Page 5 of Paper Ghosts

“The band was drunk or high, or both. I don’t know. But they were apparently pretty rowdy. During the lunch, Principal Penwell had to break up a fight between two of them, something about a student. He never liked Andy Smooth anyway, back when he was the band director, so he told him he should leave. Andy stormed out with the band. But here’s the good part. A few minutes later, one of the band members walked back into the auditorium. The fight had extended outside and Andy had taken all his things and thrown them from the van, then peeled out of the parking lot, leaving him. And he’s still here. He’s staying with Principal Penwell.”

“Who is it?” Wills asked, breathless, though she couldn’t understand why. None of this affected her personally. “Which band member?”

“The young one. Mustache. Dark hair. Big belt buckle.” Jani cut her eyes at Wills. “His name is Jack Vaughn.”

When they got to school and walked through the main entrance, there was an unexpected bottleneck where the school bulletin board was located. Students were gathered around two and three deep.

“What’s going on?” Jani asked, pushing forward in case it was something important the Feathers needed to be a part of. Wills and Dorothy followed in the path she made.

“The dude from the band is giving guitar lessons after school,” Wills heard someone say. She stopped short, but it was too late. They were now standing in front of him.

He didn’t look as rough as he did yesterday. His long hair was still damp from a shower, and he’d shaved and trimmed his mustache. He was wearing jeans and a camel-colored corduroy blazer, as if trying to blend into academia. It didn’t work.

“Do you ladies want to sign up?” he asked, using his thumb to indicate a sign-up sheet on the board. Despite the ruckus, there were only six names on it, probably because he was charging a fairly steep fee, for this area. “Limited-time offer, just until I make enough money to leave.”

“You and everybody else around here,” Jani said. “Except for Wills. She has money, but you’ll never see her leaving.”

“How about it?” he asked, meeting her eyes, and she literally took a step back, knocking into someone behind her.

“She plays piano, not guitar,” Jani immediately said, noticing something pass between them and obviously not liking it.

The warning bell for homeroom rang and everyone scattered like ants. Jani and Dorothy ran down the hallway, but Wills didn’t move. Jack leaned against the painted cinder block wall. “Wills,” he said. “I like that.”

“It’s Willamena to you.”

He grinned. “A rose by any other name.”

“You’re quoting Shakespeare?”

“Ouch. Don’t sound so surprised.” He lifted the pencil hanging on a string next to the sign-up sheet. He wiggled it as if trying to tempt her. She didn’t take it. “No? Shame.”

The pencil dropped and swung back and forth against the bulletin board like a clock pendulum. Time was running out, it seemed to say. She didn’t know what came over her, but she suddenly reached for it and put her name on the list before running down the hallway.

His laughter followed her.

How irritating. How wonderfully, intoxicatingly irritating.

Halfway down the hallway, she stopped and turned. She walked backward for a few steps, watching him watch her. She felt like a lake he’d thrown a pebble into, and the ripples were reverberating through every inch of her. She finally gave him a small smile, then turned back around and ran into homeroom just as the final bell rang.

The moment Wills stepped through the door that afternoon, she heard Gram’s voice. “The school called. I understand you signed up for guitar lessons.”

Damn. She took a moment before walking into the living room. “There were only a few slots left. I was afraid they’d be filled by the time I could ask you.”

“I didn’t know you wanted to play guitar.” Gram indicated the grand piano across the room. “You don’t even sit at the piano anymore.”

Gram had arranged for CeCe Cecil to give lessons to Wills when she was seven, and they had lasted for six years. CeCe wasn’t a piano teacher, but she played the church organ. She’d declined at first, but Gram then invited her over and they had a long conversation. Wills overheard something about Gram knowing about her stealing from the church coffers. CeCe started giving Wills lessons the day after the black grand piano Gram ordered all the way from Atlanta was delivered. CeCe was only allowed to stop when the arthritis in her knees made it hard for her to navigate the steep Wester House lawn steps. She quickly moved away after that.

“I love all music,” Wills said, hugging her books to her.

“I know you do.” It had been Gram, after all, who had coordinated and paid for Andy Smooth and the Silks to play at Hen Town High, after reading in the paper about him coming to play in Chapel Hill. And she’d done it just for Wills, because Wills had once said she’d love to see a band live. “But I don’t think this is appropriate.”

Wills hesitated, knowing she shouldn’t push. Gram gave her so much. It was greedy to want more. “The principal trusts him enough to let him give lessons in the auditorium after school, on the same days as band practice. That counts for something, doesn’t it?”

“A guitar would give you calluses. And the days of Westers having callused hands are long gone,” Gram said, turning back to the television. “Your lovely hands are more suited to the piano.”

And that was that.

CHAPTER THREE