Souls You Can't Save

Things Have Changed

(does anyone get my P!ATD reference.....)

I woke up on Saturday morning to a text message from one of my other friends, Alaina. I rolled over, groaning, and in the process waking up Nevaeh and Kia. 

"FUCK" I screamed, making both of them pop up and stare at me.

"What the hell is happening?!" Kia said, rubbing her eyes. 

I glared at my phone. "Alaina just texted me and said that we can't play the Tempest for band festival."

Band Festival season is even worse than marching season, because you get graded and there is no way in hell you're allowed to slack on practicing. The band teachers even created practice journals that ended up making most of the band's grades drop. We'd been playing and perfecting the same pieces for months, and they tell us NOW, THREE DAYS BEFORE BAND FESTIVAL, that WE CAN'T PLAY THE MUSIC. 

Apparently, the band teacher had chosen a piece from the Orchestra Class B list instead of the Concert Band Class B list, and now we had less than 3 days to learn an entirely new piece of music. 

We had previously talked to the band directors, and they said that we had the most judgy and picky adjudicators that had ever been on the panel. 

great.

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Walking on the stage, the lights were hot. I don't have stage fright, I'm actually a fairly good performer. But I was terrified.

We had learned the song in three days. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't as good as it could have been in the four months we were supposed to have. 

We played the first song, and it actually sounded pretty good. 

The band director gave us a mini-whisper pep talk as we switched our music to the new song. Everyone took three deep breaths, and prepared ourselves to play. At one point, I forgot to breathe and almost passed out. Totally my own fault though. 

We made it through all the songs, and the band parents in the audience said they could see the relief clear on our faces when we were finished. 

Straight from playing the pieces, we went to sightreading. Before the adjudicators could say a word, the band director interrupted and said 

"Wow, guys. I am so proud of all of you, and the fact that you pulled that off. I'm not just proud, I..."

and he turned away. Every section looked at each other, confused. He turned around for a split second and we saw that his eyes were red. All the sudden, the band burst out laughing. 

He was crying. 

No one, ever in the history of our school district, had seen Phillip Huff cry (except for his wife). And we made Phillip Huff cry.  He was that proud.

Later, we found out that we were the best scored band in Class B, and the only band in the entire week to get scored all ones. 

Not only was Mr. Huff proud, I  was proud. 

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Later that night I got home, and Quinn texted me. 

"I have a question to ask you."

I quickly replied "Ok, give me five minutes."

Proceeding to text ALL my friends, Nevaeh, Alaina, Elise, etc, telling them that I would be in a relationship in less than five minutes. 

I texted Quinn back.

"Ok, I know what you're going to ask me, and my answer is yes. Although, DISCLAIMER: I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but I do like you. I hope it works out, but if it doesn't, I don't want things to be awkward."

So, I guess I have a boyfriend. 

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AN/ WE GOT THE BEST SCORES AT BAND FESTIVAL AND I DID ACTUALLY PASS OUT FOR 30 SECONDS HFS.