Homecoming Scandal

By: CNJ

PG-13

2: Rumors Of Scandal

Randy:

It was hard to believe what Gene Actbin was telling me, but he said something about us being in trouble. Jana and I had just gotten back from our ski weekend and now we were in Gene's room. Gene's roommate was out, so all of us...Jana, Gene, Rick McConnell, Matt Zeboski, and I had the room to ourselves.

"...well, they think we rigged the homecoming elections last fall," Gene told us in a hushed voice.

"Rigged the election?" I demanded. "Just because we were on the homecoming committee and some kids who didn't like who won want to pin the blame on us?"

"Maybe Melanie and Logan should be hearing this," Jana put in. "After all, Melanie won the Homecoming Queen title and Logan won Mr. Linebacker of the Raiders." The Raiders is the Connecticut U. football team.

"They've already heard about it," Matt told us. "And they're scared too." Melanie Edwards and Logan Bruno are two other members who hang around our group. Sometimes Sara Sawyer, Derek Travelstead, Tammy Lucero, and Parker Donovan hang out with us too. They all used to go Burkeview High with us.

"Scared of what?" I laughed. "Oh, sure, we sat and plotted to have the elections rigged. Well, it isn't our fault that some people claimed that their votes were lost and wanted another election. God, this is ridiculous."

"You forgot about the president of the Kappa Pis, Lawrence Talbot, " Rick put in. "Remember when that race wasn't decided for days and he yelled at his cousins, who was the secretary of that fraternity. Then all of a sudden, he was declared the winner?"

"But that incident had nothing to do with me or Jana," I insisted impatiently. "I won that quarterback title fairly and Jana won the Ms. Connecticut U. title fairly. God I can't believe how paranoid you all are being."

"Just..." Matt looked around nervously. "We should be careful of what we say outside this room." Gene and Rick nodded, then looked over at Jana and me.

"All right, I will," I sighed and rolled my eyes.


Melanie:

It turned out that Jana and Randy had gotten the news of us being implicated in this deal as soon as they'd gotten back from their ski trip. Rumors had been flying around that something fishy has happened in last fall's homecoming elections, rumors ranging from vote-stealing to actual bribery. Randy and Jana were skeptical of the rumors, but Logan and I were worried.

"After all, it was us who opposed the re-elections," Logan told us as the four of us sat in the campus cafe a few afternoons later after classes.

"That's because they would have kept on having election after election until the losers got their way," Randy slapped his glass down. "When it's the middle of football season, this school doesn't have time to waste."

"Is that why Dawson Beavers offered to 'help' you in Searles' class if you cleared away the confusion of the illegible votes?" Logan asked pointedly.

"Just what do you mean by that?" Randy glared at Logan.

"Just that...you were just about failing his class last semester and you would have been booted off the team...a second time."

Randy's mouth tightened and his blue eyes flashed. "Several people put more than one name in the same slot and you were only supposed to put one name and others were illegible. I cleared that up and second, Dawson did NOT offer to help me cheat if that's what you're implying, not that it'd be any of your business if he had been. And I wouldn't say that you're lily-white either in offering 'tips' on where to go for booze and other not-so-savory stuff if they voted for you."

Logan's face turned beet red, but before he could say anything, I put my hand on his arm and Jana took Randy's hand.

"Randy..." Jana said softly. Randy looked over at her, then relaxed some.

"Anyway, it's all just an unfounded rumor," Randy sipped his coffee. "They can't prove anything."

"I hope you're right," I muttered. I do remember Logan and me pointed out fun cellars and bars to go to in our candidate negotiations. The bartenders had offered them on-the-house drinks. But had there been anything wrong with it? I hoped people didn't think so.

"You know what I think," Jana finally stated. "I think the students who supported the losing candidates are mad, so of course they started these rumors. This is their way of getting back at us."

"Yeah," Randy put in. I remembered how close some of those races had been and knew that students who had lost had quite a crowd on their side. A lot of them had demanded another election with the college board counting the votes.


I almost collided with Randy coming out of my philosophy class a week later. "Heyyy, what's wrong?" Randy asked when he saw my face as he steadied me. His blue eyes looked so sympathetic that I told him about the notice I'd gotten to report to the campus board on Friday afternoon.

"I got something too," Randy pulled a paper out of his backpack. It was the same one I got. "This it?"

"Yeah..." I nodded. "We're in trouble..."

"I think they're just going to ask us a few questions," Randy told me in a soft voice. We went outside and stood under a batch of evergreen trees, so no one could listen in. "It's just standard procedure whenever there's a question on something. They just want to ask everyone in the student elections, I'm sure."

"What about what Logan said about you..."

"They have nothing on that," Randy told me in his trademark soothing voice. "They can't do anything without proof. After all, this is college, not high school where they could bust you without proof." He patted my shoulder.

"I guess not." I can see why Jana's so crazy about him. He knows the right things to say at the right times and I know he's rescued Jana from a lot of binds.

"If they ask you anything about any of the others, just act like you don't know a thing," Randy continued. "They can't expect us to know everything about each other." He grinned.

"True." I smiled back and tossed my auburn hair over my shoulder. Randy then had another class, so he and I reluctantly parted.


Jana:

I stayed near the tree and watched Randy and Melanie smile at each other, then part. Certainly they wouldn't...no, Randy's naturally friendly with anyone.

It was hard, though, not to feel a pang of envy whenever Randy talked with another girl. In the back of my mind, these little questions go off, like, Is she prettier than me? Is she more fascinating than me? Cut it out, I told myself as I headed across the quad.

Anyway, Melanie's been going steady with Logan since our junior year in high school, when Logan transferred from Stoneybrook High. She would never sneak around behind his back and on top of that, she knows how it is with Randy and me.

I got to my European History class and sat and sighed, remembering all those times back in middle and high school when other girls would flirt with Randy. Randy and I had been a steady couple since sixth grade.

As Mr. Russo began droning on and on about Eastern Europe a hundred years ago, my mind drifted over to all the times, I'd thought I was losing Randy.

Back in sixth grade, there had been a girl, Taffy Sinclair, who'd liked him also. She'd had long blond wavy hair, was skinny, tall, and had disgustingly perfect facial features and was one of the biggest flirts in school. She'd also been so snobby and conceited that none of the other girls liked her, except this one girl, Mona Vaughn, who had been the homeliest, ugliest girl in the class.

Then at Wakeman Middle, it had been Laura McCall, who had been just as bad as Taffy and she used to sometimes try to take Randy away from me. Laura and I had hated each other with a passion.

I snickered to myself as I remembered one incident at the end of our seventh grade year, our class had taken a trip into New York City and to the Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Laura had been trying to get Randy's attention, claiming that she was miserable at home and crud like that, hoping to gain Randy's sympathy.

I myself hadn't been in a very good mood because my dad hadn't written me in a long time and on top of that, this girl, Katie, who I used to hang around with back then, wouldn't shut up about how wonderful it was that the Statue of Liberty was a woman and about this woman poet who wrote about the immigrants ad nauseatum. It had taken all my self-control not to tell her to shut up about the wonders of "Ms. Liberty."

Then on the ferry to the Statue, I'd seen Laura cozying up to Randy again and gotten really mad. Randy later came over and tried to apologize, but I'd been distant and cold, then Randy started on this long sob story about how miserable Laura was at home with her dad and his new girlfriend as if he expected me to join the "poor Laura" bandwagon. Really, Laura's dad had basically let her do whatever she felt like and they lived in this luxurious apartment with a maid and everything.

But then when we were climbing to the top of the Statue, Laura, who'd been drinking, had gotten sick and puked all over the stairs. We'd all been grossed out.

Laura had gotten stone drunk by the end of the trip and on the way home, Randy told me that he was glad I handled things better than Laura had about our parents being divorced and getting a parents' attention. That had made me feel better. Laura sure had gotten hers that day, I remembered with a smirk.

For a while that year, Sara Sawyer had been after him as well. I smiled softly as I thought of how our relationship had survived its ups and downs...

"...the pogroms' rising in Eastern Europe? Ms. Morgan." Suddenly Professor Russo was looking straight at me and so did almost everyone else. I'd tuned out and hadn't realized that he was asking everyone questions at random. Pogroms? Where? I racked my mind, trying to remember that event. Had I even read that chapter last night?

"Excuse me, but I missed part of the question?" I asked, trying to appear like I'd been leafing through my notebook and studying my notes, not daydreaming about Randy.

"Take two...now that you've joined us," Mr. Russo said sarcastically. "What event led to the rising of the pogroms in Eastern Europe?"

"Oh, I think...riots," I tried to remember anything about Eastern Europe in the late 1880's, early 1900's. Dull stuff about people who'd been dead a hundred years.

Yeah, I know enough about all the wars that happened then with the Communist revolution in Russia and all, but that historical stuff bored me out of my mind. How could Russians a hundred years ago affect us here in America, especially here at Connecticut U. today in 2003?

"Incorrect. Did you read chapter sixteen last night?" Professor Russo's dark eyes bore into me.

"Uh, yes, I did," I told him. Thank God, Mr. Russo bounced that pogrom question off another student and didn't grill me anymore.

I tried to keep my mind on the lecture as Daniel Scotts answered that question and rattled off about some leader named Nicholas or somebody being assassinated and all, but it was hard not to drift off again, especially since it was beginning to feel like spring outside.

"Verrrry good, Mr. Scotts..." Mr. Russo's voice droned as I watched the clock and waited for this snooze of a class to end.


I finally caught up to Randy later that afternoon after our classes and we talked a little about our day. It's too bad we didn't have any classes together this semester, but we always met for lunch and coffee, then met again after class.

Sometimes we go to one of our dorms or we'll go over to Logan or Melanie's dorm or the athletic quad. I could tell Randy had something on his mind as we headed back to his dorm. Sure enough, when we got back to the dorm, he showed me the notice he'd gotten to meet with the campus board this Friday.

"Oh, that again," I sighed, sitting on the bed.

"I'm sure it's just a few questions they're asking everyone involved in that election last fall," Randy told me as he sat and put an arm around me and we kissed. "But Melanie got one too and she's kind of freaked out over it."

"Oh, her..." I pulled away a little. "By the way, what was that all about?"

"What was..."

"I was passing by and saw you and Melanie outside Dwyer Hall," I told him. "Was Melanie...?"

"She wasn't flirting, if that's what you're asking," Randy laughed. "I know she's a big flirt, but she knows you and I are off limits."

"I guess..." I sighed. "I hope the board doesn't haul me in for questioning."

"They might, " Randy picked up a basketball and twirled it around a little. "But I wouldn't worry about it; it's just standard procedure. Don't be surprised if Melanie comes to you in a panic anyway." We both laughed.

"And Logan too," I added as I flopped back on the bed, giggling. Randy grinned and tossed the ball in the hamper, pretending to score a basket. I clapped softly.