"Well, that's it for this band practice, any questions?" asked Ms. Clarke. I put down my tuba and raised my hand, and I could see down the back row, my best friend Amy from the trombone section had also raised their hand.
"Skyler?" Ms. Clarke calls out after seeing my hand.
"When can I play the full size tuba in band?" I asked. The 3/4 sized tuba was cool, but the full size was epic. I could probably fit my whole head down the horn, and the instrument itself is bigger than the smallest kid in the class. It's so heavy, that the case has wheels on the bottom, and it wouldn't even fit in the trunk of my family's car if I tried. Unfortunately the teacher had wanted me to start off on the smaller one first.
"You can play the full size tuba next band practice if you like" she responded. Students started whispering excitedly. Nobody else saw the big tuba out of it's case yet, so everyone couldn't wait to see it.
"Amy?" she said, choosing my best friend who's in the trombone section.
"Is it true that the next step to teacher strikes are no extra curricular stuff?" she asked nervously. The room went silent after hearing her question. It was subject we try to avoid. The teachers in our district school board are going on strike, and each there are different "steps" or "levels" in the strikes that would go on for a certain amount of time. First step was that they stopped responding to parent emails outside school hours, and no more principal meetings; they did this in the first weeks of September. Around October is when they stopped responding to parent emails in general, and so on. We just came back from Winter Break (it's January) and there are rumours the next step is no more extra curricular activities.
"Unfortunately Amy," she responded with a sign, "You're correct. The next step is no extra activities ran by the school, which would means no band."
![[DISCONTINUED] 2020-The Dilemma Year](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/274303599-64-k254450.jpg)