I noticed something. I was watching Frankie-especially songs that I wasn’t playing, not every swing song has a flute part-and he was dancing up a storm! I didn’t know he could dance. He danced with Tan. He danced with Rosa. He even danced with my mother, while Dad was dancing with Tan. When Ty came up to sing with us, he danced with Ty’s girlfriend, Emma. He danced with Emma’s best friend Isabelle.
And he was naked! That was the funny part. He didn’t seem to care at all. He just kept dancing.
I’m glad he had all those people to dance with-I am most emphatically not a dancer. Musicians don’t dance. Schroeder said that, to Lucy. Words to live by. I guess baseball players do dance.
I did notice, however, when he didn’t dance. We were playing "Fly Me To The Moon", a song with a prominent and rather tricky flute part. He was watching intently during that one, grinning at me. That felt real good. And I nailed it.
After we finished-to thunderous applause, which was very gratifying-Frankie and I wandered around the festival. There were a few hours before I’d have to go play with the orchestra. We got some food, and wandered around the various exhibits. There was drama going on in one corner of the park, dance exhibitions in the other. The artwork was scattered. Emma had some sculptures there, she’s very talented. And then we found Natalie’s drawings.
Oh, she’s so good. I guess Mrs. Taylor convinced her to really go nuts, because she had a lot of stuff up. Her exhibit was one of the most popular. And, it seemed, the most popular item in that exhibit was the one she had done yesterday, the one with me straddling Frankie.
When we got there, there were a group of older women looking at it intently. I mean really intently. They couldn’t take their eyes off of it. We’re talking six women, and they were about in their sixties. And they couldn’t take their eyes off of it. It was hilarious. It was more hilarious when they turned, saw us-stark naked, remember-and quickly realized we were the couple in the drawing. They couldn’t decide whether to stare at us, or stare at the picture of us. It really was funny. Especially when Frankie smiled at them, pointed at the picture, said, "She’s good, huh?" and then took my hand and led us away from them.
We got a distance away, looked at one another, and just started laughing!
"So," I giggled, "were you telling them I was good, or that Natalie was good?"
"Both," he said. We cracked up again.
The rest of the day passed nicely. I went back up onstage and played with the orchestra. Then we went home.
In bed that night, Frankie said, "You know, sooner or later, I’m going to have to sleep at my house."
"OK. I vote for later," I giggled.
MISSY AND DAVID NAKED IN SCHOOL
PART ONE MONDAY
Fucking assholes. Every single one of them. My parents, the school administration-all of them.
When I ever got called up to that stage on Friday and told that I was going to have to go into The Program, I was pissed. And my parents, of course, went along with this. You know, their daughter had embarrassed them, and so had to be humiliated. Oh, they make me want to scream.
My father is on the City Council. My mother volunteers for various charities. They’re filthy rich. They’re also complete assholes, but money and power is what’s important, and they know it. And having their darling daughter fuck up spoils the image, don’t you know. Of course, the fact that they run roughshod over anyone that gets in their way, including each other-both of them are constantly having affairs-doesn’t seem to register. Me pulling a prank that got out of hand-that’s the end of the world.
And that’s all it was-a fucking prank. Cassie’s a wimp, and she can’t take a joke. Fuck them all. And because Cassie’s a wimp, and because my parents and Mr. Tilling are assholes, now I had to parade my big fat body all over school naked.
I wanted to kill someone.
When Frankie Gutierrez came over to our table to stick up for Cassie last week, he called me 15 to 20 pounds overweight. I’ll give Frankie credit, he was being generous. 40 was more like it. And the administration, by publicly announcing that I was being put in The Program as a punishment, practically gave the entire school permission to humiliate me. I could see the beached whale jokes coming right down the pike.
Look, I wasn’t kidding with what I told Cassie. I thought her being in The Program was a joke, and I did think that her parading around naked with all those scars was gross.
Me, with all my blubber? Grosser. Far grosser. And I didn’t have a fucking choice.
Anyhow, I went to Mr. Tilling’s office.
"Good morning, Melissa," he said pleasantly. "Are you all ready?"
"It doesn’t make a difference whether I am or I’m not, now does it?"
"Melissa, look on the bright side. You may learn something from this." I just snorted. "We’re just waiting for your partner."
"Where’s Laura?" I asked.
"Laura is no longer attending school here," he said with a frown. "I got a call this morning, actually. She has moved in with her father and will be attending school in the town where her father lives."
Oh, doesn’t that just figure. Good ol’ Laura. Since her parents divorced, they bend over backwards to kiss her ass, to ‘make up’ for them getting divorced. And Laura can manipulate them like a champ. I’m sure a few well-placed crocodile tears made up their minds. Damn them. Damn her. What we did to Cassie was her idea in the first place. And, now, she’s left it for me to be the only one holding the bag for it. Lovely.
The door opened, and in walked David Shiell. Oh, it just got better and better. That whole Buddy system was supposed to be for support, wasn’t it? And I was going to get hammered this week-and the "support" they sent me was the wimp of the school. Dave Shiell can’t support his own fucking head.
I was just about to point this out to the apparently clueless Mr. Tilling, when Dave said something. "Oh, no. No way. You are not putting me in with her."
"Look, David," Mr. Tilling said, "I know you’re a good person, and you’ve had some troubles of your own. Melissa’s going to need some sympathetic help."
"Well, then, maybe you should’ve chosen someone who hasn’t been in band with Cassie Vyshenko for three years. I don’t have many friends, but Cassie’s one of them. I don’t want to have any part of ‘supporting’ someone who did what she did to Cassie."
I was stunned. This was the school wimp? Of course, I did wish that, if he decided he didn’t want to be a wimp anymore, he wouldn’t have done it at my expense.
"Well, David, you’re going to have to get past that," Mr. Tilling said. "You guys are teamed up."
"I’ve read the rules of The Program, inside and out," David said, stripping off his clothes. "You can force me to do this, and you can force me to parade around naked. And you can, by some stupid whim, pick a buddy for me. But there’s nothing in the rules that says I have to talk to her, or acknowledge her, or be nice to her. I’m not exactly the most popular guy in school. I could use some support myself to get through this stupid thing. I’m not going to get it from her. In fact, I wouldn’t even ask. She’d just find some way to humiliate me," he rambled. By now, he was completely naked. I don’t know what he was worried about-he was average, but not unattractive. At least he wasn’t fat. "I may have to do this by myself, but I have no intention of having anything to do with her," he said.
"She’s going to have a rough week without help," Mr. Tilling said.
"GOOD!" Dave said, and stormed out of the office.
He didn’t even wait until I got undressed. Damn. At least I wouldn’t have been the only nude person walking out of the office. I just sighed, stripped, and headed out. What choice did I have?