Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 34

I was feeling better on Monday, right up until English class. It was the first time I’d seen Rhonda since the party. We’ve moved next to each other early in the year, and normally we sat next to each other. She was already there by the time I got to class, and her desk had a girl I barely knew in it. Rhonda was now on the other side of the room, and wouldn’t make eye contact.

The feelings of loss, betrayal, and anger that I’d been pushing down all Sunday came rushing back. Not as bad as Saturday night, but for a moment it was still overwhelming. I tried to ignore it, and focus on my work, but I didn’t have much luck. We were reading poetry, which I found boring normally. Now, I could barely focus on it, missing entirely the first time the teacher called on me to read something in class.

As soon as the bell rang for lunch, I bolted, not looking at Rhonda as I passed her desk and went out the door. I didn’t feel much like eating and I really didn’t feel like dealing with everyone. Except for Hanna, I hadn’t talked to anyone else in our lunch group since it happened, and I was certain word would have gotten to most of them by now. The last thing I wanted was someone asking me if I was okay.

Instead, I headed for the Choir room, which I knew was empty during this lunch period, thanks to my practice with Cameron. I’d asked Hanna to tell him I didn’t feel up to any kind of lessons today, and not to expect me, so I hoped he’d just gone to lunch and wouldn’t be there.

Thankfully, the lights were off and the room was empty. I slipped inside and didn’t turn on the lights, just in case he saw me. For the first five minutes, I just sat there in the dark, until I realized I was just slipping into the sadness spiral I’d gone down Sunday afternoon.

Chef had been right. I hadn’t fixed anything, I’d just managed to bury it a little bit and was surprised by how easy it’d come back the second I saw Rhonda. I couldn’t tell if he was right about it hurting less, but it had only been a couple of days. Maybe I was just hoping it’d be all better, since I never wanted to feel like I did Saturday night ever again.

I heaved a sigh and got up. I needed something to distract my brain, like Chef said, and I was in the choir room, so I pulled out the notebook I’d been using for notes when Willie and I practiced. We’d spent almost two hours, before it was time to go up on stage, the night before, going over ideas for my first song.

I knew what emotion I was going for and the topic I wanted to use to invoke that emotion, but that was only the starting point. We’d started working on the tune for it, going with something that slowed down on the chorus and then picked up speed on the verses, hitting the notes harder on every other downbeat. The rhythm wasn’t set, but it was getting there. I still wasn’t sure about the actual tone though, and hadn’t settled on a melody yet, or any words really.

I was running through the beat chart I’d started, humming different melodies, when a cough behind me almost made me jump through my skin. Normally, I liked to think I was pretty observant, but I’d thrown myself into the music, partly because that’s how I always treated music and partly to get my mind off how I felt about Rhonda. I hadn’t heard the door open or anyone come in.

I spun around, half expecting Cameron and worried it might be Aaron, who’d almost certainly want to see how much he’d hurt me and if he could add to it. What I hadn’t expected was a teacher, in his forties maybe, with a bushy brown beard. Although, considering I was in a classroom, I probably should have.

“That wasn’t bad, the last thing you hummed. What is it?”

“Just something I was working on.”

“Ohh, that’s your song?”

“Yes, Sir. Sorry, I’m probably not supposed to be in here, I’ll get going.”

“No, no. You’re here already and this is a music room, so at least you’re on topic. Better than the other kids I sometimes find in here with the lights off during lunch. It’s kind of dark though, do you mind if I turn these on.”

“Sure.”

“Can I see what you’ve got?”

“It’s just some notes, I haven’t actually written anything yet. I was working on it with a friend yesterday.”

He unclipped a set of reading glasses that had been hooked to the collar of his shirt and slid them on, coming to stand next to me.

“So you’ve got your rhythm decided on?”

“Maybe, I don’t know. Like I said, I just started.”

“That’s fine, it’s a good place to start. I like this. You’ve got this repeated thing in what I’m guessing is the chorus. If you get a good melody to play off that, it’ll be catchy. It looks like you’re slowing down again in the verses, is that on purpose?”

“Yeah. It’s about the feeling of finding something you didn’t know you needed. So the chorus is trying to give the feeling of when you found it and the verses are about what you felt before you found it, when you didn’t know you were missing it.”

“You don’t have words yet though.”

“Not yet. I know who it’s about and I know what I want to say, but I didn’t really have any words. My friend, he’s a musician, he said we usually start with the emotion.”

“Yeah, Willie usually likes to go that way. It’s not the only way to write music, but he’s always been dead set on emotion first, everything else second.”

“Wait … you know Willie?”

“I do. I also know who you are, Charlie. Sorry, I didn’t mean to come off as all mysterious,” he said, laughing at the confused look on my face. “I think a third of the town has been out to see you play at the Blue Ridge. It’s not like you’re going under the radar.”

“I … How … I’m sorry, I just feel like I’m missing something here.”

“Willie and I go back a long while. We did a few tours together, what, twenty years ago? He’s actually the reason I’m teaching here. I was looking to settle down and get off the road and he talked to someone who talked to the principal about an opening for a new choir teacher, and here I am.”

It was a safe bet that the person Willie talked to was Chef. If there was anyone who could swing something like that, it’d be him.

“Willie called me last night, actually. He said you were working on writing your own music and might need some more help. I was actually going to get Cameron to ask you to come and see me, since I heard you two are friends, but here you are, in my choir room.”

“Sorry, I know we’re not supposed to be in classrooms when there’s …”

“Don’t worry about it. Feel free to use this room whenever you need to, as long as you’re not in class.”

“Thanks, Mr. ….”

“Sorry, French. Let me ask you, have you thought about joining the choir?”

“No. I mean, I’m more of a guitar player, not a singer.”

“Unless you’re planning on getting a front man to perform these songs, you might want to reevaluate that.”

“I know, I guess I just haven’t thought about it.”

“Well, you’re getting help from Cameron. He’s good and he’s had enough private lessons to have an idea of what he’s talking about, but he’s also a completely different kind of singer to you. Choir is more than just singing as a group. We help you train your instrument, which needs just as much practice as you’re guitar does.”

“Cameron did say that.”

“I hope so, since I say it at least once a week in class. Think about it. We compete every year, and you’re much better than you give yourself credit for, so we could use you; but also, I think you’ll find it helps. Besides, a good artist needs to experience a wide range of music, if only to understand the options available to them. You’re not going to get that playing top forty covers and old blues standards.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“It’s all I ask. Now, show me what you’re thinking on these melodies.”

I know I couldn’t dodge my friends forever, so I manned up and joined them for lunch on Tuesday. As expected, they peppered me with questions and threw out the odd gossip they’d heard, some of it possible and some of it crazy.

Thankfully, Hanna was there and kept a lid on the worst of it. I’d told her on the way to school that morning that I didn’t mind answering questions, if for nothing else, it would ease their curiosity, which meant they’d move on to some other subject sooner.

I actually thought my plan was working perfectly, since by the end of lunch they’d switched topics to some other piece of school gossip, letting me eat my lunch in peace. I was foolishly patting myself on the back for a plan well done and making it through the ordeal as lunch ended, which was exactly the moment Aaron chose to take his shot.

I knew something was up when everyone else at the table stopped talking almost instantly. I knew who it was before ever turning around, and almost chose to just ignore him, but that wouldn’t make him go away. He wanted his moment, and he’d come back every day until he got the reaction he wanted from me.

Turning around I saw him standing next to Rhonda, his arm over her shoulder. She looked immensely pleased with herself, although I couldn’t help but notice that she refused to make eye contact with me. Perhaps she felt the tiniest amount bad about what she’d done, but that didn’t stop her from taking her moment too. She was being paraded around by Aaron and loving every minute of the attention.

“How’s it going, loser? Ready to run off again?”

I could feel Hanna tense up beside me and I put my hand on her knee, to keep her from jumping in and getting involved.

“Nope, just eating lunch. I know that’s confusing, what with the food in front of me here in the cafeteria and all.”

“I guess you didn’t know how to eat everything good enough, or maybe you could have held onto this one,” he said, switching tactics, trying to get a rise out of me.

Rhonda hadn’t expected that, and I saw her go stiff. I don’t know what she thought was going to happen. This was exactly who Aaron had always been. I might not wish her active harm, but I wasn’t about to feel bad about her poor choices.

“I guess not. Congratulations. We’ll get you a trophy.”

“She tells me this loser didn’t even try and make a move,” he said to everyone else, decided if he couldn’t get at me directly, he could at least trash me to everyone else. “Maybe he doesn’t know what to do with it. Little kids like him don’t know how to handle a woman. If you managed to trick another one into going out with you, let me know. I’ll explain where everything fits for you.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning back around to eat my food. “I’ll make sure to give you a call.”

“You don’t know what you were missing, she’s a real screamer.”

“I’m sorry Rhonda,” I said, turning back around. “While you’re not my favorite person right now, I don’t want to see you hurt. This is going to end badly for you, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“You’re just jealous because Aaron’s a real man.”

“Idiot,” Joanna said to her sister.

“Shut up,” Rhonda replied.

“I hope that’s all it is, I really do, but I think somewhere inside you don’t believe that either. You’re nothing to him. He’s just using you and as soon as he’s done, he’s going to drop you like a rock. You should run now, but I know you won’t.”

“Ohh, I’m using her alright,” Aaron said, grabbing her ass with the hand that had been over her shoulder, before draping it over her shoulder again. “And I’ll keep on using her while you’re at home crying. Let’s go, babe.”

“How can she not see it?” Hanna said as they walked away.

“Because she thinks she’s gotten everything she’s wanted,” Joanna said. “I told her she’s just being used, but she’s not going to listen to anyone.”

“Aaron Campbell’s everything she wanted?” Laura asked, stunned.

“It’s what he is, not who he is. She wants to be the most popular girl in school, and she wants it now. She thinks that since Aaron is a hotshot quarterback and a senior, being on his arm gets her there.”

“She’s an idiot,” Hanna said.

“No, she’s just desperate. You should see her friends, they’re all vipers constantly trying to one-up each other. To hear them talk, it’s been like that since they were in elementary school. This is all she knows.”

“She’s about to get a really cruel lesson,” Hanna said.

“Yeah, I know, and I feel sorry for her.”

“You feel sorry for her?” Megan said. “She dumped you in a party in front of thirty other people. How could you feel sorry for her?”

“Because I actually liked her, which means I don’t want to see her get hurt. I might be pissed at her and I definitely would never hurt her, but it doesn’t mean what I felt about her before just vanishes.”

“That sounds like Chef,” Hanna said.

“I paraphrased, but yeah. Until I talked to him, I was cheering on Aaron crushing her, but he put things in perspective.”

“He does have a way of doing that.”

By Wednesday, my prediction for Rhonda came true. Not being in either of their circles of friends, my first inkling that something had happened was when Rhonda didn’t show up to English class. That, in of itself, didn’t necessarily mean anything. Rhonda wasn’t a bad student, but she’d long ago blown the perfect attendance thing. It was more how some of the people she was friends with in class reacted, sharing knowing looks between each other.

We weren’t friends, so I wasn’t about to ask them, but it did make me start worrying. I noticed her friends all chatting animatedly at lunch, and they all stopped to watch me walk by in a very pointed way.

“Has anyone heard anything about Rhonda? There’ve been some weird looks and she didn’t show up to class,” I asked when I sat down at our lunch table.

“You haven’t heard?” Megan asked. “Picture of her, umm, very comfortable and very naked showed up on a couple of school message lists last night. Everyone’s seen it by now.”

“Aaron,” I said, without a shadow of a doubt where they came from. “I’m guessing she’s heard about it, which is why she isn’t in class.”

“Probably,” Hanna said. “I think most of the school has seen them by now. What are you going to do?”

“Nothing. Getting into a fight won’t make the pictures go away. She made her choice.”

“You don’t actually mean that.”

“You wouldn’t let her live with the consequences of her actions?”

“Sure I would, and I’d laugh the whole time, but you’re not me; it’s why I like you. This isn’t what the Charlie I know would do.”

“Maybe, but it’s what I’m going to do. I’m not hungry anymore,” I said, getting up from the table.

I could feel Hanna judging me as I walked away, but I didn’t care. I’d warned her she was making a mistake and she’d chosen not to listen. I felt bad for her, but she’d made her choice.

There were still stares through lunch and as I left the cafeteria from people who’d seen Aaron come over, probably wondering why it didn’t turn into a fight. I couldn’t help them with that. I’d meant it when I told Hanna that talking to Chef had put things into perspective. It hadn’t at first. Even after thinking about what both he and Hanna said to me all night, I was still madder than anything. It really wasn’t until I saw her standing next to Aaron that it really sank in.

If anything, I felt sorry for her. I’d meant it when I said she was going to get hurt, and I was pretty sure it was going to be soon. Seeing her, knowing how fake the smile she had standing next to him was, I stopped being mad. She hurt herself way more than she hurt me, and she didn’t even realize it yet.

I almost made it to class when Kat intercepted me, pulling me into an empty classroom.

“I’m going to be late.”

“I know, but this is important.”

I realized it was harder to tell her I’d just talk to her later now knowing about her condition. Would ignoring her or putting her off send her on a spiral, making her think her opinion didn’t matter or she was being abandoned? I still couldn’t really wrap my head around how to deal with her now that I knew what I did. It was a minefield of wrong choices.

“Okay, go ahead, but let’s be quick. Coach Bryant already has me at the threshold of tardy before I start getting detention.”

“I’ve been looking into those messages Hanna got, and I think I found the proof you wanted,” she said, holding out a manila envelope.

“What?”

“You’d mentioned a while ago about Hanna and the social media posts about her. I think there was the one about her boyfriend and the other one with pictures from the gym.”

“Yeah, although her mom got those pictures taken down.”

“I know, but you said you wanted to find a way to stop it, like, information or whatever. I got it. I have proof that it was Karen Brooks, both of them.”

“What kind of proof?”

“I got into the accounts both were posted from, since they were from two different accounts. One was created from the same IP that Karen’s personal account was created from, which was her home IP address. The other one was trickier; she logged into a site called privateproxy and did it through there, to hide her address. I guess she knew posting pictures like that could get her into actual trouble, BUT, she either forgot to or didn’t realize that she shouldn’t then do other stuff with that proxy. She sent several emails to the cheerleading team using the same proxy on the same day from her email address and then posted a picture of her in her uniform on picturely that night, I think it was something like ‘blessed #goteam.’ I may have also looked at the billing records of privatproxy to confirm it was her credit card that paid for it, but having that could get someone in trouble, so I didn’t include it with this stuff.”

“You hacked into a company’s billing records?”

“I … uhh …” she stumbled, looking unsure of how she should answer.

“Never mind. You have proof of all that here? How smart are you, really?”

“I don’t know, uhh, yeah I have all the proof here. You can use it to, I don’t know, make her stop or whatever.”

“Hanna will really appreciate this Kat.”

“I didn’t do it for Hanna,” she said, looking at her feet.

“I really appreciate it too. Now, I have to get to class and so do you,” I said, giving her a hug.

“Wait,” She said as I turned to leave.

“What? Sorry, but we don’t want to be late.”

“I just wanted to say, you look better than you did Sunday.”

“Yeah, I think I just needed some time, plus I had good friends,” I said, putting my hand on her arm and giving it a squeeze.

“It probably also helped to see her get taken down so quickly. The pictures and whatever.”

“No. I never wanted that to happen to her. Just because she did something bad to me, doesn’t mean I wanted something bad to happen to her. I mean, I would have been okay with an outbreak of acne or something, but never something like this.”

“Ohh, I thought …”

“I know,” I said, imagining the pettiness she’d seen from Aaron since she’d been with him. “Now, I gotta go. For real. See ya later.”

I could give it to Hanna, but she’d already put most of that behind her. The last thing she wanted was to start reliving the whole school seeing her change clothes. I could give it to the cops, but they probably wouldn’t do anything and they’d almost certainly want to know where I got it, since there was a good chance Kat had broken some kind of electronic security law when breaking into some of these servers. The same was true for the school administration and maybe even Chef, who’d also want to take it to the cops.

Instead of acting on it right away, I put the envelope in my backpack. What I needed was time to think about it, and hope a better option popped up.

I mulled it over until Thursday and still hadn’t figured out what to do with the information Kat gave me. While it wasn’t urgent, since no new posts had happened in several weeks, Karen hadn’t given up whatever her vendetta against Hanna was. She’s probably expected something more along the lines of Rhonda’s response, who still hadn’t been back to school since. The similarities in the two events actually had me concerned, since there was a chance it might prompt Karen to take another shot.

I’d actually thought up an option as soon as Kat had given it to me, but I’d been concerned it might be going too far. My problem was, all of the other options all came back to the same place, explaining where I got the information from, and getting Kat in trouble.

I didn’t want to keep chancing it. Hanna had really turned around since I’d first met her at the beginning of the year. She was dating, less angry, and generally a happier person. We’d gotten close to her backsliding with the first message, and I didn’t want to give Karen a third shot.

I’d checked around and varsity cheer was getting ready for some Christmas cheer competition, and were practicing most afternoons, so I was waiting in the hall by the locker room just after the end of school. I did get a few side-eye looks from girls, probably wondering why I was loitering, but I ignored it. Finally Karen, and two of her posse, turned the corner towards the gym and the locker rooms.

I moved to intercept them, grabbing Karen by the arm and saying, “We need to talk.”

“Why the hell do I need to talk to you,” she said, pulling her arm out of my grasp.

“Okay, I guess we don’t. I guess my next stop is the police station, see what they think about what I have to say,” I said, turning and walking away.

“Wait. What are you talking about?”

While she probably didn’t expect what I actually wanted to show her, Karen was the kind of person who did what she wanted and never thought about the consequences. Odds are, she’d done a bunch of stuff she wouldn’t want people finding out about.

“Step over here and I’ll tell you. Your minions can keep walking.”

“Whatever,” she said, but she didn’t leave. “Go on, let me find out what this loser’s talking about. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“What?” she said, crossing her arms.

“You’ve been posting things about Hanna, and it stops. Now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she sneered.

“You really do. How about we start with some proof. You posted the first message from your home computer at five-twenty on October second, creating a new account so people wouldn’t know it was you. The second one you got smarter, maybe because you realized you made it too easy the first time, or maybe because you were worried about being caught posting pictures of a minor changing clothes. Either way, you logged into a site called privateproxy on your cell phone and then made another new account on October seventeenth, posting the pictures a few minutes later. I’m not sure how you didn’t realize buying credits for the proxy site using a credit card in your name wouldn’t track back to you, but I guess you didn’t or at least didn’t think anyone would try.”

“I don’t …”

“Your first instinct here is to lie and say you don’t know what I’m talking about, even though inside you’re panicking, because that was a lot of specific information and you know it’s right, but you haven’t thought this all the way through. You know I have this information, but you haven’t thought about what I could do with it. The first post is a problem, since it clearly violates the school’s anti-bullying rules. I think the first violation is suspension from all school-sponsored activities for the year, which includes getting kicked off the cheer squad. Do you think it’ll be tough getting the head cheerleader spot back afterward?”

“You can’t …”

“Almost done princess, just hang in a minute more, because we’re getting to the good part, because the second message is the real problem for you. Hanna was a minor when you took these pictures, and you posted them up on the internet. That’s where you broke a whole crap ton of laws, and not just those little laws like stealing something from the store. No, we’re talking federal prison, don’t drop the soap laws. I think that about sums it up, so now you have two options. You can keep telling me you have no idea what I’m talking about, which means I drop my proof off with the front office and the police, or we can come to an arrangement.”

“What kind of arrangement,” she said, looking worried finally.

“One, any more posts about Hanna show up, and the proof I have gets dropped off. Two, if I hear about you causing trouble or being mean to Hanna, the proof gets dropped off. That’s it. I’m not expecting you to be her friend or even talk to her, but you both are almost out of here and off to college, and I don’t want you ruining the rest of her high school experience. So you ruin it for her, I’ll really ruin it for you. Got it?”

“What if she messes with me?”

“Then suck it up, Princess. Nothing. At all. That’s the deal.”

“Fine. Do I get whatever you have back at the end of the year?”

“Nope. I’m holding onto it. You’ll just have to trust I don’t have a reason to get pissed at you again. Take it easy,” I said, turning and walking away from her.

Chef would probably have my ass if he knew I was out here blackmailing people, but hopefully, this would make sure Hanna didn’t have to deal with Karen's shit the rest of the year.