It was about five in the morning when Charlie started to whine. But it really didn't get Zach mad, he had to wake up for band camp. As Charlie started to lick Zach's face. Zach immediately jumped up and got dressed. The puppy sat confused and disoriented. When the two of them left the room to go outside, Zach quickly went to the kitchen to pull a jug out from the cabinet and fill with ice and water. After that they went outside to let Charlie do his business. When he got done they both went inside and Zach was getting ready for the day he went back to his room to grab his trombone and a bag so he can put stuff in it like sunscreen and possible bug spray. But every marcher knows that even bug spray can't keep bugs away. When Zach came back downstairs he saw his mom in total shock on what was before her. "Who is this sweetie?" She said petting the dog. Zach smiled as he began putting his music folder and sunscreen in the bag. "That's Charlie" his mother looked up. "He's very sweet I saw him cuddling up with you last night." She said as she made her way to the coffee maker. Zach grabbed an apple and began to eat it. "What time in Ryan coming to pick you up?" Zach looked up at the ceiling trying to remember. Then a car horn went off a very distinct one. It was Ryan's mom. "Right now apparently" he said picking up the jug, trombone, and bag and making his way to the door. "Can you kennel Charlie mom?" He said nodding to the kennel in the living room. His mom nodded as she pulled the pot of coffee from the stand.
Zach went over to Charlie and scratched behind his ears. "I'll be back later boy." He said as he walked out of the door. When he looked in the driveway there it was Ryan standing out of the car on the drivers side. "Guess you got your permit huh?" Ryan nodded as his friend walked over to the car. His mom was in the passenger seat and she almost looked terrified. When Zach got into the back seat. He broke the terrified look in Ryan's mom's eyes. "Hi Mrs. Tyne" he said with a smile. Ryan's mom relaxed a bit. "Hi Zach I heard you got a dog." She said as she turned around to look at Zach.
Zach smiled "yes, I did, his name is Charlie." Ryan got into the drivers seat he laughed when he heard the name. "How did you decide that?" He said as he started the car. Zach shrugged his shoulder as he put on his seat belt. "It just came to me." He lied. The name "Charlie" didn't just come to him. He thought about the name for awhile. Besides, Charlie was, after all, named after a singer. No, not Charlie Puth. It was a fictional singer in a band his name was Charlie Pace. The more Zach thought about the name the more he forgot about what happened yesterday with Ella.
It didn't dawn on him until the car started to move and fear began to seize in. Ryan's mother clutched her shaking hands on the handle as if it was to guaranteed her safety. Zach held his trombone and began messing with the stitching on his case. But Ryan was the only one that didn't fear anything. He may have been holding the steering wheel as if it were a baby. But that didn't stop his steering to be as rough sand paper. When they got to the school Ryan got out of the car as if he just came back from a model show. Zach and Ryan's mother came out as if they were just thrown about in the car by a terrible driver and that was the most accurate of that car ride.
As Ryan got everything out of the back trunk and carried the jug and the identical bag to Zach's. His mother switched sides of the car and got into the driver's seat, she looked over to see the boys graduating towards the door of the school. "Have a good day boys." None of the two broke their stride. When they had noticed that Ryan's mom left. They began to finally talk. The conversation started as Ella sat by the entrance waiting for the two. She hugged Zach and smiled, Ryan had gotten the hint of what was going on. With wide eyes he asked if the two of them were a thing. Zach nodded and Ella twirled a piece of her brown hair. Ryan smiled as he applauded the two as they walked in the school. Ryan danced around the two of them. "Does that mean the war is over?"
Zach tilted his head. "I don't think brass and woodwinds will ever stop fighting." Ella said with the distinct eye rolling. As they walked in the band hallway. Ms.Yuri sat in the door opening. She wasn't in her normal everyday teacher clothes. She was wearing a black tang top, tan khaki shorts, and a baseball visor that said "I'm the better coach". Whatever that had meant. She saw the three coming into the band room, she crossed her arms and narrowed her gaze. "Zach, may I please speak with you in my office?" She said in a politely manner. Zach nodded as he went to put down his stuff in the band room. When he was dropping off his stuff, he noticed that the room was full of kids and the trombone section leader began to gather the section. When Zach went to the office he noticed something off. Perhaps it was the empty shelves that had held music scores.
Ms.Yuri sat in the chair and stared at Zach. "I'm debating on telling the other kiddos." She said quietly. Zach's eyes widened. "But won't the school find out?" She raised her index finger. "There is a way to keep you guys quiet, I just don't want to ever plan doing it." She said as she stood from the chair. "What exactly would that be Ms.Yuri?" He said leaning on the door. She crossed her arms and looked down upon Zach. "There is a certain thing that I have that makes people almost forget about it once they leave this room, but, I don't like the idea of erasing that part." She said as she stuffed her hands in her pockets. Zach's mind now was turning in ways he thought he wouldn't dream of. He shook his head. "Why are you so kind are you a sucubus?" The band director jumped.
"NO! Never! I can't stand them they are way too much of a pervert!" She growled. Zach gripped the door handle out of fear. She realized that he was afraid. She stepped backwards. "I'm kind only to anyone related to you guys I'm forbidden to ever do anything to harm any of you or your loved ones." She said as she stepped out of the office and ushered Zach out. "Besides" She said quietly. As she shut the door, her eyes changed over. "I am not always this nice to people." She blinked and the purple eyes went back to normal.
As she approached the stand everyone grew silent. "All of you outside for drills I want all of you out there by seven, no later unless you want to run!" She snarled as she hit the stand. "And it's about twenty minutes, I would start hurrying." She said looking up at the clock. Everyone stood up and grabbed their stuff and exited out the doors and went to the back to get to the field. A few stayed after Zach was one of them.
Ms.Yuri had finally made her decision. The few was Ella, Ryan, Zach, and Danny. She had walked up to a wall and pressed her palm on it. The dog like legs appeared and she turned around and saw the four. "Do not scream please." She said looking directly at Danny. As he was sweating bullets. Ella's eyes widened and she stayed by Zach's side. Ryan however was the funniest reaction of all. "Am I dreaming?" He asked. Ms. Yuri shook her head. "I'm afraid not Ryan, I'm introducing myself slowly to everyone. I trust that all of you will not say anything to anyone. " she said sighing. Zach nodded. "This is how you are going to do it aren't you?" Ella looked over at her boyfriend. "You knew?!" She gasped in surprised. Zach shrugged his shoulders. "Only for a little bit." Danny stood in shock but then went up to her and gave his director a hug.
It caught Ms. Yuri off guard, but then she realized that this was the shy student. She hugged him back and knelt down beside him. She grabbed his hands and held them for awhile. "I'm so sorry that he's done that to you Danny..." she said as if she knew what was going on at his home life. Danny's face was always use to fear being on its face but now, an unfamiliar thing was happening to Danny something streaming down his face. Danny was crying and he wasn't crying out of sadness it was out of relief. Zach for the first time had noticed the kind demon's heart for the marching band kids. Until Ms.Yuri looked back at the clock and smiled. "You have ten minutes go! Danny if you want we can talk about it later." She said standing up. She stomped her feet to where the dog legs had turned back to normal. Danny nodded and followed the director. While Zach, Ella, and Ryan walked out with everything. they were out of war shot of the director.
Ella stopped for a minute. "I thought demons were rude." She said as they walked on the asphalt road. Ryan glances over. "I know I was thinking the same, I'm more caught off that she is a demon more then anything." He said. Zach rolled his eyes as they approached the field. "She told me that she is kind hearted because she cares for all of us." Zach said he made his way to his section. When the three were separated into their sections.
Zach overheard the drum majors talking about the props and possible color guard clothes. "Have you seen the props that were suppose to come with the show?" Said Eliot the back field drum major. "They were broken I was there, Ms. Yuri said we have to come up with new prop ideas and we have to make them ourselves." The head drum major, Matt, said with a little sigh at the end. Zach was then interrupted by the sound of a whistle blowing and a stern loud voice yelling "BAND TEN HUT!" Everyone stood at attention and shouted a response which was a bark. The reason for the bark was that they were the Marching Collies. Since the school was known as the "home of the border collies" it was an odd mascot. But there was a story behind. Zach was told that the school use to be a sheep farm and the only dogs there were border collies. But if you think the simple Bark the band gave sounded like a chihuahua, you were dead wrong. The bark sounded a "awo woof" and it had sounded mean.
The voice belonged to Ms. Yuri. "Go to block!" she shouted as everyone had scattered among the field. The last person to get there was Danny and it wasn't really his fault. Ms.Yuri nodded to him as he walked out to the field to be behind Zach. "Carson will be here in about a week let's get ready to shock him once more, drum majors do morning block please." Ms. Yuri said as she was trying to get speakers set up.
The drum majors got onto different sides of the block to demonstrate positions and scream odd numbers while the band screamed even numbers. It wasn't really an odd thing most schools do it to make sure that everyone is counting correctly. As Ms. Yuri finished putting up speakers the band was done stretching. They sat on the cold damp field as the waited for instructions on what to do next. Zach sat and talked to Danny the two shared smiles as they were talking about video games and how sometimes the design of characters were somewhat stupid. Ms. Yuri then approached on of the drum majors. "Mark off the lines please." the drum major nodded as he told everyone to stand. He marked off each line of the band kids to make sure there were even intervals.
Ms. Yuri put her hands on her hips as she stood in the direction that everyone could see her. "Alright freshman you know how to march now, I am going to ask you to do the same, except it is going to be with a lot of people and you need to keep in time, this is vital so that you don't get ran over by the person behind because if they are veterans they will not stop. I have drilled it in to their heads not to stop, so don't take it out on them if they hit you or run you down." She said as she pointed to the ground. "I want you all to march eight to five." She picked up the gock block. "Now freshman you are probably sitting there like 'what does that even mean!?' I will tell you, you are taking eight steps to get to five yards this is quiet simple. Now also I want all of you to count as loud as humanly possible so that the teachers in the school come out and tell us to shut up, and that's when I can pull the 'we are the marching band and this is what we do card." Zach chuckled along with the rest of the kids. But when she raised the gock block everyone had grew silent, the freshman were confused. But they couldn't ask as they were also taught not to talk during basics.
Ms. Yuri tapped the block a couple of times and shouted "Band horns up." as the band replied with a loud "squeeze and hit!" As their hands raised to make a fist up to the bridge of their nose. This was to represent their instruments, the drum majors walked around to make sure that everyone was doing alright and help them improve it when they stepped out of the block it gave the director the opportunity to begin the basic. "eight to five children eight to five what are we doing?" The band shouted the answer which you could probably guess it 'Eight to Five." Ms. Yuri then hit the gock block and yelled "Mark time mark!"
Zach could feel his feet shifting and could tell Danny was having problems. "Hey Danny" He whispered. Danny glanced over not moving his head. "Look down at Cynthia's feet in front of you match her tempo." Danny smiled. "Thank you." it took a little bit for him to make some adjustments until he was in time. Then the gock block was sounded again and this time it was with a 'Resume hut' As the block of band kids began to move in sync some kids were wobbling. "Ready halt." Came from the voice of Ms. Yuri. The reply of the marching band was to post their left foot and go back into the position they started and say 'post close' The director then walked along side the block of kids. "Drum majors check the posture." She said asking loudly but in a polite tone. As the drum majors were checking posture, when all of a sudden they began to ran through the intervals. Everyone looked back to see a freshman passed out from over heating. "Ms. Yuri we got a freshman down!" Yelled Matt as he picked up the freshman. Ms. Yuri made her way to the passed out freshman. "Matt go put him under the pavilion where the guest crowd is. But what ever you do not splash water on him. put a towel over him make sure it is wet and elevate his legs somehow." Zach could see the fear in Ms. Yuri's eyes it was uncommon for anyone to see her like this. She was usually a calm teacher. Matt did what she asked he ran him over there and tossed the towel on him.
Ms. Yuri grabbed the assistant head drum major, Grace. "Please, make them do eight to five until they reach the goal post then turn them around and make them do it until they reach the touch down line." Grace nodded as she was handed the gock block. As Ms. Yuri ran over Zach noticed that she ran pretty fast to where it was not normal. When Grace hit the block everyone went back into position as for Danny he sat terrified. "Does that normally happen?" He asked looking over at Zach. Zach shrugged his shoulders but not as much so that Grace couldn't see it. "It depends on what you do, spare your water Danny you will be fine." He whispered to his freshman. When they finally made it to the last one. The freshman who had passed out went home. When Ms. Yuri finally got control over the gock block, she made every one have a water break.
When Zach sat down by his section for a water break he sat down by Danny, who was chugging his water. "Didn't I say spare your water?" Zach said nudging the freshman causing him to spill water. The section laughed, Lindsey stood up and said "form a circle we have do an initiation." Everyone had a mischievous grin. Except for the freshman cause they didn't know what was going on. The freshman were forced into the middle of the circle while the rest kept beating the field to the sound of a drum. It sound ba ba bump, almost like a heart. It grew louder and louder until the section leader stomped her foot. "Today we sacrifice thee to the trombone gods to join our ranks right here." She said pointing to one of the girls. "She be named Lila, and for god sakes she can't march sideways." Then another heart beat pattern came. "This one" She said pointing the other girl. " Emily is thee she is actually quiet good but can't stop playing memes on her instrument." Another heart beat pattern. "Then there be thee boy, Danny a really good player but shy." Then a drum roll came and it got louder and stopped. "Initiate thee and give them strength!" A large "cha cha cha" came and everything was done. the freshman were confused.
When the whistle was blown and everyone got up. "Back to block!" Yelled Ms.Yuri. Everyone scrambled to their spots in the block. Then on it was like the trombone gods heard the prayer of the section leader because the two girls were marching better and Danny too. But little did they know, what the select few had saw in the band room and if they hadn't kept their word they would've told everyone. As it was nearing to dark Ms. Yuri without anyone realizing snapped her fingers and the lights went on. When the block was now changed into a dance class (almost) with the color guard director Sara making sure that everyone knew what may have been coming up in the show. It was only her and the rest of the ensemble. Ms.Yuri went inside to help with battery seeing that their helper got fired due to touching other students. But as Zach was doing body he realized how much Danny was struggling to keep up. He stopped and pulled his freshman aside. "You look like you are struggling let me help." He said putting him in line with himself. "Alright put your left foot out like your about to skip or something" he said extending his left foot. Danny followed the movement as he wobbled a little bit, but manage to recover. Zach switched feet and moved with grace forward. Danny did the same but he wobbled a little bit. But the more the two practice the better they had gotten. When they finally went back into the block. The instructor looked at them confused, as they are probably the best ones in the block.
" i'm assuming you two are friends?" The instructor says as she approached the two. Zach nodded " he was struggling so I decided to come and help." The instructor smiled. " how very kind of you, I'm assuming that he is one of the freshman?" Zach nodded as he turned towards Danny. Without even a second thought, Danny turned his head so he couldn't meet Zach's eyes. Danny didn't look away because he was embarrassed, he looked away because he was scared because he knew that his father was watching. He knew that his father was not there but when he looked over to the stands he saw someone watching it was possibly the girlfriend of his dad. But she was not as mean as him or cruel. The only one in the band who knew was Ms. Yuri and she even felt sorry for him. she was not from this world. There was an old saying that Danny remembered, one that his mother had told him before she passed away from terminal cancer. It was a very very faint memory but he could remember asking her as she laid on her death bed, ticking her last tock with her only son. "Mommy, how do you know when something has gone too far?" His mother smiled as she reached for his hand. She squeezed it ever so slightly she looked up at her lively son, and she answered with one quote that's stuck forever. "Danny, you know when it's gone too far when the most destroyed beings start to cry." Danny didn't remember What had happened next but he did hear a long noise coming from the heart monitor. As his mother's eyes slowly began to close. The next thing he remembered was the doctors running in and his father pushing him out of the room. To the doctors and his father's concern his mother had tick her last tock.