Dissonance - Chapter 30

The only really big problem with Homecoming was my schedule. The dance was Friday night after the football game and I had to be in Nashville by eight in the morning Saturday to set up. We went on at ten, but the event organizers ask for music groups to be there two hours early to check in, so they could move groups in and out quickly. It was almost a five-hour drive from Wellsville to Nashville, which meant we either needed to go up the day before, which Homecoming made impossible, or leave by around three in the morning. After five hours in the car driving in the pitch black with no sleep, we’d then have to get on stage and put on a show, which always required a lot of energy.

As setups go, that wasn’t great. I know if I was a professional, I would have apologized profusely to Sydney and nixed the idea of going to the dance. The problem was, I was also a kid in high school, at the beginning of a relationship with a girl I really liked, and I wanted to go. I knew the band, or at least Lyla, would work with me and agree to head out in the middle of the night, but their being exhausted was just as bad. This was a very big opportunity, and I didn’t want to blow it.

When I voiced my concerns to Sydney, help came through from an unlikely source. Sydney’s mother. Apparently, her mother was a huge Ronnie Ralston fan. Apparently tickets to this festival were both hard to get, and a lot more expensive than I thought. So, she asked if she took us up there if I could get her into the festival.

I knew I got to bring in people with me, and I’d never even gotten close to bringing enough to be a problem, so I called Warren and he gave me the thumbs up to bring four people with me, in addition to my band mates, the fourth being Cameron. he was still following us to performances and practices for his article, and I’d gotten the okay the previous weekend to bring him and Kat along. Warren had also set up a cheap hotel for us, so the band could at least go up the day before and be well rested.

I’m not sure how Sydney’s mother negotiated it, but she apparently convinced Sydney’s dad to not only let Sydney go with me, but that her mother would drive us to Nashville after the show. She’d even decided we’d leave just after the dance, which would get us into Nashville about three in the morning. She got a hotel, although one nicer than the one the label shelled out for us, and she’d drop me off with my bandmates before she and Sydney went to their hotel. That meant we could get four or five hours of sleep in the hotel, and probably several more while riding in the car.

Her mom would be a little tired, but she was actually planning on staying for another night. She and Sydney would make a weekend of it, while I rode back home with Kat and Cameron, who were driving up that morning. They’d be tired when they got there, but Kat wasn’t going to Homecoming, so she could get enough rest to drive safely. I actually thought it was time for Kat to start going to stuff like homecoming again, but she still didn’t want to go to big school events. Aaron was gone, but she’d had a lot of bad experiences at school dances and functions, and it made her nervous when it came time to go to them. She also didn’t like the pressure of being asked to dance, since it always triggered her condition and she felt like she was obligated to dance with the person, even though she didn’t want to. At some point, she’d have to face her problem, but I wasn’t going to push her now, considering she was still pretty early in her long-term recovery.

So it would be me, the band, two friends, the girl I was dating, and that girl’s mother. As a group, it was a strange mix. What it meant, though, was I could go to homecoming with Sydney. I was still limited to a dress shirt and slacks, since I still couldn’t justify paying out for a sports coat or any kind of suit. Most of my money was still going to my Mom, which was pretty dumb, but I still wanted to help her, in spite of everything. I knew dad was probably drinking it away or blowing it on something stupid, but that was my Mom’s decision. I could have still gotten at least a sports coat with the money I had left for myself from playing shows on the weekends, but whatever I could get would be pretty low quality. If things went well, I’d need to get another one that looked nicer for official stuff. If they didn’t, I’d need to keep that money in savings, just in case.

Thankfully, as far as I could tell, Mom had only put dad on the ‘company’ account and not on my personal savings account. I’d been stuffing money away in there ever since Mom forced me to open it, and he could wipe me out if he wanted to.

Sydney was waiting by the front doors, just like she did on most school days, and as soon as I saw her, I felt massively underdressed. Reasonably, I knew this was a poor and very rural community and a lot of kids would just be wearing their ‘Sunday’ clothes, but I still felt a little inadequate. For her part, Sydney looked amazing in a dress that was so dark green I thought it was black at first. Although the front of the dress went up and around the base of her neck instead of plunging down showing cleavage like some of the other girl's dresses, it left her shoulders and arms bare, which looked really good. She had amazing shoulders thanks to swimming, and the dress really accentuated it. It ended just above the knee and was very flowy, swishing around as she moved, showing off her legs really well.

“Wow, you look amazing.”

“You think so?” she said, looking down at her dress, smoothing it down.

“God yes. You look amazing.”

“Thanks. You look good, too,” she said, almost reflexively. When I gave her a look, she added. “No. Really, you do. If you were all dressed up, it would look weird, like you were trying too hard.”

“That’s a strange double standard. You're expected to be in a nice dress, hair done, makeup done, and if I go for anything more than a button-up shirt, tie and slacks, I’d look like I was trying too hard? How does that work?”

“I don’t know, but it does. It’s how it always is, even on regular school days. But, for something like this, it’s also because we want to. I like getting all dressed up, putting on makeup and getting my hair done. This is an excuse to do it.”

“Well, you look beautiful,” I said, holding her out at arm’s length to look her up and down again.

She beamed at the compliment.

“Let’s go dance,” she said, pulling me towards inside, towards the gym, which was the same place they’d held the prom.

Mr. French was up on the stage behind a laptop connected to a mixer, with wires stringing out from it to speakers on either side of the stage. I had to smile, because that is exactly what Mr. Keller had threatened Karen Brooks with for Prom when she didn't want to hire us to play Prom, even though we were the only band who’d agreed to do it at their cut-rate budget.

Thinking of Mr. Keller, our old vice-principle, I caught Mr. Packer giving me the evil eye from across the gym as Sydney dragged me in. I’d managed to avoid him or any major trouble so far this year, and I guess he was pissed he hadn’t found an excuse to expel me yet.

We got into an area in the center of the gym that opened up for dancing and joined the other kids out there bopping along to a Tina Sauer song. I actually hadn’t heard much of her music, since it was on the much softer side of pop and I preferred rock or pop that veered in that direction. As singers go, she was middle of the road, as far as popularity goes, not selling out arenas, but still holding down decent-sized gigs and making it into the top ten a few times. She had one of those dream stories about being a girl from a small Midwest town who tried out, and won, one of those singing competitions on TV, walking away with a record contract. To her credit, that had been almost six years ago, and she’d managed to release two more records since then and hold onto her contract, so she wasn’t just a fluke.

I wasn’t surprised when Sydney could dance. I was basically limited to the basic side-to-side sway thing that most of the other kids did, having learned to dance at clubs and bars watching people bounce around to the music. She didn’t do the grinding that a few other kids were doing, or at least trying to do until a chaperone showed up to tell them to knock it off. The song ended just after we got on the dance floor and the next song.

As soon as the first notes came out of the speakers, I paused. It was a long intro, but I recognized the guitar riff the second it started, causing me to look past Sydney to Mr. French, who was staring right at me, smiling.

“What?” Sydney asked after I didn’t start dancing after a good fifteen seconds, looking around, trying to see what I was looking at.

She couldn’t have timed it better, as the lyrics started

‘Eleven-thirty and the crowd was jumping, out in the wings, I could feel my heart thumping.’

“Ohh,” Sydney said, recognizing my voice.

“He must have been waiting on me to come through the door, cause he timed that just right. I guess he has to find some way to entertain himself.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard this one before.”

“Yes, you have. We played it the last time you were at the Blue Ridge. Backstage, the one about watching my dad play gigs when I was a kid.”

“Ohh, yeah. I guess I was just thrown, 'cause it sounds so different.”

“Yeah, this is the studio version. I hope he’s streaming that, or bought the record, to help my sales numbers, but Mr. French is friends with the guy who produced our record, which is how I met him in the first place. He probably had a copy of the finished song weeks ago.”

“Are the rest of your songs like this, or just this one?”

“Like what?”

“Different than when you play it on stage. There are a lot of effects or whatever in it, both on the guitar and on your voice. I can tell it’s you, but it doesn’t really sound like you when you sing.”

“No, just this one and one other. He didn’t think it worked as well just playing it straight up and I wasn’t getting across how this was from my point of view now, and everything that happens is a memory or a dream. We went round and round on it, but in the end, I think he’s right and I like the way this one sounds.”

“Ohh, I guess I didn’t realize that was what it was supposed to be, listening to you play it live.”

“I guess that proves him right even more, of course it also proves you haven’t listened to my record yet.”

“I’m sorry. I have it, I just haven’t had time, and I hear you play live, and …”

“I’m pulling your leg,” I said. “I’d rather have you hanging out with me than streaming my songs, if I had to choose.”

“Good,” she said, dancing more as we got to the serious guitar riffs after the first chorus. “I haven’t told you, but you really play well. Amazing really.”

“Thanks. It’s the one thing I got from my dad that’s worth a damn.”

She gave me a look, but didn’t say anything else. She couldn’t really understand the strained relationship I had with my dad and didn’t love it when I ragged on him. I got it. I might not have been her dad’s biggest fan, but from everything she’d said, she and her father had a good relationship and he seemed like a good dad. That didn’t forgive how he carried the bags for some of the worst people I’d ever met, but I wasn’t going to hold that against Sydney.

I caught a few knowing glances of other kids dancing as my song played, which at least told me someone had listened to my album. We stayed on the dance floor most of the night, making me glad for all the cardio I got with Chef. It turned out Sydney loved to dance and all that exercise she got swimming let her stay on the dance floor song after song. After almost thirty minutes straight, I’d had enough though and called it, suggesting we go see if we could find any of her friends or mine to say hi. She was disappointed and I thought she’d probably have stayed on the dance floor for the entire dance, but she saw I was tired and gave in. To be honest, I wasn’t so much tired as getting bored. While I loved the slow songs, there’d only been a few of those and the rest had just been bouncing around, which was only exciting to me for a little bit.

There was one weird moment late in the dance, however. We’d just finished another long round on the dance floor and had gone off to get a drink when we practically ran into Harry, who hadn’t seen us coming. For a split second, I’d thought he was going to start something, but he once against showed how much of a hollow copy of Aaron he was when he almost tripped trying to walk backward away from us before turning and disappearing into the dance floor.

“That was weird,” Sydney said. “I ran into him on Friday and he did the same thing. Nearly ran a kid over trying to get away from me.”

“Yeah. Weird.”

“What did you do?” Sydney asked, probably hearing something in my voice.

“Nothing really. The other day when he upset you, I found him told him I would beat the crap out of him if he ever even talked to you again.”

“And he believed you enough to run away from me when he sees me?”

“We’ve had run-ins before and he knows I can do it. Harry’s a bully and a coward. He wants to act tough, like he’s the big man in school, but he wouldn’t dare try something when the odds are even or if there’s a chance he might get hurt.”

“Doesn’t that only work until he’s not alone? If he’s such a bully, won’t he try to get some of his self-respect or cred back once he thinks he can get away with it?”

“Probably, but he’d do that anyway. Harry’s never had an original thought in his life. Once Aaron decided last year that I was someone he could single out and pick on, Harry got it in his head that he had to keep that up. Aaron might have been an asshole and a bully, but he wasn’t a coward, even after I put him down a few times. Harry’s a weak imitation. If he thinks he can win, he’s welcome to bring it. I won’t feel bad when I put his friends on the ground with him.”

“I don’t love it when you talk like that.”

“Like what? I’m not starting anything, but I’m not going to let him walk all over me.”

“I know, but that’s what teachers and parents are for. If he’s being a problem, go to Mr. Packer or a teacher, and they’ll handle it.”

‘Spoken like the daughter of a cop,’ I thought. It was nice in theory and probably worked in grade school, but it showed how sheltered and naive Sydney really was.

“I tried that with Aaron last year, and got told to just stay away from him, even though he was the one seeking me out. And when I defended myself, they came down harder on me than him. It’d be great if that was how it worked, but it doesn’t. I’m not a violent person and honestly try to avoid fights as much as possible.”

“Then why do you get in so many of them.”

That stung a little, and sounded almost like Mom. Or at least Mom before Dad showed back up.

“Bad luck? I don’t know. I only know when someone tries to hurt me or someone else, I will defend myself or the other person. You can’t give in to bullies or they take it as a sign they’re allowed to do it, and will keep trying to walk over you for the rest of your life.”

“I guess, but you went looking for him after he upset me. I appreciate you sticking up for me, but that isn’t exactly defending yourself.”

“Maybe, but I didn’t put hands on him. I just told him what would happen if he caused you any more trouble.”

“I just don’t want you getting into any more fights or anything for me. Please, just stay away from him. Okay?”

“Okay. I can’t promise I won’t fight back if he tries to hurt me or anyone else, but I promise I won’t instigate anything else with him and won’t go looking for him after the fact if he says something else mean, okay?”

“If that’s as good as I’ll get, then I’ll take it. I just want you to be okay. I’ve tried to convince daddy you’re really a good person, so maybe one day you can actually come to my front door again, but getting into fights will make that harder.”

“I guess I have some incentive to not get into any more fights then, don’t I.”

“I guess so,” she said, beaming at me.

We spent a while longer on the dance floor until Mr. French announced it was the last song. I was wiped out, so it was a good thing I wasn’t driving to Nashville.

With her mom picking us up, there was no chance of a good night kiss, but I was still glad we’d come. I’d had so much fun with Sydney. It was a great night.