Chapter 102: Making Your Own Fun

Sunday, March 25, 1984

Study Group was pretty much what I expected: busier than last week, less busy than next week. We’d do this a few more times this year, after all.

By this point, I was pretty burned out myself. Keeping going was a matter of pride, not anything I wanted to do. Those last few good grades were primarily a matter of willpower.

At the end of the semester, though, the satisfaction would be well worth it! At least, that’s what we all told ourselves.

Monday, March 26, 1984

The rumor mill seemed unusually cranked up, if I judged solely by the number of girls whispering things and collecting in little knots between classes. That had always seemed to be a good way to judge, so I went with it.

There wasn’t a good time for anyone to clue me in before lunch, so I simply waited.

As expected, someone (Angie, in this case) spilled the beans at lunch. She started out by saying, “So ... there’s news!”

A few of the girls rolled their eyes, but I could tell who was in the loop and who wasn’t. Jas and Paige were; Cammie and Mel were not. Nor was Emily. Sue, however, was.

Mel said, “What? I know something’s up! Spill!”

Paige giggled. “There’s trouble in paradise. Sadly, not as much trouble as I’d have liked, but...”

Angie nodded. “Big party at Penny Blankenship’s house this weekend. Not that I know who she is...”

I was pretty sure that Angie did, indeed, know who she was.

“ ... beyond kinda the idea of what she looks like, but...”

“They screwed up,” Paige said. “It got too loud, the neighbors called the cops, and the Blankenships got home to find most of Hedwig’s finest stuffing kids into cars and guarding the rest.”

“Fuck!” Mel said under her breath.

“Nobody actually got booked, mind you,” Angie said. “The moms and dads wouldn’t put up with arrest records for their precious little darlings. It’ll all be hushed up, but the damage is done. A lot of kids who are used to getting away with murder are finding that the leash is suddenly much shorter.”

“Anderson and Rita came down on Mike pretty hard. A lot of things they’d held back on all got dumped on him right away,” Paige said.

“Upshot?” I said.

“No using Mike’s bedroom for two weeks, no alcohol in the house, and if there’s alcohol at a party and Mike stays, no more parties until graduation,” Angie said.

“Sucks to be them,” Mel said.

“It’ll dampen things a bit,” Paige said. “Not a lot. Most of the little darlings will wriggle out of this within those two weeks.”

Angie shrugged. “Like I said, there won’t be arrest records. For most of these parents, the issue isn’t that they did it, the issue is that they got caught. Public embarrassment is a huge no-no in socialite circles. Thus, the lesson is ‘Don’t fuck up and get caught again!’ Most of them will learn that.”

“Pretty cynical,” Cammie said.

“The whole thing is,” Angie nodded. “Just the way life is for the high society crowd. Anyway, if you see people in that group looking out of sorts, it’s because there’s no party to go to this weekend.”

Everyone got a laugh out of that. The sad part was, I was certain Angie was right.

The results from Northbrook were pretty good, overall. Megan had placed second in Extemp, but the bigger news was Stacey’s fourth. That meant everyone in Debate was going to State!

In Drama, Sam placed third in Humorous, and Carole placed fourth. That left Marsha and Darren out, sadly. Marsha had two more years, but Darren was a senior.

Steffie was considering just saying everyone could go and support the team, whether qualified or not. That would require Marsha and Darren’s parents to pay (just as our parents would), but they probably would.

I — we! — would miss all of this next year. That said, I still had no desire to debate in college, and the girls had no interest in competitive debate or drama either. There was too much else to do. Sometimes you have to let things go and move on.

Heck, maybe we’d join a bowling league, or take up golf. Stranger things had happened, and we could do both on campus. A&M did have a PE requirement, but offered all sorts of fun things. That might satisfy some level of ‘competition.’

Who knows?

College offers were still rolling in, particularly for those who hadn’t gone with Early Acceptance or Early Decision. Jess got a scholarship offer from UCLA and one from UT on the same day. Of the two, UCLA was the obvious choice. She was still waiting for Pepperdine, Cal Tech, and USC (still her favorite).

With few exceptions, most of the seniors in Debate, Drama, and Study Group had their college plans settled by this point. Lexi was still in limbo, hoping for Rice, with UT having offered a scholarship, and A&M and UH pending. Carole was still waiting on all of her schools, and Sara was dithering between SMU (from which she had a scholarship offer) and UT (from which she didn’t).

The same was true in my classes. Most people knew where they were going, but there were those that were either in limbo or undecided.

The more people knew where they would be this fall, though, the more the feelings of imminent separation grew. Until this year, nearly everyone ‘just knew’ they would see everyone they knew next year. Everyone from your elementary school went to your junior high; everyone from your junior high went to your high school. Oh, there were exceptions, but they were unusual and noteworthy.

Now, though? We knew who we might see next year and who we almost certainly wouldn’t. It changed things, quite a bit.

Wonder of wonders, Southwestern Bell had gotten MNM’s new line set up very quickly. The rest of us went out and bought an answering machine. Price was not quite not an object, but we wanted one with about as many bells and whistles as was available, plus reliability.

Once we settled on one, it was a matter of just a few minutes to get it hooked up and tested. We’d need to update anyone doing business with MNM, but we now had a phone number that didn’t involve anyone’s personal answering machine, anyone’s parents, or Kyle (who really didn’t want to be our answering service).

Tuesday, March 27, 1984

Another day, another study group. We tried to pick up the pace with exams next week. Considering we had Sadie Hawkins next week along with the exams, it’d likely be a busy week.

Three weeks later would be worse, with tests and the trip to Kentucky, but one thing at a time. At least we wouldn’t have any exams anywhere near the musical this year (though the heaviest two rehearsal weeks were right after ToC — and Prom was on the weekend between them!)

Wednesday, March 28, 1984

Today was the big day for the Student Council candidates. For the first time in two years, I was only an interested bystander. Seniors had no vote, of course, but we got to watch the speeches.

I thought everyone did a good job, all things considered. It didn’t feel like there would be much drama this year, but that was good. One day, things would inevitably run down, and some ‘outsider’ candidates would win, but that wasn’t this year, most likely.

Tonight’s dinner out wasn’t really a double date, nor a triple date, nor any sort of date, but just a group of friends, because Angie and Jas invited Jess to join us on the spur of the moment during Drama. At least, I think it was the spur of the moment.

Jess took all of a second to consider it, then said, “I’d love to! Where should we go?”

The ensuing discussion was tabled when Steffie made us rehearse, so we debated it in the car and came up with Ninfa’s.

This time, Jess took her car to her house after school, and then we picked her up. She wound up in the back seat next to Angie, behind Jas, where I could see her.

“So...” Jess said. “Anything new?”

“Nah,” Angie said. “We just thought it’d be good to get everyone together.”

“Even him?” Jess said, nodding towards me.

“He’s used to being outnumbered,” Paige said.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said.

“Which proves he’s not normal,” Jas said. “I should’ve noticed that earlier, but I figured it was just the usual thing where boys will do anything to be around girls.”

Jess chuckled. “Well, me, too.”

“C’mon!” Paige said. “It’s not like it hasn’t worked!”

Angie, Jas, and Jess all chuckled.

“I’m serious!” Paige said.

“That’s why it’s funny!” Jas said.

“Maybe I should’ve stayed home?” I said.

“Much less fun!” Angie said. “First, I’d probably have to drive. Second, we wouldn’t have you to pick on! Well, okay, we could, but it’d be less fun.”

“In which case, happy to be of service,” I said.

We kept bantering on the way to the restaurant. I was pretty sure there wasn’t really a plan. Angie would have told me about it if there was (unless it depended on my being in the dark, anyway).

Dinner (I think) proved me right. We didn’t talk about anything major, just school, the musical, rehearsals, and other short-term plans. Nothing about investing or business or any big-picture parts of the future, nothing about Hollywood or roles, just some friends having dinner and hanging out.

We did draw a lot of eyes. That hardly surprised me. Me, sitting with Jas, Angie, Paige, and Jess? Of course, we drew a lot of eyes. Even with three of them still officially jailbait (not that one could tell just by looking), they were going to get a lot of interest (and likely cause some annoyance to dates and spouses, though some of them might have been looking, too — who knows?)

On the drive back, Angie and Jas both did just enough flirting to make it clear both couples would be ... busy ... when we got back to Jasmine’s house. Nothing overt, but it was clear.