Kristen and the Band Room_(0)

Kristen and I were two totally different people.

She was into academics, cheerleading, band, and chorus. She had medium length dark brown hair, big brown eyes, and a long slender body that had developed wonderfully over the years. She wasn’t by any means the most popular girl in school, but she certainly wasn’t unpopular.

I, on the other hand, was always a loner. I wasn’t anti-social or unpleasant, I was just very shy and didn’t deal well with most people. Teachers and other students didn’t dislike me – most just didn’t like me either. I was one of those kids that weren’t really into sports, or into the popularity scene. But one thing I could do, and do rather well at that, was play the piano. I was self taught, never had a lesson.

Now juniors in high school, we had been in the same schools since we were in kindergarten. And ever since I can remember, when I saw her on my first day of kindergarten until now, I have had a deep emotional yearning for her. In my opinion, she was the best looking girl I had ever seen in my life. Even to this day. Kristen and I barely knew each other, and would only talk in passing. Since kindergarten we might have said maybe twenty words to each other over the years, half of the time with me just sticking my foot in my mouth. She must have thought I was a complete freak or something. She probably knew that I liked her too, as just about everyone else seemed to know. Probably made her think I was an even bigger freak.

One of the few people who knew I could play the piano was Mrs. Olson, the lady in charge of the school while the students ate lunch. Every day at lunch hour, she would unlock the band room and let me slip in, unknown to anyone else. She left me alone for the lunch hour and the period afterward – my study hall. I would be in that big room all by myself – just me and that old Baldwin grand piano. I would just play and lose myself in the music. I would play songs I’ve heard and loved, as well as practicing songs that I was writing, just enjoying the magic of it all. I was totally oblivious to the world around me.

Well, almost oblivious.

The band room had a large window on one side of the room, and from the piano I could see where the other students ate lunch, though they couldn’t really see me. Through that window, I could see Kristen, eating lunch and hanging out with two other girls – Jenny and Renee. They were all in band and chorus together. Every day while playing, I would watch Kristen enjoy her lunch hour through the glass, eating, talking, laughing. Through the glass, it seemed like she was on the other side of the world.

The hour after study hall was the first hour of band practice. Shy as I am, I would always slip out of the band room some ten minutes early so as not to be detected by anyone that was coming in there. Sure, the band teacher, Miss Trody, knew I was in there, and she even tried to talk me into playing in the band, but I always would turn her down. I didn’t feel confident enough to play in front of other people, and was too shy to talk to them, even though I knew I was skilled enough to do it. Miss Trody would even give me a lesson from time to time, coming in to the band room on my study hall hour, teaching me how to read sheet music and so on. She was a very nice lady, and attractive too I might add. But I never really thought of her like that. I respected her way too much. My goal was at a larger scale in my mind anyhow: To become good and confident enough to reveal my talents some day to Kristen. Kinda show off a little. I knew it was a farfetched dream, but it kept me going. It seemed that girls loved the sound of a piano, so this seemed perfect for me. I could see in Miss Trody’s eyes that I could strike a chord from time to time, and just imagined how Kristen would react.

I wasn’t totally friendless though. My best friend Jeff was very similar to me – shy (though much less so than me), mostly quiet, average student. We would often work on his family farm. They lived a couple miles away so I would get on my four wheeler and ride through the hills and fields to get to their house. Jeff and I were horn dogs, typical teenage boys. They had a truck for the farm and we would sneak off with it and go up to the state line where there was a party store. I would order up our dinners – deli subs – while Jeff would head straight to the magazine rack and start stuffing his pants full of all the latest issues of Hustler, Penthouse, Playboy and whatever else was on the shelf that had tits and ass on the cover. Meanwhile, I kept the clerk busy with our sandwiches. I think that the clerk knew but never said anything because there were times we would wind up with twenty-five dollars worth of sandwiches piled with various meats and cheeses I requested to keep him busy. On our way back to the farm we would talk about the latest porn movie Jeff’s older brother Dougie had. We would sneak into his collection and quickly make a copy of it. Those movies taught me things I use even to this day. It’s amazing how such a picture gets burned into your memory. Just like the day I’m about to tell you about.

It was a typical mundane day. We had an award ceremony at school. Now I knew with Kristen’s academics she would win a few awards. Me, being just your average student, would never even get thought of for an award. Jeff and I were sitting in the auditorium watching the awards ceremony talking about Dougie’s movies when they called Kristen’s name for one of the awards. I abruptly turned my head to see her grace the stage, cutting Jeff off mid-sentence. The way they were doing the awards was the previous winner would announce the next winner, who would announce the next winner, and so on. The next award to be announced was the Principle’s Award – the award going to the student that has held a consistent grade level for the past three years. I watched intently as Kristen began to speak. Her soft velvet-like voice read the notes there on the podium so perfectly. I watched her with the tension of a bird dog on point.

Then she spoke my name as the recipient of the award.

I was shocked and shaken at the same time. The auditorium lit up with cheers, as half the school knew I had the hots for Kristen. I stood up and my knees went weak as I started heading towards the stage. As calmly as I could, I walked up to Kristen. She extended her hand toward mine.