Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 24

I wasn’t surprised when I got to school the next day and Mr. Keller intercepted me and asked me to come to his office. I will say it was a different experience knowing what I was being called into his office for and knowing that I wasn’t actually in trouble. I’d been in here several times since the start of the school year, but this was the first time I hadn’t actually been nervous doing it.

“I’m assuming your attorney talked to you already about the restraining order?”

“Yep,” I said, smiling. “The case and the restraining order were both dismissed. He said he talked to the district attorney yesterday.”

“Yes, he did. I know we already lifted most of the restrictions on you, so all that’s really left is to allow you to take part in the tutoring program again.”

“What about my schedule? It was changed to keep me away from Aaron when this all started.”

“Yes. We looked at it. Since the original moves had happened within a few days of classes starting before everyone was already settled in their schedule, it hadn’t been that much of a burden. Now, considering it’s been two months already, we decided it would cause issues both for your teachers, who’ve already adjusted their classes to this current schedule, and your own opportunities for this year to switch your schedule back. I’ve spoken to Coach Dean and he is fine having you continue your conditioning class separate from the rest of the team for the remainder of the year. I know that’s probably not what you wanted to hear, but we think it’s for the best.”

He was right, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear, mostly because it left me in Coach Bryant’s class. Although he hadn’t been as big of a pain this semester as he had last semester, mostly just ignoring me, I had a suspicion he might have been on his best behavior while we waited to see what was going to happen with Aaron’s lawsuit. Now that it was over, I was a little worried he might get back up to his old tricks.

That being said, I didn’t blame Mr. Keller. He’d played things pretty decently with me so far this year and I was sure that he had come to this decision because he thought it was the best option. I would just have rather dropped Coach Bryant’s class if at all possible.

“I understand,” was all I said though.

“Since she set it up originally, just talk to Ms. Seidel about starting with your tutor again, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, although I wasn’t sure I was going to do that.

As he ushered me out of his office, I decided that for now, I wouldn’t talk to Ms. Seidel about tutoring. The only person I wanted to be my tutor was Kat, and as of right now she wasn’t even a student in this school. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to get another one, especially if she was going to come back. While I had a lot to work on to get caught up on algebra, I’d said I’d give Kat a week to call so we could figure out what was going on. I knew she’d be crushed if she did come back and I had another tutor, since she’d already invested so much effort in getting me this far. By the end of the week, either she would have called or I would be talking to Chef about the abuse, but one way or another I’d know better if she was going to be coming back to school or even around anymore.

Besides, my being off all restrictions wasn’t the only exciting thing that happened that day. I’d swung by the choir room to hand a copy of some of the recent changes we’d made to my songs and a copy of Seth’s song that I’d written out on after Mr. Eaves had left the night before. Mr. French was interested in what we were doing and had asked me to keep him up to date on what we were doing, so every time we changed something, I went home and wrote those changes down. I actually found I liked the practice, since besides having a copy for Mr. French to look over and make notes on for us, the act of writing it down gave me a second chance to look at everything after a little separation from our practice.

Because of the stop, I was one of the last people to make it to the lunch table, which was already buzzing with excitement.

“Did you hear?” Megan asked when I sat down.

“Assume no,” I said, looking around for a clue.

“Can we not talk about this,” Jordan said, annoyed.

“By that, I assume something, happened with Rhonda,” I said in as uninterested a voice as I could manage.

I’d meant it when I said I was writing her off. She’d made her own bed and whatever bad thing that happened to her was her own fault at this point.

“Harry told everyone on the football team about sleeping with her over the weekend. He and Aaron were sharing details about her and laughing. One of their genius friends started spreading the details in their class this morning,” Jordan said.

“I warned her this was going to happen,” I said.

I wasn’t gloating. If anything, I was sad that she’d ended up facing the consequences of her choices.

“Thing is, she’s come out on top,” Megan said. “She’s put the word out to all of the cheerleaders to avoid Harry like the plague.”

“And that worked?” I asked.

“If it were Aaron, who actually puts up numbers and has some cred, probably not, but Harry’s always been a hanger-on. Since Aaron’s done at the end of this year, he’s trying to position himself as the next big man on campus, but it isn’t taking. He’s never put up real numbers in football and he had one somewhat okay game this year on baseball. Plus, he tries to copy Aaron’s style and sense of humor and falls flat.”

“Aaron has a sense of humor?” Hanna asked.

“For assholes,” I said. “I noticed Harry trying hard. He’s been at me since baseball season started. So the cheerleaders are listening to Rhonda?”

“Yep, he’s toast, basically. He’s going to have to start going pretty far away from his normal hunting grounds for dates now,” Jordan said.

“I’d say I feel sorry for him, but I’d be lying. I guess Rhonda got what she wanted. Why didn’t they go after Aaron too, since he was talking it up also?”

“Aaron’s still got too much pull, probably,” Megan said. “I bet she figured if she tried to include him, they wouldn’t have backed her. Camille might be dating him for now, but that won’t last long. He’ll be on to someone else by the end of the month, and they’re probably all hoping it’s one of them.”

“Rhonda’s always been smart, if a manipulative little bitch,” Jordan said.

I was surprised by how quickly Jordan had turned on her sister. They’d never been close, but before Christmas, they’d been spending more time together and I thought they might repair their relationship. While my ego would like to think maybe Jordan had my back after my breakup with her sister, I was pretty sure it was related to Rhonda’s new push to be queen bee. She’d started adopting a lot of Karen Brooks’ personality traits, and not the better ones. I’d written her off after two conversations, so I could just imagine what living with her was like.

“I wouldn’t have put it like that, but yeah. She’s always had an eye for what’s going to get her to that next level she’s aiming for.”

“What are the odds Harry learns from his lesson?” Fatima asked.

“Zero to none. He makes Aaron look like a Mensa candidate. I’m just hoping he doesn’t decide I’m to blame for it,” I said.

“Look on the bright side, at least she won’t be yelling at you when you finally end up having to kick his ass.”

“There’s that,” I said.

Jordan awkwardly changed the subject and we all went along with it. Bad relationship or no, it must not be great to hear your sister being talked about like some kind of Barbie Machiavelli, and especially having to hear details of her sex life. It was fine with me, since the less I had to hear about her, the better.

The rest of the week rolled by still without a word from Kat. Although my Saturday was busy, I was now more dead set than ever that Sunday night I was going to talk with Chef about what was going on.

I had to make it through Saturday first, though. I was up and at the school by nine a.m. to catch the team bus that was taking us to Murphy, which was a slightly larger town up state highway twenty-five, which broke off from I-26 just south of town.

It was actually a full day of games, with teams from around the region converging on Murphy. We had two games, both pretty early. Our first game was against Murphy High itself and was the first game of the day. We then had to wait while two other teams played, and then we played Canton High, which was yet another small-town high school, this time east of Asheville instead of north of it.

Canton was pretty low ranked and they’d lost every game so far this year, but Murphy High was supposed to be pretty good, or at least their varsity was. I wasn’t sure how much scouting we’d actually done for junior varsity, since everything I heard always seemed to apply to varsity.

We pulled up to Murphy high school and parked next to their baseball field. Their school was both larger and looked to be newer than Carr, so I was surprised by how much smaller and less impressive their baseball field was. I guess I’d grown used to our field, with its dedicated batting cage, covered players benches, and stands both along the baselines and by the outfield. This was a lot smaller and looked closer to the fields I’d played on at RV parks. This was our first away trip, so I didn’t know if theirs was exceptional for being Spartan or ours was particularly fancy, but they definitely weren’t the same.

I was just climbing off the bus behind David when Coach Bryant grabbed me by the arm and said, “Come with me.”

I pulled out of his grip but continued following him when he turned to glare at me. He was still a coach and could get me kicked off the team, but I’d be damn if I was going to let him manhandle me.

He stopped near the back of the bus and turned around, confronting me.

“We’ve received reports of you threatening and even attacking other players after practice. This kind of behavior is unacceptable. Between this and the attack on a student at the end of the year, you’ve shown you aren’t the kind of person we want on our team. As of right now, you’re benched and I expect once we speak to the administration on Monday morning, you will find yourself off the team entirely.”

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the ‘other player’ was Harry and he was probably talking about when Harry attacked me in the parking lot the other day and the ‘student’ who I supposedly attacked at the end of the year was Aaron. It had been a few weeks since the Harry incident and it seemed unlikely that Harry had waited until the bus ride here to try and get me in trouble for it, which meant this was about something else.

If I had to guess, Aaron had been in his ear about the case against me getting thrown out, and Coach Bryant, true to form, had decided to do something about it. Harry knew I had video of it and that video would show I hadn’t done anything wrong, but it’s possible Harry reported the incident to Coach Bryant to try and get me in trouble without mentioning the video. Harry was incapable of thinking ahead and it wouldn’t occur to him that at best anything that happened to me would get reversed and at worst he’d get in trouble for lying about me attacking him. Of course, maybe Harry mentioned it and Coach Bryant hadn’t cared. He’d also shown a breathtaking lack of forethought in his petty games before.

“I think you might have gotten bad information, Coach,” I asked calmly. “Is there anything I can do to change this and still play today?”

“No. I don’t care what you do right now, but I don’t want to see you on the bench during the games. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Coach,” I said, again remaining calm.

This time last year, I would have gotten pissed and yelled at him, but the incident with Aaron had taught me some things. The first one I’d already followed, by having Kat record the whole episode on her phone and go overboard to keep from actually having anything physical happen. Had that video of Aaron not shown up, I would have been screwed, so I wanted to make sure I always had a recording to back up my story.

The other one had been harder to learn, but hearing how Mr. Eaves had dealt with the video Kat had found, I realized it was better to stay calm and hold steady to the evidence you collected instead of getting mad and doing something rash in the moment. Had Kat come up with the video and Mr. Eaves hadn’t been working for us, I would have sent the video to Aaron, probably threatening to release it if he didn’t back off. Mr. Eaves had used something like that very situation when he was explaining what we should and shouldn’t do with the video, and pointed out how badly that would have ended up for me.

I knew there was nothing I could say to change Coach Bryant’s mind and yelling or throwing a fit would give him something to actually hold against me when he threatened to kick me off the team. He wasn’t the head baseball coach and the only reason he was coaching varsity was because Coach Dean wanted to work with a new team this year and work us up to go to varsity, since so much of the current team was outgoing seniors. I hadn’t actually heard him refer to it, but I had gotten the impression that Coach Dean was more or less the head guy when it came to baseball, and I knew he’d be on my side once everything came out. If I just stayed calm and let him get involved without anything else as a distraction, he’d fix it.

So I did what I was told. I climbed back on the bus and sat near the front, waiting patiently. While I waited, I stared at the ceiling and started playing over some of the changes I wanted to bring to the band during rehearsals in the afternoon. I’d already worked everything out, but I figured going over it again was a good use of my time. I was there maybe fifteen minutes when Coach Dean came climbing up on the bus.

“Charlie, we’ve been looking everywhere for you. We’ve started warm-ups. What are you doing here?”

“Coach Bryant informed me that I’m not allowed to play today and that I was going to be removed from the team tomorrow. He said he didn’t want to see me on the bench with the rest of the team, so I figured I should wait here, so I didn’t end up separated from everyone else.”

“What are you talking about?” He asked, confused.

I wasn’t surprised that Coach Bryant hadn’t run his punishment through the other coaches.

“He told me that he was informed of an incident where I attacked another player in the parking lot and, because of my attack on Aaron at the end of last year, I had proven myself to be unfit to be on the team.”

“Charlie, we have a lot to do today, so you’re going to have to stop being cute and actually explain what the hell you’re talking about.”

Okay, he had a point. I was being cute.

“Sorry, Coach. A couple of weeks ago, Harry attacked me in the parking lot. I kept backing away from him and asking him to stop, but when he wouldn’t I knocked him down so he’d stop trying to hit me. That’s it. I made sure someone videotaped the whole incident and I can email you a copy. He swung at me a dozen times at least before I retaliated, and that was only because I ran out of room to keep trying to get away from him. I guess he told Coach Bryant that I attacked him, which isn’t true, and Coach Bryant decided that was enough of a reason to kick me off of the team.”

Coach Dean’s mouth tightened and he looked incredibly annoyed.

With a sigh, he said, “Fine. Get your stuff and wait by the edge of the fence next to varsity’s bench. I’ll deal with this and then you can join the rest of the team.”

“Okay. Sorry for making you hunt for me. I just didn’t want to be accused of not listening to Coach Bryant and maybe getting in trouble for that.”

“No. It’s fine. Just go wait where I told you,” he said before stepping off the bus. “I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

I’m pretty sure that last part wasn’t meant for me, so I ignored it. I dropped my stuff with the rest of junior varsities equipment and waved David off when he gave me a questioning look, heading to stand next to varsities bench instead.

Harry was just coming off the field after striking out and made a bee-line for me as soon as he saw me.

“You’re screwed now, Nelson,” He said, sneering at me. “I know Coach Bryant told you to wait somewhere else. He’s going to nail your ass when he sees you over here.”

“You  haven’t thought this out, Harry,” I said, not even bothering to look at him, although keeping him in my peripheral vision, just in case he decided to be dumber than usual.

“What the fuck do you know?”

“Nothing, I guess,” I said.

It wasn’t worth trying to explain to him how much of a screw-up he was. That, of course, pissed him off even more.

“How about I beat the shit out of you instead,” he said, taking a step towards me.

“Mr. Torres,” Coach Dean hollered at him, walking towards us. “I think you should go sit on the bench.”

Harry already had his hands balled into fists and it was pretty clear what he was planning, and I was leaning on a fence, making no move to fight him, which made this even better, or worse from his point of view, than if I’d planned it that way. Harry glared at me, but backed away and sat on the bench.

I could see an equally pissed Coach Bryant following in Coach Dean’s wake.

“Come over here,” Coach Dean said, crooking a finger at me as he and Coach Bryant stepped away from the field so we could talk more or less in private.

“Charlie, I’ve spoken to Coach Bryant, and it seems there were witnesses to what happened.”

“Let me guess, they’re a couple of guys who spend a lot of time with Harry,” I said.

I shouldn’t have gotten snarky, but I’d hoped Coach Dean would have my back. This was clearly bullshit, although I guess he had to take another teacher’s word until I could show proof.

“See, this is what I’m talking about,” Coach Bryant hissed at Coach Dean.

“Coach, I can prove I did nothing wrong. Right now, it’s their word against mine, over something that happened weeks ago. I don’t think I should be punished until I have a chance to prove I’m innocent.”

“I understand you’re frustrated, but we have rules. In a situation like this, where there are multiple witnesses, we are required to bench you and not let you participate until it can be investigated.”

“What happens when I prove I’m innocent? Everyone just gets to walk away without anything happening to them? Coach, this isn’t fair.”

I was raising my voice, and a bunch of guys from varsity turned to look at me, including Harry, who looked pleased with himself.

“If it’s proven that you’ve been falsely accused, then we have a policy for dealing with that too. I’m sorry, but you aren’t allowed to participate. You can sit on the bench with the rest of your team, but that’s it.”

“This isn’t fair, Coach,” I said again, and held up my hand when he started to repeat himself. “I’m not saying I won’t do it. If it’s the rules, then I guess I don’t have a choice, but I want you to know this isn’t fair. They’re lying, and I’m getting punished.”

“Fine. Since varsity is up, go sit in the stands next to our bleachers for now. You can stay there until our last game and then go back to the bus. Okay?”

“Fine,” I said, walking off in a huff.

I was pissed, but yelling at Coach Dean wouldn’t make any difference. Harry and Coach Bryant both looked like they’d won something and it made me nauseous seeing Harry laughing with his buddies, pointing in my direction. If it wouldn't have made everything worse, I’d have beaten the shit out of him.

Instead, I had to sit and watch the game. At first, I thought I was going to have to deal with the team, or at least Harry and his guys, bothering me the entire game. In that, at least, I got lucky when everyone’s attention was redirected to what was a truly disastrous game. Varsity was up against Canton, which should have been an easy win if they hadn’t been plagued by a tidal wave of mistakes, two of which were done by Harry, and both caused by not communicating with his teammates and coaches. The first one was caused when he’d misread the coach’s signal and threw to second when they had a man on first and second and a line-drive dropped too far in front of him to catch. The coach had signaled for him to throw to third, to keep the base runner out of scoring position. While he did get the ball to second in time to get an out, that left them with only one out and runners on first and third, which wasn’t a good position.

Since they had two outs to play with, and there wasn’t any pressure from second, the third base runner could hold if there wasn’t a good play and stay in scoring position, or make a run for home if there was a good enough hit. It gave the team one more thing to worry about and led to a run being scored when the next batter hit a line drive to right field. They managed to throw out the runner on first, but the third base runner still made it home, which is why the coach had tried to get him to throw out the runner at third.

The second mistake was an actual error. A fly ball was hit between center and left field, and both players went for it. It was a little closer to the center fielder, who called the ball as his. Harry ignored it, running to intercept it, his attention on the ball and not the field. Just as the center fielder went to snag it out of the air, Harry smashed into him and both players went down in a jumble. This allowed yet another run to go in. He hadn’t done much better in his at-bats either, striking out every time he’d been up. By the bottom of the sixth he was on the bench and looking pissed, especially when he had to sit out the entire second game, even though he’d originally been on the roster. They never managed to pull it together and lost by two runs, giving Canton their first win of the season.

I was honestly surprised that Coach Bryant would bench one of his go-to guys, but I guess there was a limit to how far favoritism would go. They did pull it together in the second game, but Murphy High was a really good team and they were still thrown a bit from losing to one of the worst teams in the state, leading to a three to four loss.

Junior varsity did a little better, splitting the difference. Their JV teams were pretty comparable to their varsity team and absolutely stomped Canton. Murphy High’s junior varsity outclassed us in every way though. We didn’t do as bad as Canton did against us, but it wasn’t junior varsity’s finest hour.

Despite JV’s one win, the ride back to school was dead silent. Everyone was either pissed, or worried about the season, or just shell-shocked. Even Harry was silent for once, although he did keep throwing me angry looks. I’m sure by the time we got back to school he would have figured out a way to make the whole thing my fault. Not that I cared. I was still pissed from being benched on the back of his bullshit statement to the coaches and more pissed that Coach Dean had gone along with it. I’d managed to keep my cool, since I was pretty sure we could turn everything around once I showed them the video, but Harry’d already shown himself to be a problem multiple times. The fact that I would be punished on his word before they investigated the claims made Coach Dean go down several pegs in my book.

He clearly wasn’t someone I could count on when I needed to.