25 or 6 to 4 {EDITING}

Smae

The first thing that every parent learns when their child joins band is that they will never get any of their child's jokes again.

It can be a very lonely life being a band kid sometimes. Band is crazy, and their are so many inside jokes and drama to keep up with, so talking with people outside of band can get pretty confusing. One of my first examples of this started from a simple typo from Zoe in the group chat.

andrea: What do you guys want to do for a group costume?

RainOnAStarryNight: ...it's September...

andrea: Yeah but I want us to agree on a costume so we're not deciding on it last minute

RainOnAStarryNight: True

CaiCai: We should be idiots

RainOnAStarryNight: Why is it that dylan never says anything anymore?

Yes, I know I just changed the subject, but I never saw him text him anymore.

DSurpreme: Because I muted the chat

RainOnAStarryNight: 80 HE'S BACK FROM THE DEAD

DSurpreme: ?

andrea: Smh

Zoe: Smae

Realizing she had spelled it wrong she then corrected herself.

Zoe: Same

I knew it was just a typo, but for some reason I just felt like I had to joke around.

RainOnAStarryNight: smae

Zoe: Lol I messed up

RainOnAStarryNight: Nope it's smae now
You've started a trend
Smae

Zoe: Smae

RainOnAStarryNight: Smae

21jes: Smae

Zoe: Smae

RainOnAStarryNight: Smae

Zoe: Smae

21jes: Smae

RainOnAStarryNight: Smae

andrea: Smae

This going back-and-forth texting "smae" went on forever until Jayden finally spoke up.

SHUTUPRN: Quit spamming

RainOnAStarryNight: Smae

21jes: Smae

Zoe: Smae

He didn't text back for a while. I had assumed he was banging his head on the wall or something until I got this:

SHUTUPRN: For goodness' sake, don't stop upon our account! Smoke as much as you want to--it doesn't bother me, or my daughter, either. We are used to it. Her poor father, my first husband--who is now in glory--was never without a cigar in his mouth. As he bit off one, it lit it with the butt of the other. And my second husband--who now rests in peace--they were alike as two buttons; you could scarcely tell the difference. I had a difficulty at one time myself, a suffocating feeling, all stuffed up here--terrible distress--and the doctors were telling me that it was asthma and that it wasn't asthma-- Well, I smoked then myself--aromatic cigarettes--which didn't do me any good, either, by the way, I can say that. So you see as far as we are concerned, you needn't think you are inconveniencing us. You can't annoy us by smoking. Before we changed we were travelling in the ladies' compartment, and we transferred to this one as soon as we could because there were people in it one simply couldn't travel with; they were out of the question. You would think that people who traveled first class would have manners, that they would know something. But not a bit of it! Believe me, if you want to find out what people are like, play cards with them, or watch them eat, or else go travelling. You'll find out soon enough.

Confused on as to why we had sent this, I texted one last time.

RainOnAStarryNight: Smae
Kk I'm good now

.

Later that evening, Andrea texted us to warn us that we were having another sectional after school the next day to practice suicides. So, though I was sure I was going to die, I showed up in the band room after school that day with my trombone, ready to accept my fate.

What a beautiful thing it was to play the trombone in marching band.

We took our instruments to the side of the building where the side exit from the hallway was. Andrea set us up in our lines, and then tried to see where she, Caiden, and Dylan could stand.

"Kaylee, you go down, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"And Jessica, you go left?" she asked Jessica.

"Yup," she replied.

"Then Kaylee, you go next to Jessica, and we'll stand in between Andrew and Zoe," she said. I picked up my trombone and moved to the left end of the line. This way, I considered, I'll only have to worry about not hitting one person instead of two.

We went through it once, this time with all eight of us together. "One...two...one, two, three, four," Andrea counted off.

We started to bend over and sideways, but Jessica and I ended up hitting her. "You're going too fast," she complained. "Go slower."

Andrea counted us off, and we tried again a few more times. Then, Andrea stepped out of the line to watch us. This time, Jessica stepped backwards out of the line. "Don't stop," I said.

She moved her trombone to my face as she said, "Your trombone just went like wah and you were about to whack me in the face!"

"Yeah, you aren't moving your trombone high enough when you go right," she told me.

"What?" I asked, confused.

Andrea stood next to me. "When you go left or right," she began, "you're just moving your trombone straight to the right. You have to tilt it upwards a bit. If you don't, you might whack her in the face as she goes down."

Okay, I thought, so Dylan lied to me. I move in a Y, not a T. I kept this in mind as we went through it again.

When sectionals was about to end, Dylan told me something else that I would always have on my mind.

I was laughing again, though I can't remember why. Then, at some point, Dylan came out and said, "You can get really annoying sometimes, you know that?"

I stopped. I wasn't exactly shocked, I had been told this plenty of times before, but it really did make me think for a second.

"Yeah, sometimes I just feel like you don't take things seriously," Andrea said. "It gets a little annoying sometimes."

I was pretty embarrassed, but I just stood there with a smile on my face like nothing had happened. I had to step on my feet so I would stop fidgeting. No one talked for a while.

I drove home that day in silence, the memory of what they had said still fresh in my mind. I really didn't blame them. I didn't know what was up; I had never acted this crazy anywhere else. I guess it came from everyone shooting me dirty looks when I started to look like I was having fun, but even when I was happy, I had never been able to act like this is front of anyone. Couldn't I just stop talking for once and leave everyone else in peace?

Yes, I couldn't blame them. I think I'm annoying, too.

_

DISCLAIMER! I did not write the smoking monologue. Here is the link to my source: