Chapter Text
Peridot was overall pleased with how her life was going. The first year of her high school career had been absolutely Hell, being the stereotypical nerd she was, almost as if she came out from a movie cliché. But her sophomore year was never what she had ever prayed for (not that she exactly believe in that stuff). In freshman year, everyone had picked on her and she lost count of how many times she had been asked out so that the popular kids could laugh about it with their friends. Peridot supposed she had friends, but none that often talked to her outside of class and after school. She was in many clubs and extracurriculars because she knew that many colleges were looking for a student that was active in high school. However, the only club/elective class that she had enjoyed greatly was concert, jazz, marching band. The people in there weren't exactly popular, but they were still above her level. They were all very kind and made the kind of jokes she laughed at and most importantly, they found her hilarious. She also excelled at the instruments she played, including the clarinet as her main instrument. To summarize, she has enjoyed her time in marching band mostly, playing at the school's football games and sometimes basketball and baseball games as a pep band.
While she began to develop closer relationships to the people in her band, she still couldn’t help the inevitable loneliness. Sure, she no longer ate her lunch alone and would occasionally be approached during passing periods, when she would return home, she would fall into a spiral of self loathing. It’s not like she wanted to be popular , although, that wouldn’t be the worst idea. And though she had never cared for the idea before, seeing all the couples around the school worsened the feeling. Never has anyone been interested in her romantically, nor did she think it start now. It got her down more than she liked to admit, but she had to say she was honestly grateful that she lived a vanilla life. She’s always followed the rules to a T, never had any drama between friends because she never got that close to anyone, and she never had her heartbroken because she’s never given anyone that opportunity.
So she went on, living her boring life, trying to savor as many moments as she could. She hadn’t even noticed how things were changing for the better. Everything seemed to be going great, that is, until the accident happened and it changed her life in so many different ways.
.
Jasper and Peridot had been dating for about a year coming somewhat soon and despite that they were on and off, they were both happy. Peridot was a woman of her pride so they once in awhile break up because of a fight and her being too petty to apologize, usually resulting in Jasper apologizing when she wasn't wrong. But they were what was called a ‘power couple’. Jasper had been crowned their school's homecoming princess’ and had refused the dance with the homecoming prince, which was a tradition and instead danced with her nerdy girlfriend, the one that she kept near and dear to her heart. They shared a kiss and were then kicked out for ‘throwing the rules’.
Peridot was snapped out her reminiscing when she heard Jade greeted her when she reached the old unused basketball courts that they used for drill setting. They wasn't an official band rehearsal but it was optional and Mr. A was there to help the underclass man with their marching and Mr. A told Peridot she’d better be there to work on her solo and Jade was here helping the younger woodwind players.
They went on practicing drill and technical studies. Peridot was working by herself on the other side of the court. Her solo was an important part of the who show, it changed the whole theme of it. To sum, it was the climax of the whole performance.
Her solo was turned into a duet when there was an alto sax added, and then took it over as their own solo. She had gotten it to be perfect with her musical partner, Jason, but he had apparent family problems and had to move out of the blue. They were holding auditions for who can take his solo and spot but all the saxes in their band currently didn't have enough energy to be a soloist. Mr. A had told her not to stress about it and he'll figure things out but she needed to know what was going on!
Minutes went by with her having to play both parts so that she could hear it for reference when her band director was approaching her. With him was a girl about her height, a little bit shorter but her body type was more plump. She was sporting a blue exercise tank top and neon purple shorts. Her hair appeared to be long and thick, even though it was up in a bun. Peridot could so see that her hair was artificially color lilac purple, though she could tell her hair is naturally black, due to the regrowth of her hair. The girl was carrying a black instrument case with her, which appeared to hold likely some sort of saxophone.
“Hey Peridot! You'll never guess what happened. This is Amethyst, she moved here recently and she's an exceptional alto saxophonist! She's won regional competitions all around in her last ensemble. Oh, this is a miracle!” The old band director cried out and lowered his voice, “She's a much better option to take someone like Jason's spot rather than the other fools. Sorry to be rushing you, but please get to know each other and please enlighten her as best you can, then help her set drill! I gave her the drill sheet and music but I gotta go to talk to the registration office immediately!” The over excited music teacher went without another word back to his band room.
The two girls stood there, staring after him. That was kind of messy, but it did make sense since he has been stressing about the sudden change and it had caused them to receive a rating of good instead of an excellent at their last competition.
“Wow. Is he always like this?” The new girl chucked to herself, breaking the silence. She moved her hand out to the other thinner girl, “Hey, dude. I'm Amethyst. I was in marching and concert band at my previous school. Nice to meet ya!”
Peridot stared at the extended hand before her. She didn't have time for greetings like this. Their next competition was in a week and this girl needed to learn her drill and music! “Yeah, I heard. My name is Peridot and I don't have time to chit chat right now. We have a competition upcoming and we have to get to work immediately if we want to receive a decent rating.” She explained. “Now come on. Let me see your drill.”
“Oh.” Murmured the other girl, pulling the two sheets out of her flip folder. “Here.”
“Okay,” began Peridot. “Now, let me see you sight read this! I'll give you the tempo!” She then started to clap at an even tempo of 115 beats. She watched as the girl fumbled to wet her reed, put her sax together and set up her flip folder. Once ready, she began to sight read and Peridot was already dreading listening to the mess.
She was taken aback, though. The sight reading wasn't a terrible mess. It was actually pretty good. Her tone sounded rich and all the rhythms were right. She stumbled a little with the ritardandos but found the correct tempo afterwards. She played with such intensity, as if she was trying to impress Peridot, which honestly, she sort of was. This ruffled Peridot's feathers a little at how good this girl seemed to be, especially since this was a sight reading.
She came to a finish and the release rang and they noticed that they caught the attention of the other people on the court practicing. They were all quiet before they all started cheering. “Wow! You're amazing! That was your sight reading? You're the perfect partner for Lil’ Dottie.” Jade threw her a thumbs up and the new girl blushed but threw one right back at her.
Peridot looked back at the girl who was now looking back at her with the craving of approval in her eyes. “Okay… That was good but how about you follow the dynamics this time?” She lied. Amethyst's volume and attacks had been mostly spot on. The shorter girl resisted the urge to shoot her a nasty look before she nodded at her.
While they ran through the music a few times, then began to set drill, Peridot was focused on analyzing the girl. She appeared to be of Latina descent, was actually shorter than Peridot, upon inspection, and she smelled faintly of marijuana and smoke. She could already tell she would not get along with her.
This was not what Peridot expected. She hasn't expected Jason's replacement to be better than him. She knew she could not let this new girl get out control and grow a big ego. She couldn't let her badly influence her band friends. And most importantly, she couldn't let this girl take her place as most valuable sophomore.