1 Chapter THE BUZZ Let’s play that section one more time Mr Byrd our band director said He stood on a podium in the middle of the band room Pretend the cherry blossoms are in bloom And really make those bees buzz Yeah Yulia Glatt whispered nudging me with her elbow Buzz those bees Baylor Bzz Bzz I smiled We were working on Flight of the Bumblebee Vivace was typed at the top of our sheet music That meant we were supposed to play the song lively and quickly So to make the bees buzz our fingers had to fly over the keys Fast It was hard to keep up So our bees didn’t exactly sound like they were flitting from cherry blossom 4
to cherry blossom They sounded more like they were being exterminated Slowly And painfully But today Mr Byrd seemed more determined than ever for us to nail the song We’d spent almost the entire practice on the same section One and two and ready and go Mr Byrd said Wait Zac Wiles interrupted What measure are we on again The same one we’ve been on for the past twenty minutes Zac Mr Byrd took off the straw hat he always wore and fanned himself with it Baylor can you show him please I play the clarinet and Zac sits behind me playing the saxophone We’re right here I said turning around to show him Zac never takes band seriously He’s always goofing off But I have to admit Zac is pretty funny Most of the time Just not when he slows us down during practice Keep up Zac I whirled back around 5
Keep up Zac he imitated me and laughed Who are you Byrd Junior I repositioned my mouthpiece staring at my music and totally ignoring Zac Okay Mr Byrd said Play like the musicians you are Then he counted for us to begin the section Again When we finished Mr Byrd said You’re making progress The family Apidae would be proud The family who-dee-what Zac asked The family Apidae Sherman Frye said from the flute section That’s the scientific name for bumblebees And other bees too like honeybees and cuckoo bees Cuckoo bees They must’ve been named after you Sherman Zac joked Very funny Sherman frowned That’s enough Mr Byrd said I have some exciting news to share so listen up As some of you may know the governor’s mansion is celebrating 6
its one hundredth birthday A daylong event is being held to honor this historic milestone It’s sort of like a birthday party for the mansion That sounds fun Can we go Yulia asked She was right It did sound fun And I write for our school newspaper the Benton Bluff Bloodhound It could make a great story Maybe Mr Byrd said Junior high bands from across the state are being invited to play at the festivities You mean we’re going the governor Lemuel Soriano popped up out of his chair clutching his trumpet Awesome to play for Slow down Lem Mr Byrd held up both hands I didn’t say that We might get to play at the governor’s mansion But first we have to win our region by competing against some other bands at our local performing arts center I raised my hand Baylor Mr Byrd said 7
