Let's Do This

How Cute. Wait What.

The feeling before and after performances have never quite faded for me yet, and I love every single moment of it. Instead of fading, it feels stronger. The cheering before and after the performance is priceless, and knowing that I was better than day before is even better. Even if we all are sweating and hats are filled with little pools of our sweat, it's still something I wouldn't trade for anything.

I noticed that during the middle of our performance, the moment when we're so into it but you have to contain your excitement of just being able to perform instead of playing past your best sound and breaking the whole effect.

Then you're in the stands once again, everyone tired and sitting down, yet the drumline still plays their cadences and you can't help but dance. Later the drumline follows their tradition of taking most of the flute players' flutes while they're in the restroom and passing around their different pieces across the whole band. People across the whole band holding a foot joint, body, head joint, or crown when the director asks where is so-and-so's flute. People would reply "Is it this one?" "Or this one?".

Then we're back into the bus, heading back to our school in a three hour bus ride.

"Hey Grace, you okay?" A voice to my right asked me. I looked over to Josh and nodded. I was lost in thought as I saw my section leader being unusually quiet, she just said on how much she will miss band. I decided to let it go for once.

"So..." I said to Josh, unsure of what to say. I was sitting on the left side of the bus in the aisle seat with my friend Sara on my left, although she fell asleep as soon as she sat down. The back of the bus was louder, people laughing, while in the front there were more like quiet conversations. We sat in the middle.

"Bored?" He asked me. I shrugged again not knowing what to say. Josh and I became friends last year, but we often have those quiet moment when we want to talk but were unsure what to talk about.

"Come on, come sit next to me." He said, grabbing his saxophone case and putting it under the chair to make room for me.

"No...It's okay. " I replied back smiling. I admit, I was close to having a crush on him last year, but my friend liked him a lot and they were soon dating, so I pushed it aside. But over the summer they have broken up.

"Fine then." He said with a playful pout. I laughed it off and soon we were in a conversation about band.

"Impossible. I'm pretty sure tubas use more air than flutes..." Josh said saying as if he never knew.

"Well, in some notes they probably are, but flutes uses more most of the time since not all of their air is put inside the flute." I replied back, leaning my head against the now comfortable bus seats. The lights were off now in the bus and there were hardly any lights outside since were were surrounded by trees and the moon has been covered up by the clouds. Only one hour has passed and we would be back at school in about two more hours.

"Well then..." He said back in more of a quiet tone.

"What?" I turned to face him with my legs in the aisle. He did the same.

I looked up to see him staring at my face, and instinctively I pushed my glasses up since they tend to slip down. He looked into my eyes so I stared into his.

"Ha. You blinked, I win."

"Wait what?" I asked, utterly confused. He opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it after a few seconds.

"Nevermind..." He said. He looked around and I did the same. About half the bus was asleep and the others were either listening to music or in small conversations. He looked back at me.