Chapter 53: A Busy Saturday: Angie & Jane

Saturday, February 13, 1982 (continued)

I drove home, lost in thought about what had just happened. I was trying not to feel too big an echo of Candice. Sheila had a lot of self-doubt — a level I found hard to understand. I was hoping one of the girls might, or Jane. I thought I should mention it to Jane, at least.

My guess: it was the succession of cads that’d caused this, not one truly bad person. Whatever they’d done, it had done a number on Sheila. Comparing her to Hepburn seemed to help, though I had this nagging feeling there was an even better analogue out there.

I pulled up to the house and Angie hopped in; she’d been waiting at the head of the driveway.

“Soooooooo?”

“So, if I didn’t know you better, I’d be telling you that what I’m about to say is pretty confidential.”

“Well, isn’t that ominous! I take it you didn’t find a bed?”

“Nah. Balls were involved, though.” I couldn’t resist, and it would lighten what wasn’t likely to be a light mood otherwise.

“Um ... mini golf.”

“Hole in one.” She giggled a bit. “We needed to talk. And I mean that; without being too ominous, we needed to talk”

“What’s up?”

“So, if you jump back to my original conception, it was that the Drama kids bed-hop a lot and it’s, you know, casual, and fun, and everyone’s happy with things.”

“Mine, too. No?”

“I can’t be sure if Sheila told me she’d been to bed with three guys and they all were cads, or if there were more, but three of them were cads. Either way, cad is a very polite version of what I want to say.”

“Help me see what you’re seeing.”

“She has a lousy self-image. She struggles with feeling attractive and thinks guys want her only for sex. Or maybe not even for that. If I had to guess, I’d say that at least some, maybe all, of those three fucked her and then not only bailed on her but put her down at the same time.”

“Well, isn’t that just delightful? Speaking of taking putters to balls...”

“Ouch. Yes. Of course, I tried to shore things up, and tossed out Katharine Hepburn as a redhead she could identify with a bit.”

“Not a bad pick. Um ... I can’t think of another good candidate.”

“I suggested that she share some of this with Jasmine or you. From her response I’m going to guess she shared with someone who knifed her in the back. Though, she opened up a lot in front of Jasmine and Lexi yesterday. Maybe more than she meant to, though.”

“Oh, wonderful. Just what she needed. Damn.”

“For the us part of it, we’re planning another date in a couple weeks. Of course we’ll talk before that, but my calendar is just full to bursting.”

“I hope she’ll talk. That sucks. She’s gorgeous.”

“I pointed out that she’s understudying a character who has to be love-at-first-sight gorgeous and at least hinted that Steffie wouldn’t cast her that way without believing she could make everyone see her that way.”

“She might not want to be seen that way. Previous times, when she’s been seen that way, that’s when she’s wound up hurt.”

“Oh! Damn! I didn’t think of that. Well, that’s not good; it’s a great opportunity for her, and I want her to nail it.”

“Me, too. I’ll work on it. Also, at the risk of overfeeding your ego, you done good, Steve.”

“Thanks, Sis. Oh! One other thing. Not exactly related.”

“What’s that?”

“I spoke briefly to her sister, Amy, when I picked Sheila up. Amy was ... interesting. Friendly enough. Sheila tried to play nice and maybe it helped. But that’s not where I was going.”

“So, go there.”

“She recognized me, asked me if was dating Jasmine. When I said yes, she said she liked Jasmine. Well, duh. Then she asked me if I knew Ryan.”

“Ryan Baird? Of course. I don’t know him very well.”

“Apparently that’s a good thing. She said ... um, either word-for-word or a close paraphrase. ‘He sucks. I mean really sucks. And I know sucky guys.’”

“Yikes! Speaking of ominous.”

“She said that, if we hear of anyone dating him, they shouldn’t. I said I don’t know him well, and she said, ‘you don’t want to.’”

“More ominous. Damn. He’s quiet and seems okay.”

She and I looked at each other. It hit us at the same time.

“Wait...”

“Cindy...”

“I um ... okay, this warrants a call to Amy. I need to know if we’re dealing with a cad or Candice’s cousin.”

“I wonder if Amy knows he’s got a little sister.”

“Cindy is weird, too. She thinks I’m the devil, or something. Thinking about the conversation with her, I think it’s not Candice’s cousin again. She’d explode.”

“Unless embracing her inner prude is her way of dealing.”

“Maybe. Anyway, I’ll talk to Amy, either way.”

We rolled up to Jane’s office; I parked, and we walked in, holding hands. Jane was waiting as we came in and greeted with hugs.

“How are my favorite time travelers?”

“Good, Jane,” Angie said with a smile.

“On my way to being tired, but good!”

“On your way to being tired?” Jane asked as we walked into her office.

“Lunch date with Sheila, afternoon with you, evening with Jasmine.”

“Sheila? Do I want to know? Wait — of course I want to know!”

“Another friend of Jasmine’s. Jasmine, Sheila, Lexi, and I went out to dinner last night. Then we met for mini-golf today.”

“And...?”

I explained Sheila’s self-image issues. Jane, of course, thought therapy would be wise, but agreed that I probably wouldn’t make things worse.

“How was your big trip?”

“A lot of fun,” Angie said. “A trifle disappointing for me, but Steve’s been at it longer. A lot longer,” she finished, grinning. “He made finals in both events, I didn’t break in either.”

“Congratulations, Steve. I know that was a hard tournament.”

I nodded. “Some of the competition was extremely good. I got third in Extemp; Amit got second. The girl who won was third nationally, last year. And our CX finals opponents were just plain on another level. Maybe Cammie and I can get there, maybe not, but they were ... I’ve never competed against anyone that good before. Heck, I’ve never even watched anyone that good before. They were runners-up at Nationals last year, as sophomores.”

She nodded. “Anything else of note?”

“Let’s see. The team that beat us beat Janet and Lizzie the round before, so they did well. And our semis round was against an iffy team from a really, really good school, Bronx High School of Science. I was glad we could beat them; they had the level of arrogance the guys that beat us in finals could’ve justified. But the guys that beat us in finals were really warm and pleasant.”

Angie nodded. “Those guys in semis were awful. Meg would strangle them. Most of us would strangle them!”

“You’d mentioned a showcase for summer programs?” Jane said.

“Yeah. Angie and I talked it over and we’re going to Indiana.”

Jane raised an eyebrow. Angie took it. “It’s three weeks, which is a good length this year. Quality program. And, most importantly, I can do the Drama program while Steve does Debate.”

“Well, I’m surprised! What made you decide to do that?”

“I feel like I want to give it a real shot. I’m not dropping Debate. Gene and I talked about it and we’re a team next year. But I’m going to see where Drama leads, too.”