Chapter 10: Homecoming

September 21, 1981

The world chugged along. Debbie finally broke her silence, if only a bit. According to Sarah, Debbie said she didn’t feel good about the group right now, with how things had ended with Marcus. Sarah said she’d tried to reassure Debbie that we didn’t hate her and would be glad to have her come back, but that hadn’t seemed to make a difference. Sarah said that she’d told Debbie we might add someone, and Debbie had just nodded.

Marcus hadn’t opened up yet. I wasn’t sure why he was so reticent, but giving him space was easy enough.

September 24, 1981

At dinner, Angie laid out the plan we’d mapped out. “I’ve been thinking about the money, Dad.”

He looked over. “What are you thinking, honey?”

“I think ... I want to manage it something like my trust, except more personally and without all the legal stuff. I mean, I thought about just merging them, but this is a chance for me to maybe make a few investment decisions, learn some things. I think it’d be good to start out with it in something conservative, maybe a money market fund or an index fund.” She paused, then added, with a giggle, “I’ve been doing some reading.”

“I can see that!”

“I think maybe we’d start with 10% of it where I can say, let’s put it in this stock or that stock or whatever. If it stinks, well, I probably don’t even lose the 10%, just some. But maybe I do well. If so, then there’s more to try other things with. The rest stays conservatively invested. We do the same thing as the trust, where I get a percent and a half a month as an allowance. So, that’s $300 right now, or so. The principal wouldn’t grow that fast, but I’ll add whatever of my allowance that I don’t spend, since I almost never spend $300 a month. Not even close. The reason I want to do it that way is then there’s no temptation to hang onto a bunch; I’ll just put it back in, knowing there’ll be more in a month or less. Even if I was completely reckless — and you both know I won’t be — I’d still have over $10,000 of it when I’m eighteen, and that doesn’t even count my trust. One other thing — I think it should be that I can use some for educational expenses, just like the inheritance. I know, you’ll supply everything I need, but I like the idea of being able to spend some extra, but only if it’s for something that really is education-related. I think Frank would like that, too.”

Dad smiled. “You’ve really thought this through! I’m impressed!”

Mom nodded. “Me, too!”

“I think I can open an account for you and tell them to let you manage it. It’d still be my account — it has to be — but I won’t even look at the statements unless you want me to. It’s your money, and you’re a very sharp young lady.”

“Thanks, Dad! Could you also get me a safe deposit box at the bank? Tied to my account, if they can? I’ve found a few things in my old stuff. They’re not actually valuable, it’s just ... well ... I’d lost them, and now I have them, and if something happened, I think I’d want them to be safe. And there may be more like that. We’re only through maybe a fifth of the boxes so far, and I don’t think Steve’s finished the dresser or anything.”

I shook my head.

“Of course! Easy to do! I’ll get that done next week, along with the new account.”

“Thanks, Dad!”

“I’m happy to help. I’m very glad you’re taking an interest in this. Not enough kids do that.”

“And I’m glad you want to save!” Mom said. “I think many teenagers would just have a big spending spree!”

“Not me, Mom. I’ll buy some things, but carefully planned and researched first.”

“Good job, honey!”

September 26, 1981

We’d all gone to the Homecoming game last night. The game was our first easy one of the year; 28-7 and never in doubt. A now healthy Andy caught a pass for a touchdown; Cal got a bunch more tackles and two sacks.

Today, Cammie and I, plus Angie, Gene, Sue, and Amit, descended on the UH library. We had a plan on what to look for after last weekend. Cammie and I took a bunch of ribbing that we didn’t need any more research, but we knew we had gaps all over the place. And some specific things to look up that we’d heard other teams cite. Hey, good artists borrow, great artists steal, right?

We knocked off about three so we could get home, change, and go on our dates. It was a bit strange spending all day with my date, but, hey, we’re friends first. And I still wasn’t feeling much of a spark — but then I hadn’t had one initially with Nancy either. It wasn’t lost on me that, of the three girls I spent the day with, the one I was dating was the one I was the least truly intimate with — not just sexually, but that as well.

I dropped Sue off at her home with a promise to return at 5pm, then dropped Gene, Amit, and Cammie off, and finally got home. Angie was driving for her date, since Gene didn’t and they’d both agreed it’d be better for her to drive instead of a parent.

I let Angie have the shower first, since she needs more time to get ready, then took my own shower and changed into my suit. Once ready, I busied myself with some Debate filing to pass time until I could go get Sue. Finally, the clock hit 4:45pm. I said goodbye to Angie, grabbed Sue’s corsage, hugged Mom, and headed out.

5pm found me ringing the doorbell to Sue’s house, flower box in hand.

A man in his late forties opened the door. “Hello! You must be Steve. I’m Stuart, Sue’s dad. I’ve heard a lot about you! Come in!” He offered his hand; I shook it.

“Yes, Sir. It’s nice to meet you.”

“The same. I figure with Caroline vouching for you, and you shuttling Sue around already, I don’t need to do the scary-dad interview.”

“I’ve had a couple of those. I know where they come from.”

He nodded. “The way you and the others have welcomed Sue with open arms makes me happy. The transfer down here was something I couldn’t turn down, and, in any case, Sue and Michelle both hated Lubbock, and Caroline wasn’t a big fan either. Heck, neither was I. But I still didn’t like the idea of her having to change schools. Fortunately, it’s worked out really well.”

I smiled. “I was lucky enough to meet Sue at State last year. Even without that, she’d have been welcome, but it let her hit the ground running.”

“I’m glad there are other girls. She just hated being the only girl on the team.”

“Well over half the team are girls. A bit less if you count active people — we have two girls who look to be sitting on the sidelines so far. But, even excluding them, it’s nine guys, thirteen girls.”

“It’s worked out well. So, what are your plans for the evening? Not that I haven’t already heard!”

“We’re going to Pop’s for dinner. It’s become a tradition for me and my friends. Then we’ll go to the school for the dance. I expect to have Sue back by 10:30pm or so, assuming the dance ends on time at 10:00pm as expected.”

“Sounds nice. She didn’t go to any dances last year. Freshmen don’t, all that much, up there, plus, you know, she didn’t really like any of the boys.”

“I went to all of them, but that’s unusual for freshmen here. I have a friend on the social committee and that helps. Aside from that, my girlfriend at the time wanted to go, so that made it easy.”

“I have to ask what happened with your girlfriend. The scary-dad talk, I suppose,” he laughed.

“She had some medical issues over the winter and had to withdraw from school. She’s started at a different high school since. I had a girlfriend in the spring, but her father was transferred to Southern California.”

He nodded. I figured those were pretty safe answers, overall. Nothing he could fault me for, anyway.

Sue interrupted us at that point, coming around the corner, very pretty in her white blouse and red skirt. I opened the flower box and took out the corsage. “May I?”

“Of course!” she grinned.

I carefully pinned it on. She returned the favor, pinning on my boutonniere.

Sue’s mom followed. “What a cute couple! Stuart, get the camera!”

“I’ve already got it ready, dear. Let’s go outside, it’ll be prettier.”

I offered my arm, escorting Sue outside. We posed for the obligatory pictures, careful to smile and not blink. As he wrapped up, I asked, “Would you print an extra of those, please? My parents would love a copy.”

“Of course!”

Sue’s mom hugged her, her dad shook my hand again, then he hugged Sue and Sue’s mom hugged me.

“I’ll be back around 10:30. See you then!”

“Have fun, honey!”

“But not too much fun!” her dad added, laughing.

I walked Sue to the car, helped her in, then got in myself. She smiled. “Not that I didn’t know it, but you do clean up nice.”

I laughed. “And you are lovely tonight, Miss Brown. But then you’re always lovely.”

She blushed and dimpled a bit. “Thank you!”

I drove to Mom and Dad’s. They fussed over Sue and took a set of pictures of their own, promising copies for Sue’s parents. Once free of that, I drove us over to Pop’s. On the way, we talked about Debate. Romantic, right? Once I’d parked, I helped her out of the car and walked up. “Mike, Sarah, I know you know Sue, but not well. Sue, these are my friends Mike and Sarah.”

Sarah smiled. “Yeah, we’ve got a few classes together. Good to see you!”

“Nice to see you too, both of you!”

Over the next fifteen minutes, the others arrived. Sue hadn’t met Cal or Emily, barely knew Andy, and had talked little with Mel or Morty. I wished we could get Sue at our table at lunch, but we were already too many people jammed into too little space. Even without Marcus and Debbie, we were still tight. We’d talked about splitting to two tables, but no one wanted to, at least not yet.

Conversation flowed around the table as we ate. I was amused; both Mike and Sarah seemed a bit interested in Debate, and Emily was at least toying with the idea. If any of them got involved it’d be another shift.

After dinner — as before, we ate with caution, scared for our nice clothes — we headed over to the gym. They’d rearranged again and put freshmen in the middle, with sophomores on the far side. Mel split off to check in with some of the social committee kids as the rest of us got settled at a couple of tables. The guys went off to fetch punch and snacks.

Before long, the music was playing. Following tradition, I danced with all the girls but reserved most of my time and attention for Sue. She wasn’t a particularly good dancer. Not bad, but it was obvious she hadn’t danced much. And she knew it.

“Wow, you can dance! All of you can! I’ve barely done anything. I’m sure it shows.”

I shrugged. “The most important thing is just having fun. I’m just self-taught — well, and PE — and, I think, so are most of the others. You’ll catch up.”

“I’m having fun. This is nice. They did a good job decorating.”

“They did. The social committee works pretty hard. It keeps Mel hopping when there’s an event coming up.”

She nodded. I wondered if she’d mention Halloween. She didn’t. Instead, after a couple minutes, she inclined her head towards Emily, Mark, and Morty. “I hadn’t seen them in action yet. They’re pretty cute.” They were, of course, in the middle of one of their three-way slow dances.

I chuckled. “There was a big stink last year at this dance. Mrs. Higgins,” I nodded towards her, “thought it was immoral. Or something. She tried to stop them. Much discussion later, they decided there’s no rule against it. They changed it so that tickets are one guy, one girl. So, technically, one of them is stag. Or maybe all three are; I don’t know.” I looked; Mrs. Higgins was giving them the evil eye but keeping her distance otherwise. No one had let her change the dance rules.

“Pretty cool that they’ve lasted over a year!”

“Yeah. Mark and Morty used to pull their twin antics on dates, swapping who went on dates. Emily headed that off by just dating both of them, I guess. It seems to work well for them. And no, I don’t know what her parents think about all this. I gather they’re kinda easygoing and, as long as Emily’s happy, they’re happy. The Rileys are pretty much thrilled that anyone’s willing to put up with the Wonder Twins. That’s been our nickname for them for a while.”