Chapter 14: The Vacation-y Feeling of Freedom

444 45 141
                                    

"Alright, everybody shut up!"

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

"Alright, everybody shut up!"

Everybody shuts up and looks at Ms. Vaken.

"The band trip is next week. If you don't have your form in by now, you're not coming. I'm going to email you all a bunch of stuff that you do actually need to read." She throws a pack of sticky notes at a kid in the first row, closest to her. "Pass those around. Rooming assignments will be four people to a room, and no, you don't get to choose who you room with. If you're uncomfortable rooming with someone, tell me privately. If you have a medical thing that I need to know about, tell me privately. I do need a note from either your parents or a doctor as well, because I don't completely trust all of you not to make something up to get into a room with all of your friends. Does everybody have a sticky note?"

Naturally, half of the class does not yet have a sticky note, because the pack stopped travelling somewhere. Ms. Vaken sorts it out with minimal patience, then gets back to yelling at us.

"Write the names of two people who you would like to room with. Yes, they have to be the same sex as you. If you're not cisgender and do not feel comfortable being grouped as such, come see me after practice and we'll work it out. I promise I'll have coffee by then."

I always hate having to write two names. Cody isn't in band, which leaves me with one whole male friend. I glance around the room, trying to decide on someone who will undoubtedly not write my name, who I wouldn't absolutely despise being roomed with. I choose one of the quiet nerd kids who has a friend group of four, who I'm ninety-nine percent sure have some system figured out to make sure they all get in the same room.

I write down that name, then glance up at Axel, almost by accident. He's already looking at me, giving me a slight smile. I press my lips together and look down.

Ms. Vaken collects our sticky notes, then has us warm up while she goes to get her coffee.

After rehearsal, Axel finds me in the hallway on my way to my first class. "Hey."

I can't help but smile at him. "Hi."

"Who'd you put?"

"You and Lewis."

"Lewis?"

"I'm pretty sure his friend group has some system worked out to make sure they all get put together, so." I shrug.

"Ah, so you're making sure you get put with me."

I flush a little. "You're the only guy friend I have in band. Do you mind?"

"Not at all."

"Who'd you put?"

"You and Peyton."

"Is he that blond trumpet?"

He lets out a cute snicker. "That's a fun mental image. But yes."

You'll also like

          

I grin. "Alright. Does he know I exist?"

"Of course. I talk about you all the time."

I stop walking. "What?"

He looks kind of surprised, like he hadn't realized that I didn't know this. "Yeah. I've been impressed with your musical ability since grade nine. I keep track of songs by what instrument you play for them."

"Okay but- wait, really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Okay, but do they know we're friends?"

"Most of my friends kind of assume I'm friends with everyone. And I mean, they've seen me talk to you, so I'd guess they do. They probably don't know how close we really are, though."

"Okay."

"Is it? Okay, I mean."

"Yeah." I start walking again, Axel falling into step beside me. "I mean, my incredible musical talent obviously isn't a secret, so if you're just discussing common knowledge, then I can hardly fault you for that."

He snorts. "Okay, Mozart."

— —

The week passes surprisingly quickly. It's not long before the band is packed up and on a trip to some place in Vancouver (I don't really care where exactly we're going. I mostly just care about getting to room with Axel and play music).

Axel does sit beside me on the bus, which is nice (Keira's trying to get used to the girls she'll be rooming with). Of course, it means I have to deal with his posse of friends as well. Fortunately, it's not quite as extensively large as usual, due to there only being band kids here. Aside from Peyton, there's a guy named Daily who I'm pretty certain Peyton would have written down for his other person to room with, meaning that if I do share a room with Axel, I'll probably be with Peyton and Daily as well. They're sitting across the aisle from us. And then there are the girls- Jennifer, Emma, Audrey, and Caroline. I'm actually okay with remembering names, since I know their instruments and can just associate them with that. Jennifer and Emma play flute. Caroline is a clarinet, which is really easy to remember (because alliteration). And Audrey plays the violin. I like her the most.

"So, how many instruments do you play? It feels like you've been in every section of the band at least once," Jennifer asks.

"I play seven instruments. Clarinet, drums, flute, guitar, oboe, piano, and trumpet."

Audrey grins. "In alphabetical order, too."

Caroline's eyes widen. "I didn't even notice that!"

I grin, shrugging. "I needed some way to organize it so I could list them off easily. I get that question a lot."

"Makes sense. Music is your main thing," Peyton says, without looking up from his phone.

"Peyton," Emma scolds him, reaching behind her seat to smack his arm. "Be nice."

"I mean, it's true," I say, because it is, but I'm also kind of interested in mentally coupling up everyone in this friend group. Emma and Peyton act like a couple more often than not, but I haven't had the chance to ask Axel if they're actually together yet. Daily seems to have a thing for Jennifer, but I'm pretty sure she (along with Caroline) is too interested in Axel to look at any other guys. I smirk to myself, knowing that Axel is gay and not interested in any of them even a little bit.

"So, Nash," Audrey says, getting my attention. "If you play seven instruments, why do you play oboe for the band? Is that your favourite?"

I gasp in faux offence. "I could never choose a favourite instrument. Mostly I just play whatever Ms. Vaken needs me to play, and we don't have a lot of oboes in the band for some reason, so that's where I go."

The Kind of Person You AreWhere stories live. Discover now