The week after the game, nothing of major importance happened besides Steven dating Melissa. Melissa threated that if I told anyone that they were dateing, she'll make sure I wouldn't finish my freshman year.
We had won the game, sending us to the biggest game of the year - State Championship.
The band had to arrive at the school early, around nine, while I arrived about 8:15. Completely bored, I wandered into the band hall to be met by Steven, George, Samantha - the clarinet section leader, and a few others. They were loading our drinks and snacks into coolers, playing around as they did.
"Were you wondering what we were talking about in lunch, yesterday?" Steven asked me as he lifted a pack of cola into the cooler.
"I was, but Melissa told me after school what ya'll were talking about..."
"What she tell you?"
"She told me not to tell... She put my life on the line." I said as I scratched the back of my neck.
Steven nodded as he lifted more coke.
"She said that ya'll were dating..." I whispered quietly
He smirked, "I don't like her... I'm not even sure while I went out with her in the first place" he said with shrug.
Samantha lifted the last cooler on the cart before carting it off to the kitchen as the rest of us followed. They began to scoop ice over the drinks before chunking the ice cubes at each other for fun. Samantha then grabbed one and put it down Steven's shirt as Steven grabbed a handful of ice cubes and chunked them at George. Mr. Goodwin walked in, unexpetedly as they froze and put innocent smiles on their faces. It took alot not to burst out laughing as they acted like nothing happened until Mr. Goodwin looked at the floor, miniture puddles were begining to form from the ice cubes. He looked at them, at me, then back at them and shrugged, shaking his head with a sigh.
Eventually time passed as the whole band arrived and we went through our drill. I knew it would be the last time that year we would practice on that field, so I strived to make my turns sharper and my all counts correct. We loaded the buses eventually, as I sat with Colleen in the back. I looked to the front, slightly surprised to see Heather sitting with Matt, but quickly shrugged it off as I remembered her dream. Once again, we got chartered buses as we headed towards Texas Stadium, only about a 50 minute trip. After doing little more then nothing on the bus ride there, we were able to get off the bus and eat our lunch. Bringing my case with me, I stepped off the bus, followed by Colleen, and got in the lunch line our band had made as I glanced around. My eyes landed on a non-band student that was extremely familar as it suddenly hit me. MARK FREEMAN! My mouth dropped as I gawked at the boy I once crushed hard on, so hard , that when he moved I nearly cried for days. He was nearly every girls dream, handsome, extremely smart, handsome, tall, handsome, funny, handsome, didn't cuss, handsome... Did I mention he was just plain HOT!...
---
Last year, Mark Freeman was in my history class, having all the girls hang off him. I promised myself not to crush but by the end of the year, I had to fight myself from hanging off him like the other girls did. My history teacher, Mr. Redning, seemed to pair Mark and I up alot, so I learned rather alot about him. I remember one day I was sitting at my desk as I overheard Angelica and Rachel flirting with him.
Angelica - "So, I bet you have a four pack..." she said as she poked his stomach, causing him to blush a deep red.
Mark - "No...." he muttered, pushing her hand away.
Rachel - "What about a... I know, six pack...."
"No..." he repeated, slightly firmer.
Angelica - "No, he has an eight pack...." she said frimly as she lifted his shirt up.
He blushed a deep, dark red, one I never knew a boy could get,
"No..." he said as he pulled his shirt back down.
I laughed sadly at him, wanting to help, but didn't know how.
---
I found Colleen pushing me along the line, jabbering on about something.
"Are you getting any of this?" She spoke sharply, sending me out of my flashback.
"Huh?"
"I guess not... I still don't think it's fair that they had to bleach their hair, I mean some of them could get away with it, but Alex can't..." she continued.
I stared blankly at her, not processing a word as I drifted back into my memories.
---
I also remembered when Mark and I had to sit together in the computer lab, researching our history projects. His question was 'How they fixed the Alexander Bell' ( or whatever it is...) While mine was 'Why there hasn't been a women president', which I knew that there was no real answer.
"That's not fair," I complained as I searched the web for my answer, "Mine doesn't have an answer...."
"You probably have to swing it..." he said, his soft blue eyes leaving the computer screen as his hazel hair seemed illuminate his face as--- WHAM
---
Colleen hit me in my arm as hard as she could, bringing me back to realitly.
"OWWW!" I exclaimed, grabbing my arm and rubbing it, "What was that for?"
"For not paying attention... I'm talking about important matters... Anyway, if we lose this stupid game, I'm blaming Dr. Shoop..." she went on...
How she got from bleaching their hair to winning State Champs was beyond me,
"Colleen.... I'm not able to focus right now," I said, walking backwards, "Give me a few minutes and I'll---" I was cut off in
mid-sentence as I nearly tripped over the tables they had set up for us. Colleen grabbed me before I hit the ground, recieving only a few odd stares from fellow band members. She giggled madly as I brushed off the embarassment with a shrug and grabbed me a SubWay sandwich for lunch.
We found a table as I zoned out again.
---
Remembering the last day of school, the simple smile he gave me as I wished him to have a good summer, seemed to calm me until my memories fast forwarded. I was at my frind Shelby's house, sitting on her porch swing, mid-summer, as she broke the news to me.
"Mark is moving...." she said casually.
"WHAT!" I cried out, my heart skipping a beat, "What do you mean? You mean moving to a new house, in town, right?"
"Uhhh.... No... Moving to Houston." she said, bitting her bottom lip.
"How do you know? When is he moving? WHY TO HOUSTON!" I exclaimed.
Houston was roughly three hours away from our small town.
"I know because my Sunday school teacher told me... I'm not sure when but soon and.... His dad found a better job..." she said answered my questions calmly.
I felt like breaking down right then and there, I promised myself I wouldn't like him, I did anyway and this happens.
"Shelby, I have to go... Sorry..." I said shakily, thinking I'll never see Marks angelic face again.
She nodded and gave me a small hug, "Sorry... But I thought you should know...."
I nodded, fighting the forming tears.
---
I realized that I hadn't touched my sandwich as Colleen and George stared at me. Jumping into reality, I felt tears form in my eyes as I stared at Mark, his angelic features illumated by the sun.
"Are you ok?" George asked me, raising one eyebrow in question.
"Uh, yea... Allergies..." I lied quickly, blinking the tears away.
Throwing my untouched sandwich away, I sighed as I turned my gaze away from Mark. A small comfort came to me as I knew that he was still alive and that I didn't need to worry about being able to date him. With a small glance his way, I saw him leaving as we were put into attention and fallout towards the stadium. For the first two quarters, I focused my attention to finding were he was sitting in the large crowd. The announcer announced that 15,529 people were attending this one game, killing my hopes of find Mark in this crowd. Mr. Goodwin begain to get our attention, sending us off downfield to set up our closed block formation. As I walked, even more memories flooded me - not about Mark, but about my first Marching year -.
---
Like the first time I ever marched at a game, Brad, a senior, said:
"Look at all the people out there, watching your every move and mistake...."
Which is not news a young freshman want to hear.
Cameron, one of our drum majors, finally came over to Brad, snapping at him for dusturbing the freshmen then turning to us and said we'll do fine...
Or the time when we had to march on a grass field and I turned way to quick, nearly falling as I did. I got off step as I fumbled with my balance and notes - doing a horrible job at it - soon I felt a sturdy hand reach out and help me balance. Glancing to the side slightly, Zeik, who played the snare, had reached over and helped me regain balance and telling me to turn on my number until I regained full focus. At the end of our performance, we were put into 'At Ease' as we watched the other band. Zeik leaned slightly over towards me.
"You nearly fell out there..." he said with a lopsided smile.
"Yea.. well..." I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Don't worry, it happens to everybody their first year..." he smiled firmly before returning his gaze back to the other band.
---
I smiled slightly as I remembered these events cleary as we lined up but if I lost my balance again, Zeik wouldn't be there. Zeik unfortanitly didn't pass a class for that game, making him lose his spot to Robert, another snare player. Before I knew it, we were marching onto the field. Our Lionnetts did their drill as we played 'What I like about You' from memory before we did out marching show. They finished, the crowd giving a loud roar for their performance as they marched back to the band. I knew my notes and my steps by heart as I spun on my count as my eyes glanced at our side for Mark. Losing my train of thought, I missed a count, putting me in a wrong spot and step. Hearing my counts called out, by Robert, I slowly regained focus until I thought I saw Mark amist the crowd. I nearly stopped, throwing the trumpet off behind me as I heard it sound a few wrong notes. Eventaully we neared the end of our performance as we entered out famous E - E for Ennis Lions - and marched to Aggie - our fight song. A loud roar from the crowd gave me chills as both sides stood up for us, clapping along and yelling for us. Some people came just for us, to watch our rare award winning, military style march. We finished, sending the whole staudium with a clapping and cheering although I didn't feel as happy as I could have because of all my wrong turns.With one last galnce at the crowd, I deciced to give up my search on him and enjoy the game.
They last 30 seconds of the game, we were tied. Everybody was standing up and screaming their lungs out as the ball kept getting intercepted. The last ten seconds our team caught the ball and ran.
"WE WON! WE WON! WE WON!" I cheered, hugging Colleen, who was next to me.
"WE WON STATE CHAMPS!!!!" We screamed in unison as they awarded a trophy to our team.
We played Aggie then our school song - Maroon & White - before fallout.
Colleen and I were high on excitement as we began the long walk towards the buses. Without paying attention, I ran smack into the little orange markers on the edge of the field, nearly tripping. Colleen burst out laughing.
"That wasn't me... You did that, not me... I haven't fallen all year, and I plan to keep it like that." she said as we giggled with excitement.
"Hey, don't jinx yourself... Tonights not over.... We still have to make it to the buses." I smirked as we began to walk up the elevated slope.
We were still giggling insainly as we passed by a Lionnette and her boyfried, the girls duffle bag on the ground. Colleen walked straight into her bag and falling flat on her face.
"COLLEEN!" I exclaimed as I burst out laughing, "Now what about you not falling this year?"
She got up, laughing along with me...
"You jixned me...." she smirked as we both giggled insainly on our way to the buses.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Me:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Sorry took so long, my mother killed our computer and I just now finished typing this.
There were alot of flashbacks and memories in this chapter, kinda concluding the marching segment. We don't march again till late early summer for our town parade but I will keep updating as much as possible with insainly funny stuff that has happened in band.
This is all real, so when I began to type this chapter, I literally zoned out and into the past.
This is also my longest chapter yet.... But I couldn't make myself stop typing....
Anyways, keep up the reading and reviews - they are very inspirational.