Bassoon Shenanigans

Tuesday Thomas came home from school one bassoon lighter. Given that he has his FIM bassoon lessons on Tuesdays at 4:15, this seemed more than slightly problematic. He said that he "didn't know where it was." Well, "shit hitting the fan" is an understatement. Over the course of an hour Thomas finally revealed that he stored his bassoon in a band room locker (but doesn't use a lock, despite the fact that I bought one for him), and when he went back to the room at the end of the day to pick it up, it was gone--nowhere in any locker, or anywhere in the room. His band teacher said he would "talk to a few guys" (translate: he would contact some likely suspects and put the squeeze on them, not: he would hire some goons to bust some kneecaps, which is what I would have preferred). Tuesday night I lay in bed, working over our financial situation and tried to figure out how we would possibly replace an $8000+ bassoon that we spent 5 years paying off, and made our last payment on two months ago. The kicker is that Thomas's FIM teacher really believes Thomas has an excellent shot at getting a music scholarship to cover costs of college so by 4 am I had visions of Thomas's entire future spiraling down a toilet. Wednesday morning I took him to school an hour early so we could tear that band room apart. He was quiet for most of the drive (too tired to be annoying--just the way I like him) but when we got there he started squealing, "What are you going to do? You can't just go in the band room and take things, you know!" Really? I thought taking other people's instruments was what everyone did there! When we got there the room was empty since school hadn't started yet so I set to work with Thomas squealing in my wake. After we worked our way along three walls, he said, "It's not here! I told you! There it is!" And lo and behold, there it was, on the floor right in front of the locker he uses (but doesn't ever lock, I pointed out at every possible moment). And not only did we find the bassoon, but a note laying on top of the bassoon: Thomas's band class is part of the "mainstream" school, Lakeland High School. All his other classes are run by his school which is parasitically attached to Lakeland High School, and is called International Academy West (or: IA West). Many of the IA kids are in band, and they are usually the best kids, winning not only school awards but state awards as Thomas did last year. Clearly this Derpy thought Thomas needed to be taught a lesson. So...like...yeah.