Chapter 20

It was a transitional day. The summer's wind had a subtle bite hidden under her skirt. Winter, sensing her vulnerability, was reaching for her panties.

The yellow school buses were disgorging their contents in front of the high school like stepped-on Twinkie's, their innards gushing out their ends.

Patty, Collette, and Dave stood on the steps of the school, watching as the newest class of freshmen emerged from bus after bus (along with the unfortunate upperclassmen without access to cars), making their way towards the school doors behind them. The three watching teens had arrived earlier in Collette's Beemer.

Bobby and Patty had still not spoken since they had returned to Columbia from their respective vacation trips.

But Patty knew from Collette that her brother Dave had paired up with Sammy on their trip to the beach. In contrast, Dave had refused to give Collette any insight into Bobby's status.

And of course, Collette did not share any information with her brother about Patty's time at music camp with Morton.

When Collette and Patty discussed it, they both agreed that Dave's silence meant that Bobby and Julie must have come together in some way. But to what degree, they didn't know.

As day after day went by and Bobby didn't call before school started, Patty became more convinced that things were over between her and Bobby. When she learned that Dave would be meeting Sammy at the bus drop, she decided to join him. She assumed Bobby would be with Sammy and thought she might as well start to get things clarified as soon as possible.

She had been tempted to ask Morton to join her when she intercepted Bobby, but decided against it. As much as she felt things were over, she still held out hope that she and Bobby could get back together. If by some miracle Bobby swept her up in a passionate kiss, she didn't want to subject Morton to watching something like that.

She was anxiously picking at her fingernails as they waited for their bus to arrive, which caused Collette to periodically swat her hands apart.

"Knock that off!" said Collette after the third swat.

"I can't help it," said Patty irritably. "When is their fucking bus going to get here?" she asked in exasperation, as yet another "Twinkie" emptied itself without producing Bobby and Sammy.

Another bus chugged into place. As the students filed out, Dave spied Sammy. "There's Sammy!" he said happily, and jumped down the steps to run to her.

Close behind Sammy, Patty and Collette saw Bobby emerge and climb down the bus' steps. Patty sucked in her breadth. "He looks as handsome as ever," she thought. She stood up in preparation to following Dave as he ran towards the bus.

When Bobby reached the pavement, he turned and held out his hand, back up the stairs. Patty froze in place, as she watched Julie come down the steps. When she was down, she and Bobby began walking towards the building behind Sammy.

They were still holding hands as they walked.

Patty felt Collette's arms come around her waist to hug her from behind, and she rested her chin on younger friend's shoulder.

"Hey," said Collette softly into her ear. "We figured they were probably together, kiddo," she said soothingly.

"Yeah," said Patty. "Let's get out of here." They turned and Collette followed Patty into the building. Collette was glad to see that Patty gave no backward glances at all. She had been afraid her friend would be devastated.

Patty was surprised she did not feel the gut wrenching anguish she expected of herself. What she felt instead was a deep sadness. Sadness, and resignation.

"I guess I got what I deserved," she said to Collette.

"Hey, you deserve to be happy, just like Bobby does. Bobby's got enough class; I'll bet he'll still be one of your best friends. And you're already starting to move on with Morton."

She grabbed her friend's arm and pulled her into a doorway for a little privacy.

"Patty... I think that Bobby is a great guy, and Morton is too. But... you don't need a guy to tell you you're wonderful, to be wonderful. And I'm not talking about being gay or bi-sexual or whatever. The same goes for being with girls. You should be happy with yourself when you're between relationships. You need to know you're pretty fucking cool, even if you don't have a partner to tell you you're fucking cool. Okay?"

Patty smiled back at her gratefully. "Fuck yes! I'm fucking cool!"

"So, cool chick... maybe you should see if you can find Bobby at lunch time."

Patty looked at her friend in surprise; then in doubt; then in agreement. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I think I could do that."

"Good! Come on, we don't want to be fucking late for fucking class," said Collette with a laugh, and they walked on into the building.

Outside, Dave had swooped down on Sammy and gave her a quick spin in his arms before kissing her.

"Hey, get a room!" demanded Julie.

"The school handbook says there are to be no public displays of affection," added Bobby. "Y'all are going to be in detention before you get to your first class!"

Sammy stuck out her tongue at them. "Whatever," she replied.

Dave said, "Hey come on, y'all can say hi to Patty and my sister." He turned and looked up to where he had been standing with the girls. The steps were empty.

"Uh, it must be closer to time for class than I thought," said Dave quickly.

"Sure," said Julie sarcastically. "Patty probably saw us together, and ran away. She's never liked me, right from when I first met her when you were in the hospital," she said to Bobby

Julie knew nothing of Van poisoning Patty's image of Julie, long before the girls had ever met. At first she had merely been saddened by Patty's cold shoulder. Now that she was with Bobby, she was inclined to see Patty as a controlling, jealous, conniving bitch.

She blew her nose to combat the usual sniffles she had in the morning. She quickly wadded up and pocketed the Kleenex, before Bobby could see the traces of blood on it.

Bobby sighed. He really liked Julie, but was beginning to struggle with the constant reassurances she needed. "I need to talk to her, Julie. Give me some time to sort things out with her, okay?"

"Hmmpf," said Julie. She dropped Bobby's hand, and walked sullenly next to him into the building

"Give you time to figure out when to dump me for a normal girl, you mean," she thought darkly.

Patty's first class of the day happened to be honors math. Morton was already there, and waved her to the seat he had saved next to him.

A large boy in the back of the classroom spoke up. "Hey, don't sit by that geek! Come back here and sit by a real man." He had on a letterman's jacket with enough sports achievement insignia spread over it to indicate he was a senior.

Patty ignored him and took the seat by Morton.

"Hey," she said to him.

He looked at her closely. "Hey yourself," he replied. "Y'all okay?"

Patty was disconcerted that he could read her emotions so easily. God damned smart boys!

"I'm fine," she said somewhat irritably, just loud enough that the football player could overhear her tone of voice, if not the words.

"Hey, is that geek bothering you?" he asked loudly.

Patty again ignored him, as the teacher came into the room, and the students settled in for the lesson of the day.

When the class broke up, Morton and Patty had to head off quickly in different directions to reach distant classrooms. As Morton was walking briskly down the hall, he found a football player falling into step on his right side, and then another on his left.

"Hey, geek," said the one from his math class. Morton sighed. Surely this cave man must have been mistakenly assigned to their class?

"What's up?" he said. He stopped in the busy hallway for the conversation. There was no way he was going anywhere with enough privacy for these goons to do more than talk.

"I don't think the lady liked you talking to her. I know I didn't like it," he said menacingly.

"Did you notice that she chose to sit beside me?" asked Morton patiently. "We're friends."

"Not any more you're not. Stay away from her, got it?"

"No. We're friends," he repeated. "If you like, you can ask her yourself."

"You don't seem to be hearing me. I'll be talking to her alright, but it sure as shit won't be about you. Now fuck off before I decide to really make sure you understand. Understand?"

Morton just stared at him impassively through his thick glasses. Muttering, the two football players eventually turned and walked away.

In the lunch room, Bobby and Julie got their food and found seats. Bobby stood up periodically, scanning the tables looking for Patty. When they were well into the lunch period, and he still hadn't seen her, he decided she must have a different assigned lunch time.

Julie had done her best not to grump at Bobby while he looked for Patty. After all, he was looking for Patty so he could talk to about her being Bobby's... What? A girlfriend? Bobby's charity case, more likely, she thought. She relaxed somewhat when he stopped looking, and they began comparing notes about their classes so far.

A few minutes later, they were surprised by Patty plopping down next to Julie.

"Hi y'all," she said cordially. Patty could easily see the tension spring up inside Julie. She had expected that. It was why she had sat by her, instead of by Bobby.

She put her arms around a suddenly rigid Julie, and gave her a hug. "It's good to see you again, Julie. You too, Bobby. Did ya'll have good summers?"

"Uh, yeah, we did," said Bobby, trying hard to read Patty. Was she being sarcastic, or genuine? Then he relaxed. He'd known Patty his whole life. He knew her well enough to know that if she was pissed, sarcasm wouldn't be the result. She wasn't subtle when angry!

He gave Julie a wink of reassurance, which Patty also saw. She felt Julie relax in her arms.

"That's good," said Patty. She got right to the point. "Hey, you two look good together. I'm happy for you."

Julie's eyes went wide in surprise. This was the last thing in the world she would have expected.

"I, uh, had a good summer too," said Patty, staring directly into Bobby's eyes. That statement hung in the air. Bobby knew what she was telling him.

"I'm glad to hear that, Patty," he said. "Really glad... you deserve it," he said sincerely.

"Thanks," she said. She turned again to Julie. "You take good care of this idiot, okay? If he ever gets out of line, just call me. I've got dirt on him going back to kindergarten."