Chapter 18: Almost Like Being In Love

November 6, 1981

This week’s tournament was out in Katy. It was only thirty minutes from school, just a bit farther from home. If they could stay halfway on time, we’d get sleep this weekend.

With Angie and me auditioning (word had gotten out quickly) and with Jasmine and me dating (word had gotten out even faster, of course) the Drama kids mixed with us more. Paige came by; so did Lexi and Sheila and Bob and Glenn. All of them wanted the story on why we were auditioning, what parts we might want — everything about it. That made some round timings feel rushed, but I felt like we were doing fine.

Things wrapped up at a not-too-bad 11pm. I made it home and in bed by midnight after dropping everyone off.

November 7, 1981

7am found me dressed and ready. I picked up my passengers and together we headed out, picking up donuts and kolaches on the way. Donuts are ridiculous as food, but they’re at least a quick burst of energy. A good kolache, on the other hand — at least the Texas version, which can be filled with ham, sausage, or other savory ingredients — gives you protein plus some carbs. They’re good debater-breakfast-food.

The morning rounds went pretty well, and by 12:30pm we were sitting around waiting for results. I picked up a discarded newspaper someone had left — there are always some around any tournament — and started reading to pass the time.

Then I stopped. Stared. My mouth fell open a bit, most likely.

“Hey, Ang!”

“Huh? What’s up, big brother?”

“If I can make some magic happen — which, I don’t know, but I’ll try — we’re skipping study group tomorrow.”

“Why?” she exclaimed. “I have a turn and everything!”

I pointed to the paper. Her eyes widened. “Really? Seriously? Why didn’t we know about this?!”

“Because we don’t read the paper, I guess. Or the right section.”

“Can she go?”

“I’ll check, but obviously, if I can keep it a surprise...”

“Then you should. Duh. Gene can go. We’re OK on studies and there’s always Tuesday. Ordinarily I’d bitch because of practicing for auditions but...”

“Yeah. This takes priority.”

“Totally!”

It’s hard to overstate how much I missed smartphones or even cell phones. I’d resigned myself to waiting a decade for even a basic cell phone and — good lord — twenty-six years for a true smartphone. Ugh! But for now, the only option was a pay phone. And I spent a fair bit of time at one in a corner of the cafeteria.

The first call was to Mom and Dad. I thought they’d support it, and they did. Enough that I was authorized to miss church if that would help. Dad offered to call in a favor or two if I’d pay him back. Of course, I would. Then I tried a few tactics in case his favors didn’t work. Curse not having a credit card!

I ditched the phoning when breaks were announced. Cammie did the honors.

“Extemp: Me.” She paused a second. “Also, Doug, Megan, Gene, Steve, Amit, Angie, and Ryan.”

“LD: Callie and Kenzie.”

“CX: Me, with Steve. Also, Janet and Lizzie, Angie and Gene, and Zoe and Adam.”

It was amusing that eight Extemp, two LD, and four CX breaks was now marginally disappointing. How things change when your team is on a roll!

A few more calls produced nothing, so I went off to my rounds. Extemp felt good; CX, against a pretty solid team from San Antonio, was iffier.

After the rounds, I hit the phone. Jackpot! One of Dad’s customers had come through for us. How? I have no idea. I had plenty of spending money held back which could pay Dad back. He had no idea how much plenty was, and I could always attribute it to some mix of Angie and saving.

My next target was Jasmine. I was praying she wouldn’t have plans.

“Hi, honey! What brings you over to slum with the Drama riff-raff?”

I laughed. “You are not riff-raff. You’re not even Riff Raff.” I was prepared to explain it, but thought Jasmine would get it. And was right.

“Wow, you know Riff Raff! I’m impressed!”

I grinned. “I know a few things. I haven’t actually seen ‘Rocky Horror’, though. But I want to. Anyway, I have a question for you.”

“Shoot!”

“Well. We agreed that our next date would be next Saturday. I was wondering if we could change that.”

She blinked. “Better offer?” Thank god she was obviously teasing.

“Well, yes.” She blinked again. “As in, I have a better offer for you. How about tomorrow? Are you available?”

“Tomorrow?” she exclaimed. “Really? I was planning on doing homework, but if it’s something good, I can probably rearrange things. Otherwise, no issues. When?”

“We’d go out around noon, home by seven. I can’t do dinner out on a Sunday, but lunch is good.”

“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing?”

I grinned. “Nope. But I’ll tell you to dress nice but not fancy.”

“You had better have something I’d like in mind if I’m doing this blind!”

“Hey, you accepted a blind date.”

“It wasn’t blind on my end, and, don’t make me regret it, Mister!”

“I can assure you that you won’t regret it.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

“You can hold me to a lot of things.”

She grinned. “I plan to, unless you blow it tomorrow.”

“I’ve never... blown it ... and have no plans to.”

She giggled louder. “Damn, that’ll break a few guys’ hearts! Fine, it’s a date. Pick me up at noon!”

“Happily!”

I headed back to Angie. “All set. Jasmine’s in. Dad lucked out. We are good to go. I told Jasmine noon to seven. Thank goodness they let us off the hook for lunch. We can still do church, they’ll like that.”

“Yeah. This is going to be awesome!”

Cammie announced our semis breaks.

“Extemp: Me,” she grinned. “Also, Doug, Megan, and Amit.”

“LD: Callie.”

“CX: Janet and Lizzie and Zoe and Adam.”

I turned to Angie. “Well, damn. I guess we were a bit too distracted.”

“Can’t win ‘em all!”

“Nope.”

I made a point of apologizing to Cammie for being distracted. Once she understood the plan, she forgave me completely.

Of course, we stayed to cheer on the others; that and being the ride for some of them. Jasmine was still competing in Dramatic Interp; three of her teammates were still also competing in a few categories. Finals breaks were a bit surprising — Megan, Doug, and Amit made it in Extemp, Callie survived in LD, and Zoe and Adam made CX finals. Janet and Lizzie made a production of how robbed they were. It was silly and hilarious.

Amit, Callie, and Zoe and Adam all won their finals rounds, and Megan qualified for state. That was three more qualified for State. Hard to argue with that.

When we got home Mom and Dad were still up. I thanked Dad profusely for tracking down the tickets. He was very modest about what was, for me, a pretty solid moment of minor heroism.

November 8, 1981

I’d picked my maroon shirt and black jeans; Angie’d gone with a pink dress. Gene turned up in a blue button-down and khakis. When I got to Jasmine’s and rang the doorbell, she appeared in a flowery dress that was a bit summery for November, but then this was not a cold November, so far anyway. She looked adorable, and I thought the dress was an apt choice overall. I offered my arm and walked her to the car.

“Going to let me in on what we’re doing, now?” she asked.

“Nah. You’ll like the surprise. Besides, if I tell you, you won’t appreciate lunch.”

“What’s lunch?” she giggled.

“The meal between breakfast and dinner, but that’s not important right now.”

She smacked my arm. “Damn, shot down with an ‘Airplane!’ reference!”

“Lunch will be really casual. Really casual. But if you haven’t eaten there before, you’ll still enjoy it.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

We hopped in the car and I drove to Antone’s. Antone’s is a Houston institution. Imported foods of all sorts, but their signature is their po-boy sandwiches. Several different varieties, made fresh each day, sitting in a refrigerated case. In later years they branched out into supplying grocery stores and such, but in 1981 the only way to get their sandwiches was to go to one of their stores.

Jasmine had clearly never been. Nor had Angie. They both looked around curiously. “What do we do? Make something?” Jasmine asked. “I see some pretty interesting ingredients!”

I walked over to the refrigerator case. “Pick a sandwich, pick a drink, enjoy.”

“Oh!” She browsed, settling on one with turkey. Angie matched me with a Super Original; Gene went with the regular Original. I paid for everyone’s sandwiches; they weren’t very expensive.

Jasmine opened hers and inspected it. “Looks good. Smells good.” She took a bite. “Is good! This is cool! I didn’t know about this place. It’s cool!”

Angie echoed her. “Hey, this isn’t what I expected, and, better, too! This slaw stuff is kinda amazing!”

We munched, talking. Jasmine made some more attempts to pry our destination out of me, fruitlessly. Gene was similarly in the dark.

We got back in the car at 1:30pm and I headed downtown. Which Jasmine noticed right away. “Are we going downtown? Or past? What’s downtown?” She looked at Gene; he looked back.