Chapter 89: Ending the Summer With a Bang

August 3, 1981

We rolled up to Sue’s at 10am. Since they delegated me to go get her, I walked up to the house and rang the doorbell.

A woman in her mid-40’s opened the door. I could see the resemblance. Same long dark hair, same dark eyes.

“You must be Steve! Sue’s told me about you. I’m Caroline, Sue’s mom. She’ll be out in just a minute.”

“Nice to meet you, Ma’am. Waiting in the car are my sister Angie, who’s not yet on the team, but I think will be — she’s waiting until the very last minute to commit — and Janet, Lizzie, and Cammie, all of whom Sue’s already met at State.”

“I’m amazed you have so many girls! Last year, Sue was the only girl. I know she hated it; she would’ve dropped out if she hadn’t qualified for State. It’s just lucky all around she did, I guess. I think it’s good for her, but not if she’s miserable the whole time because she’s being picked on.”

I smiled. “Our team is about sixty percent girls, I think. Maybe a little higher. And our coach is a woman, too — Ms. Ames. Don’t be surprised if you hear Sue calling her Meg — everyone on the team who’s competing does, pretty much, at her request.”

“That’s unusual, but I can see it making sense for a tight-knit group, and I know you all are. That’s something that bothered Sue; the kids weren’t close. Plus, not only did she not have friends, but the kind of debate she wanted to do required a partner and no one would partner with ‘the girl’.”

“I know she’ll be much happier on our team, and we’ll be happy to have her joining us.”

“It’s so nice that she already knows some people here. I hated to make her change schools, but you know how it is. Stuart got a job offer he just couldn’t turn down. But, then, Sue wanted to change schools after all, anyway.”

Sue came around the corner, wearing an emerald blouse and a knee-length beige skirt. “Hey, Steve!” She gave her mom a hug. “We’ll be back ... um...”

“Should be around four-thirty. We try to get out of there and across town before rush hour sets in. If we hit traffic it’ll be a bit later.”

“Great, honey! You have fun!”

We walked out. Sue surprised me with a hug.

“It’s great to see you! I’ve been looking forward to this!”

“You may not be looking forward to the ride. It’s not a big car and there are six of us.”

“Eh. We’re all friends!”

I walked her to the car and opened the door, giving her the seat next to Cammie, since she already knew Cammie. Angie had shifted to the front. Thank goodness for bench seats.

“Wow, a gentleman, too! You are going to spoil me!” She looked in. “Hi, um ... Cammie, right?”

“Yup! Good memory! Nice to see you again!”

I closed the door, went around, and got in. Lizzie and Janet were already saying hi. I looked over. “Sue Brown, meet my sister Angie. Angie, Sue.”

“Nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you, too!”

Janet got us out on the road. Angie smiled over to Sue. “Sophomore, right?”

“Yeah. At least I only wasted one year in heck. I mean Lubbock.”

“Heck?”

“Yeah. It’s not hell; hell would have some personality. It’s just heck.”

Angie laughed. “I like that, that’s good. Look, Steve probably didn’t mention it yet, but we have a study group that’s all sophomores. Which means those two,” she nodded towards Janet and Lizzie, “aren’t in it, but Cammie, Steve, and I are. I bet you’d fit in well, just based on what I’ve heard.”

“What’s it like?”

Cammie took that. I was glad I didn’t have to recruit Sue; I’d intentionally left it for later in case no one wanted another member. But if Cammie and Angie were both in favor, that’d go a long way. “One of our rules is Work Hard, Play Hard. We’re all pretty much straight-A students and I think most everyone could be nearly that good without it, but we make each other better. We also go do social things together — swimming, playing billiards and games, stuff like that at Mike’s, where we hold the meetings, plus going to dances, movies, football games, whatever. Not everyone goes to everything, but we’re a pretty social group.”

Angie added, “My boyfriend, Gene, is starting debate this year. He’s a sophomore too. So that’s three, four if I join...”

Janet jumped in. “She’s, like, totally joining! She just won’t admit it yet!”

“If I join,” Angie laughed. “And then five if you join. There are two other sophomores in Debate, right, Steve?”

“Yeah. Well, as far as I know, I don’t know who else will sign up besides Sue and Gene.”

“And Angie! Totally!”

“You should try to get the other two to join, bro.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what Janice or Henry do study-wise. I think Henry’s in some all-boy group.”

Sue smiled. “Sounds like fun, and I could use the help for some classes. Plus it’d help me get to know people. I dreaded that until Steve lost control of his pen.” She giggled.

Lizzie smirked, “That sounds like it should be some sort of euphemism.”

Janet nudged her. “You’re totally not interested in Steve’s ... pen ... my love.”

Lizzie giggled. “True enough.”

“I picked up on that at State. I mean, I figured you let me. You’re comfortable, you know ... with people knowing? I think some people in Lubbock still believe in stoning!”

Lizzie shrugged. “The whole school knows about me. Most of them don’t know about Janet, but most of the team does. Well, anyone who’s not clueless or an ostrich. I don’t think Greg ever picked up on it.”

“Greg was totally, like, hopeless!” Janet laughed. “I feel sorry for the guy but seriously... hopeless. If he’d gotten off his butt and gone to a tournament, maybe. But I don’t know. He needs a jackhammer to get out of his shell, I think.”

“I told Sue we call them dilettantes. I felt sorry for him, too. He kinda reminded me of me, if I’d never made friends or joined the team.”

Janet laughed. “You? I can’t for a minute believe you’d ever have turned out like Greg. Even if you say so, I won’t believe it.”

Angie nudged me in the ribs. I knew exactly what she was thinking. Big ripples.

Cammie smiled. “Just in the sake of full disclosure, and since we’ve mentioned study group, my girlfriend is also a member.”

“Cool!” Sue smiled back. “And I mean, I’m cool with it, just surprised. Mom and Dad, which means all of us, go to a pretty liberal church, so I don’t have all those negative associations many people do. Steve said something about some people around here worrying about being sent to one of those pray-the-gay-away places.”

“Yeah, I’m one of them,” Cammie said. “I was pretty sure you’re good people. Between Janet being comfortable and Steve liking you, it seemed like a safe bet. But my parents would completely freak if they knew. Officially, I’m dating a guy on the football team, and my girlfriend is dating another guy who’s also on the team.”

Sue got it immediately. “And the two guys are dating each other, right?”

“She’s quick!” Cammie laughed. “Good! Yes, exactly right. Win-win-win-win. We got this all worked out just in time; I think my parents were starting to be a little concerned with my disinterest in boys. Two dances later — one with this guy,” she gave me a nudge, “and one with Cal, and they’re all relaxed now. Which amuses the hell out of me. Most parents get nervous when boys are chasing their little girls.”

“They haven’t let me date but, now that I’m fifteen, and I guess will be around a bunch of people who are dating, most likely I can. Which’ll be nice. I mean, I didn’t have anyone I wanted to date in Lubbock, but still.”

Angie shrugged. “Technically, Steve and I aren’t allowed to date either.”

Cammie chimed in. “Me neither.”

“But the thing is, we do stuff as a group, so it’s not technically ‘dating’. Even if we’re mostly in couples. Well, or the one triple.”

“Triple?” Sue blinked, looking confused.

“My girlfriend’s twin brothers are both dating one of the other girls in study group,” Cammie smiled.

“They’re just about the longest relationship we have right now,” I added. “They’ve been together since before the first dance last fall.”

“That ... is cool. And weird. And weirdly cool. I am going to enjoy being here so much better than my old school, I can tell already!”

We chatted away on the drive, and on the drive back. By the time the day was over, I could feel my old friendship with Sue coming back into being. Different, but the same, too.

August 7, 1981

Angie and I joined a group of teenagers - some of whom we knew - plus at least one parent each at the offices of Len Michaels, Esq. right around 10am. I’d driven there, picking up another hour; Angie would drive from there to the DPS station for our licensing exams.

Len’s daughter Ashley was a recent graduate from Memorial. He continued to offer his services at a low rate to Memorial kids who participated in any activity for which getting a driver’s license early would be helpful. There were fifteen of us in that category this fall.

Len was in his mid-50’s, fit, salt-and-pepper hair, dazzling smile. It was easy to see him impressing a jury with his looks and charm.

“Welcome, everyone. I’m sure you all know this, but I’ll go over it anyway. The plan is simple. All of you have appointments at the local DPS office starting at eleven today. I expect you to all pass the written and driving tests. I then expect them to reject the hardship applications. That’s fine. I’ll challenge them all at once and, unless things have changed, they’ll issue them.

“The rule is that you can only get a hardship if your parents will suffer financial hardship; if someone is injured and you have to take care of them; if you are in a vocational program; or if you have a court order. None of you have any of those, or you wouldn’t be here. Having an extracurricular that benefits from driving is, sadly, not on the list.

“So, we are going to end-run this. You’ll claim financial hardship. They’ll deny it; they deny it to most everyone except farm kids. That’s fine, you’re expecting that. Tell them that you will appeal via counsel. Normally that’s a drawn-out process, but it won’t be in our case.

“That’s because the DPS hates being dragged into hearings over this. And they know I’ll drag them into fifteen separate hearings if they don’t quickly resolve it. Once they’re told that you have counsel and I meet with the Commandant of the station, they’ll rubber-stamp the applications.

“Our argument is that all the hours your parents would spend taking you to and from the activities required for your extracurricular will cause them significant financial hardship. Even for a stay-at-home parent, all those hours translate into lost housework time. Therefore, you might have to hire a housekeeper, purchase food out, and so forth. All you need to do is agree with that when it comes up. If it comes up.

“Just — drive safely. As long as the kids that I work with keep a solid driving record, I’ll keep doing this, and they’ll go with it, because they’ve got no leg to stand on. Any questions?”

There weren’t any.

We piled into the car and Angie headed out. Mom still looked nervous, but much less so. “You’re a good driver, honey. Don’t mind me being nervous. I’m still just not used to it!”

“Thanks, Mom!”

We pulled into the DPS office’s parking lot, got out, and headed in. They gave us the test materials and we worked our way through. I double-checked because it felt too easy, but I was pretty sure it simply was that easy. I had to wonder about the failure rate.

Once we finished, they called me right away. I had a stone-faced DPS officer as my examiner. He shook my hand but, otherwise, had I not been confident, he’d have made me pretty nervous. Which I’m sure was the point.

I ran through my mental checklist, adjusting the mirrors, checking the controls, putting on my seatbelt. Then I backed out and started following directions. I found it easy, of course, though I’ve never liked parallel parking and still didn’t.

When I got back, he nodded. “Congratulations, you passed, son. I marked you down in one area. You were slow pulling out onto Memorial, which might’ve caused a car behind you to hit you.”

“Thank you, officer. I’ll remember that.”