Have more on their senior year! Just a quick disclaimer...the technicalities of the raffle-planning may seem similar to a dance featured in the book Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan. I rarely went to formal dances in high school, so my experience with formal dances and raising money at a dance is limited; if the raffle idea seems similar to Lois Duncan's dance in the mentioned book, the gist of that idea is Lois Duncan's not mine and no copyright infringement is intended. Soo, enjoy!

The BSC Legacy – Book 4: Adolescence Passing

By: CNJ

PG-13

6: Dance Of December

Abby:

"What we can do," Caitlin told us at the student government meeting a week before Thanksgiving after school. "Is have a raffle." I'd told the other class officers about the plight of the Afghani women and the BSC all thought it would be a good idea to bring it up with the student government and maybe all of us could brainstorm ideas.

"Sounds good..." "So, when...?"

"There's a huge holiday dance coming up on the second Saturday in December," Caitlin went on. "We can ask our families and neighbors and similar stuff to donate."

"It's a perfect time since Thanksgiving's almost here and a lot of relatives will be visiting and all," I put in. We discussed it more until we got down times we'd collect raffle money, then Caitlin told us she'd make fliers on her computer at home and bring them in on Monday. With that, we adjourned.

Mary Anne:

I'd done some internet sleuthing and found an organization that was working to free these women, RAWA.

"So, all the money we raise can go straight to them," I told the others at Monday's BSC meeting, passing out printouts of the organization as well as the URL to it. "They're always looking for donations."

Abby had just told us that the student government would help and Caitlin was working on fliers. We planned out details, then moved onto T-day, which was just three days away.

Grandma Baker is coming on Wednesday. My family and I are having the T-day dinner at Granny and Pop-pop's place at the edge of town.

Claudia's family is spending Thanksgiving at her aunt's house. Her older sister Janine is flying in on Tuesday night from the Naval Academy. Abby's maternal grandparents are coming on Tuesday night also.

Mona:

Thanksgiving was quiet and peaceful. Amber came for the holiday and we all went over to Grandma's house in Hartford. I got Grandma, Mom, and Amber to donate to the raffle.

"God, I didn't know it was that dreadful there," Mom told me as she read over the RAWA literature as all of us sat around the kitchen table waiting for the turkey to cook.

We always get pre-cooked, so all's we have to do is put the stuffing in and warm it up. Few people I know would like to spend T-day cooking. Me, I can never wait to get to the eating part. Neither can Amber or Mom.

"So, what is this RAWA doing?" Grandma asked. "Is their aim to overthrow the Afghan dictatorship or just lift the restrictions on women there?" All of us looked at each other, not sure.

"I'd personally like to see it overthrown," Amber told us. "But the way things are going there, it doesn't look like it'll happen any time soon."

"That's barring any major event," Mom added.

"Like their dictator being assassinated?" I asked.

"I think...maybe if they moved into another country or something similar," Mom sipped her tea.

"A chilling reminder of what happened in the Second World War," Grandma told us. "I was just four, but I remember my parents talking about the Holocaust and about Pearl Harbor for a long, long time. It's a tragedy that it took a major war to free Germany, Italy, and Japan."

"I'd like to hope it doesn't come to war to free the Afghani women," I said. "But if RAWA can't improve things there..."

We all thought a minute and for the first time perhaps really wondered if it would come to a war in Afghanistan. The timer ninged then, so Mom and Amber shot up to take the turkey out. It smelled delicious. I am thankful that here we have good food.

Kristy:

The following two weeks seemed to fly by. Most of the teachers contributed as well as Ms. Silverbein. Ms. Warren, our vice-principal, who was also the student government moderator, offered to put the money in a check to be presented to members of RAWA at the dance.

Abby contacted the local chapter of RAWA and it turned out there was one right here in Stoneybrook. They'd send out three representatives to come to the dance and collect the check.

That Friday before the dance, Claudia helped me put together an outfit that looked great. It's been ages since I went clothes shopping, which is one of my least favorite things to do in the world. Finally, we managed to put together a nice skirt and loose flowing top along with a wraparound belt.

"Heyy, you look great!" Claud grinned.

She and Stacey are the big clothes shoppers of our bunch, so they'd bought new dresses last weekend.

"Thanks," I grinned at her.

All of us BSC were headed there together on Friday night, December 8. I'm bringing David Amesworth and Claudia had a date too, but the rest of my friends as far as I knew were coming stag.

Mary Anne:

Dawn and I rushed upstairs to get ready for the big night. Stacey, Abby, and Anna would be coming in about an hour.

I was glad that the dark blue velvet dress still fit me from last year. Clothes shopping isn't really one of my favorite things to do, so I was glad not to have to go out to buy anything.

"Hey, looking forward to flying out to Iowa over the holidays?" Dawn called. "I am."

"Yeah..." I finished blow-drying my hair and put the blow-dryer away. "Grandma says it's really cold there and the sky is definitely a snow sky."

"I wonder if Connecticut will get snow," Dawn added.

"I hope so," I headed back to my room to get dressed.

Stacey:

It was the most formal dance we'd had in a long, long time. Some of the folks were there, including Mona's mom, and Abby and Anna's mom as well as Emily Bernstein's and Grace Blume's folks.

At around nine-fifteen, Caitlin's mom came in and Caitlin waved at her, then went over. My BSC friends and I had danced a while, then found a round table and ate and talked.

"Hey, none of you have seen Ms. Silverbein or Ms. Warren yet, have you?" Ms. Kast, our junior-senior guidance counselor asked as she passed our table.

She was holding her shoes. We shook our heads. She passed on, calling to someone across the room.

The drawing for the raffle as well as the presentation would be held at ten. People were still coming in and we'd just seen Ms. Zarrato come in with Ms. Byrd and some guy that appeared to be a husband of one of them.

"Wow, look at Mr. Bosini go!" Abby commented.

Sure enough, the Latin teacher was doing a wild dance with a woman we assumed to be either a wife or a girlfriend. Both of them were laughing up a storm.

At the slow songs, more couples got up to dance while at the fast ones, more people dance singly. David and Kristy did several numbers, both fast and slow.

"RAWA's here..." Mary Anne turned in the direction of the back of the auditorium. It was two women and one guy and they were dressed up too. Caitlin went over and shook their hands. By then, it was quarter to ten.

"I think it's time for me to go on..." Abby looked over at us and we waved her on.

As Student Relations Officer, Abby would be up on the stage helping to present the check and the door prizes. Right after the RAWA group, in came Ms. Warren. She looked a bit out of breath.

"Good, it hasn't started yet," We could hear her pant as she joined the class officers on-stage. "Could I have your attention, please?" Caitlin's strong voice come over the microphone.

Slowly, everyone quieted down. There was a movement by the wall and it turned out to be Ms. Silverbein and Ms. Fedders. I wondered if they'd ridden here together. Also with them was Lara Garrett and I wondered if they'd given her a ride.

It took a minute, but everyone slowly quieted. Ms. Fedders sat next to Abby and Anna's mom at their table and Lara quietly stood by our table. Mary Anne and I moved over to make room for her and waved her over. She sat between us.

Caitlin went on to name the door prizes. Some of the winners were here and some weren't.

Ms. Quebec won a laptop and she laughed, saying that she'd give it to her daughter for Christmas, who was a college senior. Maria Barento, who was at our table, won a gift certificate to the Silver Plate restaurant. She whooped and booked up on stage to get her prize.

"...and finally, last, but not least," Caitlin announced. "We have the total of cash raised..."

Ms. Warren went up and handed her the check. "...to the amount of...seven hundred thousand, three hundred and seventy-seven dollars!"

Everyone broke into whooping and applause and Caitlin presented the check to the grinning RAWA members. The RAWA members each gave a thank you talk, then we got back to the music, dancing, and feasting.

"Heyy, good you decided to come," Maria told Lara.

"Me too," Kristy put in. Lara had been bummed out over a breakup and for a while wasn't going to come.

"Yeah, me too," Lara nodded. "At first I wasn't going to, then I called Ms. Fedders, needing someone to talk to, and it turned out that she was there with Ms. Silverbein, who was riding over with her. So they offered me a ride."

She grinned a little. "It turned out that we nearly ran out of gas and had to stop at a gas station. Karen, who's driving, decided to use the drive-through, then discovers that she only has five dollars which would only fill her tank a little. On top of that, Ms. Silverbein forgot her wallet and she's looking in her purse and mumbling Shhit...

"She says, Ohhh, shit several more times. After dumping almost the entire interior of her purse on the floor of the car, she finds her credit card and hands it over to Ms. Fedders.

"She goes limp with relief when it accepts her card. Once we start driving again, Ms. Silverbein remembers that I'm in the back seat, looks over at me and blushes and says something like Oh, excuse my Yiddish back there in the station. I realize that she's embarrassed about saying shit in front of me and I laugh a little and tell her that it's all right."

"Hey, teachers are human," I sipped my punch.

"Over seven hundred thousand, swell, you all!" One of the RAWA women called to our table once Abby and Caitlin rejoined us.

"Hope it helps!" Abby called.

"It will," she told us. "Every bit helps."

We know it won't be the thing that freed the Afghani women, but we hoped it brought them one step closer to freedom. We then talked about the upcoming holidays and the holiday production which was in two weeks. Abby, Anna, Caitlin, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Mona are in it again this year.

"This year, Unconventional Sounds is back again, better than ever," Anna told us.

Unconventional Sounds is a band that Anna, Mary Anne, and Mona made up in the fall of our junior year and they've performed in our Christmas-Hanukkah productions as well as some spring musicals too. Claudia and Caitlin were doing the scenery art while Abby had and acting role just like last year.

"Then it's the holidayyy breeaak...holidaaay breeaak..." Abby sang in tune to the old song from the eighties movie Christmas Vacation.

We all laughed. We certainly are looking forward to that...then it will be the year 2001.