waiting in the air locks ii

Ever since band camp, we’ve had this dance sequence that we’ve learned for the beginning of the show. But the art of competition is to not show everything you’ve got all at once. So we didn’t start there. As the season wore on, we practiced it endlessly. But we never got it good enough. Finally, at state, we got to dance. With a smooth sweep of our arms, we picked up our instruments and started moving. That show was so much fun. When it was over, I shook and cried.

We disappeared into the stadium, and appeared again on the backside, where all of the bands sit. We sat in the formation of an NP for the name of our school. When the rest of the 10 bands performed, all of the bands filed onto the field. For awards, all of the bands are there. Only the placements are awarded. 10th place went to a band with a very big ego. I personally was pleased. 9th went to a northern band that I had never heard of. here I prayed, and thanked God for this entire season. 8th went to us. As we rose to attention, my eyes shined with anger. We sank back to parade rest, and I pondered our situation. Three years ago, this band made it to state for the first time. We were in class D, and got 8th at state. For two years, we missed state altogether. Now we were back, and we got 8th in class C.

All of the bands filed away and stood in the air locks. The officials tried to cram in almost every single band in there before opening the doors. Then we all walked back to our buses, with random fans on the sidewalks applauding. When we got to our buses, it seemed that all 300 of our fans stood there applauding.

Eventually we all got changed, and we trickled down the street to the mall. All of my friends had left me. Simply disappeared! I tried different groups, and wound up just walking along silently with a big group of band kids. I hoped that once we got there I had found a group to hang out with. By the time we got there, Jill’s group had also disappeared. So we hung out together for a while. Her group reappeared and within 10 minutes she was speaking to them again. I was still mad at my friends, mad at Jill for deserting me, mad at myself for losing my voice and hardly being able to talk. But after a while, I was having fun with the entire group and forgot how mad I was.

When class A, the BIG bands, began at the dome, our entire band was back in the stands. I wound up on the upper level, and somehow I wound up sitting among the drummers. They all drooled over the drumlines, and I felt rather alone as a “Go clarinet solo!!” slipped out of my lips a couple of times. It was all fun though.

We didn’t watch all of class A. We had to head home, because our school wouldn’t give us the money to stay the night, and for some reason we had to be home before 3 in the morning. But we were delayed a good half hour, because three kids were lost–Theresa, Lindsey, and Adam. Eventually we left and Mrs. Palmer looked for them. They didn’t know they had to leave in the middle of class A. I smiled. I felt better knowing that the “friends” that had deserted me were in trouble.

I talked to Jill for a while, then we tried to sleep. We both had our own seats, and came up with some innovative ways to try to sleep! I was home by 2 in the mornng.

And after state, life just isn’t the same!