Marching The Line: The Newbie

Chapter 2

Mak's P.O.V.

8:00am.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I heard Asher chuckle at me and I glared at him. I shifted my shoulders and balanced the snare drum on my knee, taking some of it's weight off my shoulders. I hadn't pulled my hair back into a ponytail yet but I was constantly brushing it out of my face. Mr. Swallen was working with the trumpet section, all ten of them.

"Only two hours left Mak." Asher said a smirk on his face.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "How are you not tired?"

"It's called sleep and energy drinks." Asher said shaking his head,

"I'd be awake if I had music to listen to." I grumbled.

Mr. Swallen turned back to the drum line. "Asher, take the rest of the drum line and go practice in front of the school."

Asher nodded and the whole other thirteen members including me followed. The drum line consisted of fourteen members. Three snares, three quads (I was one of the three, along with the snares.), and eight bass drums. For our not so big and in the middle of no where school, we were pretty big. It wasn't easy to balance the sound but all of us managed. Asher stopped in front of the school and leaned against the brick wall. "Take the drums off for a few minutes. I don't know about you guys but my back is killing me."

I froze as Asher stared right at me as he finished his last sentence. Oh shit. My mind said. I took my drum off and pulled the harness over my head and set it on my drum. Asher walked over to me and stood behind me.

He leaned down to whisper in my ear. "You forgot to mention that you had back problems." He said. His silver and green eyes flashed. "That's a pretty important piece of info Mak." He growled and stood straight again.

I looked down at my converse, suddenly feeling cornered. "I think I'll survive Asher." I said. I grabbed my snare harness and put it back on. Asher did the same with his and we both put our drums on.

Asher cleared his throat and suddenly the rest of the drum line had their drums on. Clearly they respected Asher. "Alright, let's go over Monster." He said.

I managed to talk Swallen into letting us play Monster by Skillet for a stand tune. I had heard it done before and printed out the different sheets of music. The drum line loved it, mainly because we could be loud and we had a drum break in the middle. As we began to play I began to lose all tension in my shoulders and my spine. A smile formed on my lips. Almost as soon as the song began it was over. It wasn't really that short of a song, maybe about three minutes long but when you get lost in your sound you tend to lose track of time. Asher called for us to play Knights of Cydonia by Muse, one of our actual show tunes. I grinned and eagerly waited for Asher to start the tempo. I saw him close his eyes and then his stick struck the drum head four times giving us the tempo. I followed along with the complicated rhythms, I heard the other snare drummer, Jay mess up and groan but jump back in. Asher stopped and the rest of the drum line stopped as well. I watched as Asher played the rhythm that Jay had messed up on. Jay watched Asher's sticks and his wrists and then copied what he saw.

"Whoa...you do that to?" I said my eyes wide.

"What? Copy what I see and hear?" Jay asked.

I nodded. "I thought I was the only one that did."

"Almost every drummer in this drum line does." Jay said.

"Oh." I said and Mr. Swallen walked back over to us.

"Alright, come on back." He said.

Asher nodded and we all followed Mr. Swallen back to the practice field. We spent the rest of the time finding our charts and working on our show music.

*

Asher's P.O.V.

I had to give Mak credit. She was working hard on perfecting everything. She was also becoming more comfortable with helping the other members of the drum line. There were a few members that were giving her a hard time, though she didn't let it get to her. Swallen was certainly favoring her. Constantly calling out her mistakes and missteps, but Mak let her determination be known. She never asked for help or to take a break even if her back was bothering her. Mak may have been good at hiding her frustration and anger but her pain was pretty noticeable. I shook my head as Swallen blew his whistle for us to stop again. Mak let out an aggravated sigh as Swallen called her out again.

"Keep you're shoulders level and don't look down Mak! Do I have to keep telling you?" Swallen barked. "And you're rushing your steps, slow down or you're going to run Asher over!"

Mak's knuckles turned white from gripping her sticks so hard.

"Mr. Swallen! Can we take a break? We've been at this for almost an hour now. I think everyone needs a drink." I said cutting Mak off from saying something. I could feel her pale green eyes smoldering into the back of my head but I didn't look at her.

Swallen ran a hand through his hair and nodded. "Fine, fine. Take a ten minute break."

The whole sixty-five member band sighed with relief and everyone dismissed into the school. I took my snare off and was just setting it on it's side in the grass when Mak came up behind me. I stood up and faced her. Mak looked pissed, her arms were crossed over her chest and she had one knee bent, putting most her weight on the other leg. Her pale eyes smoldered with frustration. If Mak had been in a cartoon, I'm pretty sure she would have had smoke coming out of her ears.

"What, the hell?" She growled.

I stared at her and crossed my arms across my chest. "What?"

"Why did you do that?" She hissed. "I was perfectly fine."

"Face it Mak. You needed a break. Everyone did." I told her calmly.

"I just said I was fine. Stop trying to cover for me."

"I'm not trying to cover for you. I'm keeping you from losing your spot." I said.

A muscle ticked in Mak's jaw as she stared at me. She shook her head and walked into the school. I followed after a few seconds just as annoyed as she was. Swallen had defiantly made Mak reach her point of snapping. I had a sinking suspicion that's what he wanted. For being her uncle he sure acted like she was a pest. I had a bad feeling about this year.

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So yeah Makenna is getting picked on pretty bad. And Asher may be on to something. (Asher's picture is posted with this chapter) Hopefully things will get better for Mak soon. ;)

So what do you guys think of one of the band's show songs? Huh? Can you guess the theme? Of course you cant! Cause you only know one song that they're playing! You won't find out until later!!! Sorry! Anyways, enough babbling. Hope you guys like it so far!

*Fighting fire with fire! Don't like the heat? Don't start the flame!*