Dreaming of Cheers (Standing Up to Life Book 3)

Chapter 20:

THE NEXT MORNING Amy and I woke up and went about our normal routines to get ready. Melanie made breakfast for us and drove us to school with both us in pretty good moods. At school we found our friends waiting outside and all commented that we wished it was a lot warmer. As it was, I had on my heavy winter coat and gloves, and was still freezing! Amy and I both huddled close to David and Kyle since they both acted as great wind blocks for the wind.

"If it's going to be this cold the least it could do, would be to snow!" Ashley said next to me as the bell rang.

"I agree!" I told her through clenched teeth.

In first hour, everyone was talkative. As much as we all hated to have to wake up and come to school that morning, we were all excited to see each other again. Mr. Randolph finally made the comment, "Geeze Guys! You'd think you hadn't seen each other in months. It's just been a week, let's get back on task!"

We all grumbled and got quiet for a few minutes before someone started giggling and it became contagious. He just sighed and gave up at that point.

"Hey Tiffany, it's only three more weeks till Christmas Break!" Kyle said from his desk in front of me.

"Really?" I asked. I knew it was close, but I guess I hadn't realized it was that close.

"Yep!"

"Cool... what did you do over Thanksgiving Break?" I asked him starting another talking session that Mr. Randolph glared at us over. I didn't care that much, since I'd already finished the assignment. Kyle had too. The conversation soon included Amy and Ashley and continued into the hallway on our way to our next classes.

That was the way the day went in every class. By the time we got to the end of the day I was feeling glad that it had been a normal day. Nothing had gone wrong, and it was such a relief after everything from the past week. Last period, in band, we got chewed out by Mrs. Remar because of how bad everything sounded. No one, including myself, seemed to have practiced over the break. At least I played the right notes though.

"Look ladies and gentlemen we have just twelve more rehearsals before our concert!!!" She told us while looking at us sternly, "Everyone needs to take their instruments home tonight! I will lock the doors to the instrument room, and anyone who can't get their instrument because they didn't take it home will get detention."

I think we all kind of shirked away from her glance at that point. I found myself looking at my stand and the music that was on it. I didn't really want to look up at her. Thankfully the bell rang right then so we were able to escape. On our way out she yelled, "Don't forget jazz practice tomorrow night!"

It was good that she said something... I hadn't even thought about it. I cut through the choir room and went to the locker room in the gym to switch into my practice clothes. Using the bathroom in the coaches' office had become routine at this point, and I emerged quickly into the locker room where the rest of the girls were coming in slowly and changing as well. I took some time to clean up my locker a little bit. The locker room was in theory used by both normal P.E. classes and ladies' sports such as cheerleading. If you were in a sport, like I was, you were given a locker that was taller than the little small square cubical everyone else got. All of them had a network of diamond shape cutouts all over them for air ventilation.

I didn't have a whole lot in it at this point, but felt like a few things could be moved around. As I was doing that I heard a startled and pained "aaaah..." from Lindsey standing a few feet away.

I turned to look over at her and saw that she appeared to have her shirt half-way over her head, but seemed to be in pain. "You alright Lindsey?" I asked.