The news flying around school was that Grady had been released from the hospital, had come to the school with his father and been expelled. The police had been called because Mr. Thoms turned out to be as violent and quick-tempered as his son. There’d been some commotion, and the school had taken out a restraining order against both father and son; either would be arrested if they were found within 100 yards of the school. Almost as an afterthought, Mr. Scott had had Nick’s name added to the order.
Mrs. McKinley wasn’t happy to lose Grady from the football team, but it seemed to Jake that everyone he overheard talking about it in his classes and at lunch was happy Grady was gone. Not even members of the football team regretted his departure. They might not win as many games without him, but then they wouldn’t have to deal with him, either. That was a win.
Gary came to the table where Jake and Jeremy were sitting at lunch and told Nick that their band was rehearsing late that afternoon after school and football practice.
“The two other guys are Keith and Peter. Keith is on keyboard and Peter plays drums.”
“And you’re on guitar?”
“Yeah. But if you join, I’ll switch to bass. I’m only on guitar because we need one. I’m better at bass and like it better. Some guys get hyped being the front man. Not me. I prefer being in back.”
Jake was quiet for a second, then smiled. “You know, when you were on guitar, instead of that caballeros stuff, you could have called yourselves the Alliterates.”
It only took Gary a moment. “Hey, what a great name, and most people wouldn’t even get it, which is perfect for a band’s name. Percussion, huh? You’re smart, aren’t you? I figured you were. Wish I’d thought of that name. But we talked about a name for hours, kicking around ideas, and finally agreed on The Three Caballeros.”
Jake looked at him for a moment, then got a devious smile on his face and a wicked glint in his eyes. “You know, I’m sort of imagining how that talk went, you guys bouncing around various names. And then when I coupled that thought with the fact those two guys are your friends and that they’re boyfriends, it’s easy to wonder about something.” Then he looked at Jeremy and paused.
Jeremy caught the glance and picked up on what Jake was wanting. He said, “I’m done. I’ll leave you two to talk about band stuff.” Then he got up and took his tray to the trash cans, leaving Jake and Gary by themselves.
Jake then continued, speaking low enough that no one at the neighboring tables could hear. “The Three Caballeros almost sounds like a compromise, doesn’t it? It does to me. I mean, wouldn’t it be a better name if it were The Gay Caballeros? Especially if you’re going to be playing at a gay bar? Now that name has some texture, some bite to it. Makes you sit up and notice. And you said you hashed it out for a long time. So perhaps the name The Gay Caballeros was suggested early on and maybe you balked, which explains the hours it took to reach a compromise. Could it have gone like that? Huh? Huh?”
Jake smiled, indicating this was all in good humor, that he was making this all up, teasing maybe by elliptically suggesting Gary might be a closeted gay but doing so in a way it was all fun and of no great moment, but Gary was looking down at his desk and definitely not blushing, and he didn’t see Jake’s smile, although he couldn’t have missed the light, jocular tone of Jake’s voice. There was a moment of silence before Jake came to his rescue.
He said in a much softer voice, “Hey, I was teasing, but if I hit too close to home, none of this bothers me at all. You’ve sort of been giving hints that you’re gay right along, and so I said what I said. But if you’re gay, and if you were the one who changed the Gay to Three, I’d guess that was because you aren’t out. Look, I agreed to come sit in with you at a rehearsal, see whether I’d like to be part of it and if you three guys liked me, and that still goes. Okay? Playing with you or not would have nothing to do with anyone being gay.”
Gary didn’t say anything for a moment, then looked up. “You will? Good. It’s not that I’m not out. I am, sort of. I mean, some people know. My parents do. Jeremy does. The band. The only reason I wasn’t totally out was because of Grady. See, he hated gays, and I was on the team with him. I was sure he’d catch me in the locker room when we were alone or manage to get me on the field when he could make it look like an accident. Now, however, well, maybe we could become the Gay Caballeros. All of us.” He said it tentatively but looked meaningfully at Jake.
Jake shook his head. “Not if I decide to join.”
He saw the flicker of hope that was in Gary’s eyes fade. “Not the Alliterates, either, I guess,” Gary said. “And The Four Caballeros doesn’t have the same ring to it. We’ll have to think on it.”
“Not till I decide to join,” Jake said, and Gary nodded, then smiled. “But I think you’ll love it if you like that kind of music.”
“I do,” Jake said. “Now about this first rehearsal . . .”
= = =
Ricco was sitting in Ruby’s car across the street from the school when the final bell rang and the school doors erupted with students. He had a city map open on the seat next to him so he’d have an excuse for sitting there if any nosy cop came by.
It was difficult for him to thoroughly scan the crowd and know that he’d seen everyone, but he did his best. When the outflow tapered and only a few students were still leaving and he saw cars lined up to get out of the student parking area, he realized he’d have to do this again, maybe a couple of times. He needed to watch the door that led to the parking lot and maybe a side door as well. Shouldn’t be a problem, though. He waited till no other students were leaving and drove away, still thinking about staying out of sight as much as possible.
Ruby had been excited when he brought up the question of his staying with her for a few days. She’d showed it by agreeing to a morning-after screw and then fixing him breakfast. Good way to start the day. Promising. And she’d had no reluctance at all about letting him borrow her car. He liked her eager innocence. It would make things much easier down the road.
= = =
Jake had ridden Mr. Scott’s bike to school with his guitar case strapped over his back. After school, he went and sat in the bleachers and watched Gary practice with the rest of the football players. Then he waited outside the locker room. Eventually Gary came out, and the two of them went to meet the other two boys and ride in Keith’s car to Peter’s for their rehearsal. Keith had told him they’d bring him back for his bike when they were finished.
In Peter’s garage, it became obvious watching Keith and Peter together that they were a couple. They seemed to take every opportunity to brush against each other, touch each other, and there were many significant-appearing looks going back and forth between them. But they were very friendly, too, and made Jake feel right at home.
Jake was to find that Keith was the more verbal of the two. Peter was quiet and only spoke when necessary or when spoken to. Keith didn’t have that hang-up. “Gary says you learned guitar playing the same music we play, Nick. You shouldn’t have any trouble with what we do then. Chord progressions on this stuff are pretty standard. Do you read music?”
“Yeah, the guy who taught me insisted I learn how. Said I’d be more versatile that way. But I can pick it up by ear, too.”
“Great. We do have the charts for everything we play. I need them for keyboard, and we got them from my grandfather. There are extra copies of everything. Today, we have to decide what we’re going to perform at our gig on Thursday, and I’ll give you each a chart as we go along. What the guy at the bar said was that the audience liked ballads. Ballads from the 50’s. Stuff before all the music got raucous. I’ve got some picked out we can try.
“Why don’t we start with Love Me Tender. It was a huge Elvis Presley hit, and it’ll let us hear your voice, Nick.”
Jake looked at the music and nodded. “I know this one. The old guy loved Presley, and I think he had me play everything he did.”
“Even the fast stuff?”
“Sure.”
Keith gave him a look. “You must be a pretty good player then. Well, good. Let’s go then.”
Jake and Gary tuned to the keyboard, and they started in. Gary was amazed at Nick’s deep, resonant baritone singing voice, lower-pitched than his speaking voice and with very good range. When the song was over, the three boys simply stared at Jake. Then Keith asked, “Where have you been all our lives?” There was wonder in his voice.
Gary came over and clapped Jake on the back. “That was wonderful, Nick. You’ve got to join us. You have a fantastic voice, and with you in it, the band will really be something. You make us sound better than we are.”
They played through several songs. Jake had no problem even with the pieces that were new to him. With the score in front of him that had the chords shown above the lines, it was just a matter of fingering the chords and following the lyrics.
They decided that they’d play five numbers; that should be plenty even though it wouldn’t take all that long to get through them. Their thinking was they could always repeat a couple of them if the audience demanded more, but if they bombed, they didn’t want to be kicked off the stage. Five songs that might take less than twenty minutes tops seemed a good compromise.
The five they chose were hopefully ones the audience would remember and love. The songs were all 50’s-era hits: Love Me Tender, a huge 1956 hit sung by Elvis Presley; Goin’ Home, a gospel song sung by Paul Robeson and many others and adapted from Antonin Dvorak’s New World Symphony; Teen Angel sung by Mark Dinning and included in the American Graffiti film; Too Young, the number one hit from 1951 by Nat King Cole; and Earth Angel, featured in the movie Back to the Future and a chart topper by the Penguins in 1954. All these songs would allow Jake to showcase his mellow but vibrant singing voice. They spent two hours working on the songs, and Gary, Keith and Peter were ecstatic when they were done.
“Nick, you’ve got to join us,” Keith said. Jake looked at Gary, who seemed unable to speak; awestruck seemed the word for him. Peter smiled at Jake and gave him a thumbs up.
“I have to admit, this was fun,” Jake said. “I’ll think it over and tell Gary tomorrow. By the way, when’s the gig?”
“As I said, Thursday. Day after tomorrow. But we’ll be ready then; as good as we sounded today, we’re ready now. But what we really need is you!”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Just give me some time to digest the idea. And hey, let me look at some of the other charts you have.”
Keith had a filing cabinet with five drawers, and it was filled with music. Peter went to get Cokes for all of them; Gary said he had to hit the head. Jake started thumbing through the folders in the drawers. He stopped when he came to one, pulled it out and walked over to Keith. “You guys ever play this?”
Keith took a look and said, “That’s one of Gary’s favorites. Yeah, we know it well.”
“Good. Well, don’t say anything to the others, but I’d like to do it sometime later on. Not this gig, but sometime. If you’re okay with that and can keep it a secret from the other guys, well, okay, I’ll sing with you guys.”
Keith stood up and shook hands enthusiastically with him. “Nick, that’s great. No problem keeping that one as a surprise.”
= = =
Mr. Scott had a little time in his office with no students needing him, a rarity, and decided to use it to check the student data base, looking to see if anyone had searched for either Derrick Winters or Jacob Delgado. He was surprised to find both names had been entered three days earlier within a minute of each other.
No one had checked for Nicholas Karras. But the thought occurred that someone knowledgeable enough to get around the safeguards that were built into the school’s computer system might well be smart enough to run a search for all new students. Nick’s name would show up on that one. There were hundreds of names on that list, but half of them were girls. Just the fact that Nick’s name was on the list was worrisome.
However, that check hadn’t been done yet. He checked again just to be sure. Jake was safe for now. Mr. Scott thought about changing the date of entry for Nick. If he wasn’t shown as a new student, he’d be invisible to any search. All that had to be done was to falsify Jake’s records, perhaps even show him starting at the school as a freshman and give him grades for that year.
He decided that was probably unnecessary, but something he would do anyway. Better safe than sorry. Just then, his secretary knocked on the door to his office and said a student wanted him. He told her okay and decided to wait to change Jake’s records till he had sufficient time.
= = =
Jake told Mr. Scott after dinner that he needed to go to the mall. The band had decided to all wear black for the gig. Black dress shirts, black ties, black chinos, black socks and sneaks. That meant a shopping trip. “Is there money from WITSEC to cover it?” he asked.
“Yes, I got the first month’s support money already. Plenty enough for what you want.”
“Uh, but isn’t that supposed to cover the food I’m eating, gasoline, incidentals?”
“We talked about this, Jake. Don’t worry about it. You’re covered and it’s nothing for you to bother about. We’ll head for the mall when dinner and dishes are done.”
At the mall they had to visit several stores before they found everything to Jake’s satisfaction. As it was a weekday evening, they’d found a parking place on the first floor of the parking structure near the door to the mall.
Meanwhile, Ricco had decided to cruise the mall. He was cruising the town, too, and decided to drive through the mall parking structure while he was at it. He drove in just as Mr. Scott and Jake were driving out on their way back home. He turned his head and caught a quick glance at a boy in the passenger seat of the car leaving. Was that Derrick? Damn, it sure looked like him, but he only had a profile view and that for less than a second.
He wanted to go after them, but he was already halfway into the entrance and there was a car behind him. He had no choice but to keep driving in. He did so and made a quick turn, needing to get to the exit as fast as possible. He drove back out and stopped, looking both ways. He hadn’t been able to see which way the car with Derrick in it had turned. He couldn’t see it in either direction. So, he simply picked one; he turned right and drove off.
He was handicapped by not being able to drive as fast as he wanted to. The chance of being picked up by a cop was too great, and that could be disastrous. So he drove at the speed limit, looking ahead and down side streets both ways.
He was looking for a white car, one of the Japanese models that all seemed to look alike. The problem was, it seemed like every third car on the road was a white, Japanese car. He thought one car far in front of him might be the one and risked speeding up enough to eventually catch up with it. From behind he could see a dark-haired person in the passenger seat.
The car’s right turn signal blinked. He got as close as he could, knowing he’d get a view of the passenger when the car turned right. It did, and he did. The passenger was a man. Didn’t look a bit like Derrick.
He kept driving, trying to look in the windows of all the white cars he passed, but he never saw anyone who looked like Derrick. Finally, he simply gave up. No way he could find that car. He wasn’t even sure it had been Derrick he’d seen. But he thought it had been, and it made him hopeful of finding him soon. Tomorrow, maybe.
He’d been worried that perhaps the kid wasn’t even in Reston when he couldn’t find Derrick or Jake in the high school student roster. Now, he could put that worry to bed. He was here! He’d just seen him. Now it really was just a matter of time.
He decided to be back at the high school tomorrow, early this time, catching the students arriving and checking the parking lot and the side door those students took. He had high hopes of seeing Derrick and the car he’d come in. After that, it would be easy pickings. He’d be done with this no later than tomorrow.
= = =
Jake spent another night falling asleep thinking about Gary. He usually fell asleep pretty quickly. Not that night. That night he had to get his mind off Gary, and the method he normally used to relax didn’t help with that at all. Gary was in his head and there was no way to get him out.