Hello

Okay, so that last chapter was kinda choppy because I don't remember exactly what we did. There's our first pit rehearsal tomorrow with the drumline, so I'm excited for that to start, too. Let's start!

Relay for Life, 6/15

It's been a boring three days waiting for Relay for Life. I wanted to see the line again. My mom drops me off in the front and I enter the building. I walk in the band hallway, and of course, it's locked. I'm still an hour early and Sam said she'd meet me here a little early. She's in drivers ed right now, so I don't expect her out for another few minutes. I brought more food. I have a bowl of steaming mac and cheese in my hand that is somewhat burning me and more puppy chow. (If you haven't figured out already, I really like to make puppy chow)

I start walking down the hall and see a figure at the end of the hall pulling a backpack on their shoulder. It's Sam! I thought. I would know it was her anywhere. She looks up and I wave to her. She waved back and pulled out her cell phone. "Why are you calling me?" I said when we reached each other.

"I wanted to make sure it was you," Sam said. "Hey, look! Your pocket is lighting up!" I look down and sure enough, my pocket was glowing. We let out a laugh and head to the bathroom to change into our nice clothes for Relay for Life.

When we were done, Sam and I walked back into the band hallway. Sure enough, Mr. W was already there. Today, since Marie, Ben, and I didn't know the old, old cadence, there's been a change. Marie was going to play 3 while Brandon on 2 and Sam on 4. Ben and I were on our own with the cymbals.

The box of clothes is still sitting out from Tuesday. When everyone starts coming in, we all head to the box and pull out a red tie, a pinstripe vest, and a fedora. To my surprise, none of the guys except for Jeremy and Nick knew how to tie a tie. My uncle taught me a few years back during winter break, so I knew what I was doing.

"How the hell do you know how to tie a tie?" Jeremy said while I quickly pulled down the tie through the hole. I smiled and said,

"My uncle taught me a few years ago. I'm not great, but this'll do." I pulled on the vest. "Oh my god, it's Velcro!" I exclaimed while I stood there undoing the vest and redoing the Velcro. I sat there laughing for about a minute when Brandon came up to me.

"Really, Emily? It's Velcro!" He said and I sat there, continuing to play with it. The band really does suck out your attention span. After a few more minutes, I got over the fact it was Velcro and I walked over to Marie, who was having trouble tying the tie. I picked up a fedora hat for Sam and me. She was at her locker.

"Sam!" I shout and she turns around. I set the hat on her head and she starts yelling at me to take it off.

"Emily, take it off my head!" Sam starts to shout and places it on my head instead. We stand there laughing for a while when she needs to get bass 4 out.

"Jeremy, you know, when people wear ties, it's usually under their collar," I pointed out, him walking around the room with drumsticks in his hand.

"Oh yeah!" he says and we both laugh while he fixes his collar. I start walking around the band room, not wanting to do anything. Mr. W comes around with a case of water and starts to hand it out.

"Thanks," I say and walk over to Sam, who took off her hat and put it on top of mine. She strapped 4 on her and everyone got ready to walk outside.

"Can you hold this for me, Emily?" Sam asks and hands me her water. I take off the fedora and place it on her head. I then pick up the water with the cymbals hanging from my wrists. When we head outside, Sam and I talk when I drop my water. I pick it up when John offers to hold it.

"Okay, Sam's on the left, Emily's on the right; I won't mix this up!" John jokes around.

"It doesn't matter anymore, we share water all the time," Sam says. We can't help but laugh when John insists he keeps them apart.

"Hey, look a fire truck!" Chris, a former snare who came to fill in for my friend James, said. "Why is there a fire truck here?"

"Just in case one of you guys start on fire. The drummers are HOT!" Mr. W exclaims and Sam and I start to laugh. He then walks ahead of the rest of us to hear our plan from the hosts.

"No, you gotta say it like a five year old. Look, it's a fire twuck! Fire twuck!" John says and Sam and I burst into more laughter. We do laugh a lot, but hey, that's what best friends do. We're here to make good memories with each other.

When we get to the edge of the track, everyone who set up wasn't quite ready. John instructs us to take our instruments off and just hang around for a while. I look around. There were many tables set up all around the track of many different things. "Look, it's a bouncy house!" Ben exclaims and points to the other end of the track. Sure enough, when I look over, there is a giant purple Dora the Explorer bouncy house. "AND it's Dora! John, we should be able to bounce in it!" John is busy talking to the other half of the drumline. The line likes to split in two when we have breaks.

We stand there for a while, thinking of ways to get into the bouncy house. When Mr. W walks by, we start shouting to him that we want to go play in it. "Yeah, Nick mentioned that too. No drummers in the bouncy house!" he said and we all sighed. "Maybe for band camp; I'll set up a giant bouncy house and maybe that'll bring the kids to come!" the five of us standing there started to laugh.

After a while, they were ready to start. "Okay, snares, then tenors, then bass's, then cymbals in the back! No, wait, Sam's not here, so we'll have the two cymbals next to the tenor." Sam L. was our other tenor player; he always has baseball, so he never makes it to line. I take my place. Jeremy was on my left, Alex was in front of me, and Sam was behind me.

"I'm sorry if I run into you, Emily! I can't see anything," Sam says and I laugh.

"Don't worry, I'll forgive you!" I say and Sam and I laugh again. Mr. W comes around and tells us to tip the front of the fedora down, just to cover our eyes. He goes around fixing everyone's hat. He comes up to me and points it downwards. "Mr. W, one issue."

"Yes?" He answers.

"I… I can't see anything!" I say. He smiles and fixes it. "Thank you," I say and he pulls out his phone to start recording.

"Chris, start the tap off," John says and when we were ready, we started marking time. Right after the Boy Scouts, we march and the line starts the cadence.

It's quite the fail, the cadence. There weren't enough bass's. Nobody knew their parts. Ben and I started crashing at random moments. We ended the cadence right in the middle of the song and dropped our things right after the Boy Scouts walked off. The minute everyone had everything off, Mr. W said, "What was that, guys?" We all stand there, laughing at our major fail.

The line and I break apart again and stand there talking. I missed most of what they said; everyone was introducing every person in the big line of doctors they created. "Tonight, we're here for fifteen hours, walking on…" was all I heard when it clicked. Fifteen hours? That's crazy! I think I would die.

"John, do we have to stay for all fifteen hours?" Ben asks.

"Yeah, only you do. You can do a fifteen hour cymbal solo. We'll be here at 6 am to come find you." John said and we laugh some more. (Wow, I didn't realize how much the line actually makes me laugh)

About an hour pasts and we've got nothing accomplished, except for talking about how the music is extremely repetitive. They've been playing "Chariots of Fire" for ten minutes, and then changing out the song. They then go back to "Chariots of Fire." It got quite annoying.

More time pasts and John tells us to line up at the side and play. We go through Funkengruven a few times and then go to Aspen Taps. "Let's try the cadence, one more time!" Mr. W says and we all say,

"No!" and we laugh again. One more round of Funkengruven and we're off! Since none of us want to attempt the cadence again, we just tap off and march back to the entrance of Grove Field, our football—or should I say marching field. The line and I run through Aspen once more and we leave. Sam and I are the last people to leave the field.

"Way to leave your own line!" Sam says as they were already very far ahead. When we reach the band room, everyone puts their equipment back. I drop the cymbals on the cart when John tells us to gather around.

"Okay, so for the Lions Daze parade, people are offering to make us free t-shirts. We need a good design. Does anyone want to draw one for us?" John asks. Alex turns to me.

"Emily, aren't you good at art?" Sam starts to speak.

"Yeah, she's a very artistic person!" she says while she puts bass 4 away. John looks at me.

"Okay, maybe; we'll see." It does sound fun, but I don't want to mess up shirts and have the whole line mad at me.

Most of the line already left. I give Jeremy my bag of puppy chow that I refused to let Sam eat because she was already sugar high. I call my parents and end up sitting at school for an extra thirty minutes that were not intended.

All for the love of band…

Okay, much better than the first chapter, but we really didn't do much that day. Please review and thank you!

Sorry if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes. There shouldn't be, just because it's on word, but it is 3:34 am and my mind isn't working too well right now. Should I sleep? Probably, but I'm not tired. Oh well, I guess I'll crash at line tomorrow. Well today, really. In a few hours. Meh, whatever.

Good day!