stozier

Chapter Thirteen

Richie's POV*

"Clarinets! CLARINETS!" our band teacher yelled, standing up from his seat. "It's not that difficult! You're slowing down, and they're just SCALES! They're not even that hard!"

I would've laughed or made a stupid joke, but Stanley was a Clarinet. He sat right in front of me, and I knew he would be able to hear. I didn't want him to feel bad.

Ever since I made a fool of myself in the hallway, in front of Ash, Stanley, and all of those girls, I found myself clinging to him. It was crazy, because I barely even knew him when he came up to me, but he stuck by my side- for no reason!- and hasn't left since. Stanley confused me in a lot of ways, but mostly because he hangs out with Bill Denbrough, who hates my guts and calls me a fag and used to terrorize me. He stopped doing it so much this year, and I suspect it's because he's in JROTC and how high of a standard the sargeants hold him to, but it didn't make sense why Stanley hung out with Bill AND me. At first I thought Bill had told him all about me, about how I was gay and annoying, but apparently Bill didn't say any of that. Or maybe he did, and Stanley didn't care.

I tried to avoid Stanley during geometry and lunch, when the two of them are together, but I talk to him in every other class we have. Maybe it confuses him, because he doesn't seem to notice how much I hate Bill.

"This isn't a solo," Mr. McCarthy went on, "but I can make it one if half of the section can't even play the part." Usually McCarthy was chill, but he gets frustrated with the low brass (me) very often. I guess the Clarinets were just as bad as us.

He stretched his arm out, pointing at a poor girl with dark, black hair. "Play it, Jen."

She looked horrified, and for good reason. She sounded horrible, squeaking all over the damn place. I was sure even I could do a better job. Maybe she was just nervous.

McCarthy sighed and put his head in his hand. "Next," he said, without commenting on the first girl. He went down the line, all of the Clarinets being girls except for Stanley, and all of them sucking horribly. Towards the end there was a girl that sounded promising at the start, but she stopped playing midway through, and froze up too much to start again.

Stanley was the last to play, and I could see how red his ears were just from sitting behind him. I wanted to say something to make him feel better, but I didn't want to distract him and make him do even worse.

He started off with the worst sound I've ever heard.

Stan took the Clarinet out of his mouth for a second, muttering a quick "Sorry," before trying again. The second time was much better, and he outdid all of the girls by a landslide! Most of them could barely get out the first bar of music, while he did the whole entire thing. I didn't know if the notes were right, but it sounded good, even if I hadn't been in band for a month yet and I had absolutely no clue what I was talking about.

Once he stopped playing, McCarthy slammed his hand down on the front table. "Finally, Uris. Why didn't you do it right the first time?" he asked seriously, before cracking a quick smile and moving to flip through some music, getting ready to yell at another section. Maybe the percussion.

The whole room was dead silent, and Stanley looked relieved to be finished. "Stan the Man!" I blurted, standing up and grabbing him by the shoulders with a smile. He turned around quickly and returned the smile, his face redder than his ears were.

The rest of the Clarinets gave him dirty looks, but it didn't matter. Stanley was just better than they were, and it wasn't like they didn't have their own chance to prove it. Everyone else congratulated him, though, which I hope made him feel better.

That's how good Stanley is, for real.