Chapter Text
It was barely eight in the morning, and already Luz could feel the sun’s heat permeating through the thin shirt. At least it wouldn’t be as hot today as it was during the freshman camp. She had already heard rumor of at least two rookies heaving up their breakfasts into the large stadium trash cans. Thankfully, neither were on her team.
Luz only had one new freshman to take care of this year, and considering it was her first year as captain, that was a tremendous weight off her shoulders. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for the other section leaders with five or so new kids to look after. Freshmen were already difficult to deal with as it was, and the fact that they all were band kids was definitely no helping matter.
A sudden shout of her name turned the sophmore captain’s attention to the stadium gates where a familiar figure stood.
Willow was another incoming sophomore who had joined the color guard team with Luz their freshman year. She was a talented performer, already having made the weapons line in her first winter season.
She took a seat next to Luz, against the section of fence the guard claimed every year.
“Good morning!” She hummed, playing with a roll of white tape. “Do you know what we’re doing today?”
“Only a bit.” Luz opened her phone to find the email Raine had sent out. “We have an extra half hour before we begin anything so we have a chance to say hi to friends. Then, it looks like we’ll just be going over fundamentals. We’ll have our lunch break, then we’ll be inside working on routines.”
The two girls watched as a black sedan pulled into the lot behind the stands, familar figures silhouetted by the tinted glass. The passenger door swung open to reveal the tall, but scrawny figure of Hunter. He quickly reached back into the vehicle before pulling out the white chunk of wood that was his rifle.
Hunter, now a junior, had joined the guard during the winter season of his freshman year. His foster father, Darius, had apparently been worried about how few “connections” he had made, and having worked part-time as Eda’s assistant coach would lead to the clear outcome of the boy joining the guard. By the end of the season, he had found the sport incredibly fun and had decided to continue on to the next color guard season, and then to the seasons after that.
Now, the junior would be joined by Willow in the rifle line, though line was probably the wrong word, Luz thought. It was more of a duo than a line…
“Please tell me this isn’t everyone,” Hunter groaned as he took a spot on the fence.
“Nope!” Luz popped the p sound. “We have three new people this year!”
Willow was quick to reply, “Sweet! I already knew Gus was joining. Who else?”
Luz didn’t have to pull out the list she’d been given yesterday to name off their new teammates. She had been the one to drag them into the sport after all.
“Amity and Vee!”
“Dang.” Willow looked impressed. “You managed to get Amity to join? How did you do that?”
Luz shrugged. “I just asked her to. Told her it would be fun to have her on the team.”
The three continued to discuss the plans for the day as well as the rest of camp. Luz hoped to have at least the first three track routines as well as the school’s fight song down by the end of next week. She had yet to hear fom Eda what her plans for learning the show work would be yet.
The show had been announced at the end of last school year, and Luz had been buzzing with excitement all summer to start learning it. The Hero’s Journey , it was called, and it would consist of three Disney pieces: Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dame , A Girl Worth Fighting For from Mulan , and So This is Love from Cinderella. The band had been ecstatic when Mx. Whispers, their director, had revealed the theme, and began begging for the new music in order to begin practicing.
Later, Eda had bragged that she had already known the show theme for months, as she had been one of the people working on ideas for the next season. However, when Luz had asked what her plans were for the guard she would be the coach of, she fully admitted to not having anything down yet. That seemed to be how Eda worked though, coming up with ideas on the spot worked much better for her than sitting down and planning things out.
“Willow! Luz!” Called out a young voice. As the guard turned their heads, they were greeted with the sight of a young boy with dark skin running towards them at full speed.
“Gus!” The two called back in unison as the boy jumped to a stop at their feet.
Augustus Porter was the one freshman on the team this year, but he had been learning how to spin a flag from Willow since last year. The two had known each other since middle school, when Willow found Gus having a meltdown in an empty classroom and helped him to calm down. Last year, Willow had introduced Luz and Gus, and the three had been nearly inseparable ever since.
Luz took a moment to glance over at the stadium gate to see if she could spot anyone else. A moment later, Amity and Vee appeared from around the corner of the ticket booth. They were laughing at something on Amity’s phone, but looked up when they heard Luz calling their names.
Vee was Luz’s foster sister, though Luz had considered them actual sisters for a while now. She had attended every show and competition the guard had with their mother in order to cheer her sister and teammates on. Over the summer, luz finally convinced her to join the guard.
Amity, on the other hand, had once been one of Willow’s bullies, tearing down her confidence in order to hold some sort of social power? Luz hadn’t really understood it, but she had been able to get through to the green-haired girl and give her some actual friends. And of course, Luz had also invited her to join the guard in the upcoming season. She had expected the girl to say no, but to her surprise, she had received an excited yes.
From the center of the field, a whistle blew, calling the students to start warm-ups. Luz took a quick look at her team for this marching season.
Yeah, she thought, this year is going to be great.