Lana

Chapter Two

On every other Wednesdays and Fridays after school, I come with Manny to band practice. I don't really play any instrument, unless you count the tambourine which I played once during third grade for a class play.

The band held their practice either in the music room or in the auditorium (sometimes outside, depending on the weather and Mr. Schwartz's mood). They practice in the music room if the drama club (aka Tuesday's club) are practicing in the auditorium and they didn't want to share.

It was Friday and I went with Manny to the music room, he was carrying his trumpet in his right hand and in the other he held a couple of crumpled sheet music. I was carrying my maroon colored backpack by the strap, letting it drag on the floor even though it's not that heavy. We climbed up the stairs and my bag goes thump-thump-thump into the steps. When we reached the third floor, we walked further down its hall, when we reached the last room on the right, Manny opened the door and I trailed behind him and closed the door.

There she was, Lana Wasco cleaning her flute; like it was the most fragile thing in the whole world. She was seating on the stool by the window, her music stand propped in front of her.

I took a seat far away from the group, sat myself amongst the many chairs that were placed on the side to make room for the band. Manny left me and proceeded to take his place and chatted with Ralph the clarinet player.

I sat in my seat, watching everybody move in the small place, trying to make room for their instruments and music stands.

"Hello everybody," Mr. Schwartz said, like how a game show host would say it as he opened the door. He was carrying a black bag and took one of May's drumstick as his makeshift baton. "Hello, there Mary," Mr. Schwartz said, taking notice of my presence as placed his bag beside the stand. I waved a hand at him. "And Axel." He then turned to Axel who was sitting behind me. Axel tipped his head to Mr. Schwartz.

"Everybody," Mr. Schwartz tapped his pretend baton on his music stand to grab everyone's attention (which worked), "I hope you all would play your best today, seeing that we have a big crowd at the moment." There were only two of us and Axel didn't seem to be all that interested- he was already tapping away on his phone. Mr. Schwartz looked behind us and I gave him a thumbs up. He grinned and turned back around to face the group. "One, " he started, both arms raised, "two, three-"

As the group started playing the first few notes of a jazzy version of Moon River (as if it wasn't jazzy enough), I focused first on Manny, then my eyes slowly moved its way to the back right corner of the room until it settled on her. At the corner of my eye, I saw Manny slightly shaking his head with a smirk on his face.

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