But he knows that on Jan. 1, 2008, he'll be marching with his old high school buddies down Colorado and Orange Grove boulevards in Pasadena, Calif.

That's the day the Broughton band will be in the 119th annual Rose Parade. The band is believed to be the first from Raleigh and the fifth from North Carolina to be in the parade.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Barnes said.

Only 15 high school and college bands are chosen each year to march among the rose-studded floats and high-stepping horses in the parade that precedes the Rose Bowl college football game.

The last North Carolina band to go was East Carteret High in 1990. The Cary High band has marched in the parade three times, most recently in 1984.

It's an honor, but it carries a price -- nearly $400,000 to send the 170-student band and a few like Jackson who will return for the show, Broughton band director Jeffery Richardson estimates.

Students recently sold more than $100,000 worth of citrus in their annual fundraiser, with the school keeping 30 percent of the receipts. But the band will need to have more fundraisers next year than usual. Each student's sales will go to his or her own account for the trip, and Richardson also hopes to drum up corporate sponsors whose donations will be distributed among everyone.

"I don't want anyone to not be able to go because they can't afford the trip," Richardson said.

Television experience

Barnes, 17, has some experience with high-profile marching at the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City, where he was featured on national television.

For freshman Garrett Bellamy, who has only gone as far as Greensboro with the band, the Rose Parade seems almost unreal.

"I'm excited I'll be able to tell people I was a part of something so big," he said. "And I'll get to be on TV."

Richardson is already planning the travel and practice schedule. He and other band directors in the 2008 parade will fly to California this week to stake out the route and activities.

He also has been inundated with gifts from travel companies eager to arrange the students' trip, including a dozen roses.

He said he expects the band will have to skip the Raleigh Christmas parade next year to practice, and will need to do special endurance-building drills for the 5.5-mile route. (The Raleigh parade route is 1.5 miles.)

The Rose Parade bands are chosen by a committee based on their musicianship, marching ability and showmanship.

Richardson secretly applied for the parade two years in a row without success. He wasn't going to apply for the 2008 parade, he said, until he got a call from a parade official in California urging him to enter again.

It was mid-October when he got the next call.

"When I heard that same voice, I started shaking," Richardson said.

Part of Broughton's success is circumstance. Parade officials are looking for smaller bands, Richardson said, as they move away from "megabands" of 400 or more students that are popular in states such as Texas.

The timing couldn't have been better for Richardson. He's retiring in 2008 after 30 years as Broughton's band director.

"That's it for me," he said. "It will be my swan song."