7 WARM UPS

The practice field was a large slab of concrete behind the Home Stands of the football field, nearly as big as the field but just the right size for a marching show. Old lines of what used to be a driving course were faded and covered over by newer yard lines every ten from the center, with a bright red marker at the sidelines for each.

Next to the field and beyond some grass, a small, rusted pavilion with a flat concrete floor was slowly being filled up by the band students and their equipment. One by one the people and the sections made lines of the ground, turning into rows, turning into a nearly full pavilion.

The sun began to sparkle on the open concrete, the first teen to step out from the pavilion and enjoy it being Machiko, stretching her arms out. As her hands extended her furthest reach, one of the muscles in her left hand, covered by cloth, started aching lightly.

She winced in pain, trying not to say anything. Looking around, no one had seen her...

"Are you alright, miss?"

Or so she'd thought. Looking over, Arthur (standing relaxed due to the relief of not having to carry his stuff anymore) noticed the bands on her hands and became concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I have karate classes, you know how it is."

"Oh, cool. How long have y-you been taking classes?"

"Since I was a kid, really."

"And you're a Sophomore, I assume?"

"Yeah, actually. Thanks, most people think I'm a lot younger than I look, but you got it right on!"

"Then this is your second year in Marching Band, then?"

The look on her face immediately dropped in mood, before trying to recover itself. As she took a breath, other people from the pavilion started making their way to a sectional spot on the concrete.

"I gotta go." Without waving goodbye, the Sophomore turned around and walked out further into the field. Arthur awkwardly turned back, finding Maya and Preston with the rest of the flutes as they made their way onto the concrete.

"Hey, Preston?"

He looked to Arthur's nervous eyes.

"Yeah?"

"You're a Sophomore, right?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Do you k-know that girl?" Arthur pointed to Machiko as she stood with the rest of the Clarinets, looking up to the sky.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"Did something happen to her last year?"

Preston looked to Arthur, thinking about the girl's antics but a year prior. After some thought, a dark look came to Preston's expression and a remorseful look back to her. Even across the field, he remembered the pain she once experienced.

"Look, I don't know all the details, so don't take my word one-hundred percent, you got that?"

The Freshman nodded.

"Well, about a year ago, on her first day coming to band camp, she got in a really bad car accident. She couldn't match for the whole season."

"Oh." Arthur's face went pale, thinking about the truly bad luck of the situation.

"And I think she's like, a really great musician, too. She plays four instruments, and I haven't heard all four, but people say she's the best at whatever she touches.

"Did something happen?"

"Nothing, really," Arthur mumbled. "She just seemed as new to this as I am, so... I dunno."

"She'll be fine." The sophomore reassured. "I'd be more worried for yourself."

"...W-what?"

"BAND... TEN HUT!!"

"HUT!!"

The majority of the band looked towards the center of the concrete, where Teller and Margaret stood, impatient. Margaret stepped forward, and took a deep breath. "We need everyone to make a large circle around us, and we need it to happen FAST! We only have a couple hours out here, so there's no time to waste!"

The upperclassman immediately began jogging around the Drum Majors, making a large ring that nearly stretched to the ends of the field out around them. Most of the underclassman (except for Destiny and Arthur) took their time getting to the circle, but it wasn't a very difficult task. Once most of the people were in place, Margaret extended her arms in the attention cross pose, making most of the seniors and leadership quiet down in their own right and with the others paying attention, the majority were quiet in no time.

"Okay... let's stretch!" The girl stepped out proudly, letting her right arm cross her body to stretch and holding it up with her left. "ONE..."

Margaret began counting loudly, Teller giving the crowd a look that said: "You better count with her or she'll actually kill you."

"TWO... THREE... FOUR..." Most of the seniors began joining in, quickly adjusting their position to match hers.

"FIVE... SIX..." Destiny and Arthur immediately jumped to the challenge, with Destiny reveling in the calling-out aspect and Arthur making up for his lack of vocal enthusiasm with expressive stretching. Maya and Preston looked to Arthur in confusion as he awkwardly stretched out and puffed out his chest for the task, but they didn't say anything in order to keep his enthusiasm going.

"SEVEN... EIGHT..." Machiko and Vernon were also focusing in by that point, motivated by the people that were around them taking part in the stretches. Machiko held back a bit in order to not strain her hands once again, while Vernon awkwardly hid his light voice under the barreling cries of the other Trumpets.

"NINE... TEN!!" Margaret and Teller released from their stretches, smiling to each other in the quick success that they'd had. Without wasting a second, they burst through several quick arm and leg stretches, before letting them take a breath.

"You alright, Arthur?" Maya looked to Arthur nervously, as mounds of sweat begin to globed on his head.

"Just fine... I just sweat a lot, you d-don't have to w-worry about it..."

"If you say so..."

"Alright everybody!" Teller called out, smiling. "Now, we usually have a fun stretch every warm up right at the end..." A couple of Seniors and Juniors began clapping in response to his comment, making comments on the stretch they wanted.

"How about Superman?!"

"Hip-flex-saur!!"

"Let's do it in Spanish!!"

"ALRIGHT!!" Teller clapped as though he was going to call them to attention, silencing most of them on the spot. "And we'll get to that everyone tomorrow. But today... Mr. Penn requested we start a new routine, as it seems many of the other high schools in the area do this, but we don't. Today's the start... of P.T."