The two fellow band nerds raised their heads in unison to the calls of "Band nerds!" "Geek!" and "Football players rule, you band dummies!" They shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders and continued walking.

"Katie, I do believe they are referring to us."

"Hah. Don't they realize that we like being called band nerds and geeks?" Katie gave a short laugh.

"I know, I know. Some people are just so stupid." The first one turned around and yelled, "And your football players better get themselves off of our field. The band field!"

"Nice one Jennifer. I like the sound of that. The band field. Ah well, we've got to hurry if we want to get up there in time to drop off our instruments and still have break."

Jennifer nodded and switched her trumpet case to her left hand. "I know. It kinda sucks that we have PE all the way down on the football field. We get more exercise walking down here than in the class itself. But hey, at least first period's easy."

"Uh huh. Well, all my classes are pretty easy," Katie said, as she dug through her backpack for her marching band music.

"True. So you didn't get your schedule fixed yet?" Jennifer asked as they rounded the corner.

"Nope. And it's horrible, because if I get it switched so that I have my English class this semester, I won't have PE with you."

"Noooooo!!! Sniff. Sniff. You're the only friend I have in PE."

Katie laughingly patted her shoulder. " Well we're only freshmen and it's only the beginning of the year. You'll have plenty of time to gain new friends." She paused. "Wait. What am I saying? We're band nerds, and all those people making fun of us would never befriend you."

"Yeah, and that was like our entire class.." Jennifer shrugged.

Katie gave an evil laugh, "Muawahahahaaaahahaaa!!! Who needs people? All ya need is band! High fives!"

"Even better, our so-called 'secret' handshake."

Both placed their instruments and backpacks on the concrete walk and assumed a Jedi warrior battle stance. Sticking out their pinkies they shouted, "Whua!" Then locked pinkies quickly and then stuck their hands out, waving them stupidly and sticking out their tongues at each other, making funny noises.

"Band dorks," a tall boy sighed as he passed them.

"Thanks for the compliment!" Jennifer called after him. Katie laughed along with her. They picked up their belongings and continued on their way.

Upon their arrival in the band room, Jennifer remembered something she had wanted to tell Katie. They placed their cases on the shelves and turned to leave the room, but Katie insisted on spinning around with her eyes closed, being the weird person she was. Half way through her third spin she hit something hard. She could hear Jennifer give a small snort of laughter. Opening her eyes she realized she had smashed right into the drum major.

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry!" she said, trying to hide her own laughter.

He tried to give her a severe stare, but cracked when Jennifer said, "Oh lighten up Daniel. Hey I'll see you at choir practice tonight, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be there," he replied.

Katie gave her friend a confused look. "You two already know each other?"

"Yeah, Jennifer and I are neighbors and we sing in the church choir together. I'm finding it funny that now I know her as a little freshman in the band that I am drum major of," Daniel chuckled. "So how are you two finding marching band?"

"It's loads of fun!" Jennifer replied. "Aside from all the back-stabbing and interwoven high school drama that goes on." She saw the slightly puzzled look on his face. "I mean, take you and Andy for example. Both of you pretend to be nice to each other on the outside but you both can't stand the sight of the other. Not to mention Adrienne who calls you a dumbass and has no respect for you. And then there's all the people who have love triangles and the band couples. Everything is such a mix. One person is friends with a person who their friend doesn't like and they are in the middle and can't hurt the other one's feelings. Is it always like this?"

Daniel shook his head, " I know it's awful, but it's pretty much always been that way. And I know about all the people who don't respect me and think that Andy would be a better drum major. Then there's the other freshmen who think that they're better then everyone else and don't need to listen to those with authority." He put his hand on her shoulder. " Just do me a favor, you two keep doing what you've been doing. We need more freshmen like you."

"No problem," Katie said with a nod. Jennifer gave him a thumbs-up. Behind them the door slammed and another girl entered.

"Hey! Jenny, Katie, what's going on? You guys have been taking forever to get out there to break. And Jenny, you didn't wait for me so we'd go together and drop off our instruments."

"Oh Daniella, sorry. We must have completely forgotten. Oh, Katie, that reminds me, I had something to tell you. Hmm. Oh great, I forgot. I hate it when that happens!" Jennifer fixed her brown hair back into a ponytail.

Katie nodded, "Ah well, that happens. Tell me about it tomorrow if you remember."

"Well, you guys should be getting along if you still want to catch some of break. I have to make some more copies. I'll see you later Jennifer," Daniel gave them all a small wave.

"Bye!" the three girls called as they left the band room.

For no apparent reason Daniella laughed just as the reached the band member hang out area. Jennifer turned in her direction and gave her a quizzical stare. Daniella continued to laugh. "Hehehe. Who would have ever thought you'd have a friend like Daniel? I saw how he looked at you."

Jennifer gave her a small punch, "You dork! And we're not completely friends or anything. I just know him from outside of school. I've only been on speaking terms with him for a few weeks or so."

Daniella smoothed her short brown hair down and flipped through pages in her folder in search of her homework. "Okay, okay. No need to get so defensive Jenny." She gave her a small smile and a wink.

"Ugh, just drop it."

"Drop what?" Katie came jumping past with a few others from her circle of friends.

"Nothing," Jennifer said, giving her a little push. "Oh hey, I remembered what I was going to tell you. It was about my dream last night."

Katie stopped her crazy behavior and stood waiting for her to continue. Daniella also stopped her search for homework and listened intently, "Really?"

"Yeah, you can hear it too. I guess it really should be called a nightmare. Well anyway, it was about - guess what - band! Alrighty, this is how it started." Jennifer launched into the story of her dream.

"Someone went around picking off band members one by one and they went in order from the seniors down to the freshmen. After the first person was killed, every three days another person would die. Then on days where we would have a football game to play at, five members were killed. And their own instrument killed each person. And they all got snuck up on. They were either stabbed from behind or hit over the head from behind. And they could only be destroyed with their own instruments. It was pretty freaky. Each time they were found, the blood was still fresh, oozing bright crimson from their wounds. It was so freaky. In fact it still is creepy, and it seemed so real."

"That sounds cool!" Katie said, lingering over the idea.

"Yeah, but that could never be real. Nothing like that would ever happen in our little high school," Daniella pointed out coolly.

Katie leaned against a pole, in thought. "Well, you never know. That is kinda creepy and all, but it isn't necessarily impossible. I mean, look at all the people who hate band members. A psycho football player who wants to plot revenge. A cheerleader who got made fun of. Administrators who favor those in the sports programs and think the marching band is a waste of funding. I can go on and on."

Jennifer held up her hand, "Please don't. I think we've all heard enough of your senseless ramblings," she said in mock distress. Then she laughed, unable to help herself and was accompanied by Daniella and another flute player who had managed to catch what Katie had said. "But there's more to my dream." The bell rang at that very moment.

"Aw, that's too bad. Hey, tell me later. Well I've got to go to class now. See ya at lunch!" Katie waved as she headed in the direction of her second period class.

Daniella also began to head to her class. "Well I've got to go too. And Jenny, that's one weird imagination you've got there. Nothing like that could ever happen here," Daniella's parting words caught in Jennifer's ears as she turned the corner.

Jennifer gave her a last minute wave from a distance before slipping into her classroom. She gave a chuckle. Daniella was right, nothing like that could ever happen.

How very wrong they all were.