Chapter 45

I was practically flying as I drove home from the courthouse. I was finally free. I couldn’t believe it. Even Dad’s last attempt to attack me in the courtroom didn’t throw off my good mood. In fact, it made it better. He was going to be in jail and I wouldn’t have to deal with him for a while. I did feel bad for Mom. She had no one now. I know she made her own choices that got her where she was, but I still loved her and it made me a little sad to think of her in the trailer, by herself, everyone she loved gone. At some point, I’d need to see what I could do to repair my relationship with her, although with new boundaries in place to keep her from making poor decisions that affected me again.

The first thing I needed to do, after getting home, though, was to call Kent. He must have been busy, because I sat on hold for a long time, waiting for him to pick up.

“Yes, Charlie,” he said, sounding almost annoyed to be on the phone with me.

I really was on thin ice with them. I didn’t know what Dad had been up to for the last week, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d been giving Kent the full-court press leading up to the emancipation hearing. He might not have been able to fathom that he was going to lose, but the more things got out of my father’s grasp, the wilder his actions got. I just hoped I wasn’t too late to turn things around.

“I have some good news. I just came home from the emancipation hearing, and I am, legally at least, no longer a minor. You don’t have to deal with my father anymore.”

“Really? That is good news,” he said, sounding genuinely pleased.

“I know. I also know he’s been a giant pain in the ass for you guys, and I’m sorry. I really appreciate you sticking with me through all of this.”

“Well, I won’t say it was easy. There are several people over here who feel we should have cut ties a while ago. You’re going to have to hustle for a little while until things calm down. The best thing you can do now is show them we made the right call by backing you.”

“I will. I’m all in on this, I promise.”

“Good.”

“I haven’t gotten the legal order yet, and I probably won’t be until the end of the week, according to the judge, but my father got himself arrested in the courthouse, so it will all be said and done by the time he gets out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I told you he is unhinged.”

“I got that from just talking to him, but to attack someone in a courthouse.”

“I know. Do you think you can keep holding off on those royalty checks until next week? I need to get my bank accounts and everything cleared up, and I can’t do that until I get the official papers showing my emancipation.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Great. Also, I know I’m not technically able to make decisions yet, but can we get Warren back? If we’re going to start hustling, I really need him with us.”

“Absolutely. Warren asked me just yesterday when he could start working with you again, so I know he’s more than ready.”

“Great. We’re ready to work as many weekend gigs as he can book us, and Thanksgiving break is at the end of this month. I’ll be off the whole week and I’m sure the rest of the band will be up for performing as many shows as you guys can book us.”

“Good. I’ll tell Warren to work you guys hard then.”

“Fine by me. And thanks again for having faith in me.”

“Sure thing. Now just prove it wasn’t misplaced, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, and hung up.

Kent was a good guy and I was glad he was on our side. As annoyed as he was, I could imagine Dad had been driving him up the wall all last week. The fact that Dad gave him the hard sell and he still had my back said a lot. Now that I was finally over the last hurdle, I needed to repay his support and bust my ass. Our numbers were still holding good, mostly supported by people streaming our songs over and over. If we worked hard, we could keep the numbers up, make some good money, and start to really build our audience.

I’d missed school on Monday because of the emancipation hearing, but hardly anyone noticed, since all the entire school could talk about, even the teachers, was the article that had been published in the Sunday edition of the Asheville Herald. I was so wrapped up in my own troubles, I hadn’t even noticed, although it wasn’t like I was a regular newspaper subscriber. We hadn’t even talked about it at home. Kat was out until late training, getting ready for the Pan American Games, and I’d basically dominated the conversation with Mrs. Phillips about the emancipation hearing and Dad being arrested.

I finally got ahold of a copy of the article from Mr. French, in choir, and Fowler, the journalist who wrote the story, hadn’t pulled any punches. Although the school administration hadn’t given a comment, he did get comments from the school district and even several state lawmakers who’d written the bill that had started the SALT survey, including the requirements that the responses remain anonymous. He also talked to several of the affected families, although I noticed not mine, maybe because I was the one who asked for the story, about having their kids singled out.

The parents were pissed, some even saying they were talking to lawyers about suing the district and both the district and state lawmakers were talking about investigations. The most surprising thing was the administration wasn’t talking about it at all. No statements to the student body, no announcement, nothing. They were pretending like everything was okay, although several kids said they’d heard a rumor that Mr. Packer might get fired. I hoped that was true. Considering the negative attention the school was getting and the fact that he’d found a reason to blame me for the whole thing, or at least sounded like he had when he called me into his office, if he did survive this he was going to be even harder on me than before.

For now, at least, he was basically hiding in his office. I guessed he was waiting until things blew over.

The happy news for me didn’t stop with Mr. Packer either. Saturday, Hanna came home for Thanksgiving, and she didn’t have to go back for a week. She’d only been gone a couple of months, but it honestly felt like forever since I’d seen her. Sure, we’d talked on the phone a few times and she’d come home the one time, but having her home for a whole week was a blessing.

“Hopefully he’s going to get several months at least,” I said, winding down my description of everything that had happened since the last time I saw her.

It was a lot and she’d barely dropped her stuff when I started spilling the details of last month’s events to her. One of the things that made Hanna such a good friend was how ready she was to stop and listen to other people and, at this moment, to me specifically. The last time we talked, I was just thinking about emancipation. Since then, Dad had reported me as a runaway, I’d gotten emancipation, a huge scandal had broken out at school, which included Cameron getting both expelled and un-expelled, and Sydney and I were officially dating. To say it was a busy month was an understatement.

“What happens when he comes back?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m not going back there again, that’s for sure. Your mom said I can stay here until I go to college, but if worse comes to worst, I could move in with the band. I’d be sleeping on the couch in the living room, but at least I’d have a roof over my head.

“Mom won’t let that happen,” Hanna said.

“I know. I swear, I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

“She is kind of great. Although I’ll kick your ass if you ever tell her I said that.”

“Yeah. So now I need to bust my ass to make things right with the label. I talked to Warren on Thursday and he’s already working on setting up gigs for the holiday week, which means I won’t be able to see you that much while you’re home, which sucks.”

“How far are you going to have to go for these gigs?”

“I don’t know, but he said he was talking to some clubs in Virginia and even one in Maryland. He thinks exposure along the east coast will help, especially if we can get up into more populated areas. Since we won’t be able to do shows on Thanksgiving day and everyone wants to go see family, we’re pretty limited on how far we can go, but we can do shows through Wednesday night. That gives us three days, since the earliest he could get us a gig is Sunday night, and it doesn’t seem likely he’ll find anything for Wednesday night.”

“Good. I wish I could go with you, but after being gone half the summer and now college, Mom will have my head if I disappear for this break.”

“I get it. Kat can’t go either. She’s training so hard for the games, we hardly see her anymore.”

“We’ll see you here for Thanksgiving, which will be fun. Also, I haven’t told Kat yet, but I’m going to go with you guys to the games. We’ll get back pretty late on Sunday, so I’ll probably have to miss Monday’s classes, but I’ve already talked to my professors for the classes I have on Mondays, and I should be good. It’s going to be exciting, all of us out there, together again.”

“Really? Ohh, man, that’s great. I can’t wait.”

“I know. We’re going to have so much fun. So, what are you doing today?”

As if on cue, the doorbell rang right as Hanna asked about my plans.

“, I have a date. That’s probably her,” I said, heading towards the door.

“She comes to pick you up?” Hanna asked.

“No. She meets me here, and I drive us wherever we’re going. Her father isn’t my biggest fan, so it’s better for everyone that he and I don’t have any interactions,” I said, and then pulled the door open.

“Hey,” Sydney said, with a small wave, and then paused when she saw Hanna behind me.

“Hey. Do you know Hanna? She was a senior last year?”

“Ohh,” she said, almost looking relieved. “You’re Hanna. No, we never met, although I might have seen you around school. I’ve heard a lot about you, though.”

I found her reaction to Hanna a little strange. I hadn’t given her any cause to think I’d be up to something. Hell, my days were so full, I wouldn’t have had time to cheat on her even if I wanted to.

“He’s been talking about me? How dare you,” Hanna said, crossing her arms, and giving me a disapproving look.

Knowing Hanna, she picked up on the weird reaction and was hamming it up to keep things from getting awkward. I gave her a bump and she dropped the act, laughing.

“No,” Sydney said, giving a little nervous laugh to join in. “He’s only said good things.”

“Good. I’m Hanna and I’m guessing you’re Sydney. I’ve heard about you, too.”