Chapter 34

Tuesday was the airing of the first episode of The Stage. They would have three more episodes that week with auditions from different cities, but Warren had called the producers and found out when my particular part was airing. I wasn’t sure if being on the first day was a good thing or not. On one hand, we’d be the first ones people saw, and maybe they’d remember us and judge everyone else against us.

On the other hand, maybe by the end of the four episodes scheduled this week, including one on Thanksgiving itself, they would have forgotten about us by the time the audition episodes were done, and next week when I showed up on screen and the audience would be like, ‘Who’s that?’

Not that I had any say in the placement I got. Hanna was still at school and wasn’t going to make it to my viewing party. I’d truly hoped she would because this was a big moment for me, but I know how easy it is to get wrapped up in your own thing. Besides, I’d had enough drama and she’d been with me through it over the last three years that missing one was going to be inevitable.

Mrs. Phillips didn’t take it well. We managed to talk her down off the fence from calling Hanna, but she was still a little pissed as we pulled into the Blue Ridge. The big sign by the highway said, “Closed for Private Event/Viewing Party for Charlie Nelson’s The Stage Audition.” Since I’d helped get that sign changed once, I knew what a massive pain in the butt it was, which is why most of the time, it always said the same thing, no matter how current or out-of-date it was.

While I knew Chef probably sent Vinney to do it, it still meant a lot that he’d go through that effort for me, or at least have Vinney go through that effort for him for me.

“Oh, wow! He really went all out decorating!” Kat exclaimed as we pulled up.

She was right; there were colored lights strung up along the porch railing, a red carpet rolled out to the front door, and even an actual spotlight placed right at the entrance. She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. I swear she was more excited about this than I was.

The inside was even more decked out than the exterior. Vinney had moved most of the tables to the edges of the room and covered them with red tablecloths, upon which sat an assortment of party foods and drinks. In the cleared middle space were rows of chairs facing the big TV on the wall, currently playing music videos. As Kat and I walked through the door, a huge cheer went up from the crowd gathered inside. I had a huge grin on my face.

“You kids go have fun. I’m going to go talk to Ronni,” Mrs. Phillips said, pointing at one of her friends who’d come out, along with a lot of the rest of the local community beyond just my friends.

The place was packed, in fact, more so than on music nights. I would have been worried that the fire marshal was going to shut us down, except I saw him by the bar talking to Sheriff Gibbs. I was surprised to see the sheriff since we hadn’t spoken since Mom’s funeral, after Sydney dumped me.

There were other faces, more friendly ones, too. The entire lunch group, including the guys who went to college, were back and had come out. Kat and I walked over to them, and Jordan Haines, my other ex-girlfriend’s sister, jumped out of her chair and gave me a huge hug.

“Charlie, oh my gosh! It’s so good to see you!”

I laughed, returning the enthusiastic hug. “Great to see you too, Jordan. How’s school going?”

“Great! My nutrition classes, well, class since I have a bunch of pre-reqs to get out of the way, is really interesting. The campus is huge, though. It took me weeks to figure out how to get around.”

“Man, I have the opposite problem. RISD is tiny. It’s actually smaller than Carr if you can believe it,” Megan said.

Peyton punched her lightly in the arm and said, “That’s what you get for going to an art college.”

Megan just shrugged. I mean, what else was she going to say? It was a pretty small field.

“Kat’s rooming with Hanna,” I said. “And killing it on the swim team.”

“Yeah, she’s been emailing all of us,” Laura said. “Where is Hanna? I thought she’d be here.”

I hadn’t realized Kat was emailing back and forth with everyone. She’d only joined the friend group late in my sophomore year after she’d finally broken from Aaron and his crew and started facing her condition. It was good to know she’d kept in touch with them. Especially since I was terrible at staying in touch.

I also noted that it didn’t seem that they had been talking to Hanna, who was completely lost in her relationship with Professor Cross. I hadn’t talked to her since I left for the competition.

“She had schoolwork. She plans on coming tomorrow or Thursday,” I said, sticking to Hanna’s cover story.

Kat made a face but otherwise didn’t say anything.

“Speaking of Kat emailing. What’s up with you? You don’t call. You don’t write. What, you become a TV star and get too big for us?” Megan asked, nudging me with an elbow.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I mean, this whole thing has been crazy, but yeah, it’s my fault. I could have done better.”

Kat slipped her arm around my waist. “I think you can forgive him this once. His life has been kind of crazy.”

“Says the girl he calls every night,” Jordan said.

It was then that I wondered just how much detail Kat had been providing to them.

Before I could find out just how much they knew, Chef hopped up on the stage and started tapping the microphone to get everyone’s attention.

“I just wanted to say a few words about our guest of honor tonight,” he said. “I’ve known this kid for a few years now. When he first walked into my restaurant, he was just a scrawny fifteen-year-old looking for an after-school job.”

A chuckle rose from the people who knew me when I’d moved to town. In my head, I didn’t think I looked that different, but looking back at pictures I found when I cleaned up Mom’s trailer, he was right. The end of that first summer here, before I’d made friends and really started anything, I was so thin. It was kind of shocking to see how malnourished I looked. Looking at a recent picture of me, I wouldn’t even really know it was the same person. I’d put on weight, picked up an additional almost three inches in height, and put on a ton of muscle. I was very much a different person physically than I’d been when I first walked into the Blue Ridge.

“Jennifer,” he continued, pointing over to Mrs. Phillips, “sent him my way for a job, and I gotta tell you, I liked Charlie from that first meeting. Smart as a whip, eager, and just a really solid foundation. And that’s before I ever heard him play a note. I’d like to take credit for that discovery, but that goes to Willie. Like so many other things, Willie could see right to the heart of things, and saw greatness in Charlie from minute one. He told me, two days after he heard Charlie play for the first time, that he was going to do something big. He told me to do whatever I had to do to back Charlie, ‘cause one day we’d all be looking at his name up on a billboard saying ‘I knew him when.’ It might be the best advice Willie ever gave me.”

Chef fell silent for a moment, and I knew he was thinking about Willie. I was thinking about what Willie had said to him. I’d never heard that story. Chef had always backed me, and I knew it was because he liked me and saw something in me, but I didn’t know it was Willie who’d given him that first push. Yet another thing I owed Willie that I’d never be able to repay.

“So here we are, a few years later, and this kid is about to be seen by millions on national TV. He’s out here living the dream. And I gotta say, I’m incredibly proud of him. I know we all are.”

Chef looked at me, and I put my hand on my heart to let him know how much that meant to me. He just gave me a little nod and went back to the microphone.

“Now, it looks like the show’s about to start. If you need anything, Vinney’s up by the bar and the guys are back in the kitchen ready to make whatever we need. Otherwise, let’s see Charlie kick some ass.”

Chef walked off the stage, and the lights dimmed as the show’s opening theme song began playing on the large TV. I was suddenly nervous, my stomach doing a little float, which was wild, because I knew how this was going to turn out. I hadn’t thought it would bother me; I mean, I’m up on stage in front of people all the time. Everyone in this room had seen me perform lots of times, so why would this make me nervous? And yet, it did.

The intro finished, and Dexter popped up to explain the contest and the stakes in an over-the-top fashion, just as he had on the other shows I’d watched. I knew they rotated some of the judges, but every show I’d seen had Dexter in it, and he’d always acted as host. I hadn’t thought about it before, during the contest, but I wondered what their contracts were like, and if maybe Dexter’s production company was part of the show, explaining why he was always the host. He hadn’t been big in a while, so if he had managed that, it was smart. The show got huge ratings, so it would be a good way for him to keep going even later on in his career.

Atlanta was first, and after some sweeping shots of the contestants backstage, the first few were up. The contestants weren’t allowed inside the audition rooms, so I didn’t have any clue how the other auditions went, well, except Marissa. I hadn’t known she auditioned with me and Cole, but there she was. She’d done a straight country song, which made sense, and got ‘yeses’ from all four judges.

They kept to their winning formula for the audition episodes of about fifty-fifty, equal parts good singers who made it through and terrible ones. After a few more singers, they went back to the crowd shots, showing contestants talking, most nervous and just trying to distract themselves.

“There he is!” Joseph yelled out when I appeared on camera.

A chorus of cheers rose up from my friends. This was so bizarre, like an out-of-body experience watching myself on TV. I was talking to Amber, and she was telling me how she was definitely going to win the whole thing. I hadn’t remembered the conversation being so awkward, but I guess it had been because the producers decided to use it. Or maybe it was because of what happened next.

They showed Amber’s audition and the absolute tantrum she threw on the way out. The conversation I’d had with Cole must have not been that interesting, though, because they didn’t show that, even though there had definitely been a camera pointed at us the whole time. I did see him behind me when Amber was talking to me, though.

Then came my audition. I shifted self-consciously as my on-screen self launched into “Supposed to Be.” It was all I could do to keep from cringing. To my ear, I made a ton of mistakes. I could hear every time I rushed a verse or didn’t hit a note quite right. Everyone else was clapping and shouting at the TV, so it must not have been that bad, but I felt a little like I wanted to crawl into a hole.