The second day of school was rather hot and miserable. Emily was sitting in her trig class, sweating as the teacher began covering the first lesson. She was absently playing with the battery cover on her calculator as the teacher talked. Suddenly, the calculator slipped from Emily’s sweaty hands, and it crashed on the floor, with the battery cover and batteries flying everywhere. She grinned sheepishly as a few of her classmates giggled. Michelle, who was sitting in front of Emily, caught three of the rolling batteries, while Emily picked up the calculator and battery cover. There was still one battery missing.

 “Where’s the other one?” Emily asked Michelle.

 “He has it,” said Michelle, pointing to the young man that was sitting across the aisle from Emily.
 At first, Emily only saw the bright, intense blue eyes, and caught herself blushing wildly. Then she saw the gentle smile, the thick brown hair, and the outstretched hand that contained her battery. She bit her lower lip, took the battery, looked at him shyly, smiled and put her calculator back together.

 Emily learned that his name was Aaron Burnley. His younger sister, Angela, was an acquaintance of Emily’s, but she had never really acknowledged Aaron’s existence for as long as they had been in school together. His first name was Charles, but he preferred to be called by his middle name--only Michelle called him Charles so as not to get him confused with another Aaron that she didn’t like. He was also in her physics class, along with Michelle. Their lockers were near each other’s, and Emily developed a habit of stopping by Aaron’s locker and talking to him in the mornings.

 As Emily got to know Aaron better, she learned that he was very bright, although for a good portion of his life he had been misdiagnosed with a learning disability. He had problems talking and his worst subject was English, but he excelled in math and science. Emily saw him helping Michelle often and hoped that sometimes he would help her.

 Emily was becoming closer friends with Michelle as well. They often pondered over physics problems together, and since they were lab partners, they often worked together on labs. Michelle was rather bossy and domineering at times, and in labs, she often took on most of the mathematical work and sent Emily to fetch materials and do setup work. Emily usually didn’t mind this, but tried to watch while Michelle did the bookwork so that she could learn something.

 They also talked during band rehearsals when they had breaks. There was a noticeable amount of friction between Mr. Minuzo and the students, especially the juniors and seniors. Emily patiently tolerated him, knowing that she only had one year left. Mr. Minuzo got aggravated whenever someone was late, when he couldn’t get the band to be quiet and listen to him, or when they couldn’t get a drill exactly right. He never blew up at them or yelled at them, which Emily knew was exactly the thing he needed to do. She was used to Mr. Hallenbeck’s sometimes violent temper, and she knew that after one of his tantrum sessions, everyone felt somewhat better and improved greatly.

 Emily herself grew impatient with the band’s lack of progress and cooperation. When Mr. Hallenbeck threw a fit at the band, Emily felt better herself, knowing the band was getting just what they deserved. However, she was also hurt in a way--she felt that the insults Mr. Hallenbeck was hurling at the band were directed towards her. She stayed angry at him for a few days after these tantrums, then became her sunny self again. As a sophomore, she had sprained her wrist the day of one of Mr. Hallenbeck’s tantrums. When he asked her kindly the next day what had happened to her wrist, she refused to answer him. It was only a few days later, when Emily gave up playing her horn because it was too difficult with her wrist brace, that she explained to Mr. Hallenbeck what happened.

 Without these “tantrums,” Mr. Minuzo seemed rather monotonous. Emily, therefore, had no relationship with him at all. She neither completely liked him or completely disliked him--both of which she had done with Mr. Hallenbeck. She simply tolerated him and the band’s lack of cooperation. She had never had to remind her fellow marchers to be quiet in the past, but more and more she found herself barking “Shut up!” to the line of youngsters behind her on the field.

 The other seniors were displeased with Mr. Minuzo--especially Nick and Michelle, drummer Jodie Harris, sax player Dan Ward, and drum major Colette Moreau. Emily knew these five were the most hard-headed and stubborn of the group. Curtis, being the good-natured guy he was, tried to make friends with Mr. Minuzo since they were both trombone players. Percussionist Paul Murray, long-time friend of Emily, had plans of attending Mr. Minuzo’s alma mater, Central Michigan University, and often talked to Mr. Minuzo about it.

 Tuba player Brandon Iverson disliked Mr. Minuzo but kept it to himself, confiding in Emily during one of their annual “talks.” Once a year, Emily and Brandon had a long talk--usually at band camp--and they caught up on each other’s lives, ambitions, dreams, and pitfalls from the year before. During the dance at band camp, Emily discovered Brandon sitting under a tree in front of the dorms, sat down and began talking. They rarely saw each other during school, so Emily enjoyed these talks while she could.

 Amy Jessner was a loud-mouthed trumpet player who was generally friendly but, like Emily, often got frustrated with the lack of cooperation from the band. Unlike Emily, however, Amy’s “trademark” was to yell “Shut up!” to the band at least once a rehearsal, if not more. The remaining seniors--trumpet player Kyle Vernier, percussionists Carl Wilson and Joel Gregson, and sax player Simon Mitchell--either disliked Mr. Minuzo and kept it to themselves, or did not care, because nothing much was heard from them.

 Emily knew the band had a lot of potential. Mr. Minuzo was pushing them harder than they had been pushed before, and Emily was glad in that respect. She was hopeful that things would work out.