Chapter 98: What Every Young Girl Should Know

Mom came into the kitchen with Mary. My sister's face was still swollen and she looked a little pale. She sat down across the table from me.

"How are you doing, Sis?"

"I hurt."

"God, I wish there was something I could do for you."

"I'll be all right. The dentist said it would hurt for a day or so and then it would be over."

"Are you going to be OK for the dance on Friday?"

"He said I should be fine. I have to go in Friday afternoon for a follow up visit. He said he wants to try something out but wouldn't tell me what. But he told me I'd feel better when I left."

"Maybe he's going to give you the BIG shot."

"I don't think so."

Mom brought a bowl of soup over to the table and placed it in front of Mary.

"Eat up, Honey. I know you want to sleep, but you've got to get some food in you. When you finish, I'll make you some nice hot tea. Thank you for putting the soup on, Sara."

Jill spoke for the first time since Mom and Mary came in.

"I did it."

"Well, thank you, Jill."

She still looked mad but it seemed to have toned down a bit since nobody was paying any attention to her.

I looked back at Mary.

"So, are you going to show us?"

She opened her mouth and lifted her top lip, then the bottom, turning from side to side so everyone could see. There were a couple of metal spikes sticking out from the gum at the top and one at the bottom. The gums were red where they'd been sliced to allow the posts to screw in to the jawbone.

"Those aren't going to rust on you, are they?"

"Oh, Jack. No, they won't rust. They're titanium."

"Have you hurt your tongue on them yet?"

"No, but I've found myself checking them out a few times with my tongue. The dentist told me to be careful about that."

"I feel sorry for Charlie."

She looked up at me, a bewildered look on her face.

"Why? What's wrong with Charlie?"

"Nothing's wrong with Charlie. It's just that those things look pretty wicked. And Jill told me how you've been practicing with the banana and all..."

I don't know what happened first. There were so many things and my eye wasn't fast enough to distinguish them.

The first thing I noticed was that my sister seemed to have swallowed her soup the wrong way. Some of it spewed across the table, getting on both Jill and I. Some of it came out of her nose at the same time. She started coughing and Mom had to pound her on the back.

At some point, she looked at Mom with a look like the one a kid gets when caught smoking by her parents. A look that briefly rivaled the one Jill had been displaying all afternoon was directed back at my girlfriend.

I could see the red climb up her face like the mercury in a cartoon thermometer. It stopped short of blowing the top of her head off and spurting out, though. She gave me a look that said I was rude, disgusting, a pervert, gross, a tattletale and a hundred other things all at the same time.

"Jaa-aaaaK!!! How could you?"

"What? I just thought that they looked pretty sharp and Char..."

"Don't even say it. I can't believe you. I need to go to the bathroom."

"Don't tell me you wet your pants."

"Yeh-ehs. No thanks to you, you pervert."

I saw Jill out of the corner of my eye. She was having a hard time maintaining her pissed off attitude. I was all set to ask her if something was wrong with her lip but decided she wasn't quite ready for that yet.

Mom looked over at Sara.

"So, I assume you were involved in this banana thing, too."

She looked guilty, then brightened up as she said "It was Jill's idea."

"I'm sure it was. So, what do you have to say for yourself, Jillian?"

"Uhh, I, uhh. We were just playing around."

"Show me."

Jill looked shocked. "It's kind of embarrassing."

"Come on. We're all family here."

Jill reached over to the bowl of fruit on the table and looked over the bananas, picking out the smallest one.

Sara said, "Well, that tells us something about Jack."

Mom looked at her sharply. "Quiet, Sara. You're next."

Jill looked at me, then the banana. She licked up all sides, to the delight of Mary who'd just walked back into the kitchen and let out a whoop.