Center Stage - Chapter 28

Memorial day rolled around and it was time for the parade I’d agreed to be in. They’d put me smack in the middle of the admittedly small parade, between the high school marching band and a tractor pulling a trailer full of 4H kids and a few of their smaller animals.

I was in the mayor’s convertible sitting next to him, which shouldn’t have surprised me. He was all about the self-publicity and he seemed determined to try and find a way to draft off of quasi-celebrity, even a little if only a little bit. Not that I begrudged him. The town had started to get inundated with people coming through trying to find me that Sheriff Gibbs had to hire another deputy. And they’d always been incredibly supportive.

They eve set up the centra gazebo in the park with a picture of me and the band at the blue ridge and stuff from our songs, making it kind of the focal point for the people visiting town. I wasn’t sure how he was going to turn that into a way to make money for the town, but knowing him, I was positive he had a plan for it.

It was embarrassing though and didn’t help with how alienated I felt from the kids at school. I avoided it every time I have to be near the park. Unfortunately Kat thought it was hilarious when she saw it last time she came home and demanded I go see what she insisted on calling my shrine. I remember my ears burning as I swear people were watching me look at basically a tribute to myself and probably thinking how much of a narcissist I was.

So now I was sitting next to him on the back of his convertible, basically on the trunk with my feet on the back seat, waving and making him look good. It had taken us a bit to get going because Jean had insisted she drive and Mana ride up front, but the mayor had wanted his assistant to drive and did not like the idea of someone like Mana sitting in the car, drawing attention. Since there was no way Jean was going to let me go off on this parade alone, we settled on her riding shotgun and Manna kind of following along near the 4h trailer.

I’d been worried about the parade exactly because of that. The idea of people from town, who I knew really well, seeing me sitting up on the car like I was important or whatever, it was also pretty embarrassing. Instead, the town was packed with people from all over the area, some as far as knoxville. THere were even people who’d come in from other parts of the country, I guess to hear the concert I was going to put on at the end of the parade route. Strangers outnumbered people who lived here four to one.

A bunch held up signs with my name on it and were shouting for me. It was flattering, but it didn’t help with my embarrassment toward people I’d have to see every day. Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear people from Wellsville glaring at me.

We were just passing weaver square and an entire group yelled out my name at the same time, causing me to turn and look at them.

Instead of a group of fans, which I’d seen a lot of so far, it was all my friends from lunch. They had very makshift signs, mostly of cut up pieces of boxes from one of the fast food places, but their signs were a lot less flattering. “Charlie stole my puppy” and “Nelson kicks babies” were my two favorite. They clearly thought it was hilarious, because they as soon as I looked over to them and they saw from my facial expression that I’d read their signs, they burst into laughter, practically falling over each other.

“Looking good, superstar!” Peyton yelled, which caused the rest of them to shout at me.

The mayor looked a little horrified that someone was sullying his great day and even the people around them were looking at them like they were crazy, but I liked it. I dropped my head and pretended to be offended, but i was smiling. It made everything seem a little less serious, which is exactly what I needed.

It got easier after that as we swung past the Blue Ridge and made our way back into town for the second pass of Main Street. Chef had everyone out front yelling and waving at us, and the place was packed already. Actually, all the places at Weaver Square were also packed, so maybe the Mayor’s plan to use me to help the town make money was working.

We’d just turned back onto Main Street when a sudden commotion erupted. A guy, maybe in his early twenties, burst from the crowd, sprinting toward the car with something in his hand. Before I could fully process what was happening, Jean was in motion. She vaulted over the car door, intercepting the guy mid-stride, full-on tackling him, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the ground.

People screamed, I guess thinking there was a gun, which is clearly what Jean thought, and started to scatter in all directions. Except, I could see what was in his hand now.

“Wait…” I yelled, jumping out of the car.

“Get back in the car, Charlie!” Jean barked, looking over her shoulder at me furiously as she rolled the guy onto his stomach and yanked his arm hard behind him.

“He’s not armed! It’s just a marker!” I said, ignoring her and running over to them.

The guy on the ground, face pressed into the pavement, managed to turn his head. “I just wanted an autograph, man! On my shirt!”

Sheriff Gibbs came running up, out of breath. “Is everything okay?”

“False alarm,” I said quickly. “It’s okay, he’s a fan.”

Jean reluctantly eased up and got off him but stayed between us as Sheriff Gibbs helped him to his feet. The fan looked shell-shocked.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, feeling horrible. “We’ve had some threats lately, and when you came running out of the crowd like that...”

“No, no, I get it,” the guy said, rubbing his arm. “Stupid of me. I just got excited, y’know?”

I nodded, then turned to Jean. “Can I sign his shirt?”

She gave a curt nod, but her eyes never left the fan.

I took his marker and signed his wrinkled and kind of dirty t-shirt.

“There you go, man. Sorry again about the tackle.”

“Are you kidding? Wait ‘til I tell people Charlie Nelson’s bodyguard took me down! Best day ever!”

Sheriff Gibbs put a hand on the guy’s shoulder. “Come on, son. Let’s have a chat about parade etiquette.”

As they walked away, I climbed back into the car. The mayor looked a little pale.

“Jean, that was incredible,” I said. “I’ve never seen anyone move so fast.”

She whirled on me. “What part of ‘get back in the car’ did you not understand?”

I blinked, taken aback by her intensity. “I- I saw he wasn’t armed…”

“And what if you’d been wrong?” she snapped. “I can’t protect you from threats if you don’t listen to me, Charlie. Next time you ignore my instructions, you’d better start looking for a new bodyguard. I won’t protect someone who doesn’t follow the rules.”

“You’re right,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry, Jean. It won’t happen again.”

She gave a sharp nod. “See that it doesn’t.”

The parade kind of died out at that point, but we were almost to where they set up the stage and most of that crowd hadn’t seen the commotion, so we headed up to where Lyla and Seth were already set up.

At least the concert came off well.

***

There was only one week of my senior year left, with graduation the following week, and I was missing one of the days to be back in LA. I’d insisted that it be only for the day, which was kind of unfair to Lyla and Seth who would have otherwise gotten to spend a few days in LA on the studio’s dime.

I figured we’d make other trips out here though, so I’d make it up to them. There were just a bunch of end-of-the-year senior traditions happening, including prom on Friday night, that I really didn’t want to miss. Things were so much different from the last time I’d been to a prom in the school, and I was really looking forward to it. Kat had even managed to talk her coach into missing two days of practice so she could drive down and go with me.

Besides, we were in LA to talk to Hal about the summer tour, which was finally done being arranged, which would mean a whole lot of travel for Lyla and Seth, which I hoped would make it up to them a little bit.

They’d been here before, for the finale of the show, but this was the first time they’d been into a record studio building, and they were both in a little awe. They were staring wide-eyed, looking at the gold records of the various artists under the ARC label, and the signed headshots and posters. While it was very impressive, I’d actually liked that it was much more understated and simple than GLR, which had thrown everything in your face.

I wondered if I could get them in to see that without making it weird with Phoenix and the other people I knew I’d pissed off by declining.

Probably not.

Hal was back in the same conference room he’d been in for our conference negotiations, although without the wall of lawyers that he’d had then. This time there were only two people I didn’t know.

“Good. Good. You made it. Lyla. Seth. It’s good to see you both,” he said, shaking everyone’s hands. “This is Eleanor Voss, who will be managing the tour, and Levi Hale, who will be in charge of tour production.”

More handshakes all around.

“So, let’s talk about this tour. We’ve worked out most of the details with Warren already, but I wanted to get your sign off on the overall schedule and plan.”

I was used to Warren just telling me where we were playing and I showed up, and really didn’t have any say in where we played. I didn’t know if it was because this was just bigger or Warren had asked for this, but it was a new experience to be sure.

“Sure,” I said. “It’s still set for just after the Olympics, right?”

“Yes. Your first tour date will be three days after the closing ceremony and we’ll go for four weeks, although we are aware you will have school starting that fourth week, so we will only do weekend shows for the closing week.”

“I... appreciate that,” I said, trying to think through what I’d seen in the UNC welcome package. “Even with that week before, there are some coming-into-school events that it will conflict with. It sounds like a really tight schedule.”

“We know that,” Warren said. “But this is about as short as a tour of this level can be, and maybe even be too short, but we know these things usually take a full year to prep for properly, so we were always going to play on a short schedule. I have talked to the university and you are able to skip those events, they’re not happy about it, but I get the feeling they think you doing something that will ultimately help the school. They did ask that we mention you’d be starting at UNC if possible, but I told them that might not be possible and didn’t promise anything.”

I wasn’t sure I was happy Warren was contacting the school on my behalf, but I guess that’s what I had people for and this tour was a signature part of the beginning of my contract with ARC. I needed to make this work so if I had to give up part of my college experience, then that was what I was going to have to do.

“Okay. Whatever you guys think.”

“Good,” Hal said. “Good. So we’re looking at eight cities over the four weeks. Naturally, the last week is one city, so early on we’ll be doing five cities in fourteen days, so it will be a busy schedule for the first half of the tour. I know you’re used to this from your time on the Stage Tour, but for the rest, I want you to be prepared for a very different experience. We’re going to be looking at much bigger venues, with much more complex setups. You’re not going to be able to just arrive at a venue, play and leave the same night. There will be on-stage sound check rehearsals the day before at the minimum to test the sound, lighting setup, and a myriad of other things.”

Lyla and Seth exchanged a look, I think realizing this was really real now.

“What are the eight cities we’ll be doing?” I asked.

“New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Houston.”

“That is really close to the list we played for the Stage Tour,” I pointed out.

“You’ll find that list is pretty constant for the continental US. If it was a longer tour, there would be some more locations, but those tend to cover large geographic areas or large populations so people have the options to travel to a concert. You’re going to find, now that you’re playing large venues, that you’re going to play a lot of the same places over and over. Preferably, we’d like to spread it out more and get places like Memphis, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and the places like that, but this is a short tour. We’ll look at doing another short tour around Christmas where we will try to do the big three and then look at alternate but geographically similar cities. And of course the full summer long tour next year.”

“I’m assuming it’s the same kind of venues I played for the Stage Tour?”

“Mostly, yes. Except New York. For that, you’ll be playing Madison Square Garden.”

“What? Really?”

I didn’t think Madison Square Garden wouldn’t be the largest venue I’d played, since I believe the Hollywood Bowl sat a few more people, but as prestigious locations go, there were almost none as impressive.

“Yes,” Eleanor said. “It will, in fact, be the very first stop of the tour. We’ll release the album just before you head to the Olympics to give it two weeks to pick up word of mouth, and then this will be your big moment to step out on the stage other greats have been on, and announcing yourself as the next big thing in music.”

That seemed a little hyperbolic to me. Yeah, I was picking up steam and a lot of notoriety, but I didn’t love the idea of announcing myself as the next anything. If I got big, great, but I wasn’t going to go out there and tell everyone how great I was.

I think Warren saw my expression because he said, “We’re only saying that internally. Externally everything will be framed as your album release, with all the expected fanfare for a larger artist, which we believe by the time of the concert, your album will have solidified you as.”

“Okay,” I said, skeptically.

My EP had done well, but an album and an EP were different things entirely and one or two trending songs did not solidify me as anything.

“To make this work though, we’re—” Hal cleared his throat, his expression turning a bit more serious. “There’s one more thing, Charlie. We’re going to need you to be available during the Olympics for some call-in spots after the album releases and leading up to the tour.”

“We talked about this,” I said, looking to Warren.

I’d made it crystal clear my priority was Kat when I was there.

“We’re not asking you to interrupt competition times, of course,” Hal said. “But we need to promote both the album and the tour. You don’t have to leave Tokyo and come back, just call in for some radio spots, maybe a few video calls for morning shows. That sort of thing.”

“The time difference is pretty big.”

“I know that, but you’re a professional now, Charlie,” Hal said in a voice my teachers had used before when I wasn’t living up to expectations. “Sometimes you’re going to have to work long days or lose sleep or do things you’d rather not. It’s the nature of the business. Music is fun and the lifestyle can be intoxicating, but don’t make the mistake many who’ve come before you have. This is a business, which means treating it like one and doing the work that needs to be done.”

“Okay,” I said, trying not to sound too much like a chastised teenager.

“Good,” he said, giving me another look I’d seen on my teachers’ faces. “I’ll get with Warren and your Ms. Chandler and get a schedule put together for you. Now, about merchandise. ARC will be taking over that aspect fully. We’ll handle production, design, and sales.”

I nodded, having expected this. It had been fun to produce our own merch, but the money we made on that paled in comparison to our deal with ARC. Besides, they were handling all the outlay and merch sales pooled into our cut of our share of touring revenue, so I wasn’t too bothered by it.

It did make me think of something else, though.

“What about opening acts?” I asked, trying to think through all the details.

“We’ve got some ideas in the works,” Eleanor replied. “Nothing set in stone yet, but we’re looking at up-and-coming acts that’ll complement your style without overshadowing you.”

“Actually, there are some people I’d like to consider. Smaller artists who I think are worth the shot.”

“We, of course, value your opinion, Charlie,” Eleanor said. “There is, however, a lot that goes into picking openers. While we appreciate your input, Charlie, there’s a lot that goes into picking openers. We need to consider marketability, tour experience, demographic appeal…”

“I get that,” I said, cutting her off. “But there’s one person in particular I want to have one of the opening spots for the whole tour.”

Warren shot me a questioning look. I hadn’t discussed this with him, but it felt right.

“Who did you have in mind?” Hal asked, his tone neutral.

I took a breath. “Cole Lawson.”

“Charlie, I get that he’s your friend, but…” Warren started to say.

“Look, I know he’s not the most obvious choice, but hear me out. Cole’s got serious talent, and our styles actually complement each other pretty well. We played a show in my hometown, and the people ate it up, both our duet and him playing alone.”

“Small town audiences are one thing…” Eleanor said.

“This is important to me,” I said firmly, looking directly at Hal. “Cole deserves a break, just like I deserved one when. I want him to open for us the entire tour.”

I didn’t blink or look away. I wasn’t the kid playing small bars anymore. My EP stayed number one for almost three weeks and was still in the top ten. I was making a lot of money for ARC, and I’d be making more once the tour and album started. Nothing in the contract said I had to use the openers they picked, and I was going to put my foot down about this.

“Alright, Charlie. We’ll make it work,” Hal said.

Eleanor started to protest, but Hal held up a hand to silence her.

“This isn’t out of the bounds of what we can do. If he wants to choose one of his openers, we can work with that.”

“Thank you, Hal. I really appreciate this.”

I couldn’t wait to call Cole and tell him.

***

School was over. I’d made it. I promised mom I would finish, and I’d managed to do it. It had been way harder than I thought it would be, but the important thing was I’d made it.

Everyone was gathered out front, just talking and saying goodbye. Jean was not pleased.

“There are a lot of people here,” she whispered angrily, grabbing my arm and pulling me off to one side.

“I know that, they’re my classmates.”

“You realize that one of these classmates could be the person who threatened you, right? They knew details from inside the school.”

“Yes, which is why I have a badass bodyguard following me around,” I said, and then held up my hands. “I’m not saying I’m ignoring your order, but I’d like to be able to see my friends on the last day of school before we all head off in our own directions. If you tell me I can’t, I’ll follow you, but I’d do it unhappily, because this is important to me.”

I put the ball in her court, keeping my face neutral but not turning away from her until she made a decision.

“Fine, but you’re to stay next to me the whole time. Never more than an arm’s length away.”

I gave her a salute which earned me an eye roll, and went around talking to my friends. Mostly it was my lunch friends, and we just made sure we had each other’s phone numbers, although both Warren and Mr. Eaves had insisted that I switch to a new number and give that only to my closest friends and family, and specifically said not to give it to school friends. I trusted them, but my team thought it was a liability, especially as my career blew up. It was the same reason they’d had to change Mrs. Philips’ number, because people had started calling her as well.

I was also able to say goodbye to Mr. French. I hadn’t been able to spend as much time with him this year outside of choir, but he was still a big reason I’d managed to get as far as I had. I made sure he had my actual phone number, and knew that I would always be available if he needed me.

People were starting to disperse and I could see Jean ease up a bit.

“Wait, I need to go to the office. There’s something I have to do,” I said as she started to lead us back toward the car.

She seemed like she wanted to say no, but she sighed and directed me back into the school instead. We entered the main office, where Mrs. Morgan sat at her desk, organizing end-of-year paperwork.

“Can I help you, Charlie?”

“Actually, Mrs. Morgan, I was hoping to speak with Dr. Wallace for a moment. Is he available?”

“Yes, he’s in his office,” she said, giving Jean a look.

The school knew my bodyguards were around, but they had not been coming into the school, probably because they were armed. Clearly, Mrs. Morgan was not thrilled to have her inside the building, but I guess because it was the last day, she wasn’t going to say anything.

“Yes, he’s in his office. Go on back.”

I turned to Jean. “I’ll just be a minute.”

She frowned a bit, but I was pretty sure that was mostly because I was messing up her schedule. She was painfully type A, and hated things being different than she planned.

I made my way back into the office for what was probably the final time and knocked on Dr. Wallace’s door.

“Come in,” came a muffled voice from the other side.

As I entered, he looked up from his desk, a smile spreading across his face.

“Charlie, what a pleasant surprise. How can I help you?”

“I just wanted to come by and say thank you for everything. The school’s been so flexible this year, and it’s made such a difference. I know I haven’t been the easiest student to deal with.”

“Charlie, after what you’ve been through with this school district, it’s the least we could do. You’ve shown a real maturity this year, asking for help when you needed it and dealt with a very difficult schedule. I’m proud of how you’ve handled everything.”

“Still, I appreciate it. It’s made this year so much better than the last two.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that.” He paused, seeming to consider something. “You know, I’m glad you stopped by. I was planning to call you this week.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I’d like you to give a speech at graduation.”

“Isn’t that usually for the top two students?”

“Typically, yes. And both the valedictorian and salutatorian will give speeches too. But Charlie, let’s be honest … you’re the most famous person this town is ever going to have. It only makes sense for you to speak as well.”

“I don’t know, Dr. Wallace. I wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”

“You wouldn’t be. Look, I’d really appreciate it if you’d consider it.”

Part of me wanted to say no, but I had just said how much I appreciated everything they’d done for me.

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Excellent! I’ll have Mrs. Morgan email you the details.”

As I turned to leave, Dr. Wallace called out, “And Charlie? I’ll be watching your career with great interest. You can bet I’ll be rooting for you every step of the way.”

I grinned. “Thanks, Dr. Wallace. For everything.”

I came out of the office and passed Mrs. Moran’s desk, not getting a hall pass for the first time in a year.

“All set, Charlie?” she asked, looking up from her desk.

“Yeah, just saying goodbye.”

She gave me a smile, the first one I’d ever seen from her and said, “Well, I wish you all the best. You know, despite all the trouble you’ve caused, I always liked you.”

“I... thanks, Mrs. Morgan.”

She waved me off, already turning back to her work. “Go on now, before I change my mind.”

I chuckled. I would’ve never thought two years ago I’d be leaving this place with fond memories.

But here we were.