“Have you seen my curling iron, Marian?” Marian is my most trusted friend. Her and I have been in the school band together for close to four months, and it was time for out first official concert. We were both beyond the recognition of being nervous. Our hair had to be perfect,and our make-up had to be calm, yet explosive. We had to wear a black half sleeved polo with black pants, black socks, and black shoes, this was our uniform. I had never had a problem with matching my clothes with the color of my eyeshadow, but this made it extremely simple.


My room, as usual, looked as if a tornado had hit. Marian and I had been looking for my curling iron for half an hour. “I give up, we have been looking for forever! I'm going to do my make-up now, instead of stressing out about something that has disappeared.” I told Marian. I pulled my vanity drawer open. Except from the few old bobby pins, it was empty. “Are you serious! This concert has to be perfect, and I can't find anything I need!” Marian started laughing, “Why are you getting so worked up?” I realized, with the few words she said, she had a valid point.


Once we finished, we agreed that we looked picture perfect. “Mom says we gotta go or we'll be late.” I told Marian. We grabbed out music and walked out the front door. The humid Yuma air stuck to our skin. “O-M-G! I hate how hot it is!” Marian yelled, directing it towards the hot air. We both got into the back seat of my mom's suburban. The air conditioner kicked on, and a sigh of relief escaped from all of us. The car ride was just us listening to my mom's car radio. Screaming at the top of our lungs, singing along.


We slowly pulled up to the curb of the entrance to the school. The hot air smacked us in the face once more. We sighed and agreed that it would be over soon enough. We slowly walked up to the doors of the gym we pulled on the green metal handle cautious not to burn our hands. We walked across the white tile, up the green ramp, and into the locker room to get our instruments. She played the clarinet, and I played the trumpet. “Here we go!”, we both smiled as we walked across the grass courtyard to the music room where my favorite music teacher, Mr. Evans, was waiting for us all to get there.


“You girls are late.” Mr. Evans told us. “Sorry.” I replied, eager to start tuning. We walked into the class room and got our instruments out. Jayden, a boy that Marian and I had met when we started band, was also there. Marian wasn't a big friend of his, however I was. So I went over to talk to him. “I am so nervous! I can't wait until it is over with so that I can relax... Ha-ha!” He looked at me with the most unique look of understanding. However, he only replied with “You're so weird, that is why I like you.” Marian rolled her eyes at this.


Mr. Evans walked to the front of the room and we all got in our respective places,and got our instruments out. He pointed to Marian, she was the first chair clarinet. “Play a Concert B-Flat scale.”, he said to her. Once she did, I was next, because I was the first chair trumpet. I put my trumpet up to my lips, and buzzed a perfect concert B-Flat scale. I was proud, but mostly because I saw Mr. Evans' proud expression. Jayden was next, he was the only alto-saxophone player our group had. He played his and Mr. Evans' face showed that he had seen improvement. Jayden looked at me and giggled.


Our group had just finished the tuning process, and all of the bands lined up out side. It was no longer hot, but it was very humid. The walk over to the gym, was long, and terrifying. Once I walked into the cold area, I saw at least a hundred people. My hands started shaking and I was worried. I had been preparing for hours for this night, but I didn't feel ready. Jayden and Marian were sitting by me in the bleachers.


“...and a partridge in a pear tree-e-e-e” The choir finished their final song. Which only meant one thing, it was beginning band's turn to perform. Jayden, Marian, and I walked up to the stage together. We all sat in different areas of the stage. Mr. Evans stepped off of the podium, and announced our first song. His voice echoed through the entire gym. “'Carol of the Drums'” he said. He turned around stepped onto the wooden podium, out his right hand up, then his left, glanced around the band to make sure everyone was ready, smiled, then started the count off. One-Two One-Two-Three-Four. The clarinets started in a strong note of 'E' I silently counted in my head and waited for my cue. After eight measures of counting was up, it was my turn. I snapped my trumpet up to my lips and Loudly buzzed “F-G-A-A-A-B-A-B-A” It was wonderful, my butterflies went away. I very proudly went through playing the rest of the song, and didn't miss a beat. We finished that song. I felt relieved, able to accomplish anything. Jayden and Marian both looked at me and a smile as warm as the weather spread across my face.