Life In Band

Near the end of our sophomore marching season, Katie slept over at Jolene’s house. They pulled a prank on a kid from out of town, but it got way out of hand. The end result was that Jolene was no longer allowed to talk to Katie. They would have talked at school, but Jolene’s aunt worked there. They were both truly devastated, and I was there for both of them. But things soon took a turn for the worse. One day, during lunch, Jolene was telling me that Penny was really mean, and I agreed. But we didn’t see Katie and Jane standing right there. So Jolene quickly left, and Jane and Katie asked me what she said. I told them, and Jane said, “You’d better tell her! Or I will!” When I did, Penny, of course, went to Jolene and started yelling at her. “If you want to say something to me, say it to my face! Katie is MY best friend, not yours! She doesn’t even like you anymore! So stop bothering MY friends and get your own!” I couldn’t believe she said that. Most of it wasn’t even true. Other people got it and told Penny to stop, which only made her angrier. Jolene was left outside crying and Penny seemed proud of herself. How much more spiteful could she be?

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The summer flew by like a breeze, because soon after school ended, summer band kicked right up. It was my sophomore year and I was finally getting used to things. So used to things, in fact, that our band directors promoted me to Brass Section Leader. While I’m on the subject of our band directors, our assistant band director, the one that had been with us for years, retired at the end of my freshman year. The new one was pretty awesome! She was patient and kind and could work with us well. Anyway, our show that year was Disney-themed, and it was so cool! I loved every bit of it. Of course, Penny always had some problem with it. “It’s too boring!” Or, “It’s too hard!” At this point, I’m getting pretty tired of the chick. She and the terrible two were constantly picking on me, and it got old. Everyone asked me how I could possibly even consider them my friends. I even asked myself that. I mean, Katie was really nice, but she was a pushover. And I remember when she would leave Penny and Jane to go hang out with another friend of hers, Jolene, they would become upset. Penny didn’t like the idea of her friends having other friends. But she needed to understand that she was annoying and mean and people needed a break from her. All of her “friends” thought so. For instance, the time we were at the State Band Convention, Jane had been telling me how it annoyed her when Penny got upset when people copied her phrases or the things she did, but when people got on to her for doing it to them, she got butthurt. And it wasn’t the only thing that annoyed me. I wondered to myself, how long would this last?

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OAP (One Act Play) season kicks off at the beginning of the second semester. To sum it all up, it’s basically competitive theater. Anyway, I didn’t join OAP my Freshman year because I didn’t know what it was. But Penny, Jane, and Sonata had. I had Penny and Jane together in my class right after lunch and at the end of the day. We didn’t really get along with Sonata because, in our last class, me, Penny, Katie, and Velma would always laugh nonstop and it annoyed the teacher, which, of course, led to her not liking us and I’m getting sidetracked. As I was saying, Sonata and Trudy also had the class together and would laugh very loudly but never get in trouble, so naturally we just didn’t like them. We even tried to get them into trouble, which only got us into more trouble. I even remember the time we couldn’t talk so Velma and I wrote a conversation on a piece of paper and accidentally left it there! Oh, the times. Again, getting sidetracked. So back to OAP. Their play advanced to the next level, and for the play Penny was in charge of sounds. During the big performance she messed up, and unfortunately, anyone who dared to direct constructive criticism at her was subsequently condemned to her ultimate hatred. So, during the school performance, Sonata suggested that Penny add a more realistic effect to a sound that she played. However, in Penny’s head, Sonata had just pretty much said that she sucks and should quit. Penny was like that, and everyone knew it, but nobody wanted to confront her about it anymore. So Penny now hated Sonata, but I didn’t know why since I wasn’t in OAP. Around the end of the year, in our class right after lunch, I had asked Penny what happened with her and Sonata, and she told me, very loudly, “Because she just hogged all the food and didn’t work at all!” I was confused, but I went along. But Penny made sure Sonata heard her (which she did) and Sonata in turn replied with: “Oh, sorry, Penny! I didn’t realize I didn’t leave you enough food to fill you up!!” Penny blew up! The whole class was tuned in by now. Curse words were thrown, and almost fists until our teacher finally got intervened and ended it. He’d become so angry at their outburst, that for the rest of the year, the entire class had to work from bell to bell every day, and was almost forced to take the final. For our band trip later that year, Penny and Sonata had to be kept apart at all times. Of course, Penny didn’t allow us to intermingle with Sonata and Trudy. So now, Penny, Jane, and Katie focused all their harassment on me. And boy, did it get old.

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For every practice, our new band director was on full dictator mode! He would literally stand in your ear yelling “LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT!” Which only threw us of tempo. That’s probably why we got a III division for our show. But during concert season, he was a saint. He was still a little crazy in the head, but he was pretty alright. I decided to do all-region that year, making that my first year to ever do all-region. So I was pretty nervous. The music was pretty tough, and I didn’t recognize some of the markings, so I didn’t do so well. Me and Penny decided to practice together. I noticed she’s gotten a lot better that I remember, so that made me even more nervous. On the day of all-region, I did one of the worst things you can possibly do, wore out my lips. So, that concluded me getting 14th chair out of 24, which is apparently good for a freshman. Penny got 11th, and she was devastated. Because, unfortunately, there are only 8 spots in the band for baritone. 2 symphonic, 6 concert. So yeah, I was pretty sad too. But it wouldn’t stop me from trying again! Winter break was right after that, and when I came back, the drama started soon.

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When my dad called me, he threatened he was going to sue us because he claimed I went around the house and broke everything. I hung up after that. I didn’t break anything before leaving, I just grabbed my box, and left. If anything was broken, he would’ve done it. Anyways, the last week of school, I had to go and choose my classes for freshman year. And then I was free for the whole summer. That is until summer band came up. When I got there, I discovered that our assistant band director went to the elementary kids, our head band director was moved down to assistant, and we got a new head band director. It was pretty hectic, but I got used to it. All of my old friends saw me and claimed how tall I’ve gotten and my voice got lower. I didn’t see it, but whatever floats there boat. Now, here’s the strange thing, somehow, I became good friends with Penny, and her possy, Jane and Katie. Sonata was still kind of their friend, but she hangs out more with Trudy. And on the first day of summer band, in the afternoon, we had a full band practice inside. That’s where I met the rest of the baritone section. Senior Mitchell and Sophmore Dylan. I was honestly terrified of Mitchell cause he was a senior, but he was cool, so I calmed down. Our show for that year was a John Williams show, and it was super hard! And the new band director was worse!

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At home, life was beginning to suck pretty bad. My dad forcibly made me share my laptop that I got for my birthday, which he forgot about, from my mom. And they had a computer, but they wanted to be in the living room on the laptop. And when I was rarely on it, I was made to get off. So yeah, home wasn’t a fun place. School was a little bit better, but not great. The vice principal discriminated against me because I was white, so every time one of my friends did something, I got in trouble. I told my mom on the phone about this, and she said she’d be willing to drive and get me, but I said I can last until the end of the year. I lied. I got fed up when I bought a nice little board game with my money, and my dad started to get mad when he was losing and started yelling at everybody. So I called my mom to pick me up, and she said she will the next day. I got a box, and put my important stuff in it. I left the box in the room and went outside to wait. *note, nobody knows what’s about to go down. My mom finally got there with the sheriff and deputy, because she knew that she would kick somebody’s butt if she had to. I went inside, got my box and went into the car. The police went to go assure my dad that I was leaving, and he told them that I was leaving because school already ended in my mom’s town and they still had a week at my dad’s. So the police almost didn’t let me leave until I told them that you only get the week off if you passed your state tests. Which was the truth. So me and my mom drove all the way across state back home. She got me caught up on everything, and it was a pretty pleasant drive. But when we got home, and my dad called me, stuff was about to go down.

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When I moved to this new town with my dad, I discovered how big it was! The school here only had two grades, but over twice as many kids!. It was quite a shock at first, but I got the hang of it. Anyways, the band over here was quite different as well. But I didn’t really mind. There was only one other baritone player here, and he was pretty good. But they don’t have chair test so I never knew if I was first or not. And they had to take there instruments home everyday to play! Which was horrible for me since I had to take two buses to school and back. Over the time I lived there, things just started getting worse and worse, and I thought to myself, did I make the right choice?

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When school started for my 8th grade year, I discovered I had some competition for first chair. Penny. Penny is in my grade and her and Sonata used to bully me in 4th grade. It’s funny since me and Sonata were best friends from the time I moved to this town in Kindergarten through the 2nd grade. But they don’t really communicate with me then and they were still friends. Anyways, Penny has been in band since the 6th grade and has never lost a chair test. But our band director says I actually bring a challenge. On our first chair test of the year, we tied and had to play a tiebreaker at the end of the day. It turns out that our band director was right and I won! Penny was devastated and ran into the restroom and cried. It may seem wrong, but I felt like she deserved it considering what she did to me in 3rd grade. Near the end of the semester, a week before our next chair test, I found out that I was moving across the state. So I had a decision to make, stay here with my mom, or move with my dad. I decided to move again just for the experience. But this time, I actually get to go to a larger school, so I thought that would be neat. By the time chair testing came up, I decided to go easy on Penny, since she was going to be first chair anyways. To this day, she still thinks she beat me. Fool

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When we started finally playing music, I realized that the baritone is a remarkably easy instrument. I was first chair all throughout the year, and I got a first division on my solo and my ensemble. (which isn’t hard for beginner band) Our band trip for beginner band is always Splashway. I was offered to go to Schlitterbahn with the advanced band, but I denied mainly because I didn’t really know anybody from that band. When school ended, my dad moved into my town. *note my parents are separated and I’ve lived with my mom and stepdad most my life. So I decided to move in with him for a new experience. Now, I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t going to give up so fast.

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On the first day of band class, we auditioned for percussion and learned what all the woodwind instruments were and got to play the mouthpieces. We did the same thing the next day with the brass and I was starting to get the idea of what I wanted to play. Since I didn’t make percussion, I wanted to play the saxophone. I thought it was a really cool instrument, but it seemed too hard. So My next plan was to play trumpet. So when I went to go to the meeting after school to choose my instrument, I discovered my band director already chose one for me. The baritone. What?! I didn’t even know what that is! But before I could change my instrument, my mom butted in and said, “Oh! Baritone! I played that when I was in band! I’m sure he’ll do great!” *note, she was only in band for 1 year until she quit because she hated it. So there it is, I was forever stuck on baritone. But I look back now and see how lucky I was to be put on such a great instrument!

To be continued…