Naked In School

"Coach, this is Natalie."

He looked at me. "You did those?" He pointed at a wall. It was a bare wall, at the end of a row of lockers, directly across from the door. In other words, when you entered the locker room, this wall was the first thing you saw. Hanging there were my drawings.

"Yeah."

"More!" the coach said. "Can you do more?"

"Uhm, yeah, I can. When I come to a game, I can do more. Sure." There was a lump in my throat.

"They are fantastic! They really brighten this dump up. If you want to do more, we’ve got plenty of space on that wall."

"Uhm, yeah, if you want."

"I want. Hey, guys!" he shouted. "This is the artist. She’s gonna do more!"

All I heard were shouts of "yeah!" and "great!" and "draw me!" I might have been embarrassed if I wasn’t glowing so much. Ed walked by, kissed my forehead, and said, "Look at that. You’re a hit." I could only grin.

"There’s one problem," Lily pointed out. "You didn’t sign ‘em."

"Should I?"

"Of course you should," Lily said. Ed agreed. The coach heard this, and went into his office, coming out with a pencil.

What to sign, though? I decided on just "Natalie" in simple script, small, in the corner. They all applauded when I was done.

Back sitting in the stands, I couldn’t believe it. How much can one person’s life change in just one week?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN ED

What a day. I was still reeling as I left the locker room.

I got Natalie, and told her, "We’re headed to the Burger Hut. We can go, or we can bow out if you want to talk."

"No, we can go. We can talk in the car. And afterwards, if we have to."

"OK." I waited while she got dressed. As we walked to my car, I put my arm around her and told her,

"You took a hell of a chance this afternoon."

"Don’t think for a minute, despite all my goading, that I don’t know how big of a chance you took by saying yes."

I frowned a bit. "Natalie, I’m not going to lie to you. I said yes because I had to. If I told you I wasn’t terrified, I’d be lying. But I couldn’t say no. My feelings for you are too strong." By then we were at my car. I opened the passenger’s side for her, closed it, then climbed in myself. I put the keys in, but didn’t start it right away. "You know I was late for second period?"

"Yeah."

"I was late for school. After our talk this morning, I left."

"Where did you go?" she asked.

"I went to see Ellie. I was so confused, and needed someone to talk to, and Ellie’s the best there is. I hope you don’t mind."

"No, I don’t mind," she smiled. "What did she say?"

"Common sense things. Things I should’ve realized myself. Ellie’s good at that-getting right to the crux of a problem." I sighed. "She told me to stop blaming myself for Annie. She said that while Annie had a good excuse, she was the one that made a mistake. She was the one that convinced herself that our relationship was all about need and gratitude, when it was never just that. And, yeah, she had an excuse-she was in hell at the time. But Ellie pointed out that it was her mistake-and I why was I sitting there waiting for you to make the same mistake?"

"Did that make sense to you?" she asked.

"Yeah. Look, I’ve spent the past two years thinking that Annie left because I smothered her. It’s kind of an easy thing for me to do. What Ellie saw-and she was there the whole time, don’t forget-was something completely different. It was Annie panicking."

"From what you’ve told me, I agree," she said. Then she looked down. "Look, Ed, I don’t usually put it this way, but, let’s face it-I’m neglected. My mother could have been put away for parental neglect quite some time ago." She looked up at me with a little smile. "I think it would almost be impossible for you to smother me."

"Oh, no it wouldn’t," I laughed. "But, at least, I think you’d tell me before it got too out of hand."

"Yeah, I would," she agreed. "I’m neglected, and I’m needy, and I’m a lot of other things. But I’m not panicking. And I’m not in hell. Heck, maybe." I had to laugh at that. "What’s happened to me doesn’t compare to what happened to Annie. I’m not that far gone. I won’t make any stupid mistakes out of panic, and I won’t clam up on you. I promise."

"I know," I said. "I trust you. Imagine that."

"Funny, I think I said just about the same thing to you yesterday," she pointed out.

"You did," I laughed, and started the car. I drove out of the parking lot, and said, "Where on earth, by the way, did you get the gumption to do what you did today? This morning and this afternoon?"

"I was pissed off at you," she said. Then, very softly, "I’m sick of people letting me down. I thought you were going to."

"I was going to. Until you knocked some sense into me. And Ellie whacked me with the follow-up."

"Look," she said hesitantly. "I goaded you, badly, this afternoon. Are you sure you’re all right with this? If you need more time to think…"

"No, I don’t need more time to think," I smiled.

"What did you think you were saying ‘yes’ to?"

"You. I was saying yes to you. The rest is just details." There. I admitted it. And she just beamed at me. By that time, we were at the Burger Hut.

We went in-she was still beaming, and holding my hand-and got our food, then joined the gang. It was fun. And, yeah, everyone had kind of figured out that something was going on between us.

Afterwards, we got back in the car.

"I’d love to extend this evening, but I can’t. I have homework that has to get done tonight," she said with a sigh.

"That’s fine. Raincheck? Tomorrow?"

"Sure. What did you have in mind?"

"Chinese food and something old and romantic on the TV."

"Oh, you do know the way to my heart," she grinned.

"Oh, wait a minute, that reminds me! Since we’re going out now…look, this is awfully short notice, but what’s Saturday?" She looked at me blankly. "The junior prom!" I said.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot, because I hadn’t planned on going."

"I was going stag, but I’d rather go with you."

"Can you still get tickets?" she asked.

"Yup. You can get them at the door. What do you say?"

"I’d love to," I beamed. "Oh, wait, though, that doesn’t give me much time to find a dress, does it?"

"Uh, Natalie, honey, you won’t be needing a dress." She looked at me blankly. "Program week runs through Sunday night for all school-sponsored activities."

She looked at me, then her eyes got wide. "Do you mean to tell me you just asked me to go to my junior prom in the nude?"

"Well, I’ll be in the nude, too, if that helps any."

"Oh, Jesus," she hissed. "OK. Fine. I’ll do it." She grinned. "Tell me something-when you walked into Mr. Tilling’s office and saw that petrified girl slumped in the corner, did you ever think you’d talk her into a naked junior prom trip?"

"Not in a million years," I grinned. "I’m glad I did, though."

"Yeah, me too," she admitted. We were at her place, and I parked the car. I started walking to her apartment. We got to her door, and I was about to kiss her goodnight, when we heard, "NATALIE! THAT HAD BETTER BE YOU!"

"Oh, shit, why isn’t she in work?" she moaned. She opened the door, and there was her mother, drunk again.

"I thought you worked tonight."

"Called in sick," she slurred.

"Yeah, the ol’ vodka bottle flu," she whispered to me.

"Where have you been?" her mother demanded.

"Out. With Ed. He’s my boyfriend now. So I’ll be out a lot from now on."