Let's Do This

The Band Games.

Today is the Band Games, or the Band Olympics. Friends against friends, enemies working side by side, this is going to be awesome.

The Band Games, which the upperclassmen told me, is this time of they year when people in different sections and in color guard get placed together into a team. The team with the highest score in the end wins.

Who happened to be in my team? Jacob. Not saying that I mind or anything.

I walked onto the lot squinting my eyes to find for my team.

"Hey, where is our team?" I turned around to the familiar voice.

"Hey Jacob." I said, "Our team is...I don't know.." I turned around again to find my team called Hufflepuff (original right?).

Once I found them under the tower, I glanced over my shoulder signaled him to follow me.

Soon after we were with our team and waiting for further instructions. Jacob was soon talking to his friends while I just looked around to see who I'm going to be stuck with all day.

There were 15 people in each group, my group consisted of brass, drumline, and color guard, me being the only woodwind. Might as well make some friends.

I'd rather hang out with guys instead of girls for some reason, probably because I grew up with two older brothers. So, I walked past the color guard girls and stood beside the guy that didn't seem to have anyone to talk to.

"Hey Sam." I said to he cymbal player. He actually played oboe but since oboes don't march, he got moved to cymbals.

"Hey Grace." He said turning to me. Soon after we were in a full conversation about what might happen today since none of us knew, we we're both freshman.

The whistle blew to catch our attention, which broke up everyone's conversations. "Hey everyone! Welcome to the Band Games!" Our head drum major shouted. The cheering started shouting out their team names. My favorite team chant I heard was "Blood, Sweat, and Tears! Our blood is shed, the sweat is here, but we won't shed a tear! Our enemies will cry!"

Once everything died down, the drum major started again. " First we will be doing stations and there are ways to get points in each one. Later will be the annual water balloon war between brass, woodwinds, and percussion. Lastly will be a new thing this year. We will be having a hunger games!"

I had no idea what was going to happen.

We were all dismissed and I went to the station my team started on. Water ballon pass.

When we were told what the game was, the objective was to pass a water balloon down the row. The catch is, when you pass, you can only use your necks. The faster, the more points our team gets. When it drops, we have to start all over.

To the right of me was Sam, and to my left, it happened to be Jacob.

The timer started and soon Sam was passing it to me. I stood on my toes a bit and struggled to get the small water balloon in my neck. The awkward part was that we had to be somewhat pressed up against each other... Bad time to be a girl.

Once the water balloon was secure, I turned to Jacob. I slightly bit my lip and got on my toes again to get near his height. Once again we struggled awkwardly, but soon the water balloon was in the end of the line. The upperclassmen recorded our score and we rested until the next station.

The whistle blew a few minutes later, signaling us to go to the next station. It included something with color guard rifles.

"The number of band members, no color guard included, who can toss a rifle correctly will gain points for the team." An upperclassmen read off a sheet of paper. "Color guards can help guide them, but can not do it for them."

After a somewhat detailed description on how to toss a rifle, we started to work. A few of the upperclassmen could do it, but us the freshman were completely lost or were too scared to toss it.

After eternity, the next whistle blew. We went station after station, and in the end, we got third place our of the 16 teams.

Now it was lunch and my friends and I sat in our regular table.

"Second place! Muahahaha!" Anthony screeched.

"Third!" I said whilst taking a container of grapes out of my bag.

"Last!" Niko said faking his enthusiasm and we all chuckled.

~

I'm soaked.

Seriously, dripping in water. I felt like I just took a shower with my clothes on. But what really happened? The water balloon fight.

Here is a tip, if ever in a water balloon fight; do not ignore it if someone is holding a cooler full of water. Seriously...Don't.

The rest of the water balloon fight, I stayed off in the size or in the distance to lessen the risk of getting hit by a water balloon, though, it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

~

We all sat down in the middle of the lot, listening to the drum major calling out names. The "reaping". Two names were called out from each section; one guy, one girl.

A freshman was called out, and there was a low "ooo" since of course, they're going to be dead meat.

"District Flutes," hmm, I like the sound of that. "Niko, freshman."

A low chorus of "ooo"s came from the crowd, one which came from me. He slowly rose up to his feet and made it up to the front.

"Kilana, junior." She rose to her feet confidently and walked to the front. Out of all people... This is going to be interesting, I thought to myself.

"Now, all tributes are up. May the odds be ever in your favor!" She said cheerfully. So cheesy, so awesome.

~

Only two people left, Kilana and a trumpet player named Cole. They both stood in the middle of the large circle on our lot with everyone crowded around it.

Both held a water balloon in hand, ready to throw at each other. They said something low that no one could hear over all of their cheering. Soon Kilana and Cole counted down to three loudly so everyone could hear.

"Three!" Kilana yelled.

"Two!" Yelled Cole.

"One!" They both yelled and rose their water balloons.

They turned to our Head Drum Major and threw it at her. One of the water balloons had hit her waist while the other one had hit her shoulder.

Everyone laughed, including the drum major who got hit. Then sudden realization struck.

Who won?

"Flutes won!" A voice yelled out, it sounded like Nate.

"No, Trumpets!" A random voice in the crowd yelled.

After a ten minute discussion, or should I say fight, it ended in a draw, but both of them will apparently play a part in next years hunger games.

I would still say, if you ask me.

"Flutes won".