Five Months Prior...
"Well done, Felicity!" The middle school teacher smiled, applauding her performance test in the class. As she put down her flute, several other students in the class began clapping as well, including the other flute players such as Eve, Jewel and Arthur. "Well, that's enough testing for one class. Clarinets, we'll begin with you tomorrow."
The clarinets sighed collectively, before a drumming bell rang throughout the small band room. Most of the flutes immediately left, not giving Felicity any kind of goodbye. Of course, she thought to herself, they weren't obligated to say goodbye to her in the slightest, and it was probably better in the long run if-
"F-F-Felicity?" The girl's black hair flew to the side as she turned towards... Arthur. While she had nothing against the boy, he just never seemed like the kind of person she'd want to have a full conversation with.
She turned back to packing her stuff. "What's up?"
"I j-just wanted to say... you sounded really cool doing your playing test." She looked back at him, surprised. He barely talked, but looking at his excited eyes, she could tell he actually really liked her test piece, probably even more than the teacher's congratulatory laugh. She smiled, genuinely.
"Thanks, Arthur." He nodded in response, before adjusting his backpack and taking off. She went back to packing her music up, just a small bit happier than before.
Present Day...
"Are we all set?" Mr. Penn asked, looking out to the field from its front. Across the field, the band students spread themselves out in rows of eight or nine that went down the yard lines, going from the thirty yard line on one end to the other twenty-five yard line, with a two line gap in the middle. They were also filled up in accordance to their sections, with the flutes taking the far left, followed by the clarinets, saxophones, and so on. Arthur was a part of the first row, the one second closest to the front hash. Felicity was in a similar position on the second line, with clarinet players in front of and behind her on the yard line. All of the students hand their instruments on them, in one way or another.
"BAND... TEN HUT!!"
"HUT!!" For the first time, the entire band was able to be called to the attention, the roar of over eighty kids calling back making the new teacher smile a little. For the flutes, their attention position altered with their instruments on them, making the same general pose but with their fists one on top of the other, holding the elongated instrument upright.
"Standby." Mr. Penn called out, releasing them from their attention state. Arthur held his flute horizontally from a relaxed position, his two feet slightly spread out.
"BAND... TEN HUT!!"
"HUT!!" Without warning, the teacher called them to attention again, trying to catch them off guard. Teller noticed (as him and Margaret were with the teacher at the front of the field), without too much thought that the Baritones and the Flutes were the snappiest at transitioning to attention from all of the sections. Teller applauded mainly the flutes in his head, personally knowing the difficulty of transitioning the flute itself from from a horizontal to a vertical position in such a small window of time. The baritones, while much heavier, have less rotation from their standby position.
Margaret, on the reverse end, thought about how hard it must be for the new rookie Baritones to lift up the heavy instrument as well as they were doing. While the flutes had a lot more rotation, the baritones were demonstrating a crazy amount of strength for such a short amount of time.
"Go watch the sections." Mr. Penn whispered to the two Drum Majors.
"On it!" They replied, nodding.
"BAND... HORNS UP!!"
"TSST!!" The marching students made a loud 'T' sound as they transitioned from attention to a playing position in attention, the mouthpieces of instruments in line with their lips.
"Good job clarinets!" Margaret smiled, looking down the line. Machiko smiled, struggling with the pain coming from her fingers.
"We can still use some work from the first few people in this trumpet row..." Teller whispered, making Vernon clench his fist in frustration. He looked down his row, noting the disappointing looks from several of the players.
"Now, marching." Mr. Penn mentioned, before pacing slowly. "Everyone look towards me."
The entire band broke from their raised attention, looking towards the front as Mr. Penn got into an attention position and took the first step of a march.
"One of the most difficult things for all students will be the first step, as it sets the tone for everything to follow. Your toes on your left foot have to be raised as much as possible, and that can only work without losing your balance by maintaining a strong, balanced attention. Can we have everyone take their first step, and hold out until I say so?"
A few people lightly muttered a response to his rhetorical statement, making him mad.
"Can we handle it?"
"YES SIR!"
"Okay... BAND... TEN HUT!!"
"HUT!" The entire field went silent as the block went into attention. Margaret, while still favoring the Baritones, noticed the small improvements flute players like Eve and Maria were making on each rep. They weren't just trying to show off what they learned; they were actively learning in the process of review.
"ONE, TWO, READY AND... PUSH AND STEP!" The teacher called out, the students lifting up their posture before the push and using the push to step out, their left foot first.
The moment everyone hit, Arthur began shaking lightly. "What...?" He muttered to himself, as his core gave out on him and caused him to slip, nearly falling. While he caught his balance, the other flutes began wobbling lightly as well, realizing they might've just found their weak point.
"You alright?" Teller walked by and whispered to the boy.
"Yeah, just... I couldn't find any balance."
"Try strengthening your core as you remain at attention. Posture makes you look strong and attentive, but having a strong core is the only way to secure the balance between your legs and your upper body."
"Alright. I'll t-try it again."
"One more time." Mr. Penn spoke, waiving everyone down from their attention. He let the students get back on their yard lines, before repeating.
"ONE, TWO, READY AND... PUSH AND STEP!" The second rep held a lot more confident steps forward, especially in the Baritones. From the flutes, however, Jewel lost her balance as Arthur had, and tension began to fill the boy's body before slipping once again. While not one to react aggressively to most situations, Arthur's face burned red in frustration.
"I focused on my core that time..." He whispered to himself. "But, it didn't make a difference!"
"I see we're still having a bit of struggling from the flutes..." Mr. Penn mentioned, causing Arthur's face to beat even redder in embarrassment. "You need to have control over your entire body to balance your steps in marching. If you're struggling now... then your attention wasn't the best to begin with."
Arthur immediately smacked himself in the head, trying to push away his frustration.
"It's alright..." Maya whispered, the person next to him in the row on the yard line. "It's not supposed to be easy-"
"I'm sorry!" He whispered back, before adjusting himself back on the yard line. "I pushed us further, but now I'm the one holding us back. I'll figure out a way."
Maya looked to the boy, his face beginning to cool down. "There's no need to place the responsibility on yourself!" She chuckled at the thought. "We all want to beat the Baritones!"
Arthur looked back at her determined face, relieved. "R-right!"
"ONE, TWO, READY AND... PUSH AND STEP!" The teacher had enough of waiting and called the next set, forcing the remaining flutes to quickly reset and jump back into the first step. While Arthur was nervous, he was still in the process of trying to calm himself, and as such, didn't rush the movement. He stepped a hair behind the rest, who were near-perfectly in time with the teacher's call, but planted his left heel at the perfect distance between there and his balancing foot, giving him some room to work with.
His legs tensed up, still feeling the great pain of overexerting himself before. His core struggled in the balance of controlling his muscles and his respiratory system, and his upward posture was burning from all the previous practice the flutes did. Despite this, Arthur immediately began feeling where the problem was. "My shoulders," he whispered, before moving excess tension from his shoulders to his legs, giving them more weight and support.
While still shaking a bit, Arthur had fixed the problem. He wasn't giving up, and neither were the flutes.
"Aufgh!" Arthur glanced down the row, as Felicity slipped on her back foot, making her tumble down to the concrete with a solid thud. The clarinets beside her immediately began chuckling as Maya ran over to help.
"Are you alright?!" She asked, Felicity still on the ground.
She heard the laughter of the others, and without even looking up, she could see the reactions of the others on their face, that of disappointment and despair. As everyone else improved, she was being nothing but an embarrassment to everything they were working on. What kind of leader would do that to people?
"Felicity?" Maya asked, still leaning in next to her. Maya pat the freshman on the shoulder, before being instantly shrugged off. Felicity slowly climbed up from the concrete, scrapes covering her arms, before quickly making her way out of the block and back to the pavilion. Once she was out of the block, Mr. Penn nodded to the two Drum Majors before continuing the practice.
"I'll go check on her." Maya whispered to Arthur, before making her own way out of the block.
As Mr. Penn called out his next set of reps, Felicity curled up on the far corner of the pavilion, silent. Maya slowly walked up to where she was, moving some equipment beside her before sitting down on her own.
"You were doing great, I don't get why-"
"Everyone's trying so hard!" Felicity complained.
"...And your complaint is?"
"I just... I want to be a leader, you know? I want people to look at me for help, and I can't become a leader when everyone's looking towards people like Destiny and... Arthur."
"Oh, I see what's happening here." Maya smirked. "You're mad because the quiet kid's pushing us more than you ever could?"
"You don't have to put it like that..."
"Well, if that's the case... I don't think you're gonna be a great leader. Not in the least."
"What?!" Felicity instantly looked up from her sulking, confused.
"Sure, a good leader wants to help. But... what kind of leader sees someone who can do crazy, motivational things, and someone who pushes the team forward, and gets jealous of that? You have to encourage those kinds of people further! Sure, you're not getting all the glory from the help, but no leader does! And the end of the day, Margaret and Teller are still just the same as the rest of us, just with some cool quirks. ...Can I tell you a secret, Felicity?"
She nodded.
"I REALLY wanted to be Drum Major this year."
"What?!" Felicity smiled. "I didn't see that coming from you."
She looked to the girl with a sarcastic glare. "I'll take that as a compliment. But, I'm telling you this because I recognize now that Teller was definitely the better choice."
"How? He doesn't even seem like he wants to deal with us most of the time."
"It may look that way at first, but when you get to know him enough, you find out he probably loves this band ten times more than me. And despite my skills as a conductor I got while practicing for the position, I think it was his heart that won them over."
Felicity looked over to the flute's yard line, watching as Arthur struggled with a four-step march. At first, she could only see the nervousness in his posture. But, the more he went on, the more Felicity saw someone who was loving every second of trying something new.
"Do you think you can come back with me? We still have a lot of review before lunch, and this is our last chance to impress before we get music."
Felicity took one last look at Arthur, and smiled. "Yeah... let's do this!"