Like You Mean It

1. Hayden

We were sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 102 in Jace's beat-up car that was chugging to the end of its ninth life. The windows were down, because the AC had crapped out halfway through band camp, and the speakers were cranked, blasting some crappy hip-hop song that David was playing on aux. It was sweaty, miserable, and way too busy for a Friday night football game in New Hampshire.

It made a bit of sense though. It was Merrimack Valley's opening home game against West Concord, who beat them in the D1 semifinals last November. Parents, students, and alumni from both schools wanted to see the grudge match.

Still, the line of cars backing up half a mile from the school felt like overkill.

"You'd think if they could afford new props and sets last year, they could hire a crossing guard to direct traffic." Jace was drumming his fingers on the wheel, antsy to finally get out of the car, "This is just ridiculous."

David pocketed his phone with an exaggerated groan, "Ugh, Logan said we couldn't start any fights!"

"That's only because Logan's basically still a Titan." Max scrunched their face in disgust.

"No, he's only dating one." Jace pointed out, "We forced him to wash away his ties to the Titans before he could join us, remember? You were there when we baptized him before band camp."

"Still, it's a conflict of interest!" Max chimed, "Besides, isn't Kay a legacy drum major? Y'know, Kay Miller? The Miller legacy? That he like...created?"

Kayden Miller revived the Merrimack Valley High School band from the brink of mediocrity four years ago. He was their star trumpet soloist and star drum major, leading the band to nationals for four years straight and three titles total. He was also the lead trumpet for the Manchester Kings, and now the lead trumpet for the freaking Carolina Cavaliers. He led both corps to a plethora of titles as well. He was a local legend in the music world, and he happened to be dating our drum major, by some weird twist of fate and luck for Logan. None of us were really sure how that ever happened.

But Kay Miller had a major legacy, and multiple red-headed siblings to follow him. Tom Miller was the lead mellophone for the Kings this past summer and was their junior drum major last year. Plus, he has consistently been one of the top French Horn players in the state, beating Jace multiple years in a row. Maddie Miller was the top flute at Classical States four years in a row and was one of their drum majors last year, she just graduated and went on to the Grant Conservatory at Everett University to major in classical flute performance. Kay was also there as a classical trumpet performance major. Then there were two other Millers, I think. I just didn't remember their names; they were both younger though. Maybe freshmen by now? I really only kept track of the Millers that pissed off other section leaders. But if they were anything like their siblings, I would definitely know of the new Millers soon.

"Yeah. but they started dating before either of them were drum majors, I don't think it counts." I pointed out, "Besides, Logan was still a Titan when they got together during his freshman year. They've been together for like three years at this point. Kay graduated last year anyway, not like Logan can feed him any information when Kay's in Lowell. He's at the Grant Conservatory, he's got bigger things to worry about than Valley vs. Lovell. Either way, just because Kay helped-"

"Oh my god, shut up. We get it, you are extremely bisexual, and you have a major celebrity crush on Kay Miller." David groaned.

Before I could respond, Jace interrupted, "It doesn't matter. We aren't going to cause any issues regardless. We're just laying low and observing them before the competition season truly starts."

"Whatever. I'm still throwing hands if they try anything." Max rolled their eyes and leaned back in their seat, arms crossed.

"We're just here for information, not to start anything. We shouldn't even talk to any of the Titans. The less we interact the better," I said.