Sleepovers, Solos, and Sheet Music

by Michelle Schusterman

  When I walked in, I froze.

  It was huge. No, seriously. The Bishop band hall was, like, the size of a football field. Okay, maybe not that huge. But it was definitely bigger than the one at Ridgewood, and you could probably fit four or five Millican band halls inside it.

  “Holly!”

  Relief swooped through me when I spotted Julia, Natasha, and Gabby waving from the corner, and I hurried over to join them.

  “Did you just get here?” Julia asked. “I figured you’d be, like, an hour early.”

  “Half an hour,” I told her. “I was in the ensemble room helping the director set up chairs.”

  “There’s an ensemble room?” Natasha asked, and I nodded.

  “It’s like a second band hall,” I told her, and her eyes widened. “That’s where the concert band is rehearsing.”

  “That’s us!” Julia said, nudging Natasha with her clarinet case. “I guess we should head over there.”

  After I showed Julia and Natasha where the ensemble room was, Gabby and I found our seats. We were only three chairs apart, which was nice . . . although I wished we were sitting next to each other like we did at Millican. Now that rehearsal was actually about to start, my nerves were back full force. But Gabby never seemed nervous about anything.

  I cleaned my mouthpiece about six times while everyone milled around, looking for their names and settling into their seats. Aaron waved to me from his chair down the row behind me, and past him, I saw Liam in the tuba section, looking bleary-eyed. Glancing down at the seat to my left, I just barely had time to read NIKHIL BANSAL, FOREST HILL on the paper before someone plopped a horn case on it. I looked up to see a very cute boy with curly black hair and long eyelashes smiling at me.

  “I remember you,” he said. “From the volleyball game.”

  That caught me off guard, and I opened and closed my mouth a few times before saying, “Huh?”

  Smooth, Holly.

  “Last semester,” he went on, opening his case. “You guys were doing a bake sale. The brownies were great.”

  “Oh!” And suddenly, I did remember him from one of the games. We’d talked for a few seconds before some rude girls behind him in line interrupted us. “You said your mom’s the volleyball coach at Forest Hill, right?”

  “Yeah.” He smiled and held his hand out. “I’m Nick, by the way.”

  “I’m Holly.” We shook hands, which felt weirdly formal. I was glad I’d been holding the rag to clean my mouthpiece, though—my hand would’ve been a lot sweatier otherwise. When Nick sat down, I glanced to my right and saw Gabby waggling her eyebrows at me in this ridiculously exaggerated way, and I struggled not to laugh.

  The head band director for Bishop stepped onto the podium, and the few kids still standing took their seats quickly. After he gave us a welcome speech and talked about the concert a little, he introduced our conductor. Her name was Meredith Collier, she used to teach a high-school band in Dallas, and now she was a college music professor.

  And suddenly I didn’t have time to think about how nervous I was anymore, because rehearsal flew. Even tuning, which was normally kind of boring, went by fast with Mrs. Collier. We spent over an hour doing a bunch of different warm-ups, but she was so energetic and funny that it didn’t feel long at all. The first piece of music we rehearsed for the concert was a march, and it turned out to be pretty easy. We sight-read through the whole thing without stopping, and when we got to the end, I couldn’t help smiling.

  Playing in a really, really good band was fun.

  By the time lunch rolled around, we had the march down and we’d played through this slow chorale several times. We started on “Lenore Overture,” too, which I could already tell was going to be the hardest of all five pieces we were doing. But we still had the rest of the afternoon, plus rehearsal tomorrow. I was feeling a lot more confident about the whole thing.

  Nick turned out to be really nice. We even ate lunch together, along with Gabby and two of Nick’s friends from Forest Hill, Ian and Rachel. I told them the story about the ants in Gabby’s saxophone, and they cracked up. (Then I told Gabby about the vending machines by the ensemble room and she practically sprinted down the hall, which made us laugh even harder.)

  Before I knew it, the afternoon rehearsal was over and I was hopping into Dad’s (blissfully clean) car. By the time we got home, I’d gone over the entire rehearsal and showed him my all-region shirt, which had everyone’s names by section on the back. Then I went over the whole thing again over dinner for Mom and Chad (who put his headphones on after two minutes).

  On Saturday, rehearsal didn’t start till afternoon. Julia, Natasha, and I made plans to have lunch at Natasha’s house, then her dad would drive us to Bishop. But when Natasha opened her front door, I could tell by the look on her face that something was up.

  “No, it’s totally fine,” she said into the phone cradled between her shoulder and ear, motioning for me to come inside. “Yeah, I know! Anyway, Holly’s here, so we’ll just see you at rehearsal, okay? Okay . . . bye.” Natasha hung up and gave me an exasperated look.

  “Julia’s not coming,” I said, and she nodded. “And I’m guessing it has something to do with Seth.”

  Natasha shrugged. “Well, it’s his birthday today,” she told me. “And she can’t do anything with him tonight because of the concert, so I guess they’re having lunch.”

  “So why’d she say she’d have lunch with us in the first place?” I asked.

  “Because Seth was supposed to go to his grandparents’ place today, but I guess his plans changed at the last minute.”

  “Ah.” I tried not to feel annoyed as I followed Natasha into the kitchen. I mean, I completely understood why Julia would want to hang out with Seth on his birthday. Still, being blown off for a guy by your best friend doesn’t feel great.

  “Hey, Julia’s birthday is coming up,” I realized out loud while Natasha pulled cold cuts and mustard out of the fridge. “It’s the weekend before the band trip, I think.”

  “Oh, right! What do you think she’ll want to do?” Natasha asked.

  “Last year we went to the movies.” I made a face. “The Impossible Marriage, or something.”

  “The Impossible Wedding,” Natasha corrected me. “I loved that movie!” She giggled when I made a gagging noise. “Anyway, maybe we should throw Julia a surprise party.”

  I grabbed a loaf of bread and a stack of napkins. “That would be cool! How about a sleepover?”

  Natasha glanced up with a little smile. “Because then it would be girls only?”

  “Well . . . yeah,” I admitted, adding a slice of cheese to my sandwich. “I like Seth a lot, I really do, but . . .”

  “But it’s been a while since we’ve hung out with Julia without him,” Natasha finished. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Plus, we haven’t had a sleepover in forever,” I went on. “And that way Julia can spend the day with Seth, and we can decorate the living room and make a cake and all that. I’ll invite her over for dinner, but I can tell her mom so she can secretly pack her overnight stuff . . .”

  “So it’ll actually be a surprise!” Natasha grinned. “This’ll be fun.”

  “Yeah.” I took a bite of sandwich, pleased. “Maybe we can rent some movies.”

  “Movies Julia would like,” Natasha said quickly. “Not one of your freaky movies with people crawling on the ceiling and stuff.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “Hey, you saw the sequel to Watch the Fog?”

  “I watched it with Aaron.” Natasha shook her head. “Correction—I watched half of it with Aaron. I spent the other half talking to his mom in the kitchen.”

  I laughed. “You just left him watching it alone?”

  “Nah, some of his friends were over, too.” Natasha was focused on cutting her sandwich into pieces with a knife and fork. I watched her for a
few seconds.

  “I’ve always wondered why you do that,” I said at last, and she glanced up.

  “What?”

  “Cut your sandwich up.”

  “Oh.” She smiled. “You’ll think I’m stupid, but I swear it tastes better bite-size. And before you say anything,” she added when I started laughing, “remember the Halloween candy.”

  “What?”

  Natasha gave me a pointed look. “At Halloween, you made your mom buy, like, ten bags of those mini Snickers and Three Musketeers because you said . . . ?”

  She waited expectantly, and I sighed. “Because they taste better than the regular-size ones. But that’s different!”

  “So not different.” Natasha popped a piece of turkey sandwich into her mouth and grinned.

  “If you say so.” I chewed slowly, trying to think of how to ask my next question without sounding too nosy. “So . . . are Aaron’s friends nice?”

  “Sure! They’re okay,” said Natasha. “Why?”

  “Just curious.” I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water. “I don’t really know any of them. Like the ones you sit with at lunch.”

  “Yeah, they’re all in eighth grade.” Natasha pushed the last piece of sandwich around her plate. “Some guys he was on the football team with. A few of the girls are cheerleaders. One’s on the debate team, too.”

  I waited, because it sounded like she wanted to say more.

  “I guess we just don’t have a lot in common,” she said at last. “Me and his friends. You know? They’re nice and everything, but . . . I don’t know.” She laughed self-consciously. “It’s not a big deal. I guess I’m not like Julia, the way she wants to be around Seth all the time. I mean, I really like Aaron! But that doesn’t mean I have to spend every second with him. Is that . . . weird?”

  I smiled. “No, I don’t think it’s weird at all.”

  Natasha looked relieved. “Thanks.” After a moment, she grinned. “Looks like you’re always having fun with Owen at lunch, though.”

  “Yeah, I do.” I shook my head when she waggled her eyebrows in a way that reminded me of Gabby. “Why are you and Julia so obsessed with this Owen thing? You do know that if I actually did have a crush on him, I’d tell you guys, right?”

  Natasha laughed. “Yeah, I know you would. We mostly just do it to annoy you. And . . .”

  “And?” I prompted.

  “And maybe we really do think you’d be cute together.”

  I rolled my eyes, but Mr. Prynne saved me from responding when he called us from the living room.

  “You girls about ready to go?”

  “Just a sec!” Natasha and I cleaned off the table, then double-checked to make sure we had everything—horns, music, plus the dress clothes we’d need for the concert. We spent most of the drive planning Julia’s surprise party, and before I knew it, Mr. Prynne was dropping us off at Bishop. I spotted Nick with a few of his friends from Forest Hill across the band hall. He waved, and I waved back.

  “Who’s that?” Natasha asked immediately.

  “Nick. He plays French horn, too,” I told her. “We sit next to each other.”

  “I remember him!” she exclaimed, still peering across the band hall. “From the volleyball game, right?”

  “Yeah, that was him.”

  “He’s really cute!” Natasha looked like she wanted to say something else, but Aaron had just walked in. “I’m going to go say hi before rehearsal,” she told me. “See you at the concert, okay?”

  “Okay!”

  Rehearsal was just as fun as yesterday. We spent a few hours just on “Lenore Overture,” and by the end of rehearsal, it was my favorite song out of the five pieces we’d be performing. It was hard, but when we played it all the way through, it sounded seriously impressive.

  The Bishop band boosters had dinner set up for us in the cafeteria. I piled spaghetti and salad onto my plate while Gabby went straight to the dessert table and loaded up on an obscene amount of cookies. We stood together at the end of the table, scanning the crowd.

  “There’s Natasha and Aaron,” Gabby said, and I saw them with Liam and a few other kids from Millican. Natasha caught my eye and pointed, and I saw Julia leaning against the wall near the entrance, talking on her cell phone. To Seth, no doubt. I sighed, and Natasha shrugged.

  “Want to go sit with them?” Gabby asked around a mouthful of cookie. Then her eyes flickered to something behind me, and she grinned.

  “What?” I turned to see Nick waving me over to his table.

  “Go over there!” Gabby gave me a little push, and I held my plate steady.

  “Come with me,” I said, and she rolled her eyes.

  “Chicken.”

  “Oh, come on.” I looked pointedly at his table. “It’s not like that—he’s sitting with Ian and Rachel, like lunch yesterday.”

  “Whatever you say.” Gabby followed me to Nick’s table, and I said a silent prayer she wouldn’t do anything crazy. Gabby was a great friend, but pretty much nothing seemed to embarrass her, and the way she smiled at me anytime Nick was around made me nervous.

  But it turned out I had nothing to worry about. We just swapped band stories with Nick and his friends, and talked about our band trips. And before I knew it, dinner was over and we were getting ready for the concert.

  I slipped into the back of the auditorium right before the concert band’s performance and spotted my parents and Chad near the middle. But I stayed near the back, since I’d have to leave before the last song to go warm up.

  It was hard to see Natasha, but Julia was right on the end of the row of clarinets. She was wearing a new dress, one I’d never seen before. And I knew it was kind of silly, but it made me feel sad. I saw Julia every day, but we just didn’t get to talk as much about this kind of stuff anymore. Not that a new dress was all that important, but she hadn’t even mentioned buying it or anything.

  The concert band sounded great. Like, really great. By the time I got back to the band hall, I was excited about our performance. Mrs. Collier led us through our warm-ups, then we filed down the corridor. My stomach fluttered when I walked onto the stage—I hadn’t really noticed before, but the auditorium was packed.

  While Mrs. Collier talked to the audience, Nick leaned over.

  “Are your parents here?” he asked.

  “Yeah, and my brother. Yours?”

  “Yup,” he replied. “My brother, too, because he owes me. I’ve been to every play and musical he’s done this year.”

  “Is he in high school?”

  “Nope, eighth grade,” Nick told me. “We’re twins.”

  “Oh, cool.” I glanced out into the crowd again. “My brother’s a junior. My parents make me go to his games sometimes. A musical sounds like more fun, at least.”

  “You wouldn’t say that if you had to live with him,” Nick said wryly. “Last year he was in Beauty and the Beast. He made me read lines with him. By the end, I had the whole part memorized. All the songs, too.”

  I glanced at him. “Wait, what part did he play?”

  “The Beast.” Nick grinned when I stifled a giggle. “Yeah, he made me learn Belle’s lines. I was pretty good, if I do say so myself.” He sighed. “Dancing with him was sort of awkward, though.”

  I was still laughing when Mrs. Collier stepped up onto the podium, which was good because I pretty much forgot to be nervous. And just like rehearsal, the concert flew by. Before I knew it, we were starting “Lenore Overture,” our last piece . . . which sounded amazing. Maybe it was just my imagination, but something about being onstage in the enormous auditorium made us sound almost professional. When we finished, I had goose bumps all over my arms.

  Mrs. Collier had us stand to take a bow while the audience applauded. I couldn’t help but think that it was kind of funny how much time I’d spent pract
icing the all-region audition music, and how quickly the whole thing was over. Everyone started packing up as the lights came back up over the crowd. A few kids were already making their way offstage to find their friends and family.

  “That was fun,” Nick said as we put our music back in our folders, and I nodded in agreement. “Hey, Holly?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Would it be okay if I called you sometime?”

  I almost dropped my folder. “Oh!” I stopped myself just in time from asking why? “Yeah, I’d . . . um . . . yes. Definitely.” Then I stood there and we stared at each other for a second before he said:

  “I don’t know your phone number.”

  “Oh! Sorry.” Oh my God, seriously. I was really bad at this. But he’d totally caught me off guard—I’d never had a boy ask if he could call me before. Pulling the pencil out of my folder, I grabbed his music and scribbled my phone number at the top of his copy of “Lenore Overture.”

  “Here you go.”

  “Thanks!” Nick smiled at me, then glanced around the auditorium. “Well, I guess I should go find my parents.”

  “Yeah, me too.” I tucked the pencil back in my folder, hoping my face wasn’t as red as it felt.

  “See you!” With a last grin, Nick waved then headed across the stage. The second he started down the stairs, someone socked me on the shoulder.

  “Ow!” I turned to find Gabby behind me, her eyes comically wide.

  “Did I just see what I think I saw?” she demanded, and I did my best to look innocent. Which was hard, because between our band’s awesome performance and what had just happened with Nick, I was feeling all flushed and giddy.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Gabby arched an eyebrow. “I’m talking about the fact that I’m ninety-nine percent sure I just saw you give Nick your phone number.”

  “Oh, that.” I started walking to the stairs, Gabby right on my heels.

  “Well?” she demanded.

  “Well what?”

  She made a loud, exasperated noise. “Holly!”