Remember When #featured #AllStars

Chapter 21

STEPPING OUT

Spring came without fanfare at first, just a steady thaw of frozen earth, softening just enough to let the first crocus peek through and for a few birds to return to the neighborhood.

A few days after that, we were blessed with The First Nice Day.

There's nothing quite like The First Nice Day in Jersey. It's like we've all been released from cages or something, everyone jumping the gun on those opening rays of sunshine by wearing sunglasses and driving around with their windows down. I had taken advantage of my new convertible that day, taking the top down to drive around in barely sixty-five degree weather while pretending I wasn't freezing my face off. Everyone's music got played a little louder and their spirits got raised a little higher.

My spirits had certainly been raised; I'd received a few acceptance letters to some really good colleges- Swarthmore, Amherst... Dad's beloved Northwestern. I'd jokingly applied to Harvard purely as a shot in the dark, so there was no big surprise when I found out I'd been rejected.

But the day I opened the mailbox and saw a big, fat envelope with an NYU stamp in the corner, I just about exploded through the front door, excited beyond belief to show my father. He was happy for me, but couldn't see how I could turn down Northwestern for NYU. I made the case by reminding him that although I'd been drawn to Northwestern because of their creative writing program, there was no better place to get my artistic juices flowing than in the most amazing city in the world. Once I pointed out how much closer the commute home would be from the city than Chicago, I knew I had him sold. Dad dropped his subtle nudging for Northwestern once he realized I was sure I'd be happier in New York.

Besides, Lisa had been accepted to F.I.T., so we cooked up a plan to live in our respective dorms for a year or so, then go apartment hunting down in the village and move in together. Facing a big, strange city wasn't going to be so bad with Lisa by my side. I didn't think there was anything we couldn't do so long as we were together.

Speaking of being together... Lisa and Pickford had broken up over Spring Break. Turned out, he was taking his recent rebellious phase to new levels and Lisa got caught in the maelstrom. Apparently, Dr. Redy had had his heart set on a Columbia education for his son. (Funny, but I don't remember ever hearing about him pushing for Penelope to live up to any grand expectations.) In any case, Pickford decided to take UCLA up on their scholarship offer and play basketball for the Bruins rather than lay the groundwork for a career in medicine. The announcement had the intended effect of infuriating his father, who couldn't even threaten to withhold tuition money anymore now that Pick had been offered a free ride.

The fallout, however, was that he'd be moving to the completely opposite end of the country from Lisa. She just went bonkers when she found out about the "stunt" he had pulled, and I'm sure her tirade even gave Dr. Redy's anger a run for its money. Pickford tried appeasing her with promises of a long-distance relationship and by reminding her that they still had months together before they'd both be expected to go off to school, but Lisa wasn't having any of it. She told him she didn't see the point in staying together if they were just going to break up in a few months anyway.

Pickford really made a go of it, sending her flowers almost weekly and leaving love notes in her locker every day. I felt really bad for him, but my loyalties needed to lie squarely with Lisa. Don't get me wrong, I felt just as awful for her. Probably more so, since I had to watch her fall to pieces every day. She never let anyone see how upset she truly was, but when it was just the two of us, she would totally let herself go, bawling like a child; red face, puffy eyes, runny nose and all.

I was more than willing to be the rock for my best friend, since usually our dynamic worked the other way around. Without seeming too detached or self-inflating about the situation, I gotta say, it was actually kinda nice to have the opportunity to return the favor.

I tried everything I could think of to get her mind off the breakup; renting cheesy movies, frying up some Elvis sandwiches (her favorite), taking her to the bowling alley where we were always able to con a few beers... I even went so far as to dig out my old sticker albums from the attic so she could take a whiff of my much-coveted popcorn scratch n' sniff.

Nothing worked.

I figured she'd get through it in her own good time and that the only thing I could really do was just be there for her.

So, it caught me by surprise when one day in May, she just up and announced that we were going to the school's Spring Musical. Bizarre, because normally, Lisa wouldn't be caught dead at a school event that didn't revolve around some sort of gladiatorial-type sporting affair. And the kids in the theatre group couldn't possibly be at a more opposite end of the spectrum from the jocks.

But what I soon learned was that Penelope Redy was playing the part of Adelaide in the selected production of Guys and Dolls. Lisa and she had gotten pretty chummy over the past months, being that Penny was Pick's twin sister and all. I thought it was a bit sadistic of Lisa to purposely put herself in the same room with not only Pickford, but most likely his entire family as well. I knew she blamed Dr. Redy for indirectly causing the breakup, and it's not like he'd ever been the biggest fan of hers to begin with. But seeing as it was the first time she'd suggested leaving the house, I didn't hesitate to agree to go with her.

Imagine my surprise when the first people we saw at the school's entrance were Coop, Rymer and Sargento.

I walked right up to Coop. "Hey! I didn't know you were coming to this thing!"

Coop looked a little uneasy when he answered, "Yeah, well. I didn't talk to you today and these guys just decided we were coming about an hour ago."

I didn't know why he seemed so uncomfortable spilling the news that he'd made alternate plans without first consulting me on the matter. It's not as though he owed me The Big Check-In. Whatever romantic relationship he and I were in had pretty much completely fizzled out before Easter. We were still pretty close, though, and I knew he'd been feeling a little ashamed about leaving me to deal with Lisa twenty-four-seven. We'd had a big talk about it the week before, Coop expressing his guilt at not being there for me more, stepping in to give me a break while I was consumed with the task of caring for her.

We all found seats together (on the opposite side of the auditorium from Pickford and the Redys, Lisa pretending not to notice the way her ex-boyfriend's eyes followed her all the way down the aisle) and settled in. Rymer made some crack about "the theatre fags", not too loudly, thank God, but noisily enough that I felt the need to reach over Coop and smack his arm to shut up.

Leave it to the big, burly football player to assume everyone else in the school was second-rate. I didn't think he was being fair. Everyone has different interests. And maybe the theatre group was having just as good a time on stage as the meatheads were having on the football field. High school was a bumpy enough road to begin with. If you could find a group of people willing to have you come along for the ride, it made the journey a lot more fun. Just because this particular group had chosen a creative outlet as their vehicle didn't mean they were losers. But I guessed Rymer's attitude was that if you weren't part of the cool crowd, you weren't anything. No wonder so many kids hated us. Besides, what the hell was he doing at the damned play if he thought it was so beneath him?

About ten minutes after the curtain opened, I got the answer to my question.

Ladies and gentleman, the part of Sky Masterson was being played by the one and only Terrence C. Wilmington III.

***DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN!!!****