A/N-Thanks to Hottie12345k, Dpbuckeye, a reader, Ocean’s Nocturne for the COCA and dutchesscourtney for reviewing!

I own the plot and characters, except Rigby and Jude from dutchesscourney’s Major Pain. More of them will be coming in the upcoming chapters.

Chapter Two-Flam Flam What?

Madeline’s POV

As my sister lugged her tenors out of the trunk, I watched with horror realizing that that would be me in two days. Maggie was dressed in boy’s basketball shorts, beat up sneakers and an old band shirt. I stood, waiting for my sister in short cotton shorts, flip flops and a black tank top. My purple weapons bag was over my shoulder; my red hair was gently held back by a matching hair band. Maggie was carrying her tenors the way one would hold a newborn-if said newborn was fifty pounds. She was muttering to herself and partly to me.

“Can’t believe I got myself into this…what if she breaks the heads or falls and the drums get destroyed…my babies, my precious babies…”

Thanks Maggie. You’re more concerned about the stupid drums then me if I fall. My sister grabbed her bag and music from the back of the car before hoisting her drums up.

“C’mon, I have to teach you something about drumming so you don’t make me look like a complete idiot.” Maggie said. I scowled and followed her into the house.

Up in her room, Maggie pulled out the quint practice pads our parents bought her when she had made tenors two years ago. She had been so excited when the battery had been announced. I hadn’t understood what the big fuss was about; the tenors weighed a lot more then her snare had! And there was my sister, bouncing off the walls over the chance to carry around these massive drums.

“Okay, drum one, two, three, four and spock.” She said, pointing to each pad with a drumstick. “That’s what they’re called. Learn it, know it, love it.”

She held out the sticks. I stared at them, confused.

“What am I supposed to do?” Maggie rolled her eyes.

“Here, take the sticks.” She passed me a very worn pair of drumsticks. “Just hold them loosely in your hand…yeah, that’s it…” I held the sticks in my hands and listened to my sister as she went on about things called hertas, diddles and paradiddles and flams. By the time I was okay at them, she upped the tempo. My sister seemed to be in her prime, barking out commands and clicking for a tempo. I was increasingly getting the urge to pelt her with my sticks.

“Okay, that’s enough torture for one night.” She finally said after what felt like hours. I tried to hand her the sticks back, but she refused.

“Practice.” Maggie said. “You’ll need it. You’re a drumline girl now.”

So now I was a girl constantly surrounded by boys. I dated around, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best of girlfriends. I’m the female player-a girl who’s incredibly picky. I’m not afraid to demand perfection from the people around me, including boyfriends. Maggie on the other hand hasn’t really dated much. She’s not your average girl.

You’re wearing Maggie’s shoes now…maybe we can try to help her with her pathetic love life?

Is it such a good idea to lead on a boy while pretending to be your sister and then switch places only to have her screw everything up?

Well then, you’ll just have to do a little digging…

By the time I woke up the next morning, Maggie had already left for work. I snuck over to her room and poked around. My sister was considerably messier than I was, so it was harder work finding anything that would help me in my super secret mission.

“Jackpot!” I yelled, unearthing a blue and brown journal. Flopping down on my sister’s unmade bed and ignoring the huge sibling code violation, I opened the book and read.

Worked on stick heights today with Will. He’s alright, but he has to work on control at higher heights. Rather nice and he’s pretty easy on the eyes. Out of the guys on the Line I’m glad I’m on tenors with him. I might have died if I had to spend the season with one of the underclassmen. I’m sorry, but they’re really annoying this year. No respect, no respect.

The next few paragraphs seemed to be in a foreign language-all about the stick visuals and drum thingies I could never imagine doing. I flicked ahead and stopped when I saw a familiar name.

Hung out with Will and few of the other guys today. We all went to the mall and messed around there. Some of the guys wanted to take a security cop’s segway for a joy ride but Will and I managed to stop them before they did anything extremely stupid. Took some ridiculous pictures of the guys attempting to fit into prom dresses. That sorta reminds me that I have to get a prom dress eventually. Ugh. Well, I’ll probably be flying solo again. It’s not like Will will (haha) ask me. Or anyone for that matter. Oh well. I’m going to be a crazy old cat lady I guess, old and alone.

And I’m allergic to cats…

I am an evil genius.

My first practice with Maggie went less than well. I probably should have started her out on flag, but seeing as most guard girls are on the flag line for their first two years and weapon for the last two and I’m the captain who’s supposed to be good at teaching, I started her on my rifle.

Bad, bad idea. My sister can handle a fifty pound drum with perfect posture but hand her a weapon and all that went out the window. After two and a half hours, she could spin alright, but she couldn’t toss to save her life. I realized how bad an idea it had been to practice near the pool…I was fishing out my rifle more times then I wanted to.

Thankfully the guard didn’t have another practice until next week. I could try and make her presentable and have her say I was sick or something and my skills were off.

But of course, my stupid sister and her stupid pride would never want that to happen. She reminded me of someone…her name was Rigby. Rigby and her brother went to a different school than us, but my sister and Rigby met at a summer camp for drummers. Rigby’s brother was so hot. Jude was his name. Jude Sullivan. I first met Rigby through my sister; Rigby was as obsessed with drumming as Maggie is. I guess since our sisters were spending enough time together, we sort of just followed in as the second pair. Jude and Rigby are twins, just like Maggie and I. Jude and I had a freaky connection-both of us had crazy sisters, and we both were looking for something in a relationship that we’ve never found. Jude was the only guy I’ve ever really connected with. Though not in the band, he had an appreciation for it that probably stemmed from his close relationship with his sister.

I was deep in thoughts of Jude when I heard the front door slam. My sister was home from work and I was in her room with her journal wide open. I threw the book back to where I found it and sprinted back to my room.

A/N-Yes, it’s shorter than what I wanted it to be. I wanted to get the opening out of the way before the longer, plot filled chapters come. Please review!