chapter four; day three

"So so, I heard you was talkin' some trash."

It was nine o'clock in the morning when the sleepy band members just started to roll in, only to find Mr. G hadn't even arrived to open up the band room. 

"Oh god. Here we go again with him sleeping in," Taehyung complained taking a seat next to the door. "Terri, you should call him. My tuba baby awaits," he added. 

"Nah, I bet he's just picking up coffee along the way or something. I think your "baby" can wait a little longer. I'll call if he's more than fifteen minutes late," Terri replied. She took a seat next to Jongdae at the end of the hall as he put an arm over her. She rested her head on his shoulder as they watched Youtube videos on their phone together. The freshmen stood around awkward and confused. As other freshmen arrived, they whispered to each other as if they were too afraid to break the morning calmness.

Dalnim strided in the hall with her sunglasses on and laughed when she saw everyone waiting in the hall. "Y'all can get up now. I just saw Mr. G park his car." Most freshmen looked relieved. Five minutes later, Mr. G walked in and waved awkwardly to everyone.

"Yes yes, hello, I'm here, fashionably late as always," he said finding the keys to the room. They all made their way in like a school of fish all close together. It took a total of 10 minutes for everyone to be set up and ready. 

"Seriously guys, I think you all can get set up faster." Mr. G said. "Well, anyways let's get started." He took roll and found that three freshmen were absent, which didn't surprise him. "H-hey hey, looks like we got ourselves three freshmen that already quit! Two trumpets and a tuba," Mr. G stated. The band laughed and booed at Hanbin, Hoseok and Taehyung. 

"Today, we'll just do sectionals again. Specifically, I want sections to work on marking time, and learning the show music. And when I mean learn, I mean memorize." The sections groaned.

"Wait, so does that mean we're gonna play, "Which section memorized their music best?" today?" Taehyung asked.

"Well, now that you mentioned it, sure!" Mr. G replied. 

"NOOOOOO!" Hoseok shouted jumping up from his seat. The freshmen sitting around him stared and giggled when his beanie fell off his head. Taehyung got up next to him and sighed.

"Guess we got some work to do, bro." he said patting Hoseok on the back making everyone laugh.

Mr. G facepalmed himself. "Well, you know what you have to do guys. Anndd, BREAK!" All the section leaders jumped from their seats the second he said it and battled for the theater room.

"Ah, forget it. C'mon saxes. Let's just go to the quad," Jiwon said. They set up in a circle and started doing basic scales to warm up. The weather was starting to get hot and a little humid.

After arguing pointlessly with Hanbin, the two low brass section leaders headed out for the quad as well, not knowing it was already occupied. Lee Chan, a baritone playing freshman, followed around while his friend, Eugene trudged miserably. "I have a feeling this will be a bad year," Eugene sighed. "Dino, how is it that you aren't sweating already, man!" Dino laughed.

"Dude, just calm down. This is only day three," he replied. Just then, Jackson, a baritone playing junior, came up from behind and poked his head between the two boys and sniffled.

"So so, I heard you was talkin' some trash," he said quickly making the two freshman let out a nervous laugh. Jackson put his arm over Dino and Eugene and chuckled. "I'm just joshin' you. Hoseok and Taehyung act like idiots sometimes, but they know what they're doing. To be honest, Hanbin can be kind of an sometimes," Jackson said whispering the last part.

"Well then we'll just trust you on that then," Eugene said giving out a hand to Jackson. "Eugene Mills."

Jackson took his hand.

"Jackson Wang." Jackson smiled goofily and turned to Dino. "You?"

"Uh, Lee Chan. But everyone calls me Dino."

"Really? Why?" Dino shrugged as they kept walking.

"Alright, now in eighth notes. One, two, ready, —" 

"What? Jiwon, you actually took the quad?" Taehyung said. He pouted. "Man, I think Jesus hates us or something."

Jiwon stopped and stared at Hoseok waiting for him to say something. She didn't want to admit it, but she had hoped that he would suggest they did their sectional together. Of course, it didn't happen.

Hoseok scratched his head and squinted into the sun thinking of somewhere else to practice. He sighed inwardly and for the second time in Jiwon's life, she had seen an exasperated and defeated Hoseok. the first time she had seen it was during their freshman year when he, at the time, was just learning how to play baritone and it was known that his marching was the worst of the freshmen class. She opened to suggest they share the quad, but he had already spoken.

"Well, sorry we bothered you, Jiwon. Let's go guys. I have a feeling the back hall is probably free," Hoseok said making the section follow him. Taehyung looked at him with a frightened face and then went back to neutral. It was a weird sight seeing Taehyung whisper over to Hoseok with a tuba on, but he managed.

"I can't believe you're taking us to that creep corner. I swear I saw a ghost there freshmen year. You guys don't believe me , but it's true!" Taehyung said. The back hall near the band and choir room was considered haunted and the student body believed so much in it that it usually is empty.

The low brass huddled close due to Hoseok's instructions and skipped warming up. The two section leaders didn't tell the freshman about the hall and it's history to create a "productive" sectional. Hoseok instructed them to play extra loud so that if they heard anything weird, the sound of their instruments would be louder. Jackson smiled mischeviously between rests trying to come up with a plan to scare the two section leaders, but he didn't really need to. The hall was dimly lit with one light flickering at the end and the room down the hall was pitch dark inside. Although he was facing towards the room, looking at the window, Taehyung tried his best not to glance over and instead stared at the sophmore mellophone player across from him.  Hoseok stopped to discuss some dynamics issues when they heard small scratching behind him. Hoseok tried his best to keep a straight face and ignored it. The section looked at each other nervously, too scared to point it out. Although Taehyung tried to ignore it, he looked like a constipated man praying to God.

The scratching got immensely louder, or so they thought due to their panic. Hoseok glanced over with a look of fear when a box dropped from the stack behind them and a rat ran out like a blur. The school had a problem with rats, so everyone was pretty known to the problem and didn't make a big deal about it. But the fact that they were in the so-called-haunted hall made it definately something to scream over. Taehyung shrieked jumping in place while the rest of the section joined in. It seemed that everyone knew what to do just then when they all grabbed their stands and instruments to run out of the hall screaming. Sheet music flew everywhere in the chaos of the section. The saxes were playing when the sight of a  screaming and shrieking section, running across the quad, were gifted to them.

Jiwon turned to see them running and mutter, "What the —"

Jonghyun and Serin fell to the floor laughing at the terror in their faces while the low brasses's screaming was heard through the school walls. All the others sections ran out to see what all the commotion was about. By the time they were out, the low brass huddled under a roofed aread near the quad all out of breath from screaming and running at the same time. Looking at their distraught expressions, it looked like they had all escaped from a jungle. In between breathes, they began laughing at themselves and this one memory they'll never forget.

Hoseok laughed and smiled at them seeing how he'd remember this as one of his favorites. "Welp, I guess that gets you guys training for jazz running in the show, huh?"          

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