Amor de mi Alma || 2Jae

Chapter 1

"And then he was all like, 'More timpani! We need to hear the timpani!' and I actually had to play so loud that I couldn't even hear the flutes in the front row anymore." 

"It's crazy - no, nevermind, he is crazy," 

Youngjae grins at the voice of his older brother - who is in Choir - as they make their way toward Youngjae's locker. In just three hours they would perform at the Christmas Concert, probably Youngjae's favourite concert of the year simply because of the beautiful decorations they put up each year. 

"Mr. Divins is always like that, though," says Jaehoon. "Just wait until your last year, he'll want everything perfect and if you mess up, well, you're practically dead to him."

"I know," Youngjae laughs again and they stop at his locker - and practically Jaehoon's locker too, seeing as the older boy usually put his stuff in Youngjae's locker. It is opened a few seconds later and the two brothers take out their music (and Youngjae his extra drumsticks) before hurrying back to the Music Room.

It was snowing outside, the ground covered in a thick blanket of white, and everyone was cozy and warm inside, having fun and joking around and laughing. In the gym, which was beside the Band Room, was the basketball team of the school, practising in the one hour they had before the band-kids would have to set up for the concert. Outside the gym sat a few stray kids studying or catching up on homework.

The Band Room was, as usual, complete chaos; instruments were being played everywhere, singing was heard from one of the practice room and Mr. Divins was talking with some of the saxophones that were waiting to tune in the only other practice room of the Band Room, which was occupied by three flutes and one bassoon. 

Youngjae said goodbye to his brother, who would have to join the fourteen other Choir kids to go out into the hallway and revise on the songs they were to sing, and then he joined his section at the back of the room.

In his opinion, the percussion section is the most chaotic out of all, even during practice and even during a concert, sometimes. People are always running around, they are always asking where what instrument was, and they are always messing around while waiting for the rest of the band to finish learning a certain bar or a few bars of a song.

Currently, the percussion section exists of Youngjae, the section leader, and four girls, as no other boys were that interested in playing percussion. There was Lexie Gordon, the Freshman that joined their band at the beginning of the year; Amber Soltzman, probably the most popular girls to have ever walked the halls of their school; and the Elmers Twins Dany and Rosy, who were currently playing a ringtone-tune on the xylophone (the usual for them).

Mr. Divins ques the band to be quiet and after exchanging a few words with the basketball coach, he steps onto the small platform for the conductor and addressed the band with his usual speech before a concert.

"So," he straightens out his folders. "Tonight is probably one of the most important concerts, besides the Night Sky Concert. I think that we'd leave out Children of Gaia for now, I'd like to do some extra work on that before we perform it, so for tonight we will do Pony Express, Praetorian, and Cha'la, as you guys seem to be enjoying that last one quite a bit - and no, James, we won't be chanting like you did this afternoon."

James Noughard, one of the only two trombones, lowers his raised fist. Youngjae grins in the boy's general direction before focusing back on Mr. Divins, ignoring James' stuck-out tongue.

"We'll do the pieces in that order, too. Pony Express first, then Praetorian Guard, and then Cha'la." Mr. Divins takes out his music. "Let's fix up that bass-line in Last Ride of the Pony Express first, because we really do need it at bar 104."

Youngjae picks up his folder and walks toward the timpani (probably his favourite instrument of all the percussion - playing it just gives him a thrill, of some sorts), taking out his parts while doing so.

"And remember, Youngjae," Mr. Divins says, as he takes out his baton. Youngjae looks up. "Play loud and strong! The audience will want to hear you at bars like in bar 43 and 66. From the beginning, everyone in, we'll play through it once first, and then we'll go back to 104 and fix the notes."

"Great work everyone," Mr. Divins cuts off the band and Youngjae hears multiple people sigh in relief - mainly the flutes, who have the horribly long trill in the last few bars. "That'll be just fine, and so will the other two pieces. Go put your instruments somewhere safe and then help with the set-up. Pizza will be here probably by five and we will run the program once more at six, and be in your uniform by then. Jazz players, stay behind to fix some of the work in Strange Fruit before we play, flutes need to desperately make sure that the higher notes sound good. Chop chop!"

Youngjae puts down his sticks and rolls his shoulders before beginning to make his way towards the side of the room, where his three best friends Yugyeom, Jinyoung, and Kunpimook are putting away their instruments.

"Finally playing the timpani right, are you?" Jinyoung smirks, taking off the neck strap of his saxophone.

"At least I know how to play it," Youngjae counters back, and Yugyeom 'Oooh's as he puts his own saxophone next to Kunpimook's French horn. "But let's go help out, I don't think Mr. Divins would like it if we hung around any longer."

"Like we always do," Yugyeom snorts. 

"I'm meeting up with some friends first," says Jinyoung. "They've just finished basketball practice and we're still trying to convince our boring old Bum to come watch the show."

"You go do that, go hang out with the losers," Kunpimook says playfully.

"Just because they're in the year above you does not mean that they're losers, thank you," Jinyoung flicks Kunpimook's forehead before trudging out the Band Room, greeting Jaehoon and his friends on the way.

Set-up goes quick, as usual. Since Ariana Sharpe, the piccolo that is in charge of everything going smoothly during set-up isn't there, Lexie takes over (much to her enjoyment, as she gets to boss Youngjae around, which she loves doing).

It is around five-ten when Mr. Divins says the pizza has arrived, and the jazz-kids stream from the Band Room and toward the cafeteria. Jinyoung joins Youngjae, Kunpimook, and Yugyeom, grumbling slightly about something his friends said or did, and the four of them make their way to the cafeteria, where they take their usual seat at the table near the middle of the room, nearest to the pizza.

It only takes a few seconds for the last two seats to be taken by Lexie and by Leia Bartell, the section leader of the clarinets, both girls talking brightly about their jazz-pieces.

"So," says Yugyeom, smirking at Jinyoung. "Is your 'friend' coming?"

"Why are you doing the 'quotation marks'?" Jinyoung asks, imitating the younger boy. "First off, we're not dating. Second off, we managed to convince him."

"So when exactly are we going to meet?" asks Youngjae, leaning forward slightly. "You always tell us about those friends but we've never actually met them."

"I'll introduce them to you after the concert today," Jinyoung says. "I promise, okay? Why are you so interested in them anyway?"

"Because you always tell me that they are the one that made the cool graffiti in the bathroom on the second floor and I want to know who was behind it."

Jinyoung looks troubled for a second, but it's gone as soon as Mr. Divins says that their table can line up to get their pizza.