Chapter 5 Music Education Part 1

Chapter 5 Music Education Part 1
The brass musical energy, mallets reverberating on base drums, and snares staccato echoing rose over the field to meet head on the cheers emitting from the stadium. One hundred uniform bodies moved in synch to create swirls and transforming pictures across the field. Twirling black red and white striped flags painted moving color at points in space like colorful twinkling stars. Two figures emerged from the formations gathering the crowd’s attention as they marched toward the stands. The pair stopped beside the drum major, whose hands rigidly punched out the beat. The figures flashed their shining trumpets in unison. A fast paced duo began at a high note and then gradually descended in a jazzlike rhythm, ending on two harmonizing high notes and cutting off with a squeal. Goose bumps rose on Sophia’s arms and neck as she turned an about face alongside Ian as they blended back into the formation. Screams erupted forth in competition with the music. Sophia’s heart pounded with excitement to the beat of the base drums. This is what it was all about.
After their halftime show, all the band members bounced around like Mexican jumping beans, still giddy and hyper. As the band seated themselves back in the cold bleachers, Mr. Maxwell bragged to the group about their performance. He was proud of the fact that most of the crowd stayed in the bleachers to watch the halftime show. In his eyes, that was an accomplishment.
“You all did a great job tonight,” Mr. Maxwell praised through his megaphone. “Did you see how full the stands were tonight?”
Someone from the band yelled, “Yeah! We rock!” The rest of the band responded with hoots, whistles, and clapping.
“You’re free to go. Be back in your seats in fifteen minutes for 3rd quarter,” Mr. Maxwell finished. It was a chilly night and many wore orange band jackets over their uniforms. The bulkiness of the jackets over the uniforms reminded Sophia of orange beetles, very talented but ugly beetles. She chuckled. Something about the chill crisp air, breathed energy into Sophia reddening her cheeks and brightening her eyes.
It reminded her of about a year ago in this stadium, probably in this exact location she guessed, when she first talked to Jared. . . He had been sitting behind her, and accidentally bumped her with the bell of his tuba while trying to pick up his sheet music.
Jiminy crickets! Are you ok? He asked, full of concern in his voice.
Um, yeah, I’m fine. Sophia rubbed her head.
It’s Sophia, right?
Yeah, and you’re Jared.
I can run and get you some ice.
Oh no thanks
I’m a clumsy oaf, two left feet and two right hands.

Sophia smiled thinking of that incident was quite common of Jared, now she knew him better. A little dorky, but sweet and thoughtful. She admired his ability to laugh at his own awkwardness. To be able to laugh at oneself was a great life survival skill. One, Sophia hadn’t quite mastered. A dull ache began to grow in her chest. She couldn’t deny that she still missed him.
Sophia shook her head, shaking the thought away. Bonnie and Annie, climbed the steps up to Sophia. “Do you have any cash Sophia, I wanna get nachos,” Annie asked.
"I only have a five," Sophia replied digging into the pocket of her orange beetle jacket.
"Will you share them with me?
"Ok, but we gotta hurry."
" I gotta go to the bathroom so bad," Bonnie exclaimed. "I’ve been waiting this whole game. Will you come with me Sophia?"
The three girls hurried off towards the concessions.


Sophia sat on the end of her bench with five minutes to spare before third quarter. She noticed a familiar face from the top of the stands and looking right at her with his deep set eyes. He wore a sports jacket and saggy jeans with the trademark chain drooping from one pocket. His black hair rustled in the slight breeze. Something about the stadium lights’ reflection on his face with the starry black night as his backdrop seemed fitting. Under the obvious face lay the mystery which by night awoke, like the stars opening their winking eyes as the sun begins to slumber. She felt like a different person here at the game than back at school. She felt a certain dead conformity within those cinder block walls. But, here, out in the open, she felt the electricity, the energy from the hundreds of people in the stands, all connected, all focused on the same goal: winning…or maybe just having fun.
She couldn’t help but smile up at him despite their recent awkward conversation. Maybe she could blame the school for making her feel tense all the time. But she was not at school now, and she was relaxed, she was fun and giddy and spontaneous. She scooted to her right and patted the vacated space of bench.
Adam raised his eyebrows slightly, a smile still on his face.
“Yeah, I know. It’s against the rules,” she said, “but, there’s a few minutes still till second half.”
Thanks.” Adam sat down close to her. The scent of his aftershave wafted on the cool air. She couldn’t help but stare at him for a moment longer. The stadium lights illuminated the left side of his face, while casting a dark shadow over his right side, emphasizing the smile-induced dimple in his cheek.
"Hey you were awesome out there!" He raised his hand to give her a high five. She raised her gloved hand as he hit it with a muffled slap.
"So, do you come to football games often?"
"No, but I came to see for myself what all the talk was about."
"It’s all talk if you ask me. Our team isn’t that great, but I think it’s still fun."
"No. I meant you."
"Me?"
“The energy, the emotion, from that um…that double trumpet…"
"The duo?"
"Yeah! It’s like a totally different side of you I haven’t met. It was way cool.” True, it was a productive channel to all her pent up frustration. Among all the other things in her life, this one she could truly say she was confident at. The rest fell by the wayside; the awkward self-defeating, shy procrastinator could easily hide behind that shiny trumpet and transform her into a confident, talented performer.
"It’s fun. .. but only if you play well.” Sophia said trying to play down his compliments. “If we all played really badly, that would’ve sucked. The bleachers would’ve been empty. I’m trying to break away from the nerdy dorky band player stigma.” Sophia laughed at herself.
“How do you do it?”
“Lot’s of practice.”
"You guys are what is exciting about this game. The rest of us would be bored out of our skulls without you."
"Thanks. I’m glad you agree with me!"
"No problem. I only have one piece of advice that would make it better," said Adam.
"What?"
"You would totally rock if you all played 'Kashmir' by Led Zepplin, his eyes twinkling.
Sophia stared blankly at him. “Kashmir?”
"What? You’ve never heard it?” Adam asked in dismay.
“Sorry”
“What about Highway to Heaven?”
"That one sounds familiar."
“Good, you‘ve heard good music at least once.”
“Hey!” Sophia mock punched Adam in the arm.
“Just kidding.” Adam smiled rocking back.
“What is good music to you anyway, AC/DC?”
"No, my required listening is from Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd, Guns and Roses, and of course Led Zepplin, just to name a few. It’s all on my MP3 player.”
“That’s nice,” Sophia stated flatly.
“What? You don’t like my taste in music?”
“I don’t know, just never listened to those groups.”
“You probably have on the radio, just never knew their names.”
“Probably.”
“It sounds like you need to be educated in rock n’ roll. What better person to teach you than me?” Adam asked.
“I don’t really need to be educated, thank you,” Sophia replied. Adam acted as if he didn’t hear her, and reached down into his jacket pocket to pull out an MP3 player.
“It’ll be just a minute and I’ll put a playlist together for you.” As Adam fiddled with the buttons, Ian, fellow trumpeter, nudged Sophia from the other side.
“Who’s the dude?”
“Adam Goodwin.”
Ian nodded his head and mouthed, “your boyfriend.”
“No!” Sophia whispered loudly.
“Uh huh, uh huh. Yep. You say lies.”
“Like you have room to talk. I saw you holding hands with that red-head girl, what’s her name, Ronda?”
How…?
I do have eyes you know.
Ian shook his head for a moment.“Ok, you win. Girls always win,” Ian said throwing up his hands in defeat.
“It’s because we’re right,” Sophia smirked.
“Because boys let them be right, or they get the boot,” said Ian.
“So Ronda is always right huh?” Sophia teased.
“None of your business.”
“As is Adam,” Sophia refuted.
“Ok, truce.” Ian held out his hand.
“Agreed.” Sophia took his hand and shook it.

Mr. Maxwell spoke through the megaphone. “We Will Rock You! In one minute.” Sophia turned her head to look at Adam who looked up at her knowingly.
I suppose this is where I exit. He stood dramatically with a flourish of his arm.
“I still want to hear those songs. Really.”
“Can I see you after the game?” Adam asked.
“Well, we are usually some of the last to leave, if you’re willing to stick around.”
“I want to at least play Kashmir for you.”
“Sounds good.”
“Ready in one, two, three, four.” Mr. Maxwell spoke holding the megaphone to his face with one hand and waving around the baton with the other. Sophia lifted her trumpet to her lips in habit and played with the band as she watched Adam slide out of view up the stands.
More and more people were starting to take notice of Adam with Sophia. The gossip in the band family could get pretty bad. She sensed the whole trumpet section eyeing the back of her head and had noticed her sister Annie and Bonnie glance up suspiciously at her during her interchange with Adam. She wasn’t ready to explain herself.
After the game, the band played the fight song one last time, and then it was time to pack up. Annie managed to find her way up to Sophia.
“So who was that boy you were talking to?” Annie asked.
“Who? You mean Ian?” Sophia played dumb.
“No. That grungy looking guy, with the scowl.”
“He does not have a scowl!”
“Whatever. If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine.” Annie flicked the bangs out of her eyes.
“His name is Adam Goodwin.”
“Oh, do you like him?” Annie asked nonchalantly.
“I don’t really know him that well.”
“He sure was sitting close to you.”
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious…” Sophia saw Adam walking down the bleachers again. “and why don’t you head over to the van, I’ll be there in a minute.
“Why do…? Annie asked and then noticed Adam. “Oh,” replied Annie knowingly and walked off. Sophia couldn’t tell if Annie was disgusted or just indifferent.
“Great game,” Adam said.
“Yeah, we barely lost,” Sophia said with mock seriousness.
“By fifteen points!” Adam replied. Adam smiled at her. He did not always have a scowl, Sophia thought.
“Was that your sister?” Adam asked aiming behind him with his thumb.
“Yeah, how could you tell?”
“Strong family resemblance.”
“I know, when we were younger people thought we were twins.”
“You don’t look like twins to me. One is definitely very cute.”
“Am I supposed to be blushing now?”
“Only if you think I’m talking about you.”
Oh, so vague, Sophia smiled sarcastically.

“I want you to hear raw talent. Are you ready?” Adam pulled the earbuds from his ears and handed them to Sophia. She placed the warm earbuds into her ears. Raw metal screamed at her, pounding and raking her eardrums. A vocalist yelled and swore angrily at her. Her eyes began to water in reaction to the ear and brain damage.
She endured about thirty seconds and then handed the buds back.
“So what do you think?”
“Very original, what is it,” was all she could manage.
“Rage Against the Machine.”
“The rage part is obvious. What’s the machine?”
“The system, bad governments, conformity in general.”
I see. Interesting. She could not see what that group provided for Adam.
You didn’t like it? I know I know, it’s a little hard. But I really think you’ll like Led Zeppelin.
Well if it sounds anything like the Rage stuff, I doubt it.
Not even close. These guys were the true geniuses of heavy metal, in fact they invented it.
Wow. I didn’t know that.
“Yeah, and they’re very talented players, being a musician yourself I think you will like it.”
“Being a musician makes me a harsh critic,” Sophia warned.
“True, and I’m telling you, you will like Led Zeppelin. I think I have Kashmir on here somewhere.” Adam fiddled with his MP3 player. Sophia looked up and noticed the stadium was almost empty. She picked up her trumpet case and hat box.
“I think they’re going to turn off the lights,” she said.
“You’re right. Maybe I’ll burn you a disc of my favorite songs. It would take you at least an hour to listen to my absolute favorites anyway.” They both walked down the steps and toward the parking lot. Something tugged at Sophia’s brain. The party. The words haunted the back wall of her head. Just do it and get it over with, she thought. She was feeling casual. Hopefully she would come off sounding casual, and Adam would get it that the invitation was a casual thing. She slowed down and stopped as the van came into view. Adam stopped and looked at her, waiting.
“So… I’ve gotta go, but first…my sister and I are having a Halloween party next Friday at my house, if you want to come.” Sophia’s words tumbled out
“I wondered when you were going to ask me,” Adam said.
Sophia closed her mouth, then opened it again “You knew about it?” she asked slowly.
“Sure, it sounds like you’ve invited the whole band,” Adam smiled. Sophia slapped her forehead.
That must’ve been my sister’s doing.
I would love to come. Are you going to require me to dress in costume.
Not if you don’t want to. I sometimes wonder if I’m growing out of the whole trick or treating, costumed parade thingy, you know?
“Sophia!” It was Annie.
“I gotta go! I’ll see you on Monday,” Sophia said.
“Ok. Later.”