Chapter 97: Plans and Protests

Saturday, May 22, 1982

For a wonder, I had no lunch date. I took advantage both with some extra rest and studying. That way I wouldn’t feel guilty about tonight.

Around 4:30pm I changed into date clothes and headed to Jasmine’s. She met me at the door with a hug and kiss.

“So! What’s on the agenda tonight?” she asked, grinning.

“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that?”

“You pass!” She grinned a bit wider. “So, nothing fancy tonight. No other girls, no wild party — that’s next weekend, though I’m getting the feeling it’ll be somewhat less wild this year — nothing like that.”

“Which is perfect for me, you know that.”

She smiled. “I do know that, and it matters a lot. Perfect for me, too.”

I walked her to the car and helped her in. “Any dinner suggestions?”

“Somewhere new. Not pricey. Um ... Chinese. Buffet. There’s a pretty good one up on Westheimer.”

“Works for me.” I got the car moving.

“I’m still all happy that we’ll be able to be in the same periods for Drama and Debate. I wasn’t looking forward to having to pick one or the other to be with the main group. Though, with the crossovers, we’ll be threatening to go over capacity.”

“I think both could go to maybe thirty, if Meg got another table and chairs. Above that, we just couldn’t manage.”

“Yeah. We could handle thirty for Drama, since we’re all friends.”

“I don’t know how much crossover competition I’ll do. Next year looks so busy. Some crossing over, but ... well, I brought it on myself. With help.”

“Like mine.” She giggled. “Yeah. All the girls get you into so much ... trouble. Me, Angie, Mel, Jessica ... take our influence away and your calendar would be much more clear.”

Little did she know how well I knew that! Or that Angie knew it even more than I did.

“Sadly, true. Jessica’s influence will diminish next year, anyway.”

“Yeah, right. You think so? She’ll sic some of the other cheerleaders on you once she’s done with you. Some of them are curious. Yes, I know this for certain.”

I sighed as dramatically as I could. “I suppose, if I have to.”

She giggled and — in a singsong voice — said, “Poor Steve, has to put up with all the hot girls lusting after him.”

“Not all. Janet’s hot. So’s Lizzie, and Mel, and Cammie. And Caitlyn. And some others.”

“Yeah, okay, fine. Point taken.”

“Nah, not in their cases.”

She giggled more. “Fine! Though dildos and fingers and tongues are sometimes pointed.”

“True enough.”

She sighed. “One more week! Then, summer!”

“Speaking of which...” I’d been doing some research and had a plan.

“What’s up?”

“You’re still in town mid-June, right?”

She nodded. “Not off to California until after the Fourth.”

Fortunately, our two summer programs mostly overlapped. She’d be back a week after I got back.

“Good. I was wondering if you wanted to go see ‘Annie’ with me.”

“Ooh! I’d love to!” Jasmine exclaimed. “I didn’t know it was coming back to town.”

“It’s not. We’d be seeing it in Dallas.”

She looked at me, blinking. “You can go see a show with me in Dallas? That’d be overnight!” She was bouncing a bit in her seat.

“I haven’t discussed specifics of the trip with my parents, but after the whole Cindy thing happened, we did a lot of talking. You know they promised to treat me more like a young adult than a kid for my birthday. I’m certain it includes out-of-town trips. This’ll be the test case, if you want to go.”

“Want to go? You couldn’t keep me away! A show and we get to spend an entire night together? I’m so there.”

“I’m thinking maybe we can go up, spend a night, do some sightseeing, see the show, spend the night after, and then head back.”

“Two nights? Why are we driving away from a bed?” She grinned, bouncing some more in her seat.

I chuckled, as I replied, “Because we’re hungry. It’s a buffet. We won’t have to wait for dinner.”

“Oh. Yeah. Fine!” She giggled, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek. “That is ... I so can’t wait! I’d started to think it might not be until we were eighteen. Which, I mean, that’s how it is for most high schoolers. Well, or seventeen. Prom. But still...” She hesitated. “Wait! If this works...”

“There are lots of shows in Dallas and San Antonio. I have my eye on a few.”

“Ooh! I love you so much right now!”

“I love you, too! I’m looking forward to it, a lot.”

She sniffled suddenly. I looked over. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“N ... no ... no, nothing’s wrong! It’s what’s right. It’s ... we hardly need to go out of town to get a bed. So, it’s about us, not sex. Which is what it should be, but it’s special that it is! And we know it is!”

I nodded. “That’s the idea. It wouldn’t even need to be a show, except we both like shows.”

“Yeah. But, like, the State Fair maybe, something like that. That’d be fun, too.”

“We’ll look for things to do.”

“This is awesome! I just can’t wait!”

“How’s June 16 or 17 sound? There are still tickets. I checked.” Checked meaning I’d already bought some. If we couldn’t go I’d figure out a way to sell them. Much harder in 1982 than it would be decades later, but doable. I already had hotel reservations, too.

“I have nothing then. Well, I didn’t, anyway. Now I do!” She was still bouncing a bit.

We pulled up to the restaurant and headed in. The fare was pretty typical Chinese buffet food. Not great, not bad. Contrary to the previous teasing about beds, we didn’t rush, enjoying the meal and the company, talking about finals and summer plans and life in general.

We’d almost stopped going to movies. The last was way back in the fall — ‘Full Moon High’, a terrible movie that was perfect for our purposes. Now, there were several good movies out or nearly out. ‘Annie’, in fact, had come out yesterday, and I would’ve proposed going to see it, if I hadn’t been planning to suggest seeing it on stage. But with summer here, movie dates might be a good thing.

Once we’d finished eating, we walked to the car holding hands. I helped Jasmine in, and we headed to her house, where she undertook to show me how happy our summer plans made her. I did my best to show her how happy she made me as well.

Win-win!

We parted a couple of hours later with hugs and kisses, to the approving smiles of her parents. By now I’d gotten almost comfortable with their gaze, though in some ways it still made me just a trifle apprehensive.

Sunday, May 23, 1982

Another rare day at study group. No naps at all, in deference to finals. We still had yet to have anyone mess up a grade, and no one wanted to be the first to falter.

I thought we were all in good shape. Even so, it’s possible to freeze up on a test. Been there, done that, my first go-round. Hopefully no one would freeze up this time.

Jasmine and I were both very focused and both pushed each other a bit and supported each other a bunch. It surprised me that she seemed apprehensive about finals, but then she seemed surprised that I was. Always something new to learn about someone, I suppose.

Tuesday, May 25, 1982

I received a note a few minutes into PE. It was a pretty perplexing note which summoned me to the office to speak to Principal Riggs. This was pretty much unheard of; grade-level principals summoned people, not Principal Riggs. Occasionally Assistant Principal Blaine might, but that would be some sort of serious disciplinary issue that a grade-level principal couldn’t handle. Those were pretty rare.

I didn’t know what to make of it. Fortunately, they’ll excuse you from a PE final with no consequence. Even if there’d been some sort of actual test, the coaches all knew I’d pass anything reasonable — completely unlike first-life me, who skated by because they really didn’t want to fail anyone.

I switched back to regular clothes, putting my gym clothes in my backpack, and headed for the office. The girl at the front desk, who I didn’t recognize, gave me a smile and a shrug and nodded towards Riggs’ office. I guess she recognized me. That was getting more common. I’d have to keep a watch on my ego.

The door was closed, so I knocked and waited. A minute or two later it opened. Part of the situation was immediately clarified, in that Tony Hill was the one opening the door. This had to do with Student Council, then. Not that I was surprised, but the frown on his face confirmed it wasn’t good news.

“Mr. Marshall!” Principal Riggs smiled, standing, and offered his hand. It couldn’t be that bad, then; Riggs wouldn’t take that tone of voice or offer to shake hands if we were in trouble in his opinion. “Please, come in! Sit down! Unfortunately, the others we should have here all have finals they need to attend to.”

I nodded and sat. Tony gave me a tight smile.

“I’ve called you both here because two students have filed formal complaints about the student council election with the School Board. There were many complaints, almost all of which are frivolous. Nevertheless, the school board will need to rule on them. The more frivolous complaints involve the cheerleaders and Drama students ‘improperly’ involving themselves, a few violations of the honor policy involving interactions in the cafeteria, and a complaint about poster damage for which there’s no evidence. They’ll dismiss those immediately, I would assume.”

I nodded; so did Tony. Those sounded silly. Everyone got help with posters, and the cheerleaders were just doing their own thing. There was no rule against students expressing opinions about the election. Indeed, such a rule would be absurd.

“The more serious charges — though, in my opinion, still frivolous — involve Miss Vinton and you, Mr. Marshall.” I blinked. Me, specifically? That’d be Cindy or James, then. Or Randy? It didn’t surprise me that Principal Riggs thought they were frivolous. He’d certified the election over any complaints at the time, and he wouldn’t have done that if he thought the School Board would overrule him.

“The first charge is that Miss Vinton violated the district’s morality code, apparently by simply being herself. Personally, I cannot see any merit there. The students knew who she was and voted for her. Her personal preferences shouldn’t matter.” He hesitated. “A couple of people on the School Board may be tempted to involve themselves, since they have to stand for re-election. I’ll, of course, inform Miss Vinton as soon as possible.”

We both nodded. I already had an argument ready; since there was precedent for requiring schools to allow gay students to take part in proms, it seemed pretty likely that it would apply to things like Student Council. The Texas Sodomy Law (almost twenty years away from being struck down by the courts) was a bigger issue, but no one could prove that Lizzie violated it. Just being lesbian didn’t mean one engaged in lesbian conduct. In addition, cases of prosecution were — mercifully — fairly rare, and I hadn’t been able to find any examples involving teenagers. If their parents didn’t agree with their behavior, they’d just send their child away to get brainwashed. You didn’t go to Juvie for violating the Sodomy Law.

“Secondly, James Palmer is claiming that you used ‘fighting words’ to incite him in the cafeteria, Mr. Marshall. Did you?”

I shook my head. “I did not. If anything, he was the one using ‘fighting words.’ There are numerous witnesses, though the ones that I know might appear biased.”

He nodded, and said, “There are other witnesses. I can’t see that holding up. The third charge is from Randy Holmes, who argues that you unfairly singled him out in your speech, even though you weren’t running against him. I don’t recall anything about that. Do you have a copy of your speech?”

I shook my head again. “I don’t. Since I’m an extemporaneous speaker, and it’s really useful to be able to react to others, I had some of the framework ahead of time but the speech itself was given on the fly. I’m certain that I never used his name, though, and I can paraphrase the important sections.”

“Again, there are a multitude of witnesses, including all of the principals. I’m certain that, if any of us had heard one of you reference any candidate other than your opponent, we’d have noted that. That still isn’t a violation of the rules, but it might look like ill intent. James is combining that with a morality claim against you as well, based both on your friendship and support of Miss Vinton and claims about the nature of your relationship with Jasmine Nguyen, Jessica Lively, and others.” He raised an eyebrow, smiling. “You do lead an interesting life, but nothing that violates the morality rules, notwithstanding that I hear you do receive an unusually high number of PDA warnings.”

I blushed at that. It was probably true enough, though. “I can speak to that, if I need to, of course.”

“I’m quite sure you can.” He hesitated. “Obviously, I need to remain officially neutral. That said, I see no reason why the School Board should waste its time on this, much less reverse or re-run the election. I’d suggest that you work with Mr. Myerson on this. I’m sure he will be willing to speak as well. Will your parents support you, even with the ... innuendo? I believe Miss Vinton’s will.”

Tony smiled, nodding. “Mine will.”

I smiled, nodding as well. “Mine will, too. I don’t know Lizzie’s parents, but I fully believe they will. I have a question, though.”

“Of course. Please ask.”

“When will this be? I have summer plans that have me unavailable from mid-June to late July. I know that Lizzie also has plans, and I imagine Tony does, too.” Tony nodded. “We’re all pretty busy.”

Principal Riggs nodded. “The next regular School Board meeting is the first of June. They’re almost always on the first Tuesday of the month. They will take July off, though. I fully expect it to be handled in June. They wouldn’t want to delay this until early August. It’d be very disruptive to the start of the school year to redo the election.”

“I can be there,” I said.

Tony smiled. “So can I.”

“You’ll both officially be notified in writing, shortly. Well, your parents will. The mail will go to them.” We both nodded.

“Tony, you can be excused. I have one other matter for Steve.”

“Yes, Principal Riggs. Thank you!” He got up, shook hands with Principal Riggs, smiled to me, then left, closing the door.

“There’s one other complaint. You’re mentioned in it as one of those causing the issue.”

“Sir?”

“This isn’t directly about the election. There’s a complaint from a student claiming that multiple students, along with a teacher, created a hostile environment in class which prevented the student in question from being able to participate in or feel welcome in class.”