Chapter 5 -- A Trip and the Halloween Party

So come to me darlin' hold me tight.
Let your honey keep you warm.
It's been so long since anyone touched me,
That I almost forgot what love is for.

--Trouble (Lindsey Buckingham)

On Monday, Sherry made it a point to be with me before History class.

"I had a great time at Vaughn's. Your girlfriend is a really nice person."

I smiled at Sherry's noticeable change in attitude about Kristen, since it wasn't that long ago that she had hated Kristen with a passion.

"Yeah. There's a lot to love about her," I agreed.

"The cheerleaders posted the winners today. I was on top, just as they told me. There was also a junior and two seniors."

I smiled at Sherry. "I guess it's an honor to be picked."

"I didn't think so a few weeks ago," Sherry admitted, "Cammy and Lynette aren't your typical dumb blondes, though. They're both deadly serious about cheering, and I've heard people say that they are both A students."

"I know for a fact that Camille makes herself look a lot less serious than she really is."

Sherry agreed, "Yeah. I got that feeling, too."

The class bell rang and we got into our seats.

At lunchtime, I was looking forward to spending the period once again with my lovely blonde Goddess. However, when I looked at our usual table, she wasn't there. Patty was, though.

I put my tray on the table and asked Patty, "You see Kristen?"

Patty nodded, and indicated toward the back of the cafeteria. "She's over there."

I looked for a moment, and finally saw Kristen's lovely blonde tresses. "Oh, yeah."

She was talking to some other student--nobody that I knew--so I went on the lunch line to get my daily ration of swill.

When I returned from the lunch line, I was a bit surprised to see Sherry as well as Kristen sitting at our table. Sherry was talking animatedly with both of my friends.

"Hi, Sherry!" I said, as I put my tray at my place.

"Hey, Jim!" Sherry answered. "Kris just introduced me to Patty."

"Price of fame," I said, grinning. "You're a cheerleader. Now all the best people want to know you!"

Most people around the table laughed at my comment.

"Better not let Camille hear you say something like that," Patty said.

"Oh, I think Camille has a sense of humor. She looks at me as a friend, doesn't she?"

Kristen was one person that didn't like hearing my self-deprecating sense of humor. She responded by simply kissing me on the lips. It wasn't a sensual kiss; she just wanted me to shut up.

I watched Sherry interact with all my friends. She was truly a nice girl and it was difficult not to like her. I wondered why I hadn't noticed her interest in me a year or so earlier.

The week passed swiftly, and Amy showed up for jazz band rehearsal on Thursday. When Kristen entered the room that afternoon, she greeted me with "Hi, Oogie!"

I could feel the entire band heave a sigh of relief--I think they considered Kristen to be my muse, and the fact that we weren't fighting anymore seemed to make the entire band feel better.

After rehearsal, I asked Amy and Kristen to stay a few extra minutes. Both girls looked surprised, and Amy looked at Kristen for support.

Kristen just shrugged at Amy, and looked at me. I saw her eyes grow wide as I opened up my attach case--I think she thought I was going to pull out my roll of tickets.

Instead of my tickets, I pulled out a present for Amy. "Here, Amy. You'll probably recognize the tune."

Amy took the sheet music that I had taken a few days to copy by long hand and she looked at it curiously. "Linus and Lucy?" I saw her squint, and she added, "From the comic strip?"

I nodded. "Yes. Try to play it."

The student opened the sheet music and put it on the stand on the piano. The first few bars were just bass notes, and she fumbled with the first bar until she recognized the tune. She looked up at me.

"It's from the Peanuts Christmas special," I said. "It's a good number to practice for getting the feel of the genre."

Amy was silent, and simply looked down at her hands. Finally, she asked, "By myself?"

"No," I promised. "The original score is a trio. I believe it was a string bass, piano, and drums. Let me have Sam and Derek work with you. The song is more closely associated with Peanuts than Christmas, so it might not be a good number for the Christmas concert. We could add other instruments, though, but the song really focuses on the piano."

There was another long pause. "Can I practice it over the weekend?"

I smiled. This was the most that Amy had said to me at one time, ever. "Take until next Thursday. You may be able to find the song at the record store if you need to hear the original. If you need help, please let me know--or Kristen."

Amy looked from me to Kristen and then back down at her hands. After yet another pause, she said, "Thank you."

Kristen offered Amy a ride home, but Amy lived close enough to the school that her walk was only a couple of minutes.

"That was very thoughtful of you, Jim," Kristen said.

"Thank you, Kristen," I said. "I've been meaning to ask you how you manage to get Amy to speak to you when she very rarely says anything to anybody."

"You've found the secret, Jim," Kristen answered. "You just need to talk to her."

I nodded. It sounded so simple and obvious hearing Kristen's explanation. Seeing Amy's face light up in recognition of the tune reminded of the reason that I loved performing myself. I loved seeing how I was able to make people happy just by playing instruments or leading a band.

The next weekend, Kristen and I decided to spend two days in Madison. Although Madison was an hour further away from where we lived than Chicago was, it was smaller and seemed a bit more friendly to us. It was also much more scenic. I had gone there a couple of times with my parents, but after last weekend's overnight trip, Kristen and I were starting to think of Madison as our own special spot.

Kristen and I arrived quite late Friday night, and we had McDonald's on the road for dinner. We found a cute little lodge just outside the city where we crashed for the night.

We didn't have much time the previous week to really check out the city, and we had never gotten around to visiting the Madison Art Center, which is where Kristen really wanted to go, so that was our destination on Saturday. I wasn't as fascinated by the exhibits as Kristen was, but the two of us still had a great time together, and I found Kristen to be quite knowledgeable about certain of the artists currently featured at the museum. I actually managed to learn a few things about Kristen's favorite artistic style, called impressionism.

After the Art Center, the two of us had wine, ginger ale, and cheese at a little pub that had a fire burning in its fireplace. Later on, we had some excellent schnitzel and potato pancakes at a place called Wein und Kse that, unfortunately, is no longer in business today.

Saturday night, we made love like infatuated bunnies back at that lodge outside of town. We spent Sunday morning at a park near one of the lakes, and drove home Sunday afternoon.

Our lives proceeded quite nicely into October.

Neither I nor Merry wanted to go trick or treating this year, since we figured it was for younger kids. Kristen solved our problem by deciding to have a costume party at her house and invited all of our friends, including Merry. Kristen also decided that costumes had to be of famous people throughout history, so the Incredible Hulk and Frankenstein would not be included.

On the Monday before the party, Camille approached me.

"Hey, Jim! I haven't seen you around for weeks! What have you been doing with yourself?"

"I've been doing fine. You are coming to the party on Friday, right?"

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

"Cool!" I exclaimed. "By the way, have you heard from Wendy lately?"

Camille nodded. "Yeah. We have a couple of classes together. I guess you haven't seen her much, have you?"

"No. Kristen takes up most of my free time."

"Don't I know it?" Camille pointed out. "I'm glad the two of you got over your bump in the road."

I wasn't going to pass over this opportunity to thank Camille once more. "Cammy, if it wasn't for you, Kris and I would probably have been past history. I didn't realize how I was acting, until you put an ugly mirror to my face."

Camille smiled, and said, "I'm glad you guys were smart enough to be able to deal with it. You two are so much in love, and I know that you're a good person, Jim. You may not be perfect, but then I don't think anybody would be able to stand somebody who was."

I nodded. "So, what's up?"

"The football team has a bye the day after Halloween. We're going to initiate the rookie cheerleaders that afternoon."

I had no idea what happened during those initiations. My mind started thinking about the reports of fraternity hazing that happens at colleges. "Sherry won't get hurt, will she?"

Camille laughed. "No pain involved, Jim. I promise! The juniors and sophs will have a separate initiation from the seniors, which is a bit more rowdy."

My mind reeled with thoughts of a rowdy initiation for the seniors.

"It's easy to read your mind, Jim," Camille laughed. "It's not that bad!"

I laughed. "So, isn't the initiation supposed to be secret?"

"It usually is, but I think I can trust you."

Those words touched me for some reason. "Thank you. Would you mind if I told Kristen? We don't have too many secrets from each other."

"Sure," Camille smiled. "I trust her as well. Besides, Sherry will probably tell her all about it on Monday."

I sighed. "I'm glad you'll be at the party. Kristen and I both owe you big time."

Camille moved over and kissed me. It wasn't an innocent kiss, nor was it quite a romantic kiss. I found myself enjoying every second of it. In my mind, I flashed back to an image of Camille completely nude at my birthday party. I found myself getting excited, but managed to hide my reaction.

After Camille pulled away, she smiled and said, "I'll see you on Friday night."

I watched Camille walk away afterward, and thought about Wendy. I realized that I might want to start paying more attention to my friends, rather than spending all my free time exclusively with Kristen.

A few days later, a dark haired and dark complexioned girl approached me.

"Jim Crittenhouse?"

"Yes?" I answered. The girl looked a bit familiar, but I couldn't place her name at all. I only knew that she was a junior.

"I'm Jackie Lombardi," the girl said.

Lombardi. Isn't that Camille's last name? It was! "Are you Camille's cousin?"

"That's me!" Jackie answered, flashing me a radiant smile that made me stare at her face a few seconds.

"So, what's up, Jackie?" I finally asked.

"I just wanted to thank you and Kristen for inviting us to the party on Friday."

I was confused. "Us? Do you mean you and Camille?"

"Yeah. As well as the rest of the cheerleaders. It sounds like a killer party."

Were all the cheerleaders going to be attending the party? This was news to me.

"Um, you're welcome. I think you want to thank Kristen. I didn't know that you were a cheerleader."

"I just got in during the last tryouts."

"Oh. Sherry told me that a junior made it."

Jackie shook her head. "Yeah. I got a nine. Did you know that Sherry got a perfect score?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Sherry was so proud she was bursting when she found out."

Jackie giggled. "She is, like, fantastic. She does those running aerials perfectly. She's a gymnast."

"I know," I said, smiling, not knowing exactly what an "aerial" was, but thinking it must be something great. "Camille figured that she'd be perfect for the team."

There was a bit of an awkward silence. "Jim, the reason I'm here is that I wanted you to thank Kristen for me."

"Kristen? She'll be around any minute. I'm getting a ride home with her."

"I figured that. However, she may not want to talk with me. She hasn't since the beginning of the school year."

I suddenly remembered that Jackie was a former member of Kristen's old circle of friends. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "You should try to talk to her at the party on Friday. She has changed, but she's a wonderful person."

Jackie cast her eyes downward. "Yeah. We all were a bit stuck up."

"You know that Patrice is coming, right?"

Jackie looked surprised. "She is? I didn't know she was invited."

"Well, Patrice is a friend of mine from way back, and she's still friends with Kristen. Her brother Jack is also going to be there. I don't think Kristen is avoiding her old friends, Jackie; she's just avoiding her old attitudes. Try talking to her at the party."

Jackie thought this over and said, "Maybe. I guess it can't hurt."

I watched the cheerleader walk away. She was a cute girl, a bit smaller in stature than Camille was. Jackie's face looked a lot like Camille's; I imagine she's what Camille would look like with darker hair.

On Friday, the day of the party, I noticed that Sherry seemed a bit nervous about something.

"Hi, Sherry," I said, smiling at her. "What's up?"

"Um... can we talk in private during lunch?"

"Sure," I said. "What's up?"

"I'll tell you then."

The class bell rang and History class started. I found my seat and forgot about Sherry as I concentrated on the Holy Roman Empire.

At lunch, I saw Kristen and after we kissed, she said, "Sherry wants to talk to you, alone. I know what it's about, and I have no problem with it."

"You have no problem with what?" I asked.

"I'll let Sherry tell you. But just remember what I said."

I was confused. Kristen hadn't said much of anything. I spied Sherry as she entered the lunchroom, and Kristen told me to go over to her.

"Hi, Sherry. What's up?"

"Can we go, like, to the music room?" Sherry asked, nervously.

"I guess so," I said. I was a little apprehensive, since I usually associated lunchtime music sessions with other people to have a more romantic theme, but since Kristen told me she had no problem with whatever Sherry wanted, I decided it would probably be safe. If not, I had a good explanation if I had guessed wrong.

Neither one of us said anything as we walked to the music room. A hall monitor spotted us, and I pulled out my Music Room pass, and told the monitor that Sherry and I were going to the room to practice. I figured that the monitor wouldn't know whether or not Sherry was in the band.

The monitor gave a quick glance at my pass and let us continue.

After we got out of earshot of the monitor, I giggled to Sherry. "Probably anything typewritten on something that looks like a pass would be accepted, but I never had the nerve to try that."

Sherry gave a nervous giggle in response.

I wondered why Sherry was so nervous. Was there something happening with Dale?

We got to the music room, and I let Sherry in.

I was somewhat anxious to find out why she was so nervous. "So, what's up? You've been acting very jittery today."

"I found Kristen yesterday before your band practice, and talked with her while my bus left. She then offered to drive me home, and we finished talking."

I nodded, getting a bit impatient. "What were the two of you talking about?"

Sherry hemmed and hawed, and then finally said, "I need to invite a boyfriend to a thing with the cheerleaders tomorrow."

It suddenly dawned on me that tomorrow was Saturday; the day that Camille had told me was the cheerleaders' initiation. "Um, I'm not really your boyfriend, Sherry."

"I know. Camille suggested that you were pretty trustworthy."

So, both Camille and Kristen knew about this. "What do you need a boyfriend for?"

"They won't tell us, not even Camille. She said it's a tradition. Jim, can you keep a secret?"

"I try to."

Sherry sighed and said, "It's an initiation for the rookie cheerleaders. The juniors and the sophomores have theirs in the morning here at the school. I'm not supposed to tell you any more than that, but I couldn't even if I wanted since I haven't been told anything more, either."

This sort of fit in with what Camille told me, and pretty much explained why Camille had told me about the initiation. She was preparing me for Sherry asking me to be there with her. I wondered what Camille and the other cheerleaders were planning.

I also now understood why Kristen had said that she had no problem with it. If she hadn't told me that, I would have declined Sherry's invitation, since I knew that Kristen had a terrible jealous streak.

I mulled these things in my mind for a few moments, and came to a decision. "I'll go with you."

Sherry looked relieved. "Camille is giving me a ride, tomorrow. She said she could pick you up as well."

This confirmed to me that Camille definitely had something in mind. I figured that I'd have a talk with her at the party tonight.

I nodded to Sherry, and she looked at me uncertainly. I moved over to her and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Thanks for thinking of me," I quietly said.

Sherry reddened just a bit and nodded.

I said, "Let's go back to the lunchroom. I'll let Kristen know about it later."

"Before we leave, could you do me a favor?" Sherry asked.

"What, Sherry?"

"I love hearing you play. The practice rooms are empty. Could you play me a song?"

"Which one?" I asked.

"Can you play Harmony from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road?"

I actually knew that song. Thinking about it, I realized it was a wonderful song for a single piano. "Sure."

I sat down at the piano and played the first C-major seventh chord.

Hello, baby hello.
Haven't seen your face for a while.
Have you quit doing time for me?
Or are you still the same spoiled child?

Sherry watched me play the song, and I saw an expression of amazement on her face.

The only place where the song seemed lacking to me was near the end, where I couldn't duplicate the vocal harmonies from the record.

"I've always loved that song," Sherry said. "I've never heard you play that song before. I had hoped you knew the song."

"Actually, I know the song, but I never played it before," I admitted.

"That was your first time playing it?" Sherry asked me, now shocked. "It sounded like you've been playing it for years!"

I shrugged. "I picked out the first chord, and it sounded right. The other chords just followed. There are only two verses to the song and the chorus, and I have sung along with the record a few times."

I got up from the piano and started to walk back to the lunchroom.

"Wow," was all Sherry could manage. She followed me to the lunchroom. About halfway there, Sherry remarked, "I'm glad the song was in your range."

I laughed. "As I said, I sometimes sing along with the album. The words to that entire album are on the cover of the record, so it's easy to sing along. Two years ago, Roy Fennel, the guy from the chorus, taught me how to add falsetto to my range without making it sound like I'm trying to sound like a cartoon. I notice that a lot of British singers like Paul McCartney and Elton John use that technique all the time."

"How did you know the first chord?" Sherry asked.

I shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me," I finally admitted. "The start of that song was just a chord. I just knew instinctively that it was a C-major seventh. I know that sort of the same way you can tell that the color of your shirt is pink."

Sherry corrected me. "It's mauve."

I stopped in the hallway and stared at Sherry. She looked at me confused, and then she suddenly understood what I was talking about. We both laughed for about a minute. Luckily, we were just outside the lunchroom.

There wasn't anybody in the food service line, so we managed to get our food. I just got a juice and a small bag of chips. Sherry got a slice of pizza.

Kristen looked at the two of us and smiled. "I take it everything went all right."

Sherry blushed and said, "Yes."

"So, what gossip did I miss?" I asked, changing the subject.

Kristen picked Merry and me up for the party at five. We were going to be part of Kristen's party set-up crew.

Merry had a curfew of ten o'clock, but I told my mother that Patty had to be home by eleven and, since I had to stay at Kristen's until the party officially ended at midnight, Patty had offered to drop Merry off.

"There won't be any alcohol, will there?" Mom asked.

"I told you before. No. Just cider and soda," I assured my mother yet again.

"You didn't mention cider before!"

"Kristen got a few gallons at a farm stand. I don't think it's going to be anything harder than you get at the grocery."

My mother considered this and finally relented. "All right. Just make sure that you watch out for your little sister."

"All the boys there will have dates. Merry will be fine."

"All right."

The doorbell rang, and the conversation ended. It was Kristen. She had a lovely "Horn o' Plenty" filled with fruits and nuts, which was wrapped in yellow cellophane.