I smiled, and my gut sank towards my feet as I slowly stood up. “What do you need?”
“You have a new student on your roster this year who is interested in our music production degree. Darren Petersen is a third-year sophomore who has been taking his gen-ed classes while he captains the school’s soccer team. Quite a few of our athletes do this, and they take a couple extra years to graduate. The time commitment placed on our athletes is apparently quite difficult for them with all of the traveling and away games. I had no idea, of course. We rarely get an athlete in most of our fields of study.”
“So, how can I help? You’re not asking me to pass him without him doing the work, are you?” I asked slowly, knowing I would have little choice if I wanted to keep my job.
The dean wrinkled his face as he shook his head. “Of course not. That would be an egregious thing to do to the young man. I’m just asking you to take a special interest in him and help him along the best you can. If he decides to become a fine arts major, Thomas, it would be incredibly helpful to this department. His family is quite wealthy, and Bullfrog alumni themselves. However, they fund the colleges that they graduated from. I think the wife got a teaching degree, and the husband was pre-law. They give tons of money to those departments, and if their son comes here... It’s going to go a long way for our department, as well as you. Can I count on you?” He straightened his tie, which was already straight, and waited for my response.
I swallowed hard and stared back. “To do my job? Of course, you can.”
That creepy grin broke across his face again. “Your evaluations from the students always come back with high marks, so I know you’re up to this task. Make sure he enjoys his lessons and try to encourage him if you can.”
“What if the boy has no musical talent?” I sat back down. I liked to be real with my students. It was a horrible thing to blow smoke up someone’s ass when you knew that a career in music wasn’t for them. They would learn that soon enough, but by then, it could be too late.
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, alright? Thanks, Thomas, and here’s to a great start to the new year.” His grin tightened at the edges – which made me highly uncomfortable, and then he turned and walked away.
What the fuck was that?
Music production didn’t really require a student to be great at any actual instrument or voice, but they did need to have an understanding of each of them. Most of his classes would be in the sound studio as he learned to mix and produce. Of course, he would take theory and composition like everyone else. But why was I chosen when voice wasn’t his real field of study?
Something was rotten in Denmark, and it made me nervous. Was I the sacrificial lamb? More than that, why did I have this sneaking suspicion that Darren Petersen was going to be a huge pain in my ass? A jock? This was not going to go well at all.
2
DARREN
“Yo! Tits!” Pete screamed at me from the locker room, where some of the guys were still getting out of their practice uniforms.
“I still hate that nickname,” I muttered under my breath as I soaped up under my arms. I had really worked up a sweat today and had to peel my clothes off before taking a shower. Fuck – I’m glad I didn’t have to do the laundry for this team. The locker room stank of jock. “What do you want, asshole?”
“There you are. Damn, you move fast.” Pete strode in, wearing only his smile and a patch of chest hair that was quite impressive for a twenty-year-old. “I wondered if you want to hang out at the house?”
“Dude, the last thing I want to do is hang out at the frat house right before the first day of classes. Everyone will be fucking drunk and stupid. I still have a scar from last year’s end-of-the-year party.” I groaned as I scrubbed at my pits.
“Yeah? I completely forgot about that.” Pete chuckled maniacally. I was glad my pain was so much fun for him.
“I haven’t. Darts flying around the house and sticking in a person’s ass is not something I want to repeat.” I shook out my hair. Water droplets flew through the air.
“Dude, if that would have been your eye, your career would have been over.” Mark, a sophomore from Maine, added as he washed his hair.
Pete huffed. “They were aiming at asses. I know the guys are…”
“Stupid? I think that’s the word you’re looking for.” I laughed as I rinsed under the luke-warm water. It felt good. I had trained all summer to be ready for this year. Athletes could only play for four seasons, and this was my last as the captain of the Bullfrog soccer team. I wanted to make sure I went out on a high note.
“Hey, Tits – those are my brothers.” Pete grinned at me as he soaped up his furry chest. I glanced down and noticed that his bush was just as… bushy.
“You must be the smart one in the family.” I slapped him on his ass before walking back into the locker room. “Besides, I have stuff to do. So…”
“Fine, bro!” He screamed. “But I’m not taking no for an answer over the weekend. We still need you to spin for us.”
“I said yes, dumbass.” Besides, the frat was actually paying me to DJ, and I liked having my own money. Made me feel that I didn’t need to ask dad for a handout. That always came with lectures and judgment, so I tried to avoid that whenever I could. All Dad cared about was wins on the field and nothing below a B on the report card he was paying for with his hard earned money.
Hard earned? Dad worked hard enough – I knew that. But the money came from his great grandparents who journeyed to America from Austria right before World War One. The Mosers came from a long line of people with money back in the old country. When they left for America, they were not one of the poor families who escaped with little to a new country. The Mosers came with their fortune intact, and Great Grandpa Moser quickly became a success in his new country. My grandmother, their oldest child, married my grandfather, Hutton Petersen – who also came from a family that was not hurting financially. We were WASPs thru and thru.
The problem with being wealthy was the expectations of the family. Trying to get them to understand that I didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps was not an easy argument to win. There was no way in hell I was going to be a lawyer. That was not the life I wanted to live. I wanted music. I wanted it so badly that I was prepared for whatever consequences my family would bestow in judgment upon me when I finally let them know the truth.
That’s why it was so important for me to have my own money and to stand on my own. I worked hard to get a full ride to college. I kept my grades up and was a top pick for many colleges on the pitch. I didn’t really have a choice where I was going, though. Lakeview had been decided for me before I was ever born. I’m lucky that I liked it here since I never had a choice.
Lakeview has become home for me – maybe even more than the one I grew up in. Once I got out from under the demands and expectations of my family, I discovered that I could actually breathe and make some of my own decisions. I chose my friends. I chose what I did throughout the day. I saved money to buy my own DJ equipment, and by the time I became a sophomore, I had put up flyers on campus. I’ve been liquid ever since.
