I had no idea where I was going.
"Where are we going?"
"To our seats right now," Julia half ran past me, so her response came out breathy and short. I felt the air from her body hit me as she kept moving along the crowded hallway I was standing still in. I took a deep breath in and slowly continued to walk towards the main room.
It was my first performance of the year. It was all of the freshmen's first performance, and we were all painting smiles on our faces while we were terrified on the inside. Performing in front of a crowd, especially the crowd of a high school football game, was something I couldn't even imagine properly. It felt surreal that I made it through all the long practices after school and I was already getting ready to perform.
"Are you coming?" I heard Julia's voice from the end of the hallway now, motioning with her hands to come to her. I snapped out of my short daydream and walked to meet her down the hall, pushing past the multiple bodies that were surrounding me.
I walked up to her and we continued into the main band hall together, finding our seats and watching as all the other members rushed to get everything they needed together for the night. I observed the clouds of hairspray that had just started clouding together above all the heads in the room.
"My hair looks awful," my friend said as she ran a hand through her brown ponytail. "I didn't have enough time to get ready."
"I got ready early. I didn't have people to talk to like you did, so I started on my makeup before everyone else." I replied. The older members left the school during our 'get ready' time to get food, but I stayed in the guard's private room and played music on my phone while I prepared myself for the night. I put on a full face of makeup, even though it was hot outside and all of it would be melting off as soon as I stepped out into the night sky. I didn't mind, though. At least I could get a few good pictures.
The room hummed with voices around me, people laughing loudly or singing. The room radiated happiness. We all were about to have a fun night, and the energy reflected just that. I smiled a little.
My other friend Sara ran to her seat and sat down fast, her chair scooting along with her body.
"That was so stressful." She sighed, pulling out her phone to check the time. "My hair was so tangled and the director made me redo it. He made me so mad."
Our hairstyle for the colorguard was a high ponytail with the hair just above our forehead raised to make a bump. It was a hard look to achieve, and my hair was still sticky from the hairspray I had applied. I slowly scanned the room, observing everyone else's ponytails. Certain people were better with their hair than others. I knew this by the flyaways that stuck out from certain people's heads.
I heard shushing from members in the band hall as others ran to their seats. The director was standing in the front of the room. My friends and I sat straight in our chairs and listened to the loud uproar of conversations decrease to silence.
"I hope everyone had time to get ready. We need to do the following before we head out onto the field-" he began his speech. My mind wandered off and I looked around the room. The ceiling was very tall and there were seats for around 150 people, all filled with eager students. The director stood on a podium at the front, whiteboards filling up the space on the walls behind him. I heard the occasional sound of two instruments clinking together, distracting me from the directors long talk. Little noises always could deter my thoughts to a different place.
"-if you have any questions about what I just said, ask your friends first. Quietly stand and we'll walk out onto the field in a straight line," he finished, adjusting the visor on his forehead. He had a bookbag with our school logo slung halfway across his back, and the zipper was swinging every time he moved slightly. I watched as he pointed for the back row of students to lead the way out.
