Band Geeks

Numero Dos

The rest of band camp passed pretty uneventfully. We marched, we played, and we died of heat stroke. It was the week after where things got weirder. That was picture day, the Wednesday after band camp, and every year the football team would watch us take group photos on the bleachers, yelling out insults and cackling at the uniforms. I know they're unflattering, but they could cut us a break. At least we don't smack each others' asses (at least not all the time) and plus we were the ones that cheered them on the most at games. They're an ungrateful group of bastards.

Lining up in the hall, I laughed at my best friend Bea pretending to strip out of her jacket. The one true thing about band kids is we are a bunch of horny teenagers, at least in our humor. I got real close to her face and huskily whispered "Save all of that for me later." My best friend Riah jumped in "BEA! How could you cheat on me?" She pouted with a fake sniffle.

"I told you Riah, all of this," Bea hands moved down her body sexually, "is open for business. Exclusiveness from my special ladies isn't how I roll." Bea winked and fluttered her tongue in her mouth, making me and Riah bust a gut laughing.

Beatrice and Myriah had been my best friends since they came to the high school when I was a sophomore. Even though they're a year younger, I still love them to death. Bea was a beauty with light green hazel eyes, tall and curvy with mouse brown hair. She could probably get any guy if her personality wasn't so intensely immature, but that's what I loved about her. She hated drama as much as I did and prefered lots of fun, and she came up with the most random things to do. One of these was going "meowing"......I'll explain that later.

Riah was a different story. Riah had a major weight problem that upset her greatly, and she would eat to try to feel better, making her weight increase. She also was big on drama and opinions, but she was good for girl advice and liked to have fun too. She was still very good looking with bright blue eyes, tall height and mega curly brown hair, her pouty lips rivalling Angelina Jolie's. Her boyfriend of two years was a boy in my class, Jordan, who never left her side. And I mean never. Despite her flaws, I loved her dearly.

Still laughing and joking about how we would meet up for "fun" later that night, we followed the line out to the sidewalk to line up by height. My goal this year was to make it only ten people down from the front of the line where all the tall people would stand. I'd gotten close often, but I wanted to make it closer this year.

I stood close to the front with a smirk on my face, ready to tell people to "move down shortie!" I only ever said mean things in jest, so everyone would usually just flip me off or stick out their tongues at me with a laugh. As I stood there, Tuck approached me with a weird look.

"Beth, what are you doing?"

"I'm standing in line. I'm going to be in the top ten of the tall side this time!" I beamed at him, trying to show him how happy I was to be tall.

Tuck's eyebrows drew together. "Um Beth.....We stand up front for the photos. We don't get in line."

"......oh. 'Cause we're awesome drum majors, right? Ahehehe." I forced a laugh, hoping I didn't look more like an idiot than I already did. Tuck giggled, patting me on the head.

"It's okay Beth. We all know you're special......ed!!!!" He ran away laughing as I reached out to tickle him. GRR!!

"Shut it Tuck!! I'll beat you!!" I yelled at his retreating back. Asshole.

"BAND TEN HUT!" "ONE!"

Oops, time to go!! Hurray for torture time. I glanced at the freshmen as I line started moving. They hadn't experienced the field day that picture day turned into for us, and I was worried they'd get really upset. Or worse, retaliate. I had to protect them. They were my little freshmen after all!

As we went down the ramp and into the bleachers, I nervously glanced at the field. The players hadn't noticed our arrival, but it was only a matter of time. The photographer followed us, placing his step ladder on the track as his assistants carried in his camera and other equipment. The jolly photographer took our photo every year, and he knew what to expect. After so many years, I literally think he is deaf to all insults.

"Well look who it is!! The nerds have come out to play!!" Roger Michaels, the center for the team exclaimed. "Everybody bring their skin flutes to play this evening?"

Snickers, catcalls, and jeering broke out from everyone on the field. Their coaches just laughed like they did every year, not even trying to control the boys. I glared. Couldn't they do anything?

"Look at the freshmen, they're so puny. Except for that girl, look at her, she's HUGE!" Christian yelled pointing at a trumpet girl named Hilary. Hilary was extremely talented for her age and usually very proud and outgoing, but at that comment she went silent and looked at her feet through her scene looking glasses. When I saw a tear dripping down her face, my blood started to boil. Bullies were the one thing that got my goat.

Don't do anything stupid just ignore them and they'll go away. Just imagine them being hit by a meteor. I almost laughed at the picture in my head, but got myself under control as I headed to Hilary. "Just ignore them," I told her with a hug. "They're just jealous they're not as awesome as you are. You're going to go great places someday, and they're going to be stuck here. So just think of that when they yell rude things. Got it?" I looked into her eyes with a gentle smile as she nodded, taking off her glasses to wipe her eyes. I thought that would be the worst of it, but things like to go downhill for me.

"Compared to the preschooler behind her, she's a monster! Be careful everybody, the Hulk's in the house!" The whole team guffawed in laughter at the running back Tommy Morris's comment, some of them, including Roger, rolling on the ground with laughter.

Christian put his arms out at his sides to make him look round and waddled forward. "HULK SMASH!!!!!" The team died all over again as Hilary ran from the bleachers with tears streaming down her face, an undersized trumpet freshman behind her named Cade looking sad at their comment on his size. I turned to Jace and told him to go find Hilary since he was her captain. He ran when he saw the look on my face, knowing one of my rare explosions was going to happen. This was my band bitch, and I wasn't going to stand the riff raff from the peanut gallery.

I went down the ramp and onto the field, a wave a fury proceeding me. When I passed them, players would stop laughing and stare in awe and fear at the wrath on my face. All reason was gone as the anger that ran in my family got the best of me for once. I walked straight up to Christian, Roger and Tommy, who were the only one's still laughing, tears of mirth on their faces. They stopped laughing when I grabbed the facemask of Christian's helmet and pulled it close to my face.

"YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HER YOU PRICK!!!! YOU WANT TO YELL RUDE THINGS, FINE BUT JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!" My throat hurt from all the shrieking but it felt good to see all three of them shrink back a little. The pupils of Christian's bright blue eyes were tiny in fear, or so I thought until his signature smirk appeared. By then, I knew I was long gone.

He stared directly into my eyes. "Hulk. Smash."

That's when I lost all sense of rationality and punted our star quarterback in the crotch.