Marching The Line: The Newbie

Chapter 9

"Ow ow ow ow ow!!" I hissed, my hand moving to my spine. Heat was coming off of it in waves and any little pressure sent pain throughout my body. I needed ice and badly.

"Drum line go ahead and take a break." Swallen called sighing with frustration.

"I can't believe I fell..." Jenny, one of the bass drummers growled running her hands through her blond hair.

Asher patted her back. "Don't worry about it. We're all tired. I don't know what's gotten into Swallen but he's cracking down hard." Asher said, worry flashing in his eyes.

"He's stressed and frustrated." I said. All eyes turned on me. I blinked and shook my head. "Something happened, I can't tell what. But with States only a month away he's worried that we won't have a good enough chance."

"You can tell all that just by looking at him?" Jenny exclaimed.

I gave a small lopsided smile. "Yeah, one of the many perks of being quiet around people. You learn to read them."

Jenny and everyone else nodded. Five minutes later we were back on the field marching once again. You learned that when Swallen or any band director said "one more time" it really meant ten more times. Swallen was horrible about that. I propped the snare up on my knee trying to reduce the searing pain in my back. Alley counted us off, we started playing and forming our charts. I felt Asher's eyes drift from me to Alley and back again. He knew I was in pain and he was angry for me not saying anything. He could get over it. I transitioned into a backwards march, moving quickly and sure-footed then moved into crabstep, dropping next to Asher and marching sideways beside him.

"You're hurting." He muttered.

I blew him off, he could kill me for that later too. I kept going, my breathing getting harder. I stopped beside Asher, my hands playing my music completely from memory. Seconds later I was back to marching. I did another transition into backwards march and suddenly everything felt way wrong. The corners of my vision started going black, I could feel myself shaking and trembling. Mid-October and I was sweating. A crack came from my drumstick, I realized I had broken it, with loss of concentration I dropped onto my heels still going backwards and found a hole. With a yelp, my legs buckled and I hit the ground. Another yelp escaped me when I felt a rock hit my spine and a bass drummer narrowly miss me. A shrill whistle snapped me into attention. I tried to get the snare off myself but it had flipped and landed square on my chest and the harness prevented a lot of arm movement.

Asher dropped his snare and harness and rushed over to me. Him and Swallen ripped my snare off and harness off. Alan rushed over as well.

"Can you sit up?" Asher asked, fear in his voice.

I forced a nod and started pushing myself into a sitting position. Pain erupted in my entire back but I ignored it. "Yeah. I think so." There was little feeling in my legs, making me want to freak out but I refrained from it.

 Asher helped me sit up and placed a hand on the small of my back. His eyes widened slightly but he refrained from saying anything. "Alan go get some ice for her please."

Alan rushed away. I put the palms of my hands over my eyes, and gritted my teeth. Pain was tearing throughout my whole body now. "I just need to walk it off." I growled.

"Don't you dare move Makenna." Asher warned.

I gritted my teeth more and curled my fingers into fists. Feeling was coming back in my legs, the temporary no-feeling had left me afraid but I figured out that it was just from my back straining and hitting the ground had struck some of my body's defenses. Odd I know. But I was okay with odd. After Alan came back with ice I stood up shakily and leaned on Asher as he walked me over to the shade and had me sit down. I sat down in a chair and carefully placed the ice on the sorest spot.