Between Love and Music

3- Hope Owns

Marching band the next two days were heck. All Chase wanted to do was flirt with me, Ryan, and Carlie. What a jerk. Whats worse is that Ryan thinks he's the most adorable thing to ever walk on our band field. I can handle everyone staring at Kaleb but, Chase? No. I'm pretty sure since he's joined our drum line, his head has gotten five times bigger. Every time I get to play, Mr. Kein switches it up and lets Chase have it. One day, Chase even had the nerve to tell me I was doing something wrong. As we were having sectionals, he walked over and placed his hands on the head of my drum. I pushed them off. "DON'T touch my drum. You'll die a slow and painful death that way." He grinned. "Feisty. I like it." I punched him. Right in the gut. That was the end of him helping me.

The next few days, Chase was MIA. He missed practices. He missed school. Did I miss him? Nope. At the end of our Tuesday practice, Mr. Kein gathered us outside. "Alright guys. By now, you've probably all met or heard Chase. If you haven't, get out from underneath your rock. Do you know where he's at?

There were a few murmors, but no one spoke up.

"He probably had too much of a hangover from the first of the year party that we all know he went to." I whispered to Will.  He chuckled.

"Do you know Hope? You seem to talk to him a lot." Mr. Kein called from the front.

"No way do I talk to him! I tell him to stop staring at me, but that's about it. So no. I have no idea where Mr. Winchester is." Everyone stopped talking. I heard a few people gasp. "Winchester?" Carlie whispered. I obviously just let out a secret. Oh well. We were soon dismissed.

~******~

"Yes! Third period! Best class of the day!" I said, as I left third period with Will. He rolled his eyes. "Concert band? Seriously?" I smiled. "Yes! My one class where I can sleep.'' He laughed and agreed. I went to my locker. When I opened my locker door a note fell out. "See you in concert. I missed you." It said. I shrugged. It was probably Ryan or Carlie. I shoved my textbooks in then, grabbed my sticks.

Will had left me behind so I walked alone. Halfway to the band room, some one grabbed my shoulder. I spun around. And there he was. Mr. Stupid. "What do you want?" He smirked. "You to get out of my way so I can get to band. Oh and did you get my note babe? I didn't know if that was your locker or not." I scoffed. "There's plenty of room in this hallway. You didn't have to touch my arm. And, no. I didn't. Wrong locker." He smirked and passed me. God, that smile. Wait, what? I widened my eyes and ran to the band room. I needed sleep.

Mr. Kein was waiting for me and Chase inside. "Ah, I see you two decided to show up. Welcome back, Chase." I went into the percussion room. I had the annoying idea that I was being followed. I slammed the door behind me and found my snare drum. My music was sitting on its stand, right where I left it. Before I could start playing, Chase found another snare and picked up a red pair of sticks. He never once looked at me when he started to play. I watched. He actually sounded pretty good when he wasn't being obnoxious. I stopped him in the middle of playing. "That's 'Between Love and Music'. You can't play that right now. Play your other thing." He nodded. I started to work on my music. I guess Nicolette was sick today. We were missing a snare girl. I started to ignore Chase's sound. Well I was until I heard him messing up on the same thing every time.

"Dang it Chase! You're from Winchester and you can't play a triplet?!" I yelled in frustration. He shrugged. I walked over to his drums. "Look, this is how you do it." I played the measure he was stuck on and nailed the triplets. "See that? Do it." He played the triplet. I smirked. Before I could turn around Chase played a roll, then a triplet. "Show off." I said. I played the same thing, but louder on my snare. Chase played another rhythm. I copied it and made it better. This went on and on. I began to step closer to him until we were playing on the same drum. We never took our eyes off each other. He was in my face and all I could see were those piercing green eyes. I was angry and I wasn't going to lose. I stared him down and played hard. When Chase had the rhythm the next time he stopped. I smirked and whispered, "This is MY drum line, Winchester." I turned away from him and grabbed my sticks. I left the percussion room just as the bell rang.

~***~

"So, I heard you owned Chase." Ryan said to me during lunch. I laughed. "How did you hear about that?" Ryan laughed. 'I have my ways." I raised my eyebrows. "Aright you're-" A big basketball player ran into me, making me stop my sentence and drop my books on the floor. "Watch it, band geek!" I blushed but picked up my books. "Jerk." Ryan said. I shook my head. "Its nothing." Ryan gave me that motherly look that I got from Will a lot. Strange, I know. But he's my best friend. "It is NOT okay! You're getting made fun of because you're doing what you love!" I nodded. "But there's nothing we can do about it, can we?" With that, I stood up and headed to my next class.

So, I know some of these terms are a little difficult for the people who aren't in band. But, the plot isn't centered around band. Thats more of a sub plot. Anyways, the cast is on the side. Along with pictures. Thanks :)