Chapter Twenty
“I have a few ideas to shake things up,” I tell the color guard at practice the next day. I spent last night thinking about Max’s advice, and I want to try putting it into action. “The first thing I thought we’d try is rehearsing in a new space.” I gesture around at the auditorium stage.
Madisyn, Addison, and Devin look around dubiously. “Why?” Madisyn asks. “We’ve never done this before.”
“That’s exactly why,” I reply and walk to the back of the stage. Faith isn’t here since it’s a weekday during her work hours, but I got permission from Sire to try this out. “I thought a change of scenery might be nice, but mostly we’re here for this.”
I dramatically pull back the enormous dusty curtains that cover the mirrors along the back wall.
“Everyone knows the routines at this point, so now it’s a matter of getting as synchronized as possible. I figured if we could all watch our own reflections, we might be able to catch things quicker.”
The others quietly inspect themselves without arguing. I’ll take it after the last few rehearsals we’ve had.
“And I had another idea—what do you think about having one person each day act as our DJ for warm-up? You can pick whatever music you like, and we have to warm up to it.” There’s a burst of chatter.
“But there’s one caveat,” I continue. “You have to play music that you think your D&D character would like.”
“What, why?” Rosa asks.
I shrug. “For fun? Plus, I was thinking more about it, and sometimes performers feel better when they have an alter ego that they tap into while they’re performing.
It’s like they turn their regular self and all their anxieties off and let this other character come out.
You already have alter egos, so why don’t we use them?
” I walk slowly around the room. “You three chose fighters as a class.” I nod at the seniors.
“You can tap into that power during the performance. And I remember you chose to be an elf,” I say to Keira.
“Elves can be elegant and graceful, so you could put that energy into your performance.”
“What about me? I was a rageful barbarian orc—does that mean I can knock over the tuba section if they get in my way?” Yori asks, and the whole group bursts into laughter.
I smirk. “Let’s not go quite that far, although I like your spirit.”
“Use your rage against the percussion section,” Callie says.
“Speaking of that,” I say. “I don’t know if you’ve heard the news yet, but Brody is out and Max is the new section leader. I’d recommend staying out of Brody’s way until he calms down about it.”
A murmur spreads through the group. “He’s going to be on the warpath,” Devin says.
I nod. “This could be good for us. There’s going to be so much chaos in the percussion section that I bet they won’t have time to mess with us. And I think Max might be more chill about that as well.”
Rosa snorts. “Yeah right, he was just as bad as Brody.”
“He’s worse,” Callie argues. “All that stuff at band camp was his idea. Who knows what else they’ll think up now that he’s in charge?”
Li and I exchange a quick uncomfortable glance.
Like me, she’s seen a different side of Max during our D&D games.
But that’s a whole other world from here.
I’m starting to trust Max—it’s why I’m suggesting all these guard changes, after all—but I’m not entirely sure how he’s going to act as section leader.
Will things actually change between our sections? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
“The best thing we can do for the next few weeks is ignore them and focus on getting to our absolute best. That’s the way we really put them in their place.
” To my surprise, a few guard members nod resolutely.
Maybe I need to lean harder into motivating them with spite.
“I know we aren’t close to that best auxiliary award yet, but we have everything we need.
Our show is creative, we’ve got beautiful flags, fun choreography, and—most importantly—a group of really talented members.
” I put out my hands toward them. “Don’t you think we should at least try? ”
A few nods, and small smiles grow as they all look around at each other.
“I can tell you that Lyra Stormclash would never take lip from some scrawny percussion players like Brody or Max,” Madisyn says.
“Huh?” Rosa asks.
“That’s my fighter!” Madisyn replies with an eye roll.
“My orc would flatten them. Easy,” Yori says.
“And then my elf could elegantly dance over their flattened bodies,” Keira adds.
There’s a small prick of guilt at hearing them trash the percussionists, but I push that away. No matter the motivation, the guard sounds excited. Determined, even. This is exactly what I’ve been hoping for.
“This is great!” I exclaim. “Let’s keep the talk of ‘flattening’ people away from Sire and Faith, but I love this momentum. We can win this—we just need to dedicate ourselves. Which means we better get started. Which of your characters is going first as DJ?”
Yori raises her hand immediately. “I already searched on Spotify and found a whole playlist for my orc. Rage Against the Machine feels appropriate for the first song.”
I nod appreciatively. “Perfect choice, Oof.”
The changes aren’t immediate, but each day I notice small differences.
Members self-correcting when they see they’re off from the group, drop spins that are in sync for once, and even Callie and Keira practicing throws without me asking.
By the time we get to our home game the following Friday, I’m actually excited.
And more importantly, the others seem excited as well.
Of course, that could be because our homecoming game is tonight.
Students are going all out—wearing school colors and face paint and decorating the halls with balloons and garlands.
Our show tonight is easy since we’re basically just standing in formation and performing to Ariana Grande while the homecoming court walks across the field.
“Hazel, are you going to homecoming tomorrow?” Li asks as we leave the band room for our break between school and the football game.
I shake my head. “Not this year. Nova wasn’t interested and I didn’t have a date, so we decided to skip. We’re going to spend tomorrow shopping, watching movies, and eating too much food.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!” She nervously adjusts her glasses. “I’m going with a few friends.”
“You’ll have a great time.”
“What are you doing now? Do you want to hang out?”
“Um, actually, I’m going to grab some ice cream with Max. But only because I lost a bet to him and I have to pay him back,” I add when she lifts an eyebrow.
“I thought you could barely tolerate Max?”
“That’s usually how it feels.”
Li eyes me. I always think of her as young and na?ve, but she might be more observant than I realized. “So the fact that you aren’t going to homecoming has nothing to do with the fact that Max refuses to go?”
“What? No.” My stomach flutters at the news. Max isn’t going? Up until this second, I haven’t thought at all about whether Max was attending the dance or not, but now I want to know everything. “How do you know what Max is doing for homecoming anyway?”
She shrugs. “I heard people talking about it. I guess girls keep asking him and he’s refusing everyone. He wouldn’t even get a smoothie with Erika.”
Li’s gossip has the same effect on me as marching during a freezing-cold downpour.
Girls are asking him out? I shouldn’t be surprised.
Max is the hot new guy in band. And even though he’s the same age as us, knowing that he takes college classes during the day makes him seem older and cooler than all the other guys we’ve grown up with.
Still, I didn’t realize that so many people were interested in him.
I’m mortified by the way jealousy claws up my throat at the mere mention of it.
“He and I don’t talk about that kind of stuff.”
She grins. “But you do go out for ice cream together. Even though he doesn’t go out with anyone?”
“Oh no, don’t start. I’m paying off a bet, that’s it.” My cheeks are red, and she knows she’s got me. “Speaking of, I’m supposed to meet him now.”
She giggles. “Of course you are.”
“Oh my god,” I groan. “Listen, please don’t say anything or make a big deal about it with the guard members, okay? It seriously means nothing, but I don’t think the guard will like it if they find out.”
“They’ll hate it, for sure. But I promise I won’t say anything.” She gives me a knowing wink and my cheeks warm even more.
I can’t get Li’s words out of my mind as I climb into Max’s car a few minutes later.
I already wasn’t sure what to make of this outing, and now my mind is spinning with possibilities.
I try to push the questions away. It’s entirely possible that the girls who asked Max out weren’t his type and that’s why he said no.
Or maybe there’s still someone from his old school that he’s hung up on.
There are a million explanations that don’t involve me and Max together, and it’s not doing me any favors to let this get to my head.
Max drives us to a DairyFreeze on the side of the road about ten minutes from school. You can’t even walk inside, it’s just a tiny box with a window where you can walk up and order. There’s exactly one person working—a girl named Hayley from my history class.
“What can I get you?” she asks with an extremely wide grin for Max.
“Hmm, what should I have…” He taps his chin thoughtfully and shoots a grin my way. “What’s your most expensive ice cream?”
Hayley squints in confusion. There aren’t real ice cream choices at the DairyFreeze. You get soft serve from the machine and you’re happy about it.
“That was not part of the arrangement,” I remind him and cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not made of ice cream money.”
“All right, fine, I’ll take a vanilla and chocolate twist. But make it the largest size you can do, please.”
I shake my head and step up to the window. “I’ll take the same, but a small.”
“You never have any fun,” he whispers.
Hayley comes back a minute later with my regular cone and another one as long as my forearm.
“Whoa,” Max says.
“You said you wanted the biggest cone I could make,” she says with a wink. “Happy to oblige. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Looks like it’s not only the girls in band who are noticing Max.
“You’re going to be so sick,” I tell him when I’ve paid and we’re seated at a plastic table next to the window.
“When are you going to learn to stop underestimating me?” He takes a big bite. “I can finish this, no problem.”
“There’s literally no way you can finish that. She probably used all the ice cream in the machine to give you that.”
“She was really nice.”
“She was flirting with you.”
He glances back at the window. “Was she? I couldn’t tell.”
“Are you going to homecoming tomorrow?” I blurt before I can stop myself.
He freezes right as he’s about to take another bite. “Uh, nope.” He studies me. “Are you?”
“No. Nova and I are hanging out instead.”
He bobs his head, and we sit in silence. Okay, that was super awkward, but now I know for sure that he isn’t going. Not that it’s a big deal or matters at all to my life.
“Your hair looks especially good today,” he says and takes an extra big bite of his ice cream cone.
I jolt at his unexpected words. “What? No, it doesn’t.”
“I said what I said.”
“My hair almost never looks good,” I argue. “It’s impossible to control.”
“You’re just biased against it. I think it looks great even if it’s ‘frizzy.’ ” He says the last word with finger quotes, as if frizzy hair is a made-up concept that only I believe in.
I can assure you, it is not. “It reminds me of when we were younger, and you’d have to constantly push it out of your face when you were playing a board game. ”
“Yeah, another added bonus of the curls. They make me look perpetually thirteen.”
His gaze dips to my mouth and back up to my eyes. “You don’t look thirteen anymore, Hazel.”
His words send heat racing through me. What is going on with us? At least when we were at each other’s throats, I knew what to expect. He’d be rude and I’d be rude right back. It was simple. Now, I barely know how to have a normal conversation with him.
I take a bite of my cone so I can refocus. “So, um, how’s Brody taking his demotion?”
He rolls his eyes. “Pretty much like you’d imagine.
He’s decided to simultaneously stop caring about everything related to percussion while also pointing out my every flaw to the rest of the section.
He thinks he’s being subtle, but it’s so obvious that he’s trying to turn the section against me.
The others have been cool, though. I took a few of the younger players aside after practice earlier this week and did some more rehearsing.
I think it helped. How about you? Are you feeling better about guard? ”
“Yeah, a little.”
“More guard secrets?” he asks with a small smile. “That’s fine, I won’t pry.” He takes another bite. “Actually, I’m curious about your take on Felix and Li.”
I shake my head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, I probably shouldn’t say anything, but it seems like Felix is very…aware of Li. There’s been a few times I thought he was staring off in the distance during practice, but then I realized he was watching her.”
“Whoa, really?”
Today is full of surprises. I’m grateful that Felix hasn’t been rude to Li or the rest of us, but it never occurred to me that he might be interested in her.
Max tilts his head thoughtfully. “I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him about it. Maybe it was a coincidence. But those two could be cute together. You should give them more D&D homework so they have a reason to talk.”
I laugh in surprise. “Are you matchmaking right now?”
“You make it sound like we’re living a hundred years ago. I’m not matchmaking, I’m just saying they have some common interests and they’re both younger band members. Plus, you said Li is a bit of an outsider in your section, like Felix.”
“That’s matchmaking,” I repeat, grinning. It’s adorable that his mind would even go there.
“Never mind, forget I said anything.”
“No, I think it’s cute, I’m just not getting involved in anyone’s love life. If there’s something between them, they’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe.” He leans forward. “But sometimes people never figure it out, even when all the evidence is right in front of them.”
Suddenly, I’m not sure if we’re talking about Li and Felix anymore. Instead of replying, I take another bite of my ice cream cone and hope it cools me down, since I’m pretty sure my temperature just skyrocketed.