You Snared My Heart: A Marching Band Love Story

5•Second day

5:45. Time to wake up and face another day. Lori was adamant that I be early to practice. I was so far behind that it was stressful. Everyone else had already learned music and drill, while I had absolutely nothing. I was more useless than the freshmen.

I threw on a sweatshirt and old jeans. My tennis shoes were also a must. Lori had made me eggs and bacon. My frizzy hair was wrangled into a braid. I was ready to face this day.

Daniel had volunteered to help me learn the basics of marching. As soon as I got to school (6:30) we headed down to the field. This is where things got technical and I got confused.

By the time regular practice had started(6:55) I was frustrated and annoyed. I pulled my hoodie up, shielding my face from the world.

"Baaaaaasics!" The man I now knew to be Mr. Gunderson called out. He looked no older than 40 and seemed nice enough.

Basics was where the nightmare began. We were told to stand in a block, 7 people across. Since I'm low brass, baritones were stuck in the back. After 5 minutes of holding my horn my arms were shaking and I had trouble breathing. It was just so heavy...I'd have to take up weight lifting or something.

That's when I had my terrible idea- to rest. As soon as I put my horn down, the jerk came up to me.

"Excuse me, but do you think that resting is acceptable?" He asked. It was clearly rhetorical.

I lifted up my face, and a flash of recognition flickered in his eyes. Standing up, I responded. "How
would I know? Nobody's bothered teaching me anything about marching yet. I'm just as lost as yesterday."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Daniel's long face wince. Oops.

"Oh boy." The drum major sighed. He gave me an exasperated look, and then something in his visage admitted defeat. He turned around, and began.

"As your drum major, it is my responsibility to make sure those who are struggling are brought up to speed. Since you are so far behind the rest of the band, having missed all summer, you will need far more effort than the others to succeed." He paused. "Therefore, I will tutor you after school in order for you to learn to march. It wil-"

"WHAT?" I interrupted. "Absolutely not! I am already here every morning. There is no way you can force me to go to these stupid tutoring sessions. I'll learn eventually!" I stopped when I noticed him actually grinning at me.
"What?"

"Do you want to succeed?"

I refused to look down. "Yes."

"Then I'm afraid you have no choice, Eleanor. "

I let that sink in for a minute. My angry response caught in my throat as I realized I had never told him my name. I don't even know his name. My eyes furrowed at him. I couldn't let my temper take over right now. Not in front of all these other students. Not in front of the band director. Not in front of him. I couldn't let him win.

"Well since you happen to know me so well how about you tell me something about you? Starting with your name?" I ask smartly, still not caring that i had stopped the whole band from their rehearsal and was challenging the drum major.

"If it's so important to you..." he begins.

"It is!" I say interrupting him. He glares at me before continuing.

"My name's Lincoln, Miss Blythe." he said and the fact he was calling me by my last name made me angry. He thought he had such superiority over me, simply because he was drum major.

"Hmm interesting. Do you not have a last name?" I reply to his answer. He just grinned snarkily. Why was he so arrogant?

"Why are you so interested in my last name Eleanor?" He was having too much fun now, as a half smile snaked across his face.

I heard Mr. Gunderson before I saw him. He had come running down from the press box to stop our argument, and was slightly out of breath. "Alright alright. Get back in line. You're wasting our rehearsal time." He turned to me and sighed. "I'm sorry Eleanor, but you'll have to stay after school and make up for the time you wasted in rehearsal today. It'll also give you a chance to catch up and get to know your drum major." Mr. Gunderson said frankly, eyes switching from Lincoln to me. "Personally, I think that may not be a bad thing."

I try to protest but he's already gone and getting the rehearsal back on schedule. I catch Lincoln's sly smirk out of the corner of my eye and I glare at him before beginning another long five minutes of holding up my horn.

***********************

The day went by slowly. Daniel tried to talk to me in PE about this morning, but I ignored him and focused on power lifting weights. I needed that extra muscle.

Following PE came debate with my favorite person. I saw him sitting in the front as I walked into the small classroom. My face was flushed and my hair sticky from sweat thanks to PE. This would be just great. I found a seat in the back corner and waited for class to start.

After the bell rang, Miss Willis appeared holding a bucket. My stomach dropped. This was clearly going to be a bad idea.

"Helloooooooo, everyone! Who's ready for a-" she shook the bucket "DEBATE!"

I stared in fear.

"Once a week in this class we will draw topics out of this bucket. Your slip of paper will mark pro or against. It is then up to you to defend this point to the best of your ability. The prize? Pride, glory, and extra credit." She smiled, expecting it to be good news. To my surprise almost everyone there looked thrilled about the assignment. I was the only one who wasn't at least smiling , and then I remembered that I was also the only one who didn't really get to choose this elective. Debate had chosen me.

"Shall we begin?" She smiled craftily.

She started in the front of the room, making her way to the back in a strange zig zag pattern. By the time she got to me, there was one piece of paper left. With a sinking heart I picked it up and read:
The united states should continue to make selling human organs illegal.

Are.You.Kidding.Me.

What kind of stupid and useless topic is this? How can you even debate over this? I sit shocked and stunned at my see, looking down at the horrifying piece of paper.

"alright class, on the back of your slip of paper is a number. This number will set you up with your partner for the debate. You will be debating in front of the class. One of you is for the topic and one is against. I'll call each number and when yours is called, raise your hand so I can write it down and you will know who you are up against." miss Willis says.

I look at the other side of my sheet and see the number 6. Ok El here is goes.

Miss Willis begins calling numbers and kids raise their hands. I sit silently, awaiting the calling of my number.

"6" the horrifying number is called.

My worst nightmare couldn't have been much worst than what was about to happen. The boy in the front row that i despised and that despised me back, slowly raised his hand as I did before turning his head to see who his match was.

Once his eyes met mine, they first appeared shocked, before a glare crossed over his face. I returned the glare with as much hostility that I could.

Miss Willis began calling the next numbers as our hands when down. We kept steady eye contact, both of us too stubborn to break it.

Miss Willis got through all the names, causing Lincoln to blink and shake his head to the front of the room. A scowl crossed his face and I sighed and looked away.

I placed my head in my hands and hit myself on the forehead several times before realizing what was in store for me.

"...debates tomorrow!" Miss Willis's voice trailed in through my ear. The bell rang and the class bolted out the door as fast as possible. I attempted to, but I dropped my books all over the floor. Sighing I reached down and slowly gathered my things in the empty room. It would be a long year.

And to think this was only my second day.