Chapter Text
The first day of school is always hectic. David always felt nervous the night before, and ended up getting almost next to no sleep.
He’d be up, walking around, fidgeting, and getting hit in the head with a pillow by Les.
Morning would roll around, and a scared, sleep deprived David would play with his cereal while going over everything that could possibly go wrong. Sarah would have to calm him down, assure him that everything was going to be fine, then grab everything David forgot to grab.
This first day of school was especially nerve-wracking. The Jacobs kids were starting at a new school, a week into the first semester. To say David was on edge would be an understatement.
While stepping through the door and walking through the halls of a new school, David was sent into a day long anxiety attack. He was just thankful he had Sarah with him.
David frantically searched through his backpack and his pockets. “Have you seen my schedule? I can’t- oh my god, where did I put my clarinet? Did I leave my planner on the table?” he continued to panic as he barely avoided crashing into people due to his head being buried in his bag.
Sarah sighed and handed David his schedule, that he had handed to her because he was sure he was going to lose it. “Here, Davey. Your clarinet is in your locker, remember? You didn't want to carry it around and your planner is sticking out of your bag.”
With efficient graceful movements Sarah grabbed the planner and handed it to David, after looking at his schedule she unlocked his locker and handed him his clarinet.
David ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, taking all the things Sarah was handing to him. “What would I do without you, Sarah?”
“Thank goodness you'll never have to know,” she smiled fondly.
“I better not,” David teased, turning his attention to his schedule. “Band’s first hour, right? With you?”
“Yup, lucky you. I've heard Denton is a great director, and the band program here is really good,” Sarah liked to look on the positive side of uncontrollable changes, “Plus, it's a fresh start- you can be whoever you want to. These kids don't know you as the clumsy nerdy kid.”
David looked at her with fear in his eyes. “Don’t jinx it!”
Sarah just laughed and turned in the direction of the band room, the opposite direction of which David had been heading in. He hurried to catch up with her.
David was already far too flustered. He knew something was going to go wrong. It was just how things worked with him. There was no such thing as a “fresh start”. He was always going to be awkward little Davey Jacobs. There was no changing that.
The two entered the band room and were met with an instant commotion, surprisingly loud for the small amount of people in the room.
Their senses were filled with boys running about and jumping over chairs. The noise level was quite loud, with random snippets of conversation.
“Hey, give me back my glasses! I actually need them to see.”
“It was the biggest dog you ever-”
“What about my foot?”
“Iron man would kick your ass.”
Several brass instruments could be heard trying to get in tune.
Most of the class was preoccupied with the boy who had his glasses stolen. A tall, light haired boy with a red bandana was tossing a pair of glasses back and forth between him and a shorter, tougher looking guy, and another kid with dark hair.
“Jack, this isn’t funny!” the glasses boy complained.
“Ah, come on, Specs. It’s fun,” the bandana boy, Jack, had said.
David stared at Jack. He noticed how tall and muscular he was. How attractive he…
Sarah elbowed him, hissing at him to not stare. “Don't drool.”
David rolled his eyes, turning red.
“Jack Kelly, you give Specs back his glasses right now or you'll be cleaning up the band room after school!” A red haired girl appeared from one of the practice rooms holding a baton.
It was David’s turn to tell Sarah not to stare. She just glanced at him before returning to her appraisal of the redhead.
“Lighten up, Kath,” Jack grinned, tossing the glasses back to the boy with dark hair.
“Spot,” Specs pleaded. “Please.”
“I’m over here,” the third boy said. “That’s Race. Maybe you should put your glasses on.” He snickered.
“I’m going to kill you.” Specs lunged in the direction of the voice, forgoing his attempt to reclaim his glasses for the nobler cause of killing Spot.
Spot stepped out of the way, causing Specs to land on the floor, making a sound that sounded extremely painful (David decided it was a cross between “CRACK” and “fwomp”).
Race burst into laughter as he tossed the glasses back to Jack. For once, it seemed like David wasn’t going to be the laughing stock. But of course, that feeling couldn’t last too long. The glasses missed Jack entirely and ended up hitting David square in the middle of his forehead. Taken back, David stumbled. He grabbed on to what felt like a railing to support himself.
It wasn’t a railing.
David had grabbed on to the rack of music stands. He ended up knocking them over, falling down with them.
The room went silent. Everyone looked over at Dave, surprised and confused. The room was silent, until Sarah let out a sigh from the doorway.
“So much for a fresh start,” she mumbled. Pasting on a smile she waved. “Hi, I’m Sarah and that’s David. We’re new. Who should we speak to about auditioning for positions?”
No one answered for a moment. They were still stunned.
“Lady, does it look like we can afford to pick and choose who’s in band?” Spot spoke up.
It was true. There was barely anyone in the room.
Jack, ignoring Spot, pointed at “Kath”, “She’s in charge until Denton gets here.”
“Nice to meet you,” Sarah smiled, keeping her cool (which was surprising to her, considering she was talking to a very pretty girl). “I’m so sorry about my brother,” she pointed to David, who was under a pile of scattered stands. He didn’t look like he wanted to get up anytime soon.
Kath laughed. “It’s alright, we’ve done worse. I’m Katherine.”
And in that moment, Sarah knew she was already in too deep. Katherine’s smile was a beacon.
“Welcome to band,” she said, picking up a stand. “We’re uh, kind of small. Budget cuts and all,” she continued picking up. Sarah lightly kicked David to tell him to get off the ground. “What instruments do you play?”
Sarah quickly recovered from her second hand embarrassment (courtesy of Dave) and focused on Katherine (not like that was a problem).
“I play flute and David plays clarinet,” she told Katherine.
Katherine beamed. “Clarinet?” she looked at Dave, who was refusing to get up. “We don’t have a clarinet player.”
Sarah forced David up. “You do now.”
David looked like he was ready to curl up in the corner and slowly fade away. Sarah knew that expression of his all too well. She also knew he was probably cursing him silently, but she could live with that.
“Here,” Katherine picked up the last of the stands and handed Specs his glasses. “This is Specs,” she introduced him. “He plays french horn.”
“Hey,” Specs muttered, putting on his glasses. He made his way back to his seat, clearly not in the social mood.
“He’s not always angry. And we’re not always messing with him,” Jack turned to Sarah and David.
“Yes we are,” Spot said.
Jack ignored him once again. “I’m Jack. Jack Kelly.”
David was silent for an entirely different reason then. Cute Bandana Boy was talking to him.
“Hi Jack,” Sarah saved the day once more. “I’m Sarah and that’s Dave.”
Jack smiled. “Nice to meet ya.”
Jack and Spot both had thick New York accents. David knew it was going to be the death of him.
Katherine lead the two of them around the band room, introducing them to everyone. Jack trailed behind, secretly looking at David. Spot shot a rubber band at him as a way to scold him. Jack just turned and glared back at him.
“That’s Mush. He plays flute, too.”
Mush smiled. Sarah and him instantly struck up conversation. At least she was doing well, David thought.
“Blink is our Baritone. Skittery’s the tuba. Crutchie is piano. Spot is percussion, but sometimes trombone when it’s called for. Race is the trumpet, Jack plays the saxophone, and I conduct,” Katherine informed them. Everyone said a short greeting before turning back to their conversations. Blink and Skittery seemed to be having a heated discussion about superheroes.
Katherine finished her mini tour then returned to the front of the room. David was left standing alone. Jack took his chance. He bounced over to David, sneaking up behind him. He leaned against the wall.
“So, what brings you here?”
David jumped. He turned to see Jack and relaxed a bit. It took him a moment to process the words, but he eventually shrugged. “Dad’s job. He was transferred, so we were, too.”
Jack looked at David while he talked. David didn’t make eye contact (he was clearly nervous and embarrassed), but Jack could still see his eyes. Jack decided then that blue was his favorite color.
Jack began to shamelessly flirt with David, who didn’t pick up on any of it, while Sarah went back over to Katherine.
“Thanks for being so nice,” she said. Katherine looked up and gave her a small smile.
“Don’t thank me,” she told Sarah.
Sarah shrugged and found herself smiling. Katherine’s smile seemed to be contagious. “Well, then I’m sorry again for my brother.”
“It’s really no big deal,” Katherine assured her. “We’ve done worse.”
Sarah didn’t want to know the stories behind that.
“Just wait,” Sarah warned, only partially teasing.
Katherine laughed. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
Say what you will about David, but he had perfect timing. As soon as Katherine had said that, a crash louder than the one from before rang out. It caused everyone to either jump, flinch, or fall over.
Jack had been leaning on the wall. David, who wanted to seem cool and impress Jack, decided to lean on something as well. He accidentally chose the marimba. It fell over, and once again David went with it.
Sarah didn’t even need to look back.
“Like I said, I’m so sorry.”
Katherine’s eyes were wide as she assessed the situation. Jack was helping David up while Race laughed and everyone else settled down. It was going to be one hell of a year.
“Your brother is lethal, Sarah,” she said.
Sarah sighed. “I know.”