ATTENTION (FUN BLOCK PART 1)

"Competitors push you to achieve more."

- M. Cobanli

"Okay, flutes!" Maya looked to the eight other flute players in front of her, lined up in two rows of four across the far right corner of the practice field. Looking around, all of the sections were gathered separately in individual learning. "I have a few things to teach you, or remind you if you've already done this, about the fundamentals of marching. And first things first... attention!"

"That's what you guys have been d-doing, right?" Arthur asked, on the left end of the first row. The entirety of the first row was made up of Freshman, with one more in the back.

"Yes, actually! We use attention to get everyone quiet and receive instructions, but it's also the fundamental technique for all of marching!"

"We're gonna have to do that while marching?!" One of the Freshman girls, a girl Arthur knew from his middle school as Eve, questioned with a depressed tone. She was a pale, scrawny girl with long blonde hair, a white t-shirt with a silver chain around her neck, and light-blue shorts. She was also the tallest of the four in the front row by a decent few inches, her gray eyes just rising above Arthur's head.

"Not... exactly." Maya explained. "First thing's first, let's try the proper pose, alright? So, let's try this pose." She extended her arms in front of her body, raising the back end of her arms before raising her forearms in a triangle shape, her right hand's fist being caught by her left hand.

"If everything's done right... the angle from your hands should be a solid ninety degrees!" Looking at the first row, they all held their arms in the right position, with decent posture to boot. In the second row, however, the Freshman left from the first row closed the distance between her elbows by a decent amount, along with just generally seeming unenthused. "You can space your elbows out a bit more..." Maya suggested.

"Oh!" The girl realized her error, chuckled, and released the pose. Arthur turned and recognized her as another girl from his middle school, but one he hadn't seen for a long time, Jewel. She had long, jet black hair, with a dark rocker shirt and red shorts made up of a rough material, with some sort of thin leather belt on top. "Sorry, I don't think I'm the best at this..."

"We're all good, Jewel." Maya laughed it off, before confirming the others were fine.

"Yeah, I was terrible at attention at first." The seniors on the other end of the second row looked to Jewel sympathetically. "It just takes practice, is all. I'm Saloni if you didn't know, but people just call me Salami, or Sal."

Sal stood even taller than Eve, with a dark green v-neck shirt with short sleeves and light cargo shorts. Her dark hair was done in cornrows down to her shoulder.

"That's weird." Jewel commented, chuckling.

"Also, if you guys didn't know..." Maya interjected. "Sal's actually our Woodwind Captain, so she's actually the section leader for the flutes, clarinets, and saxes, technically."

Jewel immediately blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry for calling your name funny, Sal!"

Sal laughed in return. "It's all right, girl! I'm just glad you didn't make fun of Taylor here!" She patted the shoulder of the short Junior next to her, laughing. Taylor, the shortest and most plump of the group, had dark brown hair with purple highlights cut into a slightly elongated bowl-cut with curls on the side, a gray t-shirt and black work-out short-shorts.

Taylor glanced to Jewel with a demonic smile, saying, 'Yeah, you didn't make fun of me, good job. BUT... if you do ever make fun of me... you're dead'.

Jewel chuckled, nervously. "Yeah... glad that didn't happen."

Maya clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention. "Okay guys, back to focusing. The other half of going to attention is posture." To demonstrate her point, she turned to the side and got into attention herself. "You see, there are three big things to this: keeping you head up, your body pushed forward just slightly, and your legs resting on the front half of your feet."

The eight tried to take on the challenge, each with their own levels of success. Sal, Taylor and Preston all achieved the position with simplicity, being given the thumbs up by Maya. Eve struggled with her back a bit, but was soon given the green as well.

Jewel and Arthur had the worst time of it. Jewel had finally understood the position of her arm, but had trouble doing it at the same time as balancing on the front of her feet, along with just having terrible posture to begin with.

And Arthur...

"Ow!" Arthur lost balance, falling onto the concrete below.

"You alright?!" Maya ran over and bent down next to the fallen teen

"I j-j-just lost my balance, is all." As Arthur slowly got up, a small drip of blood from his arm fell to the concrete. Looking forward, he noticed across the concrete practice field, the Baritones and their progress.

"BARITONES..." Charity called out, lowering her voice to a deep gravel and clapping her hands in a synchronous rhythm. "TEN HUT!!"

"HUT!!" Six Baritone players proudly called back, snapping into six near-perfect attentions. Destiny, on the far end of their line, smiled proudly, looking forward with clear confidence.

"Blarg!" Arthur called out, frustrated. Balancing back on his feet, he turned back and saw the average attempts being made to get into attention.

"You alright?" Preston called out to him, adjusting and refining his position.

"I just..." He blushed, nervous to explain his problems.

"It's about that Baritone girl, isn't it?" Sal questioned.

"What?!"

"You two looked like old sports rivals running around the court like a bunch of maniacs."

"I just..." Arthur mumbled, trying to find the right words to say. "I just want to get as good as her, you know?"

"What about the Section of the Day?" Preston questioned, having the upperclassman look to him.

"What about it?" Maya questioned.

"If we get Section of the Day, than we're automatically better than the Baritones, right? It's like a rubric."

"What's Sectional of the Day?" Eve questioned. "Is it something we have to do?"

"At the end of today..." Taylor began. "The Drum Majors are gonna choose the section they thought worked the hardest today, and give them a prize for tomorrow. It goes on and on until the end of Band Camp, and it's usually a mark of pride for the section that wins. I heard Margaret say that Mr. Penn thought up a reward for it, but it should be something that lets the other sections know; I want to be Section of the Day too!"

"And we only get two chances to impress them, mind you." Preston spoke directly to Arthur in this case. "Now, during physical practice, and later, when we sight-read the music we're gonna perform in the show. And I don't know about you guys..." Preston paused, smirking. "We're not getting the award for reading the show music."

"Why not?" Arthur questioned.

"You'll find out." He replied, a smirk on his face.

"Well, if that's the case..." Arthur muttered, looking back to the Baritones. They all looked so confident in each move they made, and looked focused in the directions they received from Charity. "Then let's beat them here and now, right?"

The upperclassman looked between each other, before cracking up in laughter.

"W-w-what's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, it's just... your so gung-ho about it, you know? I've never met a flute player like that, and you're already as timid as it is, we just didn't expect it coming from you." Arthur backed up in embarrassment, biting his lip.

"Don't worry about it!" Preston smiled, walking over to Arthur. "You want to be the section of the day, right? It's great, really. It's just... we're flutes. We're quiet, and we're not the most familial of the sections. We don't put in the most work cause' the music we get is easy and our instruments are light. It's not really the priority of flutes to be the best."

"Well it's mine." Arthur straightened his back out, looking Preston dead in the eye. Eve and Jewel watched in awe as the kid they'd known as quiet and timid for years finally gained courage. Jewel even had a memory...

Seven Months Prior...

"Oh, thanks Arthur!" Jewel smiled as Arthur held the band door open for him, turning her attention back to her phone. He lightly nodded, before beginning to close the door.

"Wait! Don't close it!" A voice from the other side of the door called out, prompting Arthur to reach for the door again and hold it open. Once on the other side, Arthur and Jewel immediately recognized who it was: Devon, the biggest jerk of a trombonist to ever be in middle school band. One of the heaviest kids in the class, Devon carried his trombone case while wearing a large green t-shirt with a smile on it, and baggy shorts with no pockets.

"Thanks, Arthur!" Devon laughed, smacking the boy in the back as hard as he could. Arthur had his backpack resting to his shoulder, so Devon had a clear view to make the the boy's back a living hell.

"Ow!" Arthur winced, recoiling backward.

"You alright, buddy?" Devon smiled at him. "After all, we couldn't possibly be without the best flutist in the whole wide band, now could we?!"

"Stop acting like such an idiot, Devon." Jewel commented, still looking at her phone. "He didn't d anything wrong."

"On the contrary, my Jewel. This little kid has rarely ever talked since I've met him. I don't even know if I hate him or not!" He laughed again, leaning against Arthur who was just starting to recover from the prior incident. "You just don't have anything to say, Artie? You deaf? Well, only one way to find out!"

The bulky kid licked his finger before quickly thrusting it into Arthur's ear, causing him to lunge back in fear. The backwards momentum made him stumble, and eventually trip onto the ground below.

"Got anything to say to me now, Artie?!" Devon laughed as Arthur had to clean out his ear, before slowly picking up his stuff. "You gonna say anything, man?!"

Arthur collected the last of his stuff and stood upright. Jewel looked back just in time to see the shy boy stand his ground against the bully, not saying a word.

Devon sighed in disappointment. "I guess you are deaf, freak." He slugged the boy's shoulder before walking off, the sway of his trombone squeaking off into the distance.

Jewel looked to Arthur, who just re-straightened himself out before continuing on his way to class, as if nothing had happened. She noticed just how stiff he was, as though he was fighting every urge inside just to not punch Devon square in the jaw. She wondered, knowing just how quiet he usually was, if there was anything he would ever speak up to.

Present Day...

"I want to get better, and I want to beat Destiny at Section of the Day." Arthur proudly proclaimed to the other flutes, noting the power in his words. Most of the times people talked like that, it would just be in a show or movie. But in that moment, the shy and comprehensible Arthur had purpose, and a dream.

"I'll help." Jewel spoke up, causing the majority of the flutes to look at her. "I don't really care too much about this, but... I really want to help you, man."

Arthur blushed in surprise, realizing that what he wanted was understood by her.

"A little bit of friendly competition never hurt anyone." Sal spoke up as well, making Arthur even more nervous.

"It's o-okay guys, you don't need to-"

"But... we kinda want to." Maya spoke up, smiling. "It's refreshing, is the best way I'd put it. Let's kick some ass."

"Whoa! Did you just swear, Maya?" Preston teased.

"Be quiet. I'm almost an adult, i can say whatever I want."

"Well, if that's the case..." Preston looked to Arthur. "I'll help out. With my rad skills, you know?"

"Arthur's your name, right?" The group looked over to Taylor, who marched her way in front of Arthur.

"Y-yeah, ma'am."

She gave him a blank look, before bursting out laughing once again. "Ma'am? I'm not that much older than you are!"

"Sorry! I just-"

"No time for apologies, right?! We gotta get to work right now if we want to beat those guys!" Taylor patted him on the shoulder, before quickly returning to her place in line.

"Y-... yeah!!"

Arthur dashed back to his place in line, as did the others who moved about during the conversation.

"So everyone..." Maya questioned. "Are you ready to take Section of the Day?!"

"Yeah!" They all cheered, mostly timid but with some fire from the upperclassman and Arthur.

"What are you guys up to?" Margaret walked towards the group, a large binder in hand. "Did I hear someone say Section of the Day?"

"Yeah, you actually did." Maya smiled, looking to the flutes.

"You think you got what it takes?"

"Yeah!" Jewel cried out, giggling. "Wait and see, Drum Major lady!" The other flutes giggled before nodding alongside her sentiment, all nine staring down the Drum Major with a confidence that they didn't possess from the beginning of the day.

"Count on it..." Arthur whispered.