Chapter 86: Dress (Code) for Success

Sunday, February 20, 1983

Sue came over towards the end of Study Group, while Jas and I were going over a bit of trig that she’d pretty much mastered by this point, and nodded toward the billiard room.

“Got a minute?”

“Sure. Sorry, honey,” I said to Jas.

“Go! I’ve got this!” she said, then gave me a kiss.

I headed over to the billiard room, just slightly surprised when Sue took my hand. It’d been a while, after all.

She directed me to one of the big chairs, then slipped onto my lap.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I said.

“Gene,” she said, then giggled. “Angie planted a few ideas in my head, and I ... like them. I wanted a guy’s perspective, though.”

“From my perspective, he’s a great guy, and ... I can see things working with you and him.”

She nodded. “I can, too. He’s ... sweet. Gentle, but strong. Smart, but ... relaxed. Really good sense of humor. I can work with all of that. It helps a lot that I already know him.”

“I have to ask, because of the last time we talked about this. Do you think you can do romance now?”

She bit her lip, then nodded. “I really do. It’s been a long while. I’m at peace with the hormones. I can do romance, I think. Also, just in case ... I still like you, that way, and ... maybe? It’ll be before Gene, if we start really dating.”

“Totally up to you, honey.”

“I still like Angie, too, that way, but she’s got Paige.”

“That relationship is just as open as Jas and me.”

“Oh! I maybe knew that, but I wasn’t sure.”

“It is.”

“Well, then!” She grinned a bit, after a second. “I like Paige, too.”

“Well, then,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

She giggled, then hugged me. “Thanks. I mean, for everything. You’ve helped so much.”

“Happy to. You’re one of my favorite people.”

“Um ... I have to ask, about Gene. You know I’m thinking of heading to the Northeast. Do you think...?”

“I think you have a year or so to figure that out, and I think he’d be open to it, from everything that I know.”

“It’s early, and I’m fine with just a high school thing, but ... well, Angie thinks he’s a fit, and you think he’s a fit. I don’t want to really fit with someone and then have to break up.”

I shrugged. “Talk to him, when you’re at that point, and see where he stands.”

“I can do that. Um ... I was thinking maybe ... Sadie Hawkins?”

“Makes sense to me. It’s a great time to try new things.”

“Good! Then it’s probably a plan.”

We hugged, and she kissed me on the lips. Quickly, but warmly. Then we got up and headed back to studies.

That conversation was just about exactly what I expected out of Sue. Getting her facts in order, sounding things out, and making a plan. The interesting part was her shift towards maybe taking Gene with her. Knowing Gene the way I did, I could easily see him following right along.

Like Jas said, sometimes (or often!) the best plan is to let the woman run things. With some women, their way of running things is passing all the responsibility back to the guy. Most find lines of demarcation, where both partners have their specialties. I’d seen that over and over. And then there were women (Sue was one, and so was Jess) who’d be in control. Benign dictators, pretty much, but in charge.

The old saying is ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life.’ The important part was finding out how things needed to be arranged to make that happen. Well, that and finding a person who knew how to be happy. That was my ex-wife’s problem. She really didn’t know how to be happy unless there was something external to be happy about. She’d even said as much to me a few times.

Not my problem, now, but I could still feel sorry for her, and I did.

Monday, February 21, 1983

Cammie and I each received a note from the office during first period. Unusually for such things, this one asked me to come to the office during lunch, if it was convenient. I assumed Cammie’s said the same thing. Ms. Easley seemed slightly confused that we weren’t heading off to the office immediately, but shrugged it off after a minute.

After class, Angie and Jasmine grabbed us right away.

“What’s up?” Jas said.

“We need to see Principal Riggs over lunch,” Cammie said. “You can probably guess why.”

I nodded. “Maybe a bit of a surprise, but not that much.”

“Cool!” Angie said. “That means we’ll get something done this afternoon, I bet.”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” Cammie said.

We headed directly to the office. If we had to skip lunch outright, it’d be fine. Neither of us was likely to starve. Worst case, I could grab a snack in Drama, and Cammie could in Debate.

The girl at the desk (a sophomore, I thought) waved us back to Principal Riggs’ office without hesitation. Obviously, we were expected.

When we paused at the door, Principal Riggs rose. “Come in, come in! And close the door, please.”

Cammie went in first, while I closed the door. He shook hands with both of us, then sat, motioning us to sit, too.

“I’m sure this isn’t much of a surprise,” he said.

“Timing, maybe,” Cammie said, smiling. “But not otherwise.”

“I’ve given this a lot of thought,” he said. “In a way, you’re giving me an opportunity. But opportunities come with risk, and our district is somewhat risk-averse. That said ... I can give you about as much of what you want as I told Steve, before. Some changes to the skirt length policy, striking the underwear policy, loosening the shirt-collar rules. Some changes — but not all of them — to the slogans and political statements rules. I can’t budge on hair color, nor the more unusual hairstyles, right now. You can read into ‘right now’ whatever you want, but — outside this room — I didn’t say that.”

He smiled, a bit, then continued. “I expect I’ll be working with you next year. That ... has a lot to do with the timing, too.”

There was a message there, and it was one that I got, at least. I’m not sure if Cammie did or not.

She nodded, then said, “Thank you. Half a loaf is definitely better than none. I’m sure we’ll have some more discussions next year. For what it’s worth, we’re monitoring progress at schools with different policies.”

“I expected as much. I am, too, along with some ... other things. That’s really all I have, unless you have any questions?”

Cammie nodded. “Do you have a draft of what you’re planning on implementing?”

“I do — by coincidence, of course,” he said, passing her a couple of sheets of paper. She looked them over, nodded, then folded them and tucked them into her purse.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Yes, thank you,” I said.

“I’m impressed with your skills, both of you. To be honest ... well. I could blame Tom Myerson for this, as I have in the past, but he swears he’s been much more hands-off this year, and I believe him. That says a lot about the team you’ve put together. Not just the two of you, but definitely including the two of you. I’m going to be expecting big things from you both, and that really is why I do what I do.”

I nodded. “The more kids from Memorial that go on to do great things, the more we all win. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — we’re on the same page on that, and always will be. Anything that undermines our students, no matter how much they’d like it, is something we don’t want.”

He smiled. “Thank you.”

“On the other hand...”

He shook his head a little, but was still smiling, waiting.

“When students go out into the world, it’s with an enormous amount of new-found freedom. It’s my belief that we’re best served by being able to make mistakes in a relatively safe environment now, instead of in a high-stakes environment later.”

“We agree, but ... that’s a long, hard fight, Steve,” he said. “And it’s not always that safe. Hopefully, it’s safe from physical harm, but a student who goes off the rails in their senior year can stumble just as much as one who goes off the rails as a freshman in college.”

“And we agree on that, too,” I said.

Cammie nodded. “Slow and steady. I can work with that.”

“And obviously I can, too,” I said.

“Thanks for coming by so quickly, and ... all the best,” he said, rising and offering his hand.

We both shook, and then we headed out.

Once we’d left the office wing, Cammie turned to me. “He seems certain we’ll be back at this next year. But then, he just handed us the election.”

I nodded. “That’s how I took his comment about timing. I mean, it’s not a sure thing, but it’s a big step.”

“He could’ve announced this in April, easily. Or in March, after everyone’s already filed. Now? We’ll have a huge, widely popular achievement. I’m not entirely sure why he wants us back, despite our obvious charm and wit.”

“We’re interesting. I’m sure he’s tired of the go-along-to-get-along Student Councils who never do anything interesting, and don’t even do a great job of pretending to do anything interesting. And, no, I’m not throwing Social Committee or the rest under the bus. It’s just that you could do all of those things without even needing Student Government. I’m willing to bet no one’s done anything like this, or Project Graduation, or a few other things in over a decade. The last time Student Government really ‘fought the law’ was probably during Vietnam.”

“Huh! I guess I don’t really even think of Memorial back then, even though I know Meg graduated from here during that time.”

“If it happened during our lives, it happened while Memorial was open, pretty much.”

“That’s a cool comparison! I like it!”

We headed off to lunch, chatting along the way. Neither of us was going to say a word yet. Except to Ang and Jas, of course.

The Eisenhower rundown was: not much. The good news: almost everyone that had gone had at least broke. The not-so-good news: only Eric had qualified. That left a handful of Debaters and Drama kids hoping for success at Yates’ Last Chance tournament.