Chapter 11: Don’t Stop

Mike’s House

6:15am, Friday, February 16, 1979

“Up and at ‘um, boys!” my dad gruffly said as he stuck his leg into my bottom bunk to give me his usual early morning alarm signal. As I struggled to get awake, I thought it was somewhat good that I was falling back into my previous high school routine where my dad HAD to get me up and at ‘um. I lazily stretched under the covers, and then flung them back to crawl out of my warm cocoon. Just as my feet hit the carpet, the overhead lights came on and the bedroom door clicked shut.

As I pulled on my boxer-briefs and white socks, I remembered that today and tonight were going to be a monumental times for me. First in music class, I was going to play live with the beginnings of our little band for Mr. Ballows extra-credit assignment. Then, I was going to be starting my first basketball game at 5:30pm. Last but most importantly, though, was my first date with Lynette at the Valentine’s Dance.

My next thought turned to a major source of teen angst, the dreaded ‘what to wear’ syndrome. Not surprisingly, I felt this rush of troublesome feelings as I debated between wearing my new blue jeans or my new khaki slacks. When I thought about wearing my new brown loafers at the dance, that solved the pants issue, khaki slacks. Then I thought white socks with those slacks and shoes wouldn’t look good, so I made a quick switch to tan dress socks. To top things off, I grabbed my new two toned, blue striped golf polo, and carried it with me to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, I replayed last night’s telephone call with Lynette through my mind, and also what my mom said after I relayed what we had hoped to do for Lynette’s championship volleyball match on Saturday afternoon and evening. A huge grin spread across my face as I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, and imagined a few of the teenage activities that I hoped would occur with my beautiful, new girlfriend.

Lynette told me her parents and her younger sister Jessie, were coming to her volleyball game and then they had to rush down to Guelph for her aunt’s 50^th birthday party. They were also going to be staying at her grandmother’s house for the night. Lynette was able to beg off going as she wanted to celebrate, hopefully a championship with her teammates and friends after their match. She asked me if I wanted to come with her to the after match party, and my mom said that would be OK if all went well with our shared ride experience after the Valentine’s Dance.

I had trouble falling asleep last night, as the last thing Lynette mentioned had set my sixteen-year-old hormones to a Saturn-5 rocket launch level.

Her words still were as clear as a warm Canadian summer night to me, “We’ll only have to stay at the team party for an hour or so. Then we can go back to my place, if you’d like, until you need to get home. And just so you know, our hot-tub feels sooo good on these cool, chilly nights. ‘Till tomorrow and Saturday night, pleasant dreams, Mike.”

‘Pleasant dreams, my ass,’ I smiled and thought as I woke up feeling like I never slept a wink. These simple thoughts continued to permeate and circulate in my mind: beautiful young girlfriend; starting my first basketball game; gorgeous blonde girlfriend; Valentine’s Dance; parking somewhere with my smokin’ hot girlfriend; winning a volleyball championship (hopefully); a short team party; no parents at home for the night; beautiful, sexy girlfriend; outdoor hot-tub; beautiful WET, sexy girlfriend; and lastly ... no parents around with my beautiful, sexy, wet, smokin’ hot, young girlfriend in their hot tub.

I probably would have been stuck in that teenaged mental loop forever, except for the loud banging on the bathroom door. For once, I was somewhat happy to have my older brother letting me know I was hogging our bathroom. After I gave my head a small shake to clear my mind, I called out, “Fifteen, twenty more seconds, and I’ll be done, OK”

“Just hurry your ass up,” I heard Patt yell through the door. “I’ve got to take a leak and get cleaned up myself, now.”

I turned the water on and soaked my hairbrush to help me get my slightly unruly hair in some kind of order. It took several ‘soakings’ before I was happy with how my brown hair looked. I pulled on my new polo shirt and thought, ‘stupid idiot,’ because I had to give my hair another quick brushing to get it just right, once more.

When I unlocked the door, I barely had time to move back and out of the way before Patt barged in. I was tempted to leave the bathroom door open after I exited it, but I remembered our mutual agreement to try and be more civilized with each other. I doubted leaving a clear view of him on the ‘throne’ for anyone walking by wasn’t a way to endear myself with him.

Neither Paul nor Cathy was at the bus stop this morning, so I guessed they were able to talk their dad into transporting Cathy’s drum kit over to the school. With a fairly full bus load, I asked Mr. Jefferies if I could keep my guitar with me at my seat instead of leaving it up at the front of the bus with my amplifier and a bunch of other students’ instrument cases.

“What kind of guitar is it?” Mr. J asked me.

“A Gibson Custom, Special Edition Silverburst,” I replied with a smile at his inquiry.

“Lord, yeah, I’d keep that close by, if I had it,” he replied with a big grin on his face. “You can take it back to your seat, but be extra careful with it down the aisle.”

“I will, thanks, Mr. J,” I said and carefully aimed the hard case down the bus aisle. I sat in my usual third row seat and leaned the guitar case against the wall and seat. Thankfully nobody needed to sit with me this morning as it looked like several regular riders besides Paul and Cathy were either out sick or driving to school this chilly Friday morning.

When we arrived at school, I carried my guitar and amp into the music room and set them down in the open corner beside a Fender Stratocaster guitar case and amplifier. If I wasn’t mistaken, that looked like Samantha’s guitar case. However, I thought she was going to play one of her acoustic guitars, today in class. No sense worrying about a trivial thing like that, though, especially since I’d see Sammy in math class first thing, if Mrs. Bumstead was back, today.

Just as I was walking down the short music hallway, I ran into Paul, who was carrying his bass guitar and amp, and Cathy, who was pulling a cart with her cased up drum kit secured to it. I smiled at both of the McGregory twins as they strolled towards me.

Paul grinned at me and said, “Got Tom (their dad) to bring us and our stuff here to school. Come give us a hand putting Cathy’s drum kit together, my good lead guitarist.”

I quicklu stepped the short distance to Cathy and took control of the carrying cart. She looked a little haggard right then, probably from loading and unloading her kickass drum kit, and then pulling it through the early morning mass of students in the hallways.

“Thanks, Mike,” Cathy tiredly said to me. “That cart is a pain in the ass to move around in these crowded hallways.”

As I pulled the surprisingly heavy load, Cathy’s spirits picked up quickly as we entered our upcoming ‘performance hall’, the music room. “Oh crap. I better go ask either Feelt or Ballows where I should set my drums up. I bet right here will be fine, but I better find out for sure.”

As Cathy ran to the music offices, I unhooked the straps holding her drums secure. I carefully lifted the smaller pieces off and set them along the back storage rack. Her cymbals and floor drums were next to off load. I had her drum throne and all the hardware support pieces in my hands when she got back. She said right where I unloaded the drums was okay with Mr. Feelt.

It took the three of us about eight or nine minutes to set up Cathy’s drums the way she wanted it. The last thing Paul took off the cart was our new sound receiver and a medium sized leather satchel with our wireless microphones. “What or where are we going to leave these valuable little gems?” Paul asked.

“Do you think the Feeltster would let us store them in his office?” I asked Cathy and Paul.

“I’m sure he’ll be good with that,” Cathy replied with a wicked grin. She then added, “I’ll just cozy on up to him, bat my ‘purdy’ green eyes, and he’ll agree to anything I ask. Just you watch.”

Paul and I just laughed at her sassy talk and actions. I also laughed because I knew from experience just how persuasive Cathy and her ‘purdy green eyes and coltish actions‘ could be.

“Bring the receiver and microphone bag, Paul, and we’ll have them secure in a second,” she said as she walked with an exaggerated swing in her hips out to the hallway. Since we had her drum kit completed, both of us followed Cathy to our choir director’s office.

Cathy didn’t really need to put on her sultry act with Mr. Feelt as he readily agreed to keep our receiver and bag of microphones in his office.

I was a little surprised at what he said to us as we were about to leave. “So, I’ve heard through the grapevine that you three have decided to start a little rock band.” Cathy grinned at the gentle giant sitting behind his desk and confirmed his belief. “Good, good. I also heard from a very reliable source that we might have a guitar hero on our hands.” Mr. Feelt had a huge grin going on behind his big bushy beard. When he leaned forward over his desk, he asked me, “Did you really play the guitar solo from Pink Floyd’s Money, yesterday in class, Mike?”

A big smile crept across my blushing face as I simply nodded my head in response to our vocal teacher and my assistant basketball coach’s question. Paul being Paul put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Wait until you hear what we are playing in class today; actually in Mike’s eighth period class with the Little-Man. With how Mike and Cathy are playing, it will make you think of Eddie and Alex Van Halen.”

I just about had a mini-heart attack when I heard Paul mention those names, seeing how the song we were playing was a future Van Halen tune. I know I surprised Paul when he felt the heel of my shoe press down over his toes. When he shouted, “Hey, watch it!” to me, I gave him a ‘What were you thinking there?‘ look, and barely shook my head in amazement. A good thing about Paul, he picked up on that little non-verbal cue, and realized he should simply be quiet for a moment.

Our six-foot, eight-inch, music-vocal teacher pushed away from his desk, and walked around towards us. He said, “Not to put any additional pressure on you, later today, but I’m bringing my small vocal class into your eighth period music class. When I heard you were playing a song with Lynette on keyboards, I wanted to see and hear how you folks sound. Now, that you are actually doing it as your new band, it will be even more fun to see and hear.”

“Oh, freckin’ wonderful! That is just what I needed to hear,” I said sarcastically to Mr. Feelt. “Not only do I have to play in front of Mr. Ballows, now I have you coming in to critique our singing, playing and the song we wrote.” Cathy just laughed and mimicked playing a little violin to let me know she really had my back here. NOT!

The three of us left Mr. Feelt’s office and headed up the back stairway to the second floor. I came to my locker, first, and told both of them I’d talk with them at lunch. I also said, “I may have your music period off, today, as I doubt Mrs. Pierce will be here for my seventh period English. Maybe I can come into your class, and get everything set up for our little performance for my music class.”

“‘K, sounds good. See you later, Mike,” Cathy said as she headed on towards her locker down the front hallway.

Paul hung around for a second and asked, “Are you going to ask Lynette if she wants to be the keyboardist in our group, today? If she wants to do it, do you think she can get over to our place to practice sometime this weekend?”

“Yeah, I was going to ask her about it,” I replied to his first question. “Uh, I doubt she’ll have time this weekend to get together with us, because of the volleyball championship game on Saturday. We’ll have boat loads of time to get together to practice, my man. Plus, with the way she can pick up on things and adjust her piano playing, I think she’ll be able to mesh with us without being there every time we practice.”

“Okay, dude,” Paul said as he slapped my left shoulder and headed on towards his front hallway locker. “Just remember to ask her,” he shouted back at me as he rounded the corner.

“Ask her, who, about what?” I heard from about fifteen feet down the central hallway. I turned and saw my beautiful girl bouncing along towards me and her locker. She must have decide today was a comfy-clothes day because she had on some black baggie sweatpants, and an oversized red Medway sweatshirt. Thankfully, for my peace of mind, Lynette also decided to wear a bra today as her medium sized breasts were held relatively still compared to their wondrous no-bra bounce of yesterday.

Lynette’s long dark blonde hair swished around her shoulders as she had her hair up in a pony-tail, held by a scarlet colored, feathery scrunchy. I noticed she had a nice touch of light reddish-gray eye-shadow highlighting her sparkling green-brown eyes. Her soft lips also had a light coating of pale pink lip gloss, which glistened under the florescent hallway lights.

“Well, good morning, Miss Lynette,” I said to her with a big smile on my face as she quickly closed the gap between us. Before she replied, she hugged her killer body up against my torso and went up on her tippy-toes to give me a sweet little kiss on the lips.

Lynette must have seen Mr. Connors walking by us to our homeroom class, as she did well to keep that PDA to a barely acceptable level. When she said, “Good morning, Mr. Connors,” I quickly figured out why she gave me just a short and simple welcoming kiss. While still cuddled up tight to me, she asked again, “Ask her, who, what?”

I smiled down at the grinning young girl in my arms and said, “That, Paul McGregory, he sure knows how to screw up a person’s plans by shouting out a key component of that plan at the most inopportune time.” I lightly kissed her forehead and continued with, “We, uh, Paul, Cathy and I wanted to find out if you’d like to be the piano player, keyboardist in the new little rock band we just started. I told them you were an amazing player, and had an amazing talent of picking up and adjusting the music to make it sound better.”

“Oh, Jeezes, Mike, thanks for that compliment,” she replied as she pushed back from me slightly, “but I’m, uh, I’m not sure I should do that.” She looked up at me with a serious look on her face and softly asked, “Are, uh ... did you only ask me this because I’m your girlfriend, and uh, going out with you, now?”

I scrunched up my face and shook my head no, as I said, “God! No, Lynette. After I heard you playing that BeeGees’ song, yesterday, and then you instantly picked up and played, Right Now like you’ve been playing it forever. Well, I just knew we’d have trouble finding a better keyboardist than you.” I reached up and pulled my math and science notebooks from the top shelf of my locker as I stared back at Lynette. I then added, “FYI, I asked my brother Patt, first, about playing keys, but that was more of a courtesy invite to prevent hurt feelings than as a full-fledged invitation, like this is with you. Plus, Paul and Cathy were super stoked when I told them how good a musician you were.”

Lynette looked down beside me for a moment and then softly said, “Are you sure it’s a good idea ... you know, with us being a couple right, now? What if something happens between us? How will that impact your, our band, if I’m in it?”

Just then the one minute warning bell for homeroom sounded and I pulled Lynette back in tight for a comforting hug. As I loosened my grip on her, I simply said, “We’ll talk through all this when we have some alone time. Come on, let’s get your stuff put up in your locker, real quick.”

Lynette’s face still showed some trepidation regarding her inclusion in our new little rock band. However, she perked up some when I reached down and grabbed both her book and gym bags, and carried them the short distance to her locker. She quickly unlocked it and stuffed her book bag on the floor, and hung up her varsity jacket. I saw her math text on the top shelf and snagged it for her, which earned me another little smile as I handed it to her. Luckily, her locker was right beside our homeroom door and we both snuck in just as the final bell sounded.

“It’s nice that you two decided to join us, today,” Mr. Connors said with a smile. “Will I need to separate you after one day of sitting together, or will you try to be a little more punctual from now on?”

“Sorry, Mr. C,” Lynette said for both of us. “We’ll be extra early from now on.” I smiled at our goateed teacher, and nodded my agreement with Lynette’s words.

“Alrighty. Take your seats before the announcements start, please and thank you.”

Mr. Williamson’s announcements contained three or four major things of interest for Lynette and me. First, he stated how well the girls’ volleyball team played, and that Lynette Robertson deserved a special mention as she admirably filled in for the injured Maryanne Ryan at the setter position. Lynette turned a wonderful shade of red as she was called out over the school’s speakers. In addition, Mr. Williamson said the girls’ volleyball conference championship match would be played Saturday at 4pm, at UWO’s Thames Hall. He said he expected a large civilized, but rowdy group of Cowboy fans to show up and support the volleyball team.

Second, Coach Williamson said that the junior varsity boys were excused from their 8^th and 9^th period classes for their game at 3pm against Glencoe’s JV team. The varsity boys were excused from their 9^th period class, as well. I already knew I’d miss geography, today and told Lynette to take good notes, so I could get a copy of what Froggie went over in class.

Next, we heard that tonight’s Valentine’s Dance would begin at approximately 8pm. Since students from Glencoe High School were invited to attend the dance, Mr. Williamson asked all Medway students to be on their best behavior, and to show our guests a good time.

He surprised us all by adding this comment to the end of that announcement, “Treat our visitors well at the dance, especially after we destroy them in both of our JV and varsity basketball games, today.” A small roar went up in our class at our vice-principal’s words, and we could also similar “Hoopin’ and hollerin’ sounds“ from out in the hallway.

As usually happens, Mr. Williamson’s last announcement covered which teachers were out sick today: Mrs. Bumstead, Mr. Marose, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, and Mr. Chidley. Once again, he suggested that anyone with flu-like symptoms should remain at home to help prevent the spread of this wicked flu virus. He ended his announcements with a rousing, “Ride ‘m hard, Cowboys and Cowgirls!”

Lynette and I smiled at each other knowing we didn’t have our first period math or seventh period English classes, today. “That’s the second time Mrs. Pierce has been out this week,” Lynette softly said.

I lightly nodded my head and grinned at her. “Oh, I forgot to tell you what happened yesterday in English. Mrs. Pierce fainted about five minutes into our class, and Brad and Elizabeth got to her before she fell to the floor. Heidi ran and got her a drink of water, while I ran down to the nurse, then the main office to get some adult help with Mr. Williamson.”

Lynette swatted me on my arm as we both picked up our unneeded math books, and her gym bag and headed out into the hallway as I related that incident to her. “She fainted? I thought she had the flu, the other day,” Lynette asked in confusion.

“Well, it probably was the flu. I bet she didn’t have anything to eat, and her energy was drained from the combination of those two things. Mr. Williamson basically told us in her class, yesterday, that she would be out today, and to make good use of our free time.”

“Oh, that makes sense, now,” she said as set her gym bag down to reopen her locker. “Speaking of geography, did you find any good information for our Aussie project?”

“Some,” I simply replied and suddenly remembered the other key tid-bit of news from that cancelled English class. “Oh yeah, guess who probably has a new girlfriend after all the stuff that went on with Mrs. Pierce yesterday?”

Lynette looked at me like I was out of my mind for asking such an open ended and impossible to answer question. I softly snorted at her and said, “Who helped keep Mrs. Pierce from falling to the ground?”

“Uh, not suuure ... didn’t you say Brad kept Mrs. Pierce from collapsing?” My smile got real big as Lynette correctly recalled that Brad was her savior. “Sweet!” she squealed out at knowing her guess was correct.

“The real interesting thing though is ... who his new girl is?” When I didn’t immediately answer my own impossible question, it was Lynette’s turn to snort out her displeasure at not knowing who Brad was getting chummy with yesterday.

When I sensed Lynette was about to blow a gasket due to my silence, I simply said, “We, Heidi and I saw Brad walking hand in hand down to the library with ... Elizabeth Morkings.”

“No way, get out of town!” she said as she held her hand up to her mouth when she realized how loud she said that. “Brad and Elizabeth! ... Really?”

“Yup-yup,” I replied, and then added, “Why are you surprised at that? I think they’d make a good couple.”

“Well uh, Brad is so ... so hunky, and uh Elizabeth is...”

“Elizabeth isn’t a knock out babe, like some of the girls he has dated in the past,” I said as Lynette struggled with how to word her description of Elizabeth. “However, I think you’d be truly amazed at how good looking Elizabeth can get when she actually puts a little effort into her appearance. Plus, as I told Heidi, yesterday, Liz has had it pretty rough this Christmas, winter with her dad’s cancer and sudden death just after the holidays.”

“Oh, God! I didn’t know she lost her dad. How come I didn’t know about it? Is she doing alright, now?” Lynette asked with her sadness evident in her voice.

“She’s a fairly private girl, but she’s also one tough cookie. And, uh, I think her friends from our elementary school have been a huge help to her during these past couple few weeks. Her dad was diagnosed with a real bad form of cancer, and he went downhill super-fast between Christmas and New Year’s.”

Lynette simply shook her head as she comprehended that sad bit of information. I then added, “Knowing Liz like I do, she turned to or used her schooling, her studying as a release mechanism for handling her grief.”

“Still, that just ... oh, Lord, that’s just so sad and really awful for her.”

“Yes, indeed,” I softly replied and put my arm around Lynette’s shoulders. “Anyhow, yesterday was the first time I’ve REALLY seen her smile since before Christmas. It was after Mrs. Pierce and Mr. Williamson thanked, and praised the four of us for helping her. Brad bragged about how quickly Elizabeth reacted to get a chair behind Mrs. Pierce as he struggled to keep her from falling to the tile floor.”

Lynette’s smile slowly returned as the tenor of my story changed from Liz’s dad, to Liz and Brad’s interaction. “The two of them chatted the whole way down to the library, as Heidi and I walked behind them. Then, as they got to the bottom of the side hallway stairs, Liz lightly touched Brad’s hand a few times, and he quickly realized she wanted him to hold it. Before they reached the library, their fingers were intertwined and Liz was as animated and bubbly as I’ve seen her in a long time.”

“That is so sweet and I’m glad for her, both of them actually. Do you know if they are coming to the dance, tonight?”

I shook my head no as we walked towards the front stairway. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to either of them after Heidi and I headed to the café. I hope Brad has asked her to the dance but ... I just don’t have a clue.”

“Well, I’ll see her in PE next period, and I’ll try to determine if they are coming. Heck, I think I’ll invite her, and you should get with Brad, and make sure he either has or will ask her to go. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied to Lynette as we bounded down the stairs on our way to the library. “I’d love to see Elizabeth and Brad there. Lord knows, she deserves to have a good time.”

“So, Michael, you think Elizabeth is attractive or good looking?” Lynette asked me with a little false indignation in her voice as I held the library door open for her.

Her question certainly caught me by surprise, and I wondered where she was heading with it. I looked at her face to see if I could pick up any clues as to her reason for asking me that, but she must have picked up on my sudden, slight discomfort and added, “You just know her a lot better than I do, and you seem to see things about her differently than me. I’m not ... questioning your...”

“Lynette, listen, now,” I softly said to her as I guided her back towards our corner table. “Elizabeth and I were really good friends and chief academic rivals at St. Pat’s. But I’ve become a lot more involved in sports here at Medway, which has crimped that friendship a little bit. As to your question, when Liz wants to, I think she looks damn good. I just think ... she ... especially now after her dad’s passing, that she has turned her full attention back towards her school work and studying, and uh, hasn’t given much thought about her appearance, lately.”

As Lynette sat down in the chair beside the wall, she pushed the chair beside her back some and motioned for me to sit down there. “I didn’t know you and Elizabeth went to the same elementary school,” she softly said as I took my seat. “You know, you’re probably right about Elizabeth. I probably shouldn’t say this to you, but she has a tight little body when I’ve seen her change out of her ... dowdy school clothes for PE class.”

I chuckled at Lynette’s admission of noticing another girl’s body in the change room and softly gave her a little verbal dig, “So, my new girlfriend has been checking out other girls in the change room has she.” Lynette blushed slightly at my comment and tried to elbow me in my ribs but I was prepared for her counter-attack and captured her left arm in my hands. I pulled her towards me and gave her a soft kiss as she squealed in surprise at my quick actions.

After I loosened my hold on her, I softly laughed at her and said, “I’m joking here with you Robber. Unless you change clothes in the dark, you can’t help but see how the other girls look as they change clothes.” She smiled back at me when she realized just how true my words were. “And, you didn’t have to tell me that Liz has a tight, sexy little body. Us, hormonally driven guys notice those things, even when girls try to hide their developing assets behind less than flattering clothes.”

“So, you’ve been checking out a bunch of girls now, have you?” she said as she tried to catch me in a similar sticky-wicket.

I think I surprised her by saying, “I’m still alive, ain’t I? Of course I, all guys, we look at girls ... And don’t you dare deny scoping out all the good looking guys around here, either.”

Lynette softly laughed out at me and said, “Enough of this, now. You’re right, you’re right, but enough. Like I said earlier, you need to ask Brad about his plans and I’ll find out what Elizabeth is thinking regarding tonight’s dance. We’ll compare notes about what we find out, later this afternoon, okay?”

I nodded my head at her and dug out my geography notebook to show Lynette what I found yesterday on the Australian entertainment scene. After I gave them to her so she could see what I had, I said, “I need to get the encyclopedia, so we can see if it has any useful info on our geography topic.” I pushed back from the table and went to grab that large book from the resource shelf.

When I returned with it and another book, which Mr. Short found for me after school, yesterday, I saw that Lynette was engrossed in reading my notes. As I sat down beside her, she said, “What you have here is good, but we’ll probably need to hit either the London Public Library or UWO’s library to get some really good information on the other avenues of entertainment besides music.”

“Oh, I agree,” I said to Lynette. “Hopefully, we can find a good evening sometime next week, as I bet you’ll be out of town next weekend for the sectional volleyball tournament.”

“Oh, crap! I didn’t think about that,” she softly said as she moved her long pony-tail to the other side of her face. “We’ll either have back to back practices, and uh, you’ll have a basketball game or two this week right?”

I frowned and nodded affirmatively at her assessment of our hectic teenage schedules. “Thursday probably will be the best day for me,” I said, “because we have the gym from 3 to 5, and I doubt Ms. Jacket will practice you too long or hard in the 5 to 7 slot, especially since you’ll be travelling to uh...”

“ ... Sarnia, to Sarnia Northern for our WOSSA tournament.”