Chapter 47

Friday morning marked the end of my school week. I woke to a nice morning temperature in the mid fifties according to the thermometer outside the kitchen window. Willie and I made short work of our morning chores. After my morning routine and my typical hearty breakfast, I caught my bus.

As I sat down, I heard Jake and David arguing about how much work David does.

“My dad talked to yours and he assured him that you would pull your weight this summer,” smirked David.

“I can’t help it if I have to go to camp.”

“Camp?! You live on a farm! Who has money for that kind of thing? What a waste!” complained David.

“Hey, don’t blame me because my family...” was all I really was paying attention to, as I opened my History book to do a little last minute cramming. I knew the material well, but Mr. Crane looked a little too happy with himself in class yesterday. I thought he might have something up his sleeve, so I read a little ahead, just in case. Before I knew it, we were at school.

My bus got in early so I waited for Jen and Janie’s bus to arrive.

“Hey, my beautiful girls!” I said after they got off the bus and they giggled.

“Oh, you smooth talker, you,” laughed Janie.

“My mom warned me about guys like you,” chimed Jennifer.

“Well, this smooth talker comes bearing a warning,” I said seriously.

“What?” asked Jen.

“I’m guessing Mr. Crane may try to slip something past us. You might want to spend homeroom reading ahead a bit in the next chapter.”

Janie nodded. “Yeah, he seemed to be almost giddy during the review. Maybe there is something in the next chapter about the 1884 election, that isn’t mentioned in Chapter 42.”

“Wow! I never considered that. After all, Cleveland lost the 1888 election to Harrison, despite Cleveland winning the popular vote,” stated Jen.

“And the popular vote was pretty close in the 1884 election,” I added.

“Okay, boyfriend, thanks for the warning. See you in first period,” smiled Janie.

Jen grinned. “If you’re right, we owe you.”

“I accept kisses in payment,” I grinned.

Janie laughed. “Silly boy, of course you do.”

At that point we split off to homeroom, only to reconnect almost twenty minutes later in English before the bell.

“I checked the next chapter highlights and spent some time focusing on the 1888 election and how it was different from the 1884 election,” said Jen.

“And I checked the highlights and looked into unpopular policies in the first Cleveland Administration,” said Janie.

“We both took notes,” smiled Jen, as she and Janie handed me their notes. Being that they only had about fifteen minutes to work, it was only about one page each.

I smiled. “I read and reviewed the whole chapter, so I’m okay. I’m guessing you are both on the right track. The difference in the election results was reflected in the policies of the first Cleveland Administration, namely tariffs. In the ‘88 election, he lost most of the industrial states, including his home state of New York, mainly because he wanted lower foreign tariffs. High tariffs were put into place during the American Civil War to protect American industry. Cleveland lowered tariffs on a number of goods during his first presidency. This made him unpopular in places where the state and local governments relied on American industry.”

Just after I finished my mini-lecture, the bell rang and we had to concentrate on poetry. We would be having our final test on poetry on Monday, so Mrs. Douglas gave us a review on what would be covered. She then gave us a preview of what we would be doing next. After poetry, we would be delving into 20th Century American short stories (O. Henry, Dashiell Hammett and James Thurber). Then we would finish the year with John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Considering that she had a disciplinary hearing next week, I sure hoped that she would be around to teach us about these great literary works.

After class, Mrs Douglas pulled me aside. “Tommy, I just want to thank you for all you and your family have done for me. I understand you are aware of my hearing next week and I just want you to know it is doubtful anything will arise from it will affect the rest of the school year.”

I sighed a breath of relief, but then I saw the sadness in Mrs. Douglas’ eyes. “You won’t be back next year, will you?”

“No,” she simply said.

“But my dad could...”

Sarah Douglas just smiled at me “Tommy, after what this school has done to me, there is no way ... even in the unlikely event that they would ask me back, would I ever consider returning,” She must have seen how sad I was because she added, “Don’t worry, Tommy. I’m not leaving town or anything. I still need to settle my marriage, one way or another. I also understand that I need a break from teaching and maybe to even consider a different career. Your father and Philadelphia Grandfather have made me an interesting employment offer and I’m entertaining it, so never fear young man, you haven’t seen the last of me,” she smiled cryptically.

After a heartfelt sigh of relief, I explained I had to run for my History test, she shooed me out the door and I made it about thirty seconds before the bell rang. I had just enough time to smile at my lovelies and asked if they were ready.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” smiled Janie.

“Me too,” agreed Jen.

The almost maniacal look of glee in Mr. Crane’s eyes was almost endearing. “Okay, class, close your books and prepare to have your minds blown.”

We obeyed our teacher and then our tests were passed back to us. We got to work.

I’ll say this about Mr. Crane’s test. It was harder than anything he had given us so far. Still, if you studied your notes and read Chapter 41 and Chapter 42, you should have been able to answer every question up until the last one. Then bingo! His last question was a short essay:

Explain and contrast the elections of 1884 and 1888. What major policy decision likely affected the final result of the election of 1888?

I grinned at Janie and then at Jen. My girlfriends were brilliant. They both hit on one of the aspects of the final question. Of course, if they had been truly brilliant like me, they would have read the next chapter. I mentally slapped myself at my arrogance. My approach only proved that I was a big geek.

For a moment, I mentally chastised my teacher for cheating, but then I realized that Chapter 42 did touch on the issue of tariffs in the first Cleveland Administration (even though the election of ‘88 was covered in more detail in the next chapter), so it stood to reason that it would become a big part of the 1888 campaign. While being tricky, Mr. Crane’s question was certainly fair. Luckily my girls and I were prepared.

After I answered that question and completed the bonus question, that hearkened back to the Hayes/Tilden Election of 1876, I saw that more than a half-an-hour had passed. Typically, I was done with Mr. Crane’s tests in about twenty minutes or less. This one was longer and a bit harder from a content standpoint. Still, I felt I had aced it. About five minutes after I finished, I saw Jen put down her pen. Janie finished about a minute or so after that. As the period wound down, I heard groans come from student’s mouths. They had found Mr. Crane’s little landmine and only had a few minutes to answer. I saw a smug look in Mr. Crane’s eyes and then he looked at me with a wink and a smile. People were still writing as the bell rang, but Mr. Crane gave them a little more time.

As our teacher walked us out of the class, he grinned at me. “Did you like my last question?”

“It didn’t tax me too badly, but then I’m not a 19^th century foreign government, who could have been at a competitive disadvantage for the sale of my country’s exports to the U.S. under different circumstances.” I quietly quipped.

“Jen and I saw that on that last question, you really went on a ‘tear ... if’ you considered that question carefully,” whispered Janie.

Mr. Crane laughed and then whispered. “I can see why you’re my three best students.”

The rest of the morning went well. I handed in my second to last Algebra I assignment to Mr. Harris, along with my regularly scheduled Pre-Algebra homework. Next class IPS was all about lab prep as our next lab was about the Ideal Gas Law and heating and cooling gasses. Jerry and I had to draw up a final set of parameters for our experiment. We had originally planned to use bike tires to show the effect of cold on the air in the tire, but the problem was that neither of us had four bike tires that we wanted to subject to an experiment. Instead, we decided to use four of Jerry’s older sister’s volleyballs (for which he assured me he had her permission). His sister, Susan, was a serious high school volleyball player and would be going to Penn State on a volleyball scholarship. The balls in question were just for practice and she had many. It was great to work at the same table (for four) as Janie, who was with her lab partner, Linda.

After IPS, Janie and I walked to meet our friends at lunch. It felt great when Janie took my hand in hers when we had walked out the classroom door.

“Sometimes I feel this is a dream,” I admitted to my blond girlfriend.

“If it’s a dream, it’s a dream we are sharing and it’s a good one. I’m living with my girlfriend and away from my crazy mother, who has been terrorizing me for the last three years.”

“Only three years?” I asked.

“Mom wasn’t so bad before then. She had always been kind of out there, but things really didn’t get bad until Edgar Blanton bought the Body Shop from Mr. Mason about four years ago. Then something happened about a year after.”

“What?” I asked.

“I don’t know for sure. I think ‘Uncle Edgar’ raped my mother and then pressured her into an affair”

“You think?”

“Yeah. For all my mother’s faults, I know she loved my dad, at least up to that point. I think she lost respect and affection for dad about then. Dad has almost told me as much.”

I shook my head. Edgar Blanton was a piece of crap. Based upon what Janie was telling me and what I had learned about Lisa Parker, he manipulated the fact that she was soft in the head. In her mind, Chad was weak for not defending her from Blanton, so she transferred her affection and respect to the man who controlled her family’s life and proved he could take her.

“So, Edgar took over your family about then?”

Janie frowned. “Yeah, and Blanton wanted me next.”

“I was never going to let that happen,” I said with an earnestness that even surprised me.

Janie’s frown turned into a bright smile. “That’s part of why I love you so.”

I beamed back at my precious girlfriend. “What else.”

“You’re cute, smart and brave. Most importantly you not only understand, but support how I feel about Jen and now, Monique. Do you know how special you are, Tommy Matthews?” she said, with emotion clearly in her eyes.

I felt my face turn bright red, but I felt completely elated. “You, Jen and Monique make me happy, Janie. I’d be lucky to have any one of you. I know that the only way any of this will work for all of us is that we have to love each other. We all have big enough hearts to love everyone in our relationship. The fact that I can be with you all means everything to me.”

Janie smiled at me. “I don’t know what the future will hold Tommy, and there may be others in our relationship, but I can tell you this much.”

“What?”

“You are the only man I will EVER love, Tommy Matthews. You are the only man I will EVER want and the only man I will EVER need.”

I was speechless, so I stopped Janie, looked around to make sure no teacher was looking and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips. Then I said, “God, how I love you, Janie!”

When Janie arrived in the cafeteria, I could see that she was still flushed and I imagined I was too.

“You two look happy,” grinned Johnny.

“We are,” smiled Janie, as she snuggled into one side of Jen, while I sat down on Jennifer’s other side and snuggled into her other side.

“Well, if this what happens when you guys are happy, you should get happy more often,” replied Laura.

“We are always happy when we’re with Jen,” I beamed, but when I looked at Jen, she didn’t really smile back.

“Man, you’re mushy, Tommy,” grinned Tim.

“No, Tim, that’s romantic,” sighed Laura.

“Nothing wrong with romance, Tim. Right boyfriend?” asked Angie turning to Axel.

“Romance has been very good to me lately,” smiled Axel at his girlfriend.

“Well, I guess there is a place for romance,” stated Eva.

I saw Johnny give a little frown and realized I should help him. His efforts to become close to Eva had been a slow go for him. I knew she liked him, but she was still somewhat of a tomboy. I know Johnny knew she would blossom into something special and he didn’t want to run the risk of losing her when she did. “Eva, being close to someone is wonderful.”

“I guess, I just don’t want to end up like my brain-dead sister when she talks about your cousin. It’s always ‘Lars this’ and ‘Lars that.’”

I was about to say something, but God bless Janie. She knew the exact right thing to say. “Eva, every relationship is different. Just because Mary and Lars act one way, doesn’t mean that you can’t be different with a boyfriend of your own,” she said and paused to parse her thought. “For you it would take a special guy. Someone you share things with in common. Someone who appreciates you for who you are and won’t try to change you. I think you know somebody like that, who you are already close to, right?”