Yesterday, our conversation in Brit Lit eventually came around to "Who's going to be drum major next year?"
"You should try out!" said Molly, hitting me on the arm.
"I plan to," I said. They all looked at me. I hadn't told anyone yet.
"Who's your opposition?" said Dave.
"Well, Schultz, Sarah, and Adam, that I know of, but there are always surprises."
Dave's eyes widened. "Mr. Thomas wouldn't put Sarah in charge of the band," he said. (This is hopefully true. Sarah is a psychopath. Lately we've been taking bets on how many pushups she'll do in one practice to punish herself for screwing up. Last practice it was forty.)
"...And Schultz is really quiet. People don't even know who he is."
"I don't think Adam deserves it," said Valerie, quietly, and in a very matter-of-fact way.
"I don't think he does either," I said. "He misses more practices and performances than the rest of the band combined."
"Did you see him jumping around pretending to conduct last time after he had to sit out because he 'hurt his foot?'" said Molly. We all laughed. (Adam clearly did not hurt his foot. Not only did he run around on the sideline, conducting at the wrong tempo, throwing everyone off, and looking ridiculous, but he helped carry the marimba back to the band room afterwards.)
"Did you hear what Mike said? 'Hey Rambo, you know what they do with horses who hurt a foot? Send 'em to the glue factory.'" We all laughed again. (I'm still overjoyed by the fact that the bandies dislike Adam. Every time he does something immature and pompous like this, it makes me happy, because I know that opinions of him are plumetting.)
"You know who might try out?" said Molly. "Eric. He joked about it before, but I think he's serious and just doesn't want to let people know."
"I know. I'll bet he wants it. I can see him beating me too."
"But really, he's your only competition," said Dave.
I shrugged. "He'd make a good drum major. I would be okay with him getting it over me."
There was a pause.
"What if he broke his arm again?" said Molly, putting her hand to her chin. "...What if, in the heat of competition for drum major, he broke both arms?"
Dave and Valerie laughed.
I would be happy for Eric if he got drum major over me. But as time goes on, I get more and more excited about the prospect of getting it myself. I am starting to appreciate the fact that Alice really drives the band. It's a huge amount of responsibility. It must be terribly exciting. I imagine myself standing on that platform and calling the band to attention, my voice ringing out alone so that the audience can hear, and the entire band responding simultaneously with a "hut!" It almost sends shivers down my spine.
But it makes me feel a little guilty, because no matter how much I tell myself that I want to "make a bigger contribution" or "be challenged," I know that when it comes down to it, I'm still just power hungry.
Tomorrow is Molly's birthday, so Emma made her a cake and brought it to lunch. Emma is taking a cake decorating class, so the cake was covered with an unnecessarily large number of frills and frosting ribbons and pink roses. We cut it with a fork and ate it on peices of ripped up paper bag. It was excellent.
Also during lunch, Jay, RJ, Jason, Schultz and some drummers marched through the cafeteria playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" for no apparant reason. Five minutes later, they marched back in the other direction. Everyone cheered. It was pretty awesome.
"Crazy band kids," said Julian.
"You should join marching band," said Molly.
"I'll never join you!" he said, shaking his fist.
"Yes you will," I said. "You're slowly weakening."
"No I'm not..." he said, as if he were slowly weakening.
"Come on, senior rookies are the coolest." He just shook his head and laughed without opening his mouth, which is the way he always laughs.
I love how I just assume that it's only a matter of time before I get him to, A, date me, and B, join the band. Like, I haven't even been considering failure as an option for either one of these. Hm. Maybe I should be less cocky and manipulative.
Yesterday I handed out band fundraiser fliers to parents coming to PTO night. Then we had a three hour dance party on the sidewalk while we waited for our parents to drive us home. Oh, how I love band dance parties. (Even though it is agreed that I am the worst dancer in the known universe.) Oh, how I love band.
Well, tomorrow we have a football game, and then I am following Alicia's instructions and "getting my butt over to her host family's house" (seriously. That's what it says on the invitation.) for Molly's surprise birthday party. We are eating more cake and watching Six String Samurai, which Molly gave to Dave for his birthday solely (she says) because she wanted him to invite her over so that she could watch it again.
Oh, and I guess Tom is okay. I talked to him the other day and he seemed fine and never mentioned... anything. I heard from the girl he was with that they were plain clothes policemen, so he fought back because he thought they were being mugged. Does that make it better? Does that make it okay? I have no idea. I just hope he's not in too much trouble.
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