Last week, dear reader, a confrontation between The Chauvinist and Dr. Doubt ended with the mad doctor making his way out of The Chauvinist’s secret lair outside Liberty City. Now bereft of any semblance of sanity, the doctor intends to cure the city of its magical fascination with all things Eldritch!

But for the cowled caster herself, the magic on her mind tonight is of a far different sort. The ice cold bleachers, the spotlights shinning down on the fresh cut grass below, and best of all the sight of the team in their uniforms parading out onto the field below, tonight is Friday night dear reader and with it comes a showdown between St. Cecilia’s Martyrs and St. Gregory’s Chanters! The two rivals come head to head in a showdown known as The Canonized Clash!

The energy of the night air crackles throughout the crowd as the students stomp and howl at the opposing sides. Were it not for the division of the field itself standing between the home and away bleachers we might be in for a fight far soon than anticipated, dear reader! For one teenage girl, the aura of the stadium has her clamoring for escape from the oppressive grasp of her parents.

“Mom, please can I go now?” begs Hailey Juniper Penze.

Admonishing her daughter, Mrs. Penze frowns slightly as she says, “You don’t want to sit with your father and I?”

Hesitating for a moment, Hailey tries to compose a proper response. Before she can, however, her father bursts out laughing, “Oh come on dear!” he says with a grin, “You know how it is when you’re a teenager. We’re lucky we got this far with her still by our side.” Seeing his daughter’s red face, Mr. Penze bursts out laughing again as he motions ahead and adds, “Well say hi to Missy for us!”

Flashing her husband a slightly irritated look, Mrs. Penze quickly asks, “You won’t be sitting with Bella? I’m worried about you two girls being alone in a crowd like this.”

Rolling her eyes, Hailey answers in a patient, but exasperated, voice, “No mom, Bella’s in the marching band.”

“Oh how nice!” exclaims her mother, “What does she play?”

A smile creeps its way up the sides of Hailey’s face as she snickers, “The tuba.”

Were Bella present, dear reader, she would doubtless correct her friend. For tonight, it is not a tuba but the rather portable alternative, a sousaphone, which she carries although carries might not be a perfectly apt term, considering how the instrument wraps itself around Bella’s tiny frame. Bracing the massive instrument against her body, she prepares to walk out onto the field for the pre-match show.

Turning to her newest acquaintance, she says, “Hey Sarah, do you remember the plan?”

Sarah flips her leader’s baton before answering with a cocky grin, “Theo was pretty clear, although you might want to check with the Trombones, Jake was far too excited about the game to give them any real directions.”

Bella shakes her head quickly before replying. “No, it’ll be fine.”

Frowning, Sarah points the baton at Bella and says, “Go and do it. It’s your idea, you should be the leader.”

Bella’s cheeks redden slightly as she looks away and mumbles, “No, it wasn’t all my idea and I couldn’t tell people what to do like that.”

“Theo said you were the one who unearthed it from some ancient yearbook,” Sarah replies.

Still unable to meet her eyes, Bella answers in an uncertain tone, “It was just trivia we were talking about in class! I didn’t think he’d actually organize something like this.”

“You organized this,” reassures Sarah, “this wouldn’t be possible without your hard work.”

“I-I didn’t really do much,” stammers Bella.

Sensing her nerves, Sarah walks over and puts a hand on her shoulder, “Bella,” she says, “we like you. You might not realize it, but everyone in the band is your friend. So go over there and tell those idiot Trombones what to do before they get their slides in a twist.”

Surprised by the sudden display, Bella stammers a fast, “S-sure,” before hoisting her burden and waddling her way over to the other players before, anxiously, describing the plan to them.

When she returns, the senior girl is smiling. “See? We’re all in band, and that makes us friends.”

Slightly shocked at the easy declaration, Bella asks, “Just like that?”

Nodding, Sarah replies, “Just like that. Honestly some of us started to think you were stuck up or whatever because you never speak to anyone.”

“I’m not stuck up!” Bella frantically apologizes.

Shaking her head, Sarah starts to answer before spotting something happening up near the front of the marching band. Muttering to herself, she says, “Ugh, two shows. First the opening and then halftime, I hate The Canonized Clash. We do all the work and the team gets all the glory.” Looking back to the girl next to her, Sarah adds, “Well don’t worry about it, everyone thinks your idea is great. Now if you’ll excuse me, our director would like me up front leading this parade of yours.”

“It’s not mine!” shouts Bella at Sarah’s back. “Theo wanted to revive the Bad Band,” she mutters. Letting out a tense breath, she tries to relax while the column starts moving out onto the field.

Up on the bleachers, Hailey taps her friend on the shoulder. Whirling around with a shriek, Missy, at least it seems to be Missy underneath the face paint and oversized jersey shouts over the crowd, “Hailey! Oh my God! I was so worried you were going to be late!”

Rolling her eyes at her friend’s attitude, Hailey leans forward and says in her ear above the din of the raucous crowd, “Parents!”

Nodding sagely, Missy grabs Hailey by the arm and lifts her up onto the bleachers to stand next to the rest of the girls with boyfriends down on the field. The sorority immediately makes room for her with a bevy of greetings lost to the noise of the crowd. Missy, however, cuts through the high pitched squealing of the girls as she points to the entrance tunnel, “The band is coming!” she screams.

Throwing her hair back, Hailey casts aside her inhibitions and howls with the rest of the girls as they whoops and chant in excited voices for the appearance of their friends. The sound begins before Sarah marches out of the tunnel, a cacophony of different instruments blasting different tempos, pitches, and noises. For an instant the squeal of a trumpet flares above the crowd before the low pitch blast of the sousaphones drowns out the noise. Spilling out onto the field, the band marches aimless in different directions, sections breaking off into different clusters and picking opposite directions to go. The crowd continues to roar as the sounds bleed into the tapestry of the stadium.

Across the field, the coach of the Chanters tries in vain to rally his group for a pregame pep talk. The noise makes it difficult, but barely possible. Until, that is, the band’s individual groups make their way across the turf to St. Gregory’s sideline and point their instruments directly at the team. Irritated, the coach tries to move his huddle down the field. As he does, the trombones begin to march down the field, playing long and loud trills.

Now irate, the coach tries to huddle his players further from the line. Unfortunately, however, as the drums try to walk around the trombones they end up tangled and find themselves forced to detour into the Chanters sideline where they continue to play. Missy breaks Hailey’s focus as she pokes her in the side. Wincing, Hailey gives her a questioning look, the noise far too loud to consider using her words. Waving her hand down at the field, Missy points at a wobbling sousaphone making its way through the band. Twirling about in circles until she is dizzy is Bella, tooting her horn loud as she can.

Tears of laughter in her eyes, Hailey almost falls off the stands as she giggles at the antics of her friend. On the other sideline, the coach of the Chanters motions for the band to leave, red in the face. In response, Bella spins toward him and blasts him with a wall of sonorous ‘music.’ Unable to stay standing on her own from laughter, Hailey has to grab Missy’s hand for support. Down on the field, the band seems comically unable to leave the field. Each time they try, someone trips or steps the wrong way, leaving the group walking in the wrong direction. At the head of the procession is Sara with a cheeky grin plastered on her face, leading the group in circles.

As the pregame timer ticks down to zero, the band collects itself and walks off the field, still playing to drown out the furious shouting of the Chanters’ coach. As they leave, Bella looks up to her friends in the stands. Slightly embarrassed and exhausted from the weight of her instrument and the noise she produced, Bella’s complexion carries a flushed appearance as she looks up at Missy and Hailey with a wild excitement in her eyes. Her friends scream back at her with waves and cheers, and soon have everyone around them cheering in her direction. Unable to wave with her hands full of instrument, Bella simply does a twirl and trills a quick note on her instrument in acknowledgement as she ducks into the tunnel.

Then it is time for the team itself to arrive on the field! As they do, a pair of boys looks up at the stands, searching for a pair of girls. Quickly, they find them and share meaningful looks. Jake waves at Missy, who blows him a kiss that he promptly grabs and smacks onto his lips. Rolling his eyes at his friend’s antics but unable to wipe the smile of his face, Theo turns to Hailey and flashes a questioning smile as if wondering where his own faux kiss is. Smiling, Hailey shakes her head and shoots her boyfriend an exaggeratedly sad face. Then, fake pouting, she returns his questioning smile, as if asking him why she should be the one blowing kisses. Seeing his puppy dog look, Hailey relents and finally blows him a kiss. With a smile, he does the same.

As he puckers, Hailey’s mind snaps back to the last kiss she received from Theo-no not Theo she reminds herself trying to shake off the memories with a motion of her head. Breaking eye contact with the boy below, who looks slightly miffed, Hailey’s gaze turns to someone only she can see. To Becca leaning down and saying, “I want to taste the light,” before leaning over her and…

The memory ends abruptly as Missy throws her arms around her shoulders. In a haze, she whispers to her friend, “They are sooooo in love with us.” Leaning back, Missy adds, “Because we are sooooo hot!” Twirling forward to face the field, Missy throws her hands in the air and screams her enjoyment to the world, the noise lost in the noise of the crowd.

At her side, Eldritch struggles to contain the churning feeling in her stomach. Her hands smooth her shirt down against her skin, feeling the bandages of her fight with Becca through the fabric. Turning to Missy, she shouts “Bathroom!” at her until Missy nods and makes a motion asking if she wants her to go with. Shaking her head and reassuring her friend with a quick smile, Hailey steps down from the bleachers and sinks into the crowd. Distracted, the crowd hardly notices as she slips back behind the bleachers. Sinking to the ground, she puts her back against one of the support pillars of the bleachers and rests the back of her head against the concrete. There, she tries to get control of the emotions rampaging through her system.

Her alone time is gone as soon as it arrives, however, as a voice shatters her solitude. “Hey,” says Ginny, “where’s the entrance? I don’t see a velvet rope anywhere.”

Clearing her expression, Hailey looks up at Ginny and says with a frown, “There isn’t one, and you’re late.”

Confused, Ginny looks around. “But I thought…,” she begins before abandoning the thought with a shrug and saying, “I was busy, you know just putting some bullies in their place, but I’m here now!”

Unable to muster the effort to care about her friend’s odd attitude, Hailey closes her eyes and frowns as she replies, “Well, we’re in the student section. Just look for the girls with face paint and you’ll find Missy. I’ll be along in a minute.”

“You sure?” Ginny asks with a hint of concern in her voice, “this place doesn’t seem all that great.”

Waving her concerns away, Hailey answers, “Yeah, whatever. I’ll be okay, I just need a minute. It’s too loud in there right now.”

Ginny studies her friend for a few seconds. Then, making a decision, she huffs and sits down next to Hailey, back to the same pillar. “Well I’m certainly not going anywhere without you! I’m already outside of my comfort zone. I thought when you said a football game you meant the Minutemen, not this!”

Giving her friend a sideways look, Hailey tries to form a response and fails. Instead, she simply grunts noncommittally. The silence stretches out between the two until the ding of a text arriving on Hailey’s phone breaks it. Uninterested, Hailey pulls it out but doesn’t bring it up to eye level. Curious, Ginny leans over and asks, “Who is Erika? I don’t think I’ve met her yet.”

Galvanized, Hailey jerks the phone up and unlocks it. Bringing it to her eyes, she reads the text quickly before putting the phone away and standing awkwardly. Looking down at her friend, she says, “I gotta go. Tell Missy not to worry, I’m just picking up a friend who couldn’t get a ride.”

Frowning, Ginny crosses her arms and asks, “Can you even drive?”

Flashing a smile, Hailey answers, “Not without a parent, so don’t tell mine!”

Nodding in conspiratorial fashion, Ginny agrees and watches her friend disappear into the row of cars. After Hailey vanishes, she turns to leave but stops, turns back, and wonders aloud, “Don’t tell your parents… But if they drove, whose car do you plan on using?”

Her wondering falls to the wayside a moment later as her earring beeps twice. Ducking further under the bleachers, she crouches to listen to a quiet voice in her ear before making her own journey into the parking lot and away from the game. In both girl’s wake is Missy, now alone at the game.

Two heroines racing towards an unknown danger. With enemies waiting in the wings, can the pair stop the attack of Dr. Doubt? Find out next week in… “The Power of Memory!”