My Section Leader's Secrets

Chapter Ten

"Your turn." Mr. Richards nods at me.

I take a deep breath and play the first two notes then fudge the rest of them. Mr. Richards shows me each fingering and waits for me to play it slowly then moves on. I let out a breath and sneak a glance at Jackson, but if he was ever looking my way, there's no sign of it anymore.

Soon the sectional is over and we're told that it's lunch time. Catie, Fern and I make our way up to our room to put our instruments away and go back outside to wait with our section.

The drum majors call everyone in by section and whoever is last, trombones in this case, have to clean up after everyone. After getting our food, we sit down at a table with a couple of others in our section.

I look around at all of the rest of the tables, noticing how all of the sections mix, except for drumline. Their whole section is sitting together at the very back long table.

"Do you want my grapes?" Catie asks.

"Of course. I love grapes!" I exclaim taking them one by one off of the plate.

We finish our lunch and go back up to our room to find out what we're supposed to do next. Leah is already in there waiting for us when we get there. "Hey guys, we're going to the pavilion to get matched up with senior and freshmen buddies."

"How much time do we have?" asks Fern flopping down on her bed.

"About ten minutes." Leah says consulting her watch.

Fern groans and sits back up.

"What's the rest of the day look like?" I ask.

"Well everyone else gets free time while we do this and then we have another sectional, (Fern groans at this) then we go down to the field and then dinner when we get back, back to the field, then a campfire and then sleep!" Leah says in one breath.

"Then repeat." Catie says glumly.

We all stand up and make our way out to the pavilion, and I notice Jackson right away. Isabel, one of the drum majors, starts reading off names. Both Fern and I are paired with Leah, but Catie is paired with a flute player.

We all have to stand in a big circle and go around and introduce ourselves. I note that Jackson's favorite food is homemade macaroni and cheese. Interesting.

We get through everyone finally and split up to make friendship bracelets... I'm sorry is this band camp or girl scouts? "Your senior buddy will give you a bead when he or she thinks you're doing a good job and by the end of the week, you should have all five!" Stacey says way too excitedly.

"This is stupid. Thiiss iss soooooo stuuuupiiddd" I sing as I tie the bracelet on my arm glancing at Jackson every five seconds.

""Doesn't even make sense!" Fern says, frustrated. "Where the hell is Catie?!"

"Stuck over there with the rest of the flutes." I motion behind us to the circle of flutes.

"They look like they're about to have a powwow or some stupid shit." Fern says fake gagging.

Leah and I laugh and finish up with our bracelets.

"Okay." Catie says shoving her bracelet in her pocket, "I feel like I smell like flowers or some shit! Can we go get our instruments?"

"We have ten minutes until we have to be down here and march to the field." Leah says once we all finish cracking up over Catie's experience with the flutes.

We go upstairs to grab our instruments, music, and everything and anything else we might need. "Okay let's go, we've got about five minutes." I say glancing at my watch.