Chapter 1
Monday September 8, 2008
“I won the bet,” I announced to the back of Violet’s bun head.
She turned when she heard this and looked straight into my gloating smile, “What?” Her blue eyes narrowed.
It was finally the first day of senior year - a Monday - which meant we had our first regular-season marching band rehearsal later that night. A lot of band members opted to hang out at the school for hours, waiting for practice to begin at 6:00 PM instead of going home, but I never did over all the years I’d been involved. My mindset was always get me out of this building as soon as possible.
Max, Gabe, Amy, and Violet were already there hanging out after the last bell of the day rang. Amy was just there for the company before her cheer practice started, as she wasn’t in the band.
“I won the bet,” I repeated. Violet and I had made a bet when we first became friends in seventh grade. Whoever lost their virginity first would win the bet. It took until a party a few weeks prior to the start of senior year, but I won, damn it.
I hadn’t thought about my timing beforehand, but telling her right then and there may not have been the best idea. Max, Gabe and Amy had no idea what we were talking about. I should have known it would prompt them, especially the guys who didn’t know me that well, to ask for details.
But I also knew that it meant I was the only one there having sex, because both Amy and Violet were still virgins, which in turn let me know that Max and Gabe were not having sex with anyone, either. And sex is what controls teenagers. Whoever is having the most is winning.
Max, Amy, Gabe and Violet were sitting in a circle of chairs. Max had his feet up and was drumming on his thigh with snare sticks. Violet had her long legs stretched out, with socked feet resting on Gabe’s lap, who sat stiffly in his chair with his feet flat on the ground. Amy, naturally, was sitting up on the back of the chair with her feet resting in the seat. She was braiding a piece of Max’s long straight hair without him even noticing.
“You guys are crazy staying after already on the literal first day of school,” I openly judged them.
“Better than going home,” Max mumbled without stopping his drumming.
Amy hopped up and walked over to the door where I was hovering.
“Welp, Ellie, if you won’t stay, I’ll just walk you out!”
After spending Junior year going really hard at parties and not having any classes with Amy, she and I were definitely feeling distance. Amy and I weren’t close all the time, our friendship ebbed and flowed as Amy and I discovered new interests, made new connections, and explored. But we always managed to find a way back to each other.
By the end of that first day of Senior year, we knew we’d be in for a perfectly-timed reunion tour, as we’d discovered that we had AP Italian, Psychology, and English class together. That day I also discovered the boy she’d been dating the whole year prior (and was still dating) was Max - a current Junior and one of my two snare drummers in the Marching Band.
“So what’s new?” After not talking for a while, I was unsure what to ask her about first, and I figured it would be best to let her decide what to fill me in on, since we hadn’t gotten enough of a chance to gossip in the class periods we had together and I knew she must have had more to share.
“Well, I’m Cheerleading captain,” she started with a slight sigh.
“That’s pretty sick,” I offered, understanding why she wasn’t more excited. Our school was a little weird - the marching band wasn’t exactly your typical band geeks, and the cheerleaders weren’t the popular chick stereotype most people might imagine, either.
“I guess; it’s mostly just more work for me, but there was really no one else and I like all the girls this year so it won’t be that big of an effort,” she shrugged, ready to move onto the next topic, “that reminds me, Max told me you got Drum Major, congrats!” She bumped my shoulder with hers, “THAT is some big shit, there, how are you feeling about it?”
“Thanks. Oh yeah? I’m surprised Max even knows who I am…” I got lost in thought for a second trying to remember if her boyfriend and I had ever had a one-on-one interaction, though the only interaction that came to mind was at the end of last season, when I found out he could make a shockingly good chewbacca sound and asked him to do so at nearly every rehearsal to get a laugh. I figured he found me extremely annoying. “..but I’m excited. I mean, I went to this dumb ass Drum Major camp over the summer, Violet was there, too, for Color Guard captain, and no joke I left early because the shit they were doing was just not how we run our band here.”
To be clear, my band director recommended that camp - damn near required it - but laughed when he found out I did not stay long. He understood my defiant personality. And when this camp started teaching us commands to call to tell our band to SMILE, I was done. Hell no. I had been taught that this was an activity with its roots in the business of war and military - it would have been sacrilegious in my opinion, to command a group to smile while in uniform.
I digress.
“But otherwise, it’s gonna be a good season. Band camp was a bitch. I cried, not gonna lie. Our one instructor said I wasn’t living up to their expectations, but Luca helped me out and I got there.” All of a sudden it hit me, “speaking of camp, Max. Did he tell you anything that happened at band camp?”
Unsure where I was headed, “Um..” she started, “I guess a little?”
“Okay well, let me tell you about Senior Night. It’s like the only interaction I’ve had with Max so far this year” she laughed as I frenzied into interpretation: “the last night of Band Camp is always senior night, and the seniors can prank all the other cabins and like, no one can retaliate or anything and it’s all fun - definitely not hazing - and everyone knows and blah blah blah. So anyway, we did ‘breakfast in bed’, and the drum line is a really big bag of dicks this year, no offense, so Luca and I really wanted to get their cabin especially good to kinda get back at them for making us work extra hard all week. So we hit the other cabins lightly first, and then we hit them hard. Dude, no joke, we broke a window with a banana. There was maple syrup flying everywhere. Sprinkles, flour, sugar. Steve said he still can’t eat pancakes.” I stopped to breathe for the first time since I started the story, “so - we all went back to our cabin, like ‘yeah great senior night!’. The staff members weren’t even mad that we broke a window because our concept of throwing week old, heat-ripened bananas while wearing monkey masks and blasting “The Mexican Hat Dance” was so absurd. We’re all in bed chillin’ and our fucking cabin gets broken into by these motherfuckers!”
“Who?!” Amy asked, as if she hadn’t heard the entire story I’d just laid out before her so neat and succinctly.
“The motherfuckin’ drumline!” I yelled, “These assholes tried to retaliate against the entire senior cabin, so Luca and a couple other guys jumped up and pushed them outside real quick and they all squared off. I was inside creeping through the window as one does. And like, yeah most of those drummers are scrawny but also, when they get angry man, watch out. This year’s drumline pissed off is not an enemy I would wish on anyone. So the next morning, the band parents who were there with us said what we did was ‘too mean’ and made the seniors clean the drumline cabin,” I rolled my eyes, “I mean, the whole concept of senior night is light hazing, so like, now they have a problem with it? Because the drumline are little bitches and couldn’t handle a little stickiness?”
“Ohh yeah, wait I thought you said it’s definitely not hazing,” she teased as I rolled my eyes. She went on, “Max was pissed about this but I didn’t understand any of it when he tried to tell me the story,” she shrugged. “I’m glad I have you back to explain all this in detail to me so I can understand the band drama. It’s like everyone I know is in Band and that’s alllllll they talk about these days, I swear,” she rolled her eyes.
My conditioning for recruitment immediately kicked in: “I mean, if you wanna join we could probably -” she cut me off before I could even finish my sentence.
“I swear it is like a cult sometimes. No, I can’t with Cheer anyway,” she laughed, “but thank you, I appreciate that you would want me there”, she continued, “Well, I’m sorry that’s your only impression of Max.”
We stood awkwardly at the edge of the senior parking lot, I jingled my car keys in hand, “hey who is your driving partner?”
“I don’t have my license, yet, actually…” she drifted off, clearly embarrassed.
“Oh no worries, if you ever need a ride on a day I drove, I got you,” I pointed casually in the wrong direction with my thumb and dropped my keys in the process, “shit,” I mumbled as my backpack slipped off my shoulder while I bent down to pick up the keys. I looked at her for an answer, my face soaked in distress.
“You sure you’d be able to handle it?” She smiled. We both laughed, said goodbye, and I headed home to nap before band practice at 6.
