•✦─Late Summer, 1955─✦•
Jean, age 17
Jean entered her junior year with confidence, the catalyst of her new attitude being the Mayberry boys' words the night she had snuck out with them.
She strode into her junior year with only one goal in mind—that she would show Ed Whitington that she was better off without him.
She did so by walking around with her head held high and her shoulders pulled back confidently. Nothing would shake her, and she was always cool and aloof, she decided.
Alongside her confidence, Mama's beauty had also found Jean that year.
It didn't happen right away, but gradually.
Her face slimmed, the plumpness of childhood no longer hiding her cheekbones, and the rest of her had filled out, the line of her body with more hills than plains. The bumps on her face had disappeared as well, thanks to a new beauty regimen.
And people began to notice. For the first time, boys looked her way as she strutted down the hallways, and girls glared at her.
She was talked about and talked to.
She was popular.
With popularity came all the girls and boys that frequented the realm, the real snotty ones she'd grown up with but had never given her the time of day beforehand.
It was an odd thing talking to the head cheerleader about how pretty Grace Kelly looked at the Oscars, and getting flirted with by the quarterback in geometry felt surreal.
Even though the group made it known that she was welcome with them, Jean stuck to her old ways and stayed with the people who had been friends with her through it all—Clyde, Gloria Messing, and Peggy Humphries.
Gloria and Peggy were practically polar opposites of each other. Gloria was all dark—dark, curly hair, dark eyes, and olive-toned skin with a moody personality—and Peggy was a beam of sunlight—pale hair, blue eyes, and a sunny disposition.
Gloria and Peggy had been with Jean since freshman year and were her closest confidants. Though she still considered Clyde to be her best friend, there were some things that she couldn't tell him. Namely, things about her persistent crush on his brother.
"I'm so excited for Jory to come home," she had told the girls on their last day of school. "I can't wait for him to see me."
"Why? 'Cause you got those cushions on your chest now?" Gloria joked.
"Yeah, maybe," Jean said, cleaning out her locker. "Do you think he'll notice?"
"Of course he'll notice. With your blouse unbuttoned like that, all the boys notice." Gloria rolled her dark eyes.
Jean frowned, glancing down at her top. "What? It's not like I'm showin' anything."
"Well, you're drawing attention to them."
Jean shrugged. "It's not my problem if boys look."
"And they certainly look," Peggy chimed in. "I heard Vincent Renner say they're the best in the school."
Jean narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "No, you didn't."
"Uh-huh, I did. I was walking right next to him in the hallway when he said it."
"I doubt Vincent Renner even knows Jean exists," Gloria commented.
Vincent Renner was a popular senior, and well-known for being a troublemaker. Every girl in school thought he was the most handsome guy around. He practically had his own fan club of girls. While Jean wasn't one of them, because she thought Jory was much more handsome, she did find him attractive.
"Well, apparently, he does," Peggy said to Gloria and then turned to Jean with a smile. "He really was talking about you."
Jean caught sight of Clyde as he walked with a friend towards the exit. "Hey, there's Clyde. I'll see you girls later."
"Yeah, you're comin' to the party at Bernie's tonight, aren't you?" Gloria asked.
"Yeah, I'll be there!" Jean called over her shoulder. She met up with Clyde just as he reached the school's front steps.
Clyde broke out into a grin. "Hey. You're not ridin' home with the girls?"
Jean shook her head. "No. We always ride home together on the last day, remember? It didn't feel right leaving you by yourself."
Clyde nodded and slung an arm around her shoulders, muttering a goodbye to his friend before guiding them along with the sea of teenagers toward the parking lot.
If she was more oblivious, she would've been fine with his arm around her like that, but Jean was an avid reader. Much too perceptive for her own good.
Over the year, as she went from caterpillar to butterfly, she'd noticed Clyde had changed along with her.
He found excuses to hug her more often or touch her hand or arm, and he laughed more than he should when he was around her. And she always caught him staring at her when she wasn't looking.
She was almost certain that he was attracted to her, and that scared her more than anything.
Because she didn't feel the same way.
Sure, he was quite handsome and charming, but he was Clyde. He would always be the boy she had grown up with, the very one she had referred to as a brother in her head for over ten years.
She hoped desperately that she was wrong about him, but the more things she noticed, the more her stomach turned sour.
"You still wantin' to go to the party tonight?" he asked her.
"Yeah."
"Good. We can ride together." He squeezed her closer to him, making her feel uneasy. Sometimes she liked to pretend that he didn't like her, that he only saw her as his best friend and nothing more, but when he held her like that, reality shined through as ugly as could be.
She pushed him aside under the guise of adjusting the belt that cinched in her waist.
"So, today's the day Jory's supposed to come home, isn't it?" Jean asked to change the subject. It was an unnecessary question for her to ask, as she already knew the answer. It was seared into her brain the second she heard it pass Mrs. Mayberry's lips a month before.
"Nah. He ain't comin' this year."
Jean's steps faltered, a side effect of her heart stopping. She recovered quickly and tried swallowing down her panic. "What? Why do you say that?"
"'Cause that's what Ma said at breakfast." Clyde shrugged. "Said he called a few days ago and told her he ain't gonna come for the summer. Didn't you hear her?"
Jean shook her head. "No. I was late to the table, remember?" She looked down at her feet. "Why can't he come?"
"He's gotta take a summer class or something. He's gettin' a new job and stuff over there so he can pay for it, 'cause his scholarships don't work in the summer." Clyde smiled, patting his stomach. "You won't find me complainin', though. Just means more food at suppertime for me."
•✦───✧✦✧───✦•
Jean's stomach tied itself up in knots over Jory, and her chest ached.
She'd been looking forward to seeing him for months, excited to show him her newfound beauty. She'd even sewn a dress that she had been planning to wear for him—a daring dress that fit her snugly everywhere she wanted it to. It was a mature piece, womanly, and was a dark blue that happened to be Jory's favorite color.
She had the thought that maybe if he saw her in such a thing, he would see her as she wanted to be seen. As a woman rather than a girl.
She pulled the dress out as she was getting ready for Bernie's party, sighing down at it as it lay on her bed.
She ran her hands down the blue fabric and sighed. It was an opportunity missed, one of the most bitter feelings. She almost didn't want to go to the party with her chest aching, but knew that it was better to find a distraction than to stay at home.
She decided then that she would wear the dress after all. It was much too pretty and took far too long to make for her to leave it hidden in the back of her closet awaiting Jory's arrival in autumn.
Jean slipped on the dress and marveled at her appearance in the mirror. She looked like a woman, much like her mother when the light from her oil lamp caught her just right.
A gentle tapping turned her attention towards her door.
"Jean?" Clyde whispered. "You ready?"
Jean snuffed out her lamp before moving towards her door, cracking it open and slipping out so that it didn't creak.
She and Clyde snuck through the shadows of the ranch house just as they had discussed doing on their ride from school, sliding through the back door and breathing breaths of relief when they finally made it outside.
"Kurt said he'd pick us up at the end of the drive," Clyde told her, turning to eye her. Under the full moon, he could see her outfit. "Wow, Jean, you look . . ."
"Good?" Jean guessed, giving him a little twirl. "I made it myself."
Clyde gulped, and Jean was sure if the sun had been in the place of the moon then she would've seen a blush spreading across his face. "Uh, well, um, it looks good on you."
"Good. That was what I was going for," she said triumphantly.
He smiled and shook his head. "You're too much trouble for your own good, Jean."
She smiled at him. "I sure hope so."
•✦───✧✦✧───✦•
Clyde sat in the front with his buddies Kurt and Rodger while Jean sat with the girls in the back, Peggy on her right and Gloria on her left.
Peggy had the hots for Kurt and kept giggling in the back seat each time he caught her eyes in the mirror.
Jean had an admirer as well, Clyde glancing back at her every so often as if to make sure she hadn't jumped out.
It made her squirm, and she soon regretted wearing her dress. He was much too fascinated with it, she could tell. Though, all of her regret left her the second she entered the house party, eyes finding her as she walked in with her friends.
And one of those sets of eyes happened to be Vincent Renner.
Vincent Renner looked like a bad kid. A greaser. Had a leather jacket and a motorcycle to add to the image. And he was dreadfully handsome.
Jean sent him a small smile before turning to her friends and nodding her head towards the punch bowl.
"He looked right at you, Jean!" Peggy exclaimed.
Gloria scoffed. "He'd look at any girl wearing a floozie dress like that."
Jean frowned. "It's not a 'floozie dress'," she stated. "It's fashion."
"Sure, call it that," Gloria said, turning to grab a glass of punch.
Jean and Peggy shared a look before rolling their eyes and facing the dance floor—all to see Vincent Renner heading straight for them.
He stopped in front of Jean. "Jean, isn't it?"
Jean pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin, smiling at him. "Yes, though you'll have to remind me of your name."
He laughed to himself. Everyone knew Vincent Renner's name, after all. "You can call me Vince," he told her, "and I'd be pleased as punch if you were to have this next dance with me."
Jean caught Gloria's eyes as she said, "I'd love to," but felt another pair of eyes on her back as she let Vincent pull her toward the dance floor.
Oh, Lord, she pleaded silently, please take Clyde's crush away.
•✦───✧✦✧───✦•
1,939 words.
Question: Have you ever written a song?
I'm currently writing a song for an upcoming book that I am working on and it's been taking me back to when I was little and fancied myself a songwriter.
Yeah, before Evette van Strong was writing books, she was writing bangers like "A Potato in a Pumpkin Patch" (this is an actual song I came up with at age 7) and "Gypsy in a Bottle" (a poorly executed rewrite of Christina Aguliera's "Genie in a Bottle").
Anyway, I'm really excited to unveil my song when it's time!
And, yes, I will be recording it and uploading it in the chapter it belongs to, though I need to find a good singer to sing it because even though I have been blessed with incredible songwriting skills (refer back to "A Potato in a Pumpkin Patch," obviously), I was not blessed with a good singing voice.
But that doesn't mean I don't try!
PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT TO MAKE ME SMILE!!!