A Dream

Ch. 2- Practice

Looking around, you saw people of mixed races, genders, sizes, and ages, as well as instruments. No one looked like another person. Everyone was different. Everyone. Including Ella.

She was repeatedly told to move a certain way and that she was doing it wrong. What they don't know is that for the past few weeks, she had been practicing in front of a mirror trying to perfect her stance and positioning to be the best she could be. Now, all she felt was mocked. She only heard the laughter of her peers as she clambered along trying to catch up to the rest of them. One even threw a rock at her feet causing her to fall over and almost trip another person. This only led to more laughter and her normally pale cheeks to go red in embarrassment.

Her head was full of uneasy thoughts, causing her to feel unsteady and almost pass out a few times. Not being able to catch her breath, she sat out trying to console herself and just breathe a few times. She didn't know any of the directors, except for one but even then barely, and wasn't comfortable to go to one of them for this issue. On the first day? Definitely not, got to at least try to get her reputation up a little before she ruins it right? 

She was observing the other sections as well as hers and how their technique was perfect and on-point. Differentiating them to her and how they were so much better.

"Why can't I just do one thing right. Just one. I don't want to keep being laughed at and feel like this. I want to be like them. Capable of achieving great things without a problem and able to learn easily. Why," she whispers to herself. The tears were beginning to soak in her eyes again. Blinking, they rushed down her rosy cheeks and down her white complexion, falling onto the ground and being immediately absorbed by the hot concrete that sat below her. 

Her crystal-ocean-like irises had been glazed over and looked dull due to the dark feelings she was having. Not noticing, she saw a figure approaching from in front of her.

"Hey, hey what's going on? Are you all right?" A kind voice said to her. She quickly wiped her precious tears away and nodded. Sniffling she replied, "yes sir, I am fine. I just had a moment. I apologize, I'll go back to block now." Bowing her head, not making eye contact with the new director and quickly rushing away. From what she could infer it was the new woodwind director that was just hired. His name was Lewis Dean, a flutist. 

Mr. Dean had other ideas though, he grabbed her by the shoulder before she walked away and had her sit down again. With this, he walked over to the cooler that was sitting only a few feet away from where they were and grabbed a cold water bottle. He sat down next to her and handed her the bottle. 

"So let's talk, hi my name is Mr. Dean. Lewis Dean, I'm the woodwind director. And who might you be?" He introduced himself, asking her for her name and holding out his hand for a shake. 

She looked back up at him, confused by the gesture, but nonetheless grabbing his hand and shaking it in a friendly way. "My name is Ella. Ella Frost, a saxophone actually in my sophomore year." She says slightly smiling. It was nice to find another somewhat kind older male. She had grown to distrust many due to the events she had gone through. 

He nods and smiles at her. He could see the genuineness in her smile and could see she had gone through something traumatic in her life at some point. 'Poor kid,' he thought as he continued to observe her. Looking over, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Though it was a little weird that she wore longer shorts, 'wouldn't those be uncomfortable in this weather?' 

He shook off the thought and continued to make small talk with the young female. She had finally started to calm down and you could see the blue in her eyes instead of gray and dark colors. He didn't want to pry too much on her right off the bat, knowing that is the worst thing to do in this situation. He gently started to rub and pat her back as her hard gasps for breath slowly became gentle sobs and whimpers. 

After a few moments, he realized that the band was doing a meeting, "come on let's go. I think this is about time to be released for lunch, think you might enjoy it." He says giving a friendly smile. 

Ella nods, agreeing with her new teacher. She stands up with the water bottle he had given her in hand. Before walking, she takes the bottle and takes a few drinks. She had been deprived of water as well as lost it while breaking down for that long period of time in the back of the field. 

She nods and says a quick thank you before running over to the now sitting block of band kids, listening to important notes that the head director, Alexander Paine, was talking about. 

"We had a good first half of today. The heat really took some of us out but now we know what to expect. Always expect the worst to be prepared for the worst. We are going to release you for lunch and will need you back in two hours. Back here on the field right where you are. We will start slowly learning sets for our show. It will be called, "Call of Storms" with many different clashes of music. Okay, you all are released, make friends during lunch."

'Make friends? Okay. That's funny. I might just get food from Ryan and then fall asleep in the corner somewhere. There's no use trying to make some when nobody would want to talk to you in the first place.'

She grabs her stuff from where she had set it at the very beginning of the long day and packed it all back up. Her saxophone had been sitting on the concrete and had heated up incredibly. She was having to play hot hands with it while trying to pack it all up to move inside. Eventually, she was able to do so, after many failed attempts. Turning back to the school where the band hall resided she sighed.

'Here we go again. Cheers to another horrible year. I can already tell.'