The first afternoon of band camp ended up not sucking as bad as I feared it might. We just stayed inside and had sectionals and rehearsal. Sectionals are honestly a blast. We stand there in the abandoned hallway and play songs I actually recognize for once.  Plus, since the directors aren't constantly there babysitting us, we have plenty of time to waste joking around. It's pretty cool. The clarinet section as a whole didn't sound like 20 dying cats, as I feared,  which was definitely a major improvement from my old school's band. 

I get to meet the clarinet section leader as well during this time. His name is Aaron. He seems nice.  He's a senior and has been playing the clarinet since the fifth grade. He's also extremely good at it. He has a history of playing in several honors bands, as well as state-wide bands. He got a ranking of one is class A (I don't know what this actually means, but I'm guessing that's a pretty big deal). It's nice to have someone to look up to that actually knows what they're doing. He's very helpful during the sectional at teaching us the music. 

During the full band rehearsal on the auditorium stage, I found out that Aaron has a twin brother who plays tuba, who is equally as talented with that instrument. He's the tuba section leader and I caught the two of them making jokes with each other throughout the whole rehearsal. There were also moments that they'd just look at each other and laugh. At one point I asked what the joke was and they said they shared it via twin telepathy. I thought that was pretty cool, but then again they are upperclassmen and were probably just pulling my leg. It's still a good party trick though.

The full band rehearsal was even better than sectionals. Well, except for the part that we actually had to stand in arches for the whole hour (Aaron let us sit down from time to time). The clarinets stood in the first two arches. I stood in the second one with Julia and the other 8 freshmen clarinets. I look down the row and in the dead center of the second arch, Noah stood by himself with what must be that weird mellophone he was talking about. It looks pretty cool now that I see it. He was also right about it looking like a bigger version of a trumpet. 

After the rehearsal, Aaron took us back to the band room to show us all our lockers so we could store our instruments and whatever else in them for the night.  I was a little jealous of the trumpets who actually had space to store their backpacks and shoes in their lockers. I am barely able to fit more than my clarinet, flip folder, and an extra bottle of water in mine. The clarinet lockers are tiny little things. I've seen larger shoe boxes.  They're pretty long, but my arms are too short to be able to reach the back of my locker. 

Once I put a lock on my locker, I report the combo to Mr. Gregg so he can write it on his clipboard. He then says I'm good to go so I head outside. I wait patiently for my mom's small blue car to pull up to the curb. I slide inside and have barely closed the door before she starts asking me all sorts of questions.  "How was it? Did you have fun? Was I right? Did you make friends?"  It felt like the first day of kindergarten all over again.

I just tell her what she wants to hear because I am far too tired to have an actual discussion with her. I am hoping this would be enough to satisfy her and maybe I can enjoy just a little bit of peace and quiet. " It was okay. I guess so. Too soon tell. A couple." My short answers seem to give her the hint that I'm not quite in the mood to talk right now. She smiled contently for the rest of our short drive home. I don't have to give much detail because she already knows what I'm going to say. I'm just glad she doesn't say I told you so. 

When we get home, I jump straight into the shower and let cold water rinse body. I was going to take a nice hot shower, but I discovered fairly quickly that I had gotten a pretty bad sunburn today. Even the tops of my barely existent boobs were red from where my tank top cut off. I recall past memories of my sister coming home in years past with really bad tan lines from band camp but smiling the whole while. That's not quite me. I'm a little too focused on how much my shoulders sting when I try to wash my hair.  When I get out, I slather on half a bottle of aloe, hoping to get some sort of relief.

 I get dressed and go downstairs in my pajamas. I made sure they were soft and loose so they wouldn't make my sunburn feel even worse.  Dinner is already done, and I eat like I haven't seen food in weeks. Dinner is silent for the most part, but Amanda and mom exchanged knowing looks as I gobbled down my third burger. Amanda tried very hard not to snicker at my very obvious sunburn. My mother refrained from asking the same questions she did in the car. I know she wants more information, but she'll just have to wait until I don't feel like a zombie.

When I'm done eating, I go right back up to my room and immediately pass out on my bed. It is only 8 o'clock, but I am completely exhausted. The cool sheets are refreshing against my extremely warm skin.  I slept like a baby the entire night. The whole time, I was having wonderful dreams about that cute drum major, Ethan.  I kept seeing his sparkling emerald eyes, and his little smirk that made me smile. I could only imagine what it would be like to spend some more time alone with him. Even though I don't stand a chance, I can still dream, right?