Memoirs of a High School Band Geek

Chapter One- Clumsy Mistake

My name is Amanda, or Mandy, as everyone calls me. I have strawberry blond hair, buck teeth and, much to my dislike, freckles that cover my cheeks. I am a freshman in high school, and am totally rejected by everyone. I am a band geek, and proud of it! Yes that's right, rejected by most understood by none. I'm like a fourteen year old puzzle that has missing pieces that nobody wants to take the time to look for.

I have two best friends, Micheal and Jazz, who are brother and sister. Twins. They both have sandy colored hair, and blue eyes. They look a lot alike even though Micheal is slightly taller, and Jazz has much longer hair. Both of them are band geeks, just like me. Micheal plays almost all the brass instruments like trumpet, trombone, and French horn, while Jazz plays clarinet. She plays piano too, but mainly clarinet. I play flute, piccolo and piano. Then there is Ryan, the guy that I have totally had a crush on since like second grade. He's tall and dark and handsome, just the kind of guy every girl wants. The only problem is he barely knows who I am, and plus the fact that every other girl is practically drooling their guts out over him.

On with my life. I have lived a pretty boring life. I have a dog, Spot (I don't know why we called him that, he'd a golden retriever and as far as I can tell, he doesn't have any spots) and an iguana, Terrance. Oh yeah, and my parents got divorced last year. I live with my dad. My mom is cool, but when she gets angry, she has a tendency to hit me, like when before they got divorced, my sister accidentally broke my mom's china glass, my mom smacked her across the face. Sattie was only Eight, so I stood up for her and got a nasty bruise on my right eye. It was hard to go to school everyone staring at me like I wasn't a geek already. That was the last straw for my dad, and he divorced her, winning custody of us like we were some sort of carnival prize. So now, I live in an apartment with him and Sattie.

Well, you are probably wondering why I am boring you with stories from my past. Everybody watches all of those love stories on television and wishes that things like that could really happen. I wanted to tell of my story.

It all started in the early fall, Marching Band season. Yes, Marching Band season, which is like our mating season. The herd of geeks play clumsily as the Mellophones majestically blow their mating call to try to pick up a hott piccolo to ask to homecoming. Our marching band is far from the best marching band, but we try and that's what matters.

We were on the football field as the sun began to set. Ryan and his loser friends decided to stay after football practice that day to watch/ make fun of the marching band, one of their favorite hobbies. I always feel like such a dork when we practice in uniform around them. Our shakos (hats) have huge feathers in them that blow in the wind and fall in our faces.

I was playing piccolo today and having trouble with the high notes. The wind kept blowing backwards through my instrument, making me scrunch my eyes closed in concentration to get the notes out, and move my feet at the same time. Over the roar of the wind and the spastic sounds coming from the bells of the trumpets, I heard laughter. When I opened my eyes, there was Ryan and his friends, laughing. Why were they laughing? Our band wasn't that bad. Then I was Jordan, one of his friends, pointing right at me. Ryan turned his face and looked right at my eyes, laughing at me! He was looking at me!

I felt a thud on my back, and fell right on my butt. A saxophone hit the side of my head, and my face was pushed into the dirt. When I finally looked up again, Ryan was laughing harder than ever. No, Ryan wasn't laughing, but his friends defiantly were. Nervously, I looked around me, and saw the entire band falling on top of one another like dominoes.

"Watch where you're going?" A trombone yelled at me.

Ryan jogged over to me, and stretched out his hand. "You okay?" he asked. He wasn't laughing. I glanced over at his friends, who were still laughing, but at the same time, looking confused that Ryan had even come over here. That's right, you filthy penguins, he wanted to come over by me, than waste his precious time with you jerks.

"Yeah, thanks," I said, blushing as I gave him my hand. He pulled me to my feet and I, out of instinct checked to see that my piccolo was okay.

Ryan started to leave but turned around at the last second and said just loud enough for the rest of his friends to hear, "Oh and by the way… nice hat." That sent them into another spout of laughter. I could have sworn I heard him mutter, "I was being serious."

"It's a shako, you moron," Micheal said, now standing behind me. He put his hand on my shoulder, "you okay?"

I slapped his hand away and fell back down onto the grass in embarrassment, setting my piccolo gently on the grass and burying my head in my hands. Micheal sat down next to me, set his Mellophone down and gazed at his shoes. "Why do you like that jerk anyway?" he asked after a moment.

"What does it matter to you?" I snapped at him.

"Just trying to help," He mumbled.

Jazz stumbled over clutching her side. "Gosh, Scott, that fat head, landed right on me." She sat down next to Micheal, and turned to me. "What's wrong?"

"Don't even ask," Micheal warned her.

Mr. Johnson stood up on the bench in front of us. "Alright…erm… that was a very good practice, I guess… um…I guess that's it for tonight. See you all tomorrow."

Suddenly, he tripped and tumbled violently off the bench into the dirt. Just kidding. I only wish that would happen. I don't like Mr. Johnson very much. Actually I don't like him at all. He's is positively the worst band director that Eagle Eye High School could ever choose.

"Alright," Jazz said, standing up. "Come on Micheal, lets go home, I bet mom's waiting for us in the car somewhere." Micheal nodded and stood.

He gave me one last pat on the back and said, "See you tomorrow," before leaving.

I didn't want to leave yet. I crawled over to the bench, not even wanting to stand yet, and sat down on the wooden surface. I don't know how long I sat there before I felt somebody sit next to me. It was Ryan, I knew without even looking that it was him. "I'm sorry about earlier." He said, looking at his feet. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad." He put his hand on my shoulder. He was actually touching me. I could feel my face going very red. "Do you forgive me?"

I nodded, looking stupid under my marching "hat". Ryan smiled. "Good. I wanted to ask you a question. There's a dance coming up, the homecoming dance, and…" Was he actually going to ask me? "…I was wondering if you wanted to go with me." My mouth dropped. Right there, my mouth was halfway to my knees. Was this some sort of cruel joke him and his friends were playing on me? I knew I looked like the geek that I was, sitting there, doing nothing. "So will you?"

I shut my mouth, trying not vomit with nervousness. I nodded my vigorously, and weakly smiled.

Ryan showed his teeth, and looked really relieved. His eyes were so bright, he couldn't have been lying. His blue eyes, his bright blue eyes and dark brown hair were perfect. He was perfect. I couldn't believe this. "That's great." He said. Standing up he said, "I'll see you tomorrow then?" Standing, I nodded, again, still too shocked to say anything. "Great," he said, pulling closer to me, then kissing me then… was he kissing me on the cheek?

God, he smelled so good. I watched him go, goggling about what had just happened. I was going to homecoming with Ryan Stewart! I never thought I would live to see the say…

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