Ever since I first saw the drumline in a marching competition (which was in the 3rd grade) I've wanted to play percussion and be in the drumline in high school. But because my sister, Ashley, did percussion in middle school and quit after a year because she got BORED of it, I wasn't (and my sister, Becca wasn't) allowed to. Becca ended up in drumline anyway because she joined the cymbal line. So that was my big break: join the cymbal line; join drumline. But before I could get in to high school, the percussion teacher, Mr. Hayes, quit and we got another guy who didn't LIKE cymbals. They took away the cymbal line and now we just have a girl on the sideline clashing cymbals together. Pretty crappy and she hates it.

Last week, my friend, Nick, told me about tarp crew. Tarp crew is the crew that goes to competitions with the drumline to set up the tarp that they perform on and then take it off of the field and fold it up. I said I wanted to sign up for the crew when they started asking for people to sign up. He said he would sign me up. So I pretty much trusted him to that. I also told my friends Kelli and Breanna that I REALLY wanted to join tarp crew. I remember us talking and saying "Oh my gosh that'll be so much fun! We're SO doing it together." The next day, they did signups for tarp crew. Nick didn't sign me up, but signed himself up. Breanna signed herself up. And Kelli signed her and our other friend, Annie, up. But not me. Unfortunately I didn't get to school EARLY enough to sign up for the crew. I can't really describe how upset I felt. The fact that I love drumline so much and now I can't go to their last competition pretty much pissed me off. My friends don't love drumline NEARLY as much as I do. One of the people who signed up doesn't even like the drumline. He HATES them. He could care less about the drumline. I can't tell you how much I hate him at this point.

Yesterday Nick came up to me and said that there was an opening on the crew. I immediately went to Anna (who's basically the captain of the crew) and asked to join. "Ya sure just run it by Catie." (One of the other "Captains" of the crew.) I ran it by Catie who was kind of hesitant about it since I hadn't been to the practice for it, but she said yes. Now Catie didn't sign up either, but because she'd been on tarp crew for every drumline competition since she came to this school, she was allowed on. Little did I know that SHE was the one who filled the opening.

I came today so excited about going to the competition. I helped decorate the drumline hallway and just hung out for a while. Then the boy who hates drumline came in (C.J., Caitie's younger brother). He asked me "Did they get your medical form?" My what? "They need your medical form so you can go on the trip. A director needs to pull it out of the filing droor. If they don't have it you can't go." I was kinda freaking out because nobody told me that a director needed to get my medical form and if they had I would have talked to a directory YESTERDAY. There wasn't a director in sight. "Oh well, Ausdemore's coming soon. He'll get it." Then they did a head count for how many people were going; 10 people. Uh-oh. Only 10 people could go and Catie was supposed to come later. 11 people. Immediately people started saying "Well I'm not going home." "Well, I'm not EITHER!" And then I said "You don't have to worry about it. If anybody's going home, it's probably going to be me." I really hoped that wasn't true. But if it came down to it, they were OBVIOUSLY going to pick Catie, a senior with a lot of experience, over me, a freshman who'd never touched a tarp. Then Anna came in saying "Well it's not that you can't go, it's just the matter of having to pay insurance for an extra person, so there's still a chance. Let's just wait for Ausdemore." Ya, Ausdemore REALLY wants to pay, what, $100 more just to add another person when they could just stick with the original number and pay what they were going to pay originally. But I decided to hang around and wait for Ausdemore. But I didn't wait very long. I turned to C.J. (who actually used to be one of my BEST friends) and asked him if he thought I should just go home. "Ya you should. You really don't have a chance. If it came down between my sister and you, they're going to pick my sister. Sorry." I hated him so much at that moment, pure hatred. But I knew he was right, and that's what kills me the most. But it wasn't just that he was right. It was his tone. It was like he didn't care. You kno when people say I'm Sorry, but you know they're not sorry? Ya, his sorry sounded sarcastic, like he didn't care that I'd just been hurt. Thanks man. Thanks a lot.
I went home. I didn't get to see the drumline show. I don't know what place they got, and I spent a Saturday doing nothing except watch a movie with my parents called How to Marry A Millionare, an old film with Marilyn Monroe.

So basically, thank you to all of you who made me waste my time at the school and raised my hopes only to crush them and lied to me and pissed me off and didn't give me all the information I needed to kno and ruining my Saturday, the first day of Thanksgiving Break for me! Y'all are SWELL!

I play the saxophone in the CHHS marching band and love it a lot, but I will never love it as much I love percussion and drumline; the marimbas, the chimes, the snares, the timpanis, the cymbals, the gong, the tenors, the bass drums, and the marching. The last competition of the year and I don't get to see it. I've seen several of their past shows and I've seen this show a couple of times, too, and I love this years show so much more than the other ones. So thanks everyone. Thank you so much. Now I have to wait a year before I can do tarp crew for the drumline.