Marching Band Love Story

Chapter 2 Last Day of Orientation

At 7:45, I wake up to my phone going off and I look at the screen and it says "New Messages; Brad, Sam, and Unknown Number"

Brad: "Morning sleepy head! Ready for band today! :)"

Sam: "Good Morning girly! Are you ready for the last day of orientation? When are you picking me up this morning because we only have an hour till band starts?"

Unknown Number: "Hey Nikki, Good Morning!"

I answer back to the texts and I get up and get dressed and then I go down stairs to eat breakfast. My mom asks "Do you need a ride to band?" and I say "No, I am driving myself to band and I am picking Sam up on the way" I grab my stuff and run out the door because I only have like 45 minutes till band starts and I still needed to pick up Sam. I picked up Sam and booked it to band and was early by like 20 minutes.

We got into the band room and I went to find Brad and Michael to find out who the unknown number was and when I found them I ran over and gave them both a hug. I have been trying to figure out who's number it is since I got up and answered it because who ever it was didn't answer back and I have been very confused on who it is. I ask Brad if he recognizes the number and he says "Oh, that's Jeff's number." Then Brad points him out and I look at him and he is smiling at me, and I blush.

Jeff is tall, maybe even taller than me, blonde, looks muscular, has piercing blue eyes, and is really cute. After I look back at Brad, I start asking Brad questions about Jeff: if he is nice, what he plays, and stuff like that. Then all of a sudden Brad stops talking as Jeff walks up behind me and I ask Brad"What?" and Brad nods his head to make me turn around and I see Jeff standing there with his drum sticks in his hand and he is looking down at me and staring into my eyes. He asks me a question and I didn't know what he asked me and then I feel like I'm blushing because I didn't hear him and so I ask him to say it again and he said "Can we go for a walk?" I look at Brad and he shakes his head 'yes' and tells me "Go ahead but be back in 10 minutes or you will be late." I tell Brad, "Thanks, be back in 10 minutes". I answer back to Jeff with, "Yes, I would love to go on a walk".

We head out of the band room, and walk down the hall to the lobby and find a bench and sit on it and we start talking. He asks "Hey Nikki, what is your favorite band that you like to listen to?" I answer back with "Panic! At The Disco" He says "Really! That's my favorite band too. You know that you are really cool Nikki, do you think that we could be friends?" I answer him, "Yeah, that would be awesome, so do you want to hang out at lunch or after band?" He says "Yeah, I would love to hang with you at lunch if you can manage to get away from your section, maybe we can go out to lunch somewhere?" I stop and think for a minute if I can make-up an excuse to miss sectional lunch. Then I answer back with "Yes, I would love to go out to lunch with you, but where do you want to go?" He said "How about Steak'n'Shake?" I said "Ooh I love Steak'n'Shake, yeah let's go there for lunch, I'll drive!" He said "And I'll pay for both of our meals!" I said "You are such a sweetheart!" I look over at him and he starts blushing, then he says "You are too". Then I start to blush really red because I can feel my face getting hotter and hotter the longer that I look at him. I look down at my phone and realize that we only have 10 minutes till band starts, and I look up and say "Oh no we are going to be late if we don't leave now!!" We start sprinting done the hallways and arrive just in time, I go get my bass clarinet and Jeff goes to get his quad drums.

When I get back to where my section sits before we go outside, I look over at Brad and he asks me "What did he want?" with a stupid grin on his face. I look over and slap him on the arm and say "He wanted to ask me if we could hang out after band, and oh yeah I have to go somewhere during lunch, so I won't be eating with the section" Brad asks "Where do you have to go?" and I yell at him the lie that I had thought up earlier, "I have a doctor's appointment okay!" Brad puts up his hands in protection from me because he was afraid that I was going to hit him again. I just start laughing and I accidentally snorted really loud and everyone in the band, including Jeff, turned around and looked at me, and I just sunk to the floor and covered my face because it was bright red with embarrassment. Then once everyone went back to what they were talking about, I looked over at Brad, and see him doubled over in a fit of silent laughter. I go over and hit him in the side to make him look up at me and I tell him to "Shut up and calm down" When he is finally able to catch his breath, he stands up and says "That was embarrassing, especially in front of your crush". I blush and say through gritted teeth, "He is not my crush, we are just friends". Brad says sarcastically "Okay, sure you are". He gets up and goes to get his stuff that he needs for band before I can answer back.

Once the drum majors came into the band room, everyone was still talking and hanging out. The drum majors looked at each other and shouted "SET!" and everyone got into the set position, even the freshman because we were taught, how to stand in the set position on the second day. Then they released us and we stopped talking and sat in our sections before we had to go outside. Katie said "We need to go outside and do our warm-up exercises for an hour, then we will run around the school, and then we will get into our block and work on technique. Be outside in 5 minutes with everything you need." We all got up and headed outside, I waited for Jeff by the doors and we walked out together. When we got to the blacktop, we split up and went to go be with our sections. During warm-ups, we did all of the stretching exercises that we had been doing all week for an hour. Then we lined up in 2 lines: Freshman and Sophomores in one line, and Juniors and Seniors in the other line. I look over to the other line and I see Jeff standing right next to me and he looks like he is ready to start running. Then we are released to start jogging and Jeff and I are stride for stride and we are one of the first ones to get back to the band blacktop. When everyone else got back to the blacktop, we got into our block to work on our technique till lunch.

To be continued....

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