Chapter 7: Home Again for the First Time

Thursday, August 9, 1984

We were up and out bright and early. Not nearly as early as Dad, of course, but early. The four of us, in our two cars, were on the road to College Station by nine and arrived at our house before eleven.

We’d barely even gotten out of the car when Cammie greeted us, with Mel following closely behind.

“The paint fumes are nearly all better,” Cammie said.

“It still stinks a bit, is what she means,” Mel said, grinning.

“Well ... that, too. But we’ll be fine overnight, and then we’re not here for a couple of nights,” Cammie said.

“Also true,” Mel said.

“It looks terrific!” Jas said.

It did, too. They’d redone the exterior in a medium beige with maroon trim and highlights. It looked almost like a brand-new house, not the old white elephant it’d been only a few months ago, especially with the brand-new roof as well. The new look was sure to grab everyone’s attention!

Everyone hugged everyone, and then we headed inside.

Looking up and down the street as I went in, my guess was that we had very few neighbors at the moment. There were a couple of cars in sight, but most of the houses felt vacant. It made sense: most students wouldn’t have moved in this early. Some of the houses might not even have been leased yet, though I didn’t see any ‘For Lease’ signs. I assumed that the ones that were occupied held graduate students who hadn’t gone home. Few undergrads would’ve stayed here for the summer, and most of them would be home this week, it being between the summer and fall terms.

In any case, we were apparently free of prying eyes while moving in. Not that we’d likely given them much to see. They would no doubt see plenty of interesting things in the future, but today was all business. We had things to do!

As she stepped into the nearly-finished house for the first time, Jas pretty much summed up the reaction we all had, saying, “This looks amazing!”

Paige said, “Hell, yes! It does!”

“I love it!” Angie said. “And, you were right, Paige. That golden-yellow trim just makes the stairway and hall.”

“Told you so!” Paige said, grinning. “Seriously, it was a guess. It’s better than it looked in my mind’s eye, though.”

“I love it, too!” I said, bringing up the rear.

“You would,” Angie said, bopping me on my shoulder. “You can live with anything.”

I think everyone but Mel realized why that was a bit out of place, judging from a few of the looks I saw. For her part, Mel — missing the others’ expressions, I think — gave Angie a curious look, and said, “His bedroom was that bad?”

To her credit, Angie didn’t blush too much. She didn’t stumble over herself when trying to fix it, either.

“Nah,” she said. “It was fine. And, by that, I mean it was fine once I made him clean it and keep it cleaned and put his dirty clothes away and all that.”

“She was a very good influence on me,” I said, smiling.

“It was still painted baby blue from when he was actually a baby, though,” Angie said. “It could’ve used some new paint!”

“Yeah,” Jas said. “However, this doesn’t require any ‘living with!’ It’s terrific! We make a good team!”

“We do!” Cammie said.

The six of us looked over the house from top to bottom. Literally! We went up to the attic first, then worked our way down. While Cammie and Mel had been settled in, the colors for the hall and storage area doors were new. Angie and Paige’s second-floor room was perfect for them, while the other one was in neutral colors, ready for whoever wound up living there. The master bedroom was just how Jas wanted it, which is just how I wanted it. Common areas were, by and large, in neutral colors, but things like the golden-yellow trim made a big difference.

The basement was also in neutral colors, but it felt finished now.

We would certainly be happy to provide references for the contractors. Were this decades later, we’d all be off posting five-star reviews, but it wasn’t, and no one but perhaps Laura would really even know what that phrase meant in the way I was using it.

We headed back upstairs. Mel and Cammie helped us lug boxes in. At first, we just piled them in the living room and hall for the most part, but then we moved them to where they wanted to be.

“The kitchen’s iffy,” Mel said. “I mean ... we could use better everything. Dishes, pots and pans, utensils, measuring cups — everything!”

“We still need to replace the appliances, too,” Cammie said. “I know you’re already working on that.”

“We were going to go shopping today,” Jas said, “But that was based on coming up here yesterday.”

“Maybe we can do a bit today,” Angie said.

“They’ll do for now,” Mel said, “We won’t be cooking here for the next few days, either.”

“Or not much,” Cammie said. “Breakfast, though...”

“Gotta have breakfast!” Angie said, and everyone nodded.

“How are your parents handling things?” Paige said, looking at Mel.

“It’s ... better,” Mel said.

“They’re okay,” Cammie said.

“I mean ... it’s not like your parents, or Angie’s. They’re still...”

“They’d rather we both dated boys, but they accept we’re not going to,” Mel said. “Seriously ... some of this is Mark and Morty. My brothers have been incredible, which is one more thing I owe you, really. I don’t think I’d have the relationship I have with them — and I don’t think they’d be the people they are — if it wasn’t for you pulling us into Study Group.”

I smiled and shrugged a bit. “The three of you were critical from the start. The co-ed thing worked both ways. Our parents agreed to it partly because there would be another co-ed set of siblings.”

Mel nodded, and said, “That makes sense. Anyway, yeah, it’s better. Work in progress, but they’ve started to accept that this isn’t ‘a phase’ or something I’ll just get over.”

Cammie nodded. “My parents were willing to cut ties with me over it. Mel’s aren’t, but then, like she said, some of it is that Mark and Morty have hinted that they would pick us over our parents, and...”

She paused and blushed.

Mel smiled a bit, also blushing. “The thing is, they made the mistake of saying that they might not have any grandchildren. It turns out that Emily is tentatively on board. There’s a long way to go, but one each at least is possible. Of course, it’s not like one each or two from either would be genetically different!”

Everyone giggled at that.

“And once they broached the subject, I was able to point out that Cammie and I are both considering it and that there’s no particular reason that we couldn’t have children. Apparently...” she said, pausing and grinning. “ ... my parents missed that. Well, or decided we were, like, allergic to sperm or something.”

All of the girls giggled at that, while I just smiled.

“So anyway, suddenly it’s not just maybe losing touch with their wayward daughter, it’s losing touch with all of their kids plus a number of hypothetical grandchildren.”

“Grandkids are a major motivation,” Paige said, nodding. “We had that talk with my parents. And I know Angie’s had it, too.”

Angie nodded, then said, “We both want kids. Like you said, we’re not allergic or anything, so it’s up to us. Not that we had the ‘cutting ties’ problem. Still, grandkids are a major motivation.”

Mel gave me a look, then said, “I suppose I should expect this, but is he usually so calm about discussions of children?”

Jas giggled. “He surprised me with that! Kids came up and he was all ‘They’ll be so cute!’ Which, I mean, of course they will! I wasn’t expecting that, but I love it!”

“I guess we’re all safe, then,” Mel said. “At least until it goes from potential to reality.”

“Not before we graduate!” Jas said. “Undergrad at least!”

“Definitely!” Angie said.

“Speaking of which,” Cammie said. “You know I was dithering, and I still will be, but I’m joining the rest of you in Business Administration.”

“Yay!” Angie said, giving her a hug.

“It’s not necessarily my career, though,” Cammie said. “It’s more ... well ... I’ve been told twice — once by Professor Berman, and that would’ve done it by itself — that the best way to be pre-law is to major in something substantive. If I pursue a Business degree, I can minor in Political Science, take classes like Business Law, and otherwise prioritize electives that help. If I decide against law, I’ve got a solid degree. On the other hand, I’ve got a good foundation if I do go to law school.”

“Makes sense to me!” Jas said.

“I love the idea,” Mel said. “It’s not for me, though. You’re going to think I’ve lost my mind.”

“Oh?” Angie said.

“I’m going out on a total limb and majoring in Mechanical Engineering,” Mel said.

“Huh!” Paige said. “I did not see that coming!”

“I spent a lot of time thinking about it over the summer,” Mel said. “And talking Cammie’s ear off.”

“She did,” Cammie said, grinning.

“We glued it back on!” she added, which got a round of laughter.

“Anyway!” Mel said, when that died down. “Business and law are cool and all, but I have the skills for Mech E, and I like the idea of building things. Real, big, working things that people use.”

“Cool!” Paige said. “That gives us a spy in another department, too!”

That got a good round of laughter.

“There’s a bunch of math,” Angie said. “We’ll study together.”

“And I’m somewhere between a double major or a minor in Computer Science,” I said. “You’ll need some computer classes.”

“Study Group 2.0!” Jas said.

“Not quite, but ... somewhat,” Mel said. “And that’s a good thing.”

“A very good thing!” Cammie said, smiling widely. “It made a world of difference for me.”

“You and me both!” Mel said, giving Cammie a hug.

We changed topics towards classes, but then Mel jumped up.

“Oh! I forgot, with the kid talk. We saved stuff to show you!”

Cammie actually blushed slightly.

“Yes, we did!” she said. “I guess kids got to me more than I thought.”

Mel headed off to the kitchen, then came back with several issues of The Battalion, A&M’s student newspaper.

“Look at all this stuff!” Mel said, opening them to the opinion pages, which were full of commentary on Gay Student Services (and, implicitly, the court ruling).

We handed issues around, reading the various columns, which seemed about evenly weighted between pro-GSS and anti-gay opinions. That was the real split: the ‘pro’ columns focused on GSS as an organization, and the issues gay people faced on campus, while the ‘anti’ columns focused on religion or outright gay bashing. One, by an editorialist who apparently often made good points (claimed by someone who took major umbrage with their GSS editorial), seemed to make a slippery slope argument equating Gay Student Services’ right to recognition with that of a pro-bestiality group.

The good part — at least for us — were that the pro-GSS authors generally came off much better than the anti-GSS authors.

Angie summed it all up best, saying, “Well, it sucks that there are some real jerks out there, but we knew that. The good news is that there seem to be plenty of non-jerks.”