I opened my eyes, tears streaming from my eyes. Had all this really occurred in three months? I hadn't realized. I couldn't believe it - it really was a miracle that I was there.

But I was.

"Whoever in this room has worked hard to be here and feels that they are ready, I want you stand up," Ms. Blue was saying. Quite a few people rose to stand. As for me, I knew that I practiced hard. Feeling that I was ready was another story, but the practical side of me wanted to slap myself upside the head and tell myself to stop worrying about it. My only problem: I was stuck under a chair with another stack sitting behind me. Giving up trying to stand, I picked up my trombone and held it up in the air.

Samantha, who was also standing up, shot me a weird look. "I can't get up," I said. She laughed.

"If you're standing, I want you to turn to someone who is not standing and help them up," Ms. Blue continued.

Samantha turned back to me and took the trombone before extending a hand to help me up. It took some effort, and I could see David at the front of the room trying not to laugh as I struggled to stand.

Ms. Blue finished speaking and then turned the time over to the seniors to speak a bit about their time in band. Though I was still fighting not to cry, my efforts proved meaningless as Andrea stood up to speak.

"I can't believe that I am here," she began. "It seems like just yesterday that I was playing the trombone for the first time. I'm really glad that I am, though. I remember last year when I was thinking about quitting because Junior year was just not fun at all."

I think back to eighth grade. Of all the performances I had been to, I had never seen any evidence of Andrea not enjoying herself. I had always seen her in the back of the room with the rest of the trombones, laughing and joking around. I admit that I had been a bit envious; I had no friends in middle school and had always wanted someone to talk to.

"But then Dylan came up to me and begged me to stay, so I did, and I'm really glad that I did, because there are so many great people I've met this year. I remember there was one day I was having a really bad time, and I was walking to third period and I just hear Jayden, Kaylee, Zoe, and Jessica come up to me and yell, 'Section Leader!'" she continues. I laugh. We all had second period close together so we usually crossed paths walking to the band room.

Andrea finished speaking and sits down, and the rest of the seniors also say a little something. Most of them are crying, hugging each other, or are extremely red in the face. Most of them talk about how either band is their entire life, they can't believe they are the ones leaving this time, or that they didn't always have a great time in band.

You may think that I am crying because I didn't want the seniors to leave. If you do, then you're dead wrong, though that may have been a little part of it. I'm crying because the way everyone was acting made me think of the reason why I wanted this so badly in the first place: unity. Band really is a second family, and though not everyone is happy all the time, we stick up for each other. I remember considering quitting band myself after I had given up on four other instruments. I'm so glad I didn't because everything I thought band was before I joined was exactly what it turned out to be.

I stopped crying during the tunnel, but as we got back to the stands, I began to cry again. "Are you okay, Kaylee?" Jessica asked.

I can't believe I did this, but I threw my arms around Jessica and said, "Jessica! I love you!"

This was the first time I had ever said that to anyone not related to me.

I was on her shoulder most of the game. Samantha also left her section to sit with me.

After the first quarter, Andrea left to refill her water bottle. I am still embarrassed to even think about it, but as she walked back up to the stands, I did the exact same thing. "I love you, Andrea, don't leave us!"

I don't know how long I kept her there, but no matter how awkward it got, I didn't let her go. I still don't know what she was thinking.

After a while, she turned to Jessica. "Is she asleep?" I almost started laughing. I can fall asleep in very weird positions.

"No, she's kind of crying, actually," she answered.

"What?" Andrea looked down. "I'm not leaving yet!"

I eventually had to let her go so we could get into the two lines for the field show. I actually got David to give me a hug, and I felt very accomplished. I stopped crying by the time we marched onto the field.

I still didn't know how to play Santana or Incantation, but I did know the gist of how they were supposed to go.

Instead of ending Santana like we normally did, we moved into the one line that we ended off Fly Me to the Moon in. Additionally, instead of all of us taking a knee, the seniors remained standing. At the last thee notes, the seniors ended the song as usual while everyone else tilted the horn down. We then put our horns down and the seniors took their hats off. Andrea was the first to get a rose. The announcer read off a few things about each of the seniors as they got their roses. Andrea wanted to go into either music or animation, and her favorite quote was obviously from Disney: "If we listen to each others hearts, you'll find we're never too far apart. And maybe love is the reason why for the first time ever we're seeing it eye to eye," -Powerline (Goofy Movie).

One by one the seniors got their roses. A lot of them wanted to go into music or computer programming. We heard the quote, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" by Norman Vincent Peale quite a bit.

We didn't get to finish the field show with all of the seniors getting their roses. We began to march off the field, but Ms. Blue and the drum majors were yelling for us to hurry. Okay, then, I thought. I sprinted as fast as I could, making sure to hold onto the slide so it wouldn't slide off.

After the hundredth time that Kayla called On Wisconsin, the trumpets turned around and told us, "When Kayla calls On Wisconsin again, don't play it - play the UCLA Fight Song."

After the first football game, we went up to the Rose Bowl and played for one of the college games with a lot of other bands. One of the songs was Bruin Warriors, and for some reason everyone loved it. After playing t the first time, we chanted, "U! C! LA! UCLA! Fight, fight, fight!" and then played it again. However, we had previously planned to chant our school's name at the game.

They never called it again, neither did they call Runaway Baby, Sing, or Uptown Funk, which really upset me because they told us to memorize them and I had spent countless hours doing just that, and I could play all of them the whole way through except Uptown Funk, but at least I could play most of that one.

The night was ending fast, and I never wanted it to end.