The Seiso music contestants go on a trip to California to experience a different musical way of life: marching band. How will they interact with their host students and what sort of adventure lies ahead for them?

I'm not sure where this story takes place in the general storyline of La Corda d'Oro.

Rated T for future chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own La Corda d'Oro; I am just another crazy fan girl of Tsukimori Len!

Bouncy Balls and Ice Chunks

Seiso Academy: Welcome to Del Oro High School!

Kahoko smiled as she read the sign being enthusiastically held by a group of laughing students. She leaned over towards Shouko, who was glancing out through a window on the other side of the van, and pointed towards the sign. Shouko gave Kahoko a shy grin.

"Aren't you just so excited?" Kazuki exclaimed. Ever since they had arrived at the airport and gotten into the van, Kazuki had practically been bouncing off his seat in excitement. "I hope I get along with my host student and his family! Do you think I will? Do you think they'll like me?" He looked slightly worried.

Azuma laughed. "You'll do fine Kazuki."

"Seriously, you get along with everyone," Ryo said. He shot a sideways glance towards Len. "It's that guy who should be worried."

Len stared at Ryo. "Why should I be worried? We're simply here for a cultural musical exchange. I'm quite confident I can handle it."

The two guys glared at each other as the van came to a halt. Kanazawa turned to face the students from his passenger seat. "Alright: grab your bags from the back and follow the Del Oro students. They're going to take you into their band room where we'll get further instructions."

Azuma slid the van door open and they all piled out. Ryo opened the back and began pulling out bags. "Here, this one's Shouko's. This one's Kazuki's. Here's Keiichi's. Azuma's. Kahoko's. And … Len's …"

Kahoko swung her bag over her shoulder and made her way towards the Del Oro students.

"Kahoko?" a girl asked. "You're Kahoko, right? I'm Jennifer! I'm the student who's hosting you! Welcome to California! It's so great to meet you in person! E-mails are only good for so much!" She gave her a hug.

Kahoko was a bit surprised at the sudden intimateness. Perhaps that was just the American way. She smiled and prayed her English would sound okay. "Hello Jennifer! It's nice to finally see you!"

Jennifer grabbed Kahoko's carry-on luggage. "How was your flight?"

"It was fine. I slept most of the time," she admitted.

Jennifer motioned to some of the school buildings. "What do you think of Del Oro?"

"It's really different then Seiso," Kahoko said, looking around. "You only have one-story classrooms, correct? We have multiple stories and," she glanced towards the roof, "we're able to practice and hang out on the roof. I don't think you can do that on your roofs."

"You can practice on the roof?" Jennifer asked in disbelief. "That's so awesome! I can't even imagine being able to go up to the rooftop." She glanced toward the rest of the Seiso students. "Let me guess: the green-haired guy bouncing all over the place is the trumpet player, right?"

"Yeah, that's Hihara Kazuki, well, Kazuki Hihara if we go by the American way of saying names. He's a third year trumpet player."

"Hey Alexis," Jennifer called to the girl standing next to her. "That bouncy green-haired guy is a trumpet player like us!"

"WHAT?? A trumpet player??" Alexis cried out. She ran over and gave Kazuki a giant hug. "Trumpet players rock! I'm a trumpet player too!"

A faint blush spread across Kazuki's face.

"Is he going to be okay?" Jennifer asked. "Are we overwhelming you guys by all these displays of affection?"

"It is different from what we're used to," Kahoko admitted. "But it's fine. Kazuki's a really fun guy so he probably doesn't mind much."

"Oh my god," Jennifer said suddenly. "Who is the blue-haired guy?"

"Len Tsukimori?" Kahoko asked. She felt a slight pang of jealousy. Why was Jennifer interested in Len?

"Len? Is that his name? Oh man, he is fine!" Jennifer breathed. Then she shook her head. "Let's get to the band room, shall we?"

The band room impressed Kahoko.

"Alright," Jennifer said. "Let's introduce everyone." She motioned towards the Del Oro students behind her. "Actually, every host student is a trumpet player," she grinned. "This is Ian, he's the trumpet section leader." She motioned toward a tall brown-haired guy.

"Ian! You're my host student!" Hihara exclaimed! The two guys shook hands. "It's great to meet you! How long have you played trumpet? Do you have any siblings? How about pets? Do you have a dog? What's your house like? Do—" Azuma cut him off.

"Calm down Kazuki. Give Ian some space to breathe," he chided gently.

Kazuki ducked his head in embarrassment. "Ahhh. Sorry 'bout that. I get excited real easy."

Ian laughed. "No problem. You remind me of Alexis." He jerked his head in Alexis' direction. "Don't ever make this one laugh because then she'll never stop."

"What?! I can stop!" she protested, bouncing up and down. "And I'm hosting Keiichi!"

"Playground," Keiichi mumbled, sticking out his hand. She reminded him of a ball being bounced by small children at a park. He wondered if she ever hurt herself from bouncing too much. Did she run into things when her bouncing got out of control?

Alexis started laughing hysterically. The rest of the Del Oro students groaned.

"Oh god," Ian complained. "Look what you've done! Now she's going to keep laughing for days!"

"Small children … bouncing balls … green grass …" Keiichi trailed off.

The Del Oro students stared at Keiichi.

"Is it just because of the flight, or is he always like this?" Ian asked.

"He's always like this," Kahoko confirmed. She was really starting to like the Del Oro students. Alexis reminded her of Kazuki. And Jennifer seemed really nice. She got the feeling they were going to be up all night talking.

Alexis gave a particularly high-pitched burst of laughter.

Kahoko noticed Len wince. She smiled to herself. This trip was going to be good for him.

"This is Brandon and his sister Jen," Jennifer continued.

"My full name is Jennifer, but it gets too confusing with two Jennifers in one section so I go by Jen while she goes by Jennifer," Jen explained.

"We have Shouko and Azuma," Brandon continued.

Azuma and Brandon shook hands. "Nice to meet you."

Shouko gave a small smile.

"This is Alex," Jennifer said, introducing the guy on her right. He had the goofiest looking hair Kahoko had ever seen. It was shoulder length and seemed to kind of float away from his head. "He's practically my brother."

"Hey," said Alex. "I believe I am hosting Ryotaro."

They shook hands.

"Pirates or ninjas?" Alex asked him.

"Uh, what?" Ryo said, looking slightly confused.

"Who would win in a fight between a pirate and ninja?"

Ryo looked a little skeptical. "A ninja?"

"Good answer," Alex said. He looked at Jennifer and grinned. "Green hair and a ninja lover. I like him already."

"Moving on," Jennifer said, returning Alex's grin while trying to ignore the sound of the squealing laughter from behind her, which had dropped an octave in pitch (How does Alexis do that? Kahoko wondered). "This is Scott."

"Yo," said Scott. "I have Len."

The two guys shook hands.

Alexis stared at Len's hair, her laughter all of a sudden gone. "Is that …your natural hair color?" she asked in awe. "That's amazing! Do you wear clothes that match your hair? Are most of your clothes blue? You know what'd be cool? If your eyes were blue too! Then your clothes could accent your hair and eyes! Oh! And do you like blues music? Since you seem so blue? Get it? Blues? Blue? Oh man I love this guy!"

Len gave Alexis a freezing look that turned all the water in a five-mile radius into solid chunks of ice. Kahoko struggled to stifle her laughter and noticed Azuma doing the same. Kazuki was practically rolling around on the floor clutching at his sides, heaving with barely muffled laughter. Ryo let out a snigger.

"Yes, it's my natural hair color," Len replied with a glare.

The glare was wasted on Alexis.

"Your hair too," she said, looking at Azuma. "Is that your natural color? Why is your hair so long anyways? Is that popular in Japan? Do the girls really go for hair that long? I've never a guy with such long hair. Do you ever get mistaken for a girl? Have you ever gotten gum stuck in it? Do you ever braid it? Do you have a sister? Is her hair longer or shorter than yours?"

Kahoko froze. Was Azuma going to unleash his true personality on this girl?

Azuma gave a slight smile. "My hair color is natural."

"Band room tour time," Jennifer announced, changing the subject.

Kahoko thought that was a good idea.

Jennifer motioned towards a set of doors on the wall. "This is what my teacher calls the backdoor, but which everyone uses as the front door."

"To the right of the 'backdoor' is the smallest practice room. It's almost a completely silent room, but not quite," Scott explained. "On a different note, we once tried to fit the entire trumpet section inside it."

"Did it work?" Kazuki asked, fascinated.

"Nope," Ian replied. "It was a total disaster."

"But it was fun!" Scott added, smirking. "We all crammed inside and Ian 'accidentally' got—"

"To the left of the 'backdoor' are some instrument lockers. They're the ones used by the brass instruments," Ian continued, interrupting whatever Scott was going to say.

Kahoko made a mental note to ask Jennifer about it later.

"The biggest ones are for the trombones, baritones, mellophones, and French horns. The smallest ones are for the trumpets," Jen explained.

She opened up a few trumpet lockers. "On the outside the lockers may look neat and clean, but behold the truth! We decorate the insides and store as much extra junk in them as possible."

Ryo and Shouko peered inside for a closer look.

"Nice," Ryo said. "The pictures and drawing are a good touch, but what's with the name tags?"

"Those are from various events we host at school," Alex explained. "We're all a bunch of pack-rats: we save everything!"

"Next to the brass lockers is another practice room. It's another one of those rooms that's almost soundproof," Brandon said. "This is the room where we practice together as a full trumpet section."

Azuma smiled. "It seems to fit everyone better then the smaller one."

"True story," Ian agreed, making Kahoko wonder about what happened to him in the smallest practice room.

"On the back wall are a few closets. The closest nearest to the practice room is the guard locker," Alexis explained.

"Guard?" Kazuki asked curiously.

"Color guard," Alex elaborated. "They're the ones who toss and spin flags, rifles, and sabres. You'll see tomorrow at practice."

"The other cabinets are for the percussion keyboards," Ian said. "They store the drum set as well."

"The room behind this huge mirror," Jennifer said, motioning towards the other wall, "Is another room for instrument lockers. These lockers house the woodwind instruments. Next to the lockers are some shelves that hold the drums used for marching: snares, tenors, and basses. There's also a bunch of shelves for random storage."

"Random storage?"

"You know: mutes, paperwork, office supplies, chipmunks, small children …" Scott's voice trailed off. "The usual."

Shouko looked beyond confused.

"He's just kidding," Kahoko whispered to her.

"Next we have the recording room," Brandon announced. "This is a fully sound-proof room. It's used to … well … make music recordings. And the clarinets usually use it to practice as a section."

"What are the music recordings for?" Len asked.

"We make music recordings of band students for when they need to send in recordings to try out for statewide music groups," Ian explained.

Len nodded his head in understanding.

"Finally, this is the teacher's office," Jen said. "I would advise you to steer clear of it. Our messy lockers have nothing on that office. Nothing."

Kohoko took a quick peek inside. It looked like a small natural disaster had occurred within the last few days.

"And that's our band room," Jennifer said. "Hope you guys like it!"

"It's a very nice room," Azuma said. "It's clean and very well organized."

"You mentioned keyboards," Ryo said, "but do you have a piano?"

Scott snorted. "We have one in storage, but I don't know why we still have it. Our teacher keeps saying he's going to get rid of it, but he never does. If you want a real piano, I suggest using the choir's. It's relatively new and a heck of a lot better then our lousy excuse for a piano."

Kanazawa and the Del Oro teacher came out of the office.

"Welcome to Del Oro," the Del Oro teacher said. "My name is Mr. Edwards and I'm the band teacher here."

"I'm Mr. Kanazawa," Kanazawa said to the Del Oro group. "Thank you for having me and my troublesome students."

Mr. Kanazawa? Kahoko let the word play about in her mouth. It sounded weird and felt strange on her tongue.

"Well, you guys are free to go," Kanazawa said to his students. "Be nice to your host family and I'll see you tomorrow. And remember: you don't need your instruments until Tuesday!"

With a wave, Edwards and Kanazawa left.

"Are you guys tired? Do you want to go to your houses?" Ian asked. "Or do you want to go hang out somewhere? We could go get food or something."

At the sound of food Kazuki's ears perked up.

"I would prefer to—" Len's statement was cut off by Ryo.

"We would love to hang out. Most of us slept the whole time on the plane anyway," Ryo said.

"I know where to go!" Alexis exclaimed. "Let's go to the Wild Chicken!"

"The Wild Chicken?" Kahoko asked.

"It's a coffee and sweet shop," Jennifer explained. "It's really good and not that expensive."

"Sounds wonderful," said Azuma. "Shall we?"

And so ends my first part of the story! How was it? Do you want more? Hope you enjoyed it and please tell me what you think! I'm not sure if I put in enough of the Seiso students' thoughts and feelings, but don't worry! They'll be more of their opinions and feelings next time!