Chapter 26: Tis The Season I
By Star and Victory Thru Tears
Connie's POVI dress carefully. I don't know why I'm making the effort. I don't want to go, and I can't imagine that I will be welcomed into the Banks' household with open arms.
I could tell my parents the truth. I could tell them that I'm off the team because I've been suspended, instead of pretending I'm injured. I could tell them that I'm no longer captain because of the way I was, instead of pretending that I wanted Guy to be captain instead. I could tell them that my scholarship hangs in the balance instead of pretending that everything's fine.
I could tell them a lot of things.
But I don't want to.
I don't like pretending either. But it's better than having to explain.
I suppose I could go tonight and pretend that I've changed my mind. That I think it's ok for the Queertet to be the way they are. But I can't. I'm good at pretending, but not that good. It makes me feel ill every time I think about it.
Maybe I shouldn't think about it so much. But it's hard playing hockey with them, seeing them and not thinking about it.
I think that maybe things wouldn't have gone so far if I hadn't had backing from certain people. Luis seems to have the same outlook as me, he can't deal with them at all. Not that I blame him, or any of the others that agreed with me.
It just seems so wrong that my friends are gay. Not that they're my friends any more.
I apply one more coat of lip gloss and appraise myself in the mirror. Not bad.
I hear a knock at my door. "Can I come in?" It's Luis.
"Sure."
He enters my room and shuts the door behind him. He looks me up and down and I feel kind of sick, like he's mentally giving me a score out of ten.
"You look amazing." He tells me, his custom charming smile in place.
"You too." I tell him with about as much sincerity has he gave me. "So why are you in my room?"
"Your Mom called up to you, but you didn't hear over your music." He gives me another smile. "So, are we ready?"
"Almost." I move to pick up a light cardigan to cover my shoulders, but Luis gets there first, holding it to slide my arms into. He presses his lips to my neck as he helps me into it.
I turn around to face him and wonder why we do this. He's still with his cheerleader girlfriend, and to be honest, I don't really like him.
Maybe it's because he's a guy, and generally considered good looking, and I miss being somebody's girl and will take what I can get. Even if it's a smarmy two-timing snake like Luis.
He presses his lips to mine and his arms wind around me, pulling me closer. I lose myself in the kiss, imagining my fingers are tangling in blonde hair, not black.
We break apart, he straightens his hair and I reapply my lip gloss.
I guess it's show time.
Maya's POVI'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that Taz slept the whole way. It's good because while she was asleep, I was left in peace to read or write. It's bad because now she's awake and re-energized for the party. We've only just entered Adam's neighborhood, and Taz is already going nuts. Wealth intimidates her, and when she gets intimidated, she becomes even crazier.
My parents were glad to drive the six hours to Minnesota for us to stay a few days with the Banks'. They have friends in St. Paul that they can stay with, and are enthusiastic on having a nice holiday by themselves, too.
Plus, my mom confessed to me that Taz is making her go insane.
We stop in front of the house that Adam had given me directions to. It's huge. My father pops the trunk and instructs us to 'Get out and have fun.' He's getting annoyed with Taz, too. She's been awake for the last half an hour, and hasn't shut up.
We grab our bags and Taz bounds up to the doorstep. My parents have already pulled away, eager to get away from us.
My girlfriend rings the doorbell repeatedly, hopping up and down. I roll my eyes, trying to smother my laughter.
"I bet that's Taz." I can hear a voice on the other side of the doorway.
"Who else would it be?" Adam asks as he opens the door. He's standing next to Fulton, and they both look amused.
"Here, Butler, take our bags. Where's Charles?" Taz shoves her bag into Adam's arms and runs off to find Charlie.
"Who wound her up?" Fulton asks as he closes the door behind me.
"She slept the whole way. I doubt she's going to shut up the entire night." I tell him, following them to wherever Taz has run off to.
We find her in a large room filled with chairs and sofas, on Charlie's back.
"Will someone get her off?" he whines as she giggles.
I grin, and attempt to get her to stop riding him like some sort of animal. He grins at me thankfully, and sweeps my girlfriend off of her feet in a hug.
As much as Charlie adores Taz, I don't think he likes me much. Maybe it's just my own paranoia, but he just doesn't seem to enjoy being around me.
I look around the rest of the room. All of the Ducks seem to be there, except Guy, Connie, and Luis. I doubt the latter two will show up, and I'm surprised to see Les Averman and Greg Goldberg sitting in a corner, conversing quietly. Adam wasn't lying when he said it was Duck tradition.
"So how was your Christmas, Dancing Queen?" Taz asks Adam.
I grin. We've been calling him that since the painkiller incident a few weeks ago. Adam gives her a look, and is about to answer when Charlie cuts him off.
"You can call him Material Girl too, he was singing that a few nights ago."
"Charlie!" Adam looks happily pissed off. Charlie laughs, and runs off. Adam chases after him, leaving Fulton, Taz and I.
"So where's your boyfriend?" I ask him. It comes out sounding stronger than I had intended, and Fulton gives me a scared look. I think he's still sore from the shopping expedition where I had basically pushed everyone around.
"He's in the kitchen, getting drinks for everyone." He answers cautiously.
"Ok." I grin at Fulton to let him know that I'm not in drill sergeant mode.
"I'm going to explore." Taz announces, starting to walk up the stairs.
"Come on, I don't trust her in a house this big, with all this breakable stuff around." I pull Fulton along with us.
"Hello!" Taz peeks her head into a room, and we see two bewildered looking adults staring back out at us. "I'm Taz McDonald. I'm sure Adam has told you all about me. Are you his parents? You look exactly like him! You must be very proud of him, he's an excellent lad. So good at hockey, excels in his studies-"
"Actually, I'm Charlie's mother." The curly-haired woman smiles.
"Oh, really!" You can see Taz's eyes light up. She takes a seat, and starts to chatter away.
"You know, I'm Charlie's girlfriend. We have big plans to get married soon. Has he talked to you about them? He was going to get you to sign a release so we can have the wedding the minute he turns sixteen. I'm already of age- been nineteen for four months now!"
Mrs. Conway is beside herself with giggles. Taz has definitely charmed them. She turns to Charlie's father.
"Has anybody ever told you that you look like Charlie Sheen?"
He laughs. "I get that a lot. I'm Charlie's old coach, Gordon Bombay."
"Oh, you're Coach Bombay! Yes, Charlie speaks of you all the time."
I decide that now would be a good time to pull Taz out of the embarrassing situation that she's already created for Charlie.
"Come on Tazzie, let's go put our bags away." Fulton helps me grab her, and we drag her away.
Portman's POVI've lost my boyfriend. From the noise and Charlie's occasional anguished yells I would surmise that Taz has arrived.
This house is huge and it's easy to lose people in. I decide to head down to the main room where most people are congregated. As I set out on my search for Fulton the doorbell goes again and Adam walks past me to answer it. I follow out of curiosity, I thought we were all here.
Adam opens the door. Connie and Luis are standing there. I exchange a look with Adam. He finds the words before I can.
"Come in."
"What?" I ask.
He elbows me in the ribs and I obligingly shut up.
"Come in." He repeats and usher them in. Connie, Luis and I are wearing identical expressions of shock.
"Have a good time." He adds cheerily as they wander into the main room.
I turn to him completely baffled. "Banksie, what the hell was that? Why didn't you slam the door in their faces."
He smiles at me. "I'm not going to sink to their level. This is a Ducks tradition. And besides they made the effort, they might have changed their minds."
I have to hand it to him, he doesn't just have money, he has class too.
"But just in case they haven't, you have my permission to throw them out as violently as you like at the slightest hint of their usual behaviour!"
I smile at him. "That's a good deal."
"Now, come with me and help me pry Taz from my boyfriend." He grins. "I can't take her on by myself."
I follow him and we find Taz sitting on Charlie's knee, talking at a mile a minute. It occurs to me that if she's sober now, I never want to see her drunk.
Maya comes up to us before we reach them. "Don't let her have anything with caffeine in, so no Coke or Pepsi – actually, no fizzy drinks at all. All that sugar isn't good for her either."
I laugh at Adam's worried face. This party is going to be interesting to say the least.
I walk over to Taz and Charlie and tap her on the shoulder.
She gives me a thousand watt smile and bounces off Charlie's lap into my arms. "Portman I've missed you!"
I see Charlie laughing, and most of the other Ducks looking either astonished or amused.
I try to disentangle myself from her with very little success. I feel her being tugged away from me and realise that Fulton's come to my rescue.
"Taz," he says. "You do realise that you're not straight, right?"
She nods enthusiastically.
"Then go find your girlfriend."
I snort as Taz bounds off towards Maya for yet another hug.
"Thanks for the bail." I tell him.
"Oh that wasn't for you." He assures me. "I don't like to share you."
I take his hand expecting a hush to fall over the room. It doesn't. The Ducks look fairly indifferent. Connie and Luis are making sure they only look at each other. I'm still shocked they came.
"Didn't think they'd be here." He says, following my gaze.
"Banksie says they might have come because they've changed their minds about us."
Fulton snorts contemptuously. "People like that never change." I know he's thinking about his parents.
"Well, we have permission to get violent with them if they're nasty." I tell him.
He smiles. "Well, that's ok then."
Charlie's POVI look on in horror as Taz downs the rest of her soda. Thank god Maya's not in the room- she would have a cow. The small Irish girl bounces around the room. She pulls Dwayne up from the floor and loudly asks him to teach her to square dance. The cowboy laughs, and obliges. I feel like I'm watching some sort of movie.
Portman and Fulton exchange a glance and walk towards her. Portman, the bigger of the two, picks her up and throws her over his shoulder. He walks towards the door, which Fulton opens for them. I follow curiously. Portman sets Taz down on the porch. Surprisingly, she's silent. Instead, there's a big, sugar induced, grin on her face.
"If you can't be calm, you're going to stay out here all night. You hear me?"
Taz nods. Portman comes back inside, leaving her on the front step. Taz throws herself against the closed door, singing what must be an Irish folk song. The Bash Brothers and I exchange glances, and shake our heads.
- + - + -
I let out a breath of relief as I enter the kitchen. Adam's sitting on the counter, giving me a cool stare. I was supposed to meet him in there about ten minutes ago, but Taz had once again gotten me tied up.
"Sorry about that." I tell Adam, hopping onto the counter next to him. "Taz got into some fairy lights, and managed to fully tangle herself in them. She's kind of like a puppy."
He nods and shrugs. Uh oh, two indifferent responses at the same time? Besides that, you try nodding and shrugging at the same time…it's hard work. Banksie's upset about something…
"What's up?" I ask him, reaching for a coke.
"Nothing." He doesn't meet my eyes when he says it.
"We could play this game for awhile, but lying doesn't really suit you. It makes your eyes get all fishy looking." I tell him, making it up off of the top of my head. Can eyes really get fishy looking? I don't know, but Banksie always gives in when you insult him.
"So whose boyfriend are you? Mine or Taz's?" He asks.
"Oh come on, Adam." I roll my eyes in disbelief. He's not serious?
"No, really. You're only spending time with her; you always only spend time with her. You're always in her dorm, you're always talking to her in lunch and dinner, the only time you spend time with me is at hockey practice, or at night, when you have to because we share a room. How do you think I feel about it? Oh, but I doubt you ever thought of that." He finishes bitterly.
I'm not sure how to defend myself. I shouldn't be opting for arguing, but I can't help it. Everything he's just said is completely untrue.
"What about you, you're always with Maya!" I snap back.
"Yeah, because of lack of choice. She hangs out with me because her girlfriend is off gallivanting with you."
"Look, I'm not going to fight. If you want to ruin Christmas, you do that. But I'm going to go have fun with my friends." I say, getting off of the counter.
"Yeah, that would be just like you, run off at the slightest sign of tension." Adam calls after me. I spin around, fuming.
"Don't start with me. You don't have to start acting like a baby just because I wasn't around you for five seconds."
"Whatever." Adam hops off of the counter and walks into the hallway.
Maya comes in as he's leaving. She gives me a look, letting me know that she's heard some of our quarrel.
"What?" I snap at her.
She backs up a little, her hands up in a defensive gesture.
"Sorry, didn't mean to look at you." She walks to the refrigerator, and takes out a soda. "Taz is looking for you."
I don't like the snooty tone in her voice.
"Oh, give me a break." I sneer as I leave the kitchen.