Chapter 79: Dinner and Diversions

Friday, February 4, 1983

‘The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.’ Thanks, Robert Burns, for putting that so well! And, thanks, Principal Riggs, for proving the rule.

At least my plans were only a bit agley — or askew.

I got a note at the beginning of Debate asking me to come to the office after class. My plan had been to leave right away with Darla. Fortunately, I didn’t have any plans with tight timing — no reservation that would be lost if we were fifteen or thirty minutes late, nothing like that — but it was still ... inconvenient.

Darla, of course, completely understood. Well, that is, after teasing me about being sent to the Principal’s office. Quite a lot of teasing, and she was good at it!

Debate itself was a bit sparse, as Meg and most of those not qualified — and some who were — were off at Waltrip for the tournament. It was weird having half the kids missing. Steffie had stayed (the school didn’t like leaving classrooms of kids unsupervised, and getting a substitute would’ve been silly) and would head to Waltrip after class was over.

As we were leaving, I saw Angie and Paige’s hands meet, just for a few seconds, as they set off on their own date. They wouldn’t hold hands at school outside of Drama and Debate (or at least, not in a way that looked romantic) but it was cute when they did.

I gave Jas a hug and a kiss on the way out before she headed off with Angie and Paige. She was catching a ride with them, just to her house. Well ... I thought so, anyway. There’s no predicting what those three might do.

Darla took a seat in the office lobby as we came in. The secretary looked at me, then Darla, and then me again, gave me a little smile, and nodded towards Principal Riggs’ office. I didn’t know if the secretaries would know anything about my dating life, but I wasn’t counting them out. Secretaries (or, later, administrative assistants, or several other titles) often know an awful lot about everything around them. Good ones did, anyway, and my assumption was that Memorial hired good people.

Principal Riggs stood as I came in and shook hands. “Hello, Steve. Thanks for dropping by.”

“One ignores a summons from the Principal at one’s own risk.”

He chuckled. “Indeed! I try to make them pleasant, but I know students are usually apprehensive, and ... most have reason to be. Go ahead, take a seat.”

We both sat down, and he smiled at me. “I’m sure you can guess why you’re here.”

“Guess, yes, but I could be wrong. I’ve been in the news this week, after all, and ... there’s always something going on.”

“You do keep busy. Fortunately, I’m used to students like that. And, yes, this is about the dress code changes. Everyone — Tony in particular — wants things run through you. It’s almost as if they’re pointing towards next year. I can feel my blood pressure rising already.”

“I don’t want to endanger your health.”

Another chuckle. “I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t enjoy a challenge. Now ... I’ve gone over it a few times with a number of parties. You won’t get everything you want — which likely means we’ll be doing this again next year — but you’ll get a good chunk. The biggest nonstarter is the hair color thing. I just can’t do it, not this year. Perhaps in a year — and, note, I said perhaps! I can’t do anything about facial hair for students, either. Remember, we still prohibit facial hair for faculty. I can’t bend on that one.”

I nodded. “That leaves us with skirt length, underwear, some changes in shirt policy, hair length, some relaxation of the collar rules...”

He nodded. “In several cases, we’re splitting the difference. The underwear rule can go except that ... well, most likely if a teacher can tell that someone isn’t wearing underwear, we’ll have a problem with the obscenity rule.”

“I have no problem with that. People should wear underwear, anyway, in my opinion. We just found the rule to be so ridiculous that it actually undercut the dress code.”

“After some discussion, we agreed, and those that didn’t grudgingly admitted that they’d be hard-pressed to send someone to the office based on that rule alone.”

“We can work with that. And — I should emphasize this — if there are disciplinary issues or someone can reasonably show that performance is slipping, we’d be among the first to support changing things back. If kids can’t deal with some freedom, that’s a red flag. Of course, if they elect a different student council, I can’t speak for them, and none of us are candidates as of today.”

“The filing period doesn’t open for three weeks.”

“As I said,” I smiled, “none of us are candidates as of today.”

He chuckled. “Any idea what you’re going to major in? I imagine you’ll be a success whatever you do.”

“Still working through my options. The favorites are something in the area of business, computer science, something preparatory for law, or possibly some sort of hybrid plan. It depends — I’m not set on what I’ll do after college, and that would influence the choice.”

“Of course. While we’re at it, please pass along my thanks to your Project Graduation team. I really appreciate their ... discretion. Some of the things they’ve discovered...” He shook his head. “That could’ve been a mess.”

“Definitely. Our goal is to make things better, and making a mess seldom makes things better.”

“All too true.” He rose, so I did, too. “I imagine you need to check with the right people. Here’s a set of notes of what we think a reasonable compromise would be. If your Rules Review committee agrees, get this passed and we’ll make it happen quickly. If not ... well, let me know what the sticking points are and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Without looking at the specifics, I imagine they’ll be likely to agree.”

“Meaning we can close this until next year.”

“That’s my hope.”

He hesitated, then said, “On another subject ... are we going to have any ... trouble ... at Prom this year?”

I hesitated. The question surprised me, and I’m sure that showed. Not that it was on his mind, but that he expected me to have an answer.

“I ... don’t know, and that’s just being honest. No one that I am aware of is going to set up to make trouble for the purpose of making trouble, and I’m not specifically aware of anyone’s plans that might be ... problematic. That said, of course we can both think of people whose plans might be problematic for some people. But ... would they be the troublemakers? Or would anyone trying to ... discriminate ... be the ones making trouble? I’m sure you can guess my answer on that.”

He nodded. “That’s about the answer I expected.” He sighed, then shook his head. “I’m not really looking forward to making national news, but I suppose it could happen. The odds certainly went up last March, and probably a bit more in June.”

“Probably. I think that’s about all I can say. On that subject, I’m an interested bystander and no more. I won’t even be there as far as I know today. I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes, but I have no invitation.”

“Indeed. And ... you’re welcome to pass along my curiosity, but ... at this time, I’m not asking anything of anyone, neither information nor ... forbearance.”

“Message received, I think. And, thank you.”

“Thank you too, Steve. At least I don’t have to worry about being bored!”

“I would think not, Sir.”

I stepped out, amused. He’d just tacitly said he wouldn’t attempt to block Janet and Lizzie ahead of the prom. There’d be no point in taking that approach if he was aiming to turn them away at the door. The worst-case scenario would be a showdown on prom night with someone other than Principal Riggs, I suspected.

Oh, it wouldn’t be simple or easy. And, perhaps Janet and Lizzie wouldn’t go, after all. I was certain there was a small ‘alternate prom’ for interested parties, and they might want to be with their friends there. Not everyone could be open about things, after all. But ... what a spectacle! And Janet did love being the center of attention...

I think it was growing on Lizzie, too, now that most of the attention on her wasn’t snide comments, put-downs, or the occasional threat or bits of spit.

Darla took my hand as we headed out of the office and off to my car. “So?” she said.

“Dress code, as expected. It sounded like we’re making progress.”

“Why are you in the middle of that, again?”

I chuckled. “Tony doesn’t want the hassle. He’s pretty much out of here, after all, and it was never really his thing. Cammie doesn’t want the hassle, either. If anything, she’d probably be a bit too confrontational, and she knows it. It’s not my baby, so I can negotiate without feeling attacked.”

“Makes sense. I really never paid any attention to Student Council until last year.”

“Neither did I,” I said, shrugging. “Well, except for Social Committee. I’ve known Mel since early freshman year, and she’s always been on Social Committee. But, beyond that? Until we ran last year, it was just ... in the background.”

We’d gotten to my car, so I helped Darla in, then got in and got us on the road.

“I guess that’s enough about that. What’s the plan for our date?”

I smiled. “Dinner, and then ... we’ll see.”

She blushed at that, but I went right on.

“No, that’s not innuendo. I mean, we’ll see. We might be done, or we might want to hang out more, or ... whatever. Whatever we have, or don’t have, it’s way too early to make assumptions.”

“Oh! Okay, that’s ... I like that.”

“If you’re wondering ... and, of course, you’re wondering ... nothing’s changed on that front since our afternoon at the mall. You’re smart, you’re cute, you’re charming, you’re ... a lot of good things. So, yes, I’m interested, and attracted. But that’s kinda ... table stakes. If both people aren’t at least interested and somewhat attracted, it’s more a social dinner than a date, I think.”

“Attracted, huh? I don’t know if I’d say I was attracted to my other dates, exactly,” she said.

“Hrm. Maybe that’s the wrong word? I don’t mean lusting after them, just ... willing to see if there’s chemistry. If, just on looks and what you knew of the guy, you’d have said ‘Nope, no way, nuh uh,’ then why go on a date? Pity? That’s not really a date.”

“I see your point. Yeah, okay. I tend to think of attraction as having more to do with personality than looks, but ... I guess that’s more ... girly.”

“Maybe it’s girly? I don’t think so, though, or at least, I feel that way, too. It definitely has more to do with personality than looks. That said, everyone has preferences and opinions on looks. Even girls do.”

She chuckled. “Okay, fine, that’s a fair point. But ... well ... I guess it’s more that I think most guys will chase a girl who’s really, um ... beautiful, to avoid using ‘attractive’ ... even if she’s got the personality of a warthog. On the other hand, girls mostly won’t chase even the really, really attractive, hunky guys without seeing if he’s got a personality that’s decent. Though I admit, a lot of girls like ‘bad boys.’ But that’s still personality-based.”

“I think we’re agreeing more than we’re not. When you went on a date, there was enough there to pique your interest to find out more about the guy. Then, you find out more, and that determines whether there’s another date. I do the same thing. Now, in our case, we already knew a lot about each other, but sometimes people are different on a date than they are in class or at a tournament or whatever.”

I pulled up to our destination — an old standby, but not one that Darla would have any connection to, at least with me: Ninfa’s. She smiled when she recognized where we were. “Oh, this is nice! I love Mexican food!”

“Good! If you hadn’t, there are plenty of other choices along here, but I was pretty sure you did.”

“You do already know a lot about me, after all,” she said, grinning.

“That I do.”

I got out and helped her out of the car. She again took my hand, which said more than words would have.

They weren’t all that busy yet, so we were quickly seated. We placed drink orders — Diet Coke for both of us — and started looking at the menu.

After a few minutes, I said, “Okay, where were we?”

“I guess ... where we’d left off ... the thing is, I’m ... um ... dammit.” She blushed a bit. “Okay, fine. It does matter to me that you’re attracted, which is silly, because I don’t know if I, um...”

“It’s not silly. Of course, it matters. We’d have a fun dinner if we went just as friends, but we’re making it a date. You want to feel ... wanted.”

She stayed a little bit red. “Yeah. Um ... how did we get here again?”

“My car.”

She just stared for a second. Then, she laughed. Not too loudly, but a good laugh. Thank goodness. It’d been a calculated risk. We needed to ease up just a bit before things spiraled off the wrong way.

“Okay,” she said, when she’d settled, “that’s funny. Um ... oh, right. You were telling me that you’re attracted, which I just said mattered to me, so ... I guess it all makes sense. Even if I still don’t know what I want to, um... do about that.”

“Nothing says you have to do anything about it. I’m attracted to people that I’d never do anything with.”

“Wha ... oh. Cammie, right?”

“That’s one example.”

“If she was interested?”

“Then she wouldn’t be Cammie. Or, at least, not the same Cammie. It’d be a major change and ... who knows?”

She bit her lower lip a second, then nodded. “Not a problem where I’m concerned, though.”

“But not knowing what you want to do about things might be. I’m not going to try to charm and seduce you into going further than you want to go. At least, not unless I get the impression that you want me to do that. Some girls do, but that essentially calls into question how far you actually wanted to go.”

She giggled. “Trust a Debater to say something like that! And ... yeah, it would call that into question, wouldn’t it?”

“My dating history is a relatively open book. Yours isn’t. Maybe I should ask?”

The waitress interrupted us, asking for our orders. I went with the tacos al carbon, while she went with shrimp tacos.

After she’d gone, Darla smiled a bit. “Um ... it’s pretty ... meager. I let Dale Brewer take me to Homecoming, which ... eh. I mean ... I sorta liked him, but mostly it was just ... I felt like I shouldn’t just sit home. But it wasn’t much of a date, I guess. Before him, it’s just been little things. Last year I went to Halloween with Beverly Danner, just to check it out, but that was definitely not a date. A couple of dinner-and-a-movie dates with different guys, none of whom clicked at all with me. I mean ... I’m not into Mom’s romance novels, but I feel like there should be something, right? Not love at first sight or giant lightning bolts or whatever, but ... something?”

“I’d say so, yes. Something. Enough to intrigue and make the next date interesting, at the least.”

“Anyway ... yeah, basically, I’m almost completely new to this. Mom wasn’t letting me date. I mean, Halloween last year was just being goofy and hanging out with Bev, but it was still a dance, so Mom had to think about it. Of course, then Bev started dating Chuck Simmons, and we kinda fell out, and ... anyway. Then I met a cool guy during a history thing and decided to give Debate a try and ... here we are.”