Chapter 84: Looking Toward the Future

Saturday, April 17, 1982

We got to Jane’s office about 2pm. Officially, we were shopping at the mall. Jane welcomed us back to her office.

“So, how have my favorite time travelers been?”

Angie giggled. “I’m still not sure I feel exactly like that’s the right description, but I don’t know what the right description is. I’ve been very good. Steve’s been better.”

“In the ‘when I’m bad, I’m better’ sense?”

“Exactly.”

“And how exactly have you been bad, Steve?”

I laughed. “I’m not sure I’ve been all that bad.”

“I wouldn’t have expected that you would be, but Angie seems convinced.”

“Two weeks. Dates with four girls, sexy fun with three of them. Two at once. The fourth is at second base and still considering heading home. And a fifth who’s looking flustered.”

“Ordinarily I’d list that as bad,” Jane chuckled. “But I can see that being not so bad, considering.”

“I’ll explain. Second base is Megan. She doesn’t know if she wants to head for home. We’ll see. She’s looking for someone to really date, too.”

“Good for her!”

“She enlisted two friends who should know who on the basketball teams might be quality guys.”

“Basketball teams?”

“I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but Megan is the star of the JV girls’ team and will be varsity next year. In flats she and I are the same height right now; I’m pretty sure she’ll top out several inches taller than I will. She’s still very much growing.”

“Ah! Interesting.”

“The girl who’s looking flustered is Sue. We all skinny-dipped in the hot tub at Mike’s and Sue looked ... well, like someone who’s got hormones for the first time might look.”

“Encouraging!”

“Yeah. I think we’re due to talk about it ... sometime. No way would I rush her, but I expect she’ll want to.”

“That’s two.”

“Before we go on, I’ll mention that Angie has been busy herself, borrowing my girlfriend.”

Angie blushed. “Just the once! This two weeks!”

“And you’re considering another friend.”

“Maybe! Lexi’s sad that her guy didn’t work out. She needs some comforting!”

Jane rolled her eyes, then chuckled. “The two of you are better than a soap opera! Back to the allegedly bad, therefore better, boy.”

“Actually,” Angie said. “We were talking about that. I know I set up the joke there, but, honestly, Steve showed me again why he’s not at all a bad boy.”

“Oh?”

“I figured out Jessica’s birthday, which she treats as top secret outside of her closest friends, and brought her a pink rose and a note.”

She shook her head. “And you aren’t chasing her? I suppose I see what Angie’s getting at. If you were inclined to be bad, we’d be having a very different conversation.”

“I’m sticking with where I’ve always been. If I started chasing Jessica, I’d lose the respect of everyone who knows me, starting with me. Fun is fun. I like her, genuinely. She’s super-interesting. We’re having fun causing all sorts of gossip. But that’s it, right now. If she wants to go to bed, I’d hardly say no, but that’s all it could be. I’m not expecting it, but who knows? She made a point of telling me she plans to be single until the fall, with the full knowledge that, if she wasn’t, I’d be off limits.”

“Seems like she’s leaving the possibility open.”

“That’s how I see it. And she doesn’t need to string me along with sex; that wouldn’t work. So it seems genuine enough.”

“It’s a concern that it might not be?”

“At one point Jessica described herself as being the spider in the middle of the web, all the information flowing to her. She’s extremely smart, very polished, and is aware of everything she says or does and how people might see it. I know that she’s submerged every part of herself that isn’t what fits as the apex of the social pyramid. I think she’s a master manipulator; I just don’t think she’s doing it for malicious purposes. She seems to be a genuinely nice person underneath it all. She told me that she would have felt terribly if her asking me for a date had crushed Megan’s special night, and I’m certain she believes it. She’s committed to doing what it takes to stay at the top of the pyramid, but I think she wouldn’t harm anyone else in doing it unless she had to.”

“Very, very interesting. Any idea what her endgame is?”

“Nope. We’ll go out again. I’m very interested. The first go-round she was head cheerleader the last two years, dated the quarterback at the end of the year, went off to UT and had a very good career as a gymnast — not quite Olympic-level, though — dated the star quarterback there, and then ... I have no idea. After graduation, she was off my radar, but I’m sure she had every opportunity to land somewhere nice.”

Angie nodded. “If memory serves, she married the guy Steve is mentioning, the UT quarterback. He went into the NFL. So, I think she did fine. But I lost track after that.”

“I see her as something of a Princess Diana. There’s a really interesting person in there, but she knows what role she needs to play, and she plays it.”

Jane frowned. “I’m sure I’m at a disadvantage here. I don’t know much about her beyond the fairytale wedding.”

“Oops. Yeah. Sorry. Diana’s story is really interesting.” I bit my lip. “Huh.”

“What? Future stuff, I get that.”

“Okay. How much foreknowledge do you want?”

“Not too much, maybe. But, a bit? So I can understand it.”

“She has a very interesting life coming up. She comes out of her shell, gets divorced, and builds her own life. Then ... she’s ... there’s a horrible car crash. An accident ... sort of. Paparazzi are involved.”

Angie frowned. “Must postdate me. I’d have heard of that.”

“It was around ‘97. Not sure. Anyway, she’d actually be someone I could potentially warn. Little chance of being caught. If I could convince her to wear seat belts, she’d have likely been fine.”

“Probably enough about her, right now. It’s terribly interesting, but I’m not sure how much I want to know. It’d be too tempting to want to know everything. About you two? As much as I can. Bigger picture? I just don’t know.”

“Makes sense.”

“We’ve seriously sidetracked. Back to Jessica. I think you’re both good judges of character. If you think she’s a good person, I’ll go with that.”

“My other two dates relate to that. This is one where I get points for being ‘better’, I guess.”

“He does! He so does!”

“I’m worried now.”

“The first was with Mikayla.”

“I remember her. Junior, Drama, right?”

“Yes. We went out and had a good time. Then went parking and had a great time, though not ... well ... technically home base but not. Oral, only.”

“Even given the car you have, that’s unusual, isn’t it?”

“It ... um ... turns out that Mikayla has a thing for back seats.”

Jane rolled her eyes again. “That’s ... interesting.”

“Very much a thing. She’s not exactly an exhibitionist, but a real risk of getting caught is a huge turn-on for her.”

“Be careful.”

“You know I will.”

“So, that’s ‘better’?”

“Nuh uh,” Angie smirked. “The other one.”

“I’m more worried.”

“Well, I told you about Sam, Lexi’s little sister.”

“I’m afraid of where this might be going.”

“Before I get in on it, I’ll mention that Lexi’s Sadie Hawkins date fizzled and Angie is ready to offer her some ... comfort.”

Angie grinned. “My boyfriend says other girls are okay.”

Jane shook her head. “Soap opera!”

“Okay, so, Sam. We walked the mall and shopped last Saturday. I think I mentioned before that she’s a cheerleader and a gymnast and is really eager to get on the JV team. I mentioned her to Jessica.” Jane gave me a look at that. “Hey, I had this planned! Anyway, Jessica knew who she was without my using her name. She told me to let Sam know she’d be happy to get together and mentor her a bit and that Sam should just keep doing what she’s doing. More privately, she told me that the JV team is probably out. Sam will go right to varsity.”

“She must be good.”

“I’ve never seen her, but Jessica is a terrific judge of talent, and it’s part of the head cheerleader’s job to keep up with junior high coaches. Anyway, I obviously didn’t tell her the second part, but I told her that Jessica would be happy to meet with her.”

“And she was thrilled, I imagine?”

“She kept her squeal just below window-shattering volume. Just knowing that Jessica knew her name nearly made her faint. She’s got a major case of hero worship. Similar to what Angie says — that I could be really bad if I let myself be — Jessica could get anything she wanted out of Sam, but I’m certain she won’t take undue advantage.”

“They’d both be ... interested?”

“Sam’s very bi. Well, she hasn’t done much with boys at all. Jessica? I have no information. She’s only dated boys, but that’s a huge ‘duh’. She couldn’t possibly date girls publicly in her position. None of those relationships really stick and all the boys are ... not tight-lipped, but, vague. She could be doing anything or nothing with them.”

“Even being out with her?”

“I took her to Dim Sum for dinner. A risky choice, but you know that’s ‘me.’” Jane nodded. “She joked before about only accepting lobster on first dates, but that was just a joke. I’m certain of it. I think she’s tired of the dimly-lit expensive steakhouse date. She knew what Dim Sum was, had some favorites, wanted to try new things, and is skilled with chopsticks. None of which really surprised me, but there’s zero gossip about her ever going out for Chinese.”

“Interesting. Doesn’t answer what I asked, I don’t think?”

“I was setting the stage. As I put it to Jasmine later, I’m pretty convinced that, if Jessica wanted the guy to think she was having a good time — and why would she be out with a guy unless she wanted that? — he could serve her out-of-date dog food and she’d convince him it was the best date ever.”

Jane and Angie both laughed at that. Quite a bit. When it died down, I continued. “I feel like I could read her. I know I might be fooling myself. The thing is, I don’t have a lot to offer her besides who I am. I’m not a social step up or anything. I’m a social step sideways, which might be a really big deal. She’s hit the top of the social pyramid; she can sidestep some of the sports stars and I’m a safe and easy choice to do that with. I won’t chase her, most people know I won’t chase her, and I’m suddenly a celebrity. Oh, and she owned up to the timing of the date being political, but it not being just political. And I’ll buy that, because the turn-down would have achieved everything she wanted and more. Going out after that meant that there was more of an agenda than just the election.”

Jane nodded. “Interesting. Back to Sam...?”

“Right. So. Sam is still curious and now legal. Jasmine decided to, um ... well, provide her a fairly thorough preview of coming attractions. Pun intended. Live and in person.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “That ... is an image I did not see ... coming.” She blushed a bit. “Oh dear, I’m doing it, too.”

“There was ... um. I won’t get into details except to say that the only real ... participatory ... parts between Sam and me were kissing and hugging. I can’t say that about Jasmine, exactly. Sam is still deciding what she wants to do, though my guess is she’ll decide to go for it.”

“I can’t say not to, but there are risks either way, so be careful.”

“I’m certain she has a major crush. I think we can manage it. And, we pretty much have to.”

“Yes. Too late for anything else.”

Jane shook her head. “Anything else besides your respective love lives?”

“There’s no real time-traveler news of interest. We are adding a night to rehearsals, so our lives are that much busier. Wait! No! There’s ... sort of ... time traveler news.” Angie looked curious. “Not really, but, related. Something only I would see.”