watching me, or do they just have oprotunistic timing? Stay here, I'll be right back, was what Andre had said to me before he left. I don't know what he had seen, but it seemed to be important to him, so I didn't question his motives.

"Hey guys. Did you get bored dancing or something?" I inquired at their eager faces. What was up with them? They were acting like rabid termites that had just seen a piece of fresh wood. Not that termites could get rabies, but whatever works.

"So who's the mystery guy you didn't tell us about?" Ariel said with a wink. She was enjoying putting me on the spotlight for love life inquiries.

"I have never seen you dance before," Danny said with a slight smile.

"We didn't know you have planned on bringing a date, or I would have brought one, too..." Jackie trailed off in out-loud thought to herself.

"Look guys, I just met him today. It wasn't planned." I said in self- defense.

"Didn't seem like you just met him," Danny said.

"Who cares when she met him? She was dancing her heart out with someone she likes to be around and was having a totally rule- free blast, okay?" Ariel was giddy with the excitement.

They asked me other questions, too, but I was spaced out. I was in my own little world, the world where the music never ended, nobody ever left, and the moments never escaped...

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Wow, this, I think, is my longest chapter yet. I hope you all are enjoying it and that I haven't lost you in boredom with my last five chapters.: )It is going to get better from here, I promise. If you have any tips or story ideas, just tell me in an email, review, or whatever, and I'll do my best to try and make it happen. Next comes the little click that will make all my dreams come true! Thanks for reading: )