Chapter Four #2
I jolt upright. My skin is hot and tight from the feel of his breath in my ear, but his words are what send fire licking up my spine and through my limbs. How dare he lecture me. He doesn’t know who he’s messing with.
“Why don’t you take your own advice because I’m about to bury you.”
Our eyes lock in a wordless battle. I’m practically crackling with energy, waiting for his next move.
The corner of his mouth twitches, like he’s fighting a smile, and then he spins on his heel and strides to his yard line.
For a moment I’m frozen, but I shake out my limbs and take a deep breath to clear my head.
I’d almost forgotten how competitive Max and I get with each other.
“Are you okay, Hazel?” Li asks in a small voice from behind me.
I’m not sure how much she overheard but it was probably too much. I roll back my shoulders and give her a big grin. “I’m absolutely fantastic, Li.”
The field commanders step onto the grass and my attention goes to them. I push away thoughts of Max and Brody and get into the zone. I’m going to prove them all wrong.
“Okay, you know the drill…” Sire trails off.
“See what I did there? Drill?” He chuckles and then continues.
“Our field commanders are going to be calling out commands. They’ll start simple—if you’ve been paying attention—but it gets fast and confusing very quickly, so listen up.
If you miss a command, you’re eliminated and you’re to walk to the sidelines and sit down.
Whoever’s left standing wins.” There’s silence on the field for a few moments. “Marjorie and Greg, you may begin.”
“De-tail, to the ready!” Marjorie calls and we all stand with our feet shoulder width apart, hands together in front of our bodies.
“De-tail, atten-hut!” she calls, and I bring my left foot in and move my hands to the sides.
“De-tail, right face!”
I turn sharply to the right.
“De-tail, left face!”
I turn back to the front.
“De-tail, parade rest!”
I take a wide stance, my right hand in front of my stomach and my left hand on my lower back.
And on and on we go.
In my peripheral vision, I’m vaguely aware that people are dropping like flies as our field commanders call out command after command.
We have a lot of talented band members, but it’s so easy to lose focus for a second and make a silly mistake or turn in one direction when you meant to turn to the other.
Eventually we turn enough times that I’m facing the back, and I can see that most of my guard have already dropped out.
Only Li, Rosa, and I are left. I take a moment to glance toward the percussion.
My eyes find Max immediately, his back to me, and my stomach somersaults at the memory of him whispering in my ear.
“De-tail, mark time!”
I falter and almost miss the command. More people drop out around me, and I kick myself for thinking about Max when I should be paying attention. My heart races and sweat drips down my back.
“De-tail, right face!”
“De-tail, left face!”
“De-tail, about face!”
There are groans and moans and flocks of people jogging to the sidelines.
Someone to my left cusses and I allow myself the tiniest of smiles.
Brody is out. He’s always been too cocky for his own good.
After a few more commands, only a handful of us are left.
Although I can’t look left or right without breaking protocol, I know Max is still on the field with me.
I can sense him, and my craving to beat him grows with each passing command.
I don’t care about winning anymore. I only care about winning over him.
Marjorie and Greg take us through a ridiculous set of commands that I can barely keep up with.
It’s always this way when we get to the very end.
Sire gets antsy for a winner and the field commanders get desperate and start throwing everything they have at us.
I do another left face to find that only Max remains on this side of me.
His posture is ramrod straight, his positioning perfect, and I glare hard enough that I hope he feels my anger burrowing into his skull.
There’s another right face, about face, parade rest, and to the ready. I almost lose it on the last command but manage to hit the position.
“Dammit.”
A tall figure with dark hair moves in my peripheral vision and I almost jump in happiness.
Max is out…which means I did it! I beat the entire percussion section. I swallow a scream of joy. I’m tempted to run after him so I can throw my win in his face, but that would mean forfeiting, and there’s no way I’m doing that.
“De-tail, atten-hut!”
I come to attention.
Who else is left? We do an about-face next and I see that it’s only me and Nova. A laugh bubbles up in me.
“De-tail, mark time!”
“All right, I’m calling it, or we’ll be here all night knowing these two,” Sire calls out through the bullhorn. “Nova, Hazel, you two are the official drill down winners for this season. Well done!”
At that, we break from our positions and run screaming to each other. I wrap my arms around her and pull her into a huge hug. “Omigod, Nova!”
“We are awesome!”
The rest of her clarinets run up to congratulate her, and the color guard follows suit with Li leading the charge. I make eye contact with Max over their heads.
“You heard Sire. Official. Winner.” I wiggle my fingers in his direction like I’m waving him away. “Thanks for the Popsicles, old friend!”