Chapter 17

Returning to school from the holiday break was sad and difficult. While they were off, they were working long hours and putting away money for their future together, but now that they’re back in school, their classes and activities cut into their profit stream. It was the first time in her life that Lanh could think of not wanting to go to class. Class used to be her refuge from the world. It was those brief moments between classes that made her life miserable. Now her refuge was Don, working with him, loving him, just talking on the phone with him. She loaded up on the most difficult college prep courses she could take because that is what she always did, and without her realizing it, Don signed up for the same classes so he could sit with her in class. Their hectic schedule had deprived them of their time together, so now he was taking classes he would never have dreamed of taking in the past. Classes like calculus and physics, and he was doing well on his own. However, with Lanh’s help, he was crushing these classes, and tutoring Don insured Lanh aced the classes herself.

No one noticed her engagement ring because, as usual, she and Don were still invisible to the members of the student body unless they were on the debate team or the swim team. To the vast majority of the school population, they were still known as dweebs, nerds, dorks, and worse. Although he’s now an A+ student and a leader on the swim team, he still wears taped glasses and his clothing is purchased from thrift stores and worn down to the thread, making him lower than dirt. Even though Lanh’s braces were gone, and her glasses were no longer thick framed, glass lensed nightmares. She was still either picked on horribly, or completely unknown. She preferred the latter.

To Don, her beauty simply radiated. She was easily as beautiful as her sisters and her mother. How the rest of the school couldn’t see that simply mystified him. A smile from Lanh caused Don’s heart to skip a beat with joy, and the sound of her voice was a dream come true. When he spotted her entering the cafeteria, the normal noise and hubbub faded away, especially when she spotted him and smiled. To Don, it was ok that the school missed what he was seeing because her inner beauty was even more stunning than her outer beauty, and he didn’t want to share that with anyone. Sometimes it was painful to sit next to her in class because she was so focused on the subject matter that she didn’t notice him. Occasionally Lanh will find a hastily scribbled love note stuck in her notebook or textbook, and she was just too focused on the subject matter to notice Don slipping it to her in class. After class, she would cajole him for the note between kisses because she was terrified of being caught by the teachers.

Since the passing of Marissa this past fall, Lanh hasn’t had an animal she can talk to other than the cows. She doesn’t enjoy telling her deepest secrets to the cows because, in Lanh’s words, “they can’t keep a secret.” Don supposed the reasoning for that was because someone was always with her when she was with the cows. They’re big, powerful beasts and they’ll easily crush tiny Lanh, so someone is always around when Lanh is working with the cows.

Don got out of the pickup and came around to the passenger side, and let Lanh out. Rather than leading Lanh to the house, he led her to the barn; they went in the stable end, which they rarely did because it was the farthest end from the house. This was where the plow horses were kept, but that was one hundred years ago. Don led her to a certain stable and Lanh found it had been cleaned out recently, and she found that one of the stables had a light turned on. She swung open the gate and there, facing her, was a tiny goat. With a “baaaa” it looked at her and started prancing around in its stable.

“It’s so cute!” cried Lanh, and she dropped to her knees. “What’s her name?”

“Marissa,” said Don. He had found out from Tam after Marissa’s funeral near the pond, that Marissa actually came from a long line of Marissas. This last Marissa lasted longer than most, which is what made her funeral so heartbreaking.

“She’ll never replace the original Marissa,” said Lanh as she knelt in the straw and petted Marissa.

“Who was the first Marissa?”

“A bumpy frog,” said Lanh as she scratched Marissa behind the ears.

“A toad?” asked Don.

“No! Of course not. At least I don’t think so. Tam wouldn’t let me keep a toad, would she?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Don as he sat down next to Lanh withholding his laughter, “you can talk to a Marissa, and the way things are going you may need her now.” Within the hour, Lanh and Marissa were best friends, and Lanh was teaching Marissa Vietnamese.

Going to school was never fun for Lanh, now it’s getting worse. Not because she’s being picked on and taunted. She’s tuned that out completely, but everything that made it a joy other than Don is over. Even the debate team was done for the year. This year, Lanh no longer took an active part in the actual debates. She “retired” with a perfect record and stayed on as the coach of the team. Because she slaughtered whoever dared stand against her on the debate stage, she struck fear into any debate team that tried against Grant Valley High. Feeling that she was taking unfair advantage over other opponents was why she “retired.” Even if her opponents were immaculately prepared, the moment they saw their opponent was a tiny, cute little Asian with her hair done up in cute, braided pigtails, taking notes in her Sunshine Bunny! notebook with a brightly colored pen with a daisy on the end, they immediately underestimated her. That’s when the Lanh Shark, as her opponents called her, smelled blood in the water.

Like the great leader that she is, she stepped aside to let her teammates compete without being blotted out by her shadow. She found that her skill in debate prep and her conduct during the debate was something she could easily train her teammates to emulate, and before she realized it, she was team captain. The Lanh Sharks, as her teammates called themselves, had a perfect record when the “season” closed in December, and they found themselves state class A champions thanks to her leadership, yet she never knew about the “Lanh Shark” name they gave themselves. When she heard it, she thought they said, “Land Shark,” an old Saturday Night Live skit from a long time ago back when SNL was funny.

But now debate was over. Her only after school activity was timekeeper on the swim team, and she felt it wasn’t keeping her mentally engaged. She became disassociated with the task, recording the times automatically and becoming stoic as she stood by the finish silently with a stopwatch and clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other. As for her other activities, all she had left were Marissa and her cows. Don had closed off the Bunkhouse for some reason. It was too cold in the hayloft, so her budding sex life was over too. She was terrified of that thundering numbness that overtook her in her freshman and sophomore year, and she felt it coming back, but this time she didn’t have an escape route, she gave her stash of sleeping pills to Tam and her mom has her prescription medications locked up. Only Don saved her life last time...

Don was beside himself trying to cheer Lanh up, nothing he did seemed to help at all. He just finished a good 400, twice as far as he normally swam, and was sitting on the bleachers with a towel around his shoulders cooling down and trying to figure out what to do for Lanh. Mr. Mach came up and put his foot up on the bench. “What’s wrong Campbell, you look like your canary just got eaten.”

“It’s Lanh coach, it’s been a tough year. Ever since we ended up in Weberman’s class, she’s been miserable. Now debate is over, Weberman’s class is over and she’s still miserable.”

“When’s the last time you challenged her?” Coach asked.

“Huh?”

Coach Mach looked at Don like he just spit on the floor. “Mister Campbell, the little lady that follows you around is not a delicate rose, she’s a fighter. She needs a challenge.”

“Like what?”

Coach Mach rolled his eyes. “Find something that she does well and challenge her to do it better. Watch and learn.” He gave a loud piercing whistle that put the silver whistle hanging around his neck to shame. The pool room echoed with the shrill shriek that emitted from his mouth without mechanical help. “Nguyen! Mendez! Over here!”

Lanh came up holding her clipboard against her chest, a confused look on her sad face. She was followed by Rosa Mendez, a happy-go-lucky Hispanic senior who has been verging at becoming a great swimmer. “Yes coach?” they said in unison.

Coach Mach gestured toward Don. “Nguyen, you whipped Campbell into shape to the point that I’m expecting something out of him at Regionals. I want you to do the same with Rosa Mendez. I want her on the podium at the regional championships for the 200.”

“But that’s four weeks away, coach,” said a confused Lanh while Rosa broke into a huge grin.

“Then you have your work cut out for you, don’t you Nguyen?” He grinned and gave her a wink. “And I want Campbell to remain sharp, no slacking. Got it?”

“Yes coach!” Her face beamed with anticipation. She turned and walked over to the pool, talking with Rosa. There was pride in her step that has been missing for weeks.

Coach Mach turned to Don and patted him on the back with his clipboard. “Problem solved. You two can name your first child after me,” and he walked off to “encourage” some sophomore JV swimmers.

Soon the pool room was ringing with Lanh’s high, clear voice, “Nhanh lên! Nhanh lên!” (Hurry! Hurry!) as Rosa started her first training session with Coach Nguyen.

February rolled around and still no one noticed her engagement ring. Or at least, if they did, they didn’t talk to Lanh about it. Sydney McCloskey was an exception; she was one of Lanh’s best fact finders on the debate team, a great debater, and the closest thing she had to a girlfriend. Don knew her too; she sang at the church he attended with his dad and was an incredible singer. She noticed Lanh’s ring, but since Lanh’s hand is so tiny, the ring needs to be tiny, which makes it look like a cheap promise ring at a distance.

That particular day, Sydney was arguing with Rosa, who also noticed the ring. Sydney said it was a promise ring, Rosa insisted it was costume jewelry or her grandmother’s ring or some Asian custom. They were walking through the cafeteria when they noticed Lanh sitting alone in Loser Corner, and they invited themselves to join her. Lanh was reviewing Don’s calculus homework, and she thought she spotted an error, and it turned out to be an error on her part, not his. She finished correcting her own homework when she glanced up and saw Rosa and Sydney sitting across from her. “Holy crap, you scared the hell out of me! How long have you been there?”

“About five minutes,” answered Rosa.

“Crap? You said crap?” Sydney was shocked. She never heard Lanh swear or come close to swearing for the four years she’s known Lanh. “What are you doing in this corner?”

Lanh pointed to her half-eaten lunch. She just couldn’t eat without Don, and she was losing weight, too. He’s going to be so disappointed in her. “Eat ... homework...”

“No,” insisted Rosa, “what are you doing in THIS corner? This is the loser’s corner.”

“If notice, not lot of peoples to come see me ... you only friends.” Oh God, she moaned to herself. It sounds like I just got off the boat from Hanoi. Whenever she’s agitated, her accent asserts itself with a vengeance.

“Shit,” spat Sydney. Don had mentioned this to her months ago. When Lanh beats on herself through frustration or anger, her English goes to hell. She got up, came around to Lanh’s side of the table and sat down next to her, and put her arms around Lanh. “Ok, we may be the only ones, but we’re the BEST ones, right Rosa?”

Realizing something was up, Rosa took a seat on the other side of Lanh. “Damn tootin! See that table of cheerleaders? See that blond?”

“They’re all blond,” said Lanh sadly.

“The blond with big tits,” said Rosa, narrowing down the choices.

“They all got big tits,” said Sydney.

“I said tits, not a bra full of Kleenex,” grinned Rosa. “That blond there, last Saturday morning she came back from her Friday night out and her daddy said, ‘How much did you make giving blowjobs last night?’ and she said, ‘Fifty-one dollars.’ Her Daddy said, ‘Who gave you one dollar for a blowjob?’ And she said, ‘All of them.’”

Sydney groaned but laughed at the same time. Lanh looked like she was struggling with tears, then suddenly she burst out laughing. “That was so awful,” she said when the laughing fit finally eased.

“Yeah, and it worked too,” said Sydney as the three of them rocked side to side, their arms around Lanh.

“Seriously, what are you doing at THIS table?” asked Rosa.

“What planet did you come from? Don and I are the biggest jokes in the school. We met when some jerks bullied Don into asking me to dance with him at the Christmas dance. So, he asked, and I said yes just to get away from those cheerleaders, and it turned out to be a slow romantic song. They just wanted to laugh at us being embarrassed.”

“So, what happened chica?” asked Rosa.

“We danced ... and we talked ... and it was nice ... and...” she held out her left hand and the girls gasped at her engagement ring then squealed loudly.

“Oh my God, is that real? Is that the real thing?” gasped Sydney. She held Lanh’s hand and inspected the ring like she was appraising it for an insurance claim. “How big is it?”

“It’s about a half carat,” said Lanh.

“On your hand anything larger would look comical,” said Rosa as she got her closeup look too. “Who’s the lucky guy?” Sydney and Lanh stared at her like she was crazy. “Hey, I don’t keep a social calendar,” Rosa shrugged. “Who?”

“Duh” taunted Sydney, “Don Campbell? You never noticed?”

“DON? OUR Don Campbell?” gasped Rosa.

“MY Don Campbell,” corrected Lanh.

“No shit! Wow ... I never wouldda guessed,” gasped Rosa. “Everyone says he’s gay.”

“What?” gasped Lanh. “What do they say about me?”

Rosa shrugged, “They say you’re his beard, he hangs out with you, so people will think he’s straight.”

“SEE? Now you know why we sit here,” pouted Lanh as she slumped down in her chair.

“Are your folks going to make you wait until you’re eighteen before...?” Sydney waggled her eyebrows at Lanh.

Lanh looked at Rosa, then at Sydney. Both were waiting, mouth open, for an answer. “Yes.”

“Awwww,” frowned Sydney.

“When is that going to be?” asked Rosa sadly.

Lanh grinned. “Eight months ago.”

“NO! Really?” squeaked Sydney. “Everyone thinks you’re fifteen!”

“Another reason to sit here,” frowned Lanh. She told them about being a preemie and being raised by her older sister, Tam. “All my brothers and sisters had graduated high school by the time they were fifteen, I was a freshman at fifteen.”

“Why? What’s wrong, your GPA is perfect.”

“I couldn’t load up on courses, I’d get exhausted and faint. Má and Tam got tired of being called to the nurse’s office, so I had to back off and take a normal class load. I picked up some in High School, and I can graduate now, but I didn’t.”

“Why not?” asked Rosa.

“Because if I graduated and went on to university, Don would drop out and follow me. He couldn’t enlist then,” Lanh said sadly.

“I didn’t realize I was holding you back,” said Don. His voice startled all three girls, but he was standing behind them listening and they never noticed him.

“No!” gasped Lanh. “You didn’t hold me back! I don’t want to go to some university all alone!” she spun around in her seat as Don knelt down. She threw her arms around his neck and peppered his face with kisses.

“I can pass a GED with my eyes closed, thanks to you,” Don said as he eagerly returned her kisses.

“And what would that do to our wedding date?” she asked as she slyly squeezed his balls through his hand-me-down jeans.

“Good point.”