Here is Chapter Four... This is all my own writing.

Chapter Four: Turning Out The Lights.

It was the night of the homecoming show, the weather even colder than it was during the one and only practice they had nearly a week ago. The band was frozen by the time the majorette called everyone into a line at the edge of the football field. Elissa could see Arianna stomping her feet, trying to pound some life into them, while breathing on the piccolo keys. Elissa could also see Arianna's grey eyes look toward the majorette with envy and ambition, her mouth forming the words both Elissa and Kasey had heard so many times: "I WILL be the majorette..."

"Get over here!" screamed Marie, the colorguard running and lining up behind the band, dancing where they stood because of the cold. Although the colorguard uniforms were more graceful than the regular band uniforms, they were also thinner and retained less heat: not such a very good thing for a fall show. Elissa suspected that, if she were not wearing gloves, her hands would be stuck to the colorguard pole she now held in anticipation.

The stands were full of people, most of them wrapped in warm woolen blankets, clutching Styrofoam cups of hot chocolate that were being sold by the student council. The announcer called out the name of the marching band and succeeded in mispronouncing the title of the show. None of the band members could hear the announcer, however, because they were being yelled at by an enthusiastic Mr. Marah.

"Even though we've only had one practice-"

Elissa could faintly hear Arianna's slight, high-brow snort of disapproval and grinned in spite of herself as Marah stammered.

"-and even though we have only had one practice, I know that we will do great! Go out there and show the crowd that we are a brand new band!"

A few fairly non-frozen band members gave an unenthusiastic cheer and the rest stood like Arianna: stiff with cold, upset by the lack of practice, and trying to keep their instruments working. The majorette, in her skirt and shivering harder than the colorguard members, blew the whistle and off the band marched down the field. The colorguard received no pep talk. Elissa and Kasey simply gave one another a good luck glance and followed the band across the football field.

"Yeah, it really wasn't all that bad. I think that I was a quarter step over from where I should have been during the fifth measure of-"

"Ari, shut up! You did fine! Everybody BUT you messed up! You were right about the line, though, that Marah changed. The brass had no where to go!"

"You just want me to think I did a good job so you don't have to hear about what I did wrong."

Elissa sighed and decided that it was a hopeless cause: Arianna would now blame herself and Marah for the poor performance that night.

"Well, you guys go on ahead. I am going to change out of this uniform. I'll meet you at the student council stand?"

Elissa and Kasey shrugged and left. Arianna sighed as she watched them leave. As much as she enjoyed the silence after that noisy, almost disastrous performance, the silence seemed hollow and Arianna knew it was because 'he' was gone. Humming an old tune to herself, Ari diligently put her uniform away in it's bag, the jacket coming away sticky as she peeled it off her shoulders. Even though it was so cold outside she still couldn't feel her toes, she had still worked up a sweat: probably from worrying. The piccolo was put away in it's case, the keys still like ice cubes, and was stashed in the back of the uniform bag. No one else would get the piccolo this year. It was her choice instrument right now and would always be until she became the majorette. If she because the majorette at all... Her flute had brought her too much pain to be any form of comfort now.

"What are you humming?"

Arianna jumped at the voice and then glared as the band director walked into the room. He pretended not to notice the angry, unsettling glare as he straightened and stacked the chairs.

"Did you think tonight went well?"

"As well as it could have gone with only one practice."

"I told you before. I couldn't fit another one in. We did fine that night, anyway, so I wasn't worried."

"I'm glad you were not worried. I suppose I was doing enough worrying for the both of us," Arianna spat.

Mr. Marah sighed. He supposed he couldn't talk to this girl without darting around the rather venomous tongue she had.

"I think it was a good night, besides the little accident with the line behind the brass..."

Mr. Marah walked to the door and turned off the lights, leaving Arianna in the dark with no choice but to follow him. It was either that or to sit in the dark. Sighing, Arianna put away her uniform bag in the corner shelf and followed Marah.

In silence, she made her way to the main doors, the same ratty old doors that had been there the last thirty years, Arianna supposed. What had they all seen? Suddenly and quite without warning, Arianna saw her old director in the room, making his rounds with grace, straightening the mallets, making sure everything was alright for the night.

Mr. Marah saw Arianna gaze off into the distance, her face both happy and sad. Making his way to stand next to her, his hand drifted over to the main power switches, the many switches lined up in a perfect row.

Flick. Out went the percussion lights.

Flick. Out went the brass lights.

One by one, they all were turned off, until the podium light was all that remained. That little, feeble yellow light illuminated the worn podium, the scratched music stand, the few scores that the stand barely held without falling over.

Marah looked back to Arianna. It was full of silent agony as her grey eyes looked into the light, the light that was trying to spread into the darkness, to cut in in half, to drive it away. But it was too feeble. Arianna suddenly looked into Marah's eyes, the pain still there, but fading away slowly, drawn away like poison from a wound.

"What's the matter?"

"This is the way Mr. Berringer and I would lock the band room, turning off every light but the podium light, leaving that one for last."

And before the director knew it, Arianna stalked off into the night, the school doors shutting behind her. It was with a weakened morale that Mr. Marah turned off the last light, plunging the band room into utter darkness.

There you have it! You might think right now that "Arianna" is a spoiled brat, and I guess she kind of is, in a way, but you get to like her more as time goes on, I think... Please read and review! I love hearing about these things!