Let's Do This

First Competition

More games passed and more sets were learned, and now it was finally my first competition!

Yeah, it didn't feel like that. The past few weeks since that first game was a blur, but you know, a good blur.

~

Coming to school on a Saturday morning, not a normal feeling.

But this is just the beginning of competition season. Many more to come, I thought.

I walk inside the school with my compression shirt, which was actually my brother's old compression shirt from when he was in band, my 'stylish' black marching shoes, and of course my black socks. I walked into the band hall noticing there were only a few people in it.

Might as well go change...

I went to the uniform room with only a few people in there and I grabbed my oh-so-beautiful bib (the 'overalls') and went over to the restroom to change.

I stepped into the restroom and I saw Cheyenne having trouble tying up her hair and into a bun. A bun is easy right? Well yeah, unless you have hair that reaches your butt like Cheyenne...

"Need help?" I walked up to her.

"Oh gosh yes." She replied and I stood behind her. She had her hair in a ponytail and I did what I usually do with my hair for buns, I braided it and coiled it around the top.

About five minutes later and a broken hairtie, we were spraying her hair with about half a can of (my) hairspray.

"Oh my goodness Grace, where would I be without you." She said while we put on our bibs.

"Probably getting a haircut..." I replied.

Soon we were out of the restroom and were inside the now crowded band hall.

As I stood near the flute lockers with all the other flutes I suddenly heard a loud voice.

"So flutes! Who's ready for their first competition!" Rose yelled into our ears.

"I am!" Sarah, one of the freshmen, yelled back.

"That's what I'm looking for!" Rose yelled to all of us. Then we all realized that the band hall is quiet.

"Now flutes, if you're done screaming..." Our band director said calmly, "I'm just going to remind everyone that practice starts in 15 minutes!"

10 minutes later everyone was outside in their half uniforms for rehearsal. The sun was hardly shining yet we all knew later in the day it would be burning hot, cause you know, Texas is hot.

Tick tick tick... The metronome rang. Time for rehearsal.

~

"Water break, and top of the show! And grab your hats!" The head drum major's voice rang in our ears and we snapped out of attention and grabbed a quick sig.

Soon we were all in the first set with our hats. The band moms walked around the field putting the plume in everyone's hat.

"New plumes guys, it's about 4 inches taller than our last ones!" Rose said to all of the flutes.

Excited for taller plumes? I guess... But the fact that it is pretty windy isn't going to help.

I looked up and I saw that the drum majors were getting ready to start us off.

Dut...Dut...Dut Dut Dut...

Falling into the scatter set, I felt my hat tilting.

Heck no. Heck...no..