So, it's been a while... yeah. Anyways, I was finally able to get back my writing inspiration, so here it is. Enjoy.

Repente

Chapter Two: Finals?

“The top twelve bands, regardless of class, will continue on to finals. This year’s Weston Band Festival finalists are…” Alex sat nervously at the first aid station. She had been so focused on her own performance after she got hit that she really didn’t pay attention to how well the rest of the band had performed. Mr. Manning was pacing in front of her. He looked more nervous than she felt.

“Marshville High School…” Cheering erupted from the stands. Mr. Manning continued to pace. “Expected,” he muttered under his breath.

“Mirandola High School…” The nurse finished with Alex’s nose. “Good as new. You can leave if you want to.” She winked. “Good luck.”

“Cromwell High School…” Alex stood up and made her way to the exit of the tent. Mr. Manning continued to pace.

“ArdenLake High School…” Mr. Manning stopped pacing for a bit and grinned. “Good for them,” he muttered. He saw that Alex was done and followed her out of the tent. They made their way to the fence surrounding the field.

“Bromley High School…”

“Montmorency High School…” Mr. Manning rang his hands. “That’s half of the bands,” he noted.

“Greenville High School…”

“RiverForest High School…”

“Berwick High School…” Mr. Manning looked surprised. “That’s unexpected,” he told Alex. “As far as I know, this is only their second year having a marching band.” Alex shrugged.

“Northwood High School…”

“West Croydon High School…”

“And OakLake High School!” Mr. Manning jumped in the air. “We made it!” he exclaimed. “It’s wonderful!”

“When do we find out what time we perform?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know. I really don’t remember what I’m supposed to do now,” Mr. Manning shrugged. “Mr. Randall has the sheet with all of the information that we received.”

Another announcement came on the speakers. “Thank you to all bands participating in prelims and congratulations to all bands participating in finals. Directors of all bands participating in finals please report to judges tent to receive finals information.”

“There we go,” Mr. Manning noted. “I’ll be going. Can you make it back to the truck?”

“I think so,” Alex responded. “If not, I’ll just wander around until I manage to find someone that I know.”

“Or you could ask for directions.”

“I suppose I could,” Alex commented.

“Just make sure you get back in time for warm-ups,” Mr. Manning reminded her. Alex left and wandered around until she saw the familiar green and black drum major uniforms. “Great job guys,” Alex commented when she caught up with the two drum majors.

“You two,” Darren replied. “How in the world did you manage to march with a broken nose?”

“Well,” Alex began as they started walking back to the rest of the band. “I actually don’t know. I got hit, but after that I just kept performing the show.”

“I hope we don’t have any more mishaps in the next performance,” Emma commented. “We better get back to the truck and tell everyone the good news.” After a bit of walking, the three of them returned to the truck where the rest of the band was waiting in half uniform.

“You know, that’s a good look for you,” Jess commented once Alex had arrived. “Very attractive.”

“Shut up Jess,” Alex responded, motioning to Darren and Emma, who were about to announce the results of their performance.

“Despite some minor mishaps during our prelims performance,” Darren said, gesturing to Alex and her broken nose. “We did very well and have secured a spot in finals this evening. Mr. Manning is going to return in a bit with our performance time later this evening.” The band began to buzz with anticipation of the evening’s performance.

“I guess that uneasy feeling you had this morning wasn’t so bad,” Jess commented, walking with Alex over to where Ben was standing. “Despite the fact that you got hit in the face and broke your nose and spent the entire performance covered in blood, in a way it was lucky for the entire band.” She glanced at Alex. “You should break your nose more often.”

“I would prefer to not,” Alex said. “Seeing as it’s already happened once before this.”

“You’ve broken your nose before?” Jess asked.

“Yep, seventh grade in band class.”

“How did you manage that?” Jess asked, confused. “You’re the only person I’ve heard of breaking their nose in band.”

“John Dickey hit me in the face with a chimes mallet.”

“Well, that’s certainly an interesting story,” Jess said, stopping next to Ben.

“What exactly is an interesting story?” Ben asked.

“John Dickey hitting me in the face with a chimes mallet in the seventh grade,” Alex told him. “You should remember that.”

“Yes, mostly due to that I was the one playing chimes at that time,” Ben commented. “The bastard stole the mallet at the beginning of class that day. Which sucked because the other mallet had mysteriously disappeared the week before, when John happened to be playing chimes.”

“Hmm, I suspect foul play,” Jess commented, adopting a British accent.

“Jess, having a British accent doesn’t make you sound any smarter,” Alex responded.

“But it is a rather good British accent,” said a voice behind Alex, making her jump slightly. “Come on, Alex. I didn’t know that I was that frightening.”

Alex turned around and found the one person that she hadn’t expected to be there. “It’s not that you’re frightening, Peter. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you to be there.”

“You weren’t expecting me?” Peter asked, laughing. “My little brother is in the biggest band competition the school has ever been in and it happens to be twenty minutes away from where I happen to be going to college. Of course I’m going to come watch,” he explained. “I wasn’t expecting you to have a broken nose the next time I saw you.”

Alex made a face at him and was going to respond when Mr. Manning arrived and made an announcement. “Could I get everyone’s attention?” Once the roar of the band died down, he began to speak. “As you have heard, we have made it into finals and I have our performance time. We will be the second band to take the field this evening and as such, we will soon be making our way to our warm-up area. Please get your equipment and uniform and get ready to move.”

Alex was going to get her drum, when she realized that she had no idea where her things were. “Does anyone happen to know where my drum and uniform jacket are?” she asked Ben and Jess.

Jess shrugged, an expected reaction for her. Thankfully, it was Ben who answered. “I think that the band parents have them.”

“Thank you Ben,” Alex said, turning to walk over to the truck. “And Jess, you fail at life.”

Alex ran away before Jess could throw anything at her and made her way over to the truck, unexpectedly followed by Peter. “How did you manage to break your nose during the show?” he asked, walking next to her.

“One of the sets was off slightly and I ended up taking a flag to the nose,” Alex explained.

“Ah, one of those issues,” Peter commented. “I’ve had a couple of those issues. Almost knocked out a couple of teeth once.” Alex gave him a questioning look. “I had a tuba collision last summer in drum corps,” Peter explained. “Thankfully, it was during practice and not a show.”

“I’m sure that was painful,” Alex commented, arriving at the truck and walking over to the band parents. She was then directed to her drum, which was completely clean, and a new uniform jacket, seeing as hers was covered in blood.

After arriving at their warm-up site and getting ready to perform, they made their way once again to the staging area. They had arrived early and, like usual, waiting for the performance was the most nerve-racking part of performing. Alex stood with the drumline, looking over the rest of the band. They had been told not to pay any attention to the band that was currently performing, but it was difficult when the band on the field was almost twice their size. Once the current band finished, Alex got the signal to start tapping onto the field.

Getting food from the concessions and getting to sit in the stands and watch the other bands perform felt amazing to Alex after the complications that had happened earlier that day. The food was great, the other bands’ shows were interesting, and just being able to sit down and relax was the best feeling ever.

“How long until the awards ceremony?” Jess asked impatiently from Alex’s left.

“One band less than when you asked last time,” Ben replied from Alex’s right. “Can’t you keep track of these sorts of things on your own?”

“Not when you have the program, Ben.”

“I don’t even have the program. Peter’s got it.”

“Well, you’re closer to him than I am.”

“Peter, can I come sit by you?” Alex interrupted, trying to get away from Jess and Ben’s bickering. After a nod from Peter, Alex quickly made her way over to his side of the bleachers.

“Wanted to escape the bickering old couple?” Peter asked Alex.

“We are not a couple!” Jess and Ben practically yelled at the same time.

“Well you sure act like it,” Peter muttered, turning back to the band that was performing. The two of them sat in silence for a bit, neither of them able to think of what to say. Peter seemed that he was about to say something when the announcer came on the loudspeaker, starting to read the awards.

“Thank you to all of the bands that competed in the semi-finals and finals competitions today. We will be beginning the awards ceremony for the bands competing in finals competition momentarily.”

“And so it begins, eh?” Peter asked. Alex nodded, and the butterflies that were in her stomach began to act up.

Once the drum majors from the twelve bands had assembled, the awards ceremony began. “Twelfth place this evening goes to the band… from River Forest High School.”

Alex let out a sigh of relief. As well as their finals performance had gone, all of the other bands they had watched seemed to do so much better. As long as they hadn’t gotten last place, Alex was happy about the performance.

“Eleventh place goes to the Greenville High School Marching Band.”

“Tenth place goes to Mirandola High School.”

“Ninth place goes to the band from Bromley High School.” As the awards ceremony progressed, the butterflies in Alex’s stomach seemed to increase.

“Eighth place goes to Berwick High School.”

“In seventh place is West Croydon High School.”

“We would like to take this opportunity to announce the caption awards for the bands performing in finals. The award for best color guard goes to Marshville High School.”

“Best winds go to Marshville High School.”

“Best percussion goes to Oak Lake High School.” Resisting the urge to jump in the air and yell out, Alex was soon attacked by half of the bass drummers and tackled to the ground. Laughing, she was able to convince them to go back to their seats and wait for the rest of the awards, due to the fact that their placement hadn’t been announced yet.

“Best soloist goes to the alto saxophone from Marshville High School.”

“And the caption award for best drum major goes to Arden Lake High School.” Next to her, Peter started to talk. “I wonder if it’s one of the Foley’s,” he asked aloud to no one. Alex shrugged and turned back to the awards.

“Continuing with the placement awards… sixth place goes to Northwood High School.”

“The band in fifth place is the band from Oak Lake High School.” This time it was Jess who tackled Alex, and Ben in the process of getting to Alex.

“Fourth place goes to Montmorency High School.”

“Third place goes to the Arden Lake High School Marching Band.”

“Second place goes to Cromwell High School.”

“Finally the band in first place is the Marshville High School Marching Band."

As the announcer finished the thank you’s and announcements for the evening, Alex and the rest of the students stood up and began to make their way out of the stands. Jess came up behind Alex and slung her arm over Alex’s shoulders. “Fifth place and best percussion… that broken nose of yours was pretty lucky, huh?”

“I guess. I’d just prefer if we could place well without me breaking any bones,” Alex responded.

“Technically the nose isn’t a bone,” Ben inserted.

“Shut up, Ben,” Alex and Jess told him. The three of them made their way back to the busses, very happy with how the weekend had turned out.

I know it's been a while, but reviews are much appreciated.