Chapter 55: Schemes and Plots?

Sunday, February 14, 1982

I hit study group with my request first thing. “Hey y’all! Need your attention for a minute.” Everyone looked. “I’m officially proposing Jasmine as a potential member. I’ll invoke the girlfriend-preference rule, but in fact, I don’t think we’ll draw straws often — maybe once in a while. It’s more because I don’t think she’ll invite someone if we split up. I’m also proposing pre-consideration for Lexi and Sheila. I haven’t discussed it with them yet and I won’t, nor have I mentioned Sheila to Jasmine. Lexi we discussed. They’re not girlfriends — I mean with me, but not with each other either, last night notwithstanding.” That got some laughter.

Mike nodded. “I think we all saw Jasmine coming.”

Angie grinned. “Pretty sure that, in this room, only Steve’s seen that.”

Mike turned red at that. “Okay, I’ll rephrase. I think we all saw a request to allow Jasmine to join as being likely.”

“Better!” Angie said with a wink.

“This is new. I think we can move quickly on letting Jasmine in, but for the others, we should follow the waiting rules. If everyone else thinks so, too, anyway.”

There were lots of nods. “Mike, might I suggest you speak to everyone, just in case? Or just put a jar out and anyone can just write ‘no’ on a slip of paper and Jasmine will be a wait, too.”

“That’s more than fair. We can keep that as a precedent for girlfriend/boyfriend rules.”

“Thanks, Mike. I’ve got one more proposal.”

Cammie grinned. “I already said I will not marry you!”

Everyone laughed at that. Fairly hard. When it died down, I continued. “Now that Ms. Clarke has entertained you, I’m proposing that we devote the last hour to our private Valentine’s dance. My Valentine isn’t here, but I’ll happily share the moment with the happy couples.”

After a round of applause and nods, we all got to studying. Mike set up a jar for votes, or comments, or whatever we were doing.

An hour later, I intercepted Mel as she was swapping between study partners and motioned her towards the billiards room. “Whatcha need, Steve?”

“Mr. Myerson said something interesting yesterday. About not drawing attention to the social committee.”

She blushed a bit. “If I knew anything about something like that, I wouldn’t be able to mention it.”

“I thought that might be the answer. Your secret’s safe with me. And Jasmine. And Angie.”

She laughed. “‘Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.’”

“Ominous!”

“I don’t think Franklin wanted people murdered. And it’s not life or death. But yeah. Plans. Maybe. Slow plans.”

“I’m sure I’ll be in favor. Let me know how I can help.”

“Are you sure?”

“You know I’ll do what I can for you.”

She grinned. “Be careful what you wish for.” She leaned in and hugged me. “Seriously ... not just you, Mike gets credit, Angie does, but ... the old me would’ve just kept her head down and been a quiet little mouse, lest I get caught playing with another mouse. I can’t tell you how nice it’s been to be accepted. Not just by you — by everyone, and Mark and Morty of course, that’s huge — but you started the ball rolling.”

I blushed a bit. “You and Cammie have been great friends. I love seeing you both happy and thriving.”

“Now if we can just keep things quiet on her end until she’s eighteen!”

“We’ll do everything we can.”

“I know. And I love you for it, all of you. Everyone. I can’t believe I bailed on y’all.”

“Different situation. You didn’t know we’d be cool. I didn’t either, then. I knew I would be cool, and I was sure of Angie. The rest of the group? I wouldn’t have known until I asked, and why would I ask until there was a reason?”

“Yeah. That 20/20 hindsight thing again.” She hugged me and kissed my cheek. “No Valentine’s surprise this year, but we’re not done being interested, on occasion.” She grinned and headed back to the other room.

Well, there went a lot of my calm for the afternoon.

I slipped out to the billiard room and called Sheila’s house about half an hour before group would end. I got lucky; Amy answered.

“Adcock residence, Amy speaking.”

“Hey, Amy. This is Steve Marshall.”

“Oh, hey. I’ll go get Sheila.”

“Nah, I was calling for you.”

“Really?” I got the feeling she was thinking I was two-timing Sheila, maybe, or doing something else underhanded. That wasn’t a big stretch, I guess; it’d probably happened.

“I was calling about Ryan Baird. Look, I know his little sister. She’s a self-righteous pain in the ass, but there’s nothing bad about her I’m aware of. You said he was bad news, and I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t ask if he was that kind of bad news.”

“Nah. Okay, look. He’s a stalker. We went on one date. One! One peck on the cheek. I’ve gotten about a hundred phone calls, notes, little gifts, and other things. He threatened to beat up the next three guys I dated, until I dated a guy he couldn’t win against. I’m not the only girl he’s pulled this with; anyone who’ll date him is prey. I could see him being hyper-protective of her, maybe, but then I think they’re some sort of fundamentalist something-or-other. I know Ryan believes that women should be barefoot and pregnant. Like, first date conversation was about how many kids I wanted and how no wife of his would work outside the house and stuff. He’s fucking up my social life right now; I can’t date anyone that he could beat up, because I think he would. I could get a restraining order, but, yeah, I so don’t need that hassle.”

“That’s a relief. Mostly. I’ll look out for him. Cindy blindsided me with a bunch of crap about my ‘taking advantage of Jasmine.’”

“Oh, that’s a laugh. Jasmine is a force of nature. No one takes advantage of that chick. Anyone who tries will regret it. But it fits right in: guys are the aggressors; girls are taken advantage of. I doubt Cindy can imagine Jasmine being who she is, not really.”

“Thanks. I didn’t want to have to get more involved, but if he was the sort of person who’d prey on Cindy, I couldn’t just let that pass, no matter that I don’t like her.”

“You’re a good guy. Take care of Sheila, okay? I know I’m a sucky role model and all and that she kinda loathes me, but I love S and I just want the best for her. And ... I deserve some of the loathing.”

“I think you’re all right. Just warning me about Ryan was a good deed. Don’t kick yourself too hard; everyone makes mistakes. What matters is how you recover.”

“Cliché, but I know you mean it, and, hey, it’s not a cliché because it’s never right, right? Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, and thank you, too.”

“Bye for now!”

“Bye, Amy.”

Well, that was a relief. One worry checked off.

When I came back, the jar was mostly full. At the end of study group Mike opened it and went through it. “A lot of you are clever, which shouldn’t surprise me. Not after the boobs on the hot tub survey.” Emily giggled at that. “None of these contain a no. Not any language that I’m aware of, anyway. So, we can speed up Jasmine’s consideration. We still should vote next time on whether she’s in.”

Jimmy shook his head. “Nah, let’s just do it now. No one says they want to wait. Let’s not wait.”

Ten minutes later, we had a full set of ‘yes’ votes. Jasmine was in.

9:45pm

“What was your call about?” Angie asked.

“I called Amy. Ryan’s not a predator in a way that affects Cindy, he’s a stalker. Any girl he dates even once is the future Mrs. Baird, emphasis on the Missus. ‘Barefoot and pregnant’ is how Amy put it.”

“Ugh. Well, I never really liked him. We should just keep an eye out. So, did you get anything out of Mel?”

“Not really,” I said, shrugging. “You?”

“Nope, not except she implied there was something there.”

“Well, yeah, I got that much, too.”

“I wonder what’s up. I can’t see it directly affecting Cammie and Mel. Cammie can’t afford any exposure at all. It’d be horrible.”

“Yeah, but if, say, it made it so Lizzie and Janet could go to Senior Prom openly, that’d be a victory right there. And I know neither of them have serious parental issues.”

“Definitely. They’d be a lot more circumspect if they did. We’ll just watch and see. If Myerson’s involved, it’ll be something. And he must think he can get whatever-it-is past Riggs.”

“Riggs is a politician, Sis. You know that. If he thinks the parents will hate it, he’ll stop it. If he thinks the parents will go for it, he’ll go along with it. Reading the school, the parents are conservative, but not necessarily anti-gay. There are a lot of educated professionals who don’t care. Not that Cammie’s parents aren’t educated, though I guess I don’t know much about them, but still.”

“I’m certain the Memorial I went to the first time around wouldn’t have allowed openly gay kids to go to a dance.”

“Me, too,” I said, sighing. “And maybe it won’t happen this time. Probably. But, hey, it’s worth a shot.”

“Hey, you know what?”

“What?”

“I know a bunch of kids who are good at researching the law.” I had to chuckle at that. “Maybe there’s already a big court case and we’re not remembering it.”

“1982? Hrm. Maybe? I don’t recall it, but I’m not a lawyer. However, a girlfriend of one of the instigators is good at that stuff, not to mention both of those who are most likely to test it ... and then there’s Myerson.”

“If the law’s on their side, Riggs will cave. He doesn’t want to get involved in litigation. There’s no real upside, especially with all of the lawyer parents.”

“Makes sense, Ang. It’ll be interesting to watch.”

“It will.” She leaned in and smooched me. “Night, big brother. I’m sleepy.”

“Me too, little sis. Goodnight. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She snuggled in a bit. “Staying here, though,” she said with a grin and wink.

“One thing, though. Could you get the light?”

“Oh, yeah, that.” She did, grinning.