It turned out, after a tater tot and taco-laden discussion in one of the less crumb-coated tables of South Quad, that Hal adhered the most to college rivalry sentiments than did anyone else in his social circle.\u00a0 Calling it a “social circle” included several caveats, of course, one of them being that Hal didn’t know half the people at the table beyond recognizing them as fellow band geeks, and another being that they were band geeks and therefore for the most part less adept at social interactions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I just don’t get what all the fuss is about.”\u00a0 Kendra, a dirty blonde alto horn, wrinkled her nose.\u00a0 “It’s so extra.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“That’s what makes it great!”\u00a0 Hal flung his arms outward melodramatically.\u00a0 “It’s pure adrenaline!\u00a0 Chaos!\u00a0 Acrimony!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Eh….”\u00a0 The lukewarm counter came from Millicent, a sophomore and fellow cymbal reserve with a lavender streak in her hair and a tendency to brood.\u00a0 She was the one person at the table Hal somewhat knew.\u00a0 “Pretty overkill, if you ask me.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Screaming at the refs isn’t really my idea of fun,” Kendra supplemented.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“We scream at the refs from anger, not because it’s fun.\u00a0 The\u00a0fun\u00a0<\/em>part is watching the other team lose!”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “I thought it was about watching our team win.”\u00a0 Millicent’s voice was a deadpan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Well, that, too.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kendra mouthed something to Millicent that looked like the word\u00a0boys<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Well, as much as I love watching other teams fail spectacularly,” –this from a sophomore trumpet named Ryker– “I usually get more hyped when we win.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mildly incredulous that his tablemates did not exhibit an enthusiasm unknown to mankind, Hal turned to the fifth and final band geek munching away on tater tots, a freshman pic named Aaron.\u00a0 He was a snarky lad prone to, according to his numerous anecdotes, butting heads with substitute teachers who mispronounced his name.\u00a0 He’d often be reamed for messing up and then wind up outside the principal’s office twiddling his thumbs and wondering if the latest band video had caught him missing his dot.\u00a0 Hal figured he was the type to revel in both the wins of the Wolverines and the losses of their sworn enemies, but he wasn’t so sure at this point.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Oh, me?”\u00a0 Aaron looked up from his tater tots.\u00a0 “I kinda agree with Kendra and Ryker.\u00a0 I wouldn’t go so far as to call screaming at refs\u00a0fun,<\/em> but I do love me a good football game.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “I never said screaming at refs was fun.\u00a0 I said the spirit of college football was fun.”\u00a0 Hal defensively chowed down on his taco, then contemptibly popped a tater tot into his mouth while he was still chewing.\u00a0 “Like the rivalry.\u00a0 Not getting shorted by refs.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Didn’t they apologize–?”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hal waved his hand dismissively.\u00a0 “Not good enough.\u00a0 You see,\u00a0they done messed up, A–Aaron!<\/em>”\u00a0 He was interrupted as Aaron yeeted a tater tot at his head.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Alright, that’s it.”\u00a0 Millicent stood, surly, and scooped up her empty plate.\u00a0 “I’m outta here.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “What would you do that for, bro!?”\u00a0 Hal gesticulated helplessly at the immaculate tater tot now marred by the filth of the cafeteria floor.\u00a0 “Why would you waste a tater tot?\u00a0 They’re not just tater tots–they’re\u00a0most requested<\/em> tater tots!”\u00a0 Yet, as he spoke, he pumped the remainder of his taco into the air and launched it past Aaron’s shoulder.\u00a0 “As per the menu!”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Oh, it’s on,” Aaron returned, and seized his four remaining tater tots in his fist.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Author’s Note:\u00a0 Band geeks do not yeet food at each other in actuality.\u00a0 We’re more civilized than that.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It turned out, after a tater tot and taco-laden discussion in one of the less crumb-coated tables of South Quad, that Hal adhered the most to college rivalry sentiments than did anyone else in his social circle.\u00a0 Calling it a “social circle” included several caveats, of course, one of them being that Hal didn’t know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2243,"featured_media":17619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1221,1257,1752,1072,1771,420],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17984"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18040,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17984\/revisions\/18040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}