Chapter 9: Sweet Sixteens

Savannah, GA
November, 1985

"Hey Riley!" Tina shouted as he appeared into the basement from the stairs.

"Hey! Tony said you could use some help so I came early."

"Sure, we've got so much stuff now we're just gonna set the band up outside by the pool. You can barely move down here otherwise." Tina walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for coming."

"I wouldn't miss it! As a matter of fact I brought a couple more, it was good of you to invite Jenny. She was thrilled." Jenny was emerging behind Riley with her boyfriend Peter firmly in tow.

"Hi Jenny! Hi Peter! I'm glad you could come," Tina said beaming the couple a bright smile.

Jenny Porter smiled. "Thanks for inviting us. Riley said we might actually get to hear you guys play tonight. I keep hearing about how good you guys are but I've never been able to see it for myself."

Tina chuckled. "Yeah, we'll play some tonight. There's no telling who will be on stage though, but I'm sure we'll do a few numbers with the whole band. Anyway Riley has us coming to your school next month; on the seventh, right Riley?" She looked at him for confirmation.

"Yeah, we're having a Christmas dance on that Saturday and they've agreed to play for us mere Riverside peons."

"Riley! It's not like that and you know it!" Tina scolded.

"I know, I know, I was just teasing. Believe me, no one knows better than me how busy you guys are," he said, a bit chagrined.

Riley still wasn't quite sure what to make of his relationship with Tina. That one existed he was pretty sure. He knew she didn't see any other guys. Then again she didn't see him that often either. He had a standing invitation to the band's performances, but she rarely had more than a few minutes to spend with him. She did, however, routinely and rather expertly deflect the occasional advances from guys at the shows. Tony and Dewayne were especially watchful. They tried to hide it and let her handle her own battles, but Riley realized that if anything went any further than those two thought was appropriate they were ready to act.

It was a quite different situation than with any other girl he'd dated. For one thing dates between just the two of them were very rare; they'd only had a couple. On most weekend nights she was involved with the band doing one thing or another. Even during the week she was often rehearsing. His reverie was broken when she kissed his cheek again.

"Take Peter outside and see what the guys need. I'll put Jenny to work in here."

Riley laughed. "Come on Peter, there's no equal rights around here. We men are supposed to do the heavy lifting while the girls tell us where to put it."

"And this is something new?" Peter asked, earning a swat on the arm from Jenny.

Tina giggled. "Oh you'll fit in just fine Peter," she said.

A few hours later the party was in full swing. Again this year there were literally a couple of hundred high school kids crammed in the basement and outside around the pool. There were actually a few people in the pool, as the invitations had mentioned that it was a pool party, something they hadn't thought about the year before. The temperature had broken seventy-five that afternoon so it was quite pleasant if you didn't stay wet too long after getting out.

The band was an eclectic mix of whoever wanted to play at the time. Currently Tina was playing drums, Dewayne bass, and Tony and Anita were playing guitars. Musically it wasn't exactly their finest moment, but no one seemed to mind.

Anita herself was playing a cobbled-together electric guitar they had dubbed the "Nita-Caster". Once again, the guys weren't satisfied with anything they could find that would actually fit her hands. What they had done was buy a small, no-name, beginner's electric guitar and then ordered a complete set of replacement pickups and electronics for a Fender Stratocaster. They then had Moogy's shoehorn it all into the smaller body. The result was amazingly good, and a one of a kind electric guitar that Anita could learn on without waiting for her hands to grow into a full-sized model.

It actually worked out well for songs they'd worked with Anita, both playing and singing, as those were the songs she practiced the most with Tony and Tina. Generally though Tina would play bass and they'd use a drum machine to keep the beat. As it was, they did a pretty credible job of getting through almost half a set, mostly the Cindy Lauper and Missing Person's tunes that Anita favored and suited her voice.

After a while Gwen ran some of their recorded music through the band's gear and they got down to the serious part of a girl's birthday party: cake, ice cream, and, of course, presents!

With so many people, it took quite a while to get everyone served. In total, the goodies amounted to about twenty pounds of cake and something like ten gallons of ice cream. Finally, all the presents were opened, except one for each girl was suspiciously absent. Rebecca, who was, of course, perched on Tony's lap looked over to Tina who was on the couch next to them and said, "He's up to something isn't he?"

Tina raised an eyebrow at Tony and replied, "I do believe he is. Tony what are you up to?"

"What, me?" he replied with faux innocence. "Why would you think I was up to something?"

"Tony I know you. You didn't just forget to get a birthday present for your sister and your girlfriend."

"Of course not, why would you think that? Was there something already from Mom and Dad? Or from Rebecca's parents? Perhaps we're just waiting for your actual birthday."

"Tony when is my actual birthday?"

"Oh yeah, that would be yesterday wouldn't it? Well Rebecca's isn't until Tuesday..."

Tina gave up that tactic and turned to Anita who was standing next to her, "Anita dear, is he up to something?"

"Oh yeah, he's definitely up to something alright. Maybe I should, uh, do something. Hold on!" She quickly ran to the stairway and yelled at the top of her voice, "Mom, Dad, Mr. and Mrs. Harris! If you don't want poor Tony injured it might be a good time for those last two presents now!" That garnered laughter from the whole room.

In just a minute or so all four parents made their way into the room and presented each girl with a small box. Each had the girl's name on it and said it was from Mom, Dad, and Tony.

That was beyond puzzling to the girls and they looked from their respective parents to Tony who just shrugged. "Hey, we do agree about some things."

After a brief tearing of wrapping paper each girl emerged with a set of keys. It took neither very long to rush up the stairs and out of the house.

The girls' birthday presents should have come as no surprise. The only real surprise was how easily Chris Harris caved in. Tony's logic simply confounded him and he had no defense.

So one green and one blue Volvo sedan showed up in the Smith driveway at the girls' birthday party.

"Tony it's beautiful," Rebecca said after a few minutes of crawling over and around the green sedan. "I didn't expect something like this."

"Silly girl, what else did you think you were going to get for your sixteenth birthday?" Tony asked.

"Tony most girls don't get a car for their birthday, let alone from their boyfriend. You and Daddy had to have had a long talk about this."