The Road to Glory by Omar Rodriguez
I always like competition when it comes to first chair, but I’ve been competing with a girl who’s too lazy to learn a song, but not too lazy to learn a test. Arleen always thinks she’s better than me because she’s first chair and I’m second, but the band teacher trusts me more than her and I am the third snare drummer in marching band (the first actually because the top two ones are eighth graders). I usually let her fail at every other song, but the teacher says snare drummers have to keep in the same tune so it doesn’t sound like an echo when the bead of the stick hits the head. So while the band is playing, I’m stuck in the back teaching her and it distracts the class when I try to teach her.
When it’s time to go outside to go and practice marching she puts down the drum and lets it sit there while the rest of us carry our snares and wait for the count-off to start marching. She’s always the last one to make it to the end of the stopping point. Eric has to carry a tenor drum which is like 100 lbs. at the least and he doesn’t whine at how much it hurts, while the other girl carries like a 50 pound drum that is way less than a tenor and complains how it will break her bones. I think she does this for attention so the teacher lets her go inside and rest.
Finally when we have our band test, Arleen brags on how she’s going to make a 100 on it when she made a 96 and I made a hundred. Even the new percussionist is better than her and he just started at second quarter. My friend Jameson usually makes it to fourth chair, but he has gotten to second chair because he’s really trying his best to control his wrists more, and he scored a 99. Roberto and Hillary tied for third chair with a 98, and Harvey is fourth chair with a 97. Two percussionists haven’t taken their test so they haven’t gotten a chair, but I think they’ll probably better than Arleen.
1st Chair
by: Edurado Gomez