8 to 5: A Story of Love, Loss, and Marching Band

A/N: Hi readers. I’m new to fiction press, but not new to writing. I’ve been writing for two years on fan fiction and decided to branch out with my own ideas. Hope you enjoy my story! :D

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“Direct Quotes”

Preface

We all know the story. Girl meets boy, they talk for awhile and really get to know each other, then eventually date. My story is entirely different. The guy I fell for was two years older than me, hardly knew I existed, and had about three girls after him not counting me. The other girls were either his age or older and I was just a little naïve freshman falling hopelessly for him. Over the course of my freshman year, he went from really getting to like me to wishing he’d never even heard my name. And the worst part? It was all completely and totally my fault. How did I take what I’d worked toward for months and have it crumble down around me like a skyscraper in a massive earthquake? The only conclusion I can come up with is just stupidity. My story is one of love, loss, crazy antics from my friends, and marching band…

Chapter 1:

I didn’t initially have my heart set on Luke Ellinwood. During my freshman year of band camp, the object of my (secret) undying affection was his best friend and fellow tenor drum player, Andrew Zamora. Andrew was tan, muscular, tall…and the object of just about every girl in band’s star struck gazes. Naturally he was a first choice for a poor, defenseless, freshman flute player.

In our band, the flutes date drummers. That’s just how it goes. So I set my sights on Andrew. Most of our drummers are pretty darn hot. I say most in the strongest sense of the word. There are a few bass players that can’t all ride in an elevator at the same time for fear of overloading the maximum weight capacity. Too bad for them, it’s their favorite form of vertical travel, obviously. Anyways, back on my topic. My friends and I have a theory. We like to call it “Automatic Glorification of SCHS Tenor/Quad Players.” Generally a particularly good-looking drummer goes unnoticed until they play the tenors, or the quads as we non-drummers like to call them. Could it be that the quads are heavier thus increasing muscle mass? Andrew surely wasn’t lacking in that category. Could it be the great skill that goes into playing six drums at once? All we flutes know is, we gaze upon them with great admiration. Who could blame us? When you’re sitting in the stands, sweating your butt off in the 100+ degree heat, you need something to occupy your mind. And we talk about our good-looking drummers.

This particular year we were running low on band members so our older than dirt band director decided to dip into the middle school resources. They weren’t going to be much help in the music department, mostly a burden, but in out directors iconic words, “We’ll take any warm body that shows up.“ Ugh. I hate it when he says that! Most of these creatures were extremely annoying and immature, but a select few could actually carry a tune.

Lauryn was an eighth grader who was coming to play in the “pit.” Otherwise known as the xylophone and whatnot section of the drum line. She made friends with drummers and wind instruments alike including my friends Andrea, Erin, and myself. My best friend was Andrea. We’d gone to school together since I’d moved to our little town and it just so happened that she played flute as well. Erin one of Andrea’s friends from way back and she played in the “pit” with Lauryn. Lauryn was a joker and enjoyed getting other people into awkward situations. I was definitely not exempt.

I made the mistake of telling her how I felt about Andrew. Every day more than once she’d come up to me and ask me if I wanted her to put in a good word for me to Andrew. All the drummers, boy or girl, were very close and always looked out for each other., as was the way within pretty much any section in the band. Together, Andrea, Erin, Lauryn and I came up with nicknames to talk about him and others in public without being found out. Andrew’s nickname was Italian Stallion because of his tan good looks. I have no idea how we came up with the “Italian Stallion” thing, but we needed something to incorporate the tan-ness factor. We later found out that Andrew was, in fact, a fourth Mexican and zero percent Italiano, but we still use the Stallion part. Once when we were eating lunch in the cafeteria at camp, Andrea was eating some mac and cheese. When he walked by, with his t-shirt with the sleeves cut out, muscles out, Andrea had a sudden burst of insight.

“That boy is so spicy hot and delicious, if you put cheese on him, it’d melt.” She said matter-of-factly. That made us all nearly fall out of our chairs. And so Italian Stallion also became the “Cheeseman.” Like I said, “Automatic Glorification.” ALL flutes had a thing for at least one tenor player at one time or another. Andrea assured me he was only “something yummy to stare at” and I couldn’t argue with her. It gave us tons more to talk about.

I’m generally one of the most gullible people you will ever meet so when Erin changed Andrea’s phone number in her contacts list to say Andrew Zamora, I completely bought into it. Erin would tell me all about how good pals she and Andrew were and Lauryn would chime in at the appropriate times to make it more believable. At first I wasn’t believing it so I asked to see some text messages that they had sent to each other.

“I…uh…have to go to the bathroom.” Andrea said and took off. I didn’t think anything of it until Erin’s phone started ringing.

“GIVE ME THE PHONE!” I shouted at her. Erin rolled her eyes and choked back a laugh.

“Fine. Look all you want.” Sure enough, it was a text from Andrew. Or so I thought.

Hey Erin! What’s up?

“He says ‘hey, what’s up?’.” I told her.

“Then tell him what I’m doing.” I quickly texted back.

Oh nothing much. Just sitting around in my room with Andrea, Erin, and Lauryn.

I hit send and waited awhile.

How do you sit around with yourself? Lol

Holy crap! I was supposed to be texting as Erin.

Lol I have mad skills. What are you up to?

Mad skills? Gosh I’m an idiot! The entire time Lauryn and Erin were staring over my shoulder at the screen, holding back laughs.

“You think it’s SOO funny, huh?” I said sarcastically. They shook their heads yes.

Nothin really. Hey, do you know that Marie girl? She’s a freshman flute?

“AHHH! Here Erin, take your phone back!” I threw her phone at her. By then, she and Lauryn were on the floor laughing. I was also hearing Andy laughing from the bathroom. What could be so funny in there?!

Erin started texting again.

Yeah I know her. Why?

I waited in silence, hardly breathing.

Cool. Could you give her my number and tell her to text me or something?

“NO WAY!” I jumped up and down all over our small dorm room. “WHAT’S THE NUMBER?!” I screamed.

“It’s 654-7890.” I quickly stored the number in my contacts and got ready to text him.

“Wait a second before you do that.” Erin told me.

“Why?!” I was almost frantic.

“Because he just told me to give you the number and since we’re not roommates he’ll figure out you were standing here the whole time!” That did actually make sense. What didn’t was the obscenely long time Andrea was taking in the bathroom.

“You okay in the Andy?” I ask. Then I hear a flush and the door open.

“Oh yeah. Never better! And guys it’s really getting to be time for dinner so we need to head out.” We all check our phones for the time and head out the door.

As we walk out the door I hear something that has become one of my favorite sounds-our drum line’s cadence. When you hear it, you have to dance. It’s a necessity. I immediately look for Andrew and easily spot him. He is pretty tall… Anyways I shoot him a big smile. He can’t really break his concentration but he smiles slightly at me but mostly looks confused. I hear hysterical laughing coming from my friends behind me. I look around to give them the death stare which just increased their laughter. They start walking off toward dinner and I follow shortly after. All the while hardly suspecting a thing.

On our way back from dinner, we see Andrew, Luke, and their friend Sam the tuba player sprawled out in the shade on park benches. Before I can do anything I hear Lauryn yell out.

“HEY ANDREW! MY FRIEND MARIE OVER HERE HAS A HUGE CRUSH ON YOU!” As she says it she points to me. I knock the ice cream she’d been carrying out of Andrea’s hands, grab her and run off toward the dorms. To anyone who doesn’t know, to a fourteen year old girl, having your biggest crush yelled out for all to hear including said crush is the most horrifying experience you can have.

I get to our room and pull out my phone. I do one of the most illogical things a person could do in this situation-send Andrew a text. Not just any text, but one denouncing all feelings I had for him.

Hey, it’s Marie. I don’t actually like you.

Wow, mom would be proud of that one! But it’s the first thing that came into my mind to fix the situation. Suddenly I hear Andy’s phone ringing. Probably just Erin or Lauryn wondering were’s the fire. “Gosh. That lemonade at dinner really goes through you.” Andrea says and takes off for our bathroom and locks the door. I sit down on my bed and put my head in my hands. What a day. I get a text from Andrew.

Aw. That’s too bad.

“WHAT THE HECK?!” I scream at myself.

“Something wrong in there Marie?” Andrea says from the bathroom, giggling slightly. What is up with everybody laughing?!

“Andrew texted back. He’s all ‘Aw, that’s too bad.’ WHAT IS THAT?!”

“Maybe he really does like you?” She cracked up. Then Erin and Lauryn knock on the door and I let them in. Lauryn goes over and sits down on a bed.

“Andrea come on out of there. This has gone on long enough.” I give them a puzzled look. Andrea unlocks the bathroom and steps out.

“Okay we have to be honest with you Marie. We’ve done something…bad.” Erin says, stifling a smile.

“What?” I ask, horrified.

“This whole thing with the Andrew and the texting. We made it up.” Andrea said. “But he was texting Erin! He’s in her contacts everything!” I say, still incredulous.

“We changed Andy’s contact number to say Andrew Zamora and sent a bunch of fake texts to make you believe it was him.” Erin said, slightly apologetic, but mostly laughing. Alright. They got me. Good. Darn Good.

“I‘ll give you guys a five second head start. After that, YOUR DEAD!” I yell chasing them out the door and down the long hallway. I would’ve caught them too if I hadn’t come within five inches of running into a shirtless Andrew in only his boxers. My brain started malfunctioning.

“Uh…sorry.” I say in as big a voice as I could muster. Of course it probably just came out in a rush of apologetic mush. Great. The only words I ever say to the guy and I freaking mumble.

“It’s all good.” He says back in that really low, cool, extremely hot voice of his. I was seconds away from drooling when he went on his way again, giving me a strange look over his shoulder that I immediately misunderstand and smile really big back at him. I looked down the hall to see my three best friends rolling on the floor laughing their heads off. Everyone in the immediate area were giving them weird looks, including Andrew who was a staggering three feet away form me. I had an inward OMG moment.

“Erin? Lauryn? What’s so funny?” Andrew asked in that low, sexy voice again. Andrea, I could tell, was too distracted by it to be disappointed that he didn’t call her by name. I just started to panic. Erin tried to control herself long enough to answer him. She had a boyfriend of her own and was apparently mostly unaffected by Andrew’s hotness.

“Marie…*laughs*…likes-” HOLY CRAP! THINK!

“CHEESE! I like…cheese…” I exclaim. It wasn’t exactly a lie, and had the same basic meaning as what Erin was about to tell him, yet the same amount of embarrassment was felt.

“Cheese?!” I see Andy mouth to me. I just give her an I-don’t-know look and shoulder shrug. Andrew looks at all of us like we’re crazy, rolls his eyes and walks off. I could’ve sworn I heard him mumble, “Crazy freshmen…” I walked over to a wall put my back against it and slid down in time to see Andrew walk out the front double doors of the dorms for drum practice. My friends break out into another uncontrollable fit of laughter and this time I join them. I mean come on! Telling an extremely hot guy that you have a crush on that you like cheese is pretty freaking funny!

Needless to say, my feelings for Andrew were never really reciprocated. He probably never even knew about them which is the way with most woodwind/drummer infatuations. He possibly never knew my name until he heard it from Luke Ellinwood. Now even Andrew probably wishes he’d never heard my name just like Luke. But my story is far from over. Football season is just about to begin…