Chapter 7: If I Can’t Have You

Medway High School

8:35am, Thursday, February 15, 1979

“And to end the morning announcements,” Mr. Williamson said, “The following teachers are out sick today, and their classes will not be held: Mr. Pierce, Ms. Glover and Mrs. Bumstead. We would greatly appreciate it, if anyone who comes down with flu-like symptoms, be it either students or faculty, please stay home and help limit the spread of this nasty flu-virus. That is all. Have a great Thursday.”

“No math class for us,” Lynette said with a smile. “What do you want to do now?” she asked as she got up out of her desk as the bell to end homeroom sounded.

“Not sure,” I nonchalantly replied. “We can go to the library and get a start on our Australian project or...”

“I know,” she interrupted me. “We can see if one of the music practice rooms is available,” she then lowered her voice to a whisper and finished, “And we can fool around ... with that future song of yours for Mr. Ballows’ music assignment.”

I smiled at her play on words as she batted her pretty eyelashes at me after making that suggestion. “Yeah, we can do that.” We headed out to our lockers once again and dropped off our unneeded math books before we headed downstairs to the music area of our school.

As we walked hand in hand, Lynette asked me a question I hadn’t thought about before. “So, how do you get the information off your little device, so we uh, can see it and turn it in to the Little-Man?”

“Hum, good question,” I replied to my smiling girlfriend. “I haven’t used it for anything like that yet, so we’ll just have to see how that works. We might simply have to write it out by hand, but I just have a feeling that won’t be necessary if I know my Energists friends.”

We made it down to the music offices and saw Mr. Feelt talking to a couple of grade 13 students outside the main music room. We stood quietly off to the side until he was finished with them and he saw us waiting patiently. “Michael and Miss Robertson, for what do I owe this unexpected pleasure of your company?”

I loved how he made even the simplest greeting into a grand production at times. Lynette smiled up at the gentle giant and asked, “Are there any practice rooms with a piano available that we can use this period? We’ve got a, a new song we need to practice for Mr. Ballows’ extra credit assignment.”

“I believe all the practice rooms are available this morning. The pianos are in P-3 or P-4, I believe. Just make sure you put your name on the sign-up sheet so someone else doesn’t officially ‘bump’ you out of that room. Have fun with your song.”

“Thanks, big man,” I said to our choral teacher and my assistant basketball coach.

Lynette scurried the fifty feet over to the sign-up sheet outside Mr. Ballows’ office. After she signed us in, she bounded back towards me. Right then, I had additional proof that my new girlfriend wasn’t wearing a bra today as her decidedly female body parts danced unrestrained within her lime green sweatshirt.

I guess my eyes were either a little too big and/or aimed somewhere other than Lynette’s face as she slowed down in front me because she slyly said, “Yup, you’re definitely sixteen. My face is up here, Mike.”

“Oh, ah, sorry, Lynette,” I replied to her with guilt written all over my face. “I must say, though, in my defense that uh, your well put together sixteen-year-old body was moving in a most captivating manner.” Lynette’s smile turned a shade or two redder when she came to realize I knew about her lack of a brassiere.

“I uh ... uh,” she fumbled around for her words for a second but I took her hand and softly said, “You’ve got nothing to be ashamed about. I was the one who acted inappropriately there.” Lynette still kept her pretty blushing head down as I somewhat apologized there.

When we were in the practice room, Lynette shut the door and slowly turned back to face me. Her face was still pretty red as she raised it up and said, “Just so you know, I have my sports bra in my volleyball bag, but I just didn’t think much about wearing it under my favorite fuzzy sweatshirt. Plus, I figured I would only see or be with you in math class, today, so uh, I’m sorry about having a little too much motion going on here.” She surprised me by uncharacteristically placing her hands over her sweatshirt covered boobs as she finished her little apology.

I’m sure my eyes became fairly big again at her action because Lynette’s smile got brighter and she barely giggled her boob filled hands before she lowered them down along the front of her soft, fleece sweatshirt.

Those little hand actions, combined with her short jog towards me out in the hallway, plus my brief glimpse of her bare breast in homeroom led to a somewhat expected teenage male reaction down in my new light blue Levis. No matter how much I tried to picture my 75-year-old grandmother or create Mrs. Hochley’s screeching, cackling voice in my head, nothing was going to stop the inevitable and obvious swelling in my jeans.

I turned and quickly sat down on the piano bench in hopes of possibility hiding my bigger than it previously was bulge from Lynette’s sight. I planned on using my magical computer as a shield, and prayed my suddenly hard cock would lose some of its steam before this thirty-ish minute practice time was over.

Of course, I wasn’t lucky enough to have my computer materialize and act as my shield on time. As Lynette started to slide in beside me on the piano bench, I heard a small gasp escape from her mouth. When I looked over at her, her eyes were locked in on the good sized lump in my jeans. I started to apologize to her for a second time but she quickly asked me with her excited words, “Did I really cause that just now? Gee, I’m sorry, Mike.”

I was suddenly tongue tied as I looked into her big brown eyes as she slowly tilted her head up towards my face. After a short period of uncomfortable silence, Lynette once again beat me to the punch with, “I’m, uh, I’m really kinda flattered that I caused such a nice reaction.”

I lowered my head down and softly said, “Again, Lynette, I’m sorry for reacting badly around you.” In less than a second, I felt Lynette’s left fingers under my chin, causing me to lift it slowly back up and around towards her. The moment our eyes met, she leaned over and gently kissed me on the lips.

Neither of us closed our eyes during that little lip-lock and when she leaned back, I recognized the signs of a smitten young girl in her beautiful face. For the second time in under a minute, Lynette did something I never expected from her. She dropped her hand from under my chin, down onto the large bulge at my crotch. At the same time, she softly said, “How is your body’s response here, reacting badly? You’re a sixteen-year-old guy and I just had my braless boobs flying around in front of you. AND I just grabbed them as you looked at me. If anything, I behaved badly and should be apologizing to you.” My smile slowly crept back onto my face as I listened to her words. Lynette finished this line of discussion by chuckling, “You uh, just proved here that you really are a hormonally driven teenager, and I think I really like it and this.”

I lightly laughed and felt her hand gently squeeze my crotch at her ending words. However, I figured I best remove her hand from my crotch or we both might find out, without my wanting to, just how hormonally responsive I was at that time. She giggled a little when I carefully picked up her hand up and placed it in her lap. When I looked into her face once more, I honestly said to her, “Even a forty-year-old Mike in 2003 would have physically responded like this, if a sixteen-year-old goddess like you acted like that. Hell, any non-comatose guy would have, I bet.”

She beamed at my goddess comment and added, “I’ll only be doing stuff like that for you now, though, so...”

Lynette put her hands up on the piano keys and quickly started playing a song I knew but didn’t immediately recognize or place. After she played about fifteen seconds, I smiled in recognition of it, and when she repeated that same short intro into the first verse, I started to sing in a surprisingly smooth falsetto voice:

“Don’t know why
I’m surviving every lonely day.
When there’s got to be
No chance for me.

If I can’t have you,
I don’t want nobody baby.
If I can’t have you, oh oh oh oh!
If I can’t have you,
I don’t want nobody baby.
If I can’t have you, oh oh oh... “

(Note: If I Can’t Have You was written by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, The BeeGees, in 1977. It was originally sung by Yvonne Ellman on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It was later released by the BeeGees as the ‘B-side’ single with Stayin’ Alive. It reached the top spot on both the US Billboard and Canada’ RPM top singles charts.)

Lynette was staring at me the whole time I was singing that high-pitched BeeGees’ song. She stopped playing after the chorus, and turned to face me. “Holy crap! I didn’t know you could sing like that, Mike. Why aren’t you singing in the choir with us?”

“I, uh, I honestly didn’t know I could sing like that,” I said. Lynette looked at me like I was crazy, so I reminded her with, “Remember what I told you upstairs about being able to enhance or modify myself in some ways. Well, I think singing is one of those enhancements.”

“Really!” she excitedly replied. “That is still simply unbelievable. Unbelievable but amazing!”

I had a goofy grin on my face as she stared at me. “You’re an awesome piano player, even without having any alien inspired enhancements. You played that BeeGees’ song at the drop of a hat, and without missing a note.”

“I’ve always been able to pick up and play most songs that I’ve heard a few times,” she replied. “To be honest though, I love that song and I’ve practiced the heck out of it.”

“Still girl, that was dang impressive.”

“Okay, okay, enough with our mutual admiration here. How uh, can we get this song here...” Lynette pointed at the computer display in front of me. “So I, so we can practice it a few times before we have to do it in front of the Little-Man?” Lynette definitely knew how to get things focused back on the task at hand.

Almost before I even thought of asking for a couple of hand-written paper copies of this Van Halen’s song, they had materialized in front of us and rested on the music holder on the piano. Lynette smiled at their sudden appearance and then chuckled out, “That kills me how you can do that. You never even made a verbal request, yet there it is.” Lynette quickly closed her eyes and nodded her head just like Barbara Eden did as Jeannie on that, I Dream of Jennie TV show.

I smiled when I realized I was able to have information or materials like this song available in a hard copy form simply by thinking about it. “I do believe our little musical problem is solved,” I said to Lynette and set one of the copies on top of the piano. “I just thought about having hand written copies and here they are.”

Lynette simply smiled at me and immediately studied the music in front of her. I had to place my left arm around her shoulder to get her to break her focus from the pages on the music holder. She had a real serious look on her face when she turned to me and said, “This is some seriously good music and lyrics, now that I’ve had a chance to really focus on them. When uh, when I get a new piece of music like this, I really enjoy seeing how everything fits together. God Mike, this is almost too good of a song for this assignment.”

“Really?” I asked a little dumbfounded. “If you uh, think it’s too much for this assignment, then uh ... maybe we can make it a little less good, if you get what I’m saying.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lynette said as she appeared lost in thought, again. I gave her as much time as she wanted, as she studied the sheet music for Right Now. Suddenly, Lynette put her fingers to the ebonies and ivories, and started playing that introduction to the song. While I never heard a pure piano version of that song before, I could almost hear the other instruments coming out of the piano as she was playing.

She stopped playing right before the lyrics started and suddenly said, “I can see the guitar music here and uh, I can also picture how the bass and drums fit into this music after seeing that video. If uh ... if I have time tonight when I get home, I’m going to play this on my keyboard system and lay down a drum and bass line for it. I think the Little-Man would really have his mind blown away with that, don’t you think?”

I was basically speechless as I sat there listening to her expand on what she originally thought was too good or complex a piece of music. “I’m not ... I don’t know what to say on that, Lynette,” I stumbled out. “How do we explain all that to Ballows or Feelt?”

“Got you covered on that,” she quickly replied with a smile. “They both know I’m good at improvising and dolling up music when I play accompaniment for the choir. The Little-Man has even let me make a few changes to the music for some of our Jazz Band songs. So, uh, when we tell him you came up with these great lyrics, and we both worked on the piano and guitar musical notation for them, I’m positive he’ll buy it. Then, I can tell him I dolled the song up on my keyboard system at home to make it even better with the drums and bass guitar. What do you think?”

I was once again amazed at how incredibly attuned to music Lynette appeared to be. With what I’m sure was a dumb ass look on my face, I asked, “Are you sure he’ll really buy into us, or me coming up with this piece of work?”

“Yeah,” she said surprisingly confident. “He, uh, can search everywhere for those lyrics ... for this song and won’t be able to find it on any song registry, right?” she asked me point blank.

“Nope. That song is definitely from 1992. Still...” I said with some trepidation.

“Should he ask if you have written anything else, can you show him some other decent lyrics and music?”

“Yeah sure,” I replied with a smile. I then pointed to my computer and added, “This computer here has nearly every song ever written until the year 2003, so I can find another song of similar quality.”

My mind quickly thought of my other favorite Van Halen songs to which Kaleigh performed her incredible birthday striptease. Those erotic thoughts, of course, didn’t help ease the tension within my Levis.

“Alright then,” Lynette excitedly said, “Let’s run through it here a few times, so I can hear you sing it. That will also help me get a feel of what to do with it tonight ... at home.” Before I could say another word, Lynette’s fingers quickly jumped back to life on the piano keys. I easily followed her playing and effortlessly sang this killer Van Halen song.

When we finished the first part of the song, Lynette stopped playing before, “Miss a beat“. She turned and hugged me as tight as she could. She whispered in my ear, “That was beautiful, Mike. I could almost see you standing up on a stage singing that song.”

Our little hug-fest was interrupted by a knock on the door. I called out and told whoever it was to come in. When the practice room door opened up a foot or so, we saw Samantha Labatt poke her smiling head in the gap.

“Oh my God!” she excitedly said as she saw Lynette and me sitting at the piano. “You guys were playing, singing that song in here? That was, it sounded incredible out in the hallway.”

“Come on in, Sammy,” Lynette told the smiling redhead. “You really liked it? It sounded good to you?”

“God yes! It was beyond good,” she said as she closed the door and hurried around behind us. Just as she was about to clear the piano, my computer device vanished but the sheet music remained on the piano for Samantha to see. “Wow, Mike, you sang that song really well. What is it called?”

I smiled at her compliment and said, “It’s called Right Now. It’s uh, something I wrote a while ago, and Lynette here has really helped me with the music for it. We, uh, think we’re going to play it for Mr. Ballows for that extra credit assignment, tomorrow.”

I saw Samantha grinning when I told her when we were going to play it. I quickly tried to change the focus here, so I added, “I can use all the extra points I can get in his music class, while Lynette is basically doing it to help out her sad-sack boyfriend.” Lynette leaned away from me and punched me in the shoulder for that little comment.

“Sweet,” Samantha said as she looked at the song. “You’ve got the guitar notation here as well. Do you play?”

“I, uh, have strummed a few guitars in my days but I’m working on getting better,” I semi-fibbed, as well as said a partial truth to her. Sammy simply nodded her head at me, while Lynette looked at me a little funny, but then she suddenly remembered my ‘out of this world gifts‘ and smiled back at me.

“I’d love to hear it played with a guitar. In fact, I’d really like a chance to play it myself, sometime,” Samantha blurted out. Both Lynette and I raised our eyebrows at her last comment. We both obviously didn’t know Sam played guitar.

“I didn’t know...” I said, while Lynette excitedly finished with, “ ... you played guitar. That’s so cool.”

“Yeah, I’ve been playing guitar for about 5 years, now,” Samantha said with some extra pep in her voice. “I mostly stick with my regular 6-string acoustic, but I also play a 12-string acoustic and a couple of electrics on certain songs.”

“That is so cool, Sam,” Lynette repeated herself. “I thought you just played clarinet, like in class and in the junior orchestral band.”

“No,” she laughed out. “I can also play the sax and a little piano, just nowhere near as good as you, obviously.” I could tell Samantha wanted to say something else about her musical abilities by the goofy grin she had on her face as she told us about her playing ability, and then how she quickly lowered her head.

I waited a couple of seconds to see if she was going to add anything else but I said to her, “Dang girl, you’re fairly well off musically, aren’t you. Do you do anything else, either with music or sports or arts?”

Sam’s face became a little redder as she quickly looked up to the ceiling to avoid eye contact with us. When she started to fumble around with her words, Lynette jumped in with, “Come on Sammy, spill it. We’re not going to judge you or think anything bad about what you can do.”

“OK,” Samantha softly said as she slowly lowered her gaze from the ceiling. “I also play and sing in a little high school band. We’re uh called...”

Lynette instantly picked up on Sam’s words and became all excited at Sam’s admission of being in a band. She blurted out again in the middle of Sam’s description. “... The Viking Ps! You’re playing here tomorrow, aren’t you? You’re in the Viking Ps. Am I right?”

Sam’s face almost matched the color of her auburn hair as she smiled and nodded at Lynette’s questions.

“I, uh, knew you went to Lucas before and I know the Viking Ps are from Lucas, so wow! Our little Samantha girl here is one of the Princesses. That is so awesome!” Lynette animatedly prattled off.

“That’s great, Samantha,” I said to her when I finally had the chance to jump in there. “I’m, we’re,” I said as I grabbed Lynette’s hand in mine, “looking forward to hearing, seeing your band, tomorrow night. I haven’t seen your band before, but I’ve heard Matt say good things about it.”

Samantha smiled and then chuckled at my last words, “He better be saying good things about my band or he’s in big trouble.” Lynette and I both laughed when she clinched her fist and forcefully jabbed it out in front of her a few times.

I raised my eyebrows and asked, “Do I need to tell Matt to be careful around you, now? You look like you could really hurt him with that jab.”

Sam grinned at my question and honest appraisal of her punching skills. “I probably could hurt him or anyone if I really wanted, but uh, I’d never hit someone in anger like that.” When Sam saw a look of confusion on Lynette’s face, she said, “I’ve been practicing Sanda Wushu, a combat form of Chinese martial arts for 7 years, and I’ve competed in tournaments for almost three years now.”

“Sanda Wushu?” Lynette quizzically said.

“Yeah,” Sam chuckled. “It’s uh ... Wushu means ‘military’ and ‘arts’, and is similar to Kung Fu. Sanda is the fighting or combat style of Wushu. The Toalu style, the other type of Wushu, focuses on the form of the movements ... the stances, kicks, punches, balances, jumps, sweeps and throws that can be used in movement competitions.”

“Pretty darn impressive, Miss Samantha,” I said. “Remind me, Lynette, never to get on Sam’s bad side, okay?” Both Sam and Lynette chuckled at my comment. Before anyone could say anything else, we heard the warning bell for the end of the first period, which caused Lynette and me to jump a little at that unexpected sound.

Once we got it back together, I started to pick up my copy of the sheet music, and Lynette did the same with hers, which she had spread out on the piano’s music holder. “I never knew any of that about you Sammy,” I said. “You’re in a band that is playing here tomorrow, AND you’re a beautiful little keg of dynamite, who can defend herself quite well should any trouble arise. That’s pretty dang impressive!”

“I’ll say,” Lynette chimed in as she put her copy of the music in her gym bag.

“Thanks,” Sam softly said. I could tell she had something else to add, so I winked at her, which triggered, “Um, is there any way I can see and maybe play that song after you perform it in class, tomorrow? You guys really made it sound nice, from what I could tell out in the hallway.”

Lynette’s look told me I was the one to make that decision. I quickly analyzed a couple thoughts regarding this future Van Halen song and then said, “Yeah Sam, you can see and play it. But huh, I’d prefer if you don’t share it or try to do anything with it, you know, with your band.”

“Great! And uh, I wouldn’t, I won’t take it to my band,” Samantha assured me as she turned to the door. “A couple of the guys in it are kinda jerky about what music we, they want to play. So ... even though I think it’s an awesome song, I wouldn’t consider sharing or doing it with the Ps.”

Lynette scooted towards the edge of the bench, but sat there as a sly grin spread across her face. I slid up against her and looked at her with a bit of confusion as to why she stopped there. Just as she started to stand up, she placed her right hand back onto my crotch and lightly squeezed me with her fingers. I just about jumped out of my clothes and banged my hands on the lower edge of the piano, which startled Samantha as she opened the practice room door.

Lynette burst out laughing at my reaction and she jumped up off the bench and zipped around out of my reach before I could catch her. I shook my right hand some and said, “Dang it, Girl! That wasn’t very nice of you.”

“Kinda jumpy, aren’t we,” she said as a few tears of laughter formed in her eyes.

Sam had a ‘What the hell?‘ look on her face, so I figured I would try to enlighten her, and turn the tables on Lynette at the same time by saying, “We’ll soon see how you like being unexpectedly poked or squeezed in a sensitive spot like that.”

Unfortunately for me, Lynette was a tad sharper than I expected as she softly replied, “Oh I think I’ll like being poked or squeezed in my sensitive spots like that.” Sam apparently had tuned in to what had happened and quickly let out a long slow throaty sounding ‘Oooh’.

Dang, score one for Lynette. However, as with most things in my life, I hated to be out done. Therefore, I quickly said to both ladies, “The key phrase there was the ‘UN’, of the ‘unexpectedly.’ It’s not going to be as sweet as you two were just thinking. No-no, unexpected paybacks Lynette, best keep that in mind, now. You just never know when, where or how an unexpected payback will mysteriously come-a-calling.”

Sam was still smiling as she waited in the hallway after she heard my words. However, Lynette’s face slowly changed from an “I’m the mac-daddy here” look to one of “what have I just gotten myself into” looks. I simply enjoyed that subtle effect my words were having on my previously wicked and teasing girlfriend’s mind.

We walked hand in hand down towards the main hallway and I even gave her a hip-bump to let her know all was well for the moment. In an effort to change the tenor of the moment, Lynette said, “I should have a good bit of time tonight to try and put together a more complete sound package for that song.”

I just nodded my head and said, “That would be great, Lynette.”

I had found out a good bit about both of these young ladies in that thirty or so minutes in the practice room. Both were a good bit more musically inclined than I had previously believed. Little Miss Wushu was also more athletic and physically capable of doing activities than I dared to imagine. And last but not least, my Lynette appeared to be a tad more adventurous and daring in the sexual department than I previously knew about or expected. It seemed like almost everything I recalled from my last time through high school was being challenged or even shattered to pieces.

When we got to our parting point at the main hallway by the gym, Lynette took a quick glance around and then gave me a quick kiss. Sam smiled at us and softly said, “Ooooh, that’s so sweet. Lyny here is trying to makeup with her new man.”

Lynette and I both had big smiles on our faces, and as she turned to head into the gym for her PE class, I said, “I’ll try to see you by the doors there right after I get out of PE. If I don’t make it, though, good luck today in your playoff matches.”

“Thanks, and I’ll try to stall leaving if I can,” she replied back to me as she opened the gymnasium door and headed out of sight.

As Samantha and I walked up the long hallway to the front of the school for our General Science class, she asked, “Do you want to get together during lunch and uh, fool around a little?” I stopped dead in my tracks and my heart just about matched my leg action too after hearing Sammy’s question. She stopped, turned back to face me and then busted out laughing as she saw my ashen, shocked face and realized what she just said. “Oh, God! On my guitars ... fool around on my guitars. Not like, oh God, not WITH me.”

“Oh shit, Girl,” I softly said after I remembered to breathe again. “That was kind of an important phrase you somehow omitted there, wasn’t it?” I started to laugh with her as that heart attack inducing question was cleared up.

“Oh God, I’m sorry about that,” she said as we both restarted our journey to Mr. Campbell’s classroom. “So are you up for some guitar ... fooling around with me during lunch?”

“Uh, that is a tempting offer Miss Wushu but I’ve already made plans to meet with my best friends at lunch. You’re welcome to join us. Paul and Cathy are pretty solid musicians, by the way.”

“Really,” she replied and then asked, “I’m not sure I know who they are. What do they play?” We were about twenty feet from our science room when the one-minute warning bell sounded.

“The McGregory twins, Paul plays trumpet in the senior concert and jazz bands, and he’s a good bass player, too. He was the dark-haired guy who helped me yesterday with Jennifer’s fingers but uh, wouldn’t go into the girl’s bathroom with me, with us.” I could see Sam’s wheels turning as she pictured the scene from yesterday. She didn’t see much of the initial incident and really only saw a snippet of what happened prior to the bathroom aspect.

When I sensed a little bit of recognition within her, I then said, “Cathy is a percussionist/drummer in the concert band and the jazz band drummer. She has long, shiny jet black hair and constantly has a smile on her face.”

“O ... K, I think I know this, uh, Cathy girl or I think I’ve seen her playing the drums at that music festival here in the gym a couple of weeks, ago. I uh, probably would recognize both Paul and Cathy, if I saw them with you.”

“I’m sure you would, I’m sure you would,” I said as we walked into the science room.

Samantha smiled and said, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to come and eat with you guys.” She sat down at the second work station while I continued onto my fourth work station spot.

When I sat down, I simply said back towards her, “That would be good, Wushu.” Sam smiled at my little nickname for her which I noted in my memory banks. Just then, the bell sounded for the start of another exciting period of plant cellular mitosis.

Once again, nothing remarkable took place in my personal finance class or in Canadian History. I did find that I was enjoying Mr. Connors’ presentations and discussions on World War I a lot more this time in his class than during my first time through high school. I guess it was because I had a better grasp and understanding of the importance of knowing our history this time through. Also, being able and willing to chip in an intelligent comment or two this time made that class more enjoyable.