Final Defeat

As though the immediate problems in my life weren't enough, there was something going on in the background. The band director that year was Mr. Landers, and he is a profound individual. He was one of those people who really made an impact on your life that you'll never forget. He put a lot of time and energy into what his job and really passed on to me the desire to teach music one day. We would spend a lot of time studying music theory after school and I could really see how much he loved to teach. Meanwhile the band (pretty much just the brass and percussion sections) were spreading rumors that we were having an affair. Suddenly, I was the sluttest girl, even though I had never had sex before in my life. I was being called "handles" whenever I wore my pigtails to practice and even though I sat in the front of the bus away from everyone, I was "performing favors" for other people. This, in combination with my kissing problem, sent me straight to the reputation of a complete slut.

Championships were in the fall every year. Keep that in mind, that's a story for the next blog, but for now I'm skipping over it, and jumping foward.

Go to May of Freshman year, and my friend Stacy is having a birthday party. She is a year older than me, so older people came to the party as well. We spent most of her birthday sitting in the jacuzzi. I was sitting next to Bryce Medicus. I knew him as that older kid who played the sax. We really hit it off and by the end of the night we were holding hands. He walked me up the hill and leaned in. We nearly kissed but were interrupted by his mom coming to pick him up. I asked him if this meant we were a couple, and he said "yea, see you Monday!"

I was so excited, I barely made it through the weekend and even had new clothes picked out for Monday. I waited patiently by the band room to meet up with Bryce first thing in the morning at school. He came up to me and said, "I'm sorry, but my ex and I starting talking over the weekend, and we got back together. I'm sorry. You know her, it's Emily, the flute player who sits next to me!" That was it. I was defeated.