My Section Leader's Secrets

Chapter Eighteen

"Aw man, I don't want to stand next to Emily!" He complains to anyone listening.

"The feeling's mutual!" I retort, turning around. The feeling is so not mutual, if you want to like turn me around and kiss me right now that'd be cool.

Before we even ran the set, I knew I'd mess up. Right next to Jackson... don't think about it.

We start running it and I follow Hazel. I now know, I probably should never have done that... Hazel was off step.

"Left, left! What are you doing?" Jackson yells.

Yes thank you captain duh, not me you should be yelling at because someone still hasn't fixed it.

There's no freaking way I can stand next to him for the whole marching season. My face is flaming when we start marking the next set.

"What was that?" He demands when we're in our places.

"I just messed up, okay?" I say.

"You're better than that." He looks at me sternly.

"There has to be a compliment in there somewhere." I mumble.

"So tell me about your home life." He says a couple sets later.

"Well," I bend over to pick up a poker chip, "it's okay I guess."

"You're not happy?" He says, a little distracted.

"No, it's more complicated..." I trail off as Stacey calls us back to attention.

By the end of rehearsal we end up having half of the last song finished.

"So it looks like we'll only be doing the first three songs for the performance. During our afternoon practice, we'll focus on getting on and off the field.

Everyone gets back into the red and white block and we march back up from the field.

"I'm so hungry." I groan as we line up for lunch.

"Same girl same." Fern agrees.

We get our food and sit down to eat.

"Only one more meal here!" I say, putting grapes in my mouth.

"I'm okay with that!" Fern says and Caite agrees.

"Hey I don't think the food's so bad!" I say. "You go back there and cook it!"

Fern flips me off and we finish eating.

"Alright, time to go clean!" I fake enthusiasm as we head upstairs.

We all split our separate ways when we get back to the room, packing up our own things.

"Catie." I say zipping my suitcase shut. "What's in that yellow packet?"

"Um, like a whole bunch of pencils." She replies, picking up the package from her bag.

"Oh my lanta!" I laugh.

Once everyone has packed up their suitcases, we start cleaning the room. We take down our sign on the door and the streamers we hung up all around the room. Now all we have left to do is vacuum.

"We're next for the vacuum!" Leah calls down the hall.

"You know, for once, I actually like her!" Fern mutters. "Wait, nope just kidding!"

I laugh and shake my head at her.

When we get the vacuum, we take turns going around the room and soon we're all done. One of the band moms comes to check and we are cleared to go to sectionals!

We grab our things and head down to the chapel.

"I have to say, I will not miss Mr. Davis!" I whisper as we get in our spots.

"Same girl, same." Catie agrees while Fern nods.

The sectional goes by very fast because we don't really have to learn anymore music except the last song which is pretty easy...for third parts.

When the sectional is over, we make our way back over to the picnic tables to go out to the field one more time! A saxophone player, Caden, (who is also a junior) comes to sit by me while we wait.

"Hey goody-good!" (My nickname officially appointed by him.)

"Hey what's up?" I ask.

"I was just wondering, who do you like?" He innocently asks.

"Oh, um." I stutter for a few seconds before calming down. "Why?"

"Someone likes you and they want to know who you like." He wiggles his eyebrows at me.

"Well the person I like wouldn't come tell you if they liked me so..." I trail off wishing for Stacey to save me with the whistle.

"Well is that person in your section?" He asks.

"Yes." I nod looking around for Catie or Fern.

"Ooh! Is it Jackson? It's him isn't it?" He grins at me.

Abort, abort mission holy shit!