Ashville High School Football: A Short Story

A big, yellow Calhoun County School bus pulled up at the back of Ashville High School, and a swarm of students in black bibbers and band shoes began to file off. They scrambled around searching for the trailer filled with all of their instruments, and once they retrieved their instruments, the parking lot came alive with music and a slur of conversations. I was one of twelve girls stowed away in the back of the bus. We were applying our performance make-up, touching up our hair, and making sure our uniforms were tied tight enough to stay in place as we danced around the football field later that night. Once we finished our pregame preparations, we retrieved our flags and props and joined the rest of the band to get ready to march into the

Things were definitely looking good for the Bearcats! We had just watched our quarterback throw the ball and complete a pass when all of a sudden, there was a loud BOOM! A huge spark of light fell from the lights on the home side, and pin points of light flooded the field. Then the stadium was cloaked with an all-consuming blackness. Screams bellowed from the entire stadium, and I grabbed my friend’s hand and sat down. No one knew what had happened. My initial thought was that the stadium was under attack. Of course, this was probably my first thought because it was the anniversary of the September 11th tourist attacks, but it was a terrifying thought nonetheless. I will never forget how scared I was when this happened.

Luckily, the blackout we experienced was the result of a blown transformer. The power company was not able to restore power that night. The football team had to return the following day to finish the game, and the Bearcats came home with a victory. Personally, I came home with a new perspective on how those innocent people who lost their lives 14 years ago must have felt as they realized they were under