Chapter 71: Back in the Swing of Things

Wednesday, January 12, 1983

I woke up feeling almost good enough for school, but Mom decided I should wait one more day.

The phone rang late in the afternoon. I figured it was Jasmine, and I was right.

“Steve?”

“Hey, Jas. I should be there tomorrow.”

“You missed it! Well, I mean, that’s fine, but Steffie posted the roles!”

“Oh! I did miss it. Let me get Ang.”

“I’ll wait. Impatiently!”

I went and told Angie, who picked up her phone right away. I headed back to mine.

“Okay, we’re both here.”

“And eager!”

Jasmine giggled. “So, the big news: I got Maria!”

“Yay!” Angie said.

“Congratulations!” I said.

“A lot of work, but I can’t wait,” Jasmine said. “Okay, for you two ... Steve, you got Rolf, and Angie, you got Louisa.”

“Much less work!” Angie said, chuckling. “But I like her, and it’ll be fun.”

“And I’m happy being the evil seducer,” I said, trying a villainous laugh. It didn’t go all that well, judging from the giggles I got.

“You’ll be chasing Lexi, Steve.”

“Something I’m almost familiar with.” That got more giggles.

“And, Ang, your girlfriend is the snooty Baroness.”

“Ugh! Well, she’ll be much too old for me, in that case.”

Jasmine snickered. “Yeah, right. But only when in character.”

“Anyone else of note?”

“Charles is playing Max. He could’ve picked whatever he wanted, of course, after ‘Harvey’. Glenn’s playing Georg. Debra got Mother Abbess; she’s understudying Maria. John got Franz, and understudy for Georg. I could go on, but you’ll see it tomorrow. And, yes, I know what you’re waiting for. Ang, you’re understudying Mother Abbess, and Steve, you’re understudy for Max.”

“I can deal with that,” I said.

“Sounds like work,” Angie said. “But, yeah. That’s fine. Sounds like the seniors got a little screwed?”

“Except for Charles, most of them are pulling back a little,” Jasmine said. “You must have seen it. Mikayla and Debra are all serious about college, Caitlyn’s ... flighty ... and really, so’s John.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Angie said. “That might be us next year. I mean, serious about college. Not the flighty part.”

“We could be both,” I said.

“We could be!” Jasmine agreed. “Okay, I’m going to let you go. Homework time!”

“See you tomorrow,” I said.

“Yes!” Angie said.

“You’d better! Meg is getting really nervous with Strake Jesuit so close.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said. “At least it’s not Grapevine.”

“Grapevine would be worse,” Angie said.

“Much worse! Meg would be totally losing it if it was Grapevine!” Jasmine said. “Oh! One more thing. You guys missed Cal’s birthday celebration at Study Group.”

“Yeah,” Angie said, “I know. That sucks, but making him sick would’ve been a lousy birthday present.”

“Really lousy!” Jasmine said.

“Love you,” I said.

“I love you, too,” Jasmine said.

Angie made gagging sounds, which got Jasmine to blow a raspberry back to her.

“Tomorrow, tomorrow...” I said.

More giggling, then both girls hung up.

Angie appeared at my door quickly. “Cool! I get to be the annoying, contrary brat!”

“And the senior nun!”

She giggled. “Yeah, well ... I have more practice at the first one.”

“You’ll be great at both.”

“Thanks! You’ll be great at both of yours, too.”

“Hope so!”

We hugged and rubbed noses. Holding off another day for any more closeness wouldn’t hurt.

Thursday, January 13, 1983

Everyone was happy that we were back in school. No hugs, though, on the off-chance that we were still contagious. No one was taking unnecessary chances with a tournament just a day away.

I felt pretty much like myself, and ready for Strake Jesuit. The stakes for me, personally, were very low. This was pretty much just a tune-up after a two-month layoff. I didn’t think I needed it, so much as it was simply a good idea. Plus, Cammie really wanted us to get going again, and that was more than reason enough.

Cammie also told me that Principal Riggs wasn’t completely happy with the proposed dress code changes. Not a big surprise, but good to know in advance.

Despite our time apart, neither Jasmine nor I felt like rushing a date today. I wasn’t fully recovered, and she might not have been either. Hugging, yes. Kissing, yes. More? It’d have to wait a few days.

Angie and Paige managed some kissing, too, in Drama. I figured they’d wait for more, too.

I apologized again to Linda and Darla about being so quiet. They both seemed pretty understanding about the whole thing.

When I got home, there was a message on our machine. It turned out to be from Tony, and amounted to ‘Call me soon.’ So, I did.

“Hey, Tony.”

“Steve! I didn’t want to bother you while you were sick.”

“I’m doing much better. I was back today.”

“Good! Look, about the student rules changes. Dress code, I mean. We’re going to get a fight.”

“I heard that earlier today.”

“Good. Look ... pretty much no one knows this part but me. I felt like I could pass it on to you, since you’re second in command, but really, no one else.”

“I’ll keep it under my hat.”

“Thanks. Anyway ... it sounded to me like Principal Riggs was ... reluctant ... to annoy the school board again, after all of the shenanigans last time. He’s afraid they’ll just get the impression that we’re troublemakers and that they should’ve kicked a few of us off last time.”

I sighed. “We are troublemakers. That’s the job. Thanks, Tony. I’ll look at making some trouble.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“I know you didn’t. But you knew what would happen when you called.”

“I ... um ... plausible deniability.”

“That sounds about right. I won’t cause any explosions, but ... nah. I take that back. I won’t cause any explosions that’ll point back to Council.”

“I ... fine. I can go with that.” He chuckled a little. “I’ll be fine, anyway. Colleges aren’t going to care, and that’s pretty much the bottom line. Watch yourself, though. They could cause trouble for juniors.”

“I can cause trouble, too. It’ll work out, I’m sure of it.”

“Good. And, thanks. I feel like Council will be in great shape next year.”

Of course I’d thought about next year, but I hadn’t committed to it in my own mind. I suppose I had to, at least a bit, now.

“Thanks. I hope it will be!”

“Welcome. See you Monday!”

“See you then!”

I had a few ideas. Whether I’d need them or not? That ... we’d see. I didn’t need to pull out all the stops over this one fight. We needed a compromise that gave us some wins, but we also needed the school board to let up. Perhaps we could accomplish both at once, or nearly at once.

Friday, January 14, 1983

Since Strake Jesuit was only about twenty minutes away from Memorial, we waited until Debate to pack up and leave. That was probably best for Angie and me. Oh, leaving during Drama would’ve been fine, since Steffie was only just starting to get everyone into shape for ‘The Sound of Music’, but anything sooner in the day would’ve annoyed my teachers.

This would be a rarity: the last in-town tournament of this school year we’d all attend. They hadn’t limited our attendance. Neither had Grapevine, but some people would drop out simply based on the distance.

I was in a slight quandary. Cammie and I needed to shake the rust off, but we didn’t need to win. Holding back is a bad idea, but it would be good for some of our other teams to get more practice at elimination rounds.

What to do? And, was it arrogant to even consider questions like that? Or was it simply realistic?

I took Cammie, Jasmine, Angie, Paige, and Carole in my car. Gene had his own car and was taking his own group. Cammie joked about being the ‘odd girl out,’ since she was the only Debate specialist in the group. Carole helpfully pointed out that Cammie was the only lesbian, too, but hastened to point out there was nothing ‘odd’ about that. Considering that I knew for certain that every other girl in the car played for both teams ... yeah, nothing too odd.

We laughed and joked our way across town. This was an odd trip (reusing the word of the hour) for me. One of many, I suppose, but no less odd for all of that. Strake Jesuit was located in the Sharpstown area of Houston. In 1982, this area (a master-planned community, one of the first anywhere that was designed around cars) was mostly white and generally middle-class. This struck me as odd because I was much more familiar with the Sharpstown — and Chinatown — of the 2010s. Houston’s Chinatown moved from downtown to western Sharpstown, immediately adjacent to Strake Jesuit, in the late 1980s. By the 1990s, Sharpstown was far more African-American, Hispanic, and Asian (primarily Vietnamese, but plenty of other nationalities as well) than it was now.

Sadly, this meant that it was years too soon to grab some dim sum for lunch during the tournament. There were still plenty of options, but it would’ve been nice...