Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and alerts, guys. My fans are the best. Also, the song the drumline later plays is actually a pep band song. For the curious.

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So here Ichigo was.

Band practice.

Sort of like Hell, but with drums.

It was now Thursday afternoon, and Mister Cogdill had finally been able to overcome his anger at the band's performance. He even stated that the drumline had done pretty darn good, and no, the judges didn't know what they were doing. But regardless, they had gotten a two, so they had to listen to the judge's tape recording on the asphalt field before beginning practice, to see what needed work. The rest of the band was inside the building, being lectured by Mister Cogdill. As they waited, one of the other quad players, a girl whom Ichigo thought was a guy, was playing some pep band music. A song called "Billy", with no obvious reason as to the naming. Eventually, Pickle walked from the band room and set her snare underneath the tower. She held a tape cassette player, a concert stick and a Gock block. After a muttered comment or two from Ichigo, the rest of the drumline gathered around their section leader to hear the tape and get on with the practice.

It was an old man, from the sound of his voice. Senility must have played a large part in their rating.

"Well, this is a good start, drumline... the second snare from the back is out of time- no, nevermind. They fixed it."

A few moments of silence as the judge listened to the drumline and the drumline prayed for the snare player who'd been called out.

"Nice tricks, but the sticking is slightly out of time... I'd suggest taking more time on visuals. Wait. The bass is causing phasing... fast fix. Good work. Odd motions, snare and quads... way to keep in time. Second quad from the front side line, way to reach-"

Ichigo grinned.

"-and you might want to tell that snare not to go so far back. It's interfering with how you hit the cymbals. Watch it, Bass. Make sure you count, because you almost hit that snare. And... Good job. Way to scatter, drumline; good work avoiding the winds- wait. One of the quads- I'm not sure which of you- almost hit that flute player. Watch where you're going; the Mellophone section will be there when you get back. I promise."

Ichigo coughed and glared at anyone willing to make eye contact.

"...Way to stay in step, drumline- I'm wondering, is the snare that's yelling your section leader? If so, congratulate them. You're doing a good job- third quad from the left, you just did a flam backwards. Watch that. Hmmm... There are thirteen of you in the drumline, but you outplay all the rest of the band. Try working on your balance; the rest of the band is playing metso forte, and you are playing fortissimo. Try playing a little more quiet."

Pickle paused the tape player and the drumline looked around. One of the snare players, the one with the mohawk, asked, "What's... kwiy... yet?"

The boy stared.

Ichigo stared.

Pickle stared, and answered.

"...Uhm... Very forte."

They un-paused the tape and listened as the judge praised and critiqued them. The last fifteen seconds on the tape was of the drumline, playing taps to march the band off the field. The closing comments consisted of the biggest problems and best praise. "Remember, make sure you count basses, and stay in step. There were only a few minor errors in the percussion-" Pickle snapped the concert stick she held "-today, but overall, a very good show. Thank you, Karakura High School."

Ichigo could practically see the aura of danger around his section leader. The judge had called them percussion. A grave mistake; he must be a flute player, Ichigo thought. Percussion was pit, not drumline. So, as Pickle threw the broken stick behind her, the rest of the drumline set their drums down carefully and awaited the verdict. If Pickle thought that the judge was an absolute douche, then the punishment for getting a Two wouldn't be as severe. If she thought he was right, however, there would be laps, push-ups, suicides, and the worst of the worst: prolonged warm-up sessions. There was nothing more irritating to Ichigo than warming up at half the speed a warm-up exercise would normally be played, but that's just what Pickle did when they had a bad performance. So he prayed that the judge had been in the wrong. He watched as she deliberated, massaging her temples and tapping her stick absentmindedly.

After a few moments, she brought her eyes back up, glaring.

"Okay. So that judge was an idiot."

A wave of relief swept through the drumline.

"Probably some flute player. But he did have a point; we need to work on some stuff. But first..." she grinned. "Let's go run some laps. In time."

A pained expression crossed Ichigo's face. But what else could he do? Disobeying Pickle would be like wrapping himself in tape and laying on a train track. Suicide. So, resigned to his fate, he stuck his sticks in his back pocket, and laced up his shoes, ready for running. But just as Pickle was getting the drumline into block formation for a few laps around the school, his savior arrived. Rukia ran out from behind the band building, where most of the other band students were heading to the clearing in the forest that served as their practice field. The serious expression on her face made Ichigo want to get up and dance. A Hollow! He quietly snuck off to meet Rukia as Pickle led the drumline off, unaware of Ichigo's absence.

She arrived near him, panting for a moment. When she raised her eyes, they were brimming with excitement. It was indeed a Hollow. This was his chance; leaving his body at the top of the tower that overlooked the asphalt field, Ichigo followed Rukia in the general direction of the Hollow, and got out of practice for the first forty minutes.

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A lyre is a type of music holder, used mostly for pep bands so that they don't have to memorize their music. They- the lyres that is, not the band- usually have square ends that are hooked into the clasp on a miniature music folder. At this point in time, it felt like someone had sharpened these ends to fine razor points, aimed carefully, and stabbed Ichigo's arms and hands with animal-like ferocity. As soon as Pickle had figured out why there were no smartass comments coming from Ichigo, she halted the group of running drummers and told them to wait. When Ichigo got back, they'd be doing another three laps and one-hundred and forty push-ups. This elicited groans and threats from the drumline, though they weren't directed at Pickle. And when Ichigo did try to sneak back in unnoticed, Pickle made him drop right there and give her two hundred.

And he had laughed.

The one kid, the one with the silver mohawk, shook his head with pity. Ichigo hadn't learned during band camp, or practice; Pickle made no jokes when it came to marching band. So when Ichigo was on the ground, bruises flowering on his cheeks and shins, the kid with the mohawk just went back to playing his snare. Pickle sat down squarely on Ichigo's back and told him to get to the push-ups. And no girl push-ups either. While she was seated on his back, she told the drumline to put on their drums and do a run through of the show, marking time in place. And if anyone got out of time, they'd be down here doing push-ups too. And after about four run throughs and one hundred and eighty something push-ups, Ichigo collapsed with Pickle still on his back. His shoulder still hurt from where that dog-Hollow had torn it open, not to mention a few new battle scars from the latest Hollow attack. With an irritated glare, Pickle finally said they were through, and it was time to go back to the band room to be dismissed. She would be checking drums later, and if they weren't properly put away, there would be laps. Oh yes, there would be laps.

That was more than enough to scare the drumline.

Tatsuki scoffed as she passed Ichigo's body on the ground, and poked him with her sticks. When he growled at her, she ws satisfied that he wasn't dead, and she went to hurry up and put her drum away. She wanted to hang out with Orihime before being dismissed. After all the rest of the drumline had put away their things, Ichigo finally put away his quads and was dismissed. He just hoped he wouldn't be so sore tomorrow; because there were no Friday night football games, the local high schools had mini-marching band competitions to show off whatever new additions to their shows they had. Maybe Pickle would pity him tomorrow.

And maybe tomorrow he would wake up, and would find that he was in the Gulf of Mexico, being rescued by mutant green ninja monkeys; or maybe not.

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School had come and gone, and so had practice, surprisingly. Pickle hadn't tormented Ichigo too much. She did make sure to remind him of the pushups he owed her when the other high schools came to their school. Though they were fierce rivals on the field, the few marching bands in the district were pretty close; there was the rest of Japan to compete with. So every Friday night, all the bands hung out, ate food from the concession stands for free, and watched each other perform their halftime shows. They would still be in uniform, but after their performance, they'd be allowed to change into their street clothes and keep their instruments with them. After each band had performed, there would be a pep band competition. Then, at the very end of the night, there would be the weekly Drum Battle, where each drumline lined up on the field and marched, playing the solos from their halftime shows or solos they composed themselves.

As Ichigo sat down with a hotdog and a can of soda, he searched for Rukia. When he found her, he sighed; she had a gigantic double scoop chocolate ice cream in her hands, and she was trying to eat it before it melted.

"Oi, Rukia!"

She looked up and around, searching for who had called her name. She lost interest though, as some of the ice cream melted and dripped onto her fingers. It was a hopeless endeavor, because the ice cream was already half liquid, draining into the waffle cone Rukia had. Once again, Ichigo sighed as she tried to lick the chocolate ice cream off her hand. He couldn't glare at her- what had she done wrong? He would look like such a dork if he was just glaring at her with no real reason. So instead he scowled and looked in front of him and ate his food. The drum battle would be coming up soon; that's what he had to focus on. They were playing an original solo this week, something composed by a quads player Pickle knew. "The best quads player ever. Period.", she had said. And who was Ichigo to argue? Did he want to die? Of course not. So he closed his mouth and learned his part.

As he thought this, Pickle sauntered over with not one, not two, not even seven pickles. She held the pickle jar under her arm like it contained gold and silver and death-glared anyone who came within reaching distance. She sat down next to Ichigo without a word and opened her pickle jar with delight; apparently, she could live off this stuff. Soon after, her mohawked friend joined her and sat down, taking care to keep both hands within Pickle's eyesight, so she wouldn't think he was trying to take her pickles. Ichigo watched them both with a "Why the Hell are you near me?" look, though neither noticed. They were engaged in some weird conversation that Ichigo couldn't understand. Something about a guy with weird pants and krazy girls back in America. Ichigo tuned out around that part, and watched the last band perform.

It was soon over, and Ichigo was suiting back up and warming up on his quads before he realized it.

Fifteen minutes later, he was marching onto the field, with a taps being played by all the snares and quads from all the bands. When everyone had marched onto the field, the crowd grew quiet. Only one drumline played at a time, so there was only one drum major on the podium at a time. The requirements were simple, though; the judges would give the time signature beforehand so the band could prepare something for every Friday night, and the best drumline would win that week. So, Tony climbed onto the podium ("Drum Major Tony Kelly, is your Drumline ready?") and called them to attention. Two measure of prep and the quads played, while everyone else was quiet. One eighth note, on the second-highest pitched drum, and a triplet on the accent drum. Then they played that again, this time adding an eighth note on the first drum that had been hit. They played all that, then added a triplet on the highest pitched drum (not the accent drum). Then they played all of it, and added four eighth notes on the lowest pitched drum; after that, the quads hit the second lowest and lowest pitched drums together, three quarter notes.

The rest of the drumline joined in on the three quarter notes. Then the basses and snares played on the first, the "and" after the second beat and third beats of every measure, always ending with the three quarter notes. This song was called "Billy".

The audience promptly got up and danced, and Pickle shouted orders over the drums, but none of it mattered to Ichigo. He saw from his place on the fifty-yard line that Rukia was sitting in the front row of the bleachers, still eating her ice cream, but she was enraptured by their show. Once again, Ichigo felt his throat go dry, and he chewed on his shako strap in an attempt to get some moisture in his mouth. The rest of the show was uneventful, with them ending "Billy" and going straight into the '05 cadence for the drumline's old school district, back in America. They marched off the field, and the drumline that was to perform next stepped forward.

Upon stepping off the field, Tony spotted Mister Cogdill waving at them over the crowd of people watching the drum battle. When the drumline had gathered around him, he told them they'd had a great show, keep up the good work and go get back in the stands. So the drumline went back to the band room, undressed (with Pickle and Tatsuki in the locker room and the guys just taking their clothes off in the open, which may have been the reason why they were required to wear boxers underneath their uniforms) and made their way back to the stands. Upon arriving, they found that their biggest rival-drumline was on the field playing. Unfortunately for them, the judges told them to stop before their show was through.

"Yes, we love that solo too, quads. 'Drumline' was a great movie."

Ka-pwn't.

After their drumline had marched off the field, the ratings ceremony began, and soon it was over. Karakura had gotten a "two" for colorguard and a "one" for winds, drum major and percussion. When the ceremony was done, the other bands loaded up on their buses and left, and Karakura's band drew straws to see who would have to clean the stands. Saxophones drew short, so Ichigo made sure to be the one to hand Ishida a broom on his way out the band room. Later, when all the instruments were put away and the stands were clean, Mister Cogdill told the brass and percussion to see him after dismissal, and the band was dismissed. They all gathered around the band director, who was standing solemnly in a chair, even though he was already taller than the tallest student.

"I have some important news!"

The section leaders looked bored. They already knew.

"Your section leaders and I are going back to America for a little while." He grinned at the dumbfounded response he received. "They will be taking their seconds also, so if you think you're good enough, try out. That's all." He was grinning like he'd won the lottery. Why was he so happy? Ichigo was pissed. Who would command their section? He voiced these thoughts to Pickle, who glared into the distance and answered with nonchalance.

"Why's he so happy? 'Cause we're going home, maybe? I'm happy too."

"Why are you going home? What's gonna happen to this band?"

Pickle glared at him. "Did he say we're all going home? No. Just the section leaders, idiot. Pay attention, or I'll give you laps."

Ichigo's fists clenched, and he paused, trying to regain composure. He was too familiar with the track. He didn't want to get re-acquainted. "But that doesn't answer why you're going." Pickle rolled her eyes and stood, crossing her arms and flicking her sticks, which were in either hand.

"Why we are going, you mean. You, me, and him-" she pointed at Mohawk Man. "-are going to America to audition for the Boston Crusaders."

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If you don't know who the Crusaders are, go to my profile, and watch the Cavaliers. They're a similar band.

I dunno what to tell you guys. I'm dried up for inspiration right now, not to mention the lack of reviews is quite the downer, eh? I'll get back to updatin' in a little while. :P