Chapter 108: Work Hard, Play Hard

Sunday, April 10, 1983

I picked Jas up before Study Group as usual, or at least as pre-wreck usual.

As she got in, she said, “I feel like this car says that we’ve made our college decision.”

Angie chuckled. “It does feel that way a bit.”

I shrugged. “We could still go anywhere. I could repaint, or replace it.”

“It just suits A&M perfectly, and that feels like the favorite,” Jas said.

Angie nodded. “To me, too.”

“I swear, I didn’t pick it for that reason!”

“Of course, you didn’t!” Jas said. “How could you? You couldn’t make a used maroon car be on sale at a reasonable price. Just ... maybe it’s a sign.”

Angie and I glanced at each other. The universe again? Its signals were always ambiguous. We’d made ourselves comfortable with ambiguity, though.

“So,” Jas said, “how was the dance?”

“To quote myself from last night, ‘We danced, we talked, we danced some more, we kissed just a bit, we parked a little, we kissed a bit more, she offered me her virginity... ‘“

Jas giggled. “Of course she did! I saw that coming.”

“It hasn’t happened yet, and I’m not sure she’ll want an audience,” Angie said.

“What? Oh! You!” Jasmine gave Angie a bit of a whap.

“Ow!” Angie said, giggling. “You liked it.”

“Yeah, well ... hrmph. Okay. Fine. I liked it,” Jas said. “More seriously ... yeah, I did see it coming. I didn’t want to say anything, because I might’ve been wrong, and because it’s better that you just reacted honestly.”

Somewhere in that, I heard ‘It’s also better that I didn’t pressure you,’ which was true enough. I didn’t think Jas would do that, now, but it was good that she was watching for it.

“Thanks, honey. I mean that, too. I agree. It’d have been weird if I’d been thinking about that before the date.”

“So? And ... no pressure. None. At all.”

“I know. I’m leaning towards yes, but there’s time to think. We’re not doing a back-seat quickie. I just can’t see that being right.”

“Me, neither,” Angie said.

“Me, three,” Jas said. “It can be the right thing, but not for this.”

We kept talking without really adding things. Jas was clearly in favor, but just as clearly more cautious than she would’ve been a year ago. I really didn’t think it was the ghost of Gail, nor of Blue, nor Jess, nor ... anything. It was just a sign of growth and maturity. This was a big decision. Either way, it would likely be a memory Jaya would keep with her, and one I would, too.

The odds were looking good, but there’d be some time for more thought given our schedules. To repeat the oft repeated: one can usually wait and do something later, but one can never not do something one has done (barring dying and ... pre-incarnating ... anyway), so big things deserve thought.

During Study Group, Amit let me know that Jaya was thrilled about the date. I passed along that I was, too. For his part, Amit seemed happy for Jaya and happy with me for making her happy. I was glad. I didn’t want to get anything messed up between the three of us. Amit was too good of a friend to get into protective-big-brother squabbles, but Jaya deserved this to be about her, not about her brother.

Monday, April 11, 1983

This was the first of two short weeks. For the first time in this life, State wasn’t going to crowd out my birthday. Tournament of Champions would do that, instead.

We’d miss both Fridays. This week we’d miss Thursday, too. Tournament of Champions had a weird schedule, starting on Friday and ending on Monday, so we’d miss just Friday that week, but also the following Monday.

Busy, busy, busy!

I made sure all of my teachers knew well in advance, particularly the ones whose exams I’d miss on that Monday. Mr. Stanfield agreed to let me take the English exam late, while Mr. Hoff, fitting his sometimes unconcerned attitude, decided that we could take the test either before we left or after we came back. I’m sure most teachers would’ve worried that we’d share the questions. Anyone else giving us the questions wasn’t much of a concern — neither Mr. Stanfield nor Mr. Hoff could reasonably have believed that either Angie or Paige were going to fail those exams, nor me. Paige might have been a concern a few months ago, but the new Paige was kicking ass.

I’d been looking for Jaya but hadn’t seen her until lunch. Once I spotted her, I headed over to her table.

She hopped up and gave me a hug. “Steve!”

“Jaya!”

“I had such a good time! Thank you, again!”

“I did, too! Thank you for inviting me.”

I looked into her eyes and saw that she’d caught the subtext. She didn’t blush, just grinned a bit.

“Perhaps we can get together ... outside of school and Debate, I mean ... later in the semester.”

“I’m thinking most likely we can, but it’s hard to be certain.”

She nodded, smiling. “It is. That’s a good answer. Thank you, again.”

“And you, too!”

Angie and I had gotten the Sam Houston State pictures printed up. We put them into a nice folio (nothing expensive, though) and wrapped it, and the four of us presented it at the start of Debate.

Janet looked at it. “What’s this?”

Paige grinned. “Your future alma mater, of course!”

Janet frowned, opened it, then growled at the picture of the Sam Houston State sign.

“You didn’t!”

“We were touring colleges, and since we knew it was the perfect fit for one of our friends...”

She growled again, then abruptly brightened. “You know what?”

“What?” Angie said.

“I’m actually going to treasure this. I know what it led to. If it hadn’t led to that, I’d be marching down to the office and throwing it at a certain someone.”

Lizzie chuckled, then hugged her. “The best revenge is living well.”

“Well, that, and also throwing things. Preferably nasty, yucky things! So, yeah, those, definitely!”

We all chuckled at that — even Meg.

Wednesday, April 13, 1983

With all of the traveling, not to mention Sadie Hawkins (and Prom, itself coming up quickly), it was difficult to find time for Jasmine and me sometimes. Tonight we made an outing to Pho King, catching up with Huong and enjoying some noodles. Afterwards, we headed to Jasmine’s house, where I caught up with Camille a bit (but not so much that I’d have had to blush, thankfully!) and then enjoyed some canoodling (and more).

We both needed it. We’d be on two weekend trips in the next two weeks and only get to do a limited amount of canoodling (and nothing more).

Thursday, April 14, 1983

I got to school early, even though we weren’t leaving until later in the morning. I had an errand that simply couldn’t wait.

When I spotted my target, I headed over to her. She looked surprised, but happy, and met me in a hug.

“Steve! I wasn’t expecting to see you this morning. Aren’t you supposed to be on a bus to Austin?”

“It’s leaving in a few hours, so I’m fine there. Delivering this to you simply couldn’t wait.”

I handed Jess a single yellow rose on a short stem.

She blushed, then leaned in and whispered, “Secrets!”

“Can’t a friend surprise a friend?”

“I ... well. No, but ... yes. Fine!”

I hugged her and whispered, “Enjoy tomorrow, Jess. I love you as the best of friends.”

She sniffled just once. “I ... I do, too. Thanks. This ... it still means a lot to me. We made the right decision, or ... you did, and got me to join you ... but ... best of friends.”

“Always.”

I headed back to the house. Angie was sleeping in, or pretending to, and I’d only dressed enough to be presentable at school.

We met at school around ten-thirty for the trip. It was a bit of a madhouse, with nearly forty kids hauling evidence cases, file boxes, suitcases, garment bags, backpacks, bags of all sorts, purses, and other things I couldn’t even name. Many parents were there. Mom was included in that number. She brought her own car and sent us off with hugs and kisses on the cheek.

So was Camille, who also got (and received) hugs and kisses on the cheek. Clara Winton came to see Darla off, which made me more nervous than it should have. She didn’t know me much at all, after all, and I just had to keep my mouth shut. Jean Seiler came to say goodbye to Paige, and wound up hugging both Angie and Mom. It wasn’t quite like Camille and me, but it looked like they were at least tentatively starting to be on the same page.

As we were wrapping everything up, Principal Riggs came out, smiling. Everyone shushed as he moved to the center of the group.

“Hello, everyone! I just wanted to come out and personally say how proud we are of all of you! And that I should have done this last year!”

That drew some laughter, but I felt like it was sympathetic laughter. Last year we’d known we were not the ‘same old, same old,’ but the track record hadn’t been nearly so clear.

“I wish all of you the very best! Thank you for being such able representatives of Memorial. Have a great time, too! You deserve it!”

We all cheered. He went around shaking hands — parents and students alike — and clapping backs and the like. Like I’ve said, he was a politician, and parents were his real constituents. If nothing else, he had one of the essential political skills: if you see a parade, get in front!

Once all of the hugs and handshakes and goodbyes were done, all of the luggage carefully stowed, and all of us arranged in seats, the bus driver closed the door and we got on our way. We started off in our own seats — Meg and Steffie banned lap-sitting while we were in sight of the school — but a minute after we’d hit the freeway there was some shuffling of seating arrangements.

Jas wound up in my lap, of course. Paige wound up in Angie’s, Sue in Gene’s, and Amit in Sheila’s. Lizzie and Janet just snuggled. A few others wound up in laps, more playfully than not (or at least I think it was playful).

We had too many people for some of our usual bus games. Cammie tried some sing-alongs, and they went okay, but it fizzled after about an hour, and we simply settled into our own conversations.