Chapter 17: Friends Old And New

Sunday, August 15, 1982

No Jasmine today. I really wasn’t surprised. She was likely embarrassed about Friday night, and this would be a hard place to show that. Tomorrow might be worse, but it might be better, too.

On the other hand, there was good news. Not only were Mark and Morty back, but Emily was ... cordial ... with them. Not straw-drawingly cordial, but I got the impression that might be on the horizon. I was glad to see them working through their issues.

Emily came over mid-way through the meeting. “Hey, Steve.”

“Hi!”

“I wanted to thank you for whatever you said to the guys. I don’t need to know, I just know it helped settle things down. I ... well, I probably overreacted. And they overreacted and ... well, still some things to work out, but we’re better.”

“I’m glad.”

“Now, do I need to kick Jasmine’s ass?”

I sighed. “No. Not yet.”

“You know that, if that’s needed, we’ll all be lining up.”

“Emily, if we get to that point, the last thing that will help will be anyone kicking anyone’s ass.”

“Yeah, but we will feel better.”

I chuckled a little. “I suppose I can see that.”

“Ready for school?” Angie asked as I drove us home.

“As ready as I’m going to be. I’m ready for this summer to be over. We accomplished a lot, but...”

“ ... but it was a bit underwhelming and ended on a low note.”

“Yeah. I’m ready to get back to school, even knowing it’ll be crazy busy.”

“Me, too. The same. Crazy busy or not, I’m ready to move on. Two more years.”

“Two more years. We have to make serious inroads on figuring out colleges this year.”

“When did you decide, before?” she asked.

“Early spring, senior year. It was down to a few contenders by that point.”

She nodded. “I made it to late spring, going to my fallback school. Partly ... well, there were a lot of reasons. Just not good reasons.”

“We’ll do it right this time.”

“We will.”

“I’d feel better if things were more settled,” I said.

“Of course you would. Going to be okay?”

“Depends. It’s up to the girls. As always.”

“At least you added ‘as always.’ Smart boy,” she said with a grin.

“I hope she’ll call.”

“I hope so, too. Going to need me tonight?”

“Always, but, not in particular.”

“Then I’ll aim for sleep, unless something changes.”

“That’s my plan.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

I tried my best to remember to check the answering machine, but sometimes forgot. It didn’t get much use. Tonight I remembered, and was rewarded by a message.

“Hi, Steve. It’s Jessica.”

Her voice seemed a bit off.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call.” She paused, then sighed. “That’s an evasion. I’m trying to turn over a new leaf, or turn the one over more that I’ve been, so far. I’m not sorry. I wasn’t ready to deal with it.”

She sighed and went on.

“I’m sure you caught that there were ... problems ... in my story. If you didn’t ... trying to live up to what I said, well, there are problems in my story. It’s ... more true than not. I think. Um ... emotionally speaking. Anyway ... I know you. I think you’d catch it, and ... well. You wouldn’t say anything at school, but I know it’d be awkward.”

It would. This being Jessica, there was always a chance she was playing me again, but I didn’t think so. With everything happening, I was prepared to be wrong, though.

“I’ll play it cool tomorrow. A little bird tells me that Jasmine has been scarce. I’m suspicious she’s angry with me. Why ... well, I know why, but that’s on me, not you. I’ll do my best, anyway. A hug, nothing more. That doesn’t mean we’re done, just ... for now.”

“I ... hope you’ll forgive me. I wasn’t ready. I’m still not ready. But I’m ... less unready. When you feel you can, I’d like to talk some more. Thank you for being my friend.”

I hung up the phone on the answering machine. That was a surprise. Another one, of many. Yes, I’d known she was hiding something, but her admitting it? Either her conscience was eating her up, or she was playing me. Or both.

Playing it cool was good, unless it made Jasmine think we were colluding to appear that way. Nothing I could do there, though.

I headed to bed, hoping I’d sleep. Tomorrow was a big day.

Monday, August 16, 1982

Another first day of school. The freshmen looked young. One of them would be Sam, but I hadn’t spotted her yet.

I did spot Jessica before she got to me. She gave me a warm, but chaste, hug. It wouldn’t upset the PDA police, unless they were on a mission.

“Hi, Steve.”

“Hi, Jessica.” I leaned in a little, lowering my voice. “I got your message. We’ll talk. And, thank you.” I tried to make sure I was conveying that there was nothing too much to worry about.

She nodded. “Thank you, too.”

A few minutes later, Jasmine bounced over and hugged me, with an apparent PDA-police-upsetting kiss. “Hey, boyfriend.”

Her heart was definitely not in the kiss, but she was obviously concerned with appearances. Her eyes flicked towards Jessica, who didn’t react all that much.

“Hey, girlfriend.”

She took my hand and tugged. “Don’t want to be late for first period.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

We headed off to pick up our schedules. Whether or not she’d planned it, our route stayed within earshot of plenty of kids, making it hard to say much of anything, especially now that I knew more about the gossip game.

At the one quiet moment we had, just after grabbing our schedules, she said, quickly, “We’re fine, as far as everyone is concerned. I’m sorry about Friday. I am. Stuff happened. I don’t know where things are going. I don’t know where they should go. Just ... well. Do what you have to.”

“I can wait.”

“Fine.”

We headed for first period: Trigonometry, with Ms. Easley. I hadn’t had her before, but I was pretty sure I’d like the class.

As we headed in, Jasmine said, “I’m going to need your help on this one!”

“Always happy to help!”

Angie came in just after, followed by Cammie. Both of them gave me hugs. Morty arrived just a bit later.

A few minutes later, Ms. Easley called the class to order, and junior year was officially underway.

Second period was English, with Mr. Stanfield. I had Angie, Mel, Emily, and Cal in this class. And, as it turned out, Paige. She came in a couple minutes after I got there, going right over and giving me a hug and a kiss.

“I missed you! Why didn’t you call?”

“Sorry, Paige. The past couple of weeks have been weird.”

The look on her face told me she knew something, but not a lot. At least, I thought not. But, Paige is a fine actress.

She put her hands on her hips and mock-glared. “It’s okay. It won’t be okay if I don’t get more of your time within the next couple of weeks, though!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

On the way out, Paige grabbed me. “Something’s wrong with Jasmine.”

“I know.”

“Whew,” she sighed. “I mean, that’s bad, but I was afraid it was something with us. Or both of you.”

“It’s ... complicated?”

“Damn. Well ... I want to help. That includes keeping my distance, though Jasmine sorta indicated maybe I shouldn’t keep any distance at all.”

“We’ll see. Either way, it’s not about you.”

“Good. And I’m sorry. I love you both.”

“Thanks, Paige. I appreciate it.”

When I turned away from Paige to head to PE, I spotted Jasmine watching us. Her expression was unreadable. She quickly slipped into the crowd.

For PE I had both Mark and Morty, Amit, Bob, and then Sara, Sarah, Sheila, Lexi, Sue, and Janice. Pretty good crowd!

After PE, we headed to lunch. Jasmine was close and miles away the whole time. She was a good actress, but I think more of our friends saw through it than not.

The big buzz was about how many new kids we’d get in Drama and Debate, and whether they’d be any good.

After lunch, we headed for History. I had Mr. Bailey. I figured I’d like this one, too, most likely. Angie, Jasmine, Mel, Mark, and Andy had the same class. Jessica was already there when I got there. Potentially awkward, but Jasmine seemed okay with Jessica’s hug. Even I could see a few girls taking careful note of it.

Darla was the next person through the door, surprising me. This was our first class together. I’d have to work hard to not be awkward. She didn’t deserve that.

My last ‘regular’ class of the day was Physics with Mr. Hoff. I’d really liked this class the first go-round and hoped I would this time, too. For this one, I had Morty, Mike, Sarah, Paige, Sue, and Amit.

Mr. Hoff’s Physics had been silly fun the first time. Oh, the work itself was a very respectable advanced track high school Physics class, but Mr. Hoff let people get into all sorts of mischief. Grab a large capacitor from the stores, charge it up using a big transformer, then make a big spark and thunderclap? Just fine. Play with the Bunsen burners? Also fine. And, yes, despite Physics having nearly no use for Bunsen burners, our classroom had them anyway.

Home Ec was right across the hall. I’d enjoyed checking out the girls when we were coming and going, my first go-round. I probably would again this time, no matter what happened with Jasmine.

Sixth period was Drama. Which, today, wasn’t all that dramatic.

The gang was pretty much back together, minus the seniors. John was out, which didn’t surprise me. He’d been making noises about it. All of last year’s sophomores were back, and all of them hugged me (yes, including the guys). So did most of last year’s juniors. I wound up with kisses from Paige, Lexi, Mikayla, Carole, Sara, and Caitlyn. I doubted Caitlyn had changed teams, so ... misdirection? Teasing? Fine by me, either way.