Chapter 10: Colliding With An Old Rival

Wednesday. It was finally time to submit my book report on Great Expectations. As I handed in my five-paged report to Ms. Borja, I breathed a sigh of relief. I went through a lot to finish my report, struggling with a roller coaster of emotions and several all too familiar parallelisms along the way, but I overcame everything and came up with a report that I was proud of. Though it was somehow bittersweet that it was over, I knew that I would always remember the life and love lessons from Great Expectations.

Yeah, I know. I was sentimental like that. Anyway, since most of our school work was done, we could now focus on band practice and prepare for the upcoming battle of the bands.

It was the second week of October, 2006 and only seven days were left before Band Clash. We would be competing against some of the best college bands in the metro so it was obviously nerve wracking for all of us. Understandably, band practice had gone into overdrive and we were meeting everyday. It wa