Center Stage
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 20
Another few weeks went by and I was back to my old routine. Mostly, it was school, homework, practice. Rinse and repeat. The only thing I missed was that the last time it was like this, Kat was still in school with me and I saw her every day. Now, I had to settle for nightly video calls, which just wasn’t the same.
Still, I was actually happy the tour was over and I was back home again. After stagnation, basically since before I went on The Stage, we were finally working on new music again. I had a few ideas that I was fleshing out, but Lyla brought an absolute banger out of nowhere on Thursday called Dirty Little Secrets that was fast, hard-hitting, and just like One Night Stand, a hell of a lot of fun. We played it the night before and it got a great reaction. It wasn’t quite ready yet and there were a few points I wanted to tighten up, but she really was coming into her own with writing music.
Before I started homework, though, I checked my email, looking for Warren’s update. Every Monday he sent a rundown of how the previous week had gone, and in the weeks since the end of the tour, that update had been better every week. I knew that couldn’t last, but for now it was exciting, seeing those higher numbers listed, week after week.
This one was no different, with a fifteen percent jump over the previous week. Alina had shown up on several more shows, this time denying that we were in a relationship, but really talking me up. Her management might have seen the denials as a bad idea, but every time she went on TV and talked about me, I was seeing a boost in my numbers. That had a limited life, and we needed more than just random mentions by celebrities, but it was a good stopgap until the ARC deal closed and we started getting real marketing behind us.
Quinn had been adamant that was what we really needed if I was going to take it to the next level. Being on a steady show, being on tour, being mentioned on talk shows was great, and every bit of it helped, but none of it compared to real, constant marketing. I took her word for it. It had been over a year since I’d been with MAC, and they hadn’t done that kind of marketing for our album. There had been some, but it had been more appearances-based, with me on radio shows and whatnot, than actual, national-level marketing, which ARC could bring.
The deal was taking a long time, which was very frustrating, but I didn’t take that as a sign that it would fall through. I trusted my team to fight for me to get the best deal possible and I trusted Hal to be fair and reasonable, and not walk away from the process. I made sure Warren and Benny knew I wanted this to happen, and while they could push for as good of a contract as they could get, I didn’t want them to hold so firm that it didn’t happen. I was more worried about Benny than Warren in that, since he loved to play hardball.
I finished my last pass through the numbers, which now included an update on social media, where both mine and the band accounts were really starting to grow, and then pushed it all aside to get started on my homework. I had a midterm on Friday and I wanted to do well on it. I’d gotten my grades back on track, but I still wanted to pull in a few more really good scores to undo the damage I’d done early in the semester.
I had just found the spot in my textbook and started to write down notes when my phone buzzed. The number on the screen wasn’t one I recognized, but I’d had my number changed after the doxing, so only a few friends had this one, and it was a California area code. I hoped maybe it was an ARC office line not yet programmed in my phone.
“Hello?”
“Is this Charlie Nelson?” a professional-sounding voice said.
“It is.”
Maybe I made a mistake because this felt like a sales call.
“Charlie, this is Daren Larson with the dean of admissions here at USC. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know how thrilled we are to have you joining us in the fall.”
“Umm, thank you. I’m excited about the opportunity.”
After Kat and I argued, I went ahead and accepted USC’s offer. Of the schools that had sent acceptances, they best met what I needed, although I still thought I would have been okay at UNC. Yes, Kat was right, their program wasn’t as good, but honestly, at this point, I just wanted to fulfill my promise to my mother. Yes, some more official training would help a little bit, but I didn’t think it would greatly change my career. Not from where it was at.
“And we’re excited to have you. However, I wanted to discuss a few things with you about your admission here. Nothing bad, I promise,” he said, I guess realizing how ominous that last sentence sounded. “As I’m sure you’re aware, you fall into a small category of students who attract a high level of public interest. That means we need to handle your admission process a bit differently.”
While I knew a lot of colleges that I hadn’t even applied to were courting me, I didn’t really think about what it would mean when it came to actually going to one. It made sense, though, that they would have to treat the actual admissions, and maybe even attendance, differently.
“I understand. What do you need from me?”
“Well, word has already leaked that you’ll be attending USC in the fall. I should apologize for that since the leak was almost certainly out of our offices. Unfortunately, with students doing work-study on campus, it makes keeping secrets like this hard. While that normally isn’t a problem, you again fall into a small group in which it matters. We’ve been inundated with media requests for comments about your attendance, enough that we need to properly address it. What we’d like to do, if you’re amenable, is to fly you out here in a few weeks and hold a joint press conference around April fifteenth to officially announce your plans to attend. This way, we can control the narrative and hopefully minimize disruptions to your education.”
I wasn’t sure how truthful the ‘minimize disruption to your education’ part was. This was clearly more about the school building its own publicity off my name than anything else, but I remembered Quinn saying any chance to be in front of a camera with something positive was an opportunity.
“I see. I’m definitely open to the idea, but I think we need to loop in my publicist, Quinn Chandler, to work out the details.”
“Of course, of course. We’d be happy to coordinate with your team.”
“Great. I’ll keep that date noted, and once you guys get an outline of what you have in mind and Quinn signs off on it, she’ll get it on my schedule,” I said, then rattled off Quinn’s office email to him.
“Absolutely. We’ll take care of that right away. And Charlie, let me just say again how thrilled we are to have you joining the Trojan family. Your talent and drive are exactly what we look for in our students.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d already said yes. He didn’t need to keep buttering me up.
“Thanks. I’m looking forward to it.”
After a few more pleasantries, we hung up. Before getting back to my homework, I shot a text to Quinn, giving her a heads up and asking her to keep an eye out for the email from USC.
Hopefully, we could get the ARC deal finalized beforehand, and maybe something more solid on the tour dates. If we were going to get news coverage from them, we might as well try to use them as much as they were using us.
Tuesday, I was looking forward to getting to band practice. I’d had some thoughts the night before, after my call with USC, about how to really push Lyla’s new song. It worked when I was playing it by myself and in my head, but that wasn’t always the case when we got everyone playing, so I wanted to see if it worked for real.
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