Chapter 9

As luck had it the next day, Bree, Autumn, and Jared were fairly close together in the lunch line, and it didn’t take them long to be gathered at the same table in the corner of the room where they’d had lunch the day before. Today the meal was a fish sandwich with fries; it wasn’t a lot more appealing than the pizza the day before, but at least what passed for food was different.

“You know,” Bree commented, “sometimes I wonder why I don’t just bring my lunch. I mean, it’s not that lunch is really bad, but it’s the same kind of bad all the time.”

“Could be worse,” Autumn shrugged. “It could be hospital food. I hear that’s really bad. What’s that you’re reading?”

Bree blushed a little bit; after being forced out of the closet the day before, she’d decided to at least be truthful about what she was reading. “Wind, Sand and Stars, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,” she smiled.

“There’s one I’ve never heard of before,” Jared smiled. “Some kind of desert fantasy like Dune?”

“No, it’s about flying in the Sahara back in the 1930s,” Bree explained. “It’s a classic, and St.-Ex was a really good writer.”

“That’s not fantasy,” Autumn grinned.

“Well, no,” Bree laughed. “Except things are so different now than they were then it almost seems like it. It’s really fun reading, especially if you like flying.”

“Now that makes sense,” Jared laughed. “I should have figured you’d be reading something like that. Do you plan to be a pilot when you get out of school? I mean, like a job?”

“That’s what I want to do,” Bree said. She was willing to go that far, but she’d decided she wasn’t going to reveal her real intention just yet; it still was known only to her family.

“An airline pilot or something?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Bree told him. “There’s other possibilities, and I haven’t worked them all out yet.”

“You ought to think about getting into the Air Force,” Autumn suggested.

“That’s one of the possibilities,” Bree admitted, not wanting to get into details. “How about you? What do you plan to do?”

“I wish I knew,” Autumn sighed. “It would make things a little simpler to plan. I gave some thought to being a nurse, but I don’t know if I want to do that. Summer is planning on that, and I don’t think I want to follow in her footsteps. I’ve had to do a little too much of that, if you know what I mean.”

“Well, sort of,” Bree smiled. “I don’t know what Becca is going to wind up doing, but since her real dream is playing professional beach volleyball, I don’t think I have to worry too much about following in her footsteps. I mean, we were out Sunday and batted a volleyball around with some of her friends, and I’m just the next thing to being pathetic at it. How about you, Jared? What do you want to do?”

“What I want to do and what I’m probably going to have to do are two different things,” he shrugged. “What I’d really like to do is to run bulldozers and backhoes and stuff like Dad used to do, but my folks and Uncle Randy are leaning on me to get into college. They’re probably right, but I don’t know what I’d do if I did. Probably something to do with construction management, or maybe architecture. If I do that last it probably would turn into a graduate degree, so I could have as much school ahead of me as I have behind me. I don’t know if I want to spend that much time sitting in classrooms.”

“Yeah, me either,” Autumn agreed. “It wouldn’t be quite as bad if I was going to become a nurse, but that’s still seven more years, counting this one.”

“It could be nine or more for me,” Jared said. “I’ve heard of kids who take a year off between high school and college, just to come up for air. Maybe I can do that and run a backhoe or something, but I don’t know if they’re going to let me get away with it.”

“That might be nice,” Autumn said. “I might have to try doing something like that, although I doubt I’d be running a bulldozer. How about you, Bree?”

“Too early to tell,” she replied. “It sort of depends on where I wind up going to college.” She wasn’t about to say she might be willing to delay going to college for a year or two, maybe even more, if it was needed to get into the Air Force Academy. She still didn’t want that word to get out and to have kids teasing her about it.

“It’s nice to think about it, but taking a break between high school and college probably isn’t going to happen,” Autumn sighed. “My folks would be all over my case if I even suggested it. Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. You know yesterday, we were talking about getting together and doing something?”

“Yeah,” Jared agreed. “I haven’t had any ideas, but I have to admit I haven’t thought about it much.”

“Me, either,” Bree admitted.

“I might have something,” Autumn said. “You know my sister, Summer? She and her boyfriend Alan are trying to put together a role-playing game. They’ve been working on it for months. They want to get some kids together Saturday evening and try playing it for a couple hours, to see if it works. They’re talking pizzas, too.”

“I don’t know,” Bree frowned. “I’m not much on games of any kind. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“I don’t know much about this role-playing-game stuff myself,” Autumn replied. “Summer says she and Alan have been trying to make it easier for beginners. She said that I’ll probably get along all right with it since I read a lot of fantasy, because I’m used to some of the ideas. I don’t know much about the game, other than it has something to do with witches versus inquisitors back in the middle ages sometime.”

“Wow,” Bree smiled. “That sounds like it could get a little gruesome.”

“There’s bound to be some of that, but she says there isn’t very much. A lot of it has to do with witches trying to keep from being burned at the stake, or at least that’s what Summer tells me. I don’t know how much I’m going to like it, but she’s my sister so I pretty well have to go along with it. But right at the moment it looks like it’s going to be mostly older kids, and I figure it’d be nice to have someone I know there so I don’t feel quite as lost among all those seniors.”

“Well, might as well,” Bree shrugged. “It might be fun for something different. This is only going to be a couple hours, right?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Autumn replied. “She said that might be enough to tell if the game is really working or if she and Alan have more work to do. Of course, if it goes pretty well, then we might want to keep playing for a while. I don’t know. All I know is the last time they tried a test it broke down after an hour or two, but Summer says she hopes she and Alan have fixed it.”

“Well, yeah, I guess,” Bree nodded. “I guess it can’t hurt to try. I suppose I can get someone to bring me into town and come pick me up later.”

“Yeah, I might as well, too,” Jared added. “As far as I know I’m not doing anything Saturday night, and it’ll be fun to do something different, especially with other kids when it doesn’t involve trash talk or football.”

“OK, I’ll tell Summer the two of you are in on it,” Autumn said. “Now, Bree, what’s this Wind, Sand and Stars all about?”

Howie and Misty weren’t eating lunch just yet. “Let’s hold off getting in line,” she suggested. “I don’t want to sit down at a table and have all your football buddies come crowding around.”

“I suppose,” Howie said. “But look, Misty, they’re my teammates, too. I have to be friends with them at least a little. I depend on them and they depend on me. That’s what being a team is all about.”

“You shouldn’t have to hang around with those worthless idiots,” she said petulantly. “I mean, people like Matt Wadsworth. What has he done for you? Is it more fun to hang around with him than it is with me?”

There are times, Howie thought, but carefully did not say. Misty seemed to be getting more possessive by the day, trying to isolate him from his friends. “I don’t have to like him,” he said, “and he’s not more fun to hang around with than you are, but I do have to depend on him from time to time. That means I have to at least talk to him once in a while.”

“But Howie, I know you think football is important, and while it’s nice to be the quarterback’s girlfriend, you have to give me some attention, too.”

As if she isn’t getting more attention than anything else except maybe for football, Howie thought. “Look, I have to at least talk with those guys, be friends with them to some degree,” he told her. “That’s just the way it is, and that’s the way it’s going to have to be. Let’s get off this subject. Do you have anything planned for Saturday night?”

“I suppose you want to hang out with your buddies,” she sneered.

“No, it’s sort of a family thing. I owe Jack a couple of favors, and he’s called one in.” He went on to explain briefly about the role-playing-game test session. “It’s not anything I really want to do, but like I said, I owe him on this one so I can’t say no. You’re welcome to come along if you want to. We can hang out together, have pizza, and like that. It probably won’t take too long.”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “Hanging out with your brother and his buddies doesn’t sound much more interesting than having you hanging out with your football buddies.”

“They’re pretty good people,” Howie replied defensively. “Unless they come up with someone I don’t know about, there aren’t going to be any jerks there like some of the guys on the football team. Hey, I need a break from them myself sometimes.”

“Well, I suppose, if it’s a family thing,” she said reluctantly. “I don’t like it very much, and I’d really rather have you to myself, just you and me, Howie. There’s so much more we could do if we were alone.” She gave him a little wink and added, “If you know what I mean.”

Howie got the insinuation right off. He had as bad a case of teenage hormones as anyone else he knew, and Misty had done a lot of stirring them up over the course of the last few months. But stirring them up and doing something about them were two different things, and as far as he knew there was still a line firmly drawn at her waist. She could tease all she wanted, but he’d started to get the message that there wasn’t going to be much beyond the tease out of her anytime soon. Even the exuberant passion they’d shared after the first football win of the season hadn’t shown any signs of being repeated, and while they might get a little further he knew he was likely to end up getting frustrated.

Still, he had to ask himself the question he’d talked about with Jack the night before: was it better to have a girlfriend or not have a girlfriend?

“I know what you mean,” he said. Possibly too well, he thought. “But the fact remains that I promised Jack I’d do this, and I owe him on it. It probably won’t be too bad, and then we can take off and go do something else. Hell, you might even enjoy it.”

In another corner of the cafeteria, Jack, Vixen, Summer, and Alan were just as enthused about the fish sandwich the school had served for lunch as were many of their classmates, which was to say, not very.

“I talked to Howie about coming to the test session on Saturday,” Jack reported. “I won’t say he’s enthusiastic about it, but I think he’ll show up.”

“Is he going to bring Misty?” Alan asked.

“Now there’s a real good question,” Jack shook his head. “Don’t quote me, but I get the impression all is not well in sophomore romance land, if you get my drift.”

“We really haven’t seen a lot of them,” Vixen added, “but they sure seem to play a lot of Nintendo. I can see how doing it a little once in a while could be fun, but they’re doing it for hours.”

“That’s when someone is watching,” Jack grinned. “When no one’s watching, well, no bets. Did you get Autumn talked into being part of the test session?”

“Yeah,” Summer agreed. “She isn’t real enthusiastic about it, but she’s going to try to talk a couple of her friends into coming along so it won’t be all seniors.”

“Well, if everyone shows up, there ought to be ten or twelve,” Alan said. “That ought to be enough. More would get a little confusing anyway, but this way maybe we can find out what we’ve really got.”

“Not wanting to change the subject,” Vixen smiled, “but changing the subject anyway, I think we need to let Cody and Jan know we’re probably going to be interested in the apartment.”

The college plans for the four of them had been firming up the last couple months. They’d been considering going to a community college a little outside reasonable commuting distance, getting a two-bedroom apartment and only coming home some weekends. That would save them some money and gain them the other things they’d been seeking; after a year or two there, they would be upperclassmen and not be forced to live in the college dorms when they transferred to a bigger school, which would save more money.

Then they’d been made aware of another possibility: Southern Michigan University, at almost the opposite corner of the state. The newest and smallest of the state schools, it was building a reputation for being very academically oriented, and had no intercollegiate sports. The school had only a handful of dorms, and those were very expensive, so students were encouraged to live off campus. All of that appealed to them a good deal.

The four of them had been made aware of some of the realities of the place by Cody and Jan Archer, a couple of Spearfish Lake kids who were starting their sophomore year there. The couple was a little odd – not quite married, and not quite adopted siblings, but it was no secret they were very close. The Archers were very enthusiastic about the school, at least partly because it was a long way from Spearfish Lake and its rumor mills, something that especially appealed to Summer and Alan because of their being Wiccan. To top it off, Cody and Jan owned an apartment building not far from campus – actually, an old house converted to apartments – and made their payments from their rentals. One of them was a two-bedroom apartment they thought they might be able to jam themselves into.

Alan frowned for a moment. “The problem is that it’s not exactly a done deal yet,” he said finally. “Let’s face it, Southern sounds pretty good to all of us, but we’re only going by what we’ve learned from the web site and from what Cody and Jan have told us. We may discover something we don’t like about it, and if that happens, we’re going to be back to the community college idea. We really need to investigate it, not just let ourselves decide without knowing the facts.”

“That was the idea behind pooling our information in the first place,” Vixen pointed out. “And I agree, I want the four of us to be together if at all possible, and I definitely want to be with Jack. But I’ll tell you what: we’ve let ourselves get so dazzled with the idea of going to Southern that we may have let other possibilities get past us.”

“Not really,” Alan said. “If you include the things we agreed we wanted, it’s pretty much Southern, or some community college. The dorms issue and the intercollegiate athletics issue pretty much rules out everything else.”

“Oh, I agree,” Vixen said. “But that’s something our parents are going to bring up to us, so we at least have to appear to be looking at other options. I think we each ought to do at least one college visit elsewhere and be serious about it. Then, after we’ve all had our looks, we can make up our minds, at least officially and independently.”

“I don’t want to put it off too long,” Alan said. “Apartments are at a premium down there, or at least that’s what Cody and Jan told us. It would be good if we could have it nailed down as early as possible.”

“True,” Summer agreed. “Maybe one of us ought to get hold of them and tell them we’re interested but it’s going to be a while before we can settle the deal.”

“I think it would be a good idea,” Vixen said, “but I don’t want to get ourselves committed to it until we can look at the place. We’re pretty well going to have to have our minds made up to go to Southern first.”

“That’s a given,” Alan agreed. “But, Jack and Vixen, excuse me for using this cliché, but it’s beginning to sound like a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Get the college business settled once and for all, and get away for a while without our folks being involved.”

“It’s not a perfect solution, but it might work,” Jack said. “It’s bound to go over a lot better than the four of us deciding to make the college visit ourselves, without the folks getting involved. And we might learn something we might not otherwise.”

“Then, that’s just going to leave the issue of the four of us living in one apartment, at least as far as the folks are concerned,” Vixen said. “I’m not sure how that’s going to go over.”

“I have to admit,” Alan said, “it does make me wonder. But at least for now, I think we need to be looking like we’re keeping it straight. Once we’re over eighteen, out of high school, and in college, well, that can be a different story.”

“It could still get sticky,” Jack said. “But I think some one of us needs to call Cody and Jan and at least let them know we’re interested in the apartment for next fall, but that we can’t commit to it for a while. Maybe by Christmas or so we might have a better idea. We can make some college visits between now and then, too. That’ll at least give our folks the idea we’re looking elsewhere.”

“Well, yeah,” Alan agreed. “I think we need to do at least that much. I know none of us knows Cody and Jan very well, but Jack, you might know them better than the rest of us. Why don’t you make the call?”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.