Time of Your Life
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Artisan Pictures Inc. and Columbia Tri-Star. Song's not mine either, it's by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. Dammit.
Now I've had the time of my life,
No, I never like this before.
Yes, I swear, It's the truth,
And I owe it all to you.
- The Time of My Life, Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes
Summer, 1963
He pulled her outside, into the warm air of the night. She shivered slightly as a chill breeze blew past. It was the last night; the temperature was already starting to drop. Fall would roll by soon enough and she would be going to college.
Suddenly her dreams were frighteningly near to realisation, upon her in seconds in stifling close up. Economics of Underdeveloped Countries. The Peace Corps. Changing the world.
"You cold, Baby?"
She pulled her gaze from the horizon and looked up at Johnny, who was smiling at her and shrugging out of his jacket that he had grabbed before leaving the main house. He pulled it round her shoulders, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.
"It's over," she said softly. She felt him wince and looked up at him. "Summer. I'm going home tomorrow," she reached up to cup his face. "I don't want to go."
Her father was still up, leaning back in a chair with his legs propped up on the railing around their cabin. Baby loosed her fingers from Johnny's grip and turned to him, holding up one hand.
"Wait here," she whispered. "I'll talk to him first."
"I should come with you," he said.
She smiled at him, placed a hand on his chest to keep him in his place and shook her head. She tiptoed briefly to kiss him quickly, then whirled away from him to run toward the cabin.
She slowed as she climbed the steps, coming toward her father slowly, one tiny step at a time. He looked up at her, then toward the horizon, where the black sky was flecked with spots of shining silver.
"Beautiful night," he said after a moment. "I didn't think you'd be back until morning. Your mother told me not to worry," he smiled slightly. "She enjoyed herself tonight. I never thought -"
"Daddy, I'm not going to college," Baby said quietly. "And I'm not joining the Peace Corps."
"You were going to change the world," he replied, looking at her, his expression neutral and no sign of accusation in his tone.
She took a deep breath and sat on the chair beside him. He didn't seem in a rush for answers, so she took a moment to gather her confidence. She saw Johnny, a little way away, sitting on a bench, waiting for her.
He had tried to talk her out of it. Told her it was her dream, what she had always wanted to do. But she made him understand, dreams change. That life, her perfectly planned future, that wasn't for her anymore.
"You are," she told him, "I don't want that anymore. I want you. I want -" she turned away from him, throwing her head back and whirling as she cried, "I want to dance. I want the mambo, the cha-cha. I want the Mashed Potato; I want dancing on logs, practising lifts in a lake. I want -"
"Marry me."
"So, what are you going to do?" her father asked after a moment.
"I'm going to marry Johnny," she replied simply, the very idea making a smile tug at her lips. "And I'm going to become a dance instructor. We're going to open a dance school."
"And what about your dreams?" this time there was a slightly incredulous note to his voice.
"This is my dream now," she reached for his hand. "I'm going to do this. I'm going to marry Johnny. I know you don't like him, but you said you were wrong about him. I love him. And he loves me. We're getting married, daddy, and if that means you don't want anything more to do with me," she took a deep breath. "Then I'll have to live with that," she looked her father, directly in the eye. "But I don't want to. I want to stay part of this family. I want Johnny and I to be part of this family. I want you to give me your blessing."
He blinked at her. His calm was a mask for his indecision. He knew Johnny hadn't been to blame for Penny's situation and he knew Johnny made his daughter happy. But that didn't mean he had to be happy about his daughter throwing away her entire future.
She had been the one he had pinned his hopes on. Lisa, although he loved her dearly, had always been her mother's daughter. But Baby… Baby had been his. His hope, his dream for the future. She was going to change the world and here she was, saying she was abandoning college before it had even begun, to become a dance teacher of all things. And what was this ridiculous notion about a dance school?
"You're seventeen," he said in a low whisper, despairingly.
"I know."
Of course she knew. In three weeks, his Baby had grown into a woman. A woman he felt alienated from, a woman he felt proud of, a woman he could no longer understand and a woman he could see his daughter in.
"And how are you going to afford all this?" he asked finally. "Marriage is an expensive thing. Not to mention getting qualified as a dance instructor. And a school?"
"We'll have a small wedding," she said. "I don't need something big. And I've got my college fund," she cast him an inquiring look and when he didn't object, she relaxed slightly. "The school will have to come later. But this is my dream, daddy," she was quiet for a moment. Then, because she always wanted to know, she asked, "what do you think?"
He didn't trust himself to think. If he thought, he would see all the holes in this idea, in this pipe dream. If he thought, he wouldn't be able to let her do this and he'd say so and then he would lose her forever, because he had no doubt she would choose Johnny over him.
So he didn't think. And he didn't speak. He only nodded.
He watched her frown fade, then her smile grow into a wide, joyful grin as she leapt out of her chair and threw her arms around him, kissing his forehead.
Then she pulled away from him, turning away to race away from the cabin and into Johnny Castle's arms. Johnny heard her coming and stood to greet her. Jake watched as Johnny opened his arms and swept her up, spinning her round and kissing her thoroughly.
They came back together; hands hopelessly entangled and grins identically wide.
"Mr. Houseman," Johnny said, extended a hand, grin shrinking as he shifted uncomfortably. "I just… I just want to say thank you, for giving us your blessing. I love your daughter, Mr. Houseman. And I will do the best I can for her. I'll do my best to take -"
"I know you will, Johnny," Jake cut in, eyeing the way Baby hugged his arm. He looked at Baby. "We'll tell your mother and Lisa tomorrow. Lisa will love the idea of a wedding."
He noted the glance between Johnny and Baby and his suspicions were confirmed.
"Uh, sir," Johnny ventured hesitantly. "It won't be much. I mean, I'd love to give Baby a big wedding, but we're, uh, we're saving."
"Oh," Jake nodded. "For this school?"
His tone succeeded in making Johnny purse his lips and lower his head. Jake didn't know whether it was a gesture of embarrassment or of anger.
"Yes," Baby said firmly.
"Huh," Jake put his hands in his pocket and nodded, leaning his head back to look up at the stars. Without thinking, without even processing the idea, he said. "How about I help?"
"What?" Johnny asked, startled into an abrupt answer.
"Isn't it traditional that the father of the bride pays for the wedding? If you've got enough money to give my daughter a good wedding, I'll give you the money to start up this dance school."
"Daddy, no -"
"Baby, I don't want you to spend the rest of your life scrimping and saving. If you want to start up a school, you'll start up a school. And it'll be the best damn school in the country."
"Sir, I don't… I don't know what to say," Johnny was beaming, grinning alternately at Jake, then Baby.
"Know why I'm doing this, Johnny?" Jake asked, suddenly filled with a need to make this man understand that it had nothing to do with him. "I'm doing this because you're marrying my daughter. And no matter what I've thought in the past, tonight I saw that my little girl is a young woman. I see the way you look at her and the way she is when she's with you," he sighed. "How can I reject the man that makes my little girl smile like that?" he lifted Baby's chin with his index finger, smiling gently at her glowing expression.
He glanced at Johnny, who was wearing a similar expression of joy.
And as Baby hugged him tightly, Jake realised that he wasn't only doing this so he wouldn't lose his daughter. He was doing it because he understood.
His girl was in love.
Summer, 1976
It had been a long thirteen years.
Johnny and Baby married on the 1st October, 1963 and one week later, Baby started her training course. They moved in with Baby's parents, despite Jake's promises, Baby and Johnny were still saving.
Eighteen months later, with her diploma, Baby and Johnny set out to find premises for their dance school. Only this time, there was someone else along for the ride.
"You're pregnant?" Johnny asked.
"Yes," Baby said, lowering her head.
And there went all their plans, all their hard saving, all their dreams. Because how could they fund a school with a baby to support? It had all been for nothing.
At least that's what Baby had thought, until Johnny leapt up with a yell of happiness and picked her up, twirling her around and laughing.
"You're pregnant!" he cried. "I don't believe it. I'm gonna be a dad!" he set her down carefully on the floor and threw open the door of their room. "Billy! Lisa! Jake! Marge! Baby's pregnant! I'm gonna be a dad!"
Katherine Lisa Castle was born a month after the premises had been found for the Castle School of Dance. And just before her first birthday, the school was opened. Johnny and Baby took classes, as did Penny. Billy took care of the building itself and Lisa and Marge took over the managerial side of things.
After a while, Jake began to take an interest in dancing injuries and before he knew it, he was working for a couple of hours every week at the school, treating injuries and teaching the students how to avoid them. It was starting to become a family business, so Marge said.
Three months after the school opened, Baby learnt that her sister did know the meaning of the word discretion. To her surprise, she found out that Lisa and Billy had been dating since her wedding three years ago and announced their engagement casually over a family lunch.
"We're overrun with Castles," Baby had heard her father moan. But there was no malice in his voice. She had a tiny, hopeful suspicion that he was pleased.
"Baby? Are you paying any attention?"
Baby looked up at Johnny who was frowning at her, hands on his hips.
"What?" she asked.
A girl appeared from behind Johnny. At twelve, Katherine was small and slender, with her mother's curly blonde hair and her father's eyes.
"He means the banner, mom," she said, pointing to where red paint was dripping off the end of the paintbrush in Baby's hand onto the banner.
"Hell," Baby snapped, grabbing a handful of paper towels and wiping away the smears.
"We'll do another," Johnny said, "the word 'school' wasn't straight anyway."
"Oh, you!" Baby laughed, flicking paint at him.
He laughed and kissed her and was about to say something when one of the older students - Bobby - ran into the main hall.
"Call for you, Johnny," he said,."It's Max Kellerman about this year's show."
Baby waved as he left and Kate sat down beside her mother to help her with the new banner. She was frowning as she dipped her paintbrush and started to paint the words 10-year anniversary below where Baby was painting The Castle School of Dance.
"What's wrong?" Baby asked after a moment.
Kate shrugged and Baby pushed her daughter's hair back and looked at her.
"What is it, Kate?"
"Can't I go this year?" she burst out.
Baby smiled. Since that close of season final dance in 1963, Kellerman's had changed. You didn't go to learn the foxtrot anymore. You went for the real dirty dancing, the passion and the fun.
In 1964, though they hadn't been back or heard from anyone there for a year, Max Kellerman invited Johnny and Baby back to do the final dance. And it had been the same every year since. And since the school opened, they took some of the kids along. Taking part in the close of season dance at Kellerman's had become the Holy Grail for the kids at the school.
Kate had wanted to go since she was three years old.
"It's a long way to travel by road, sweetie," Baby told her. "You know how you get if you're stuck in cars too long."
"But I want to go, mom!" Kate protested. "Every year I see you taking Bobby and Joanna and all those guys, but not me. I've never been to Kellerman's!"
With a twinge of guilt, Baby realised she was right. She had never taken Kate to Kellerman's. Never shown her the stage, Johnny's old room, her old cabin. Every year she had said she was too young to go, too young to dance there.
But the truth was that taking Kate there would mean thirteen years really had passed. In her heart, Baby still lived that summer, still loved Johnny in that same way. She always thought that taking Kate there would change that feeling somehow, make that summer seem less than the perfect dream she remembered.
"We'd have to find you a partner," Baby said finally.
Kate grinned and Baby saw her eyes slant to Ronnie, a tall gangly lad of thirteen, with a shock of bright red hair and a mass of freckles who was blowing up a balloon.
Baby hid her smile as she took a step back from the banner.
The Castle School of Dance - 10 Year Anniversary!
Suddenly, she couldn't wait to take her daughter to Kellerman's.
It was late and the younger kids had been banished to the dorms. The older students of sixteen, seventeen and eighteen were still milling about, dancing in the flickering coloured lights. Kate was still up, scouring the refreshment table for something to eat and trying to catch a glimpse of her parents dancing.
She had seen them dance before, of course, but always quite properly. She had seen the other students' dirty dance at the various practices and parties at the school, but never her parents. She was starting to wonder if her Aunt Lisa and Uncle Billy's stories were really true.
"You should be in bed, young lady."
She turned around and smiled at her grandfather.
"I know," she shrugged.
He laughed. She was so much like Baby had been after that summer of '63. He handed the young girl a glass of orange juice and turned to watch the dancing. He couldn't help being reminded of the end of season dance and what came after.
Had he ever really doubted his daughter could make a success out of dancing?
He saw her now, standing against the wall, leaning against Johnny and talking to Penny and one of the students. He saw Johnny tapping his feet and drumming his fingers against the wall in time to the beat and Baby was bobbing her head, her hips moving slightly.
Marge was at home, taking care of a heavily pregnant Lisa and her five-year-old daughter Tanya. It was a shame, Jake thought, that the two of them would miss it.
"Hey, Uncle Billy!"
Jake glanced at the double doors and at the man his granddaughter was waving furiously at.
"Billy," he greeted as Billy came toward them.
"Hey, Jake," Billy smiled. "I just dropped by to see how it was going. Lisa wanted to know if Baby got the banner right," he glanced at it. "I'll tell her it's not as good as she coulda done."
Jake smiled and out of the corner of his eye, noticed that Kate stifled a huge yawn behind her hand.
"Ok, you're going to bed," he said.
"Bed?" Kate repeated. "How can I sleep with all this noise?"
Johnny and Baby had converted a house that rested on the school premises into two apartments. They lived upstairs and Billy and Lisa lived in the apartment below. Jake knew full well that you wouldn't hear a sound from the school there and that even in the dorms within the school building you'd have to strain to hear the music.
"Because you're coming to stay with me and your Grandma and your Aunt Lisa."
Scowling, Kate sighed.
"I'll go say bye to mom and dad."
"I'll bring the car round," Billy said. "It's ok if Lisa and I stay at yours tonight, right, Jake? Only it's a long way to come back and I know Lisa likes to have her mom around when she's this close."
Billy fidgeted, the mere thought of his wife's pregnancy making him pale and nervous. Jake smiled.
"You're welcome to stay as long as you need," he replied, fully understanding Billy's nerves because Lisa wasn't exactly the most serene mother-to-be.
Kate returned with Baby and Johnny, who hugged and kissed her goodbye. Johnny shook Jake's hand and thanked him for coming, he looked like he was about to say something else when Bobby called him. Billy had left with Kate to get her things, leaving Baby alone with her father.
"Thanks, dad," she said softly.
"It's no trouble," he replied. "You know your mother and I love having Kate to stay."
"I don't mean that," she said. "I mean this. Thank you for this."
They cast their eyes around the large hall, the focal point of the school, with its streamer and balloon clad mirrors, its stage, wooden floors and state of the art stereo system. Baby's eyes were shinning with tears as she turned to look at her father again.
"Thank you," she whispered sincerely, grabbing him in a tight hug.
He hugged her back, holding her close until she regained her composure.
"Don't, uh," she wiped her eyes and sniffed. "Don't let Kate stay up too late. I know it's Friday, but she gets grouchy if she doesn't have enough sleep. And don't let her have ice cream before she goes to bed, it gives her nightmares. And -"
"You did it," Jake cut in. She stopped short and he smiled gently at her and kissed her forehead before looking around once more. He saw kids dancing, happy and laughing, yet they had been out on the streets before finding their way here. He saw kids that you wouldn't notice, painfully shy, move with confidence around the dance floor. He smiled at his daughter. "You did it, Baby. You changed the world."
She stared at him and her eyes welled up again as he hugged her once more, kissed her forehead again and left. She stood still for a moment and then let out a slightly hysterical laugh.
She had done it. She had proved herself to her father.
In the past thirteen years, the one thing that had been missing from Baby's life was her father's approval. Though he went along with her dreams, gave her away at the wedding, let her and Johnny live in his house, helped them set up this dance school and adored Kate, Baby never felt the way she did with him before the summer of '63.
But now she did.
Johnny was back again, arms round her waist, chest against her back, dropping gentle kisses into the curve of her neck.
"Baby?" he asked, frowning, as he turned her around and saw the tears in her eyes.
"It's ok," she smiled, throwing her head back. "Everything's ok."
She smiled seductively at Johnny, fisted her hand in his shirt and pulled him into the middle of the dance floor.
"Dance with me," she whispered into his ear.
"What? Here?" he asked.
"Here," she replied and pressed herself close, letting him grind against her as he dipped her back.
Without her father and daughter to see, Baby lost her inhibitions, mindless of her students and let Johnny lift her leg and kiss her neck.
"Thirteen years," she whispered. "We made it, Johnny. We really made it."
He let go of her leg and looked at her with a smile, but a slightly surprised look on his face. He never doubted they would and neither had Baby. But he understood what she meant.
Thirteen years together and still going strong. And in ten of those years they had done the impossible and built a school and a life to be proud of.
"How was it for you?" he asked.
She smiled, leaning in for a passionate kiss. But before their lips met, she whispered her answer.
"The time of my life."
Just remember,
You're the one thing I can't get enough of,
So I'll tell you something,
This could be love,
Because I've had the time of my life.
- The Time of My Life, Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes
The End.