Chapter 31: Watching Some Ripples Spread

Thursday, September 16, 1982

I finally made time to get back to Stan Archer’s printing company, after making sure he’d be there, and pitch my idea, which was this: He’d provide printing at a modest discount and also print up ‘Sponsor of Memorial High School Speech and Debate, 1982-3’ signs on parchment paper, with a space for a photo, signature blocks for Steffie and Meg, and so forth. I’d have done the whole thing in color, but ... in 1982, it would’ve just been too expensive for him to run a traditional offset printing color run in the quantities we needed. A color photo would add most of the impact, and we could customize it for each business.

Stan was all for it. The cost of the signs would be minimal, and it’d sure be cheaper for us, especially for a first attempt, than plaques or the like. But it’d be quality printing, something businesses would feel appropriate to recognize their contribution.

Steffie had tossed in that Stan would get first shot at printing the programs for the musical. ‘Harvey’ was too far gone, and would just have boring school-printed programs, anyway. For the musical, she was thinking we could take it up a notch or so. That’d give him a whole bunch of advertising, and we could run a sponsor page with all of the Speech and Debate sponsors, too.

Fortunately, no one knows you’re just sixteen when you’re buying tickets over the phone with a credit card, especially American Express. I had a date planned with Jasmine. This one wouldn’t be a big surprise, nor would it be a double date. Just the two of us, off to see ‘The King and I’, downtown, in just over a month. I’d picked the final performance, on Sunday, October 24.

There’s something special about finales, and serendipitously it was also the best day given our tournament schedules, football schedules, and sessions with Jane. Study Group shouldn’t be critical that week. The biggest factor, though, was an anniversary. October 24, 1981 was the first time I’d ventured into Jasmine’s house. First time I’d met Francis; first time I’d seen her bedroom. Why not go with that day for the show?

I hadn’t pitched it to her yet. Tickets first. If the unimaginable happened and she didn’t love it, I could easily sell the tickets. Not that I would, though. Angie would use them, or one of my friends would. But, if worse came to worse, I could sell them or easily afford to eat the cost of a couple of theater tickets.

Friday, September 17, 1982

Late in Drama class, Meg popped out of the connecting door and beckoned Steffie over. Steffie looked back over her shoulder as she left. “Okay! Try not to burn anything down. All clothes stay on. And zipped. And ... you know what I mean! Behave as if you weren’t who you are! If I don’t get back, you’re dismissed when the bell rings.”

We behaved pretty well. Making out doesn’t require much in the way of removing clothes, after all.

By the time we got to Debate, Meg was back with an announcement.

“Okay, people. What I expected might happen ... did. Bryan informed us that they’re limiting us. Eight extempers, three CX teams, three LDers. Eight humorous, eight dramatic, three duo, on the Drama side. Those of you not in Drama, word just hit maybe ten minutes ago.”

We all nodded. Then Janet spoke up, saying, “Totally sucks! What are we doing? Quals stay home?”

“Nah,” Meg said. “Later in the year, maybe, but right now I want everyone up to speed for Emory. We’ll do some weekends off in the spring. Maybe. We’ll see. Anyway, for now, we’re splitting the squad. Not that everyone’s going to Emory, but all the quals are, so letting you slack off now is silly.”

Janet grinned. “They’re totally not going to like that.”

Meg shrugged. “Too bad. Half’s going to Kingwood with Steffie, half’s going to Bryan with me. Yeah, Bryan’s a road trip, but we have at least four road trips this year. I think we’re adding a fifth. The people who go to Kingwood get the next one — probably Galveston — and the Bryan squad heads for Spring. Yeah, it’s not that clean — I know people will swap around — but that’ll help. Emory’s not limiting, but not everyone will spring for the trip ... I think. I’m checking on the January TBD. I don’t think they’ll limit us. We can bring the whole squad to Strake Jesuit. UT will limit us, but that was always their policy. It’s intended for only the top few teams and individuals per school. We might have a local tournament in addition. I’m not sure we’ll need one. So, that leaves the last two fall tournaments and the February tournaments. We don’t know if we’re splitting or letting people have breaks then, yet. I mean, y’all can always take breaks. It’s whether we’re encouraging it.”

I had to think about that. Bryan was cool. So was Galveston. If I had to pick one to vacation in, it’d be Galveston, no question. But Bryan was sentimental from that TEES trip, and probably the better tournament. I decided I’d wait and see what others chose.

That was it for any chance of a normal class. Everyone started buzzing about it. Cammie agreed — whatever was best for the team would be fine. Jasmine didn’t care, as long as we didn’t go to different tournaments. Angie joked about getting out of the shadow of her big brother, which got everyone laughing.

We’d get it figured out over the next week. I was okay with having problems like this. Letting us know we scared them wouldn’t slow us down.

It’d been ... how long? A really, really long time since we’d made it to a Memorial game. I’d managed to get good seats for pretty much everyone that wanted to go in our immediate circle — many of the Debaters, most of the Drama kids, the Study Group gang, and so forth.

Mel and Cammie, of course, would sit with the players’ girlfriends. No one thought it the least bit strange that they held hands and hugged — girls do that all the time. Best of both worlds, for them. Andy and Cal were doing a very good job of seeming like the perfect boyfriends, while Mel and Cammie acted like devoted girlfriends. According to Cammie, her parents were just thrilled that she’d found a boy and weren’t even nagging her about things like protection.

Mel’s parents were nagging her about things like that, somewhat to her consternation. On the other hand, Mark and Morty probably needed the occasional reminder. All was back to normal with Emily and the Wonder Twins — maybe better than ever.

Here we were, more than two years out from the start of Study Group, and I was on my third girlfriend, though I’d had nothing to do with any of the breakups, such as they were. Angie was on her second boyfriend. Beyond that, we had an amazing number of solid, long-term relationships for high school. I wasn’t sure if they’d all survive the transition to college, but most of us might be going to senior prom with the people we were going to the game with.

On the one hand: Angie and I were the only two to break up, so maybe their success had nothing to do with us. On the other hand: we’d been solid relationship role models along the way, and I knew Angie was constantly giving the girls little bits of advice that sounded reasonable for a high school girl but came from her extra years’ experience.

Who knows? The rest of the school came together and broke up about the way most high school kids do. Sure, Janet and Lizzie might well go the distance, but they were an exception among the wider population, just based on the depth and longevity of their relationship.

The Study Group crew rode together in several cars, with others joining us, either driving themselves or getting rides from parents. The floodgates were opening and more kids were getting licenses. Soon we’d all be drivers and, given the demographics of Memorial, most kids would have a car or at least access to one.

On the other hand: since we were all going — a rare thing — quite a few parents were going, too. Mom and Dad would be there, and Francis and Camille. Gene’s mom was coming, though his dad was working late. Anderson and Rita were both going. And so on, and so forth. Like before, I’d arranged for them to sit about ten rows in front of us. We had far more chances for mischief now, but some things remain the same.

We climbed the bleachers to the seats I’d arranged, which were between the forty and fifty yard lines on the Memorial side of the stadium. Some of the parents were already in their group.

Amusingly, while this was a home game, we’d play an ‘away’ game in this very same stadium next week against Spring Woods. Tonight, we were playing Fort Bend Dulles.

Dulles should be an easier game than Brazoswood. Even though they were 2-0 so far, their victories had been much closer than our blowouts.

As the game ticked closer, the girls dispatched us guys to the concession stands for snacks and sodas. We were happy to fetch them.

Jimmy grinned as we stood in line. “Remember ... two years ago. How nervous we all were? Everything was so new?”

“I remember.”

“Now ... I mean ... wow. Look at us now!”

“I was just thinking about that earlier.”

“You did a heck of a thing when you invited us into your study group, Steve.”

I shrugged. “You and Connie are both great. It wouldn’t have been the same without you. And it’s never been my study group. I’ll claim some credit, but it’s ours. Always has been, always will be. You just as much as everyone else.”

“Thanks, man. I really think you changed my whole life, you know? I would’ve been fine just being a wallflower and watching things go by, and ... now I’m not. If I can ever do anything for you, just let me know.”

“Thanks. And, the same, really. If you ever need help, you know who to call.”

We shook hands on it. The thing was ... Jimmy was me. He didn’t know it, and maybe even Angie didn’t know it, but he was almost the same as first-go-round Steve. Of course I felt something special watching him become the guy he was now and avoid being who I’d been then.

We got our snacks and sodas and carefully arranged things so we could carry them back up. Jasmine wound up on my lap, which set off a flurry of girls climbing onto laps. Even Sheila wound up on Amit’s lap, though they could’ve switched places and been fine.