That One Marching Band Romance: Movement One

Feeling The Beat

Danny:

"Sorry, we're late! My brother wouldn't wake up," I said, looking over at Mike, giving him my death glare.

"It's fine Danny. I won't make you run, this time. You're new to this, but Mike, on the other hand, I need you to run two laps," Kendall said with some sass, which just angered Miley more, "Harness up Dan and meet us outside," Kendall said, before walking out of the band room. I reached up and dropped my arms by my sides. Ugh! I can't reach my drum. Why do I have to be so damn short?!

"Do you need help again?" Jackson's deep voice filled my ears.

"Yes please if you don't mind," I said with a small smile. Jackson reached for the handles of my drum and pulled it down swiftly, "Thanks!" I said unclipping the black box with my foot.

"No problem!" he said with a huge smile. He walked away and ran out with trumpet in hand. I walked quickly towards the door and was stopped.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry," a color guard girl said looking at me.

"It's fine. I couldn't see." I smiled.

"I'm Rose," she smiled and fixed her sunglasses.

"I'm Danny! I would love to stay and chat, but I'm very late," I said and rushed out of the door to warm-ups.

"Good job Danny!" Kendall said patting me on the back. I moved back and took off my drum.

"Thanks! I'm glad I can keep up with all of you slowpokes," I said, starting a challenge that I regretted immediately.

"Challenge accepted," Kendall said speeding up the metronome thirty clicks. Crap why did I say anything. I counted out all the beats and finally, he stopped the met.

"Dang Dan, that was at 200 clicks. You, miss, are unstoppable," Kendall said fist bumping me.

"Thanks," I smiled and followed him to the upper field.

"Yo everyone setup! You have three minutes to get your asses on your dots!" Harry shouted. Our show this year is called Peace, Love, and War. It sounds really dark and scary, but I like it. It's about these two lovers who are on opposite sides of the Civil War. The girl lives up North with her father, who's a general at West Point, while the boy is a confederate soldier from South Carolina. The last movement is the tragic death of both her lover and her father during a duel for her hand. Talk about a double whammy death. We started at the beginning of the show and at that moment, I knew today was going to be a long-ass day. After three hours of marching with only two two minute breaks, we finally were released for a ten-minute rest and reboot.

"Set! Up top going through the first movement!" Harry screamed and Kendall tapped on my head with his drumsticks and I grabbed my drum.

"Okay let's go, you guys got this!" Kendall said walking to his spot in the drill. I shoot out my arms and rolled my wrists. I place my sticks in the slots on top of my drum and form the W in War. The layout of the show is that the marching part of the band starts out by spelling out the title of the show. The color guard hid behind us and sat down on their knees staring up. We went through the first part of the show and I was loving every moment of it. The jolt of adrenaline when the big impacts hit has me shaking and the speed of my marching makes me sweat. My arms and legs were pushing as hard as they could go. We reached the end of the first movement and I could only hear my heart beating in my ears.

"Four more runs! Make it good and we will go home early!" I bent over to take a deep breath and I returned to my dot to get ready for the next four runs of the first part of the marching show. My feet were burning and my arms shook as I marched around the field. We got to the final impact of our show and I dropped my arms. The fresh nighttime air whipped across my face and I removed my hat to let it sweep across my sweat-covered hair, "Bring it in," Harry said, not screaming for once. I placed my hat back on and I jogged over and took a stand next to Jackson.