"You mark-time here until measure fifteen." Brendan, the main drum major, yelled over the megaphone from the top of the podium as he marked-time and counted to fifteen along with the annoying clicking of the metronome. "..fourteen, fifteen, move! Two, three, four, five six, seven, eight. Stop!" He turned off the metronome and flipped through his drill book. "You should be at set seven. Horns down and check your books with your formations." The entire band put their instruments down (though they hadn't even been playing) and scrambled for their drill books.

That is, everyone but the seniors. Meredith, my best girl friend who stood next to me when in ranks, put her flute down and looked at her watch. "When is this going to be over?" she groaned. Then she slapped her leg as though a mosquito had just landed on her. "I'm getting eaten alive and it isn't even five o'clock yet."

"I'm not sure I can take much more of this. We have what, less than an hour left until we get dinner?" I answered. I put my piccolo in my pocket of my sweatshirt so that I could rest my aching shoulders.

"Dinner. Ugh. What do you think tonight's meal is going to be."

"I don't want to know until I have to."

"Ethan said something about Philly cheese steak."

"That's disgusting. I think I'll be having peanut butter and jelly tonight."

"I think everyone will be having peanut butter and jelly tonight." There was a moment of silence, and then, "So, speaking of Ethan.."

"What about Ethan."

"You guys were holding hands during the basketball game before."

"Yeah." I shifted my weight. I knew that of all people Meredith was the one to vent to. "It's so confusing though. I mean, he's liked me, but never this much. Him and I agreed a while ago that we wouldn't go out because we might not treat each other the same if we broke up and I don't know..suddenly it's senior year and it's okay that all of that goes out the window?"

"Maybe it's just one of those things. Like the fact that everyone's going away to college..maybe he's just afraid of being away from you. "

"That's not for a whole year!"

"Still. You know he's thinking about it. You know that you've thought about it. I've thought about it. We all have."

"Maybe."

"Just watch out for Lynn. She's got her eyes on Ethan. Actually, Lynn has her eyes on more than just Ethan."

"Ethan would never go out with Lynn."

"You know how she gets around guys." Meredith slapped another mosquito on her leg.

"Rank leaders, make sure your sections are in line." Brendan let himself down from the podium and him, Jake, and Rachel made their rounds on the field to correct any errors. Meredith and I both stopped our conversation and moved from the middle of our line and walked up and down the row on the 40 yard line to make sure that we made the curve we were supposed to be making.

"Kormann, you should be on the hash line. And I don't see you there." Brendan had made his way towards the flute section and was interrogating the junior flautist that stood next to Meredith. She was the shortest girl in band and had blonde hair. She was also a gymnast and one of the best flute players in the county. Brendan stopped right in front of her and rolled his drill book up. There was a smile on his face. Meredith and I knew what he was up to.

"Hey ladies." He started smacking the drill book lightly against his palm. "You guys going to the football game tonight?" He was referring to the usual band camp football game that happened every year. Ethan and Brendan would be playing, along with all of the other band guys that weren't too afraid to get hurt while playing. Someone always got hurt. I wondered who it would be this year.

"Maybe yes, maybe no." Amy Kormann said with her arms crossed over her flute on her chest.

"You guys should come and watch the game. Especially you." he pointed to Amy Kormann and winked before walking away. "See you ladies later." we heard as he went on towards the clarinets.

"He likes you." Meredith said when Brendan was out of ear shot.

"I know. He's been at it for two days now. Last night he wouldn't leave me alone. The bus ride here was horrible. Imagine having someone tap your shoulder every five seconds to talk."

"Wow, that's a first! Usually girls are swooning over Mr. Brendan Pascoe." I said.

"Yeah, I know. He's kind of creeping me out though."

"What do you mean?"

"He's known me for how many years and now he decides to acknowledge my existence?" Amy was obviously feeling overwhelmed by Brendan. I wanted to tell her that he was harmless but I saw Jake coming and decided I'd finish talking to her later.

"Vesperio!" yelled Jake, the junior drum major. "I don't see you checking ranks." He was the most uptight of all of the drum majors, and the tone of his voice told us that he wasn't happy. Meredith tried to ignore him, and she turned her head to me and rolled here eyes. A second "Vesperio!" echoed down the field. Ethan turned around when he heard it; the glare of his trumpet had caught my eye and I couldn't help but keep my eyes there as he smiled and laughed at Meredith and me. No one liked dealing with Jake, and I knew that Ethan couldn't help but rub in the fact that we were about to deal with a psychotic drum major.

"I already checked. Everyone's in order." Meredith put her flute against her chest and crossed her arms. She absolutely hated Jake with a passion.

"Is that an attitude you're giving me?"

"No." she sputtered with even more attitude. She paused. Then laughed. Leave it to Meredith to do that. Give the drum major lip and then laugh. Before Jake could respond, a trumpet started playing Louie, Louie, causing Jake to go running. The other trumpets started in, Ethan included, causing a harmony to wave over the field. Everyone was laughing at Jake as he ran to stop the inevitable as the rest of the band attempted to play the song. There was not one person on the field that didn't know that this drove the drum majors and directors crazy. There was no way for them to make us stop, unless they threatened us with the megaphone.

The directors must have been really tired though, because Director Burke picked up the megaphone and, with a smile, told us to get an early dinner.

"Football game in one hour!" yelled Brendan with his hands cupped over his mouth. His voice was starting to go from yelling all day. "Teams have all ready been made. Everyone meet at the field at 6."

"Hey guys." Ethan had joined Meredith and me. "You going to the game?"

"Not sure yet." Meredith said. "Which team are you on?"

"Graham Bates' team with Brendan, and Ashley's brother Dan."

"Who's the captain of the other team?" I said. I wanted to ask Ethan if he thought he should be playing after his hyperglycemic episode, but decided to keep my mouth shut. Ethan could handle himself and I knew that if I asked him it'd be an argument.

"Mark Nitro."

"Who do you think is going to win?" Meredith said quickly when she saw Lynn come up beside us with her saxophone.

"I really don't know. We've got Brendan and he's really good, but the other team has Austin Whitman."

"Nitro's team is blue?" I started going along with Meredith to keep Lynn from talking.

"Yeah. Our team is white. Everyone got shirts after we made the teams at the last home band rehearsal. Tonight is going to be awesome."

"I'm so pumped for tonight." Lynn said as she pushed between Ethan and I.

"You're going to the game too?" Ethan asked.

"Of course!" Lynn laughed as she purposely did her obnoxious walk in front of us and went up the steps to the mess hall. We followed her and put our instruments away on one side of the hall set up with stands and chairs for in house rehearsal. We found our usual table and Leandra and Jenn started taking chairs down as Ethan and I went to get pitchers. I wasn't sure where Meredith and Lynn had gone, but figured they'd gone to the bathroom.

"So, are you excited?" Ethan said as we waited for the cook to fill our pitchers with lemonade.

"So excited." I said blandly. To be honest, I was feeling really wiped out. The sunburn on my face was beginning to hurt.

"You don't want to go?"

"I'm exposed to enough football during marching season. I don't even know what's going on half of the time. It's not so fun to watch a bunch of guys roll around on the field and fight for a ball."

"I thought the girls loved it." Ethan and I grabbed the pitchers from the cook and started walking to our table.

"Girls like Lynn do." I said without thinking.

"What?" Ethan said, sounding a bit annoyed that I'd said something of the sort.

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't." I could tell that he was starting to get angry again.

"Ethan, are you blind? Do you know how many guys she is flirting with?"

"I thought Lynn was your friend."

"You know that her and I don't get along very well."

"That doesn't give you a right to talk about her like that."

"Are you sticking up for her?" We'd just held hands and now he was sticking up for Lynn?

"Maybe."

At this point I couldn't listen to anything else he had to say. I glared at him and got myself on the dinner line. I looked down at the steaming tray in front of me and saw it was Philly cheese steak; I quickly moved myself towards the peanut butter and jelly and started to make a sandwich, knowing that if I didn't get there fast that I'd be trampled by the rest of the band. People started running to line up behind me as I made my sandwich. From the corner of my eye I saw Ethan scratch the back of his head and leave the hall. He had looked more upset than angry, but I forced myself to stay in the hall and not go after him to finish talking. I knew that he was going to test his sugar before lunch and I knew that I wasn't allowed in his cabin anyway.

"Told you that everyone would want the peanut butter and jelly tonight." I heard Meredith say from the other side of the stand. A line was forming behind her as well.

"Yeah." I said. I was still upset, but made my way towards the salad bar. Meredith followed.

"I heard your fight with Ethan."

"It wasn't a fight." I insisted.

"Can we talk about something else?"

"You know that he doesn't like Lynn like that." Meredith tried to assure me. I glared at her as I ladled dressing on my salad. Then I got up and started walking away to go and sit at the table.

"Still. She's always going after someone that one of us likes. Ethan and me haven't even told eachother we liked one another. If she starts making her move, Ethan won't know what hit him."

"Do you really think that he'd go out with her? She isn't even his type."

"His type? Don't you remember when he tried to go out with Amanda? Lynn and Amanda are exactly the same. The long straight hair. The attitude. The smirk."

"The smirk?"

"I don't think I'm going to the football game."

"You're going, even if I have to drag you there."

"I thought that you didn't want to go!"

"I never said that I didn't want to go. I was thinking about it, and now I want to go."

"To the game?" Jenn asked. She had come up beside me with her plate stacked with Philly cheese steak. I felt my stomach turn. I had to look the other way to keep from getting sick.

"Yes to the game." Meredith answered. Each of us sat down.

"Who's at the game that you want to see?" I asked as Ashley, Leandra, and Lynn found their places at the table.

"Nobody." Meredith's face started to turn pink. I suddenly remembered her mentioning Austin the night before.

"I heard it was going to rain tonight." Leandra said.

"Yeah. It's supposed to pour." Ashley added.

"Does anyone know where Ethan disappeared to?" Lynn asked, breaking the conversation the rest of the table had just been in the middle of. She smoothed her straight black hair into a ponytail and began to eat her lunch.

"He went to check his sugar." I answered dryly.

"Who went to check their sugar?" Ethan said and smiled as he leaned on the back of Lynn's chair with his arms. I looked Ethan over. He was definitely built, probably from being on the swim team. But I hadn't really noticed it until just then.

"You're all right?" she said and smiled back.

"Yes ma'am." Ethan took the seat next to her. Then he took off his pump, clear cord attached, and put it on the table in front of him. Lynn's smile was gone in an instant. She moved her chair an inch to the right as if the plastic square was going to attack her. A chuckle escaped me as I tried to swallow a forkful of lettuce. "Are you choking?" Ethan jumped out of his seat and made his way behind me.

"I'm fine." I said, laughing. Ethan wasn't though.

"Just making sure. I'm going to get my dinner. Be right back."

"What was that all about?" Meredith asked me.

"Nothing." I took a bite of my sandwich and eyed Lynn as she stared at Ethan's pump. That's when Jenn grabbed it and started looking at it.

"How do you turn it on?" she asked as she looked it over. I grabbed it from her, hoping that she hadn't pressed any of the buttons. "Hey!" Jenn yelled.

"Did you press anything?"

"No. I was just looking at it." She was getting defensive.

"I said, did you press anything?"

"I don't know."

"It's programmed a certain way. Just don't touch it again, okay?" I looked at the screen and after reading the numbers on the screen, decided that it was all right. Then I put it in my pocket so that no one else would touch it.

"Okay." Jenn said quietly. Everyone at the table stared at me. It was silent and I began to feel uneasy. I had to get away from people and have some alone time. I bit my lip while I decided if I should stay or not, but finally decided that I wasn't hungry anymore. Without telling the group at the table that I was leaving, I got up and put my plate on the dishwasher belt. Then I left the mess hall and went back to the cabin. I could feel the tears starting to build up as I walked the path. My head was spinning. I was so upset with myself for allowing my feelings for Ethan come out. I was also confused. How come he was into me one second and then not the next? God, what had I been thinking? And why was he sticking up for Lynn all of a sudden? It started to drizzle, and I felt the little drops land on my face. Once inside I kicked off my muddy sneakers. Afterwards I climbed the steps to my bunk and buried myself inside of my sleeping bag, covering my head. I was hoping to fall asleep and miss the football game entirely. I knew that I'd have to be up by 8:30 to make it to the in-house rehearsal after the game, but I was too warm under my blankets to reach for my clock and set my alarm. I fell asleep before any more thoughts could surface.