The flutes and french horns have joined forces against the trumpets.
The tuba slept with a saxophone.
Tenor saxophone quit.
The bassoon is drinking.
The percussion have broken the piano, much to the bassoons dismay.
It's just another average year as a Cooperstown High School Band student.
Cooperstown has never been beautiful. And I doubt it ever will be.
Nothing about it really is. There's the Western Side, where all of the rich people live in their big houses and large yards and apple trees. There's the Slums, where all of the people wrecked by poverty and drugs live in their rundown apartments and clubs. There's downtown, where all of the people doing okay live, around St. Judas River and Jesus Street, and no one knows who named those two but they clearly didn't read the Bible. There's the schools. Cooperstown Elementary School, Middle School, and High School.
The only ones we need to hear about are the ones in the Cooperstown High School Band. The ones with problems. The ones with issues. The ones who don't really think this world, in the town Cooperstown could even have the possibility to be beautiful.
But then they find out that Cooperstown is losing funding, and the band will be cut out entirely.
The Bassoon will have to become sober and give up owning cigarettes.
The famed Trumpets and French Horn/Flute rivalry will have to come to an end. (But only with some Romeo and Juliet crap.)
The Tuba and a Saxophone will have to work out the issues that come with sleeping together.
The Seniors have exams.
Dallas will have to get over his grief.
Brianna must realize that what she wants is okay.
Benny has unrequited love.
Brooklyn has confusing love.
All of them have issues. All of them have problems. All of them have trouble seeing the world as a beautiful place.
But this year will change that.
Because this year they have to band together to save the band.
But t I refuse the lie--only like fifteen kids are actually doing anything.
Elliot's partner was his whole world, but after Allan's death, his ghost haunts Elliot's dreams. Everyone tells Elliot to move on, but he isn't sure he can.
*****
It's been a year since the love of Elliot's life, Allan, passed away. Everyone thinks he should have recovered after that much time, but Allan still haunts Elliot every night. He struggles to maintain relationships with his family, and despite a coworkers interest he can't summon up the courage to date. Elliot is living for the past, because to live for the present means he'll have to live with a hole in his heart. But the question Elliot has to face chases him through his monotonous days: is mourning Allan with everything he has truly living?
[[word count: 40,000-50,000 words]]