Chapter 17

“Wow, that was a heavy trip he laid on you,” Becca said as they were driving home.

“Yes, it was,” Bree agreed. “I sure wasn’t expecting it, but I can see it was something that I needed to hear.”

“Does it make you change your thinking about going to the Academy?”

“No, not now,” she sighed. “But it sure gives it a dimension I hadn’t really thought about before. At least it was nice of him to offer to talk to me about it again if I need to, and I think I probably will.”

“Are you going to stay with the martial arts?”

“Probably. I mean, I’ve got plenty else to do, but one of the things Colonel Seasprunk said was that I needed to expect to be busier than I want to be at the Academy, so I might as well get used to it now. The martial arts are probably only going to be an evening a week along with everything else, and I might learn something useful in the process.”

“And give you a chance to talk to Mr. Evachevski again,” Becca said. “He got me to thinking, too. Maybe I’ll go to the classes with you as long as I can.”

The next couple of months went slowly. Winters often go slowly in Spearfish Lake, since they tend to be long and hard, cold with usually lots of snow. While there are things to do, for many people it’s a time to huddle around the fire and wait for spring.

The girls, and their friends, couldn’t do that very well; after all, they had school almost every day, although there were some days they missed when the road past their house hadn’t been plowed out. On those days, at least, Bree got the chance to curl up in the living room chair with a book in her hand and Perky in her lap, and with no reason to have to feel guilty about it. Those were good days, and they’d gotten pretty rare over the last few months.

That didn’t mean things didn’t happen around the Gravengood household.

One of the big pieces of news came along in February. Becca had been a star player in both basketball and volleyball ever since her first year in Spearfish Lake, and had been a solid softball player as well. For a year or more there had been expressions of interest in her attending various colleges and universities, with athletic scholarships being discussed, but now serious offers were coming in, some of them better than she’d expected. There were some serious discussions of accepting this offer and that, and a couple college visits made.

As far as they could tell, the best offer Becca received was a scholarship to play volleyball far to the south but within a day’s drive of home at Athens University. Through the local grapevine Mark happened to know a local woman who had done her doctorate there years before. While a consultation revealed that she couldn’t tell them much about the athletic program, as far as she knew it was a fine undergraduate school where Becca could learn more than just the finer points of volleyball if she put her mind to it.

In the end, Becca wound up accepting the offer – and was surprised to learn only afterwards that her best friend, Myleen Kluske, had accepted a scholarship offer there as well! The two of them being able to go there together seemed to offer advantages in several ways, not the least of which was that they knew each other and could support each other in the strange, far-away surroundings. Maybe, both of them agreed, they could find some serious sand-court competition without having to go to a nudist camp to do it.

Another important thing that happened in February was that Autumn got her driver’s license, the first of the four sophomore friends to do so. She didn’t get it on her birthday – it fell on a Monday, and it was later in the week before she could schedule a driving test.

Autumn’s getting her driver’s license offered the promise of making getting around town a lot easier for all of them – but for now, only the promise. While both Autumn’s older sisters had gotten cars on or near their birthdays, Autumn’s parents decided to put off giving her one for a couple months. Autumn was a bit miffed at that, but could understand their reasoning: Spring’s and Summer’s birthdays had come more or less in the summer, while Autumn’s was in the winter, with snow all over the place. They felt, and she reluctantly came to agree, that it wasn’t safe for her to have to start driving by herself on icy, slippery winter roads, and it wouldn’t hurt to wait a couple months until things improved.

Howie would be the next to get his license, in late April. It was already expected he’d be able to drive the family Jeep around, although he would have to share it with Jack for a few months. Howie didn’t let it concern him very much; he knew the decision had already been made that Jack would be getting a car of his own for his high school graduation at the end of May; he would need it to go to college in the fall. There had been some discussion about what Jack wanted already and the idea of a Jeep Cherokee kept coming up.

Bree would be the next in line to get her license, in early June – although as far as she was concerned, getting her glider private license was her priority, and she planned on doing it on her birthday. Going to get her driving test could wait, as far as she was concerned. Though nothing had been finalized, it looked like Becca was not going to be taking a car to college. The parking situation for freshmen at Athens was reportedly terrible, and Myleen was taking her car, so Bree would get Becca’s old car as a hand-me-down, which had more or less been the plan all along.

Jared’s birthday came only a few days after Bree’s, and it began to look like there was going to be a car in his future, as well, though the details were still fuzzy. In any case, once the weather warmed up the transportation hassles for the four looked to be considerably simplified.

Jared had been doing well with his wrestling; he’d compiled an even better record than he had the year before as a freshman, and wound up qualifying for the state individual final meet, which was over five hundred miles away in Detroit. All three of his sophomore friends wanted to go to the meet to cheer him on, but it was just too big a trip to make for the weekend. Even his mother didn’t go; she had a new baby in the household, and it was just too big a hassle to try to deal with. Jared understood the problem, and he and his father wound up being the only ones to make the long haul southeastward.

It was worth the trip; Jared lost on points in the final match, and so medaled, although just shy of being the state champion in his weight division. It was the best a Spearfish Lake wrestler had finished in the finals in years. His uncle Randy was especially proud of him; Jared had done better than he’d ever been able to do as a wrestler years before, and still had two years left to try and get the top spot.

When Jared and his dad made it back to Spearfish Lake on Sunday, there was an impromptu party at the Wooten house, and all three of the other members of the foursome were there; Bree wound up planting a big kiss on him as a reward.

With wrestling out of the way, all of the four were looking forward to the spring sports season, which wasn’t far away now. It would be the first year any of the four of them had run track; Howie and Jared looked forward to it as a way to get in even better shape for football. What’s more, going out for track would support the girls, who had been working out at the Women’s Fitness Center all winter to get ready for the season. It would be something new for Bree, but she hoped to do well with it, based on the amount of training she’d done, and the way she’d taken hold in cross-country back in the fall.

There was still plenty of snow around in early March, but there were signs of spring in the air. On some days there was melting going on; things could get sloppy, and the rivers and streams were raging. The end was clearly in sight as the four of them settled down at the corner lunchroom table as they did almost every day.

They never all showed up at the same time; usually there was a several minutes gap. One day early in March, Bree and Jared were the first to show up. “Looks like we’re going to lose some more snow today,” Jared said, mostly as a conversation starter. “I’ll bet you can’t wait to get the sailplane out.”

“Haven’t had it out since November,” Bree replied. “I’ve been starting to wonder if I still know how to fly it.”

“I doubt you’d forget that soon. I suppose it’s sort of like riding a bicycle.”

“I’ve never been that good at riding a bicycle,” Bree told him. “But I never really had the chance to get good at it. It really looks like a nice day out there today, and with all those cumulus around, the thermals have got to be popping, but it’s probably going to be a month or more before I can get out with the sailplane.”

“Too wet, huh?”

“Yeah, there’s still snow all over the runway, although it’s starting to open up a bit. But we’ll have to wait till it dries out and firms up, and that could come slowly if we get a lot of rain. Then, mark my words, it’ll be overcast and grungy, and all I’ll be able to do is up and downs for a while. At least in the summer I ought to be able to get some real flying in, but that won’t be every day, either.”

“Have you got anything you want to shoot for over the summer? I mean, in the glider?”

“Well, yes. Even though I’m going to have to be working on my private power license in Rocinante a bit, I want to keep going with the glider. I’m more or less planning on doing that contest in July, and if we get a real good day I want to make a try on at least one leg of my Gold Badge.”

“That’s the next step up from the Silver Badge, right? What’s the deal on that?

“There are two legs on it. One is a three thousand meter altitude gain, and there’s no way I can get that around here since thermals don’t go up that high. In theory I could get it flying in a thunderstorm, but I’m not prepared to do it and I’m not that crazy, anyway. The other leg is a three hundred kilometer distance flight, and that’s very possible.”

“Three hundred kilometers?” Jared frowned. “That’s a little less than two hundred miles, isn’t it?”

“A hundred and eighty six and change. It sounds like a lot, but I actually did something like ninety over the ground when I did my silver flight last fall. A lot of that was in crappy conditions, so doing twice that in the 1-26 is at least possible. If I can do it as an out and return, that would be a leg on my Diamond badge.”

“What does that involve?”

“Actually, it’s a Gold Badge with three diamonds. Each diamond has its own separate requirement, a three hundred kilometer goal flight, a five hundred kilometer distance flight, and a five thousand meter altitude gain.”

“That sounds pretty ambitious.”

“It is,” she sighed. “I don’t know if I could even try it out of here. Maybe out of Mt. Vernon, but I’d probably have to have a ground crew along to help.”

“Well, if I can help, I will.”

“It’ll probably take more than just you,” Bree shrugged. “And we may not get a lot of notice. We’ll just have to see how it works out when we get there.”

About that time Howie and Autumn showed up. “So,” Jared said, “what’s happening with you guys today?”

“It got a little interesting last night,” Howie smiled. “The big secret got out.”

“What’s that?”

“You know Jack, Vixen, Alan, and Summer are all planning on going to Southern Michigan University, don’t you?”

“I knew it had been kicked around,” Jared said, “but I thought they were looking at other places, too.”

“They were,” Autumn said. “But I guess not too hard. They sort of wanted to be together down there, and it mostly got finalized in the last month or so. But Southern doesn’t have a lot of dorms, and what’s there are expensive. So last night they announced they’d arranged for an apartment.”

“One apartment,” Howie grinned. “A two-bedroom place, but the same apartment.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Bree grinned.

“Nobody is actually coming out and saying it,” Autumn laughed. “But let’s just say the thinking was going on awful hard around about four different houses last night.”

“They may actually be planning on keeping it straight, although I doubt it,” Howie said. “But if they do, how long the arrangement holds up is anyone’s guess. This has actually been coming down for a long time. I knew they were thinking about it last fall, but Jack asked me not to say anything about it.”

“In a way, it makes sense,” Autumn said. “They are getting awful close. I mean, Summer and Alan, along with Jack and Vixen. Summer hasn’t told me much about what’s really been going on, but let’s say nothing would surprise me.”

“So are their folks going to go for it?” Jared asked.

“It looks like it,” Howie said. “But like Autumn said, there was a lot of thinking going on last night. To a degree, it comes down to the fact that they’ll all be over eighteen and close to five hundred miles from home, so the four of them can pretty much do what they want to do anyway. Still, after my experience with Misty, I’m not sure I’d want to be that close to my girlfriend in college.”

“Right,” Jared grinned. “I mean, especially if it was Misty.”

“Wouldn’t happen,” Howie shrugged. “I mean, I know I was supposed to be a practice boyfriend to get her set up for when a real catch came along. Then she’d drop me like a hot potato, the way Bethany dumped Shay Archer. That’s why she changed colleges on him at the last minute, to give her a little more freedom of action. I think I told you about that.”

“Yeah, you did,” Jared agreed. “Still, it’d be nice to go off to college and know you’re going to have some friends there.”

“Well, assuming I get into the Academy, there’s no way the four of us could be going to the same school, anyway,” Bree pointed out.

“Right, and it’s not the same thing,” Autumn replied. “Summer and Alan, well, they’re pretty hot on each other, and so are Jack and Vixen. While we’re friends, it’s not quite the same kind of friendship.”

“Well, nothing’s settled yet,” Jared said. “I guess I’m like the rest of you, except for Bree. I don’t have any idea where I want to go to college. Uncle Randy is pushing for me to go to Northern Michigan and take up construction management like he did, but I haven’t made up my mind about it yet and don’t plan to for a while. I have to think he may have a point about architecture, but I’ve got to look into it some more.”

“I’m still pretty up in the air, too,” Autumn added. “I just know I don’t want to go into nursing, although Summer keeps trying to talk me into it. I keep thinking I’d like to get into photography somehow.”

“You shoot some good photos,” Bree said. “I know you carry that Nikon around a lot, and I’ve seen some of the things you’ve done.”

“I still want to get a good photo of you launching in the glider,” Autumn said. “Either the light has been lousy, or I’ve been doing other things when I could have gotten better photos.”

“Well, maybe we’ll get the chance this summer,” Bree said. “Howie, have you had any more thoughts about what you want to do?”

“Not really,” he said. “There was a time I thought I wasn’t even going to go to college, but after the way the football season went last fall, if we can continue on like that I wouldn’t be surprised to get an offer of an athletic scholarship. It probably wouldn’t be to someplace like Athens, like Becca got, but I could see it happening with some small place, like maybe Weatherford. I’d be a fool to turn it down to go work in the plywood plant or something. But what I’d do with it, well, I don’t know.”

“No ideas?” Jared asked.

“Well, some, but I have to be realistic about it,” Howie replied. “Back over Christmas I got the chance to talk to Shay Archer for a while. He’s going to Lake State, and is looking to be a park ranger, maybe for the National Park Service. That seems pretty cool to me, but I really haven’t looked into it. There are some other ideas out there.”

“Such as?” Autumn asked.

“Such as, I don’t know. I’ve given some thought to maybe being a teacher, and being able to do some coaching, but I don’t know that I’d like being a teacher that much, except for the time off they get in the summer. It’s something I really need to think about. My guess is what I wind up doing will be something I haven’t even thought about yet.”

“Yeah,” Autumn sighed. “It’s pretty much the same way for me, too. It sure would be nice to be like Bree and have what you want to do pretty well picked out.”

“Well, what I want to do and what I may wind up doing are two different things, too,” Bree told her. “I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m going to wind up doing something in flying even if my hopes for the Academy don’t work out. But those are just fall-back positions. At the moment my mind is on getting into the Academy and doing the best I can while I’m there.”

“Yeah, and that’s my point,” Autumn said. “Even if your main plan doesn’t work out, you’ve worked out other things you can do. That’s something I’ve learned from you, Bree. A year ago if someone had asked me what I wanted to do, I’d have just had to say ‘something,’ and let it go at that. I still don’t know what I want to do, but at least now I’m thinking about it.”

“I’ve learned an awful lot from the three of you,” Bree said. “Looking back on it, a year ago I had no idea how I was going to get into the Academy, or even what’s involved. There’s no way of telling, but if the three of you hadn’t gotten me to make a few changes, probably all the Academy could have ever been for me was a dream. My application would probably have gotten laughed at. You have all improved my chances a lot.”

“Hey,” Howie said. “That’s what friends are for. We agreed to support each other, and we have so far. It’s worked out well, and there’s no reason to quit now.”

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