Chapter 74: A Date About Dating

Thursday, January 20, 1983

Cammie and I went over my meeting with Principal Riggs during Debate. It was nice that we sometimes had very little structure in class, because it allowed useful conversations like that one.

She was — of course — on board with paring back things if it meant a success, and glad that it felt like Principal Riggs could agree. We both had a line where we’d have to say we were giving up too much, and I wasn’t sure they were the same. Hopefully, we wouldn’t have to find out.

It might have been different if Cammie’s parents weren’t who they were. I think she might have embraced some crazy ‘statement’ with hair or clothes or whatever, if her parents wouldn’t have had her on a bus to some back-country ‘therapy’ facility ten minutes after she did so.

Since it wasn’t ... we’d fight for what we could get, and Cammie would continue to appear to be, on the outside, the person most of the school thought she was on the inside.

After class, Linda and I confirmed we were on for tomorrow night. It’d be a real date — I’d take her out to dinner and ... well, we’d see. I had no idea what her parents thought, but I knew she’d dated other people, so there must be some understanding. Things with Darla might be trickier, but we’d burn that bridge when we came to it. Isn’t that how that goes?

Friday, January 21, 1983

Angie drove herself to school so that she could take Jas home, since I’d be off with Linda. That, and go out on her own date with Paige. Well ... unless it was the three of them. Thinking about that wasn’t entirely ‘behaving’ — but it was fun.

I wore a slightly nicer button-down and black slacks Friday. Pretty much everyone was used to my dressing up occasionally, so it wasn’t much of a surprise, though I noticed I got just a bit more attention from a few girls I didn’t know that well. I was nowhere near ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ (a song I’d be able to publicly reference soon, I was pretty sure) but it made the same point.

Linda had dressed up a bit, too, on the assumption that I would. She gave me an approving nod when she spotted me.

Besides the impending date, the highlight of my day was celebrating Sheila’s birthday in Drama. She’d brought cupcakes — yes, enough for everyone. We sang to her, of course.

Then we did it all again in Debate, but those of us who’d already had a cupcake passed on a second.

Linda and I didn’t hang out a lot during Debate. After Debate, I offered my arm and she took it, to a few mock-gasps from some of the others. I doubted anyone in class (or, at least, anyone female) didn’t know that we had a date. The girl-talk grapevine was far more reliable than that.

I walked Linda out to my car and helped her in. Then I got us headed off campus — and not towards Rico’s.

She grinned. “It’d have been funny if you took me to Rico’s again.”

“It would’ve, but ... nah. Not tonight. Who knows? We could wind up there again sometime, though, if they don’t get busted for drug smuggling.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, there is that! So, where are we going?”

“Do your dates spill the beans on date-night destinations that easily?”

“Hrm. Yeah. Most of them do. More often than not they pretty much make me pick, between all of the questions they ask.”

“I figured I’d try it the other way.”

“Works for me! As long as it’s not McDonald’s. I draw the line at that. And, yes, someone tried it!”

“I draw the line at that, for a date!”

She giggled. “So, you’re telling me that, if ... wait. Damn! I can’t use my go-to here! Um ... oh, hell. Never mind.”

“You were going to say ‘If Jessica offered to take you to McDonald’s?’”

“Yes!” she said, a trifle red.

“If Jessica offered, I’d go, as friends. So ... there you go.”

“Still not what I meant!”

“Now, if Linda offered to take me on a date to McDonald’s, I’d accept, of course.”

She blushed a little more and rolled her eyes. “I am not hotter than the boss! That shouldn’t work! And yet, it does!”

“That’s beside the point, isn’t it? Do you have to be hotter than Jessica to be worth flattering?”

“No, but...” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re good! I mean, you’d have to be, but I haven’t seen it like this.”

I chuckled. “I’d accept a date to McDonald’s from anyone I wanted to date, if they offered, because I’d be pretty sure they were doing it to be cute or fun or as a joke or whatever. I’m not on a date for the food, but normally the food should fit with the date. Many of my dates with Jasmine are for pho, which is great, but it’s not gourmet food.”

“Now that makes sense. I’ll withdraw my objection.”

“Good, because we’re there.”

“Huh?” She looked out and discovered that we’d arrived at an Italian place fairly near Ninfa’s.

“Oh! I like Italian! Which I’m sure you knew.”

“And the boss wasn’t my source.”

She grinned. “Even if she was, that’d have been okay. She is the boss!”

I parked, then came around, offering my arm.

“Thank you, Sir!” she said, grinning.

I walked her in. The place wasn’t packed, and I’d made a reservation in any case. We were seated at a nice little table for two right away.

“How’d you know this was safe, really?” she said, looking at the menu. “Some of us would kill you for bringing us anywhere near pasta!”

“Well, first, you’re all different people, not Homo Cheerleaderus...”

She giggled at that. Loudly.

“So, I’d ask, if I didn’t know. But I’ve seen you eat pasta occasionally. Plus, you suggested tacos, then ate the tortillas — and some chips, too. Or, I’d remember that you probably burn an absurd number of calories during workouts, which you do just as much or more in the winter so you don’t lose conditioning and can perform at the basketball games.”

“That would do it!”

She wound up picking Chicken Saltimbocca, which doesn’t even involve pasta. So much for my research! I wound up with the lasagna. Hard to go wrong with that, though I have, occasionally.

The waiter took our orders and headed off, leaving us at one of those awkward conversation restarts. I jumped in just as Linda was starting to look like she was trying to figure out the next thing to say.

“So, at the risk of having a lousy answer myself ... you mentioned wanting to make your college choice on your own. Might as well ask what you’re considering — both colleges and majors.”

She blew out a breath. “I wasn’t sure where that was going when you started! Um ... well. Majors ... I don’t know, honestly. I thought I knew a year ago. I was going to major in English Literature. It really is one of my favorite subjects, and I love it. I’m a sucker for most of the classics, and learning more about them ... it’d be great. But ... I’m really liking Debate, too. And ... literature is a bit questionable as a career. Sure, I might be a professor, but I might not be, and then it’s probably teaching, and I don’t know that I want to be a teacher. I’m getting sucked in a little with all the talk of law school or business school or ... I don’t know.” She shrugged. “There’s so much out there!”

“It sounds like we’re in similar places, except that my old love was computers. I still like them, but ... maybe something else.”

“I didn’t even know you were into computers!”

“That’s because it’s taken a back seat to everything else. The funny thing is, the first person I met in Debate...” This go-round, anyway. “ ... was Janet, and that was during a trip to College Station for a math tournament.”

She giggled. “I didn’t even know they knew math there! What ... one cow plus one cow equals several calves?”

I rolled my eyes at that.

She giggled a bit more. “Fine! I know they’ve got engineers and all that. Dad’s a Texas grad and loves making fun of the Aggies.”

“So do most Aggies, so I hear.”

“Probably not the same way! Anyway, that’s cool, and surprising. I can’t think of Janet as a math whiz.”

“She’s really good, or she was. I have no idea what her skills are now, but I know she’s doing the U.H. Early Entry calculus program this year, so probably they’re still good. I’ll be doing that next year, I imagine.”

“I am not looking forward to calculus!”

“Eh. I’ve read ahead a little, and I think it sounds scarier than it is. I think I’ll like it more than trig, at least.”

“That is one low bar, Mister! Trig sucks!”

I chuckled. “I tend to agree, even being good at math.”

“So, you said you’d have a lousy answer if I asked about majors, and I think I got the picture, but I’ll ask anyway.”

The waiter interrupted us just then, delivering our orders. Everything smelled wonderful!

Our conversation slowed down as we ate, but continued. I nodded, saying, “Yeah, it’s the same answer. I thought maybe computers. Now ... business? Law? Business Law?”

That got a giggle.

“Or something different ... though I don’t know what. Maybe computers, but aiming towards patent law or the like? I think the hard sciences are mostly out — I’m good at them, but don’t have a passion for them — and the true liberal arts are the same way.”

She nodded. “Where I like liberal arts, but I’m liking some other things more than I used to.”

“We get a lot of useless advice, too. Oh, the individual pieces are useful, maybe, but put together they’re confusing. ‘Never do something you don’t like just for the money.’ ‘Never go down a path where you’ll find no jobs and have to flip burgers.’ Okay ... now I’m confused.”

“Tell me about it! That’s English Lit in a nutshell. Generously, a tenth of the people who major in it will really do something with it. A lot will be teachers, and some will go flip burgers. It sucks!”

“We’ve got a year, mostly, though I know from talking to others that you won’t die if you change majors.”

She giggled a bit. “Yeah, no. Thankfully! But it can be a waste of time, which means a waste of money, which means upset parents...”

“We’ll figure it out, I’m sure. Or ... close enough. The first year is usually just the basics. Less lost if you change majors.”

“That makes sense. I still want to make a plan, but I can live with some uncertainty — which is good, because I have to.”

“So ... on a related note...”

She grinned. “Where, right?”

I nodded.

“Okay, so ... U.T. has to be in the mix, of course. Dad would be upset if it wasn’t. Rice ... maybe? I actually considered U.H., on the ‘big fish in a small pond’ theory, but I feel a little nervous when I go there for Debate research.”

“Yeah. I think the campus is okay, but the surroundings...”

“Not okay. Anyway, so, that’s pretty much it in-state. Out of state ... well, if you’re thinking about English Lit, the Ivies have to be in the mix, and then places like Northwestern or Stanford or the like.”

“It would seem like your best chance of becoming a professor or the like would be the Ivies, yes,” I said.

“Yeah, but they’re also the worst for competition, both getting in and then who else is there. So ... I don’t know. How about you?”

“In-state, I’m down to possibly Rice, possibly A&M, maybe U.T.”

“And there I was bashing the Aggies!”

I chuckled. “I’ve looked into it. When your dad was in school, they really were a little backwater school with a great military tradition but not the best education. That’s mostly changed. Last year they had more National Merit Scholars than U.T. did. They’re trying hard to upgrade.”

“Huh. Interesting. Dad would probably disown me,” she said, chuckling, “but I guess I should at least look.”

“I’m certainly not set on it, it’s just...”

“The reasons to not go there are less compelling than I thought.”

I nodded. “That’s how I see it. The big advantage to any of those three is cost. They’re inexpensive for the quality of education you can get, which means more for graduate school down the road.”

“A good point! But you have to get into graduate school.”

“Definitely. Anyway, out of state ... Northwestern, possibly Michigan — my dad went there — or maybe Stanford or Berkeley. I’m not big on the Ivies. Sue is, though, and Mikayla’s looking that way.”

“I don’t know Mikayla all that well, but I can definitely talk more with Sue about it,” she said.