Band Room Secrets

Chapter 3

It's summer time and just because it is summer time, doesn't mean there's no band. Believe me, there's still band. Every Monday morning. Then if you're apart of the Clarinet and Trombone section there's Wednesdays and Fridays. Today is my first Monday rehearsal. Summer before Sophomore year.

I go to sit in my section next to my new friends Juliet and Gabbie. Both I've known since the beginning of freshmen year.

"Well, this is it." I say. "I'm officially in marching band."

Freshmen year I was in color guard. We started with twenty members then it went down to thirteen and ended with eight. There was a lot of uncalled drama. So much make up. I can still find glitter every where even if the season was about a year ago. My hair was in so many braided styles that anyone could imagine. I've also gotten a ton of bruises caused by dropping the flag. I thought sophomore year could be a year of change. Change in who I am. Change in who I associate with. Change in everything. Sophomore year is a year I plan on making a million times better than Freshmen year.

"Kenzie, Leo is going to be here next week." Juliet tells me.

Leo is Juliet's boyfriend of two months. They started dating on my ex boyfriend's and my one month. And that is a whole other story. Leo hasn't been to school since about March or April.
"Wow, for once." Gabbie says.

"Cut him some slack." Juliet says before I roll my eyes.

"Pull out your scales and warm ups." one of our drum majors, Megan, says.

We do our warm ups before doing a run through of our show and trust me, we get stopped so many times.

"Clarinets, eighth notes at measure seventeen." Megan says.

"Fuck." I say under my breath.

So we play that part before resuming back to our run through. Then we get called to a quick break.

"You want to go bug the trombones?" I ask the section as they all nod. So, we walk to the back of the room to the trombones. Gabbie runs over to the trombone section leader, Tristan, and gave him a hug.

Gabbie and Tristan have been dating since the last competition of last years marching band season. They're one of the cutest couples I know and they don't make me want to throw up unlike every other couple I know.

"So, sectionals this Wednesday at the duck park?" I ask.

"Yeah, we'll get done fifteen minutes early so we can go on the toys." Juliet says.

After rehearsal, we all hangout in the band room a few minutes before leaving. I decided to hangout with Rickey (from middle school), Naomi, and Dominique.

"Honestly, this is a million times better than middle school band." Rickey says.

"Like Mr. Kinny would straight up call people assholes." I say. "Plus, there were only ten of us in the eighth grade band."

"Where'd did you guys go?" Dominique asks.

"Silverstone Middle School." Rickey says.

"A very ghetto school honestly." I say.

"Like yeah, Richard and I talked a lot but we didn't do much. Remember that time I threw a football in the band room and it hit that one girl in the head." Rickey says as I start laughing and nodding. "I gotta go. See you guys next week." Naomi then walked away too since the only reason she was over here is because her and Rickey are best friends.

So, it was just Dominique and I. Now, I haven't exactly known who Dominique was until second semester of Freshmen year. Since I've gotten to know him just a little I've kind of developed an interest in him.

"Do you want to walk with me?" he asks.

"Sure." I say with a smile before walking towards the west side of the building. "So, you're a sophomore right?"

"No, I'm a junior."

Fuck. The good ones are always a grade higher than me. My ex a grade higher than me. Then I hung out with all of his friends and they were all Sophomores when I was a Freshmen. It's always the class of twenty eighteen.

"Really? I thought you were a sophomore." I say.

"Nope, why?" I shake my head no. "Well, my ride is here. I gotta go." he says before giving me a hug. This has basically how it's been. I then walk back to the original spot I was at before seeing my ride and getting in the car.

Wednesday was our usual rehearsal at one of the parks. I brought brownies for those who actually showed up. Which usually isn't very many people but there were more this time.

"Guys, I have the drugs!" I yell taking over the pan of brownies to the table.

Hank (also from middle school), Tristan, Dominique, Bobby, and Kayla all went over to the opposite end of the park. That's part of our trombone section and one of our tuba players.

"Okay, Max, Mark, who has the tuner?" Juliet asks the twins. "So, this is the order you will play in. Gabbie, Shonda, Mackenzie, Isaac, Mark, Max, then Piper. I want to hear you all separately then we'll play all together."

The part we mainly have to work on would be a million times easier for me, if upper register B flat on a clarinet wasn't a difficult transition. Plus when we first played this music, I kept playing the B flat natural which was a terrible mistake. Now, I have a sixteenth note issue. Eighth notes as well. Then there's a note I only just recently learned because before I didn't know my second to highest note. Mr. Kinny from middle school really didn't really teach us shit.

Once we do the run through we all decide to go over to where the clarinets have trouble. Afterwards since we were at a park we went over to the playground. We all got on this spinning toy that we all thought would be a good idea.

"Someone get off and spin us!" Juliet says as Dominique got off and spun us all. I then see my dad show up and leave. I give Juliet a quick hug. "Bye, Mackenzie." I start to walk away until...

"Wait, do I get a hug?" I hear Dominique ask. I then walk over to him and give him a semi long hug before leaving.

A few weeks later we had a meeting. This meeting I got my shoes for marching band. I didn't think I was going to be able to get them since I didn't pay for them. Once I got them I wanted to cry. This was my second step in transitioning from color guard to marching band. It's a beautiful feeling honestly.