Chapter 1: One Day in September

It began, at least to my recollection, on a cool, sunny day in early September.

I'd always loved fall best. One of the things I loved about Michigan was the distinct seasons we had. My favorite of all of these was Autumn. The falling leaves, the changing colors, the cooler air. It made me feel alive.

I was walking down the halls of my high school, shortly after the final bell rang. It was our first full week of class. As I passed the science wing, my best friend, Scott, fell in step besides me. "So tell me again, what we're doing later?" he poised.

"It's the annual marching band flag football game." I told him, with a greatly embellished flair of dramatics. "Instead of practice. Whoever wants to play shows up. We divvy up even teams and go at it. It supposed to build camaraderie."

"Does it?" he asked?

"Meh," I replied with a shrug. "It'll be full on tackle by the third quarter. Beats marching, though."

Scott and I were both in the marching band. I played the trumpet, had since middle school. Scott was on the drum line. He had transferred to our school midway through the previous season, so he had never experienced the long standing traditions our marching band had during football season.

Before we got to my locker, I heard a feminine voice call my name.

"Nick! Wait!" The voice belonged to Kara Lee Pelfry. The first thing you notice about Kara is the hair. She has fantastic hair. Long and curly, auburn, with hints of blonde ... guys fantasized about her hair alone. The rest of her was pretty decent too.

Kara bounced up to me in the hall, the mass of curls cascading around her face as she came to a halt. I didn't stop walking, but slowed a little for her to catch up.

"Did you think about what I asked?" she poised. Kara, as class president, was in charge of overseeing the construction of the homecoming float. As the norm, the senior class was expected to build the best float. That meant Kara had to convince the only one in the senior class who knew anything about float building to work on the project. That one was me. I had built the two previous floats, almost single handedly it felt like, and had vowed never to do it again. It wasn't worth the aggravation. Our class had been cursed with lazy asses and screw-up's ... and since most of them didn't particularly like me, getting them to do anything was fairly impossible. That usually left me with about a dozen cheerleaders for worker bees, who, while great for the scenery, were not so good with the power tools.

"Kara, we've been over this. I told you on the phone I wasn't interested."

Undaunted, she kept at it, hooking an arm around mine. "Pleeeeease?" she begged. "I need this favor."

"First of all," I said as I slipped my arm out of hers, "Let's endeavor to not get my ass kicked. Violence against my person does not further your cause." Kara was dating Mark Moore, he of football team captainship and senior class alpha male status. He didn't like band geeks too much, a group I, as alpha male band geek, was definitely associated with. Kara tried to laugh off my statement.

"Oh stop. You know he's not that jealous. Especially of you." She almost rolled her eyes.

"Gee Kara, you say the kindest things." I said, my tone alerting her to how she just insulted me. "And yes, he is. Even if it's not jealousy that gives cause to the ass-kicking I will receive, it's still an ass-kicking I'd like to avoid."

"Fine, fine." She relented, and stopped trying to touch me.

"You just keep your hands to yourself, and maybe I can make it through the next week or so without getting expelled." I told her, deadpanning.

Kara got a confused look on her face for a moment. "Why would you get expelled?"

Now I came to a dead stop, Scott halting next to me. I made sure I had her full attention. "If Mark lays a finger on me, for this or any reason, I'm puttin' him in the hospital. My posse's bigger than his is, and we like to fight." My tone communicated to her that I was dead serious. Then, I switched gears on her, and lightened my mood dramatically. It was good to keep her off balance. "Now, if you'll excuse me ... we're late for a football game."

As we walked away from Kara, I smacked Scott on the back. "See? I told you you'd enjoy marching band season." I could hardly contain my grin.