Chapter 33

I made it back home very late Wednesday night, and Lyla was supposed to come over around lunchtime today to continue working on getting our songs ready without Marco’s part. Lyla had called around to some drummers she knew in Asheville, but so far we hadn’t had much luck. We weren’t in a huge hurry, since we at least had someone to back us up at the Blue Ridge, but summer was two months away, and we needed to make the most of our time until then.

Since Lyla never rolled out of bed before lunchtime, I’d hoped to get some sleep before she showed up, but my phone rang at nine, pulling me out of a dream I couldn’t remember but felt like I was enjoying.

“Yeah?” I mumbled, not even bothering to look at the screen.

“Charlie, it’s Arthur Eaves,” Mr. Eaves said. “I got a call from the school board about twenty minutes ago.”

“And?” I asked, now fully awake.

“They’ve agreed to lift your expulsion and say you can start back to school on Monday.”

“Monday? Why not today or tomorrow?”

I already had the week scheduled out, and Lyla and I really did have a lot of work to do to be able to play on Friday night, but I’d also missed a month and a half of schoolwork, and I was worried that I might not be able to catch up by the end of the year.

“Because of the second thing they told me. They’ve decided to suspend both the vice-principal and the principal pending an investigation into their actions, both with regards to you and also numerous other incidents at the school over the last year, including the whole SALT thing.”

“‘Pending an investigation’ sounds like they’re doing this to make us feel like something is happening without actually doing anything,” I pointed out.

“Normally, I’d agree with you, but not in this instance. The way educator unions and state rules work, it’s hard to outright fire anyone without at least nominally going through an official investigation process. That’s why that coach at your school, who was fired last year after attacking you, got his job back. What he did was a fireable offense, but the administration jumped the gun by firing him without doing an investigation, which broke their contract with him since every firing, regardless of the offense, must be fully investigated. The fact that they aren’t just naming actions that occurred against you but are pulling in a wide range of grievances going back multiple years, from the SALT test incident all the way to simple parental complaints about both men, tells me they’re taking it seriously. With this much ammo, they’re not doing it for show. They’re planning on firing both men. They’re just doing it in a way they are sure will stick.”

“Oh,” I said, actually surprised.

After Coach Bryant had been let back into his old job, I had just accepted that there was no chance of getting a fair result in anything to do with school. The world had shown me multiple times over the last year that fairness rarely had anything to do with the end result. The fact that this time there could be actual justice was actually surprising!

“Yes. I’m not saying it is guaranteed because it’s impossible to tell what will happen in the end, but I think it’s a strong signal that things might turn around at your school. They’ve put in a temporary administrator, for now, until they can get a new principal, which, considering how far along in the year it is now, probably won’t be until next year. The temporary administrator is going to talk to your teachers today and tomorrow and arrange a process to help you catch up on all of your missed assignments and classes. It will mean some more work on your part, however.”

“I’d rather that than to take the eleventh grade over again.”

“I assumed as much and already committed you to doing the tutoring and assignments they are preparing for you.”

“So, is there any indication as to who they might pick to replace Mr. Packer and Mr. Little?”

“No. As I said, it’s a process, most of which will happen over the summer. I’m sure at this point, they don’t know, and probably can’t even start to work on it until after they finish their investigation. They’ll want to keep things as cut and dried as possible, to make their firing of both men easier.”

“Okay,” I said.

I wouldn’t say I was thrilled, because who’s thrilled with more schooling, but I was very satisfied. It was nice to start having things go my way for once.

“That taken care of, there’s also movement on the other fronts. I’ve filed a lawsuit against the county for malicious prosecution. There is a preliminary hearing in two weeks, where the judge will almost certainly ask us to negotiate. That’s still very fast, but if we can’t come to an agreement, then we’ll have to go to trial, which is the part that can stretch out over time. Mr. Campbell will be there, since he’s still the county prosecutor, at least for now, as well as the county supervisor and the five members of the board of county commissioners.”

“I doubt they’ll negotiate, at least with Mr. Campbell there.”

“Maybe, but maybe not. An ethics complaint has already been opened against him with the state bar, and the state investigation agency has also opened a case file for misuse of government resources. The judge that dismissed your case, personally submitted complaints to both, just as she said she would, which is going to help expedite the process. Those will both take a long time to complete, but they’re enough for the county board to remove him from his position.”

“I thought he was elected,” I said.

“He is, but the board has the power to remove him, sheriffs, clerks, and a few others if they see fit. Checks and balances and whatnot.”

“Ohh. So, do you think we have a good chance of negotiating a settlement soon, or is this going to drag out forever?”

“It depends on what we ask for. The board will want this to go away and isn’t going to want the bad press, so they’ll be willing to give up a lot to get it to go away. They’d probably go as high as a million dollars.”

“What about requiring them to remove Mr. Campbell as part of the negotiation?”

“We can ask for anything we want, but he isn’t without friends. The decision to remove him will include calculating what it will mean in the political fight for them down the road.”

“And what could we get if we just went all the way with this lawsuit?”

“Honestly, between ten and twenty million, but you would eat a lot of that up in costs because they’re going to fight it tooth and nail, which means lots of appeals. It would probably take four to five years before it actually happens.”

“What if we asked for something close to that but then offered to take something a lot less than a million dollars, as long as they fired Mr. Campbell as part of the deal? I only have a year left here, and then I’m off to college, and without Mom around, there’s little reason to come back except to visit Chef and Mrs. Philips. If I’m really going to pursue music, I can’t imagine I’m going to want to stay in such a small town. Half the things I need to do now I have to drive to Asheville for, and even it’s too small for things like recording. I have to go out to Raleigh for that. I don’t want to be halfway across the country still fighting with Buncombe County. The thing I really want is for him to never be in a position of power again, not just to protect myself, since once I’m out of here I won’t be in his jurisdiction anymore, but for anyone else. I’d rather he be gone than for me to get a ton of money.”

“While I’d normally disagree with that, since my fee is partially based on how much you make, I get it. And I agree. Anyone who pulls the stuff he has this year needs to never be a lawyer again, let alone a prosecutor.”

“Good. Well, please think about that and see if you can come up with a deal they’ll take. You know these kinds of guys better than I do, and I trust you to figure it out.”

“All right, I’ll think about it. Lastly, I’ve set up a meeting with MAC and their lawyers to discuss breach of contract. I wasn’t specific about what I meant, and I think they believe that I want to talk about your breach of contract, maybe appeal the decision or whatever, for breaking the moral turpitude section, which means we have a bombshell to drop on them when we point out that they were the ones to breach the contract. My concern is that this is only a preliminary meeting. As soon as we make our demands, they’re going to try to circle the wagons, slowing everything down. Thank God it’s not one of the major labels owned by a mega-corporation, or they’d try to bleed us white with legal fees. As it is, even for a regional company like MAC, their best alternative is to make it as expensive as possible for us, in an attempt to force us to go away.”

“So what do we do?”

“The same thing we’re doing with the county and the school district. They are unequivocally in the wrong here, so we have that stick. It helps us that they wrote in a fairly large penalty for breaking the contract because their biggest concern was that you would try to pull out of the contract. They wrote in all sorts of ways for them to get out of it, from missing sales targets to something as vague as immoral behavior. Had they chosen one of those, or at least not put their explicit reason in writing, they could probably have wiggled out of this, but the letter they sent you is a weight around their necks, and it’s going to cause them a lot of problems.”

“If they can’t find an out, how much would they be on the hook for?” I asked.

“A million. They wanted a big enough number to scare you, even if you suddenly broke out and had options for better deals elsewhere, which is good for us. All we need is a carrot to offer them. Something that ultimately doesn’t cost them a lot and is much cheaper than losing or just fighting us.”

“So something like a little bit of money and the rights to my record?”

“We might be able to get that. We’re going to have to go at them very hard, though, to make it happen. If they take it, great, but it could put us in a bad position at trial.”

“Worst case is I don’t get a payout or the rights to my album, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then do it. I trust your judgment, and I really don’t want this to drag out anyway. I want to get any obstacles that might keep me from restarting my touring this summer out of the way.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of it,” he said and hung up.

Actually, that was all really good news. I would be back in school, and Mr. Packer would be gone, probably forever. There was a good chance Mr. Campbell was going to be out of a job, and I had a chance to get the rights to my record.

Things really were starting to look like they might be going my way.

“I’ve missed this,” I said to Lyla as we hung out in back of the Blue Ridge, killing time before we went on stage.

We’d practiced with Arnie Samson, Willie’s drummer, that afternoon. Everything seemed to be on track. It was good he was the one who was available. An old pro like him didn’t need a lot of lead time, so it really only took one practice for him to be good to go. Of course, there would be rough patches, but after a show or two, it should all be worked out.

I had to admit, I was a little nervous. After the dinner rush, the Blue Ridge started filling up, and already I could hear the noise from the crowd through the door to the kitchen and over the noise of the kitchen staff. It looked like my first show back was going to be standing room only, which was exciting, knowing that many people were here to support me, but also kind of terrifying. I might have played on stage a lot now, but there was an extra level of pressure after more than a month of not playing for anyone.

I’d had one of those ‘wake up naked in school’ dreams the night before, but it was me forgetting how to play my guitar in front of an audience and getting booed. I didn’t think that was going to happen, of course, but I couldn’t help thinking about it.

“Me too. I guess you don’t realize how much you miss something until it’s gone for a little while. Nervous?”

“No,” I lied. “I think we’ve got everything worked out, and the practice set this afternoon went well. Besides, these people like us. We’ve got ‘home field advantage.’”

“I know we weren’t together all that long, but it feels weird to be just the two of us, no Seth or Marco.”

“I know, but they made their choice. I think that after a few days, everything will feel normal again. It’s one of those things that you adapt to.”