The music building has quite a few different rooms inside of it. When you walk through the door, you can immediately see two sets of stairs in front of you; one of them leading down into a basement we band kids like to call the "dungeon," and the other leading up to a higher floor where the trombone section often holds sectionals. It's blocked off by a wall, but you can still tell what's going on up there - it's not too high up. To the left on top of the raised floor, there is another flight of stairs leading up to a dance room. Additionally, there is a door to another classroom/hallway to the right of the same area (I've never been through there, so I don't even know what's behind the door) and an exit at the very back which leads to the art classrooms outside.

If you make a left after entering the building, you would instantly be met by a shallow dip in the floor leading to the locker room. The small ramp is lined with black tape to enhance friction, which is quite helpful during a heavy rainstorm with all of the wet shoes trailing mud throughout the hallway. Directly to the left of the locker room is the band room, a bathroom to the right, and the drama classroom also to the right at the end of the hall. There is another hallway to the left of the drama room leading to Ms. Blue's office and the two band closets that are always stock-loaded with candy, music, or broken/unused instruments. To the right, there is another set of stairs leading to another door to the drama classroom, the guard closet, another bathroom, and a side exit.

The last portion of the building is through the band room. If you enter the band room, you would enter into the left corner of the room. There is another door at the right corner that leads to a narrow hallway littered with chairs, music stands, and instrument cases. I still don't know what all of the rooms are used for, but there is a third bathroom (that is probably used the most since it is almost always unlocked), plus the two exits on both ends of the hall.

The dungeon includes two different parts: the uniform storage area and the instrument storage area. Both areas consist of two different rooms that are connected to each other like a master bed and bathroom. The instrument portion is to the right of the staircase, and is probably where the nickname "dungeon" originated from. You can barely walk through it without bumping against a gong or a timpani, knocking over a clarinet case, or stubbing your toe on the many sets of bells. The uniforms are stored in the room directly in front of the end of the stairs. It is by far the brightest room in the dungeon, not to mention the cleanest. There, we keep the racks of uniforms, spare hats that were left on the bus, and maybe some paperwork on the desk that needs to be filled out. To the left wall, there is an opening that leads to the department-like area where we keep the uniforms and shakos that are not in use.

After getting everyone situated with their lockers and locations on the rows in the band room, the next step was to get everyone a uniform. So, despite having thirty minutes to finish my geometry homework before band practiced, I was in the dungeon trying on uniforms.

"So...I just try it on then? Without taking off my shoes?" I inquired, holding up the pants that looked suspiciously like an adult pair of overalls.

Rachel, the assistant drum major, nodded and shrugged. "We do it all the time. Don't worry about it - just do it."

I plopped down on the swivel chair that was in front of me and began to slip the pants on. As I was slipping my arms into the shoulder straps, Rachel grabbed a coat off the rack. She swung it around my back and helped me zip it up to see if it would fit.

"Well," Rachel spoke, "how does it feel?"

I glanced down in front of me. "Heavy." She laughed.

The uniforms for marching band aren't like those professional slacks and button-up beige shirts like the ROTC have to wear. The band uniforms are way more complex - or at least ours are. Our uniforms look pretty sharp; a deep crimson red with a folded front revealing black fabric, eight brass buttons on the front plus a few others in various spots on the coat, the school's name on the top of the sleeve, and a golden braid around each shoulder. The uniform was complete with two crimson stripes on the side of the black pants and a matching shako. The shako also had a golden chain above the brim and a silver badge-like symbol on the front.

Rachel pulled a shako off the shelf and put it on my head. "Does it fit well enough?" she asked, fastening the strap.

"Yeah," I responded.

She shook her head from side to side. "Do this," she instructed. "Does it feel like it's going to fall off?"

"No," I answered. She nodded in reply.

Sarah, the flute section leader, walked into the room carrying a stack of music. She gasped when she saw me. "Oh my goodness, Kaylee!" she exclaimed. "How do you feel?"

"A bit awkward, actually," I said. Man, was that uniform heavy.

Sarah chuckled. "You'll get used to it." She undid the strap on the hat as I unbuttoned the coat.

Rachel handed me a garment bag. "Hang up your pants first, then your jacket. The shako just sits at the bottom of the bag. When you're done, write your name on a piece of paper and slip it in the pocket outside the bag, then hang it up on that rack," she directed, pointing to the rack at the corner of the room.

When I had finished hanging up my uniform, I entered the band room to find Jordan writing a list of names on the white board at the front. "What's that for?" I asked Ms. Blue.

"Oh, those are the cabins for band camp next week," she explained "You are coming, right?"

"Yeah, I gave the money to Christina yesterday," I replied. To tell the truth, I wasn't even sure if I had given the money to the right person. I just know that she had a paper with names and she claimed to be the person to give the money to when I asked her, so I just assumed she was the right person.

"So, yeah, your name should be up there," she finished. I looked on the board again, and found my name under the cabin "Pine." I didn't know most of the girls in the cabin, only that all but two of them were in the color guard.

Staci, a friend of mine from middle school, walked into the room and put her arm on my shoulder. "So, what are we looking at?" she asked.

I pointed to the white board. "Cabins for band camp."

She skimmed the lists. "Oh wow, I'm with mostly flutes," she said.

"Lucky. I'm with the entire guard."

Staci laughed. "Have fun with that."

"Don't remind me," I moaned.

"I kinda wish that I had some of the clarinets in my cabin," she noted.

"Why?" I asked. "You'll still see them at practice. I mean, they are in your section."

"Nah, I'm bass clarinet. Did you forget?"

"Same difference." I pushed her away playfully.

We retrieved our instruments from our lockers and took our seats with our sections in the band room. After two weeks of school, I had pretty much made myself at home; I was in the band room every single day before school, after school, for third period, and occasionally at lunch. Jessica and Zoe already had their instruments set up. I grabbed a stand and set it in front of my chair. I took out the music for Final Countdown and began to play while I was waiting for practice to start.

Ms. Blue stood up from her desk and walked to the middle of the room. She smiled and waved at us, waiting for us to stop talking. When the room was silent, she announced, "So, next Thursday, the bus will be here at three o'clock after school, and we will then be leaving for band camp. The cost is thirty dollars, but if you cannot pay right now, talk to me. We don't want anything to hold you back from coming. This is a really fun experience, we will get a lot of work done, but you will also have a lot of time to relax, hang out with your friends, and whatnot, but I promise you, it will be a really fun experience."

She went over the packing list, a few of the activities we would be doing, and then turned back to the drum majors to lead us in Santana. We went over the part of the show when we would have to lean slowly left an then right. I almost always fell over. I still couldn't play anything, even though I had been going over the music.

Would band camp be my last activity with the band?

.

"Why do you seem so out of it today?" Tray asked.

I lifted my head from my palm. "Wait, what?" I asked groggily.

"Oh my goodness," he said. "Why do you look so out of it today?" he enunciated.

"Oh, sorry, I'm just hoping that the day goes by fast," I responded.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"I told you, I'm going to band camp after school," I told her. I had spent the entire night last night packing, finishing my homework, and practicing for band. I couldn't wait; though I still didn't know why. I just had a feeling that this was going to be an awesome trip.

Sam and Tray were my friends from second period Honors Biology. First period was Honors Geometry, third was band, fourth was P.E., fifth was Chamber Choir, and sixth was Honors English. So far, the day was dragging by pretty slowly. That really wasn't a surprise, though. Geometry was always pretty long.

After biology, I said good-bye to Tray and Sam and walked to the band room. Jessica and Zoe were already there with their stuff. "So, one of us has to carry Andrea's stuff, then?" I asked.

"And Andrew's," Zoe added. "But yeah. I can grab his."

"I'll grab Andrea's," Jessica said.

Most of the other band kids were also walking down to the buses to fill them up. We were going to pack the band truck later; we wanted to go through some of the music before we left. Most of the others had pillow pets with them, probably like two thirds of the band. I had left mine at home, but I was starting to wish that I hadn't. We slung our bags in a random area of the bus and returned to the band room.

After the bell rang to end sixth period, I ran over to the biology classroom to turn in the work I was missing, grabbed my instrument from the lockers, dropped off my backpack, and ran down to where the buses were waiting.

For those of you who are confused, I'm not lying about this. This actually happened. I know there might be some of you out there who might be getting mad because this "isn't how band camp really is," but this is how it works in our band. We actually go up to a camp and stay there for three days to learn our field show. It's really fun, and I make a lot of my friends jealous because their band camps were over the summer working at the high school.

Now back to the story.

Just to remind you guys, this was my first real trip with the band. Last year, I didn't really go to anything; Mrs. Morse gave me points just for trying. So when I handed my trombone to Jordan (who was helping to load the truck) and climbed on the bus, I just sat down in a random seat where nobody else was sitting like an awkward person.

Most of the time when I'm in a car, I sing to myself or sleep, but this time, I spent quite a bit of time listening to what everyone else was saying around me. Half of it was inappropriate, and the other half was just...dumb.

I'll spare the details, because to be completely honest, the bulk of it was inappropriate.

I sang pretty quietly during the ride. The drum majors were sitting behind me, and they kind of scared me a bit. There were a few times when David would catch my eye, and I would just sing quieter so he couldn't hear me - I'm very subconscious about my voice.

I had eventually fallen asleep by the time I felt the bus jerk to a stop at the campsite. I grabbed my backpack from the seat and we all filed out of the bus.

The camp was quite beautiful; there was a large field in the center that I assumed was where we would learn the field show, and there were a few other paths to the cabins and other buildings that were lined with large trees. It reminded me a lot of my home in Georgia.

After a long and tiring hike to the cabin, I choose a random bunk and plopped my stuff down. The color guard wasn't too bad...or so I thought. They were pretty cool when I first walked in, they asked me questions about myself and said hi and all that jazz, but when we were walking down to the lodge, one of the girls took off her shirt in front of us. So that's fun.

The front of the lodge was lined with a few rows of benches for holding meetings or other get-togethers. There was a small whiteboard in front of the benches on an easel that outlined the schedule for the week.

When everyone had taken a seat on one of the benches, one of the saxophones, an enthusiastic guy named Alen, stepped up to start. "Okay, guys," he announced, "I hope you're glad to be at band camp this year! It's gonna be awesome, we're going to learn the field show, work really hard, eat lots of food, and have a lot of fun!"

He began to go through the list, which was basically practice, food, and free time. It really seemed like most of the time was dedicated to free time. I now know that I was wrong, but we'll get to that later.

Alen smiled. "So, section leaders, try and hold a sectional this week to work on what needs improvement. We'll see you guys on the field in thirty minutes."

.

The field was sort of large - no where close to the size of a football field, but maybe about half that size. I, personally, was not excited; the ground had a lot of dips and holes. I just took a deep breath and prayed I wouldn't break my ankle.

One of the items on the list to pack was a copy of the music for Santana. Apparently we needed to know which measures to start on. I made my way to the back of the line with my trombone and my music, which was where the fence around the field stood. It was low enough to sit on, and we weren't moving or at attention yet, so I plopped myself down on the thin wood and looked over the music.

I hadn't yet noticed that Jayden was sitting on the opposite end of the fence until I could see Andrea and Jessica looking at me from the corner of my eye. I lifted my head to see Jessica grinning broadly at me. "What?" I asked.

"I ship it," Jessica said.

I looked to my right, just then realizing that Jayden was also sitting on the fence looking at his music. I narrowed my eyes. "Why?" I asked.

Andrea started laughing. "Kayden."

I spread my arms apart. "Seriously? We're just sitting here looking at music."

"I ship it!" Jessica repeated.

"But we're sitting, like, three feet apart!" I protested.

I was expecting Jessica or Andrea to say "I ship it" again, but just then, David blew the whistle for us to get ready. "Band parade rest!" he commanded.

Once we were all at parade rest, Kayla announced that we were going to learn the left, right, quarter, and about faces. Kayla took the front of the lines and David took the back of the lines.

A "face" is the basically turning your body in a certain way in a set number of beats. A left face was a turn to the left, a right face was a turn to the right, a quarter face was a half turn of a left or right face, and an about face is a full 180-degree turn. The about face was the first we went over, and probably the easiest, in my opinion. This face was unique; you had three beats to turn instead of two. On the first beat, you bring your right foot back to your left heel and stand it on your toes, then spin your body around to face the other direction on the second beat, and then, finally, bring your left foot forward to line up with your right.

All the other faces only took two counts to complete. For the left face, you would bring your right heel up and your left toe down and turn your body to the left on one beat, then bring your right foot in to line up with your right. The right face was the exact same process as the left face, except the feet's positions are reversed. We practiced these for a while until every got it down, and then Kayla blew the whistle again for us to prepare for attention.

The drum cadence (I later discovered the name was Apollo) began to play, and we followed the line over to the field. We had already sort been over the visuals for Final Countdown, so we didn't need much of a recap on that. We played the song, put our horns down, and then filed in to our starting spots for Santana.

We already knew the first few measures of the song, but once we were getting to the part where we would move into the shifting lines, David cut us off.

"So," he began, "look at your music. At measure 22, you should be in those lines that we put you in at practice. Then, you're going to lean diagonally with your left foot forward before stepping off to trade lines."

It was pretty confusing, but he told us to sing our parts before we played. We scattered from the starting position of the song to the lines, and went over the next group of measures.

That was probably my biggest complaint about band camp. Both of my spots for Santana and Fly Me To The Moon (the third song we were playing for the field show) where right smack in the middle of a huge puddle. I was so grateful that I had remembered to bring my old tennis shoes, because my good pair would have been soaked if I hadn't.

After the drum majors shouted "Go back to measure 22!" for the hundredth time, Jessica apparently got tired of hearing me complain, because she switched spots with me for the rest of camp.

What did I learn from this experience?

Twenty-two is my new least favorite number.

_

Hey guys!

This chapter is really short, I know. I kind of wanted to get it out of the way so I could get into the plot.

So...I finally showed this to the actual trombone section...little embarrassing, but I think I'm good now.

...Love you guys. Don't hate me because of this.

It might be a while before the next update, I just found out the the winter concert is earlier than I thought, and now I'm overloaded with homework, not to mention the upcoming finals, so...yay. Sorry.

Thx for reading!

Stealthheart