Human Wings of Fire

In which a few truths are revealed

I don't know why I joined the marching band.

Maybe it was because I was bored. Maybe it was because of some random instinct. Maybe I wanted to perform for people, be someone other than the intimidating freak who routinely blows stuff up. Or maybe it was because Clayton's on the football team and I couldn't have been a cheerleader for the life of me.

That was probably it. I was lucky I already played the electric guitar fairly well. (Or at least I did when I wasn't pulling a Jimi Hendrix, which got hard to explain.)

I tuned my strings, plugged in my guitar, played the instrumental riff to "play with fire" as a soundcheck, and then sat back, gently placing my guitar on the seat beside me.

A nervous green-haired guy with glasses that looked strangely like Timothy was playing a song that seemed vaguely familiar to me, and some of the clarinets joined in, laughter in their eyes.

Gloria Putnam, our token violinist, rolled her eyes. She then began to play a (rather boring) song that I'd never heard before, and gave a small, satisfied smile.

And of course, what day of band would be complete without Fiona Stellar playing "Never Gonna Give You Up" on whatever instrument she'd picked to play in the stands that day? She plays far too many. (It's ridiculous, honestly. Pick an instrument and stick with it.)

Finally, the portion of the band that CAN march with their instruments begins to march down the field for pregame. We're directed to play the school fight song along with the rest of the band, so we do. Then we play the national anthem, and the game begins.

Clayton's kicking off to start. I watch intently, my eyes following his every movement until he was lost in the crowd of other footballers.

Then, like the rest of the band, I sat down. Unlike the rest of the band, I didn't have a binder with my respective instrument's part for the songs we played, so I had to improvise most of the time.

As for the one piece of music I do have, I have twenty-eight measures of rest at the beginning, and I still don't know what "pianissimo" means.

So this season should be fun.

(I got the Jimi Hendrix thing from Pearls Before Swine. Apparently he'd burn his guitar or something.)