“Jake! Great to see you!”
The principal’s loud greeting jolted Jake back to the present.
“Dr Jones,” replied Jake as he got to his feet. “Thanks for seeing me.”
“Come on through,” suggested the older man. “Cynthia, will you bring us some coffee. Glad you came in to talk about this.”
Once they were alone in the principal’s office and out of earshot of the office staff, Dr Jones said, “I was so sorry to hear about Rich. Such a shock. Beyond tragic.”
“Thanks,” sighed Jake. “It’s hit us all hard. Really hard.”
“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Jake paused, unsure whether to trust his former boss with the truth. Silver Lake’s management had gone to great lengths to keep the cause of Rich’s sudden death under wraps. Bowing his head, Jake said, “This goes no further for obvious reasons. It was suicide.”
“Oh Lord!” gasped the principal, his tanned face paling.
“Our management have kept that piece of information out of the press and the public domain for now. I’d appreciate if it stayed that way.”
“Of course,” nodded Dr Jones. “I didn’t expect you to say that, son. That’s shocked me. Truly shocked me.”
“Shocked us all,” admitted Jake. “Makes the here and now harder to deal with.”
“I can imagine. My condolences to you all,” Dr Jones paused then indicated that Jake should take a seat.
Before they could continue, Cynthia, the principal’s secretary, came in with the coffee and some donuts. She too passed on her sympathies before withdrawing from the room, closing the door behind her.
“If I’m to take this course,” began Jake, cutting straight to the chase. “I need a bit of context. I had no idea Rich was planning this. He never mentioned it.”
“That’s strange,” observed Dr Jones. “He seemed so passionate when we spoke just after Spring Break. Originally, the plan had been to run it over the last two weeks of the semester but your tour schedule prevented that. We rescheduled for the last two weeks of the summer recess.”
“So, starting August 4th?”
The principal nodded. “We have ten seniors this semester who want to study either music production or music performance. Between them, they play in several bands plus the school band and orchestra. Two of the boys and three of the girls sing in our choral society.”
“Any idea what Rich had planned for them?”
“A vague outline. He mentioned performance, song writing, recording and production. Studio production, not a concert production. Sadly, he never submitted a lesson plan or any plan for that matter. I trusted his judgement both as a teacher and as a musician,” replied Dr Jones candidly.
“That’s at least something to work to,” Jake acknowledged, a plan beginning to form in his own mind. “Would I be allowed to take them on a field trip to JJL?”
“JJL?”
“The recording studio out on the Coastal Highway. Lori co-owns it and the band use it as our recording base. It has full state of the art recording facilities plus a rehearsal studio out back. It’s an impressive setup.”
“If the visit forms part of the course then I’m sure we can sort something out,” promised Dr Jones. “You’re not thinking of taking them to any rock shows, are you?”
“No,” assured Jake with a smile. “Not unless I can find one in the local area. Closest is likely to be Baltimore or Wilmington. Philly maybe. I wouldn’t want to run the risk of taking them so far out of town. Depending on what is going on out at JJL, I might be able to introduce them to a couple of musicians.”
“Ok, sounds like a start.”
Draining the last of the coffee, Jake said, “Give me a few days to pull a timetable together and to make a few calls. And it’s ten full teaching days?”
The principal nodded.
Running his hand through his hair, Jake sighed, “Guess, I owe it to Rich to pull this off. I’m not going to lie, Dr Jones, this is going to be a tough gig.”
“I understand that and appreciate you stepping in at short notice to help out here. We have a new department head who started at the end of last semester. Perhaps I could ask her to join you for some of the classes. A bit of moral support.”
“Sure,” agreed Jake. “I could use all the help I can get. It’s been four years since I last took a class.”
“You’ll be fine. If you can control a crowd of tens of thousands of screaming rock fans, you can control ten high school seniors.”
“I hope so!”
While Jake was at the school, Lori had stayed home to focus on making last-minute preparations for Jesse’s third birthday. With all that had been going on, she had almost forgotten her son’s birthday and was actually thankful for Melody’s reminder. She was also grateful for her daughter’s discretion as she had whispered it to her at bedtime the night before. At least she had one day to get organised. No one felt much like throwing a party but Jake had suggested that they have a family trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It was an inspired suggestion as their little boy loved sharks and dolphins.
With both children happily playing in the sunroom, Lori had poured herself a fresh mug of coffee then taken it to her desk to drink while she arranged the visit. It was a three-hour drive to Baltimore so, as she viewed the aquarium’s schedule, Lori factored this in as she booked time slots for the various shows and education sessions. Judging that they would be finished looking at the various sea creatures by six-thirty, Lori booked a table for dinner at the nearby Hard Rock Café. Smiling as she submitted the booking, she knew Jake would cringe at the thought of being the rock star in
