"Wake up everyone! We have to start practicing!" A voice rang out through the band room.

Alex rolled over and stuck her head in her sleeping back. "Five more minutes..."

"If you don't get up in at least three minutes, you'll have to do fifty push ups. It's not my fault you people didn't go to bed early."

Alex looked up at who was speaking. It was the drum major, Lauren. Alex slipped out of her sleeping bag and went to the bathroom to change. When she walked back in, Lauren called all the section leaders to her. Alex groaned and walked over. She looked around the circle. There was Kelli the baritone section leader, Bernadette the color guard captain, Trisha the bass clarinet section leader, Amanda the drum section leader, and Kira. There were a few Alex didn't know. Lauren instructed them on what to do but Alex didn't pay much attention. It would be her second day in power. Well, not really power, just tuba section leader. Mr. Clark entered and made the sections go and practice by themselves. Alex looked at the group of tubas. There were seven there, two freshmen, two sophomores, one junior, and two seniors. Alex bit her lip as Tony shot her a look of digust.

"Um... well, we should get to work," she said.

"No duh, where genius?" Tony said sarcastically.

"We can start at the beginning. We have to start to memorize more too. So we'll play a few measures a couple of times and then turn around the music."

Alex sat down and put her sousaphone on. She counted to start and they started to play. Every so often, she would look up to see what everyone was doing. Tony sat there and didn't play. Uh... such a drama queen...er...king. Can't get over such a stupid thing, Alex thought. The freshmen, Lana and Kevin, seemed a little confused but they caught on quick. Once they played about seven measures, Alex called them to a stop and said to start again. They went through it about five times before they flipped it. When they had it flipped, they played it about five more times. Tony didn't play the music the whole time. Alex sent him a glare everytime they went over it. The other senior, Ryan caught her doing this.

"Why are you glaring at him, newbie? Tony didn't do anything," Ryan said.

"That's right. He didn't do anything! And I'm not a newbie I'm a sophomore," Alex declared.

"You're new to the school aren't ya?"

"Yeah, I am. Everyone has to play! If we don't have full participation we will get points off in competition!"

"Pfft... yeah. You know this how?" Tony said, speaking up.

"I was in marching band in my old school."

"What did your school score at competitions?"

"Well, we usually got at least second place. We were a small school so it was easy to do practicing."

"We don't score second place. We don't score first. Mr. Clark tells us to do better. All the schools are big around here. If we get last, I don't care. If we ever get first, I'll be amazed but it won't happen. You probably came here thinking, 'Oh this school is big, so, it will do really good!' Wrong, girl. Totally wrong. Don't expect much."

This left Alex speechless. Her face went red. "That is what makes you score low! Your attitude! If everyone has that attitude, it brings you down! Just shut up! You're such a poor sport!"

"Attitude? You a wise person and a section stealer now?"

"No! Leave me alone. If you don't want to do this, go to Mr. Clark!"

"You can't do that to me!"

"I'm your section leader. It doesn't matter what grade you're in, just what position you hold! I'm first so get out now!" Alex shouted, pointed at the door.

They all looked at her, perplexed. "No," Tony muttered.

"Do it or drop and give me 150!"

"That's absurd!" Ryan shouted.

"You can't give me push ups!" Tony said.

"I can do anything in my own section since I'm the leader. Which one will you take?" Alex asked.

"Neither," Tony said.

"Well if you want it that way...Derek you are in charge until I return!" Alex said, storming out of the room.

She soon came back with Mr. Clark who lectured Tony. Tony got enraged but heobeyed what Mr. Clark said. After the speech, Mr. Clark left and Tony stayed quiet.

"Let's practice," Alex said and they started up again.

After everything was over and they were at supper, Alex told Mercedes and Kasey her day.

"What a jerk!" Mercedes said.

"GO MR. CLARK AND ALEX!" Kasey shouted and it rang through the cafeteria.

"Well," Alex said with a yawn, "I think I'll head to bed."

"WHAT?" Kasey asked.

"I will too. While you snoozed away, we stayed up until 2 o'clock," Mercedes said.

As they left, someone came up to her. It was Connor.

"Hi, Alex," a soft voice said.

"Oh! Hey Connor!" she said looking at him with a grin. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. I just want to know what you're doing..."

"Well we were going to sleep," Mercedes said.

"Oh..." Connor said sounding disappointed.

Alex elbowed Mercedes. "I don't need to sleep that bad!"

"Oh. Okay. Well, do you want to hang with me for like an hour?" Connor asked and Alex nodded.

They walked back with Mercedes but then she left them to go sleep. Alex and Connor talked about the day and how band was and what they liked. She found out that he was a junior and he liked to read, play basketball and baseball, and he like DD. He didn't play in the big band campaign though. Alex asked him if he would like to join and he agreed reluctantly. She said she would asked Mr. Clark. Alex caught sight of the clock.

"We talked for three hours!" Alex exclaimed.

"Oh. Didn't mean to keep you that long," Connor said.

"Well, I should go. Goodnight," Alex said turning to go.

"Um... Alex. I know we only known each other for like two days but I'm always known to ask girls I like out in a very short time. But um... will you... go out with me?" Connor asked.

Alex blushed. "I haven't known you that long but I really like you. Right now as a friend. Uh...Can I sleep on the question to see if I'm ready?"

Connor looked down. "Ok..."

She bit her lip and walked towards him and gave him a kiss on the cheek and hurried off to her sleeping bag. She stared at the ceiling and soon she drifted off to sleep.

A/N: I hope this chapter is ok. I had a bit of a writer's block. To those who are section leaders: I didn't go into full blown out detail yet. My character just met you so she doesn't know much yet. I hope that is alright! Well RR!