Chapter 57: Keeping On Keeping On

Wednesday, December 1, 1982

We were — I hoped — ready for auditions. The seniors had already done theirs. It was very different having to audition in front of the class compared to what Angie and I had done before, but it made sense since this was a class, while we were nervous outsiders last time.

Charles had picked Max, and seemed fine there. Mikayla was trying for Elsa, and I liked her reading of the part. The other three seniors had me wondering about the dreaded ‘senioritis’. John had done a lukewarm version of Georg. Caitlyn surprised me, choosing Sister Berthe, a part she could do in her sleep, and Debra was an indifferent Maria.

Among the juniors, it worked out that I was the only one trying for Rolf. Glenn turned in a solid Georg, Bob looked good as Frederick, and Darren surprised me by trying Herr Zeller. Something about a Jewish kid playing the overbearing Nazi seemed either wrong or very right, and I wasn’t at all sure which.

Four of the Drama kids were Jewish, and I knew Steffie had talked to them to make sure they wouldn’t be upset with a musical full of Nazis, even if the Nazis were both the bad guys and the losers.

I thought my version of Rolf went pretty well. I’d gotten the song down pretty well, for an audition. My Liesl was played by Lexi as part of her audition. Paige was going for Elsa, though I thought she’d lose out to Mikayla. Sara went with Sister Margaretta. Carole also went for Louisa, though I thought Angie’s version was better (but I am notoriously biased there). Sheila went for the Mother Abbess.

Overall, we’d have a solid cast. The hard part would be the smaller kids and the non-singing parts. I figured many of them would go to the sophomores and freshmen. Then, chorus, which would again be freshmen and sophomores. To some extent, we could and would double up - we’d simply have to.

We’d all be waiting until January for the announcements. I understood Steffie’s process much better this year, or at least I thought I did. This week’s auditions weren’t the whole story. How we acted from now until January would factor into the decision, as would other things that had little to do with acting ability. For instance, if one of us bombed fall semester, Steffie would probably not give them a major role. Grades took priority, as they should. It wasn’t quite the ‘No Pass, No Play’ from later years, but it was an informal version of the same thing.

Friday, December 3, 1982

After the week layoff, here we were at another pep rally. Jessica flew through the air, the band played the hits (well, the ‘Fight Song’ and the ‘Alma Mater’, anyway), the team exhorted us to come and cheer and be loud (a near-impossible mission — given that the game would be held in the Astrodome, no matter how loud we were, it wouldn’t make that big of a difference), Principal Riggs praised everyone he could think of, and we all were plenty loud enough for the Memorial High gymnasium.

This weekend was Quarter-Finals, where we’d drawn Dickinson as our opponent. Dickinson had just barely beaten Yates, but Yates was really good. Any game at this level was likely to be good.

If we won, we’d play on the 10th. If we won that game, the State Championship game would be on the 17th.

Many of the Debaters were off at Sharpstown, though with Memorial in the Quarterfinal some had opted out of the tournament.

We were really spoiled. The UIL (University Interscholastic League, organizers of all high school competition in Texas, pretty much) liked to put the big division 5A games (the largest high schools, which included us — sometime in the future, they would add a 6A level) in the Astrodome, because ... well, it’s the Astrodome. No one else had anything as iconic in 1982. Plus, an outdoor game could be in horrible weather conditions in parts of the state.

Had we been from somewhere else, we’d have had a long drive, but for us? Just across town. Spoiled.

Familiarity breeds contempt, I suppose. The ‘Dome didn’t seem quite so enormous this time. We seemed to fit there just a little better.

The guys were dispatched to fetch snacks and hot dogs — we hadn’t stopped for dinner this time — while the girls stayed and discussed ... well ... things guys shouldn’t be privy to, I suspected. I had an amusing little flashback to that cold-snap game of a couple years ago, but this time there were plenty of guys with me, and it was a nice climate-controlled building where the temperature seldom varied more than a degree or two.

We settled in, munched, and waited for the game. As expected, when it arrived, it was a tough one. We came out on fire, tossing a touchdown pass on the third play (caught by Andy). Dickinson came right back with a long drive and a touchdown of their own.

At that point, both teams remembered they could play defense, too, and gave up one touchdown each for the rest of the half, giving us a 14-14 tie.

We guys went and fetched more snacks — presumably so we could bite those instead of our nails — and the girls ... well, talked about whatever they wanted.

The second half started out with Dickinson driving down the field until they got to our ten-yard-line. At that point ... things just didn’t go their way. Their next pass fell into one of our safeties’ hands, and he took it ninety yards for the score. Three plays later, Cal literally pulled the ball out of the hands of their quarterback as he was trying to hand off and rumbled into the end zone for a score.

The sudden 28-14 lead was too much for Dickinson. They kept on fighting, but it ended 42-31, and just like that, we were two games away from the state championship.

Oh, and my friends each had a touchdown, and Andy had another game with over a hundred yards receiving. I was sure that scouts were paying attention by this point.

Saturday, December 4, 1981

Angie, Jasmine, Cammie, and I decided to surprise the rest of the team and turned up with tacos — many, many tacos, from Rico’s — for lunch. Not the free ones — we paid for these, though Rico did cut us a (small) break. Fortunately, we caught Amit and Eric just as they were about to leave for their own lunch run, though just barely, intercepting them in the parking lot.

Meg smiled when she spotted us coming in. “Hey! I wasn’t expecting to see y’all!”

“We figured you needed real food.”

Amit pretended to be indignant. “Jack in the Box is real food.”

“Save a cow, eat tacos,” Angie said. “Ok, not the barbacoa. Nor the beef al carbon.”

“Eh,” Amit said. “I’m not Hindu. Cows are tasty.”

“Thank goodness you’re not,” Sheila said, “or you’d be in a lot of trouble, I think.”

“Oh, I’m quite sure I would be.”

We sat and chatted. Everyone that was here felt good about things thus far. I hoped that’d continue into elimination rounds.

We took off after lunch, deciding that staying and watching would likely cramp their style and send the wrong message. Instead, we headed for Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts and spent the day browsing. It’s good, and I’ve always liked it — but it’s not the Art Institute of Chicago, unfortunately. Still, there was plenty to see and comment on. And ... it felt nice to have this outing with Jasmine along. It almost felt like this was how Indiana was supposed to be.

I took the gang to the same Thai restaurant that I’d taken Jessica to. Cammie whined a bit and had to be shown the less spicy options, while Jasmine slightly overestimated her own tolerance, but everyone pretty much enjoyed it.

After dinner, I joked with all of them about taking in a movie over at the Village Theater — current feature, ‘The Devil in Miss Jones, Part 2’ — but they all declined, particularly Cammie. I would’ve been very surprised if they’d taken me up on it. Jasmine, by herself? Probably — but not tonight, with her playground closed. Angie? Dangerously close to ‘not behaving’.