We're "Excellent"!
2003-03-15, 10:32 p.m.

Today was the band's evaluation. It went horrible.

After doing a quick rehearsal at the school, Nicholson announced that there will be three busses for the students to load.

"Bus 3 will be lower brass and percussion, bus 2 will be saxes --" I freaked out. I'd be stuck with the girls again. "-- and trumpets, and the first bus will be flutes and clarinets. Now everyone, pack up your instruments and head out to the bus."

I was kinda sad. And I complained to Alice about it.

"Alliice. We got seperated!"

"Who? Yours?" She knows I like Drew.

"Yea." I fake cried. "He was supposed to sit next to me. We always sit next to eachother on the bus."

"Aww, Allison. You'll be ok. At least you get to talk to your guy." She was referring to David, her orchestra crush.

"I know, but..." I sighed and abandoned the subject as we boarded the bus and headed to the back. "Where's Adam?"

"He's coming. Save him a seat. Oh, there he is!" She stuck her head out of the window. "Hey, Adam! We saved you a seat!"

He smiled, a rare sight for this giant.

Adam's a junior that stands 6'4" with brown hair and multi-colored eyes. He towers above the rest of the band (excluding another really tall kid named George), is extremely sarcastic, funny, but also fantastic clarinet player. He sits first chair and is Concert Master. He's a gentle giant and seems pretty darn innocent and not the least bit stuck up.

Because of his height, he had to slump slightly to prevent from bumping his head on the roof of the "cheese wagon" (public school transportation. Yuck. No AC) and made his way to the back. He sat in the seat in front of us, taking up most of the small area.

"Damn, Adam. Did'ja hurt yourself?" I couldn't help but asking.

"What? Oh. I hate these busses." He banged on the ceiling. "They're so low."

"No, you're just tall."

"What a great observation."

Drew walked by our bus and headed for the one parked behind us.

"Alice!" I whispered and cocked my head in his direction. "I'm sad."

She and Adam looked to where I nodded.. "Aw. Too bad." She tapped my shoulder. Adam cracked a smile again.

We switched the subject and talked about various other things. Mostly about how bad we're going to do at evaluation.

A few minutes later, I saw Heath and Tad hop on the bus. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Allison, it's Drew!" came Alice.

"Where? I don't see him!" I strained my eyes to look for him but I didn't see him. "Where?" Suddenly, he popped into view. "Oh! I see him!" I squealed.

"You two would make a cute couple," pointed out Adam.

"Shush."

Drew took one look at me, smiled, and made his way back to hang out with us.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"The third bus didn't show up and we had to go to this bus. Second one's filled." He squeezed in next to Adam's huge figure.

"Oh."

So we talked until the third bus got there, and he decided to stay after it showed up. Didn't even bother going back to his assigned bus. We chatted about various stuff from his nose (he's got a very, very Jewish nose, if ya know what I mean) to how his facial hair grows strange (all but 4 or five strands are bleached from the sun) to just some nonsense.

"Hey, Allison. Guess what!"

"What?"

"Chicken butt!"

"What? You're so stupid!"

"Yea, well you're ugly."

I pointed to my nose. "Atleast my nose doesn't take up the majority of my face."

He lightly slapped my face, a signal to start fighting.

So we play-fighted for a while and whatnot. It was fun.

So for about 45 minutes we insulted eachother, was insulted by Adam and Alice, put up with Adam's sarcasm (he's really funny. A male version of Daria). They're so cool.

When we got to the school we were forced to go straight to the stage without warm-up. We arrived too late to actually warm up in the warm-up room. "We're fucked, we're fucked, we're fucked..." Drew kept repeating in song.

"Yea, we are. We are definitely gonna screw up."

"What? Don't say that. We're gonna do great."

"Didn't you--"

"You've gotta be optimistic," he interrupted.

"But I'm not optimistic. You know that."

He looked me square in the eyes and said nothing. I mirrored him. It was strange. Usually he gives me eye contact, as I'm sure he does with everyone else, and I'm unaffected by it. But this time... Today. At that moment I wanted to kiss him.

And it makes me wonder... If I usually look him in the eye with no such feeling would that mean there was no connection? Would that mean that I felt it because he felt it, too, or is it just me imagining things?

Whatever it was, I broke it quickly by turning my head to look at Alice. Suddenly, the door to the stage opened, and we walked in.

Without much of a warm up (we played three scales), we jumped into "Florentiner March", "Panis Angelicus", and "Light Cavalry". It wasn't *really* too bad, considering we didn't warm up. There were a few mistakes here and there.

Drew, who's usually really good at keeping pitch, went really really sharp on his trio with with the clarinet and oboe. Boy stuck out like slut in church.. Mr. Nicholson pointed that out while on the podium by mouthing "you're sharp!" to him. Drew tried to adjust using his mouth, but he was way too sharp. If he loosened anymore his tone quality would've gone horribly bad. And he squeaked at the beginning of "Light Cavalry". The band would not let him down for that.

After we played our three songs, we went to the sight reading room. Did our thing, got out, and went to take pictures.

I'm serious when I said the band would not let him live it down.

"Dude, was that you that squeaked?" "I did not squeak! No!"

"Haha! Drew squeaked! Prince of Monaco squeaked! Ahaha!"

"Shut the fuck up! I! DID! NOT!

SQUEAK!"

"But your the one that plays the french horn cues!'

"I didn't play it alone! I tell you, it wasn't me!"

He does play that alone. Liar. I love how he gets so defensive. It's funny. And I couldn't resist getting in on the action.

"How could you squeak like that, huh? Shame on you!"

He was furious by then and grabbed my shoulders. "What the fuck is wrong with you people? I did not squeak!"

"You know you did! And you were sharp as hell!" He shook me, his green eyes widened with anger.

"No, I was sharp, but I didn't squeak! I didn't fucking squeak!"

"Damn, man. Calm down! I know you didn't squeak!"

"No, fuck you. I'm going to go hang out with my true friends!"

So dramatic.

So we took pictures and stuff and after we were done, Mr. Nicholson read our results.

"Listen up if you want to hear your ratings! QUIET!!" The whole band fell silent. "Listen, you all did really well today. Really well. Now I know some of you will be really disappointed, but -- well. You didn't get a good." The band drooped that meant we got an excellent. I was sure. "Our ratings are.. 3 excellents and 1 superior. That is the highest rating that [censored] High has ever gotten. I am so proud of you."

"Are we going to Disney?" asked Heath.

"No! But personally, I do believe that the sight reading judge was way too hard on you. I would've given you a superior."

Mr. Nicholson himself is a registered FBA (Florida Band Association)/FOA(Florida Orchestra Association) judge. He knows what he's talking about.

"Now everyone board the bus while I change my clothes and then we'll head back to the school."

We all went to grab a bite to eat and then got on the bus. Drew decided to talk to me again..

There's no need to type out everything that happened. I told Matt the gist..

excerebroser (1:09:47 PM): I'm curious. Why do the band people think you're a ho?

Miamigurl123 (1:12:14 PM): Wow.. That took a while..

excerebroser (1:12:32 PM): It just now occurred to me that you never did answer that.

Miamigurl123 (1:14:40 PM): You never did ask about that.

excerebroser (1:14:57 PM): That might have something to do with it.

Miamigurl123 (1:15:06 PM): Yea, just might.

excerebroser (1:15:19 PM): Carry on.

Miamigurl123 (1:17:29 PM): Ok, we were

on the bus on the way back to the school..

Miamigurl123 (1:18:15 PM): Drew, me, Alice, and Adam were hanging out talking and whatnot when Drew called me a slut.

Miamigurl123 (1:18:34 PM): And I was like "Excuse me? Who had who yesterday?"

Miamigurl123 (1:19:15 PM): And he didn't understand what I was talking about, so I had to find hints that wouldn't sound perverted as it actually was.

Miamigurl123 (1:19:32 PM): And Adam starts to ask what happened.

Miamigurl123 (1:20:32 PM): So I started to explain it to him and he kept repeating the most sexual-sounding parts of the thing.

Miamigurl123 (1:21:25 PM): And then Heath popped in and was like "Well, it's not like you were complaining!" and I got defensive and stuff.

Miamigurl123 (1:21:58 PM): And I said, "Yes I was. I was complaining yesterday and when he touched my boobs!"

Miamigurl123 (1:22:14 PM): And Adam said really really loudly..

Miamigurl123 (1:22:34 PM): "You were on his crotch while he was thrusting his hips and he was touching your boobs?!"

Miamigurl123 (1:22:43 PM): And I'm like "What the fuck?"

excerebroser (1:22:58 PM): I smell a setup.

Miamigurl123 (1:22:59 PM): And everyone turns around and stares at me.

Miamigurl123 (1:23:37 PM): No, Adam doesn't do setups.

excerebroser (1:24:04 PM): Same effect.

Miamigurl123 (1:24:26 PM): Yea..

Miamigurl123 (1:24:52 PM): And Drew didn't even try to help me! He just sat there laughing.

Miamigurl123 (1:28:26 PM): Boys.

I can't believe Adam did that. No, I can't belive Drew didn't come to my defense! Guh! Now everyone thinks I'm a slut.

After the bus ride back to the school I went home and slept. And did homework. And ate a bite out of my burger king. And it was yummy too.

Yep. Fun day.

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