“I hope you all represent out there,” Faith continues. “And whatever you do, don’t let the percussion players beat you. You can’t start the season like that.”
I nod emphatically. At least she’s a recent alum, so she gets it.
“Thanks for bringing stuff for everybody,” I tell her quietly as the others happily eat their snacks. “I totally dropped the ball.”
“Happy to take an early lunch and swing by.” She looks down at her phone. “Actually, I can’t stay much longer. Do you want to show me what you have so far?”
Not particularly,I think, but I don’t say that. She calls everyone together, and to my surprise, they don’t complain when she does it.
“Okay, I want to see what you’ve been working on before I have to go! I know you’re going to kill it!”
The others don’t look confident, but I smile and give them a thumbs-up. “You’ve got this.”
I play the music, and we run through the first song. Faith watches the whole thing with a smile on her face, cheering them on no matter how many dropped flags and missed marks there are. They all congregate around her after, and I swallow down my nerves. She and I both know how atrocious that was.
Her gaze sweeps over their faces. “All I have to say is…awesome job!”
I swing around to stare at her.
“The choreography is hard, and you’ve only been working on it for a few days, so don’t get down on yourselves. If you just keep up the energy and confidence, then I know you’re going to get it! And don’t forget to smile—the judges love that!”
I wait for her to shift into the critical part of her comments. You know, the compliment sandwich and all that. But instead, she picks up the empty box of doughnuts and gives them one more smile.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay for drill down this afternoon, but I’ll be back to check on you all as soon as I can, and I’mdefinitely taking time off to see the performance at the end of band camp next week. I expect big things!”
She heads toward the car, and I do a double take and jog after her. “That’sit?” I whisper as I follow her out to the parking lot. “But it was so bad.”
“I mean, yeah, it wasn’t great, but this is the end of weekone.”
“You and I learned it from the choreographer in one day.”
“And that’s why we were both color guard captains.”
“But, it just feels like, if maybe you told it to them straight, it would scare them a little bit and make them work harder.”
“I don’t think your first reaction as captain should be to scare your guard.” She puts her hand on my shoulder like she’s some aged adviser rather than a twentysomething just out of college. “I know you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself this season, Hazel, but you can’t let that bleed into the way you act around the group. Relax. Life doesn’t end after high school marching band.”
That same frustration from before fizzles up in me, but the last thing I need is to get into a fight with my director during the first week of camp. “Right. Well, thanks for coming with the treats. That really boosted morale.”
“No problem. I’ll see you next week.” The corner of her mouth lifts in a smile. “And blow the rest of the band out of the water this afternoon.”
“All right, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for! It’s drill down time!” Sire’s voice projects through his megaphoneacross the football field and I swallow down my excitement and nerves. “Clarinets, I want you on the fifty-yard line. Color guard, head to the forty-five. Percussion, take the forty-yard line.” He continues calling out directions, but I stop listening. Of course we’re going to be right next to percussion.
I bounce on the balls of my feet and take a deep breath. Nova strides by and lifts her hand for a high five, which I easily return.
“I’m coming for you, Buchanan,” she says with a smile.
“You better watch out, Walsh,” I call behind her and laugh. We aren’t usually competitive with each other, but all bets are off during sectional competitions.
A shadow falls over me and I turn to find Max in my personal space. My skin flushes at his nearness. I still haven’t gotten used to how tall he’s grown.
“The forty-yard line is over there,” I say and point behind him. “But if you don’t know that, I don’t think you’ll last long in what’s coming next.”
“I don’t appreciate you tattling on me to your mom.” His voice is low and rough.
“What? I didn’ttattleon you.”
“Then why did my mom tell me off about how I haven’t been welcoming?”
