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High Tuck -*- Copyright 2002 by Ellen Hayes.
Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when used for satirical purposes.
This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and possibly sex. If you are legally not allowed to read materials containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading this. I am not responsible. Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish, state, and country.
All rights reserved. See the bottom for distribution rights.
High Tuck
*** 07:39 28 Aug
"Oh, gee, we'd so like to go to school today," I lied at Mom with Brian nodding accompaniment. "But we have to go get our teeth examined."
"I miss my classes," Brian said sadly.
"Oh, give it up," Mom moaned. "And don't skip your appointments either. OR school after you're done."
"Skip?" Brian said like he hadn't heard the word before.
"Never crossed my mind," I said. It hadn't; the idea had just sat right there unmoving in the middle of my consciousness and leered at me.
Mom didn't look like she believed either one of us, but she didn't comment further.
*** 09:18 28 Aug
Juggling had several benefits when applied to the time spent sitting around in a waiting room when YOU had been on time for your appointment(s) but nobody else was.
It was fun to do.
It made the time pass.
It was something I needed to practice (everyone needed to practice if they wanted to stay good at it) and sitting down was a good place to do it.
It was more interesting than Newsbleak, Fiend&Steam, Reader's Disgust, Seventeen(PagesOfTextSandwichedBetweenTwoHundredPagesOfAds) or Cosmopoli-bland. They didn't subscribe to good stuff like Doc Frobb's or 2600, or even Soldier of Misfortune. Or at least they didn't leave them out here.
You got envious looks from other people who couldn't juggle or didn't have anything to juggle at the moment.
It was subtly eye-catching for the staff, so they'd keep looking at you, and thus remembering you were here, without being blatant about it which made them annoyed.
And best of all, it annoyed Brian without actually being something he could really work up a rage at.
*** 11:07 28 Aug
The really sucky thing about good health insurance was that it included dental, which meant that insurance would pay for it all, which therefore meant that Mom wouldn't send me out with a credit card to pay for it, which could then possibly have been used for other things.
As we left the office, Brian smirked at me, "Dude, none!"
"Nonnnnne!" I smirked back at him, and we slapped hands.
"You're hungry though, right?" he suggested.
"No, not really," I said casually. "Besides, if I hurry I can talk to some of the girls at lunch for a bit before I have my last two classes."
"Aw man! Come on!" Brian protested.
I had him.
*** 11:29 28 Aug
"So, like, uh, you hang around girls a lot, right?" Brian said after we sat down again. Chinese buffets had one great advantage over home cooking - thirty different kinds of food were a lot more than anyone would be willing to make for one meal.
"Yeahhhh," I said, trying to guess what he was going to do with the admission, and failing. "Why?"
"How come they don't tell you how to dress better?"
"What?"
"You look stupid in that stuff, and aren't you h- overheating?"
I sighed. He knew far too much about my physical state anyway, but apparently not enough to keep him from asking questions like this. And I did not feel like enlightening him today. "Brian," I did say, slowly, "I haven't gone shopping for school stuff yet, and I'm not sure I want to spend the money. We only get so much, you know, and I had to buy a new pair of sneaks."
"Still, man, those pants are too small for you, and you oughta be able to talk to Mom about it, or maybe Dad, even he goes for that 'look decent' stuff." We sighed; both of us had been dragged along far too many times in Susan's pre-school or beginning-of-school shopping marathons in the quest to 'look decent' for not too much money. I'd often claimed my sister was stupid, but the way she could keep juggling dozens of prices in her head all at one time while fighting the crowds showed she had something up there, even if it was being sadly misused.
"Yeah, I guess," I said unenthusiastically, then brightened as I thought of something. "Maybe I could ask Sabrina if she wants to help me shop this weekend."
"The one who's coming over for math tutoring?"
Oh, damnit, I said that out loud.
*** 11:52 28 Aug
"Huh?" I said, because something was buzzing and everyone who'd been waiting to get seated was pulling out and looking at their-
And then I dug in my pack and pulled out MY pager, which turned out to be the culprit. I also ignored Brian as he laughed at me, but that wasn't too hard since he'd paid for most of our lunch and I was more worried about who would be-
TTTKIDTTT ITS HERE ITS HERE-
"AHHHHHHAHAHAHAhahaha!" I said out loud as I accidentally grabbed Brian and danced with him before he could break loose. "My laptop's in!"
"What? Lemme see!" he insisted as he somehow managed to steal the pager right out of my hand and ran outside with it.
*** 11:53 28 Aug
"Read the rest of it," he grinned as he handed it back to me before I broke his arm.
TTTKIDTTT ITS HERE ITS HERE X AND YOU DONT GET IT UNTIL 2000
TONIGHT SO DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT SKIPPING TO GET IT X HAHAHA X HOPE
THE DENTAL TORTURE WENT WELL X CONT X TSIXT
And the second message, which I hadn't noticed come in, said
TTTCONTTTT SPEAKING OF TORTURE YOU OWE ME A LOT OF MONEY TOO X HAVE
A DOWN PAYMENT READY X NOW GET BACK ON YOUR HEADS X TSIXT END
"Dude, I need to get a job," Brian sighed.
"You could babysit," I snickered.
*** 12:17 28 Aug
"Dental appointment," I explained.
"They left brown crusty stuff between your teeth at a dental appointment?" Mike complained.
"Shut up, you owe me six bucks," I said, and pulled out the bag of takeout.
"What about-"
I pulled out the other bag of takeout and handed it over. "And YOU owe me half a dollar each," I said to the previously whining crowd, "if you want egg rolls. Pay Mike..."
People wanted egg rolls.
*** 12:20 28 Aug
I made sure nothing was between my teeth any more, then left the bathroom - strange, how the only guy's bathroom in school that still had mirrors was the one around the admin section - and went to go check in.
*** 14:09 28 Aug
"Man," I mumbled to myself, "it's a good thing I left the cooler in here, or these other egg rolls might have gone bad." Not hardly.
It had been a personally expensive lunch - Brian had paid for mine and his, but I'd had to pay for Mike's food plus the egg rolls - but I'd get it back from Mike later.
"Oooh, and I got a date tonight too," I told myself happily.
*** 16:38 28 Aug
"What do you want?"
"Hey, Dad!" I said cheerfully. "Can I stay out a couple hours extra tonight?"
"Why?"
"Because I got a date today," I lied, "and I wanna go out late and listen to bad folk songs and drink cheap wine and talk about the way to fix the world."
"You're not old enough for any of that, you're supposed to be drinking swiped beer and complaining about how hard life is at your age," Dad said. "Seriously, you have a laptop waiting and you want to go out instead?"
"Damnit!" I said accidentally, which made Dad laugh.
*** 16:40 28 Aug
"Yeah, I guess the date thing, and I pick up the laptop tomorrow or so," I sighed. "That's with everything, right?"
"Oh yeah, modem and everything," he agreed. "All here."
I sighed again, but I really wanted to see Travis...
"Want me to start loading it?" Dad asked.
"Uh..." Taking a computer out of the box, which was something I'd only done a couple of times since I could usually build better ones; versus letting someone else screw with the damned drivers. Hard choice, since I'd hardly ever gotten to take a computer out of the box. I finally decided, "Ummmm... yeah, okay, if you want to load it for me," I said. "Barest bones on the Linux, and write down the root password so I don't have to crack it, okay? And you're not charging me for this, are you?"
"For you, this time, it's free," Dad said. "And you know you still have to go to school tomorrow," he nastily reminded me. I was hoping to forget that.
"Yeah, but Dad, it's a DATE," I emphasized.
"Who with?"
"Jill," I lied on the spur of the moment. "She just wants to go out a bit, and she doesn't want to try the high-tone stuff I'm doing tomorrow."
*** 19:09 28 Aug
"Chinese?" Travis asked hopefully.
I laughed, and said, "I had Chinese today at lunch! How'd you guess?"
Travis looked vaguely embarrassed.
"Oh, c'mere," I told him, and pulled him close for something I probably shouldn't be doing on the front porch of the Parkers' but was going to do anyway.
*** 19:13 28 Aug
Apparently he'd missed me as much as I'd missed him, but it was still him who broke the kiss and asked, though I was happy to note he was breathless, "So what do you want to do tonight?"
"Either go back to your place, or go dancing," I told him in order of preference.
"Okay, but not THAT place!"
I laughed, and said, "What, don't you still have your shirt? Oh, I have your other one, still, but I remembered to bring it, it's in the car."
As we walked out, I asked, "Travis? Did you have plans this weekend?"
*** 19:31 28 Aug
This was a new place I'd never gone to, so I asked him, "What's this place like?" when he shut off the engine.
"It's a place someone at school told me about," he said before he got out and came around to help me out. I was glad I'd worn something sexy for him, or had brought something sexy to change into when the Parkers' dinner was far enough along. It wasn't apparently going to incite him to new heights of lust, but at least we'd look good when we were dancing.
*** 19:50 28 Aug
He hadn't told me about the friends that had planned to be there that night, but there they were, and here we were talking to them instead of dancing.
Finally I couldn't stand it any more and pulled myself up to Travis' ear and said into it, "If you don't come out with me on the dance floor right this instant, I'm conking you over the head and dragging you home to molest you."
*** 20:00 28 Aug
I could deal with retro eighties stuff, if it was a good mix, and this one was decent, techno-oriented, and fast, all of which were good things. And you couldn't do much breaking in a dress like I was wearing, but the heels were good for spins if not much else, so I did a 720 and dropped into a low back kick then snapped around and went up again, which felt pretty good even though my leg had been slow.
*** 20:44 28 Aug
There was sweat dripping into my eyes, but I had managed to get my pack inside through what miracle I do not know, and I had a dograg in it among other things, and so that took care of most of the sweat, and since I'd been careful it probably hadn't obliterated my makeup either. Though it was dark and/or flashy enough in here you couldn't tell anyway.
I looked up when I had taken care of the sweat, and Travis was talking to some girl, so I got up so I could butt in.
"Hey," Travis said to me as I got close enough to hear them yelling, "you remember Anne, right?" I looked, and vaguely remembered the girl that had hosted a couple of cheerleader parties I'd attended with Travis, so I nodded and said hi and we smiled at each other.
"We were talking about going and getting something to eat," he yelled hopefully at me.
"But I want to dance some more!" I complained. "Please? No offense," I screamed apologetically at Anne, "but I'm busy this weekend and won't get to see enough of him. Travis?" I pleaded.
*** 21:02 28 Aug
"Besides," I yelled at him as we finally got rid of his friends and went back to the dance floor, "I got a curfew extension, I'm good until midnight tonight."
We grinned at each other.
*** 22:39 28 Aug
"Just a quickie?" I begged. The dancing had been more passionate than I'd thought it would be, and I wasn't nearly as tired as I thought I'd end up. That turned out to be a dangerous combination.
"You're crazy!" he laughed as he held my hand.
"Crazy for you," I reminded him, and brought his hand up to my mouth and sucked on one of his fingers. I'd heard about this from Julia on the phone...
And, by the way he stumbled a bit, it seemed to be effective.
*** 23:09 28 Aug
"I can't believe you're actually acting like this," Travis mused.
"I can't believe," I said back, "that you're complaining!"
"I'm NOT complaining, BELIEVE me," he assured me.
"Good," I grinned, and grabbed at his belt.
Many frantic seconds later, it seemed to me, we were engaging in something I still had problems believing I was doing voluntarily, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought, and it made him SO happy.
Which in about ten minutes would make ME so happy, and him AGAIN.
*** 23:33 28 Aug
I could only vaguely wonder at my squealing as I tried not to dig my fingers into his back as I arched and clinched against him, but I was definitely squealing this time as I came.
I would have felt ashamed if it hadn't been Travis on top of me, I think. But he was, and he wasn't laughing when I sank back into my body. Or crying either, which was probably worse than laughing would have been. He certainly looked INTENSE, though.
*** 23:40 28 Aug
"Hnnnnn," I smiled and hummed at him. We'd moved up to a more conventional position on the bed so we could cuddle for a while, which in my opinion could easily take the place of school tomorrow as far as I was concerned.
Unfortunately, what I first thought was artillery fire but turned out to be enthusiastic knocking at his door, rather disrupted the mood. And my heart rhythms. And my nervous system.
And his, judging by the way he screamed hoarsely and convulsed on the bed. Alone, because I had already rolled off and was eyeing the window-
"Those ASSHOLES!" he raged as he flung himself off the bed and upright and stomped out and SLAMMED the door to his bedroom.
Window? I wondered, still looking at it, then realized that Travis probably had some idea of what was going on, judging by the way he was acting. I skittered over to the door, making sure to keep my weight spread out on my hands and feet both so the floor wouldn't creak, and put my ear up to the door.
Ten seconds of listening had me skittering back because there were several males out there, Travis sounded extremely angry, and I thought I'd best get dressed and ready to assist.
*** 23:43 28 Aug
By the time I'd gotten re-dressed, re-inserted the rubber tits into my bra, pulled them out and re-re-inserted them because I had them the wrong way 'round, and then double-checked my clothes to make sure my skirt wasn't caught in my underwear or something, they seemed to have left. Though I had been keeping an ear on things, several times a minute.
"Val, I'm really sorry," Travis said as he lifted his head off the wall and came towards me, looking terribly apologetic.
"Go lock the door," I suggested.
*** 23:44 28 Aug
"Val, I-" he restarted.
"Travis," I smiled. "I don't think you told them to come over here, and I think we've both seen what MY friends do to annoy ME. It's not your fault," I said, getting to the point.
"I, I didn't want you embarrassed," he grumbled, looking at his feet.
"I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you," I told him.
"What about..." and he gestured at the bedroom door.
"Ah, well, I... It's not like they were watching or listening or something," I hoped. "So..." I shrugged. "So we were having sex in your bedroom, so what? Some of 'em'd probably think I'm a slut, but I don't care; I'm just glad to be with you..." I grinned, and added, "And I bet at least half of 'em wish THEY could go home with their girlfriend and spend half the night making love."
"Ohhh, Val," he sighed, but there was a very small smile in the middle of it.
*** 00:03 29 Aug
"I don't believe they did it quite that way, though," I remarked as Travis locked his door, from the outside this time.
"Sometimes we kind of stay out late and stuff," Travis said as he turned around. He walked me down the stairs, and out to his car, and they did indeed seem gone.
*** 00:20 29 Aug
One quick and painful stop at an ATM machine later, my savings account was much depleted but I had the ransom for my laptop.
*** 00:37 29 Aug
Rachel seemed asleep when I got to her place, so I tried to be very quiet as I changed, and she didn't seem to wake up or notice me, unless her saying loudly, "What IS a rutabaga anyway?" before rolling over and immediately resuming snoring, counted. I didn't think it did.
*** 00:58 29 Aug
The laptop - MY laptop, or at least that was my guess - was in the middle of Dad's study, and looked like someone's disembodied brain in a B-movie, with all the cables coming out of it that linked to other things in the study. And Dad looked...
"Dad?"
"Uh?"
"I'm home, it's not quite one o'clock yet."
"Uhuh."
Pause.
"Dad?"
"Uh?"
"Going okay?" I asked carefully.
"Uhhhhhh," he vocalized, meaning I think that it was going as well as could be expected, which was usually pretty frustrating.
"Uh, well, goodnight..."
"Uhuh." He had not stopped typing, nor had he looked away from the screen. I left, quietly.
*** 01:14 29 Aug
I really wanted to go to bed, but I had to write an email to Mom telling her that it had NOT been my idea that Dad seemed to want to stay up all night working on the laptop, and therefore if she didn't like him doing that she should talk to him, not to me. I also told her that the date had been good, mentioned we'd gone dancing, omitted the parts about sex, boyfriend, and artillery, and signed it and sent it and locked up and then finally went to bed.
And made SURE that I had Travis' bear next to me.
*** 03:41 29 Aug
"I guess it's not the bear," I sighed, once my heart and breathing had slowed down enough I could think about such things. I didn't normally have problems with dogs, but it really bugged me when I was in school and then hundreds of them were howling and baying and chasing me down the halls trying to rip me into dog food.
*** 03:46 29 Aug
"Dad!" I said in surprise.
"Uhuh," he said, but this time he looked at me, around the beer he was holding to his forehead.
"You... seem to be done?" I hypothesized.
"Uhuh," he confirmed, and closed his eyes again.
Pause.
"How'd it go?"
"Got it," he grated.
"All of it?"
"Heh," he grunted, but then opened his eyes and swung around on the couch and got up. "Come see."
*** 05:44 29 Aug
"Oh! And you-"
"Yeah, an-"
"Bill!" Mom snapped unexpectedly from behind us, causing both of us to twitch upright.
"Uh oh," Dad and I said at the same time.
"'Uh oh' is right, did you stay up all NIGHT?"
"I didn't ask him to!" I inserted, which did not have the hoped-for effect on Mom.
*** 06:05 29 Aug
"Dad?" I said after Mom had finally shut up and left.
"Uhuh?"
"Don't stay up all night next time."
"Uh UH," he agreed emphatically. "What're you doing up so early anyway?"
"You know how, you're at school, and suddenly you realize you don't have any pants on, and then there's like hundreds of dogs chasing you through the halls trying to bite your throat and kill you like a deer? And you still don't have any pants?"
Pause.
"Date didn't go well?"
"Nah, it went fine. Great, actually. Can I drop out of school?"
He looked at his watch. "Not now," he said.
There might have been some rational explanation for that, but I'd bet there wasn't.
*** 06:52 29 Aug
"I! Got! My! Laptoooppppp!" I sang at Kim and Jill before I danced around a bit.
"Why is it handcuffed to your arm?" Jill asked.
"Well, duh!" That was one of the things I'd had Dad order. It was worth the extra fifty bucks, plus the extra fifteen for a dozen keys. Plus the security cables. And locks.
*** 06:58 29 Aug
I waved happily at Shannon as she and a couple of her current parasitic hosts came in, and she frowned, which just barely improved my already-superb mood. Then she saw the laptop in front of me, and REALLY frowned, and that ratcheted it up another tiny notch. I couldn't get much further up, I guess.
*** 07:09 29 Aug
"Jeezus Christ," Jill muttered, which broke my concentration so I looked at her. She was staring at my laptop. "How fast do you type?"
I shrugged. "Never been tested," I told her, and went back to taking notes on the lecture.
This was going a helluva lot better than paper notes had been.
*** 07:57 29 Aug
"Auuuugh!" Mike commented when he saw the case locked on my wrist, and then everyone had to come look at it. Well, at least my friends did; I didn't care about the rest of the population. And they didn't seem to care about my laptop.
*** 08:16 29 Aug
Gee, what a coincidence, the seat I'd picked out in study hall the third day of school was RIGHT NEXT TO an electrical outlet. Amazing.
And possibly even more amazing, it was live, which meant that in seconds I was trickle-charging the battery again and almost completely out of the 'real world', but being right up there next to the warden made it difficult for anyone to do anything really nasty to me.
You'd almost suspect I'd planned it this way. Which I had.
*** 10:39 29 Aug
"...and don't forget the paper is due Monday," Mister Alston reminded us, and I almost groaned before I remembered that I had the perfect paper writing instrument chained to my desk at the moment, and I wouldn't even have to worry about Microsoft at ALL, if I could remember to print the thing out at home which I usually didn't.
*** 10:44 29 Aug
"What did you DO to Ashlee?" Sabrina asked.
"What?" I asked, simulating cluelessness. "Who's Ashlee?"
She glared at me, then at Mike who was a bit late and looking-
"Goon," Mike explained, "dodged him. No prob."
"What did you DO?" Sabrina asked me again as I sat back down.
"I'll... show you Saturday," I said. "You have a..." Bizarrely, I did not recall her having a computer. But-
"I! Got my laptop!" I sang a bit and danced in my seat. "Oh, laptop lapowch!"
"NO SINGING," Mike insisted.
*** 11:36 29 Aug
"It's got Gnu C, LISP, Emacs, LaTeX, full source, drivers for the PCMCIA modem and SCSI card, the CD recorder works..." I wanted to dance with it some more but restrained myself, since it was unpacked and I hadn't sprung for the extra five thousand bucks for a 'hard' system. "And we're working on Xwindow."
"'X' Windows?" Bob asked.
*** 11:38 29 Aug
"And it's got-"
"Tuck?" Mike asked.
"Yeah?"
"Can we, you know, play?"
"Oh, uh, yeah, sure," I nodded.
*** 11:45 29 Aug
"If you're going to use that thing to take notes during the game, Tuck, you have to pay for Eidetic Memory."
"Okay!" I cheered. I'd actually been copying my character sheet into ASCII format as best I could, but this was even better.
"Oh, crap," Mike sighed when he realized what he'd done, and I guess when he realized that I still had unused points to pay for Eidetic Memory, too.
"Sucker!" I couldn't help crowing.
*** 12:29 29 Aug
Once I mastered some LaTeX, I'd be able to turn in my math homework without little nasty comments about illegibility written in the margins. Not to mention the graphing possibilities, either. Heh.
*** 14:04 29 Aug
"Oooooh," I sighed and flexed my fingers. I REALLY had to put some study time in learning something to handle the less ASCII-related symbols in the notes I had to take for physics and calc, or my fingers were going to cramp out, because the only way I could take notes on the laptop without such a thing was to write everything out longhand, just like the teachers explained it, or close to. And that took a loooooong time and a LOT of typing. Plus I made more errors than usual, dealing with English, so I'd have to go back and recheck the notes to make sure I had it down right.
But it was still better than paper and pen.
*** 15:08 29 Aug
"I got my laptop!" I almost sang before I remembered, then remembered that Mike wasn't here to stop me from singing.
"You what?" Ricky asked.
"My laptop?"
"You what? Oh COOL!" he screamed, which set Stella off.
*** 15:40 29 Aug
"But why don't you have any games on it?" Ricky whined.
"Ricky..." I sighed. "There is no way to explain this, but games compared to everything else on here, are stupid and boring and irritating. With it like THIS, I can DO THINGS."
*** 17:19 29 Aug
"Uh oh," I said when I noticed the time. "Ricky, I gotta start dinner."
"Okay," he said.
"That means, it turns off and gets put away," I said.
"Aw MAN!"
I had to be strong, because if this thing got sauce in it or something, I'd die. Less than thirty hours after it had come in, too, and I was hooked. Sad, really. Not sad enough to stop, though.
*** 17:50 29 Aug
"Oooh, yeah, just like I wanted," I grinned.
"Can I see it?" Miz Parker asked.
"Um..." I was going to say, 'You break it you bought it', but I didn't even want to take that risk. "Sure, give me a minute to settle the stuff in the pots."
*** 18:04 29 Aug
"Oh, I thought you'd have things like games on here or something," Miz Parker said, and Ricky nodded triumphantly at me.
"Ah, no." Maybe Quake, later, but not now. "I do have my school notes on it, though, and I got halfway through a paper already with it here." Well, I'd spent some time downloading a few dozen references and so on, so I hoped there'd be a paper in there somewhere. In any case, I had some better opinions to look at than the rest of the non-literati class I was in.
*** 18:11 29 Aug
"Oooh, and a couple of friends and I are having a culture night, we're going to see this chamber music group at the college tonight," I nodded and smiled at the idea.
"I didn't know Travis liked that sort of thing," she mused.
"Ah, well..." I said, feeling embarrassed.
"What, no Travis?" Miz Parker teased. At least, I think she was teasing.
*** 19:04 29 Aug
"I did TOO take notes in class today on it!" I protested. "Want to see them?" I challenged Mister Parker before I thought about it. Still, his assumption that I had gotten the laptop entirely for email and games was rather grating.
*** 19:06 29 Aug
"What IS that?" he asked, pointing at the screen.
"Uh," I started, because I wasn't sure what he meant. "The hardware or the software?"
"The software."
"Emacs."
"What's that?" he asked me, looking puzzled.
I opened my mouth, and closed it before I quite went off. He was going to need a mundane's explanation, which I wasn't very good at. Finally I said, "My dad's an old-time nerd from the 70's, went to MIT, had a slide rule holster for his belt, you know?" Dad still had both, too; he'd whip it out and use it if he thought it would annoy someone. Especially at work; it really bugged people on some level to see all this high-tech high-end electronics, and Dad slipping away on the brass shortsword that had cost more than I thought possible.
Mister Parker chuckled and nodded.
"What's a slide rule?" Ricky asked.
"Mechanical calculator," I said. "What people used back before the electronics got small enough to put an electronic calculator in your pocket."
"Wow, like World War Two?" Ricky asked in this voice of wonder, like he was touching dinosaur bones.
"Uh, yeah," I admitted. "And up until the mid 70's, actually."
"I used one for a while," Mister Parker said. "In college."
I'd used one for a while in eighth grade, until they gave up and let the peasants use calculators. "Anyway," I finished, "I look sorta like Mom but I got Dad's brain, so I use the same kind of programs and stuff you'd see him using. Which have nothing at all to do with Microsoft, Lotus, Novell, or most software companies you've heard of," I added, JUST in case he was going to make the mistake of thinking that because Windoze cost money, and lots, that it was what people who knew what they were doing used. "Old geek stuff, since it's what I learned from him."
*** 19:50 29 Aug
"Hey!" I said as I came in, because Rachel was sitting on the couch, looking ready to go. And looking very nice, too. "Let me go up and change quick, okay?" I'd already known that a shortall and sneaks were not going to cut it for the evening.
"Sure," she said, and got up and followed me. "Uh, what's in the bag?"
*** 20:00 29 Aug
"Does this look okay, and like civilized?" I asked as I came out of Rachel's closet. I'd pulled my 'little black dress' and my black heels to come up with something classy. I hoped.
"Oh..." Rachel said, looking intently at me. "Yeah, but you need to do something with your hair... C'mere," she said as she pulled open a dresser drawer and started rummaging through it.
*** 20:09 29 Aug
"Yeah, turn left up here," I said, glad I had remembered to get directions from Julia again.
I already missed my laptop, but Rachel had convinced me that it would be inappropriate, and safe enough if I handcuffed it and chained it to two different pieces of furniture in her room.
*** 20:21 29 Aug
"Wonder who's having the party?" Rachel asked as we waited for the door to open.
"Oh no," I mentioned, because all of a sudden I had a very good idea of who might be having a party-
"Hi!" Bonnie said as she opened the door. "Come in, good to see you again!"
Sabrina, help! "Oh yeah, hi!" I said like I meant it, and her face brightened just a bit so I guess I did it right. "Um, we're here to go out with Julia, actually?"
"Oh, sure!" Bonnie said as we came in, "She's still getting ready, but she'll be down in a few minutes."
"This is a friend of mine, Rachel," my telepathic rlogin to Sabrina's social lobe made me say, "and Rachel this is Bonnie, Julia's mom and a very nice lady."
As the two of them made nice to each other, I wondered if I'd mistakenly tapped Debbie instead. Still, it seemed to be working, and my head wasn't exploding, so I wasn't going to complain too much.
*** 20:24 29 Aug
A few minutes had passed, Julia had not shown up, but Rachel had found someone(s) new and bizarre to talk to, and was doing so while I hung back and wondered when I was going to stop getting into situations like this.
"So, I don't mean to be rude or pry or anything," Rachel disclaimed, "but, what's the attraction for you? To doing this?"
And by the time I realized she was inevitably going to trigger someone's lecture mode, it was too late to hit her on the head with a lamp or something.
I thought about asking Rachel if she wanted something to drink before I went and hid in the kitchen for a few minutes, but I'd either have to rudely interrupt, like they were doing to each other, or wait an awfully long time, because it was quickly turning into a debate, in the middle of which was Rachel who was happily nodding and verbally prodding.
*** 20:27 29 Aug
Plastic did not enhance the quality of the wine, as far as I could tell, but it was better than no wine at all. Lots better.
"Oh, thanks!" Rachel said absently, and sipped at the cup I'd just handed her before asking someone else something.
*** 20:28 29 Aug
I tapped on the door and got a voice tone that sounded roughly like Julia. "Julia? It's Val, come save us!" I called.
"I said come in!" she yelled faintly back.
So I opened the door and came in, and Julia looked up and froze for several seconds before sighing and resuming putting clothes on. At least, that's what it sounded like; I now had my eyes closed.
"You said to come in!" I reminded her defensively.
"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "No big deal, though. Where's Travis?" she asked. "Is he still downstairs?"
"I dun- Why would he be here?" I asked as my eyes opened again.
"I thought you'd be bringing him?" she said as she heaved at her pantyhose.
"I, I thought," I spluttered, "I thought this was girls only!"
"Val," she said patiently, "Dirk doesn't like chamber music, that's why he's not coming with me tonight. And I never said 'Don't bring Travis', I know I didn't."
"Well... shit," I complained, which made her laugh.
*** 20:35 29 Aug
"Well," I mentioned over my shoulder as we descended the stairs, "you look really nice tonight."
"Thanks," she smiled. "So do you."
"Not like it's going to do any good," I sighed as I caught Rachel's eye by luck and waved at her and pointed at the front door.
"Awwww, whassamatter Val, all dressed up and no chance to get laid tonight so it's wasted effort?" she cooed at me.
"Kiss my butt!"
"I think that's Travis' job don't you?" she shot back.
"I wish he WAS kissing my butt!" I snapped as I sort of spiraled around the end of the staircase so I could talk to her face again.
Julia finished descending and turned to face me and said, "Well, Val, seriously, if you want to go out with him tonight, then go. I mean, I like hanging with you, but I think Rachel's okay, it's not that big a deal if you come or not. If you skip out now it won't ruin my evening, is what I'm trying to say," she said.
"Well," I sighed. "I dunno... I mean, I saw him last night, and he's sort of right, we do seem to just fall into bed whenever I get the chance to drag him up there."
"Val, seriously, do you two really..."
"Yeah," I admitted, since my ears were already pinking. I wished my hair was longer so I could cover them in situations like this. "I dunno, I mean, he really REALLY excites me somehow. So, I mean, it's like, I want to every chance I get. And even he's sort of, I dunno, he's not complaining but he mentioned it a couple of times?" Julia nodded at me. "And that's not why- I mean, it's not the, the ONLY reason I like him, it just seems like it's the most important when we're together. But he's sort of right, I guess, we, he and I, we should do more than just dinner and go back to his place and make out."
"So why didn't-"
"Because I thought this was girls only!" I reminded her. "I know you didn't say that specifically but that's what I thought, I mean... next time can I bring him or something?"
"If we can PRY you out of bed!" Julia grinned at me.
"Oh!" Rachel said from behind my shoulder. "Were you supposed to be on a date with Travis tonight? I'm so- I didn't mean-"
"Rachel!" I snapped as I turned around, exasperated.
*** 20:48 29 Aug
"Why do I never remember to get here early enough to find a parking space?!" Julia asked someone; I was pretty sure it wasn't me, though.
"No, wait," Rachel said, and dug in her purse. "I brought my parking permit," she said as she continued searching for it. "I think?"
*** 20:56 29 Aug
"Cool, they're just going in," Julia breathed in relief as we got closer to the auditorium. "You know we're probably like way overdressed though," she mentioned.
I sighed.
*** 21:52 29 Aug
"Wow, this is like really nice," Rachel said enthusiastically. "Does it make you feel, I dunno, sort of grown up, listening to this?"
"Yeah, kind of," Julia said while I considered it, finally nodding before sipping some more of my soda.
And we were sort of overdressed; the college kids who had come had mostly dressed nice but not formal like we had. On the other hand, the obviously older adults, the sort you might find at art galleries or the symphony or charity dinners or something, matched us almost exactly. There were even two tuxedos in the crowd, as well as a lot of nice looking suits, and of course the dresses were almost all black and simple and more expensive than I'd have believed a year ago.
"I mean," Julia continued, "sometimes I like finding someplace where the bass is pounding the walls down and there's strobes and blacklights and such, but sometimes I just want to feel..." She sort of trailed off, thinking about it, and then instead of saying anything she just swept her arm towards the rest of the people.
"Exactly," Rachel nodded, as did I.
*** 21:56 29 Aug
We were still standing around chatting about pianos and cellos and so forth when Julia looked over at something. I craned my neck, and then wished I hadn't when I met Dobson's eyes staring out of Dobson's body- one might say, the entirety of an unwelcome Dobson.
Mostly because he was staring at me like I'd done something wr-
"Oh," I sighed when I realized what it was. Then I smiled, deliberately, and waved a hand at him. "And a good evening to you," I said.
"Good evening... ah... Valerie," he said, and nodded back.
Oh, shit. He'd remembered.
"And who's this?" asked a not-too-pleasant-looking woman who was standing next to him.
"These," Dobson said to her while pointing out me and Julia, "are two of my students, Valerie and Julia..."
"This is Mister Dobson, our high school principal," I said out loud to Rachel, managing not to groan. Who would'a thunk he'd be here?
"This is Rachel, a friend of ours who actually goes to school here," Julia traded.
"And this is my wife, Patty," Dobson finished.
We all said hellos and suchlike; mine was insincere but I tried to make it sound good.
About the only good thing about it was that I hadn't brought Travis after all.
*** 22:02 29 Aug
"My life is just too damned weird," I sighed as I swept my skirt and sat down.
And got shushed, because the music was almost starting.
*** 22:58 29 Aug
The applause wasn't quite thunderous, nor were there whistles, hoots, air horns, lighters, or half-naked otaku girls rushing the stage, but it was pretty heartfelt anyway. At least from me.
And I felt good enough that I didn't even mind running into my high school principal while wearing a nice cocktail dress.
*** 23:04 29 Aug
Though twice in one evening was a little much, I decided as I smiled at him and his wife. Again.
Then I yawned, one of those big ones that just about dislocates your jaw, and I realized that I would in fact like to go homeward so I could sleep. "'Scuse me!" I managed to say when I got control of my face back, in case Miz Dobson was one of those people.
"Oh, come on, Val!" Julia complained, only half seriously, I think. "The night's just beginning!"
"Um, I think my fairy magic token has expired and I'm about to turn back into a pumpkin," I said, and then yawned again.
"Your what?" Rachel asked.
*** 23:12 29 Aug
Okay, it made some kind of sense: Julia's car was here, Rachel's was at Julia's, and mine was at Rachel's; I wanted to go home yet Rachel and Julia did not; yet there was another factor in the mix that I hadn't even considered might butt in and decide that they could take me home.
But I wasn't too happy about it.
I don't think Dobson was too happy about it either. He seemed kind of nervous, which I eventually figured out was because he was worried about 'trying to explain' what I was wearing to my dad, which wasn't really explainable by Dobson since he knew maybe half of it. I wasn't too sure I could explain it, and me and Dad spoke the same English.
So when I said, "Oh, by the way, I left my car at Rachel's place so that's where we're going," and he slumped a bit in relief and then sounded much happier about the conversation, I knew I'd gotten it right.
Mostly it was a quiet ride back, which was good for me. I was still sort of in the music, and I felt nice and calm without quite wanting to slip into a coma. Sometimes classical did that to me, if it was good, and this group had been good. Plus there's always something better about live music, for some reason.
*** 23:27 29 Aug
"So, see you Monday?" I said to Dobson.
"I hope not," he said, and I thought he was referring to the way he was no longer seeing me except when Something Bad happened.
Which is why I protested, "Hey, that's not fair, when was the last time you saw ME in your office?"
He opened his mouth to say something, and I flicked the skirt of my dress just a bit at him, and he shut his mouth as he caught the twist. Then he opened it again and said, "Monday is Labor Day, remember?"
"Oh! Ohmigod, I almost forgot," I sighed.
"Forgot what?" Miz Dobson asked. "I can't believe you'd forget a SCHOOL holiday!" she smiled.
"No, I need to send some email tonight to make sure some plans haven't changed..." I shook my head; this was more than they needed to know. So I said, "Anyway, it's late, and thank you SO much for the ride," and smiled really big.
*** 23:36 29 Aug
"Oh, laptop laptop laptop," I sang as I looked at the carrying case as I changed clothes. "Oh, bugger," I said as I remembered I was going to need a lot of changes of clothing this weekend, and I didn't have that many at my house.
Then I realized my best bet was to come here Saturday afternoon and just pack my car with whatever I needed.
*** 00:10 30 Aug
No Dad, no anyone, apparently. That was kind of weird, but maybe Dad had crashed early because of last night. Or, Mom was punishing Dad for him staying up last night by sending him to bed early-
Which I flung out of my head as hard as I could because there was only one thing she'd have done with him when she got him IN bed.
"Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world."
-- Kaiser Wilhelm
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