Coming together is a beginning,
staying together is progress,
and working together is success.
- Henry Ford
Around Three Years Ago...
Maya smiled, holding her instrument up in an attention position. This was the first day of the rest of her life, she thought.
"Good job, Teller!" The boy nervously smiled to the section leader, blushing at the compliment. Maya looked to him, and scowled. She couldn't tell fully what she was feeling, but the closest thing to it would've been hatred.
She had known Teller since Elementary School, a place where he used to be a brat. But now that he was actually applying himself, people praised him nonstop! It was the only thing getting in the way of her and a perfect future for the band.
No matter what she did, though, she couldn't let go of those negative feelings. Every time he succeeded, they would just get worse. The only thing that would fix it, she thought, would be to get ahead of him. So she pushed further.
There's no way he could always be better than her, right? So she kept moving forward, with each rep and each practice. She would beat him someday.
Present Day...
"Arthur!" As Felicity made her way back into the block, she leaned towards Arthur in the row over and whispered.
"Yeah?"
"When I was over in the pavilion, I saw that you were having in trouble staying with people in line as they marched forward, right?"
"Y-yeah..." Arthur sputtered, embarrassed.
"I have an idea."
As the two whispered, Maya looked to them, and smiled. They were immediately getting along better, she thought. 'Would it be enough?' She questioned, looking at the Baritones. They were all smiling and giddy in their line, feeling safe and secure with the work they were putting on display.
"ONE, TWO... PUSH AND STEP!" This time, the march was for eight steps. The entire row of flutes got to their attention's just in time before moving forward, the eight steps and close taking them all the way to the next yard line. As they were about halfway, Margaret, who was passing by, noticed something and continued to watch until they were done.
"I have to admit flutes..." Margaret whispered to them. "I was worried about you guys at first, but now your line is so perfectly together! Keep it up, will ya?"
The flutes nodded their heads, smiling. Maya turned back to Felicity with a confused smile.
"What'd you tell Arthur?"
Felicity smiled back, lifting her head up in a proud stance. "I remembered something my brother told me once, about how people follow each other on the field. He called it... I can't remember, actually."
"Dressing?"
"Yeah! That's what it was. I told Arthur how to do it, and he seems to prefer that for now."
The two nodded, before joining the others in fixing their position on the yard line. As Maya lined the yard line up with her heel, she chuckled. Felicity had just taught Arthur how to dress through word of mouth, and he was surprisingly good at it!
Dressing, as she remembered, is when one uses their periphery view to line up with the marching of the people next to them. While it seemed simple, a lot goes into understanding perspective when looking as far to the left or right as the eye can go. Maya actually preferred trying to march with proper step sizes, she had that trouble with the process in the past.
"ONE, TWO... PUSH AND STEP!" The rep of eight steps was repeated, Maya hoping to not make the same mistakes of last run-through. She knew that the line was going a hair above the length they were supposed to be, and so with her position as the center of the line, she took responsibility and adjusted her marching. Through good luck, the rest of the line adjusted to match, leading to a perfect stop on the next yard line.
"Yes!" She whispered to herself.
"Sal?" Taylor whispered, as the two were next to each other in line.
"What's up?"
"Is it just me... or are these kids really good at marching?"
"It would seem that way, at least at first. If you look hard enough, they're making all of these little mistakes with their posture and such."
"The why aren't they being pointed out?"
"If they did that for everyone, we'd be here until two, or maybe later. Along with that, they'll all improve over the course of the season. As long as they get the fundamental idea of the marching, I think we'll be just fine."
Over by the Baritones, Destiny wobbled down her final steps of the march.
"You alright?" Charity questioned.
"Yeah, I'm just having some trouble with balance."
"You'll be fine." Charity dismissed. "Just keep going at it."
"Then why..." Destiny began. "Then why are the flutes so good at it?"
The older sister shrugged. "I dunno."
Destiny sighed, trying to analyze their movement and posture from several rows down. As they did another rep, she couldn't find a single flaw in their general marching, and due to her focus, she stumbled even more.
"Everything good?" Margaret walked by, noticing the falters.
"Just... fine." Destiny spat back, lost in thought.
Mr. Penn clapped in appreciation. "Wow! That was a lot of GREAT work I saw out there, really! Can I have you guys raise one hand up?" Confused, the group lifted one of their hands up. "And the other? ...Now, give yourselves a round of applause, cause you just finished the outdoor portion of your first day at Band Camp!"
The group cheered wildly, tired from all of the work done. In the midst of the clapping, Teller leaned close to Margaret.
"Last first day, huh?"
"Yeah, but we're not done yet! No time to cry now! Plus... I probably don't have any energy to cry..." The girl complained, slouching into a defeated pose. Teller laughed in response.
"We weren't even practicing with them!"
"It still hurts! Being out here for so long, you know? I ran out of water, too... and we're only bringing the backup water starting tomorrow."
"Well, I hope you're ready for tomorrow, then... cause we'll be doing five times more work!"
She cried out dramatically, raising her hands in the air. "Nooo!"
"Anyways..." Mr. Penn continued. "I'm hungry. So, wrap things up, sections, and you can go back to the band room to grab your lunch! Dismissed!"
"Thank you, sir!" Many of the students cried out, as they went to grab their stuff from the pavilion.
"Wait, flutes!" Maya called out, bring them into a circular huddle. "Let's... talk."
"Oh no..." Taylor spoke sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Flute Mom's gonna beat us!"
"I'm not gonna beat you..." Maya spoke, smiling. "I actually want to congratulate you guys!" Arthur, Felicity, Jewel, Maria, Eve, Preston, Taylor and Sal were all in the circle by that point, waiting for the rest of what she had to say.
"Look, I know being the flutes isn't the best... we're not always the best speakers, or the most motivated, or anything like that. But... I already love this dynamic we have. It's, for lack of a more personal term, just like a family. And if we keep up our momentum, we'll have the Baritones beat tenfold by this time the end of Band Camp!"
The group cheered and laughed, as best as they could for awkward high school teens. Eve and Maria smirked, Arthur and Felicity high-five'd, and the duo of Taylor and Sal bumped shoulders.
"Okay, let's go get some lunch! I don't want to be out here another second!"
"Agreed!" Felicity claimed, with Eve and Maria nodding in agreement. Eve even looked to Felicity, a bit of surprise in her eyes.
"Hey, Felicity?"
"Yeah?"
"I... actually enjoyed this a bit more than I thought I was. Sorry for pushing you down on it back in middle school."
"Oh, that? It's fine, really."
"Yeah, this is great!" Maria cheered. "If I just do this, I won't have to work out anymore!"
"You do realize this only a seasonal event, right?" Felicity questioned.
"Oh..." The excitement in Maria's eyes dropped a bit, before immediately perking up again. "But now we have lunch! Yay!"
Arthur gathered his supplies and began walking towards the high school, tired beyond all belief.
"Hey!" Destiny spoke from behind him, making the boy leap in surprise. "That was cool, how you guys were all in-sync during the Fun Block."
"Fun block?"
"Short for fundamentals. It's the block we get into to practice, you know?"
"Oh. ...And thank you."
"No problem! But don't get cocky yet, Arthur! I'll train up the Bari's real good, and then we'll be even better than you!"
"We'll see about that..." Arthur replied.
"Did... did you just give me a snarky comeback?!"
He blushed in the realization.
"I-" She extended her hand up in a high-five, grinning from ear to ear.
"I knew this was perfect for you!"
He smiled back, completing the high-five soon after. "Yeah... I think you're right."