Chapter 11

We contacted Ackerman Records and had them send a copy of the contract to Casey’s address. They sent it out really fast—it got to us by Friday. And we posted on all our social media that we’d been signed. They all blew up. We got requests for merchandise almost immediately. Our new record label told us they’d worry about that.

And they did. One of our high school friends had made our band logo, and they took it and ran with it. Shirts, sweatshirts, mugs. They were all available within two days. We loaded up on the stuff, too.

Meanwhile, people I hadn’t spoken to since high school came out of the woodworks to wish me success, and my parents still hadn’t called me. Of course, I hadn’t called them. It wasn’t unusual for me to go several weeks without talking to them. Obviously, this time was different.

We all went down to The Amazon to celebrate again, but I didn’t drink as much this time.