They Never Expected

Chapter 18

18

Practice was a lot harder than I had expected. When I’d rehearsed at the hospital, I would stop for breaks pretty frequently. In this rehearsal, though, every last little mistake had to be cleaned and polished until it shined. The good news was that I knew right where we were on the field, in the music, and in the choreography the entire time. That did make the rehearsal a little bit easier.

When we returned from our first break, I was starting to doubt myself. I paced slowly back and forth in front of the field, telling myself that I knew I had what it took to make it.

“Everyone back on the field!” Seth yelled. Normally, there were moans and groans as everyone walked back to their set, but this time, everyone was back on the field and in the proper set before Seth had even arranged himself on the podium.

“Pretty impressive, huh?” Missy smiled as I found my spot.

“I didn’t realize I was gone that long. When did this happen?”

“Right after Regionals.”

Wow. I had missed a lot.

Tara suddenly tore across the field to Lina’s empty spot which was, coincidentally, right next to mine.

“Set!” Seth commanded.

“Good luck newbie.” I whispered to her, grinning.

“Instead of thinking about how much my leg was bothering me or how much my chest was aching, I focused on Isac’s chimes part. It was one of the few parts I didn’t know by heart and he had promised to teach it to me at some point before the season ended. The distraction made it eons easier to push through.

Each time I crossed paths with Tara, I checked to make sure Ms. Bradford would approve of her technique in context. Sure enough, just after we finished the run through, Ms. Bradford came to shake Tara’s hand, “Welcome to our band, Tara.”

“I made the cut?”

“Actually, you passed my critiquing with flying colors. Have you ever put any thought into becoming a marching band tech?”

I left them to their conversation and went to find a place to sit and rest.

“Feeling alright?” Isac found me at on of the picnic tables scattered around the sidelines.

I pulled an icepack out of my bag and rolled up my pant leg, “Well, if you were blind, I could say ‘yes’.” The scars on my leg were a purplish-yellow color and swollen on both sides.

Isac’s face turned a shade paler, “Is that normal? Should I go get Tara?”

“No, I’ll wait a little bit. Really, I’m okay.” I laughed at how uncomfortable he was and rolled my pant leg back down. 

The color returned to his face, “How are your ribs?”

“Not to sound impolite, but let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?”

“Is there any gossip at school? Something has to have happened since I left.”

“Nothing too impressive. Mr. and Mrs. Hector are getting divorced.”

Mr. and Mrs. Hector were each worthy of Nobel Peace Prizes in the eyes of their students. They were everyone’s favorite Science teachers, “That’s terrible. How does everyone know they’re getting a divorce?”

“They aren’t exactly subtle about it.”

“That’s probably the saddest thing that’s happened to our school since it was built.”