HELLO!
ya. this is my new story. bout real life events. it gets updated as soon as something new and exciting happens in life.
and tis about band! YAY.
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I woke with a start on that Monday morning, my chemical romance blasting through my alarm clock. I glared at the annoyance, vaguely wishing that it would rot in hell. I shut the alarm off, and sat up.
'It's a sin to have to wake up so early...in August to boot.' I thought grumpily, throwing the covers off of me. I contemplated faking sick, or just pretending to not hear the alarm. But then I stood up, grumbling. I knew I couldnt just sit in bed and complain. I had to go to band camp.
Thats right. Band camp. I know what your thinking. Your thinking a certain line, from a certain movie, like the rest of the world does when band camp is mentioned. Take this time to laugh, and mock. Then get over it. Moving on...
It was the first day. I wasnt even there yet, and I regretted it. It was 8 am, and I had to go to some highschool, to play music for 8 hours, for two weeks out of my summer. What a tragic waste of time.
Never the less, I pulled on a pair of pants, and a t shirt, stifling a yawn, and I walked down the stairs, falling down onto the couch. Compared to waking up at noon every day for the past two months, this was waaaay too early.
I picked up the glass of orange juice that was set out for me, sipping it absentmindedly. I had had a good dream. Of love, or happiness or something sappy like that. I remembered being content. But I couldnt quite grasp what it was that the dream was about. I shrugged, focusing on the task at hand.
I searched around for my clarinet, finding the case sitting next to the shoe rack in the hallway. I placed it on the table. Then I picked up my old school bag, throwing my lunch box, a water bottle, sun screen, and a sweatshirt inside. I looked up at the clock. It said 8:45. Crap. We were gunna be late.
"Mom! Hurry up please! Were running late!" I shouted up the stairs.
"Whose fault is that?" my mother replied agitatedly back.
"Yours! Im all ready, and waiting."
No reply.
I won.
She came down the stairs, and gave me a look. The kinda look that plainly said "oh you just don't understand anything do you?" and then sat down on the rocking chair. tying her shoes. Taking her sweet time.
I tapped my foot in annoyance. "Any day now mother."
She made an angry noise in the back of her throat, and sat up, grabbing her purse. She started searching around for the keys.
I rolled my eyes, and pointed to the hook on the wall, where she put her keys every day of her life. You'd think shed remember at least once in a while.
Finally we were out the door, and on our way to band camp. The ride was silent, except for the soft sounds of the radio. The beatles started playing, I hummed tiredly.
That feeling of nervousness and dread overcame me as we pulled into the drive of my older brothers highschool, South. I myself was about to enter North, as a freshman. The crappier school. 'Oh well, my loss' I thought dully as my mom drove up to the side entrance, and slowed the car to a stop.
"Have a good day, honey, ill pick you up at 5." she said in that annoyingly sweet voice she uses when shes pretending she was never in fact mad at all.
"Yea... see you then mom." I mumbled, grabbing my bag and clarinet, and walking into the building.
There were a bunch kids in my grade I hadnt seen since the end of the 8th grade. I rushed over to a few.
"Hey guys, How's it going?" I asked joyfully.
"Hey, Katie, its going good." my friend Jess replied. Jess was a tall girl with long brown hair, from my middle school. She wasnt one of my best friends, but we were pretty close all the same. She had her clarinet all set up, and was attatching her flip folder to her clarinet.
'Better get ready' I thought, watching all the other kids from my school getting prepaired. I found my seat and started putting the pieces of my clarinet together.
"AUDREY! I FOUND A KAT!" I heard a voice shout from the door. I looked up, to see two of my best friends rushing over to me, smiling.
"Audrey! anna! Its so good to see you guys!" I said, hugging them both. I realized how long it had actually been since I had seen them. At least a month. 'Jeez...way to have a life, Kate' my mind scolded. I told it to shut up. "How psyched are you guys to be here right now?" I said with mock enthusiasm. Audrey moaned.
"Ugghhhh Katttiiiiiiee I don't wanna bee herreeee.." she whimpered, stamping her foot dejectedly.
"Want some cheese with that whine?" I asked her.
"Real original, Kat." anna laughed. I shrugged, smiling. It was good to see them again.
A whistle was blown, and we all went to find the seats where our names were placed.
We all set up our instruments, playing a quick scale, tuning, getting reaquainted with the sounds we hadnt heard since 8th grade band. Shortly after, the whistle sounded again.
An older girl with short blonde hair and a yellow shirt bearing the word "officer" on the front, stood on a stool and cupped her hands over her mouth "everyone, were going out onto the field, so put on your sunscreen now." She shouted, and hopped down from the stool.
I walked with anna and audrey out onto the field, and we were all put into rows and columns, creating a "block formation". Once there we set down our instruments, and the officers instructed us to do stretches.
Shortly afterwards, Mr. Porter came out onto the field. He was the band director. Tapping the Mic on his headset, he spoke.
"Welcome, freshman class, to band camp." he said smiling. He briefly explained what it was that we would be doing this year in band. We'd have a marching season, and a concert season. Marching lasted from the beginning of the school year to thanksgiving, then started back up in the spring. I glanced at anna, wondering if she was dreading this year just as much as I was.
"Now were gonna practice the basics of marching. First of all, you always start off on your left foot. Every time there's a set change in the music, you must step off from your right, all the odd beats must be marched with the left, evens with the right..."
At this point I started to space out. Mr. Porter, though he was a nice guy, had a very dull voice. One that could really lull someone into a sense of boredom.
"So, were going to do a basic 8 step move, 8 foward, and stop. Look at where you are on the field, you should be either splitting the yard line or on it. After the move, you should be splitting or on the next. Count the beats out loud. Lets try this once." he clapped a beat with his hands "one, two, one two ready go"
We all started marching, (the majority of us) stepping first with the left foot, I stumbled a bit, and most of us ended up a few steps ahead or short of our destination. But this didn't phase mr. Porter. He told us to start over again, and drilled us through the 8 step until we got the hang of it.
Then he said "now lets try 8 foward,8 back and see where we end up." he clapped the same beat, shouted the same words, and we all marched foward. It was only when we had to march backwards that the trouble started.
The girl in front of me was taking giant steps backwards, so I had to pick up the pace or get stepped on. That lead me to step on Jess' foot. She stumbled, and I turned to apologize, only to see her scrambling up off of the ground, red in the face.
anna and I broke out into laughter, jess joining in. I reached down to help her and apologized repeatedly. We then set up the block formation again and practiced marching, from the 8 forward and back, to 16 forward and back, to the figure 8, which was marching up 8 ,left 8, back 8, right 8, up 8, right 8, back 8, and then left 8. We practiced all of these moves, up untill 12:30, and then we were given an hour lunch break.
I ran off the field, laughing as I heard jenn shout "KAT IM GONNA KILL YOU!" chasing after me. It was at that moment, laughing with my friends that I decided that band wouldnt be so bad after all.
k, first chapter. tell me what you think, and ill update soon! tah!
Arnhem.