Keeping in Line Read Free

practices will remain. We are the most talented section in the drumline and have to set an example for the rest of the Battery. You’re free to go.”
    Bronwyn secretly suspected a lot of J.D.’s insane militaristic tendencies were due to his past. Before joining the Forrest Hills drumline (and the high school that went with it), he had attended military school and marched a summer with Drum Corps International (among band geeks, more commonly known as DCI). He had taken off from marching DCI this summer to concentrate on being Captain and applying for college. Still, it was J.D.’s way or the highway and Bronwyn was too young and inexperienced on the Battery to question anyone’s leadership styles.
     
    Pre-band camp finally arrived. Bronwyn said goodbye to her dad as they pulled into the Forrest Hills high school’s familiar parking lot. She couldn’t wait for the day she was able to drive herself to school. Although she knew Ben, a junior in the tenor section, lived close to her house, Bronwyn hadn’t quite built up the confidence to ask him for a ride just yet.
    “Have a good practice, honey!”
    “I’ll call you when I need to be picked up,” Bronwyn answered as she slung her snare over one shoulder and walked towards the school. Usually not overly concerned with her appearance, the redhead had put a lot of consideration into what she was wearing today. She wanted to define herself and move away from the shy, naïve persona she had been known for during her ninth grade year. Over the summer, she had searched thrift stores until she found the perfect T-shirt (emblazoned with “Arizona is for Lovers” across a faded yellow background) and paired it with olive colored corduroy shorts to wear for her first official practice. She had observed how the other snares dressed and wanted to look, at least on the surface, like she belonged. Interestingly enough, her Captain was the one who looked like he didn’t belong. J.D. was preppy with a capital P and Bronwyn wasn’t about to be caught dead in pressed khaki shorts and a polo shirt with the collar flipped up. The redhead knew everyone on the Battery wore Oakley (or Oakley inspired) sunglasses, but decided to put her own spin on things and stuck with her retro shades. The final and most obvious difference from her shyer ninth grade self, was her new walk. Maybe it was the months of wearing the drum, but somehow, she had finally developed a walk that had attitude.
    As she approached the school, she caught the whispers that trailed in her wake.
    “Who is she?”
    “Is that a snare she’s carrying?”
    “Who let her carry their drum?”
    Bronwyn was amazed at how quickly everyone had forgotten her Battery designation. She turned a corner to find Tony and the rest of the sophomore drummers. She had almost passed the group when her arch nemesis snidely called out, “I still think they mixed up the results of our auditions, Flueger.”
    The redhead looked straight ahead. She and Stewie (late one night over the summer she had decided that her drum had a name, and that name was Stewie) kept walking, choosing not to acknowledge the insult.
    Angered by her lack of response, Tony called after her, “You might as well just put down the drum now before Henry or J.D. has to publicly embarrass you by removing you from the Line.”
    Bronwyn was about to respond when Drew unexpectedly came to her rescue. As a member of the Pit, Bronwyn had a bit of an unorthodox relationship with the drum major from the previous season. As much as her daydreams said otherwise, she would classify them as ‘friendly,’ but not ‘friends.’
    Drew replied on her behalf, “From what I hear, Bronwyn is kicking ass and taking names.”
    While blushing slightly, Bronwyn stuck out her tongue from behind Drew and followed him into the band room. She watched the blonde senior approach some of the Brass players and desperately wished she had said ‘thank you’, or something flirty, instead of doing