The Titans

Will Sullivan does not want to do this. He just wants to play his French Horn in the concert band, he never wanted to do marching band. Let alone do it with an instrument he's never played before. He's a horn player, not a sousaphone! But the mellophone line was full up and his brother never takes no for an answer. So now he's stuck on the seven-person sousaphone line for the award-winning Merrimack Valley Fightin' Titan Marching Band.

He doesn't quit. He instead falls in love with an upperclassman on day one and ends up being dragged into more and more band events just to see her. And that leads to him actually enjoying marching band. It was a confusing start to high school. And it doesn't get better. He keeps feeling like something's wrong, like something horrible is going to happen at every step of the way and why does the mirror look so wrong and why is everyone in the world staring at him all the time and why does everything feel so weird all the time? And why does he feel like he's going to puke every time he starts talking? And why does it feel like everyone is going to figure it out?

Freshman year is always full of self-discovery, anxiety, frustration, and some good things along the way. So how will it play out this time? With his first ever crush, too much touchy-feeling moments for his own comfort, rediscovering his love for hockey, and some laughs along the way, freshman year ends up going a lot better than Will ever thought it would. And he's pretty happy about that.