Part 18: BLEND, Mar 18

14 5 10

by peteybee46

by peteybee46

BLEND

Mar 18

"C'mon Chuck, it will be fun." This came from Harry, his best friend. The thoughts in Chuck's head were more centered on the fact that to him it sounded more like torture. The first seventh-grade dance, and there would be girls. Girls were getting to be scary. They were beginning to demand his attention where they used to be just another part of the group. Now they were... were... oh crap, they were girls!

Chuck tried every possible escape. He had nothing to wear. Harry pulled slacks and a shirt from his closet. His hair needed cutting. Harry handed him a hairbrush saying it was fine. He was broke. Harry picked up his wallet from the bedside table and thumbed through his recently received allowance. He was getting sick, the start of the black plague he was sure. Harry told him to stop being a wuss and get dressed or he would tell the whole class he didn't show because he was madly in love with Brenda. Chuck did like her and wondered if she would be his girlfriend, but other than Harry he had never told anyone......out loud.

"Well, look at these two casanovas." Chuck's dad said as the two young men finally came out of Chuck's room. "The girls better watch out for these two." Harry just grinned while Chuck wanted to melt into the floor. He was wholeheartedly not ready for this.

Chuck's dad dropped them off in front of the school gymnasium saying he would be back at ten o'clock to pick them up. With an obviously joking stern look on his face, he said, "please be sober."

Harry charged off, having only to stop twice while Chuck, dragging his feet, could catch up. The teacher chaperones check them in keeping good track of who was in attendance. And, just like that, they were in the throes of a dance.

The walls had been decorated by the Glee Club. This made no sense to Chuck. Why is it necessary to have a Club for, of all things, Glee? There were drinks and snacks at a table on one end that Chuck assumed could only have gotten there through the conscientious efforts of the Drink and Snack Club. And, on the other side of the gym was a DJ playing the popular songs that had a good dance beat to them. DJ Club? Probably not.

The majority of the guys had marshaled their forces to defend the left side of the Gym. The girls settled for an encampment on the right. So far there were only a few traitors who broke ranks, befriended a member of the opposing force, and were brave enough to stand in the middle ground gyrating almost in time with the beat of the music. Chuck could do better than them. He had watched himself in the mirror in his bedroom and thought he was getting not half bad.

Without realizing it Chuck made the fatal mistake of slightly separating himself from the herd. Harry had been there a minute ago but now was gone and Chuck looked to the side to try to locate him. He was jolted like a lightning bolt had struck him when a soft voice from his other side voiced, "Hi Chuck, would you like to dance?"

It was Brenda. Where had she come from? His heart stopped, his lungs wouldn't draw air, and Lord knows there was no way he was going to get his feet to move. Chuck dearly hoped his eyes were not in fact as big as it felt like they were. And he resisted the urging of his nose to sniff like a dog the sweet smell of perfume. With a loud gulp, he said, "sure."

As they walked onto the floor Chuck thought to himself, "Well, Chuck, here goes nothing." His only hope now, he thought, was to do his best to blend naturally into the small group already on the floor and not be noticed. The way his body had seized up in terror convinced him he would never be as smooth as he had been by himself in front of his mirror. He grew a little dizzy as he wondered what he would do if there was a slow dance. Crap, girls were trouble.