Chapter 40: The Crown

Friday, September 30, 1983

As predicted, the people in the school’s office had no problem approving my absence for Mr. McBride’s deposition. I didn’t even have to talk to Principal Riggs, but I still guessed that it helped that everyone knew who I was (and in a positive way).

The whole thing should be interesting. I wasn’t expecting much, but then I had little experience with these things. Perhaps my deposition had been unusually boring. I doubted that, but it was worth seeing how this one went.

Since we had no tournament this weekend, everyone went to the game. It was Homecoming, after all, and Meg and Steffie would’ve been silly to schedule a tournament this weekend, especially with two cheerleaders in Drama and one in Debate.

Most likely, Spring Woods should have been our Homecoming opponent. Instead, we had Alief Hastings. They were supposed to be pretty good. Normally, you want an opponent you’ll be sure you can beat. Westchester or Northbrook, our remaining home games, would have been better, but those were too close to Halloween. So, Alief Hastings it was.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Hastings was much tougher than Spring Woods. For most of the first half, the game was a scoreless tie. With about two minutes to go in the half, Graham put up a fairly routine short pass to Andy, who broke two tackles and was off to the races. For all of his size, Andy can really move. That left it 7-0 at the half.

Hastings tied it up within seconds, returning the kickoff to the five yard line and running it in on the next play.

In the second half, it was all Memorial, though still hard-fought. Andy got another touchdown, the defense shut Hastings down, and we got a late rushing touchdown to ensure the win.

21-7, and none of our remaining games looked all that tough on paper. Hopefully it’d play out that way, and hopefully we would be ready for the playoffs.

As soon as the game ended, everyone got out of the stadium as quickly as possible to head back to school for the dance. Well ... probably not everyone, but it felt like it.

It felt weird (good, but weird) to be going to my fourth Homecoming Dance at Memorial. The first was almost a fluke. I still wasn’t entirely sure why Mom let us get away with it at fourteen. At the time, it’d felt like we should be able to. Of course it had. I was older than my years and, even if I hadn’t known it, Angie was older than her years, too.

In retrospect, it was crazy, yet it worked. It worked wonders, really. Who knows what might have happened with Candice if our relationship hadn’t been as strong as it’d become? Who knows if things would’ve played out the same way if we hadn’t gone to Mel’s social committee activities before asking her to believe us about her and Cammie?

Maybe that one dance hadn’t changed anything, but perhaps it’d saved lives.

The Homecoming Dance was the simplest dance Memorial held. Halloween was pretty simple, but at least it required a bit of themed decorating that could change. Winter Formal had updates every year. Prom was a major undertaking with a new theme each year. Even Sadie Hawkins had a bit of room for improvisation.

Homecoming, though, was always the same. Lots of red and white, lots of school spirit, and that’s it for decorations. Add in tickets, a crown for the Homecoming King (and wasn’t it crazy that I was a serious contender?) and a tiara for the Queen, punch and snacks, a DJ, and a bunch of students and you had a dance.

Pretty much everyone was going, though (for obvious reasons) Andy and Cal would be arriving late. Cammie was helping out behind the scenes until Cal arrived, while Mel was front and center at the check-in table. Connie would arrive late, too — she was helping treat minor injuries.

Angie and Paige were officially going stag. Perhaps they were going to go as a couple at some point, but neither of them had said anything about it. To be fair, I hadn’t asked. I suspected they wouldn’t, since it might make Cammie and Mel feel like they were missing out.

Darla had gotten permission to go, albeit at the last minute, and with a cousin escorting her. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. The amusing part was that I’d actually met the cousin in question twice — both times much later than now. One was at Dave’s wedding. He’d seemed like a decent enough guy.

Linda was here with her new boyfriend. She and Jason seemed like a good fit. Of course, almost everyone would’ve said my ex-wife and I seemed like a good fit, too. People assume all sorts of inaccurate things about relationships. Linda would kick him to the curb if she wasn’t happy, though. This was high school dating, after all.

Even as quickly as we’d gotten from the game to the dance, Trish and Mike and many of their gang were already at the dance by the time we arrived. They’d grabbed a couple of tables right in the middle, just off the dance floor. I suspected they’d left the game early. The tables near them were filled with socialites, most of whom had probably also left early.

We wound up on the side away from the doors. As people filtered in, the tables around ours filled with Study Group members, Student Council members, debaters, Drama kids, and (both surprisingly and totally predictably) cheerleaders and their dates. If, over the summer, I’d perhaps forgotten just how large our circle had gotten, and how many circles it overlapped with, this was a reminder. It was also a reminder that the fallout from Prom hadn’t diminished our popularity whatsoever.

It didn’t take long for ‘our tables’ to greatly outnumber ‘their tables.’ I hated making things with Mike and Trish into ‘us’ versus ‘them,’ but there wasn’t much of an alternative right now. Trish was determined to treat most of the school as beneath her notice, and Mike was apparently willing to go along with it.

The DJ already had music playing but no one was dancing yet. Everyone knew Principal Riggs would get up and make a speech once enough people were here, and that seemed to keep people in their seats.

About fifteen minutes later, Principal Riggs arrived, along with the football team and coaches. The coach got up and gave a little speech, Principal Riggs gave his speech (both amounted to ‘Rah! Rah! Go Memorial!’) and then the dance proper got into swing.

About half an hour into the dance, the DJ played ‘Every Breath You Take’. Most of us got a kick out of mimicking spying on each other. Some of the other kids spotted it and followed our example. Trend-setters again!

That was our only moment of trend-setting, though. No unusual same-sex pairings, real or fictional. No unusual outfits, no backtalk with the chaperones, nothing of the sort. Mostly, I think, it was that we no longer needed to be rebels, because there was so much less to rebel against.

That, and most of us were happily settled in our relationships, whether or not those relationships were acknowledged at the dance. While Angie and Paige danced with plenty of boys, anyone paying attention might notice that, in group dances, they were always close to each other. For their parts, Cammie and Cal and Mel and Andy looked the part of loving couples. In their way, I thought they actually were. Not in the way that the real couples were, of course, but after three years together, they were very close and genuinely liked each other.

Just after that, the DJ took a break and Mel went up to the microphone.

“Hey, everyone! How about our Mustangs? Let’s give them a hand!”

That got everyone on their feet, clapping and cheering.

“It’s time for the biggest announcement of the evening — our Homecoming Queen! Of course, we’ll announce the King, too, but everyone knows the queen is the true power!”

The crowd laughed and hooted. I spotted several guys getting subtle — and some not-so-subtle — whaps, pinches, elbows, and so forth from their dates. Not me, though. Jas and I agreed on that point.

“Mrs. Higgins oversaw the tabulation of the votes. Mrs. Higgins, would you announce the winners?”

Mrs. Higgins looked surprised to be called upon. I hadn’t known she would be involved, which was probably the point. Hard to argue that I’d used the vast powers (cough!) of the Student Council Presidency to win, especially with Mrs. Higgins involved. I might not be the last person she’d want to win, but I certainly wasn’t all that high on the list, even now.

“Well ... I would be happy to,” Mrs. Higgins said, coming forward. “The envelopes please!”

That got a laugh. I’m pretty sure she meant it as a laugh line, too.

“Your 1983 Memorial Homecoming Queen is ... Jessica Lively!”

While I was avoiding looking directly at either Trish or Jessica, I was able to spot that Trish had started to get up, then sat down abruptly. She had a big frown on her face for about a second, but then it plastered over it with a slightly-too-big smile.

Pretty much everyone other than the socialites applauded loudly. After a few seconds, they joined in, overwhelmed by the numbers and not wanting to look too full of sour grapes.

Jessica came up, smiled, and waved, and Mrs. Higgins placed a shiny tiara on her head.

“And, your 1983 Memorial Homecoming King is ... Steve Marshall!”

Trish didn’t look annoyed with that, which was good. Mike gave me a look, but that was all. For my part, I made sure to look surprised. I waved to the kids as I walked up to the front and accepted my crown. Jess gave me a little wave, and I gave her a deep bow that got another round of applause.

Mrs. Higgins stepped back, and I said, “May I have this dance, my queen?”

Jess giggled, smiled, and nodded.

A second later, the DJ started ‘Unchained Melody’ (The Righteous Brothers’ version) and we were dancing. Jess was (as I knew well) an excellent dancer, and I was no slouch either, so we made it all look both fun and easy.

She grinned. “Congratulations, King Steve.”

I smiled back. “Congratulations to you, Queen Jessica.”

She sighed. “I’ve been dreaming of winning this for years. It’s a cliché, but sometimes it’s fun to live out clichés.”

“Whereas I never even thought of the possibility until just recently.”

She grinned. “You probably should have, but I like that you didn’t.”

“And I like that you did.”

“We make a pretty good team, you and I.”

“Yes, we do.”

We finished the rest without talking, just smiling and looking into each other’s eyes.

As the song ended, we parted just slightly, turned, and bowed to the audience, then headed back to our dates. As I did, Graham’s girlfriend Kelly caught my eye and gave me a little smile. I doubted she was really worried about Jess. Graham had no real shot, and he must have known it, but I’d upstaged him in just the right way to make that even more obvious. I wasn’t worried about him, either. Kelly was quite pretty herself, as well as smart, and they obviously actually cared for each other.

Trying hard to not catch her eye, I looked for Trish. That turned out to be harder than I thought. I looked around a bit, trying to stay covert about it, but didn’t see her anywhere.

When I sat down, Jas whispered, “Trish and several of her friends went outside. I’m not sure if they’re coming back. Mike doesn’t seem to know what to do.”

Indeed, poor Mike was sitting there, wringing his hands and talking to a couple of the guys at his table. I felt a bit of sympathy for him, but ... he’d made his bed, and he was lying in it now.

Trish came back about fifteen minutes later, playing it off as if she and her friends had just gone to the restroom. Still trying not to get caught watching her, I spotted her glaring at Jess a few times, and Mike at least once. Twice, while dancing, I found that her eyes were on me, but I was (I think) able to avoid her realizing I’d noticed since my gaze was necessarily going all over the room.

Whatever happened next wouldn’t happen for a bit, most likely. She’d need time to formulate her next plan. There would be a Prom King and Queen (and they probably wouldn’t be massively upstaged by two lesbians crashing Prom this time), and maybe she’d try for that. No one campaigned for Prom King and Queen, after all. She might be the queen bee of the socialites, but that meant nothing to anyone else.

I’d already decided that I didn’t want the title. Jess probably didn’t, either. Her dream had come true. By the time Prom came around, we’d all be starting to move on. Let someone else have their moment of glory.

That pretty much ended the dance drama. The dance itself ended just about midnight, and we all headed home. There was some temptation to hang out (or more), but we could (and would) do that tomorrow — along with our much-delayed meeting with Jane.

Once we’d dropped Paige off, Jas picked our brains a bit about the dance, but we had nothing to add. Things had been completely different from Angie’s first go-round, of course, and I’d been completely unaware of the whole thing in my first go-round.