My Section Leader's Secrets

Chapter Twelve

"Hey can I use your phone to call my mom?" Fern asks as I hang up.

"Yeah sure." I toss my phone down to her and lay back on my pillow.

So tired. So freaking tired. I wonder what Jackson's doing right now. Does he have his phone? Does he have service? Maybe I could text him. Nah.

"No. Yes. Emily's phone. Emily. EMILY. Yes I'm tired. Okay I love you. Bye." Fern hangs up and gives me her phone.

"Well that was interesting." I laugh and check the time. "We better start getting ready.

"We literally have fifteen minutes." Fern groans at me.

"Yeah but we want to be there early!"

"Truuueeee." Catie nods.

"Come on! Time to get up." I go down to Fern's bed and lay on top of her.

"Get. Off. Me. Right now." Fern warns. I laugh but don't move.

She pushes me off the bed and I land on the hard floor with a huff.

"Okay now everyone get ready! Seven minutes left if we want to get there early. Does anyone have to go to the bathroom?" I ask looking around.

Fern ignores me and continues putting on her shoes, but Catie gets up and we start towards the bathrooms.

You would think the bathrooms at a camp would be totally disgusting, but one of the rooms cleans them once a day, so they're not that bad.

About halfway to the bathroom, a couple of flute players pass us and we smile and wave.

"Man I hate those girls!" Catie mumbles as they pass.

"Same."

Hey, don't judge! At least we were raised right and didn't say it to their faces.

"It's nice to go into a bathroom and not cringe because it smells so bad!" I comment as we wash our hands.

"That is true."

When we get back to the room, Fern is back on her bed.

"Would you come on? We have three minutes to be five minutes early!" I say grabbing my trumpet and sticking a few pencils in my pocket.

Fern groans again but gets up and we start outside. We go over to the chapel and stand with the rest of the trumpets. I notice neither Jackson nor Kyle is there. I glance down at my watch. Three minutes till three, they're already late.

Suddenly, Mr. Davis, a band director from another school, comes over. "Where are your section leaders?" He asks looking around.

We all shrug.

Mr. Davis is my least favorite person at band camp. He's rude but thinks he's funny, I hate people like that.

"Well," he says looking at his watch, "it's time to start. Do the first warm up.

We all scramble to stand up as he counts off the first warm up. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jackson and Kyle walk up. My heart starts to beat a little faster and I can't help but feel bad for Jackson as Mr. Davis reprimands him.

After going through the first two warm ups like three times each, we start working on the first song. When Mr. Davis works with the first parts, I look at the way Jackson plays. He plays mostly on the side of his mouth and closes his eyes when he starts playing higher notes.

I spend the rest of the time staring at him and, before I know it, the sectional is over.

Fern, Catie, and I walk back over to the picnic tables and wait to be called into a block. Jackson walks over and lays on the ground.

I run over there and set my instrument down. "Staring contest, ready go!"

He groans, but I see a small smile forming. Before we can get too far, Stacey calls us into attention.

"Band ten hut!" to which everyone replies "hun" accept Jackson and Kyle who promptly add "ny" to the end of hun.

Stacey pays no attention to them and orders us into the red and white block.

We all get in our spots and begin marching down to the field. "This is already getting old." Fern mutters and we start marching. I nod my head in agreement.

Mr. Smith is already waiting for us when we get down there. He tells the drum majors something we can't hear and Isabel yells "Alright set up the first set of the first song, we're running it!"

"Well shiat." Catie says. We all go our separate ways and get into our spots before we get in trouble for being too slow.

"Let's see. Where am I, where am I." Robby is saying to himself, walking around.

"You're right here, remember?" I point at the spot to my right.

"Right right, I remember!" He laughs and stands next to me.

After looking up at Mr. Smith to make sure it's okay to start, Isabel counts us off and we start the show. I'm actually really proud I can play a little of the music while marching now.

"You have to be cleaner with this." Mr. Smith says when we're done with what we know so far. "Where's the melody trumpets?"

I roll my eyes and look at Fern and Catie who are feeling the same way I am.

"Alright, find the next set." After everyone talking and Mr. Smith telling them to be quiet, we are all put in attention and are forced to stand there for what feels like forever! Band is torture guys, don't join!

We continue finding our spots and running the show until about 5:45. (We're supposed to be at dinner by 5:30 and the band moms get a little cranky if we're late.)

"Okay, if you can run the whole first song without crashing and burning, we'll go in." Mr. Smith says.

We all cheer as we reset.

I'm so ready to go in. My feet hurt, my back hurts, and the bugs are having me for dinner. I want dinner.

We run the first song with only a couple of mistakes and get to go in for dinner. When we march back up and are allowed to disperse, ("You will meet back here by 6:30 to march back to the field!") Fern and I find Catie and we go upstairs to put away our instruments and go back down to eat.

"Iiiiiiiii can't believe we have to go back out there today." Fern says as we sit down on the picnic tables and wait for trumpets to be called.

I ignore her and look over at Jackson who looks super upset. He walks over to all of the trumpets and starts talking. "Look guys, I don't like attention, and you don't like attention. Can we just listen when we're supposed to be quiet?" He looks absolutely exhausted and I feel bad until I realize I'm just as tired as he is.

A first year senior raises his hand. "Yes?" Jackson asks.

"Okay, as referring to what Jackson just said, when you're in atten-"

"No, man come on they understand. You're not in charge." Jackson cuts him off.

I bite my tongue to keep from talking and notice Fern is in the same boat.

Before anyone else can say anything, trumpets are called to go in and eat. We all get our food and sit down. "Can I have your grapes?" I ask Catie. She moves her grapes on my plate and I clap my hands in excitement.

"Okay guys." Fern says getting serious. "Do you know that percussion player, the tenor? What's his name?"

"Clay." Gertrude says.

"Right, him. Look." We all glance over at the percussion table until we spot the dark haired freckled senior.

"He is super cute." I note, eating my grapes.

"No not really, but let me tell you. His ass, is the most wonderful thing on this planet! He's like a God!" Fern says fanning herself.

And that, was the beginning of Booty God.