Midland High School Marching Band

Chapter 11

The day had finally arrived for the big competition that the whole group had been waiting for. The 79th annual Music City Marching Show was just over 12 hours away from its start, and it could be felt across the hotel across the bands. 

At breakfast, the drum majors from the three schools, with Anastasia in Kierstan’s place at the table, all sat together and discussed how they were feeling about the competition, and how they felt their group was going to do. 

All the while, Joe couldn’t help but worry about the fact that their two drum majors, who seemed to make up a dynamic duo until the night before, weren’t even on speaking terms. He knew that if they failed to place top 10 in the competition, they would surely both lose their position as drum majors next year. 

“I’ll be right back,” Joe said as he stood up looking around to try to find his other drum major. 

“Wait, where are you going?” Anastasia asked, worriedly.

“To find my other drum major so we don’t both lose our spots next year,” Joe replied. 

“Want someone to come with you, José?” Tomás asked. 

“Sure. If you want to tag along, Tomás, you are more than welcome to.” 

“Alright. Where do you think she may be?”

“I’m going to assume that she either went to go sit with Alvirne people or she is just sitting in a corner by herself,” Joe replied. 

"Wait is that her right there? Sitting with the Alvirne kids?" 

"Yeah it is. Good call, Tomás!" 

The two walked over to the Alvirne table that Kierstan was sitting at with Ava and 
her friends. 

"Hey Kiers," Joe said nervously. "I think we should talk about something cause the 
competition is tonight. I get it if you don't want to talk about anything other than band, but we need to be on the same page tonight, and we need to at least get along until the end of the competition. We can't let shit going on in our personal relationship affect the rest of the band. That isn't fair to them. We can sort out our shit later when we get home." 

"How do I know you aren't just here to start more trouble? If you wanted to fix things, why the hell did you bring him? Not even your new girlfriend. Just the random from Meadowbrook."

"Okay. First of all, he isn't a random. He is a good friend of mine, and the fact that he goes to Meadowbrook shouldn't make a damn bit of difference. Second of all, Anastasia and I aren't dating. We are just friends. Am I not allowed to have a friend who is a female without dating her? Is that not something that's possible in your mind? And even still, last time I checked, you cheated on me, so you have no say in my life anymore. Regardless of that, we have a competition to win, and if you can't at least acknowledge that, then there are problems far worse than the bullshit that went on yesterday. Think about all the people that worked hard for us to get to where we are today. Think about how many hours we all spent working on our show. All the little tweaks and perfections. Is it really worth ruining it all because of one day? Really? You need to consider your priorities."

Kierstan paused and looked at Joe. She didn't know how to respond to him. She knew he was right, but she couldn't bring herself to acknowledge that she had screwed up at the football game. After thinking about it all carefully, she replied, "Even if all that is true, how are we supposed to get along tonight? I cheated on you. Aren't you upset?" 

"Oh don't get me wrong, Kiers, I'm furious about that, but I honestly couldn't care less about any of that crap. We have a big night ahead of us tonight, and you know just as well as I do that it would suck if we didn't put our best foot forward tonight at the competition. We've worked all year for tonight. If not for ourselves, we have to do this for the band. Plain and simple."