Marching season is out, but the competition is only heating up.
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Section leader applications for the next marching band season at Halston University are officially open, and percussionist Bay Rodriguez wants the role.
Bay's only competition is Ca...
noun. an intensive camp, usually over summer, to prepare musical ensembles and teach performance skills.
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SUMMER ALWAYS AGREES WITH BAY.
Her soul definitely belongs in winter, with all the dead trees and barren landscapes mirroring her heart, but in summer? I think she glows. Her skin browns at the shoulders, calves, cheekbones and the tip of her nose. Due to the heat she keeps her wild curly hair tied up most of the time, revealing her elegant profile and collar, and employs little cooling measures like fanning herself, splashing water on her face, blowing tendrils of hair off her forehead. It's adorable, I don't know.
Maybe I just like seeing her stony exterior crack in half—she overheats? She is human after all. Or maybe I just like seeing her flustered.
I don't realize I've been staring in her direction until she walks up to me, leaning close to me to whisper, "Hey, mouth-breather. You wanna stop zoning out and finish handing out the music?"
I paste a cheerful expression on my face and grit out, "Shut up."
Crass, but I couldn't think of a better comeback; it is fucking sweltering on this football field.
Both of us have taken Keller's feedback on board. In spring, she told us that our rivalry would set a bad precedent for the percussion section, and for the band in general. As an incentive—or, what I consider to be a punishment—we've been pitted against each other as co-leaders.
So, there's a new competition at play: who the best section leader is. Consequently, Bay and I take even more precautions to keep our bickering and insults hidden from the rest of the percussion section and drumline. The freshmen who have never met us before band camp started four hours ago won't know any better. Shane and the other returning percussionists are probably more clued in, but we're all professionals today.
Yesterday the marching band all moved onto campus early. This morning, all two-hundred and eight marching band members convened on the football field. Day one of band camp is always a refresher to marching.
The very first thing Keller—who's been carrying a megaphone around all day—had us do was run two laps of the field. The second thing was to run up and down the bleachers. The third was a set of calisthenic exercises. (Physical conditioning is an important part of marching).
The last thing was a team-bonding exercise, during which we finally met our sections. This year, including the section leaders, there are twenty-five in the drumline and five in the pit percussion. Bay and I made a separate Facebook group (for copies of music and rehearsal posts) and group chat (for reminders and memes) to manage the percussion section.
