Chapter 2: The Open Road
Recommended music for this story
: "Nausea", by Beck
"John Kerry is a slick, conniving son of a bitch."
Or at least, that's what the message of the political ad on my TV seemed to be trying to get across.
"JESUS H. CHRIST!" I shouted, throwing a fruit loop at the television.
My roommate, Mike Sars, turned and looked at me. "What the hell, dude?"
"Fucking political ads," I snarled. "It's an entire fucking year until the next presidential election, and I've got Howard Fucking Dean on my fucking t.v. screen calling John Fucking Kerry a fucking douchebag. Why should I have to fucking see this at 7:45 in the fucking morning?!"
Mike just stared at me with a shocked look on his face. "Well… fuck," he uttered.
That broke the tension. I laughed, and he said, "Why don't you just turn it to the Weather Channel or something?"
"Nah," I replied. "I actually have to get going… the marching band is leaving at 8:30, and I need to get over to the Fine Arts College."
Friday morning, and we were about to hit the road for Sacramento. The football team was playing Sacramento State University the next day, and for some reason, the marching band was going along. What the hell – it was a road trip to California – fun, right? Well, the only problem was that it meant driving across the state on Route 66 and then up to Sacramento on multiple other highways. It was a trip of nothing but lameass cities – Ryder, Landisman, Queenlady, Laughlin, Bakersfield, etc., etc. Oh boy, oh howdy.
So, uniform bag in hand, I headed out the door. The Fine Arts College was just across the street from Bullhorn Hall, so I had plenty of time to find my way through the maze and pick up the keyboard.
On the way there, we had been told that the tubas and the percussion would be riding on the same bus. I was looking forward to that – it meant I would get to spend a few hours with Trina, and there had been precious few hours spent with her since Band Day. In fact, despite both of our hope for a repeat performance of what had happened in Coach Sweetzer's office, the most that had happened was just some making out and groping.
Of course, that wouldn't be happening. As I was exiting the band room into one of the many back passages of the FAC, I heard a voice very softly call my name.
"Jack!"
It was Trina.
"Jack, come here for a moment."
I set the keyboard down, turned around, saw her standing, strangely, in a fairly dark corner. I walked over to her, embraced her, and kissed her hungrily. She returned it for a moment, and then pulled back.
"Jack, listen," she said. "I have to make this quick, because I could get in trouble just for talking to you."
"Huh?" I was just simply confused.
"I'm being initiated into the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority," she said. "Part of my initiation is that this weekend, I can't have any boys or any booze."
It took me a moment, and then –
"Aw, GODDAMMIT!"
"Shhhhhh!" she said. "I know, this sucks, but I really want to join the sorority."
I let out a big frustrated sigh. "Dammit, dammit, dammit. I was really looking forward to this weekend."
"Really?" she asked. "Tell me, Jack, why?"
Hmmm. What did I say here?
Because I was planning on banging you senseless all weekend, that's why?
"Uhhh…"
She breathed in, and then let it out slowly. "Listen, Jack, I love you as a friend, but…"
She paused. "What?"
"But, if you were just looking forward to this weekend because you wanted to have sex and lots of it, then maybe we should rethink that part of our relationship."
Wow. This weekend was off to a fantastic start. "Sorry," she said, walking off.
So, I stuffed myself into a corner in the back of the bus with my laptop and my DVDs. Fortunately, the school had just replaced the bathroom in the bus, so it didn't really smell in the back… thank God.
The buses stopped several times. The longest stop was in Queenlady. As were pulling off onto Andrew Sacred Blvd., one of the buses blew a tire. So, we were there for about an hour while that was getting fixed. All the while, I just sat fuming at the stupid ADPi initiation bullshit, not to mention the fact that I was missing out on a weekend of hot band geek sex.
Of course, that's when I realized that that might've been my problem. Right at the moment, I was only in this relationship with Trina because we had, ONCE, had amazingly hot sex, and I was hoping for a repeat performance. Quite honestly, Trina was much more than just that, and I needed to treat her as such.
Properly self-chastised, I returned to the back of the bus.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
would do the trick for the next leg of the trip. Earphones on, I settled in for some Kevin Smith madness.
We finally got into Sacramento around 10:00 PM. We were staying at Holiday Inn, which was a plus. However, there would be FACulty (as we called them) roaming the halls till 2:00 AM, and it was made quite clear that if anybody wasn't up to snuff at rehearsal the next morning, there would be hell to pay.
I, for one, was exhausted. I climbed into bed, and was out before all of my roommates actually even got to the room.
The alarm went off at 7:00 the next morning, and I crawled back out of bed. Dressed in my black band t-shirt, a black jacket, and blue jeans, I headed downstairs for breakfast. As I sat in the dining area eating my donut and drinking my coffee, I saw Trina come into the room. Even in the tracksuit she was wearing, she still looked damn good. I felt a "stirring in my loins", as they like to say, but I told myself to calm down.
Rehearsal was oh so much fun. I spent half of it figuring out why I couldn't get the keyboard working and then the other half of it chewing a gradass up one side and down the other for bringing the wrong FUCKING amplifier. So, after rehearsal, while everybody else was headed off to SacState, that particular gradass got to go rent the right type!
Fortunately, we had a good team that year. Our quarterback, Jared Temecula, hailed from Burbank – not the one where NBC's West Coast studios are, but the western suburb of Vallé Salado. He was a freshman, but a freakin' amazing quarterback. The MHU Bobcats were a good team this year, and they really brought their A-game against the Sacramento State Hornets, but SacState was good as well. The Bobcats finally pulled it out at the end, winning the game 24-21.
The band brought its A-game as well. Last regular season game of the year meant our last performance of the show we had worked so hard on all year. So we went and played our hearts out. They keyboard was working, and I was pleased.
After the game, we got back on the buses. They didn't so much care who was on what bus on the way back – you see, they just wanted to make sure everybody actually got there. If somebody didn't get back – well, they were adults, and that was their problem.
I got on the same bus anyway. It didn't smell, and I needed an area of privacy anyway – I had some work to finish on the way back.
So, as I settled into my seat in the back of the bus, I looked up. Trina was getting on the same bus, too – and this time, she had Jen Cavendish with her.
Jen Cavendish is an alto sax player. She's a redhead about Trina's height, but her body's built a little differently – she doesn't quite have the curvature that Trina does, but that's okay – she's still hot.
The funny thing about it was something that had occurred on Band Day. As we were getting ready to enter the field for our demonstration show, I had heard Trina make a comment to Jen that "Jack has eight inches…" At that point, there had been a huge drum hit and I hadn't heard any more of the comment.
But, I really didn't care right at that moment. I got to work.
Around 2:00 AM, as we were passing through Bakersfield, one of the gradasses asked if it would be okay to put a curtain up by my seats, since I was still working and I had lights on. I said fine, and he hung a curtain from hooks installed in the ceiling.
Around 3:30 AM, we hit the city of Barstow, if you can call it a city. As we were leaving the east side of Barstow, my curtain was pulled back a bit. It was Jen Cavendish.
"Hey Jack," she said.
I took of my glasses and set them down on the laptop. "Wow, you're up late," I replied.
"I couldn't sleep," she said, as she sat down next to me and let the curtain fall shut. "I think I drank too much caffeine at the game."
"It's entirely possible," I said. "I'm a little surprised, though… after long enough in marching band, you learn how to regulate your caffeine intake. Or, at least, I did."
"Well," she replied, "that's the thing. This is actually my first year in a marching band."
Now THAT was curious. "Really," I said. "You didn't do marching band in high school, and so you came up here and just decided to join marching band?"
"Well," she began, "I've been playing the sax since I was in fourth grade, and as a music education major, it was this or symphonic band. I'm sick of symphonic band, and so I decided to go for something new."
"That makes sense," I replied. "So, what did you think of your first season?"
"It was fun! I will say, though, that it has wreaked havoc on my sex life."
I nodded agreement. "Boy, do I hear you on that," I said wryly. I had gotten laid exactly once all semester.
"I heard you had fun on Band Day," she said with a giggle.
I stopped short and looked up. "Oh, REALLY. What else have you heard?"