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Our teachers seriously had it in for us whilst we were in New York. Breakfast was at 8, after barely any sleep because we were excited.....and the heating was really, really noisy from about midnight onwards. Breakfast was not optional. At least one person from each room had to go down find out what was happening that morning/day and what time we actually needed to be semi-coherent for.

Muggins must seriously be my middle name, as every single morning I was sent down, not only to pick up the mornings details, but also to take Grace and Vicky "muffins in bed".

Today we were ordered downstairs in full uniform by 9oclock. We were walking to "Smokey Mary's" Church, near Times Square. NOTE: Smokey Mary's isn't as interesting as it sounds....the smoke is incense not cigarettes ;).

During the night there had been massive snowfall, much to the delight of the Band so during breakfast word was circulated to be down 15minutes early for a massive snowball fight, in the spectacular location that was the roof of the hotel.

The roof was 28 floors up and after floor 20 it was stairs all the way. Grace and I decided we wanted in, while Vicky stayed in the room, finishing her make-up or something. As we slowly emerged through the door onto the roof, panting heavily after the 8floor climb, we were forced back behind the door under a barrage of fire from the furs that had already got up there. All I managed to catch a glimpse of was the massive stockpile they had already created before we were forced to slam the door closed, screaming and giggling at the same time.

We waited for a minute or two, allowing a couple of other furs behind us to break out into the open before we dared again. I quickly made a break for it, cursing my ostentatious appearance, as the rainbows lost me my natural camouflage. I had nearly made it to a generator, which I was intending to use as a base when I felt myself falling forwards. I landed heavily, cushioned mostly by the snow, but there was a massive weight on top of me. I managed to roll over, squirming to remove the obstruction.

I shielded my eyes from the glare of the sun and looked into the chocolate eyes of Sam. I think my heart stopped beating, until I noticed the huge snowball clutched in his left paw, at which point it started up again, rising quickly to a running baseline in my chest. His ears pricked as he picked up on the sudden change in tempo and he grinned lazily as he threw the snowball and caught it in his hand. He leant down closer to my face, our muzzles almost touching, then his nose brushing mine. My heart stopped again as I started to lean in, when suddenly he pulled back and launched the snowball into my eyes!

A low growl escaped from my clenched jaw as I wiped the ice from my hands and looked over to where Sam was quite literally rolling in the snow laughing. I was picking up some snow to show him exactly why that snowball had been an extremely bad idea, when the door to the roof flung open. Furs everywhere froze, some in rather comical positions, half falling or mid-scream. The roof was deathly silent as Mr. R walked out of the stairway, steam almost visible from his ears. He didn't need to speak; we all knew we were in deep shit as we slowly and silently filed down the stairs. As soon as we were out of sight we started running for our rooms. Most of us were soaked and we changed as fast as was possible before pelting it to the lobby, only 10minutes later than we were supposed to be.

It was a much more subdued group that walked out of the lobby at 0915. Sam and a few of the other guys had been sent on ahead in a taxi, taking the larger, more cumbersome instruments with them, mine included. The group livened up as we ended up more spaced out and therefore more likely to be further from an irate teacher as we saw New York for the first time in the light.

The Church itself was colossal by English standards, but compared with the buildings around it was relatively small. There we dumped any instruments that people had been carrying in a room off the main church and followed a slightly mollified Mr. R out into the city for some retail therapy!

First stop was the Rockerfeller Centre. The teachers cleverly failed to mention the fact that the Rockerfeller Centre is incredibly expensive and offered very little for the tourist in us, but nonetheless we had 2hours to kill and we figured we might as well use it.

A few furs noticed the ice rink that was part of the level we were on (the upper basement), and actually got close to the front of the queue before Mr. B noticed what they were up to and hauled them back, glaring furiously. Not that this helped at all, as if you've ever seen a meerkat try to glare you'll completely understand. Most of them struggled to keep a straight face as Mr. B tried very hard to instil in them the importance of NOT running off into the sunset, but the second he was out of earshot, they collapsed into hysterics, followed closely by all of the furs who had been watching the exchange.

All too soon it was back into the snow for the walk back to the church. No one was particularly enamoured with the idea of doing a concert when we were so tired and generally fed up, so the journey back took a little bit longer. Along the way we got our 3rd major bollocking of the day as Mr. R didn't appreciate our snowball fight in the middle of Times Square.

When we finally got back to the church, it was a fast, silent set up as we got as much ready as possible whilst the mass was finishing just the other side of a wooden wall. Then it was time to go on. The concert band was doing a shortened set followed by a couple of songs by 4tissimo for this particular concert, with an audience number of 4. Unsurprisingly the concert was shit. As we walked of the stage we hugged each other as best we could, not expecting to leave the church in anything other than our instrument cases. However, Mr. B managed to shock us. We formed a semi circle around him in silence, ears flat and tails drooping. Then he started laughing. We looked at him, dumbfounded, unable to believe that this was our conductor, who had spent the entire concert glaring at us for not watching or coming in or keeping up with his baton or anything!

When he had calmed down, and wiped the tears from his eyes, he explained that from our faces he could tell that we knew we'd messed it up, and so he wasn't going to have a go. As long as the next concert went better he wasn't going to be fussed about this one. There weren't enough people in the audience to panic him or to spread the word that S. Peters School Concert Band were shite.

From the concert we were escorted back to the hotel, to change out of our uniform. We were only given 10minutes so there was no time for a foray to the roof, but we learnt when we got back downstairs that we were going to Macys! We had to push most of the guys out of the door as the girls bounced around, discussing how much money they should take and how worth it spending the rest of their money in one place on the second day was.

Macys itself was huge! So much better than Beatties or one of the "huge" department stores in England that masquerade in the big(ger) cities. The only downside was the expense. If we'd had 1000$ or more Macys would have been heaven on earth. With our tight budgets, some tighter than others granted, we could only marvel at the bags. And shoes. And clothes.

After spending a considerable amount of time in Macys, someone realised that we were meant to be going to Planet Hollywood for our evening meal. We quickly regrouped and quick-marched through the twilight to our destination.

Planet Hollywood was unlike anything I'd seen before. It had a huge gift shop as you walked in, sweeping round to a corridor of hand prints of famous faces including Will Smith, Bruce Willis and, to the delight of the younger, less educated girls, Robert Patterson.

The meal itself wasn't amazing. It was the same sort of thing we'd had the night before but the location itself was amazing. On every wall, platform, side, shelf and stage there was a different musical or film depicted, with props, costumes, and models of the characters. The sights went literally from a model of the Death Star being blown up, to the outfits Bella and Edward wore in Twilight, to models of the winged monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. There was something for everyone, and was a nerd's heaven. Sam for example was in his element, happily educating me on the more obscure models (to be frank, I didn't recognise the death star, I was simply taking pictures coz I liked the look of the ships flying round it, and I thought that Oscar at home would like them.)

We were sorry to leave the restaurant. Not only was there always something else that we could look at, gasp over or reach out to touch, then realise we couldn't pay for it when we broke it, and withdraw our paws again, but it was also a lot warmer than both outside and the hotel we were staying in.

We walked back to the hotel much faster than we had on the way back from the Church. The night was colder, and I personally had only worn a thin denim jacket that was soaked through from the previous voyage through NY. Sam came to my rescue once he caught me shivering, by giving me his spare hoody which, as he is way bigger than me, I snuggled into gratefully.

Finally we were back at the hotel. A whisper spread like wildfire through the band that there would be another war on the roof at 2200. I changed quickly, wanting to get there early so I could guarantee getting Sam back when he came through the door.

However someone had the same idea as me. I happily walked through the door, confident in the fact that I would be the only one up here. That was my first mistake of the evening. I was walking forwards to the generator I had tried to get to that morning, when I felt a smack in the back of my head. I stumbled forwards, scraping the snow out from the back of my neck, failing to stop it from trickling down my spine, making me shiver. I turned slowly, a low growl forming in my throat, but it stuck as I saw who it was.

Lindsey, the stoat who was happy dancing in immigration, was facing me. I snarled as another snowball smacked me in the face. That one was solid; catching me in the eye so hard I could tell there was going to be a purple bruise there when I woke up.

"What the fuck is your problem?" I growled at her, refusing to pick up any snow to retaliate but now on guard against any further attacks I was undoubtedly going to face.

"You are my problem bitch!" I heard from behind me. I spun round to face her, just in time to catch another ice ball, this time on my jaw line.

"What have I done to you?!" I said, now thoroughly confused. I started backing towards the door to attempt to escape the mad stoat but she had somehow managed to lock the door without me seeing.

"He's mine! You leave him alone. You know he only feels sorry for you, he doesn't actually like you" She sneered at me. I stopped wrestling with the door to turn and look at her for the first time since the snowball hit my eye.

"Who or what are you talking about babe, coz I have no idea" I managed to say, attempting to lift my eyebrow but wincing with the pain in my eye.

"You know who!"

"No, I really don't. You can either enlighten me and we can move on, preferably downstairs or you can not tell me and we can stand arguing until the rest of the band comes up for the snowball fight," I laid my ear against the door, and heard the quickly approaching footsteps and laughs of about 10 people, "Either way I wont be waiting long".

"Sam" She managed to spit out "I want you to stay away from him. I plan on getting with him during tour and I don't want you around hugging him and borrowing his clothes. Just leave him to someone he actually likes" She smiled, with a smug air at the last bit and started to walk towards me, intent on getting off the roof.

"Wait a sec, what are you on about; "Someone he actually likes"?" I questioned, grabbing her arm before she could leave

"Oh don't you know? He only talks to you because he feels sorry for you. You know because you're "Different" she said looking me up and down before flicking me away with her paw and leaving the roof.

I was frozen, mouth hanging open. I couldn't move. I didn't want to believe it, but what choice did I have. It was the same old story that I had heard from so many different furs over the years, but Sam was the last person I expected it from. I turned to go back downstairs, no longer in the mood for fun and games on the roof. As I opened the door, Sam barrelled through, his usual exuberant self knocking me over in the process. True to form he was instantly contrite, attempting to help me up, asking me of I was okay etc, but I no longer felt special in his arms. I brushed him off and ran downstairs; ignoring the angry glares of the furs I was pushing aside. I managed to get to my room before the floodgates opened and I collapsed onto my bed.