The night ended up being the most memorable / epic / unfair / idiotic night ever. We were tied throughout the 3rd and 4th quarter, and then with 2 minutes left the opposing team scored a touch down and was 4 points ahead. Blah blah blah, 9 seconds left, we go for a touch down... and it looks like we get it! The crowd roars! A flag is thrown! Hopes are dashed! 3 seconds are left on the clock and only one play is possible. This play determines the outcome of the entire game. The teams crouch, ready to spring into action; and then a time out is called. Horrah. The bands play our lovely stand cheers with enthusiasm, screaming our voices hoarse and then the teams get back and crouch again.... only to have another fucking time out called. Thankfully that was the last time out possible to use, or else we would have been there for ages. Anyways the end conclusion was that we scored a touchdown and were so surprised that we actually won that we ran off the field in victory before remembering that we had to kick the ball through the posts. Way to go guys, we missed the kick because we weren't even trying (we won the game anyways, and the kick didn't even go in the air); and thus ended the most epic game so far of the season.
Now what was the memorable / unfair / idiotic part of the night I was speaking of?
To tell you the story, you need to understand that during pregame we are supposed to form 3 letters. The letter the Base drums, Snares, Cymbals and some of the flutes form is a "C". To get to that "C" we have been told to do a "follow the leader" type of action. In all the practices, it has gone well without any issues, but for some reason on field, I don't know where we screwed up, who screwed up, or what happened, the Bases, Cymbals and flutes ended up on the wrong line while the Snares and the rest of the people were on the right line. In conclusion the "C" was pretty screwed up and unreadable. But hey! Our lines were straight!
Anyways, now that you understand that; here comes the fcked up part. Apparently all that was the drumline's fault. I'm not saying we're not to blame for some of it, it was everyone's fault, but we're the only people that got yelled at, SCREAMED at was more like it. The flutes who lead the line were blaming it on us (I'm not sure how that works) and we got a lot of shit about it. Okay, fine I get it... everyone screwed up. We ALL understood that, and we understood it the moment we stopped and I heard Kish say "Dude we're on the wrong line." You make mistakes, you learn from them, and you move on.
Pickel (our band director) came up to the drumline and told us that since pregame sucked, as of then we weren't going to play for the student section. That didn't really piss us off at all, we all agreed that we kind of deserved that in a way, plus ***he said that if half time was good we could play***.
We lined up for half time, not talking very much, and went into it... and played the BEST we have EVER played. I'm not kidding, everyone marched well, we all played in time, the base splits were near perfect, the snares sounded like one, our drum feature had never sounded so good etc etc., and we all were grinning like crazy as we left the field, not even thinking about the student section, because we were so psyched that we had just outdone ourselves. Jeff, our drumline critic who plays Tenors (he always has someone to criticize and say that they could play better) was like "... holy crap guys, that was the best we have EVER played, I know I usually criticize you but that was good." Pickel had even been giving us thumbs up signals from the sidelines.
But low and behold, Jones apparently had gone to talk to Pickel, or I don't know what happened, but that thumbs up turned to a thumbs down. Our best ever was passed over and they ignored it to remember our pregame, even though he promised to let us play if we did well. We tried our damn best, the BEST of our capabilities, and it wasn't good enough. I wasn't paying attention, but I think Jones came over and told Nicole that we weren't playing for the student section, and Nicole, Kish and someone else whom I can't remember started to cry.
That may sound a bit weird, but holy shit we were all so mad, upset, and beat down that it just wasn't fair. It was Nicole's and Kish's LAST first game, and it was Nicole's first (and only) time to show as captain since Kyle wasn't there, but that wasn't the reason she was so pissed off and crying. She was crying because We had worked so hard to just be shut down, our best wasn't good enough, and honestly I can't even put her words into my words (if that makes sense).
This really isn't the fcked up part yet.
Jones apparently noticed she was crying and called her down from the stands. We were all like "Rebel! Don't go! XD", but she went anyways, which honestly shows that we DO respect him no matter what, and I'm surprised she still follows his command after what he said to her next.
She was gone for a while, and then came back. And I have never seen her this pissed off, the first thing out of her mouth was "He's a sexist bastard." <-- I believe she said that... don't quote me, it was loud. Apparently he said something like "You're making me feel bad. I hate these emotional girls." followed by a quick "...joking." Hahaha. NOT.
Nicole's response?
"Suck it up. I'm having my period." and then she turned around and walked away.
Before that though, he apparently explained that the reason we didn't play for the student section was because we weren't mentally capable, we weren't focused, and we were missing some people (steve was out due to a back injury, brodey had a broken snare, and kyle is away on a trip). Missing some people has NEVER stopped us before, bullshit. He also said that we're in for a rude awakening tomorrow, we're going to be running and doing pushups because of our poor performance. Plus, he decided that he's going to start removing people from marching if they aren't playing correctly or marching correctly.
I can't remember all of our retorts to that, but I remember that Nicole brought up the issue the the drumline feeling that our best not being good enough. And he replied that it wasn't, he said he was going to treat us like drumcore. And Nicole said "We're Highschooler's, you need to lower your expectations, and we'll try to do better." Plus I think he said something about the not playing for the student section "not intending to be a punishment". I laughed at that one.
It's all fun and games when you say "Oh hay drumline you can't play for the student section. *goes to chat with the other adults and ignores the chaos that you caused*"
Because now we have 200-300 drunken angry, PISSED off teenagers after us. No joke. These people were chanting "We want drumline! Where is drumline?!" etc.
Some people were getting texts asking about where we were, and then people from the student section started jumping the fence and running over to question me (the closest person) about why the fck we weren't coming, and I replied "Pickel won't let us." to which they would run back to the student section and all of a sudden you'd hear these screams as the entire crowd would be in an uproar.
Lovely. We're going to get shit on monday about it also.
We had a meeting after we got back to the school and finished changing where Nicole told us about what Jones had told her, and we were all pretty pissed off. But honestly, we can't really do anything. We can't fight against him, etc. It wouldn't solve anything. So, we're just going to play better and be unitedly pissed, like an army.
Oh, and an ego booster. Apparently Jones is fine with putting down Nicole alone and pissing HER off, telling HER all that shit.
Me and Kish brought up the point of "why didn't he tell ALL of us this?"
and I said "he probably knew he'd get his ass kicked."
After he was done making Nicole pissed, he pretty much ran away when Nicole came back to tell the drumline what he had said.
Point Proved.
UPDATE: People are emailing Jones and flaming him etc. for not letting us play. These are regular students who somehow got his email address. I can't stop laughing, but no... apparently he's really pissed, and WON'T EVER let us play if this keeps up, so guys... cut it out.
