Marching The Line: The Newbie

Chapter 6

Makenna's P.O.V.

November. Four months after the marching band season had started. It wasn't hot anymore, making the marching all the better. You were sweating your ass off as bad. We were waiting to go out on the field to perform in our second to last competition. We had received about four superior ratings, something our band hadn't done. And Alan was ecstatic. He had shown up to our last competition and was completely and utterly amazed. He drove Swallen nuts with all his energy but was now joining in directing the band with him.

"Valley View Soaring Ravens may now take the field." The announcer called.

I glanced at Asher, butterflies suddenly in my stomach. He gave me a short nod then mouthed. 'You'll be fine.' Taking a deep breath I nodded back and gave a faint smile. Swallen looked at us and stepped out of the way. Asher called out and then gave four taps on the snare. The band streamed out around the drum line, playing our school's fanfare. Asher looked at me, I had my snare balanced on my knee as I looked at Asher. He had been right, he had the same snare as me. Alan walked over to us. While the band formed the first chart they were to wait and warm up first. Alan began speaking. He looked at me. "You've done this so well, don't let nerves get to you now. It's just like practice. Make a clean switch and be on time and you'll be golden." I gave a nod of my head. Determination flaring in my chest. Alan turned to Asher. "Wait for her, if something doesn't feel right, stall. The judges won't know unless we give it away that something happened." Asher nodded too. Alan stepped aside and Swallen nodded at us. The whole drum line marched out on the field, Asher and I keeping taps on the snares. The color guard formed around us. We waited for Alley, our field commander to count us off.

"1, 2, 1 2 3 4!" She counted. Her voice rang out among the band and the stands and out the judges and us.

Asher split the silence with an extremely loud rim-shot. Split seconds later I was matching his rhythms and steps stride for stride and hit for hit. The song lasted for three minutes, then we switched to Resistance by Muse. I started the song with the gock block and a wicked rhythm on the rim of my snare. Asher followed, a few beats behind on purpose to create an echo. The drum line played the beginning for a while, then finally the rest of the band joined in. I followed beside Asher step for step, making sure to keep a good distance away so if something happened we'd be okay. Then the song halted and we froze in our places. I saw Asher place his sticks in the stick bag hooked on the side of his snare and he knelt down on one knee beside me. Alley began conducting again and quick as lightning stepped onto Asher's snare. Alley nodded at my signal. "1, 2, 1, 2, 3!" she said counting at a slower tempo. The vibraphone and bells began playing a song that I knew every word to and sang constantly. When I was, a young boy, my father too me into the city to see the marching band...The words started forming on my lips. I had my head dipped so my hat was covering my face just like we had practice. I waited, soon I heard the bass drums quietly joining in and the cymbal chips getting slowly louder. I waited still. "1, 2, 1 2 3 4!" Alley's voice rang out to a much faster and more upbeat tempo. My mind raced. I performed a perfect rim shot and started playing the rhymths while I stood on Asher's drum. Then quickly Asher rose. I never lost my balance. He started playing on the rim of his snare and did a full spin and I jumped off still playing and never losing beat. The crowed went nuts. They loved this song and that stunt. It was hard to pull off but we did. Asher and the rest of the drum line began marching to the center of the field just as the three minute long song came to a close. The bass drums created a wall, blocking me from the view of the crowd. I slipped my snare off, and slipped the quads on. A color guard girl took the snare off the field still unseen. Alley counted us off again and smoke poured out from around me. I began executing the quad music along with the other quad player. I knew it had worked. The judges looked stunned. I fought back a grin and let the music take me in again. I knew we had pulled it off.