Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 43

Mom was pissed when I got home super late, but I’d wanted to celebrate, and for once I had nothing to do until the next evening. We could probably stand a practice before our show at the prom, but we’d gotten a lot done leading up to the audition, and I was already starting to tighten up pretty good after a night on stage.

If I was going to be any good the next night, I needed to spend the evening relaxing for a while, and I’d decided that started with sitting on the porch at the Blue Ridge until Hanna’s mom called to find out why she wasn’t home yet.

I had to be at the gym early to set up and do a soundcheck, so we’d be behind the curtain and out of the way when everything started. Kat had decided to stay home, since she had a lot of people in the senior class she didn’t particularly want to see. She’d partied with them enough when she’d been on Aaron’s arm, and she said she had no desire to spend any more time with them than she had to.

Hanna was, of course, going with Marcus. Out where we were, there wasn’t really an opportunity for limos and the whatnot, so everyone went to the dance in pairs and met up there. I also wouldn’t see much of her after the dance, since Marcus had arranged for an after-party for all of the baseball seniors. Well, the ones he and Christian could stand, at least.

Hanna had made noise about not going and hanging out with Kat and me, but we convinced her that this was one of those high school rites of passage she should participate in, since there wouldn’t really be a second chance. That went doubly since she and Marcus were officially breaking up after.

It was amicable and they’d both known it was coming, since she was going to UNC and he was going all the way out to UCLA to play baseball. I did ask several of the guys from the baseball team to keep an eye on her, since she still had trauma from the party her sophomore year when everything had gone bad. She wasn’t a drinker anymore, but there was always a chance something would get spiked or she would decide what the hell, and the wheels would come off again.

I met the band in the parking lot and we all went in together to find out where to set everything up, and Karen was on us the second we walked through the door. She had the thing running like a well-oiled machine, and apparently, I was trying to commit the ultimate sin by messing up her schedule.

Karen Brooks might have been a terrible person, but she was amazing at organizing an event and I could see her as a party planner or something in public relations, if she decided to find a fallback career from ‘full-time bitch.’

We were still flying high from the night before and were on point. If the soundcheck was any indication, this might be our best show yet. A pretty good deal for the prom committee.

We sat backstage as people started filling in and Karen began her welcome. She’d gone through an entire rehearsal right after our soundcheck, down to pacing out the timing of the awards and us packing up. So we already knew when my cue was coming up and needed to be in place for the curtain to be pulled back.

The only place of contention was that she’d originally planned on us just starting to play without any kind of announcement of us as the band. Since she’d already thanked the principles, the teachers, some by name, and even the janitor, she wasn’t trying to keep things brisk for pacing. It wasn’t hard to conclude it was her way of getting in a little dig for the disagreements we’d had earlier in the year over some of the things she’d done to Hanna.

I’d made a stink of it, and suggested we’d walk and skip the two-hundred if she didn’t give us our due. Sure, everyone from town knew who we were, but one of the things Willie had drilled into me was that we needed to always be promoting ourselves.

Still, when we got to the part of her opening for the curtain to come back she paused for a second and I thought she might back out and skip it.

“With all that, let’s dance. Please give a hand for Carr’s own Charlie Nelson and the Wildcats.”

I particularly liked making her say ‘Carr’s own,’ since she seemed so intent to pretend we were a random, faceless band.

The curtain rolled back and we started up with a cover. Karen had asked us to cover top forty pop and country and only agreed to us playing two of our own songs. Considering how long we needed to play for, I went along with it.

I did start with a House of Grace song in honor of Linda Chapman, for everything she’d done the night before. No one but Hanna and us would know it, but that was enough.

After that, we alternated three upbeat songs and then one slow song, again at Karen’s request. She had this whole notion that events should be up-tempo most of the time, and slow songs would kill the momentum.

One of the slow songs we played was Country Road, since it was our most polished song, and I wanted to play it for Hanna. It felt amazing being up at the edge of the stage, playing the song I’d written for her as she danced. Even up there, I could tell it was special for her and she knew I was singing it for her. I made sure to clear it with Marcus; my playing a song for someone’s date could be taken as weird, but he knew we didn’t have that kind of relationship, so it didn’t bug him.

The rest of the time, I practically prowled the stage. Instead of renting an actual mic setup, Karen had opted to save money by using the portable headset mics used by the theatre department. It wasn’t ideal, but the other option was a cheap handheld mic that was hard-wired into an ancient portable amp and looked straight out of the seventies. While it allowed me to move around, since I didn’t need to be at the mic stand, it didn’t have the best audio quality ever. It was, however, our only option.

It was weird having it around my head and the small mic wrap around in front of my mouth, and I’d have to work on how I sang some lines, since it wasn’t really made for this, but it’s what there was, so it’s what I’d have to deal with. I still had to keep in mind the wire from my guitar to the sound system, but it was still a lot more freedom. Lyla stayed back a bit to give me room to move.

The other song of ours we played was One Night Stand, which we’d really polished up a lot, leading up to the audition. It had taken a lot longer than the others we’d worked on, because Lyla had pushed hard for the last verse as she’d written it, which was pretty explicit. We eventually talked her down to something suggestive that wouldn’t make it impossible to play anywhere other than a bar, but that meant we hadn’t played it at very many sets. As it was now, it seemed like a good choice, since a lot of the seniors and their dates had been to our shows already, even the ones who didn’t particularly like me. Considering we lived in a small town, there weren’t a lot of choices when it came to entertainment.

There was a moment of excitement when Karen Brooks knocked the crap out of Aaron on the dance floor. He’d been getting visibly drunker throughout the night and came up behind Karen during the cover of Whisky Lady, a pretty popular country song. I couldn’t see what happened exactly. One moment he was grinding on her and the next she practically jumped into the air before she turned around and slapped him across the face.

Slapped is actually a kind word for what she did. In his drunken state, she sent him sprawling on his ass. She was as popular as he was, and had her own cronies, and her dad was enough of a name in the community that his dad wouldn’t be able to get rid of whatever retaliation his little rat brain could come up with.

The dance went on for two hours and I held out pretty good for most of it, but after an hour and a half, I needed to get off my feet. I‘d done okay the night before, but two long nights in a row was too much for me, even with resting all day to prepare.

Thankfully, Karen came through for once and came up on the stage to do the whole big presentations, which would give us about a twenty-minute break while they announced class clown, the king and queen, and all the other rituals that Karen was apparently a big subscriber to.

The curtain closed and I set my guitar down and went down the back way off the stage and around to where they had waters and things, before finding a seat against one wall to let my back calm down. Seth was a smoker, so the other three went outside to get fresh air and so he could smoke, which didn’t really seem compatible, but what did I know.

Karen was wrapping up so I decided to run to the restroom really quick before she finished and we had to go back up. That was something I’d learned after just a few sets. Once you were on, you couldn’t just excuse yourself if you had to go, so it was best to take every opportunity possible.

I reached back and turned off the mic pack and pulled it off my head so it hung loosely around my neck. I doubled checked that it was off, because Karen would almost certainly have a conniption fit if I ended up making noise during her presentation.

I guess the smart thing would have been to take the entire thing off, but it had been a pain to get up the back of my shirt and clipped in the first time, and I didn’t know how much time I’d have before Karen finished and wanted us back on stage.

There were a bunch of guys by the bathrooms just off the cafeteria, and considering how they were staggering, there was a good chance I didn’t want to go in that one anyway. Instead, I cut down the hallway off the cafeteria towards the ones by the gym.

They didn’t really have a door on them, just a bend around a tiled partition, so there wasn’t a way to close them off, except when the janitor was cleaning them, when he put his cart in front of the entryway, which was less of an obstacle and more of just a signal to avoid them.

There was, however, no line in sight this time, which meant I was golden. I could get in and out and back up on stage before Karen finished her presentation and we had to go back on stage.

It wasn’t until I was halfway into the bathroom that I heard the voices.

“… I don’t know, try unhooking it,” was what I could make out the voice saying as I got close enough.

I recognized Aaron’s voice instantly and slowed down, with the intention of just turning around and going back out. I didn’t want to deal with Aaron’s shit tonight. I’d rather just hold it and try to make it through the show.

“Are you sure she’s down?” the other voice, which I recognized as the voice of Todd Adams, which was one-third of the Aaron, Harry, Todd triad.

I actually hadn’t seen much of Todd since just before the whole lawsuit thing. I’d seen Aaron quite a few times so it made Todd’s disappearance notable, not that I cared that much. I definitely hadn’t missed him.

“She’s out cold, so what the fuck does she care. She’s a slut anyway. She’s down for it.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out what was happening, especially considering Aaron was involved. Part of me just wanted to continue turning around and leaving. Every encounter with Aaron to this point had ended up making my life more difficult, and I was pretty sure she was just about ready to kill me if I ended up in any more.

The other part of me was screaming I needed to step in and do something. I could go try and find a teacher and bring them back, but from what sounded like clothes being thrown against a wall, I wasn’t sure how much time I had before this girl’s life was changed permanently, for the worse. I’d already seen the damage this kind of assault had done to Kat, and Hanna to a lesser degree, and I’d kick myself for knowing I could have done something to stop it and chose to run away and get help instead.

I did have an idea, though, that might just make this time turn out slightly differently than the last. Reaching back, I switched back on the mic pack that I’d turned off when I’d gone off stage, and stepped around the corner.

“What are you two doing?” I said, looking at both of their backs, as they kneeled over the unconscious figure of Camille.

“Wha…” Aaron started to say, his head whipping around.

His look of surprise and almost fear vanished as soon as he realized who’d spoken to him, replaced with a mixture of contempt and disgust.

“Ohh, it’s you. Get the fuck out. We’re busy.”

“And she’s unconscious. You know they have a word for what you’re trying to do to her, while she can’t consent, right?”

“They have a word for what I’m going to do to you if you don’t leave.”

“I’m not leaving her with you two. Just go back to the prom and let’s forget this ever happened. I’ll send her home with her friends, no harm done.”

“How about I send you to the hospital again? Would you like that?”

And there I had it. The confirmation that he’d been behind the attack on me, which had cost me the regionals game and almost cost my shot at a music contract. I knew he was trying to goad me into taking a swing or doing something first. He’d learned his lesson from the failed lawsuit, and maybe figured if beating me unconscious hadn’t gotten rid of me, another lawsuit might. Especially since there wouldn’t be any random kids in this bathroom with cameras while he had Todd to back up whatever he said happened.

Of course, I knew something he didn’t. Assuming this mic pack worked out this far away and Karen’s didn’t override it.

“You’re not surprising me from behind with baseball bats while my hands are full. If you take a swing at me this time, I’m going to put you down. Hard. Now get off the girl and get out.”

“You know what,” he said, standing up and taking a step towards me, away from Camille. “I’m glad you came in here. I’m out of this dump at the end of the summer, and I’d lose any chance to really give you the ass-kicking you deserve.”

With that, he bellowed and charged. Todd showed that he might have been the smarter of the two by backing away from both Camille and me, apparently not planning on being involved. He hadn’t really taken any shots at me for a while and hadn’t been involved in the ambush the other night, so maybe he’d turned a leaf, or at least learned his lesson.

Aaron never learned anything. He’d tried this bellow and charge move several times, and he’d been put down every time. I waited a breath to let him build up some steam and did a side lunge, pulling my body down like a spring before kicking out, connecting hard just below his knee. I felt the leg give and from the scream of pain, he’d suffered a lot more than a dislocation this time. He crumpled, his momentum taking him forward and kind of sideways as he fell, his head banging off the sink.

He went out like a light. I reached down and checked on him, grateful to find him breathing with a steady pulse. I may have hated him, but I didn’t want to actually cause permanent damage. I just wanted him to leave me alone.

Looking up, I saw Todd was still just standing there. When he saw me make eye contact, he held up both hands in a defensive motion.

“I don’t want any part of it,” he said.

“Good. I’m going to go get help. Try to cover her up with what’s left of her dress, and don’t even think about running.”

He nodded and reached for the crumpled dress Aaron had ripped off her, still trying to keep his distance from me as he did.

As I left the bathroom I could see a commotion down towards the cafeteria, which meant they’d heard the entire thing, but didn’t know where I was. I could see Mrs. Seidel, who was one of the chaperones for the prom, at the end of the hallway just where it connected to the cafeteria.

“Down here,” I yelled, waving my arms to get her attention.

She turned to say something to someone out of my view and then came running in my direction, followed shortly by Mr. Keller, who must have been the person she was talking to. A bunch of students came in their wake, meaning this whole thing was going to turn into a circus.

“Charlie, what …”

“Camille Gutierrez is passed out on the floor in the boys’ bathroom, either drunk or maybe drugged. Most of her clothes have been removed, but I don’t think anything else happened. Aaron Campbell is also there and unconscious. He hit his head on the sink when he tried to charge at me. I checked and he seems okay, just out. Both probably need medical help.”

“We heard what happened,” Mr. Keller said.

“I was just trying to get them away from Camille. I swear I didn’t try to provoke them.”

“I know, but for now I want you to go sit in the office and wait. We’re going to have to call parents after we call for the ambulance, and probably police as well, and there’s going to be a lot of questions to answer.”

The pessimist in me thought I would somehow still get screwed by all this, even when everyone heard the whole thing, but Mr. Keller hadn’t done wrong by me yet. Besides, I didn’t have a lot of other choices.

I turned to head towards the office, only to find Coach Bryant also charging at me. He didn’t say anything, but it was clear he was planning to hurt me. He was going for a straight-up tackle, so I grabbed his outstretched left arm wrist and twisted, throwing him over my shoulder. He was a large man, so I didn’t get him to go far, but he did land hard, letting out an ‘ooff’ as he smashed into the tile.

He rolled over and started to push himself up when Mr. Keller put himself between us.

“Jason. STOP!”

For a second, I thought he was going to try and go through Mr. Keller. Thankfully for everyone, he backed down. He was still staring at me like he wanted to kill me, but it was clear he wasn’t going to try again.

“Laura, please take Charlie to the office until we can sort this all out,” He said to Mrs. Seidel.

She nodded and took me by the arm, leading me away. Behind us was a wall of students in their fanciest prom clothes that we had to push through.

I saw Hanna as we got through the crowd and said, “Call my mom.

She nodded and pulled out her cell phone as more kids pushing past obscured her from view.

Mrs. Seidel led me to the office, where I sat in silence while she looked out through the glass door like she was guarding me from something, which considering a teacher had just tried to plant me into the ground, might not have been that far from the truth.

I could see through the glass doors towards the entrance to the school and after about ten minutes two paramedics came rushing through the doors, followed by police and a steady stream of parents.

For now, they all headed towards the cafeteria, ignoring the two of us in the office. Eventually, the sheriff came in and tried to ask me questions. I decided to follow Mr. Eaves' advice and stay quiet, telling him I was underage and wanted to wait for my parent before I said anything. He tried to convince me that it would be in my best interest to speak to him now, before things got further along, but I just repeated my request for a lawyer.

About ten minutes later Mom showed up, still dressed in the jumpsuit-like uniform she wore for the cleaning service.

“Charlie, what happened?”

“Sheriff, would you please wait outside so he can talk to his mother,” Mrs. Seidel said when she noticed me looking towards the sheriff and the cops instead of replying.

“I don’t think …” one of the officers said, but Mrs. Seidel cut him off.

“You can see him through the window, besides, I think he’s looking for you,” she said, nodding at Aaron’s father, who’d just come running in through the front doors of the school.

The Sheriff didn’t reply, but from the way he pursed his lips when he saw Aaron’s dad, he wasn’t looking forward to the conversation he was about to have. With a nod, the Sheriff went through the glass doors to the front office, where Aaron’s dad started laying into him the second he saw the sheriff. I guess the soundproofing was pretty good, because it looked like Aaron’s dad was really shouting, but only a little muffled sound came through.

“Okay, talk,” Mom said.

“Karen got up to do presentations, so I took the opportunity to go to the bathroom, and headed to one I didn’t think would have very many people at it so I could get in and out. Aaron and Todd were there with Camille, who was passed out on the floor, and they were pulling her clothes off. I couldn’t just turn around and leave, letting Camille get assaulted, so I told them to get off her and leave. Aaron admitted that he was one of the people who attacked me last week and charged. I just knocked him out of the way, and he hit his head on the sink and fell down. I then went for help. That’s all that happened.”

“What was the thing about you announcing it over the audio system?”

“Karen had a mic pack thing for us to use from the theatre department and I was still wearing it, since we were supposed to go back on stage after Karen was done. As soon as I heard their voices and it was clear what was happening, I turned it on so other people could hear it too, because Aaron always lies and would have tried to blame everything on me. This way, at least the rest of the school would hear him and have some idea of what he was doing.”

“Okay, that at least was good thinking. I’m proud of you for standing up for your friend, but Charlie, you need to find a way to stay out of these situations.”

“She isn’t my friend. I actually hate Camille and the feeling’s mutual, but I still couldn’t just walk away. I don’t want to be the kind of person who just ignores problems that don’t have to do with him.”

“I know, I know, and I’m not mad at you. You did the right thing,” she said, her eyes going to Aaron’s dad and the Sheriff. “I’m just worried about you is all. Okay, you stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Aaron’s dad and the Sheriff were still having a heated argument and Mom jumped right into the middle of it. She was yelling at Aaron’s dad, he was yelling at the sheriff, and it looked like the Sheriff was just trying to stay calm. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but from the body language, it didn’t seem things were going well for Aaron’s dad. Then one of the deputies brought Aaron, who was limping slightly, and Todd past in handcuffs headed towards the front door of the school.

Aaron’s dad practically had an aneurism on the spot. Even from where I was I could see the veins standing up on his neck as he screamed. He pointed at the Sheriff and then at me, with Mom screaming right next to him. The sheriff said something and just shook his head, waving the deputy and his prisoners through the doors.

Aaron’s dad gave one last shout, poking his finger into the sheriff’s chest and then followed his son out into the parking lot. The sheriff shot me a look and then followed them out through the doors.

“What happened,” I asked when Mom came back inside.

“They’ve arrested Aaron and his friend for assault and attempted rape, thanks to so many witnesses hearing him admit to it. Mr. Campbell felt that was a mistake, but the sheriff finally stood his ground.”

“So, I’m free to go?”

“Yes. We can go home.”

“I need to go talk to the band and help get everything packed up.”

“Fine, but I’m not leaving until you do.”

“Don’t you have to go back to work?”

“I will when you leave, not a second before.”

It didn’t take long to pack up, since the guys had already started packing before Mom had even shown up. Once everything had happened, the prom had just ended. I felt a little bad I’d had a part in ruining everything, although most of the kids seemed to find the excitement fun. Karen was pissed, but we’d been paid up front, so there wasn’t much she could do to us.

I also found out that Coach Bryant had been suspended by the principal on the spot and Mr. Keller said it was all but certain he’d be fired after an investigation. I guess even out here, it’s hard to just fire a teacher, even when they attack a student. For now, Mr. Keller was still around and he made it clear he was going to make sure the coach didn’t come back.

Not exactly how I thought the night would go, but it was memorable.