Chapter 11

What can be said About November? Well, I aced all my midterms, for starters. I found time to get better acquainted with Terry; Drake has moved on to other pastures; and, Raquel still has some kind of hold over me, which I have no desire to rid myself of.

School is school, and there is no changing that. The best you can do is modify your expectations and hope for the best. I was a little sad when Drake moved on, but Terry had the same lunch period, which gave us more time together. We’re not ‘dating,’ but we are an unofficial couple.

Everyone has their suspicions about me and what I did the night of Holloween, but none of my partners of the evening will tell anyone a damned thing about what may, or may not have happened. That has not prevented some less worthy individuals from spreading rumors based on what they believe they know. I haven’t had to say a word. Beth’s friends have taken on the cause of shutting down those rumors.

For the most part, November was a month with no significant events, outside of Thanksgiving, which was a pleasant day with all the family together. Gary had managed to get leave to come home for the extended weekend. He was looking really good with all the muscle he’d put on. He also carried himself in a way that he hadn’t before. Our grandparents were even here, for the holiday. Mom’s mother looked at me knowingly, when she saw me.

The men were told to stay out of the kitchen. The women all worked together to get dinner ready. Supper would be leftovers. A lot of the prep began the night before. Anything that needed to be cut, shredded, or sliced had been taken care of and stowed in the fridge. Today was for making bread, pies, and cooking the sides, ham, and turkey. I made the pies: pumpkin, apple, and pecan.

We sat down for dinner, at about 3 pm. We’d stopped for some light snacks to fend off any hunger before dinner time. Now, we were all sitting at the table, which had been expanded to its fullest and arranged with ten place settings. The tenth setting was there in case of an unexpected guest. After dinner and dessert, the guys cleared the table before they went back to watching football, while we women cleaned up.

Cleaning up didn’t take very long, as we had cleaned as we finished with all the cooking utensils, bowls, pots, and pans. Most of what we had to do was scrape plates clean and load the dishwasher. Leftovers went into Tupperware and the fridge. We were done in about 20 minutes, tops.

After all of that was taken care of, grandma Jessica (Mom’s mom) took me aside and up to my room where she quizzed me about the changes in my life and how I was adapting. I didn’t realize she would remember I’d been a boy before my 15th birthday. This was a bit of a shock to me.

I told grandma Jessica about the good and bad, admitted to being more than a little interested in sex, and showed her pictures of my Holloween costume. Nothing phased her. She wasn’t a prude, so knowing I was sexually active did not bother her in the least. Her only worry was about my safety, which I assured her I had well in hand.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. We played Gin, Scrabble, and a couple of rounds of Sorry, before pulling out Trivial Pursuit. By the end of it, I was tired and ready for bed; it had been a long day.

I showered and got ready for bed, grabbed my copy of Stardance, by Spider Robinson. I already had the second book, Starseed on my bookshelf. I only had a chapter or so to go, before I would be finished. It would be amazing to do what Sarah Drummond was doing: dancing in freefall. I can only imagine what it would be like.

I finished the book, set it aside, and snuggled into my bed and drifted off to sleep. My dreams were many and very detailed. I dreamed that I became part of a zero-g dance troupe, in one dream. In another, I dreamed of making love to a handsome stranger, in zero-g. I think there was another dream, but when I woke up, I could only recall the two I mentioned. I became agitated over not remembering the other dream. Something about it niggled at the back of my head. There had been something important that I needed to remember.

Black Friday was a girls day out. All five of us went shopping while the men stayed home, drank beer and watched whatever game was playing that suited them.

My wish enabled me to be able to find and pay for some decent gifts for everyone, and I had them wrapped at the mall, rather than do it myself. For myself, I ordered an Apple Power Macintosh G3 233 Minitower with 384 MB and the optional Internal 56k modem. I had decided that I would need it for my papers in my non-math classes. Besides, I already knew how to type, so why not put that skill to use. We already had an internet subscription through CompuServe, though it was being merged with AOL.

My worries about a connection to the internet via AOL prompted me to make a wish that always ensured I had got connected the first try each time and would maintain the highest possible bandwidth for my system. I also got permission to have my own phone, which was primarily for my dialup connection.

I ran into some of my friends while we were out shopping. We got together at the food court and had lunch together. I don’t recall what I ate, though it was probably a Subway foot long. It was more about gossip and just being girls out shopping than anything else. We talked about school, who was dating who, and boys in general. We also talked about the movie, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” It had come out a week ago. Due to its R rating, none of us could get in on our own. I would be seeing it the next day with my mom. We’d both read the book it was based on. Some of the other girls were interested, but most weren’t. Then, someone brought up Good Will Hunting, which sounded like a good movie, and you can’t go wrong with the cast, which included Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Minnie Driver. A lot of us were looking forward to seeing it.

Eventually, our little gathering broke up as we all had to get back to our shopping, or at least with our parents. I managed to catch up to mom without any difficulty. She had been shopping for a few hours, occasionally going out to the car to put away some of her purchases. We spent nearly five hours at the mall, all told.