Under the Willow Tree

Chapter 3

     I have always loved band, ever since my older sister Nikita began to plunk her own notes on the electric piano seated in our hallway. Well, maybe even since my even older brother Darius brought home his baritone in a gigantic case that I could never even dream of trying to carry. Since those days, I've learned a few tricks myself, including clarinet, saxophone, piano, ukulele, and tenor sax. Now band is even more fun since Adam is in the same band as me for once. He plays barry sax in wind symphony and I play clarinet for this class, but usually he is in a class with a higher ranking than the one I'm in. He's an incredible player and my playing was going fairly well until I got my braces on, and since then, its all gone downhill, but starting in highschool has changed the pacings and rankings for all the students, so only two or three freshmen get into the honors band upon audition every year. Now, wind symphony is the first of many classes that I get to see Adam in every day.

    "Hey Shar! How's swimming today?" Adam asked as I got my clarinet, Clerissa, out of my band locker. "Pretty fun. We got free time at the end of class, so Hali, Eva, and I all practiced touching the bottom of the 12-foot area. It was cool." I smiled sweetly at him, suddenly conscious of the fact that I had forgotten to put my lipstick back on. I quickly put a reed in my mouth and said, "Sho, how wush healsh?" Adam hooked his barry sax onto his neckstrap and replied, "Oh you know, the usual stuff you hear from your parents, or in my case, you." He chuckled, and I blushed. "Well, at least you know how I feel about that kind of stuff." I said, trying to make my face stop turning shades of pink. Soon, the bell rang and I was in my seat with my folder, pencil, and clarinet ready to play "Jubilee." 

       After band, I waited for Adam to put his barry in his locker and began walking with him towards the end of the hallway before the bell rang. On the wall next to the choir room was a sign labeled, "The spring musical is.." and a ton of index cards with musical ideas on them. The choir teacher, Mrs. Ariad, told us that she would be putting up a hint today that would help us figure out which musical it would be. "I'm so excited. I've been waiting to be a part of the musical since, like... fourth grade." I told Adam, knowing he'd have heard that from me at least ten times already. "I know, right?! Its just so.. exciting. What if it was Mary Poppins! Ohmigosh that would be so cool!" I laughed at his fanboying over Mary Poppins. It was an amazing musical, though. "You know freshman don't get parts right?" I said. "Yeah, but thats what you said about madrigal actors and Hali is the queen, so I can still dream." We both laughed and continued to geometry when the bell rang.