Chapter 10 Bruises

Ms. Yuri didn't leave the band room quite yet, she was gathering supplies to take out with her. When she saw Danny limping to get into the storage room to grab his dot book. She walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "He did it again didn't he?" Danny nodded as he began to feel the pain being taken from him. She sighed as she took her hand away. "Go join the others." Danny nodded as he ran to the field feeling more better than ever. When he got there Zach was smiling while he made it over to his spot in basics. "You seem very happy," Zach said as Danny made his way over. Danny smiles " well you know how Ms. Yuri is a demon and everything right?" Zach nodded "yeah what about her?"

" I was hurting because I got hurt the other day by my dad and my back started to hurt."

" wait he beat you yesterday like right after you left my house?"

"Yeah, but now I feel better because Ms. Yuri, somehow healed it."

Zach remembered back to when he hurt his wrist just from opening the door. " yeah, she does that a lot, I think she doesn't like seeing us in pain." Danny shrugged "Mayb-" Danny was then cut off by the word " BAND TEN HUT!" then the band responded with a bark as they always have. Ms. Yuri then walked to the edge of the field she looked at the sea of children in basics " start the basics." she said to the main drum major " and make them run a lap" the drum major looked over at her wide eyes " are you sure?" Ms.Yuri looked over at Matt. " have I seem to stutter Matt?" he shook his head violently " no ma'am." She smiled. "Good." she then looked over the sea of children " so can we please talk about while I'm about to make you run after basics." She said to everyone. "Not only did I come into the band room and found trash on the floor this morning but found out that one of our students was vaping in the band room not only will the whole band run but the person that I caught vaping will run TWICE!" there was beads of sweat coming down from every single one of the kids. "Matt begin basics." When she walked away as they begin doing basic. Zach noticed how Ms. Yuri was walking it was almost as if all the pain that she took from Danny she transferred it herself. Almost like a gene swap. When they finished basics Matt yelled from across for everyone to get on the track. Zach did hate running because when you ran in marching band you had to run at a certain speed. You couldn't pass up Matt and you couldn't fall behind Grace. If you did the whole band had to run another lap for being pure lazy and forgetting that you are supposed to be doing what was asked of you.

As Ms.Yuri stood in the middle of the field watching the band run she didn't know if she wanted to call the person out and make the run or wait till the end of practice. Either way, they were still running. When the band finished the lap everyone went back into the block. They stood at attention and waited for the next instruction as freshmen started to act like they were dying as they chatted when they weren't supposed to. "Hey! Do I have to make you run again?!" Everyone shook their heads. "I love ya'll to death but you make me have no sanity, the next time the band room is trashed I will and I mean WILL make you run in your bibbers." Everyone was wide-eyed and shook their head violently. Ms.Yuri then smiled. "Now then Brandon would you like to run your lap?" She announced to the whole band. Everyone turned to look at him, he didn't answer. "C'mon Brandon we don't have all day." She said walking towards him. Brandon then made his way over to the track. "Oh? I thought you would choose option B, now go run, you better run at a pace of a hundred beats per minute if your offbeat you will start the lap over again do I make myself clear?!" Brandon nodded "Yes ma'am." Ms. Yuri then asked Eliot, the backfield drum major to start playing the metronome at a hundred. Then Brandon was off every step he took the metronome clicked. "As for the rest of you." Ms. Yuri said in the same tone. "Break into sectionals to practice the music, drum majors a word please." As Zach went over to the little area of the trombones, he picked up his trombone up and away from the line of trombones still there.

Lindsey then gathered the trombones in a circle. "Alright," She said opening her binder to reveal her music. "before we begin working on memorizing section j, let's all be on our best behavior today after finding out a kid of her own vaped in the band room, I don't think she's up for any more surprises." they all nodded at the section leaders words. "I would have never expected the ego kid to vape," said Emily, one of the freshmen girls. Then a senior named Bridget, who was pretty good at her instrument said "Last time I had ever seen her like that was at a concert band festival, but it wasn't at us, it was more towards the judges, my freshman year." Then all of a sudden Ms. Yuri yelled "Brandon start over your out of sync." The sophomore then cut through the field to get back at the starting line and started again. Lindsey then shook her head "Alright lets do this we are going to play it one time and then turn it around." Everyone nodded as they played it with the music it sounded almost perfect, but when they did it without they definitely needed to make some improvement. They did it over and over again until they played it with the rest of the memorized parts. Danny smiled when he finally got the note that wouldn't appear out. When they played again Zach accidentally sneezed in his instrument causing the sound from the trombone to splat. Everyone stopped and looked at Zach. "I sneezed..." He said as he looked down while laughing. The rest of the section had joined in on the laughter. "Alright weirdos, back to practice, and Zach," Lindsey said looking over at him and smiling. "Take your face away from your instrument when you sneeze." Zach chuckled "Got it, boss." Ms.Yuri walked over to each section and handed them a stack of small pieces of paper. Lindsey grabbed them after they finished the section they were on. "Sounds really good guys, just make that accent a little bit more violent, remember this is the part is the town chasing him out of the town." Ms. Yuri said as she looked over. Lindsey then looked at the piece of paper. "Freshmen first, Emily pick a number." Emily was shocked and confused, "I guess thirteen?" Lindsey rustled the papers until she got to the number thirteen and handed it to her. The pieces of paper were the drill sheets, when Danny got his turn for a number he asked for twelve. "Ahh so you do talk," said Ronnie. Danny turned red.

Lindsey then looked over at Danny who was buried his face into his shirt. "Danny it's ok you can trust us, Ronnie means no harm." She said trying to comfort the shy freshman. Danny then looked up at Ronnie and said "my question do you ever shut up?" Everyone then turned red when they heard Danny put Ronnie into the ground with his line. Zach then began to burst with laughter. "Sophomores," Lindsey said trying not laugh. "Tanner," Tanner was a redhead boy with freckles who was a little like Emily who played meme music everywhere he went. He was a real chill dude to Zach's eyes. "C'mon mom, you know what number." Lindsey chuckled and grabbed number four. "Thanks, rad mom!" He said as he was handed the piece of paper. Lindsey smiled "Your welcome son." when she got through the sophomores she then went out to the juniors, when she got to Zach, he smirked and "Pick a number for me." Lindsey frowned and looked over at him. "You have to pick the number, Zach."

Zach leaned over to Lindsey and said "Pick....a .....number." He said very slowly. Lindsey then threw a piece of paper at him. Same as last year and the year before, he got the number five. The seniors were quick and easy since there were only three of them and they weren't picky about what numbers they got. "Put these in the dotbook pocket. We will need these later." She said as they stood. Just then Ms. Yuri announced that veterans had three minutes to get into the first set. As all of the veterans were trying to find their spot, the freshmen stood at the sidelines watching them. Zach looked down at where he was for the first set. " second field two steps inside the forty-yard line, and five steps in front of the back hash." He murmured to himself as he walked over to the back and counted to five steps then turned to the left and walked over two steps. He then checked his coordinate sheet and agreed that he was correct and marked it with a poker chip. When everyone got into their dots and stood there, Ms. Yuri then said "Ok, you found yours now help your freshmen out with the coordinate sheet explain it to them While I go talk to Astrid." Astrid was the battery instructor. Zach then left his dot and walked over to Danny. "Alright let's take a look." He said grabbing Danny's coordinate sheet. Danny in set one was supposed to be four steps in the forty yard line on the second field and three steps in front of the back hash. "Alright, you see the second field in here?" Danny nodded "Ok the field is broken up into two and is separated by the fifty-yard line. The second field is the left side." He said pointing to the left side. The two then walked over to the left side. "Alright now you are three steps in from of the back hash, which is that little dash right there." He said to point to the dotted line. "So go stand on where the forty and the back hash meet. Danny then stood on the forty and walked to where the back hash was. "Alright, now it says three steps in from of the back hash so walk three steps." Danny did it and looked back up at Zach. "Am I in my spot?" Zach shook his head. "Now it says four steps in the forty yard line, it is when your left for us, and out is right." Danny then turned left and marked off four steps. "Did I do it correctly?" Zach then marked him off to if he was correct. "Yes, you are, now put a poker chip down right between your feet." Danny then reached into the dot book pocket and put a chip in the middle between his feet. Zach smiled "Congrats you found your dot now I am going to go back to mine." Zach said as he walked away to go to his spot.

Ms. Yuri was now in the press box in the bleachers. "Alright," She said over the intercom. "It's suppose to look like a... some sort of." Everyone could see her looking at the paper in different angles. "A squiggly line....and a....What the hell is this suppose to be Carson?" Everyone laughed. The Color guard instructor went up to the press box. "Talk amongst yourselves please." Ms. Yuri said, and for the first time the color guard was with the marching band. So they saw new faces, Ella went over to Zach. "So odd, with the color guard being here." Zach nodded. "Yeah, it is really weird."

While Ms. Yuri and Sara were trying to decipher what this thing would be called. "It looks like a squiggly line upon squiggly lines. "Like a river?" It finally made sense to them. "In three minutes." Ms. Yuri said over the intercom. "You better be in your dots." Almost everyone scrammed to their dots when she said that, including. "Love you hun." She said as she left to go to the dot. Zach didn't reply he was too caught up on what she called him. "So after upon realization between me and Sara." Ms.Yuri said. "We have realized it is a river, but it doesn't look like a river so we are gonna call it...Drum roll Jenny." The Battery's snare started to rumble then with a hit it was announced. "It is called the 'thing now." Ms. Yuri then looked over. "Ahhh... glad you could join us Brandon. Your section leader has your drill go get it and find it quickly ." Brandon nodded as he ran to his section leader, Stevey who gave him a dissapointed look when he handed it to him. When he looked at he quickly went to a yard line and started to mark off and made it to his spot, and placed a poker chip between his feet and gave Ms.Yuri a thumbs up. "Alright, remember this spot if you don't remember that is why freshmen you have poker chips, washers, or whatever marker you are using." Everyone looked down at the markers they had. "Alright now freshmen before we find set two are you lost?" Nobody raised their hand. "Ok good now go find your set two." Zach looked down at his sheet. "On thirty-five yard line and a half in front of the back hash." He said as he looked up to find that Danny was surprisingly good at finding his dots.

Zach went to his next dot and decided for the distance he would drag step it. While this was going on a trumpet, exactly Brandon, was yelling at Danny as the young freshmen curled up into a ball. Zach was walking angrily towards Brandon. Zach then realised what he was yelling about. "THIS IS MY DOT DON'T YOU SEE?!" Danny then showed Brandon his dot and shoved the drill sheet back over to Danny. "I don't give a shit you little brat... You Are In My DOT!!!" He said raising a fist. Before Brandon knew it Ms. Yuri had his arm pinned to his back. "What was that you were just about do Brandon." She hissed in his ear. To Zach and Danny they heard the demonic voice slipping in and out of the words. "You are coming with me up to the press box so we can talk about this." She said as she grabbed his ear and dragged him up to the box. "Stevey, your freshmen needs help." Stevey was confused until he saw a smaller freshmen girl shouting his name. Zach walked over to Danny to help him out of his curled up protected position. The rest of the trombone section rushed over to see if Danny was ok. Lindsey hugged Danny close to her. "Please tell me you aren't hurt." Danny nodded and said that he was fine. She then pulled him away from her and as a mother of the section she was, she wiped the turf off of his face. "That bastard" Lindsey said quietly to herself. Then a water break was called and all of the sections went to their places.

As the trombone section went and sat down and tried to make sense what had happened Stevey came over shyly. Lindsey stood up to look at the blonde haired boy. "I swear I come in peace." He said raising hands. Stevey looked over at Danny who was still shaking and watching Stevey like a hawk with wide eyes. "I'm so sorry about Brandon, hell the whole section hopes he get's suspended or expelled." Lindsey nodded. "I honestly never seen the egotistical being he is ever act this way." Zach stood up. "I think he's still upset that he got caught." Stevey nodded. "I think so too, but what ever action Ms.Yuri takes, I hope it is a good one, because we can't have him putting more of a bad reputation and a selfish one too." Zach stood in awe. "He's been doing that?" Stevey nodded. "Yes, since he's been here he's been spreading lies about all of us, hell even the rookies this year." Lindsey then sat back down and opened the water jug and drank some. "I'll leave you guys to your group we have a lot of things to decide in our section." Stevey said turning around. He then truned partially back and looked at trombone section. "Not all of us are the best in our section as he says, we all have flaws." He then walked away. With the slam of the press box door Brandon came down quickly and grabbed his stuff and left when he passed Danny. Danny began to shake again, and Brandon didn't take his eyes off of him when he walked to go home, for he was done for the day.