Fraternizing With The Enemy

"Welcome, everybody, to the first official meeting of 'The Grandview Ensemble for Accelerated Youths'," the director of aforementioned program announced. She was standing on top of a podium and looking over the entire room with a smile on her face. Her name was Karen Hallsgood and she told us when we auditioned that we were to call her Karen or Ms. Karen. It was nice to know that we were going to have a director that wasn't going to be uptight and controlling. Well, of course she would have to have a level of control, but not so much that it would hinder us from having fun. "I say 'meeting' instead of 'practice' because I feel that such a program as this should be more of a gathering of friends instead of a gathering of high school musicians that meet once a week to play music. That is why I want you all to call me Karen or Ms. Karen.

"Now, since we've got that out of the way, I want everybody to arrange your chairs in a circle here, building off of this chair in front of me." She stepped down off the podium and sat in the chair she indicated to as we all moved our chairs around to form a circle. I stood up and grabbed the black plastic chair I was sitting in, moving it closer to my friend Geoff. When we first came into the auditorium that day, we’d sat down by instrumentation, even though we were told not to get out our instruments yet. Geoff was a tuba extraordinaire and I was a master of the trumpet, as some of our friends have officially dubbed us, so our sections were practically across the room. He was one of my best friends, and we’ve known each other since we were twelve, so needless-to-say, we were both excited to find out that we had made it into this program.

“Okay, everybody settled in?” Ms. Karen asked, smiling as she looked around at all of us. “Alright, so here’s what I want to happen. We’re going to go around the circle and say our name, what school we attend, what grade we are in, the instruments we can play and one interesting fact about us. I’ll start us out and we‘ll go counterclockwise. I’m Karen Hallsgood, I teach at James K. High School, I can play every instrument we have in this band, and I am a mother of three.”

She turned to the girl that was sitting next to her and smiled, gesturing to her. The girl nodded, her blonde hair shifting into her face, and said, “My name is Beth Hanley, I’m a senior at Warner High, I play the alto and tenor saxophone and, uh, I already have a full ride music scholarship to Ohio State.”

“I’m Beth’s best friend Sara Plaine, I’m also a senior at Warner - “ the next girl started, giggling as she spoke.

Geoff leaned over and whispered to me, “Ten bucks says they do each other on the side.”

I snorted softly, trying not to draw any attention to either of us. “You’re so horrible, man.”

“I’m telling you, something’s not normal in that friendship,”

“Oh, shut up already,” I laughed, punching him in the shoulder.

“Just saying,” he smirked, shaking his head at me. “Just saying.”

By the time I started paying attention again, two more people had introduced themselves. Three more kids and it would be Geoff’s turn, followed by mine. There were two clarinetists named Hanna and Tina from James K. and a guy named Kevin from our school that played anything brass. Kevin turned to Geoff - who wasn’t paying attention - and kicked his foot.

“Oh, uh, I’m Geoff Hanson, I play tuba and bass clarinet, I’m a sophomore at Weston Valley and I, uh,”

“You still play with dolls,” I whispered to him, knowing he was drawing a blank.

“And I still play with dolls - hey! Toby, I do not,” he scowled at me, furiously blushing. The whole room burst into laughter and Geoff slunk back in his seat, crossing his arms in defiance. “I’m done with this,” he mumbled.

Once the laughter died down, I ran a hand through my hair to smooth it out, while still smirking at Geoff. “He does; don’t let him lie.” That earned me more laughs, but also another dirty look from my fair haired friend. “Anyways, my name is Tobias Lancaster, but please, call me Toby. I attend Weston Valley as well and I am also a sophomore. And I’m gayer than Elton John.” A few kids around the room gasped, but most of them just stared at me for a second or two. What can I say? I’m a very open person and I honestly could care less what people think or say about me. That gets me in trouble quite a bit of the time, but it‘s just the way I am. “Oh, and I play the trumpet and mellophone.”

The girl next to me must not have had any qualms about my statement, because she went right along and introduced herself. “The name is Becky Lewis, I play flute, I’m a junior at James K., and I have two dads. Do the math, people; yes, they’re gay too.” So that’s why she didn’t have an issue with me. She turned to me and smiled, so I nodded my acceptance, smiling as well.

The sharing circle continued and people got over their shock of Becky’s and my declarations after a few more people There were so many of us, anywhere from fifty to fifty-five, that I kind of checked out after the first ten or so went. For some unknown reason, I started listening again two kids away from the boy I’d wanted to find out more about. He was the boy that played the piccolo solo my freshman year. Come to think of it, he was also the boy that was staring at me in awe after I’d auditioned for this program. I guess I hadn’t put two and two together that day, because I hadn’t realized that he was the solo boy from Huntington.

“Um, my name is Caiden Lowery,” he started shyly. Anyone could tell that he was a very reserved person, at least on the outside. He was really quite adorable, and he had a very slight speech impediment which only made him that much cuter. “I play flute and piccolo for Huntington High, where I’m a sophomore at. And, um, well as you can see,” he chuckled, gesturing to his spiky black hair, “I like defying gravity, especially with hair.”

That earned a trickle of laughter throughout the room, and I couldn’t help but smirk. A thought ran vaguely through my head, ’My hair defies gravity. Does he like mine too?’ and then flew right out again.

The boy next to him jokingly messed with Caiden’s hair, and Caiden flinched out of the way, attempting to fix it and swat the other boy’s hands away. They guy laughed and turned away, leaving Caiden to actually fix his hair, and addressed the rest of us. “You all can call me Adam McKee, you can see me play French horn here and mellophone on the field for Huntington, where you can find me in sophomore classes, and you can know that I am also a cheerleader, but not gay, though I have many a friends that like men and are men. Or like women and are women.” What is up with everybody saying things about gays today? I mean, I know I started it, but I didn’t think that many others would follow along and do more-or-less the same thing.

Geoff leaned towards me and whispered, “You know, they’re pretty cool for Huntington kids.”

“Yeah, they are,” I nodded, mulling that over. They were from the school that is our most bitter sports rival, and we’ve always been told that the kids at that school were horrible and of low standards, but these guys came across as very cool guys. It was odd for us to think that, but you can’t always judge people that you don’t know, right? “We should get to know them better.”

“If they’re willing to get to know us,” he offered, making a bit of a duck face. He had a habit of doing that when he started thinking deeply, kind of like my habit of tapping or wiggling my foot when thinking hard. “They might not want to associate with Weston Valley kids.”

“It’s worth a try, right?”

Geoff looked at me once more and just raised his shoulders in a shrug, before paying attention to the sharing circle again. ‘I guess that’s the end of that conversation.’ I thought, mentally shrugging as well.