As I strolled down the sidewalk towards my school I took a look at the scenery around me. All the leaves had already fallen from their branches and were scattered by the wind across the landscape. Most of the houses in the neighbourhood were dormant. Evidently everyone had either already left or hadn't woken up yet. As I exited the neighbourhood I ended up on a city street. Here things were a little more active. Cars were passing me by on the road, and most of the businesses were either already open or in the process of opening.
It was another 10 minutes before I finally made it to school, and I arrived just a few minutes after the doors were unlocked. There wasn't much hustle and bustle this early, but there was still a good number of students milling around. The entrance was fairly large and had a tall ceiling, bordering the cafeteria and the music hallway. I continued past the entrance and into the main hallway. The tiles were cold on my feet, and the bright fluorescent lights were a nuisance. It always took a bit of time for my eyes to adjust. After 30 metres or so I hung a left and entered a smaller hallway. Another 20 metres and I was at my locker. It took 2 tries to get it open because I somehow always manage to mess up the code on my first attempt. I deposited my backpack inside and grabbed my stuff for my first two periods. My stack of supplies consisted of a chromebook, my music folder, a notebook, a second folder for my business management class, and my pencil pouch. I shut my locker behind me and started towards the band room, taking one of the small back hallways. This hallway ran behind the auditorium and was conveniently located so that it was a perfect path for any student who happened to have a class or their locker on that side of the building. It was almost always deserted as well because no one used it but music and theatre students. The band room, while not being very fancy, was always homey. It had tall ceilings and sound padding on the walls. There were already a few people milling around. Most band students showed up early so they could get their instruments ready. I grabbed a chair from a rack next to the wall and set it in my normal spot. It had always been a little annoying having to do that. In order for the janitors to clean every night the 1st period class had to set the chairs out and the last period had to put them back. I went through a door into the adjoining band locker room where I retrieved my saxophone. After going back to my seat I started my routine. I opened my case and started assembling my saxophone, which I won't bore you with the details of. Once assembled I started to tune it. Once it was tuned I set it on the ground next to my seat. I never sat on my lap because I'd learned that lesson one too many times. If you set an instrument like that down on your lap your fur will stick to all the pads, and it's just not fun to clean up. Now more people were starting to file in. Among them was my best friend Bryce, a Dachshund with long hair. We'd been friends since late primary school. He played the Oboe, which meant we didn't get to sit near each other unfortunately. I got up and went to greet him.
"Morning Bryce!" I said as I gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.
"Morning Oscar, I was wondering if I'd see you today. You kinda disappeared after lunch last Friday. What happened?" He asked.
"Oh yeah! They found me another foster home, so I got pulled out last week," I responded. Having been friends with me for so long, Bryce knew about my situation. He'd been one of the most constant things in my life.
"Hm? How'd that go?" he questioned as he started unpacking his Oboe. He'd never bothered storing his instrument in the locker room because of how small it is, so he'd always just carried it around. I always wished I could afford that luxury.
"It was pretty good!" I responded, "It's this Red Heeler named Brandy, and they've already got me living with her. She is SUPER nice!" Bryce nodded his head in acknowledgement and went back to setting up his Oboe while I returned to my seat. It wasn't long before the bell rang and morning announcements started. There was absolutely nothing of interest to me, but I still liked to keep up with things. While the announcements were playing our band director came out of her office. Ms. Husky was always a sweet teacher, but she could get a temper when you messed up. I just remember the day she spent 5 minutes straight yelling at the trumpet section because none of them were playing in time. I was lucky enough to never draw her wrath. In tow behind Ms. Husky was Mr. Basenji, our assistant band director. He had just started that year, but hadn't exactly created a good impression upon the students. He was fairly nice, so some students liked him. However, other students still didn't like him for something he did during the last marching season. I remember we were all out on the field just rehearsing our show and Ms. Husky had to take a call or something, so she left Mr. Basenji in charge. For about 20 minutes straight he proceeded to not give us a water break, which can be catastrophic on a hot day like it was. One of the colour guard girls even fell and hurt her ankle. I'm not sure if that was a result of having no water, but nonetheless I'm pretty sure Mr. Basenji got an earful after that. Personally, I didn't mind him either way. The band ran smoother with him around anyway. Once the morning announcements had ended we started class.
"Good morning everyone!" Ms. Husky said, "Please open your books to page 13, exercise D." We continued as normal, completing our warmups and moving on to our main songs. The one that always stood out to me as just being so cool was "Danzón No. 2." It was a beautiful orchestral piece adapted for the band. We continued practice for another hour or so before concluding. I packed up my saxophone and placed it back in the locker room.