WENDELL - For East Wake High School band members Monique Elliott and Eddie Bernabe the attraction of performing with a marching band is all about music.

"It has different styles and tells a story," says Elliott, a flutist. She says the band's main musical number "Night Watch" suggests birds watching over people which is just what the marching band portrays with its color guard and its formations.

Bernabe says he'll likely continue playing the saxophone after he graduates from high school because it's just plain fun.

"Every one of these kids loves it," says band parent Kim Hatcher who brings the water cooler to the twice weekly three hour practices on the baseball field.

They love it so much that during the month of October, the students played in four competitions, every weekend except the weekend scheduled for S.A.T. testing. The latest was a Cary Band Days Saturday where the band came in second place in its division.

At most of the festivals, they have performed well. They were first place in their division at Clinton High School, a competition they attended after marching in the Wendell Harvest Festival parade Oct. 4. They earned first place at Greene Central High School in Snow Hill.

But marching instructor Dewayne Barnes says winning's not what it's all about at East Wake, and that's why he just loves these kids.

"I'm just really attached to East Wake," says Barnes who has worked with the students there for 15 years. "They want to learn this. They want to experience this. It's not about winning a plastic trophy."

At the helm of this group is Mark Gloden, the band director. He's new to East Wake, dusting off 25 years of elementary school band to work with high schoolers. He loves watching the progress they make from week to week - from that first week the show came together last summer at the band camp the school held at Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount to the recent maneuvers the band made last Wednesday.

Gloden says the 50 students who make up the band can expect to grow by about 30 percent next year. He's recruiting and also expects a big batch of band students from the Wendell Middle School band.

The East Wake High School band is on its way back after dwindling with the creation of the four schools at the high school, says Hatcher. She says students at first were confused about how to work band into schedules. But now, students from all four schools are represented in the band.

"It's all one big happy family," says Barnes.