Danny:

I start out my morning with an hour of jamming out on the drum set, as I do every morning. The sound of the bass drum with the high hat really brings me into a happy mood. The name is Danny Anderson, short for Danielle, but I’ve always hated that name. I’m gonna to be a freshman in high school this year. I’m kinda nervous cause every year so far, it’s been the same old story; bullies. Hopefully these next few years will be different. Maybe I’ll make some friends because this is supposed to be my fresh new start. I went back to playing my favorite rock beats, when I felt my phone vibrate in my black, baggy Hollister jeans.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hey Danny, it’s Kendall Miller your Drumline captain," He answered.

"Oh, hi Kendall how is your summer?" I balanced my phone between my shoulder and my right ear.

"Great! Can you make it to sectionals tomorrow?" He asked clicked what sounded like snare drum sticks on the other side of the phone.

"Yeah, I can," I feel my phone slip from my ear, and land on the snare drum. I quickly put Kendall on speaker, "Great see you then. Bye Danny,"

I clear my throat and pick up the phone in my left hand, "Bye Kendall." I shut off my phone and walked out of the garage and into the kitchen for something to drink. I opened the fridge and pulled out a root beer to sip on.

"Oh good Danielle you’re here." My mom walked into the kitchen and kissed my forehead,

"Mom, it's Danny," I whined and slurped more on my root beer.

"There’s dinner in the freezer. You can just take it out in about an hour and put it in the oven.” My mom said and hugged me again.

"What time will your meeting be over?" I asked looking at the time on the stove.

"Around 9:30, love you." She picked up her keys and purse and opened the front door,

"Love you too mom." About an hour later, I pulled out my dinner and started up the oven. The front door opened and my older brother Michael walked in slamming his keys on the counter.

"Bad day Mikey?" I asked raising my eyebrows at him.

"You have no idea Dan," He answered and that's all I needed to know. I know he’s not a fan of Kendall because he is the section leader.. My brother Mikey plays the quads and this year he tried to get center snare, but lost it because his friends got him drunk the night before his audition. They did it to make him fail.

"Mikey I know what happened, but please don't ruin my first year!" I begged and he looked at me and frowned.

"I’m not going to, Dan, I’m going to put up with Kendall for you sis." He said hugging me tightly. "Now let's eat dinner," He said skidding past me and pulling the now cooked chicken and baked potatoes out of the oven. During dinner, my brother was texting on his phone as usual, so I ate quickly and headed up stairs.

"Going up stairs Mikey," I closed the door behind me and turned on the TV to my favorite show, Friends. I put all my focus into the TV as Ross comes out into the living room dressed as the holiday armadillo. My phone buzzed and it pulled my attention away from the screen.

Brett: Hey so guess how many new trumpets we’re getting?

Danny: How many?

Brett: Six. whoop whoop! Going to be a leader to six hopefully good players. But there’s this one kid, Jackson. He’s my best friend Chase's little bro, you guys should talk.

Danny: Eh I don’t know I want to make friends, but I hate talking to people. I can be so awkward.

Brett: You’ll be fine just stick with me, kid, and you’ll have tons of friends on the first day of band camp.

Danny: Okay if you say so. I will talk to ya later bye.

Brett: Bye freshy.

Danny: Ugh.

I hate when he calls me freshy, it’s so annoying. Funny thing about Brett, he was my brother's friend first. He and my brother had a falling out when the whole drinking disaster happened and Brett was stuck choosing sides. So, I got to know him a bit more and we became friends. I went back to watching Friends, when I heard voices down stairs. I crept out of my room to see what was going on.

"Hey Mikey you didn't tell me you had friends over," I said looking at all the people in our house.

"Oh Danny these are the guys from my group. This Bradley Zimmerman he’s a football player at our school. His mom teaches freshman English." I shake his hand and give him a kind smile. "This is Ty Murphy. You know him from Drumline. He is your bass captain." I high five him and I look at the guy standing next to him, "And this is Lane Walters. He is part of the marching band too." They all seemed nice, so I hung out with Mikey and his friends a little while longer.

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Michael:

"See you at camp dudes," I said to all the guys as they left. I shut the door and turned around slowly to see my house trashed. Mom’s going to kill me! Luckily, she won’t be home for a few hours, so I’ll just have Danny help me clean up; there problem solved. "Dan!" I shouted upstairs.

"Yeah?" She answered walking out of her bedroom.

"Can you please help me clean up? Mom will kill me if she sees this mess!" I said putting on my best puppy dog face.

"Ugh fine, but just this once." I smiled and handed her a trash bag.

"So, you excited for your first practice tomorrow?" I asked nudging Danny with my arm.

"Yeah, kinda I guess. Hey can I talk to you about something?" She asked looking over at me.

"Sure thing chicken wing." I replied laughing to myself.

"Why won't you forgive Brett? You know he’s my friend now." She asked putting her hands on her hips.

"I don't want to talk about this with you again. He didn’t do anything to stop them, so I don’t trust him anymore," I said with an edge in my voice, "I’m going to bed. I really want to be well rested for tomorrow's sectional." Danny tosses the garbage bags out back and follows me upstairs.

********************************

"Yo Dan! Get up we’re gonna be late for our sectional!" I shouted and she ran downstairs.

"Sorry. Remember I’m still a girl and a girl needs a shower," She said grabbing her sunglasses and her cute Winnie the Pooh backpack. "Ready," She said and we left for school. I read as we past the school, "Welcome to Avenue High School," and I pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine.

"So at this practice you’re going to be assigned your drum for marching season," I explained and helped Danny out of the car.

"Seems legit," She smiled and walked into the band room.

"Hey guys," Ty said patting me on the back,

"Ty can you tell Danny what she’s playing?" I asked taking out my quads.

"Yup. Here Danny you’re marching second bass." Ty told her and she went over to bass two and harnessed up.

"Hey everyone. Let's get this sectional on the road," Ugh Kendall. "Hi you must be Danny. I’m Kendall. We talked on the phone yesterday." He said to her and they shook hands.

"Let's go Danny!" I rushed over and motioned for her to meet me outside, "I need you to stay with Ty for today." I said and she glared at me.

"You promised. Kendall is my section leader and I’m going to listen to him." She sassed and lined up behind Edward, the first bass player. The sectional went by quickly. I put my instrument away and drank the rest of my half gallon of water.

"Hey Bro." Danny said, walking in, sweating like a pig.

"So how are you holding up?" I asked as she turned around and signaled me to undo the back of the harness.

"This is intense on my back, but besides that I am fine." She smiled and took off her drum and put it away above the band lockers. With my help, of course, because she is a little shorty.

"That's good, so the guys are going to the Jersey Diner. Do you want to come?" I said, just as Kendall walked in, and my anger returned.

"Mike, I don't think she has to be asked. We strongly encourage that she comes," Kendall smiled and looked over at her.

"Of course I’ll come!" She said and drank the rest of her water. "Well if we’re going, let’s go!" Danny said pulling me out of the band room. Showing up at the Jersey Diner, I felt back at home again. This is the drumline place to hang. I high fived some of the front ensemble as I walked in. We as the battery are not haters of the pit. Us percussionists stick together.

"Hey Mike," Zoe Holt, the pit section leader, and my girlfriend.

"Hey Zo, this is my little sister Danny." I introduced Dan to Zoe,

"Hi there! What do you play?" Zoe asked, shaking Danny's hand.

"I'm second bass what do you play?" She asked looking up at Zoe.

"I’m the center marimba player and also you brothers special lady friend." She said and winked over at me.

"Wait, you have a girlfriend?" She asked, looking over at us standing closer together than we should.

“Yeah, we’ve been official for three months," I said looking at Zoe and saw her face blushing red.

"Yay! Three months already!" Zoe exclaimed . "See you guys around. Bye Michael." She said in a very flirty voice.

"She seems nice. How did you get a girl and not tell me?" She said rolling her eyes.

"She and I started going to the movies and hanging out. She’s a year younger than me though, so we’ll be separated next year if I get into college." I answered pushing Danny over to where the guys were sitting.

"Welcome to battery Danny. Drink up." Kendall said handing Dan a glass full of Coke icee and vanilla ice cream.

"Ahhhh! Brain freeze!" Danny shouted and high fived all of drumline. I looked over about three hours later and saw Danny falling asleep almost plopping face first into her soup.

"Let's get you home we still have band camp tomorrow." I said and helped Danny get up, "See you guys tomorrow." I said and then dragged my sleepy, little sister out of the Jersey Diner, that I will always call home.