Chapter 10: Last Dance Before Summer

I bicycled home as best I could, though my knees kept shaking. Was I going to have to start a program of physical fitness, perhaps take up jogging to increase my physical stamina? I hoped not. Sleep, that’s what I needed, more sleep.

My mother was in the kitchen when I got home. “Hi, dear. Have a good time?”

“Yeah, thanks, Mom.”

“Did you get enough to eat? Shall I make you something?”

“Oh, no, I’m stuffed, but thanks. G’night.”

I got up the stairs, barely, and fell onto the bed. I got my shoes off, but I don’t think the rest of my clothes made it onto the floor.

I woke up late Sunday. There were leftover pancakes and some bacon, which I heated in the microwave while I made coffee. Afterwards, I felt somewhat better. I didn’t notice until I put the dishes in the sink that there was a note: “Gone to the mall with Mindy. Back later.”

The house to myself. Maybe I could call Karen and ... No, by the time we got naked, my parents would walk in. I imagined the conversation that would follow.

Instead, I went over my homework assignments and finished the stuff I hadn’t completed. I had to say, homework was much easier now that I had the clues from the teachers how to approach it. I had much more free time. We had roughly another month of school, then almost two and a half months of vacation.

I loved vacations. I was looking forward to this one because of all the new opportunities that presented themselves. All these girls walking around the mall, and lying on the beach at the lake, and ... I was drifting off into a reverie, so I pulled myself back and found a DVD, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Ah, Mia Sara.

My parents returned, having bought some summer clothes for Mindy. I read for awhile, an old calculus book, trying to review some of the things we’d been doing in Math Club, and by then it was time for dinner, and shortly afterwards, bed. I wondered why I was so tired?

“Hey, stupid-face, get up, you’ll be late!”

What? Oh, morning, and that gentle greeting must mean it’s a school day. She reminded me with that yell that I had intended to try mellowing her, and I hadn’t followed through consistently. So, at breakfast, I linkcast some mellow brotherly love vibes to Mindy, not entirely convinced it would work, but let’s maintain a positive attitude.

I’ll skip the school summary; it never changes much. Same boring classes and teachers, but at least I was doing a lot better on my homework and tests. I was, for once, anxious to see what my semester grade would be this time. And I saw Melissa once in the hall from a distance, surrounded by her crew, and she gave me a big smile and waved. Her crew did not, and looked like they were going to write her up for that. Fraternization with the enemy.

Wednesday. Wednesday was Math Club and there was Karen, looking virginal. We knew otherwise, but she put on an excellent front. She was into the math games we were playing today, beating out both Pierce and me. Hats off to her, she’s smart.

Several times through class I channeled some arousal, and I noticed it threw her off her stride. I would have to remember that the next time we played video games. She smiled at me as she left, and I channeled a last burst of pleasure and arousal as she walked out of the room. She tripped, but caught herself and continued down the hall. I loved making people happy.

Skip forward a few weeks. Still no more cookouts, no chance to hang with Karen, no contact with Melissa. The end of the school year was approaching, and a lot of the students were panicking as their last chances to improve their grades drifted away, with only final exams as a dim hope of improving a sinking GPA.

I was feeling pretty good, as my grades had improved a lot, and I was confident about what I knew and what I had to review. But, there was the last dance, a ‘welcome to summer’ fete for students to blow off some steam and say goodbye to your friends until September.

I had not been big on dances up till now; they were so filled with adrenaline and hormones as to be unpleasant and a little manic. But there was always the possibility that there might be unexpected surprises, such as had happened with Melissa. That was worth investing a couple of hours into.

At the last Math Club before school ended, I cornered Karen and asked if she were going to the dance on Friday. She frowned, and told me that the family had planned to go visit her cousins that weekend and she would be away.

She saw my disappointment, and said quickly that we’d have a chance to get together over the summer. She was not going away this summer, and would have a part-time job in a bookstore in the mornings, so she would be around.

I was bummed. I had been looking forward to the possibility. But okay, there was always the future. I hadn’t been able to touch base with Melissa. The Secret Service should talk to Melissa’s entourage to ask for hints in improving the government’s security.

Friday arrived, the last day of classes before final exams, most of it spent reviewing topics for the exams. I headed home after school, changed clothes and had dinner, then headed back to the school.

It was a zoo. Everyone wanted to say goodbye to their friends, to see and be seen. It was a DJ this time, rather than a band, not that anyone was paying attention. They just need the noise and the rhythm to get dancing. So I entered the fray. It was chaos, just like last time. Couldn’t talk, couldn’t hear anyone else talking.

Across the room I saw Jeffy and a few other of my friends, more like jumping around than dancing, but who am I to judge. Various people I knew were scattered around, but no point in fighting through the crowd to say hi, so I found a place by the back wall and people-watched for a while. I let myself flow with the rhythm until I felt a tug on my sleeve.

“Melissa,” I said, smiling, but no sound came out because my voice was overwhelmed by the noise. She said “Hi!”, or I think she did, it looked like she was saying hi. I shrugged, and she laughed. She waggled her finger at me and turned toward the snack bar.

We got there and the sound level had fallen by a few decibels, at least so we could shout at each other. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” I yelled.

“Why not?”

“I didn’t think your bodyguards would approve,” I shouted back.

“Oh, they’re here, too. They like to dance. They’ll dance with you if you don’t talk to them and they can pretend you’re someone else.”

“Oh, that’s the secret? Why, it seems so easy, now that you’ve explained it.” She smiled, and started to shout something back at me, then shook her head, and did the finger waggle again.

I followed her into the hall past the chaperones who looked like they were counting down the minutes until the end of the school year. They almost couldn’t be bothered with who was coming in or going out.

We found a place on the wall which was out of the way and allowed for nearly normal conversation levels. I was linkcasting a light pleasure and arousal at her.

“You look really good tonight,” I said. “You got your hair cut?”

She smiled a lovely smile and said, “Thanks for noticing. Only one of my girlfriends noticed. They’re kind of wrapped up in themselves.”

“Quelle surprise,” I said, summoning a little of my conversational French. At least I said it with a passable accent.

“I wish we had had more classes in common. I missed talking to you. I was really relaxed with you.”

“Thanks. It was a little hectic. My mother’s been sick, you know.”

“I didn’t know. I wish I had.”

“It’s okay. She’s better now, she’s taking a new medication and it’s helping a lot.”

“I am relieved to hear it. I can understand that you had a lot on your mind.”

“Yeah. I actually got better at cooking because I had to do most of it. She would sit at the table and tell me what to do, and I learned a lot. It was almost like being an apprentice chef.”

“My culinary skills leave something to be desired, as you may know. You’ll have to make something for me sometime, show me what I’m missing if only I would give up my addiction to mainlining frozen dinners.”

“I’d like that,” she said. “Cook for you, I mean. Sometime this summer come over for dinner. We’ll work it out.

She rearranged herself on the wall. “I also wanted to talk to you about our weekend, how much fun it was. It was kind of an eye-opener for me, as you may remember.”

‘May remember?’ How would I ever forget? I channeled a very light stroking of her inner thigh.

She went on, “I don’t think we talked about this then, though we talked about almost everything else.” She looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

“I was feeling like I was -- what? -- not unattractive, but ... average, yeah, average, that there were so many other women who were so much more glamorous and sparkly and sexy, and that I would disappear into the background.

“I think part of that was the constant low-level criticism of my friends about my appearance, my expectations, my ambitions, my boyfriends, like they were trying to set my standards. When you left on Sunday, I realized that I felt like, bring it on, bitch, you want sexy, I’ll show you sexy.”

I was very quiet for a few moments. I cleared my throat, and said, “I’m really surprised to hear that. My first impression of you was of complete confidence in your smarts, your poise, your sexuality, everything. And there really isn’t a moment that whole weekend where I saw you as frightened or vulnerable.