Alexander nervously bounced his way into the school building, pulling his long hair back into a ponytail. It was August first, and the day that marching band camp started. He was to be a trumpet player at New York high, and as short as he was, some of the seniors were somewhat frightening to him. (Not that he'd ever admit that). His mother waved goodbye to him, she coughed and wiped some sweat off her forehead. It wasn't that hot, only 71°. Alexander smiled sadly at his mother. She smiled weakly back at him. She'd been ill with a fever for about a week now, but they were poor enough to not be able to go to the hospital. Alexander's trumpet had been his father's before he left, being one of the only things that he'd left behind.

Which was another thing Alexander was worried about. Several people had made fun of him as an intermediate student about the state of his trumpet, and he was afraid that it'd only get worse in high school.

"Hey! I'm George, I'll be your drum major this year. What's your name, man?"

"Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton."

"Alright, Alexander, what do you play?"

Alexander held up his case, "Trumpet." He replied proudly. George laughed for some reason. "You can get yourself acquainted with your Brass Captain and section leader Aaron Burr." He pointed over to a taller man, who looked to be a senior. Alexander thanked George, and headed over to Aaron Burr, who was sitting on the floor polishing his own trumpet, which looked nice and expensive. It was silver, better than Alexander's slightly rusty gold colored one.

"Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir?" His mother had always told him to be polite, and if this guy was going to be his superior, Alexander was going to put in some extra effort. Burr looked amused. "That depends, who's asking?"

"Oh well sure, sir. I'm Alexander Hamilton." Now Burr just laughed. "Yeah I'm Aaron. Don't call me sir. I know I'm your Brass Caption, and judging by your case, your section leader too, but damn." Alexander blushed. "I heard your name from George."

"George Washington? Alright, well, now that we've been introduced, you can go stand over there with some of the other fish, until King George splits us up into sections."

"King George?" Alexander questioned.

"That's what we call the band director behind his back." Aaron lowered his voice, "If you ask anyone, they'll tell you he's a bit of an ass. And extremely controlling, that's where he gets his nickname." Alexander laughed nervously. His last director had been pretty chill, and having a scarier director had been something Alexander didn't even consider. Alexander thanked Aaron, and walked over to where he'd pointed, with a few shorter kids, who were, apparently, freshman as well. One was talking loudly in a French accent, the boy he was talking to was flexing his trombone case above his head. Another, a cute boy with freckles dotted across his face was laughing at the two, what appeared to be a saxophone case hugged tightly to his chest. A small girl was talking with a couple of girls that looked a lot like her, with a thin case next to her, opened to show a bassoon.

The Frenchman had stopped talking, and taken out a saxophone. He was playing some sort of complex solo that was just as loud and wailing as his voice was. He was good. The cute freckled boy was clapping. Alexander approached him. Freckles didn't notice him, and as Alexander was about say something to him, he whooped loudly.

"You go Lafayette!"

Alexander stopped, feeling uncharacteristic shyness in front of the cute boy. Freckles slapped Frenchman (Lafayette) on the back, before turning to Alexander, grinning. "Man," He said, "Get a load of this guy."

" I'm Alexander." Stupid. Why did he have to get all weird around cute kids? Cute freckles didn't seem to think it was awkward, but laughed. "I'm John. John Laurens. This is Marquis de Lafayette. Well his full name is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette. But he just goes by Lafayette. Call him Marie and he'll kill you. This idiot is Hercules Mulligan. We just call him Herc."

"Alexander Hamilton." Alexander said, realizing he'd never said his full name.

"Nice. What do you play?"

"Trumpet." Alexander still felt stupid.

"Alto sax." John said, raising the case he'd been hugging earlier.

"Tenor." Lafayette showed off his playing again.

"Trombone!" Hercules shouted, hoisting the case above his head.

"Mulligan!" Aaron Burr shouted from across the room. Herc gave an easy smile as he lowered his trombone case.

John pulled Alexander closer into the group. Alexander grinned, loosening up a bit.

"You know anyone else here?"

"No, I just moved here. From the Caribbean."

All of them seemed impressed, and Lafayette asked him if he'd spent his time lounging around on the beach looking at all the hot girls. Alexander snorted. "No. It isn't as great there as you might think. At least," Alexander tinted at the cheeks, "Not in the part of town we lived in."

"Well then," John said decisively. "We're going to be your friends then."

"I've never had a group of friends before, I promise that I'll make ya'll proud."

"Never? A cute boy like you surely has had friends, more than friends, before."

"Careful, Laruens, your gay is showing." Herc laughed.

"You're gay?" Alexander asked, excited. Coming from a small community, he'd never met any other queer people. John grinned, and nodded. He was obviously pretty comfortable in his sexuality.

"That's great! I've never met anyone who's gay!" Alexander was bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Why is this so exciting to you?" John asked, laughing. (He honestly found it adorable).

"Well I've never met anyone else who's queer."

"Seriously? Well you're in luck. I'm gay, Lafayette's pan, and Herc's… well, we don't really know what Herc is. He's questioning, but sure as hell not straight." John explained. Herc shrugged.

"I'm bi." Alexander clarified. John seemed excited, "Nice! Now all we need is a trans person, and we'll have a whole set!"

"He's always been saying we need a bi trans person to join the school and then we'd go after them like a fucking tiger after its prey. But hey, you're even better! You're in band." Lafayette told him.

"Thanks? I guess?"

"It was a compliment. John likes you. Then again, he likes everyone." Lafayette considered. Herc snorted, "He's too nice for his own good." John rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything to counter it.

"Girls and boys," A man, who Alexander could only assume was King George beat on a bright red gock block. He rolled the 'r' in 'girls' and spoke in a British accent. He already seemed like an ass.

"Find your section leaders and when everyone's there, start heading outside to the marching field." The crowd of students suddenly erupt with people shouting instrument names, but Alexander immediately headed for Aaron Burr, who was still in the corner where he'd found him originally.

"Alexander Hamilton." Aaron recognized him. "Trumpets, over here!" Alexander turned back to see John and Lafayette walking over to a different corner of the room, John had his hand on Lafayette's back and he was whispering something in his ear. Lafayette laughed at whatever it was, and… blew a kiss to John?

Oh.

They'd never mentioned that they were dating.

Alexander couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that the cute boy that had flirted with him was actually in a relationship. It was stupid.

He turned back to the growing section of trumpets. Aaron was checking names off a list.

"Alright!" He shouted to the small crowd of trumpets, "Come along, and follow me!" He started heading out a back door of the band hall, following the clarinet section. The two people the small bassoon player was talking to were there. They were definitely sisters and appeared to have been at the high school for a year or so already.

Alexander readied himself for his first day of band camp.