The Glaring -- Top of Chapter Three
Chapter 3 I got first oboe, which means I sit at the head of the row and pretty much lead the section. There are only four oboists in the whole orchestra, so it isn’t that big of a deal, really, but I practiced super hard, and I’m relieved. I would have been mortified to be beaten by a seventh grader. When we were in fifth grade, Mrs. Gallagher, the middle school music teacher, gave a presentation about all the different band and orchestra instruments kids could learn the next year. One after another, she held them up, and then she played the chorus of that sappy song about hearts going on from the movie Titanic so we could hear how they sounded different from one another. In the middle of the assembly, I realized that one single lady knew how to play all those instruments—from brass to woodwinds to strings. Watching her, I felt like twenty different languages were floating around in her head all at once. She knew how to speak trombone and viola and flute and xylophone, and she