Chapter 1: A Gentleman

The trumpet solo of "Penny Lane" by The Beatles played over the loudspeakers inside of Rusty's as I swirled my red and white striped straw in my chocolate milkshake. The Beatles were my favorite. That Paul McCartney sure was dreamy, and safe as my mother would say. Not like Elvis Presley who dressed in tight jeans and leather jackets. Paul McCartney was a proper gentleman dressed in his suits and ties.

The giggling of my two best friends, Sherri "Cherry" Valence and Marcia Cooper brought me out of my own thoughts. They were having a heated conversation about West Side story for about the millionth time.

"Christine," Marcia asked me, turning from Cherry, "what do you think about Tony?"

"Huh?" I replied, shaking my head and finally focusing on the dark headed girl in front of me.

Marcia just giggled and pantomimed head in the clouds. I was always being called out by everyone who knew me for my endless daydreaming and for not being very practical.

"You haven't been listening to a word either of us has been saying, have you." The redhead phrased this as a fact and not a question, looking at me with humor in her eyes.

Marcia continued," well, just to catch you up, Cherry and I were talking about the probability of a relationship like Tony and Maria's happening and working out for the future. We both decided that he's dreamy, but that's about it. I mean, what kind of life could anybody have together when they are two completely different people from different social classes. Just imagine, it would be like a social and a greaser falling in love." Marcia laughed and rolled her eyes like this was the most absurd notion she had ever heard and Cherry followed suit, snorting into her ice cream soda.

I didn't really understand the class war that always seemed to be raging in our tiny town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I mean, I never would have been friends with a greaser or wanted to run into one in the daylight or in a dark alley, but still. People were people, or so I had always thought. Maybe I just read too much, lived too much in a dream world. If you really think about it though, there were bad greasers and bad socials. I never would have told any of this to either Cherry or Marcia, nonetheless any of the other socials that I hung out with.

Cherry had said something else to me, but I hadn't caught it and so she rolled her eyes and turned to Marcia and they started talking about the new guy that had just moved into our neighborhood from somewhere in the east coast. To anybody else, the eye roll from Cherry would have been negative, but for me it wasn't. Cherry knew best to leave me alone when I was in one of my head in the clouds moods.

"What's his name again?" I directed to either Cherry or Marcia, wanting to be a part of the conversation.

"Kenneth Johnson." Cherry said, looking at me, and then, turning to Marcia, "did you see the way he was looking at Christine today?" This sent them both into rounds of giggling and my face set on fire.

"He was not looking at me." I stared intently at the pockmarked metal surface of the table, swirling my straw faster.

"He was too." Marcia finished laughing and kicked me under the table. "He told Randy he thinks you're the swellest girl at school."

I groaned, "that word is so 1950s." But inside I was beaming. Kenneth Johnson was pretty beautiful. His hair was golden and his eyes were baby blue. He was tall, but not too much so. I couldn't say how tall though, for being such a short person, at just five foot one inches, I was the worst at gauging the height of other people. Everyone compared to me was just tall, taller, and tallest.

I imagined what it would be like to go steady with a boy like Kenneth Johnson. He would surely carry my books, open my doors, give me his jacket if I was cold. He'd be a real gentleman, Prince Charming from all of the fairytale stories. A girl could love a boy like that. A boy like Kenneth Johnson. And my parents would no doubt adore him. He would call them Mr. and Mrs., Sir and Ma'am and bring my mother flowers for the house.

I started to picture what life would be like with a boy like Kenneth Johnson. He would no doubt go to an Ivy League and get a respectable high-paying job. We could live in the suburbs together somewhere on the east coast. I had always liked the sound of the east coast. The surf, the sand, the salty sea air. The little beach towns that we could take our children on outings to on the weekends.

"You do like him? Don't you?" Cherry burst out laughing.

"I don't even know him, how could I like him?" I lied, blushing even more if that was even possible.

"You know," Marcia said with a sparkle in her eyes, " if you started going with Kenneth, you could double with Randy and I." The moment she said this, Cherry's laughter subsided and Marcia cut off talking. About two years ago, Cherry's boyfriend Bob had been killed by a greaser. I knew that Bob and Cherry used to double with Marcia and Randy. In fact, Randy being Bob's best friend had actually set Marcia and Randy up. Cherry still hadn't gotten over Bob's death, but who could blame the girl? Bob had been her first love, they had been going together since they were freshmen and now she was a senior.

" I'm real sorry, Cherry." The usually smiling and laughing girls expression had turned solemn.

"No, no. It's fine." Cherry wiped her eyes hurriedly and sat up straighter, forcing a smile. " I'm fine."

We left Rusty's soon after that, all of us piling into Cherry's red Stingray that she had been given for her sweet sixteen sophomore year. Nobody talked on the way back to Cherry's house. Once we go there, we all went up to her room and settled onto her bed to finish up our homework for the school week.

Cherry and Marcia were both working on their senior English papers, and they had both asked if I could edit them when they were finished. Although I was a junior, I was in a senior English class. In fact, that was how I'd first become friends with Cherry; she had asked for my help editing a paper when I was in her Junior English class last year. Although she was a year ahead of me, we had become fast friends, bonding over movies and The Beatles.

I was currently working on my math homework. Even though I was taking a senior math class, it was definitely my worst subject. At the moment I was working on trigonometric equations. Cherry and Marcia were no help either, as we were all completely and utterly confused by Trigonometry.

The hours flew by, and I left after editing both Cherry and Marcia's assignments. I had made barely any progress with my Trigonometry.

I walked next door to my house. All of the houses in my neighborhood were identical, white, picturesque, two stories, picket fences and little gardens in the front. The insides were identical too, besides the decorations. Those were more like fraternal twins than identical ones, since all of our mothers shopped at the same exact home decor and supply stores.

The mingled smells of cinnamon apples and fresh crust invaded my senses and I sighed in contentment. In my mind, apple was the only pie that even mattered.

"Christine!" My mother's singsong voice floated to me from the kitchen, "did you have fun with your friends? Come and talk to your mother!" I dropped my books by the bottom of the stairs and slipped off my Mary Janes, gliding into the kitchen to hug my mother. Her apron and hands were covered with flour. And she had some on her nose as well.

"We had fun. We went to Rusty's for milkshakes and then finished our homework for Monday."

"Oh, that sounds nice." Mother smiled at me and, wiping a hand on her apron, she patted my hair down, tucking a dark curly tendril behind my ear.

"What's the occasion?" I asked, nodding to the pie cooling on the counter.

"Well, I invited that new family, the Johnsons, over for dinner tonight. That reminds me, wash your hands so that you can help me with dinner. And then you'll need to get washed up. They'll be here in just a few hours and I want everything to be perfect. Have you met their son? I think his name is Kenneth. He's a senior at your school and very handsome."

I blushed again, thinking about my earlier conversation about him.

"Yes, I saw him today."

"And? He was quite handsome, right?"

I knew my mother wouldn't drop it unless I agreed, and it's not like I hadn't been thinking the same thing earlier.

"He is." I finally replied as I washed my hands in the sink and set to work with the salad while mother placed the casserole in the oven. We worked in a companionable silence, and once the salad was done, she sent me upstairs to freshen up.

"There's a new dress on your bed. I picked it up earlier today and would like you to wear it tonight!" She called after me. I ran back in the kitchen to kiss her cheek.

"I have enough dresses, but thank you, I bet it's wonderful!"

Mother laughed, "a girl can never have too many dresses or shoes. Especially one as lovely as you."She smiled at me, surveying me. "That hair though! You look like a wild Indian. I'll come up and fix it for you in just a bit."

I had inherited my curly brown hair from my father and it was my least favorite feature. I always wished I could have Marcia's straight hair, or at least Cherry's wavy hair. Anything would be better than the lion's mane that I had. It was always frizzy and unruly, no matter how much product or straightening was done to it.

I ran up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me. My eyes landed on the bed in the middle of my room and I gasped. On the bed lay a beautiful satin black dress with a gold bow around the middle. I quickly stripped out of my light blue school dress and freshened up before slipping into the new dress. It fit me perfectly, and made me feel a bit like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I'd only seen the movie once before my mother decided it was inappropriate for a young lady, but I adored the character of Holly Golightly and the way that she did everything. In fact, I had named my cat cat after Holly's own cat in the movie.

I was going through my closet for shoes to pair with the dress when I heard my mother's light knock on the door. She let herself in and twisted my hair into an updo that made me look a lot less like a lion. When that was finished, I looked at myself in the mirror, seeing the same old Christine I always had. Mother frowned behind me, tapping her chin with her index finger, and then she left and returned a minute later with her makeup bag. She took out her mascara and put some on my eyelashes, following that up with a light pink lip tint. She admired her work and turned me to the mirror. I looked my own age, 16,for once.

Just then, the door downstairs could be heard opening and closing. I ran downstairs to greet daddy.

"Teeny!" He called out, as I ran into his arms. He embraced me and then pulled back.

"Who is this strange young lady that's taken over my ruffian daughter's body?"

I giggled, "oh daddy. Do you like my new dress?"

His brow knitted, "like? Well, I'll say. It is high time your mother and I locked you up and never let you leave the house. The boys would go crazy." As my mother walked down the stairs, my father let go of me.

"Well, I suppose some young man is going to steal your heart away from me one day, Teeny." He winked at me and kissed my mother's cheek.

"Irene, darling. You look wonderful. And the house smells wonderful. Is that apple pie?" He sniffed the air and pretended to follow his nose to the kitchen like a bloodhound, which sent both mother and I into bouts of hysteria.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

About thirty minutes later, as I was finishing up setting the table with our best china, the doorbell rang. My father opened it and my mother went over to greet who I assumed could only be Kenneth's parents. They were ushered in, and Kenneth followed behind a woman and man who looked exactly like him. All of them had light blonde hair that I envied and beautiful blue eyes. I had always hated my brown ones, and wished for blue the most. Blue eyes reminded me of the cool, bright colors of the salt water right on the beach, before it turned into a greenish blue. I thought the blue of the ocean was a lot more pleasing than the green.

The Johnsons introduced themselves, and Kenneth grabbed my hand, placing a feather light kiss on it. "It's so nice to see you again,Christine." His parents and mine exchanged smiles at this and I could feel a blush lighting up my face.

"And you as well." We all went to sit, mother refusing when I tried to help her in the kitchen, and Kenneth pulled my chair out for me.

"Thank you." Dinner was pleasant, my mother and Kenneth's talking about the sewing circle that she was sure to join, my father and Mr. Johnson exchanging work anecdotes. Kenneth and I kept exchanging glances from our places next to each other and he asked me polite questions about school, including that I should be so kind as to maybe show him around the new school. "We can help each other out, Christine. I'll even carry your books if you let me."

I was sad to see Kenneth go, but he had scrawled his number onto my hand with a pen he had asked for and even winked at me before he left with his parents. My mother looked at me expectantly, but I was quiet as I helped her clean up after dinner. When I got back to my room, I did a happy dance and giggled into my pillow. Maybe this year would be a little more exciting than I had expected. If only I had known…