I hadn’t been dreading the community service itself – being sober again wasn’t that great – but I hadn’t expected to enjoy myself. I’d been looking forward to seeing Paige, even though I knew she was off limits, but when I walked into that community center and Tyler had yelled my name…I hadn’t felt anything like that in a long time.

As I followed Tyler, Mags, and Larry over to where the rest of the kids were sitting, I realized that I was having fun. I’d loved performing unplugged, singing songs as the kids called them out. Hell, I’d even liked singing that pop song because it’d made Mags smile.

“So, how many of you think you might like to learn how to read and write music?” I asked.

Hands shot up, and I immediately started thinking of all the ways to best teach them how to read music. I’d never thought of myself as a teacher, but in that moment, I could see it. Showing the kids how to love music the way I did.

“Do you write all your own songs?” Tyler asked.

I nodded. “I do.”

“Not all musicians do though, right?” Larry asked.

“Right,” I said. “Sometimes, people are good at playing instruments or singing, and sometimes they’re good at writing music and lyrics, but not always both.”

“But you do both,” Mags said.

I nodded again. “I do.”

I didn’t tell them that it’d been a while since I’d written anything. That the songs I’d sung this morning had been written years and months before. In my opinion, the quality had been going downhill too. The studio had been threatening to send in writers for me, to create an album that would take the charts by storm. Only the fact that I’d had it put into my contract that I had veto power on album content had kept them from doing it. If things were going to suck, I’d own it.

It was one of the reasons Chester had been on my ass. Fucking up my image would’ve been bad enough if I’d had a new album out or one coming out, but that could’ve been spun positively. The fact that they had to keep asking me when I was going to get into the studio and finally record something meant they hadn’t been feeling very friendly toward me when the shit hit the fan.

But that was why I had Paige. She was going to fix all of that.

I forced my mind off of Paige as Candra announced it was time to move into the teaching music part of the morning. It was funny. I’d spent so much time drinking over the past few months because I wanted to forget, to get out of my head, and I hadn’t been able to turn to music like I had in the past. Then I met Paige, and she became another thing I couldn’t get out of my head, no matter how hard I tried.

Until I came here, stone cold sober for the first time since the beginning of summer, and found that I could focus on the music again. Playing it, at least. I still couldn’t find it in me to focus on writing it, but I’d take what I could get.

* * *

“All right, listen up!”

Paige’s friend, Candra, clapped her hands and waited until everyone’s attention was on her.

“That’s all for our special guest today.” She held up her hands when several of the kids protested. “Please make sure to thank him for spending time with us, and then it’s time for team sports.”

We were done already? I looked at the clock and was surprised to see that it was nearly three in the afternoon. How had the time flown by so fast?

I didn’t have a chance to think about it too much, however, because the kids were all coming over to say their goodbyes. Unsurprisingly, Tyler, Mags, and Larry all hung back, waiting until the others cleared out before they approached.

“Do you really have to go?” Tyler asked. “You’re the first cool person we’ve ever had here.”

The mutinous look on his face reminded me of my niece, Josie, when my sister would tell her she couldn’t do something. Annette always blamed me for that.

“I think Ms. Hammel has some things planned for you guys to do now,” I said.

“Team sports.” Larry made a face. “No one ever wants us on their team, so we always play together.”

“And we always lose,” Mags added.

I glanced up to see Paige coming toward me, but as much as I wanted to try and get some alone time with her, I wanted to see these kids smile more. “How about if I play on your team?”

Their faces lit up.

“For real?” Mags asked, grabbing my hand.

I nodded. “For real.” I smiled as they cheered. “So, what are we playing?”

“Soccer,” Tyler said. “Come on!”

I followed the kids over to the area where an indoor soccer pitch had been set up, and Paige came after me. “You don’t have to babysit me, you know,” I said as we went.

“Who’s babysitting? I love soccer.”

Before I could strike up a conversation, we heard Tyler arguing with some kids who’d come in only a few minutes ago.

“You aren’t our boss!” He glared up at a bigger kid without a trace of intimidation on his face. “Ms. Hammel says everyone who wants to play can.”

“Well, nobody wants you on their team,” the kid said, his face twisted into the kind of scowl bullies seemed to perfect.

“I do,” I said, raising my hands. “So why don’t Tyler and I have our own team, and we play against you and whoever you want on your team. Sounds like that’ll be fair.”

The kid’s hands curled into fists, and I wondered if all my good work today was going to get thrown away by a kid with a bad temper. I wouldn’t hit him back, obviously, but I had no doubt the media could make it my fault.

“We got Mags and Larry,” Tyler said. “That’s four of us.”

“I got eight,” the kid said. “But the old guy should be able to make up the difference, right?”

Old?

“Five against eight sounds fair to me,” Paige spoke up. She pulled her hair back from her face and called over to Candra, “Hey, let me borrow your shoes.”

“You’re gonna play soccer?” It was hard to say who was more skeptical, Tyler, or the smart-mouthed teenager leering at Paige.

She grinned at the older kid as she swapped out her dress shoes for a pair of sneakers. “No, I’m going to kick your ass at soccer.”

I stared at her while the kids started shouting out positions to the others on the team. She stood up and caught me with my mouth hanging open like an idiot.

“What?”

“I just – I mean…” I stammered, “shit. I’m just surprised is all.”

“That makes two of us,” she said. The moment stretched out, then broke as she bent over to stretch. “You better be good at this, Union. I don’t want to have to explain to the journalists over there why you’re disappointing the kids.”

I glanced toward the front doors, seeing the crowd for the first time. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be annoyed that Paige had called them here, or proud that she’d believed in me enough to bring in the media without really knowing how things were going to go, but either way I was now terrified. Partly because I knew if I made the smallest mistake, that’s all anyone would focus on, but also because I didn’t want to disappoint the kids. More than that, I didn’t want to disappoint Paige.