AN: Just to clear up any confusion, Phoenix is a girl, not a guy. Her real name is Tamera (Tammy) and Phoenix is her nickname. Hope that helps.And sorry it took me forever and day to update. I'm a bit of the procrastination type.
Trouble for Phoenix
Phoenix's troubles began a week later at band camp. She often passed out or hurled supposedly because of the extreme heat in the front parking lot. Ally and Brad were concerned, but Phoenix always just shrugged their questions off. "It's nothing," she would repeatedly tell them. "I passed out last year, remember?"
"Yeah, once," Brad said. "Not once a day."
Other than this trouble, band camp passed fairly uneventfully. Summer gave way to the start of the new school year and football season. Everyone in the marching band was pumped for the fist football game.
During the first quarter of this first game, the band played the fight song repeatedly as the football team scored over and over again. At half time, the show (called "Gotham City: Heroes and Villains") went pretty smoothly. In the second half of the game, the drumline played many cadences, including Kadence with a K, Giligasm, and Pig Latin. Their team won the game with a score of 21-19. Almost everyone in the band went out to the traditional hangout, Capalbo's, to celebrate after the game.
The second game, however, did not go nearly as well as the first.
The first two quarters were fine: the football team scored and the band played multiple stand tunes. Half time, and the marching band's performance, brought problems.
The opener of the show went well; the crowd cheered loudly. During the ballad, the battery stood silently waiting behind the props. Then it was drum solo time. As part of the show's special effects, all the lights on the field went out when the battery and pit started to play. Phoenix, on the end of the line of battery members, happily played her tenors as she marched forward on the pitch-black field.
Suddenly she heard footsteps and felt something bump into her drums, followed by a sharp pain around her ribs on her right side. Phoenix let out a gasp and tried to keep marching, but she just couldn't do it; it felt like her entire right side was on fire. She fell down and heard Brad say, "Not again. Dan! Phoenix is down!" Dan took note of this, but there was nothing any of them could do until after the closer was finished.
As soon as the show was over, the battery members raced back to Phoenix, who still lay gasping for air near the back of the field. She had somehow managed to get her drums off, but was still in extreme pain. Ally, bolting ahead of the others, was the first to reach her.
"Phoenix!" she yelled. "Phoenix, what happened?" When Phoenix did not respond, Ally yelled, "Tammy! Tamera! What happened!"
Phoenix, who had not been called by her real name at any band event for two years, opened her eyes. She saw Ally and the rest of the battery gathered around her. Everyone seemed so blurry though…why couldn't she think straight? Am I dying? Phoenix wondered. She managed to gasp, "Ribs…air…air…."
Ally and Brad looked at Phoenix's rib cage and, sure enough, noticed a large red tear in her uniform in that area. Ally carefully rolled her friend onto her uninjured left side so they could get her uniform jacket and harness off. Even this slight movement caused Phoenix to scream in agony. When Ally rolled Phoenix back onto her back, everyone was horrified. There was a large knife wound bleeding through her t-shirt.
By this time the band director and Matt had arrived. They crouched down by Phoenix's head.
"Phoenix," Mr. Swotcher said, "Phoenix, can you hear me? We're going to get you taken care of, don't worry."
"Ribs…cold…so cold," Phoenix panted.
Matt peeled off his sweatshirt, wadded it up, and pressed it against Phoenix's ribs. Within a minute the bottom was soaked with blood and he had to flip it over.
The paramedics arrived. They put Phoenix carefully on a stretcher and asked her what had happened.
"Drum solo…dark…bump…then pain," was all Phoenix could manage. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
"She collapsed during the drum solo," Brad told the paramedics as they placed an oxygen mask over Phoenix's mouth and nose.
They nodded and put Phoenix into the ambulance. Mr. Swotcher, Matt, and Ally climbed in after them. Dan was left in charge of the battery. "Someone get Jeff and Trey," he said. When no one moved, he shouted, "Billy! Go get Jeff and Trey!" Billy nodded, tilted his snare up, and started running toward the stands where the rest of the band was. He returned three minutes later with Jeff and Trey on his heels.
"Get Phoenix and Ally's drums," Dan instructed the pitters. They complied and returned to the stands with the rest of the battery.
Samantha and Jordan, the two drum majors, were trying to keep the band clam, but weren't succeeding. When the band saw the battery trudge somberly across the field to the stands, they knew whatever had happened was bad. Samantha raced up to Dan as soon as the battery reached the stands.
"What happened?" she asked him, concern in her eyes.
Dan couldn't meet her eye. He looked down at his drum head and said, "Phoenix…we think she was…was…stabbed." He barely whispered the last word.
Samantha gasped. "Should we tell the band?"
"They'll find out soon anyway," Dan said. As she turned to go, Dan stopped her. "No, let me tell them." Samantha hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. Dan tried to smile, failed, and rather awkwardly patted her shoulder instead. Then he took off his drum, climbed the drum major's ladder, and took a deep breath. The band quieted instantly and looked at him expectantly.
"Okay," he said to them, "before rumors start flying around, let's just get this straight. Phoenix collapsed during the drum solo-" many band members' eyes got wider "-and-" Dan chocked. "And we think she's been-" he chocked again "been stabbed." There was a collective intake of breath. Dan sniffed his suddenly running nose and got down from the ladder. Samantha and Jordan resumed trying to calm and comfort the band.
Kerri was in tears and Cara and Jessie were close to the same. Brad, like Dan, suddenly found he needed a tissue, but he did not shed a single tear. Eddy, Jason, and Michael did their best to comfort the girls while Jack and Billy silently gave their condolences to Dan and Brad. At last Dan picked up his drum and muttered, "Let's go." The battery, along with Jeff and Trey, left the stadium. Nobody tried to stop them.
Back in the drum room, everyone silently put their equipment away. When Trey got a wet paper towel to wipe the blood off of Phoenix's harness, Dan told him, "Leave it." Trey didn't argue; he hung the harness on the shelf in its regular place, a bloody reminder of what had happened.
"What do we do now?" Michael asked, breaking the silence.
"We go home and pray to God that Phoenix will be okay," Dan told them all.