Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film Remember the Titans belong to Disney. The VW Bug belongs to Volkswagen. This chapter is named after the 1967 Doors song — it's older than the song titles I usually use, but perfect for my purposes. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, various TC Williams High students and personnel, and Miranda's parents. I also own Ronnie's orange juice, but he can have it.
Introductory Remarks: Thanks to Akila Blakemore and flybirdfly (I uploaded the last chapter right before I read your reviews) and to my "loyal readers"! Since Rhia spoke so eloquently on your behalf, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter Eight — Break On Through (To the Other Side)
"You bitch!"
Tamsin blinked at the angry redhead standing before her. She'd just come from her very first kiss and was still a little light-headed. "Are you talking to me?"
"Damn right I am." Miranda glared at her, fists clenched, obviously spoiling for a fight. "You're here with Sunshine!"
That got everyone's attention and a crowd began to gather. "Oh, that," Tamsin said. Maybe someone saw her drag Ronnie out of the gym, or one of the Titans told Miranda, or something. It didn't matter. "Yes, I'm here with him. So?"
"So, you should have told me!"
"What for?" Tamsin retorted. Ronnie pushed his way through the crowd but she held him off with one hand. She then folded her arms and looked coolly up at the redheaded girl. "It was none of your business."
"It is too my business!"
"I hate to break this to you, honey, but what goes on between him and me has nothing to do with you."
"But you knew I wanted him back! You should have told me!"
"Why, because we're friends? Please." Everything Tamsin had ever wanted to say to Miranda suddenly bubbled up into her throat, demanding to be let out. She fought to keep her cool. Speaking slowly bought her time to organize her thoughts. "If I had told you the day after he asked me, we would have had this pleasant little scene a lot sooner. But that would have been better, wouldn't it?" Tamsin asked. "I would have been rid of you and your ladies-in-waiting, for one thing; and you wouldn't be having this hissy-fit in front of so many people, for another.
"And even if you'd known that we'd come here together," she went on, "I don't think that would have stopped you from hogging him all night. Some friend."
Miranda turned red. "'Some friend' is right! Some friend you were — all this time I was helping you, and you've been going behind my back! What kind of lies did you tell him about me?"
"We never talked about you!" Tamsin snapped. "And excuse me, I let you send all the signals you wanted and I let Ronnie make his choice. When he asked me to Homecoming, I told him you wanted to go with him." She shrugged. "Sorry, but even when he had the chance to ask you, he still asked me."
"Aaaawwww!" several male voices chorused. Tamsin was fairly certain that they were all Titans.
"I don't believe you," Miranda snarled.
"You can ask him if you want. He's right over there."
She bit her tongue as the redheaded girl turned to him. Ronnie was definitely nicer than Tamsin was, and he did have a history with Miranda. Maybe he wouldn't answer any questions put to him.
Then Miranda suddenly turned back to her, murder in her eye, one hand raised. "Fight!" someone yelled delightedly.
Tamsin blocked the blow before it could connect, wrapping Miranda's forearm around her own and trapping the other girl's hand in the crook of her elbow. Miranda's nails were digging painfully into her skin and Tamsin was afraid she would end up breaking her own arm, but she held on. She refused to give her opponent the satisfaction of landing a hit.
Miranda's other hand came up and Tamsin caught that, too. "Look, Ronnie's a really nice guy," she said calmly, tightening her hold, "but I don't see the need to brawl over him!"
"But he's mine!" Miranda cried.
Oh, no, she was starting to snivel. "Well, you're embarrassing him and you're embarrassing yourself by carrying on in public like this," she pointed out in a low, clipped voice. It was actually embarrassing Tamsin, too, but she didn't think Miranda cared too much about her right now. "So instead of pursuing your little melodrama and absolutely ruining your chances of ever getting Ronnie back, why don't you just get out of my face, go sit down somewhere and maybe take a Valium?"
"Go to hell!"
That did it. All patience finally gone, Tamsin hissed something unladylike under her breath and shoved Miranda away from her as hard as she could, sending the redheaded girl flying right into a couple of bystanders. The dainty little purse that had dangled from Miranda's elbow all through the incident finally slid off her arm. It fell and disgorged a pack of cigarettes that flew across the floor before hitting a highly polished black dress shoe.
The owner of the dress shoe bent down to pick it up. "Ladies," Mr. Hilliard said as he tucked the cigarettes into his jacket pocket, "please be in my office first thing Monday morning."
* * *
The squat shape of the telephone wavered as Ronnie viewed it first through the bottom of his glass, then through the side, and then over the top of it as he put the empty glass down on the counter.
He'd vowed to call after he finished his orange juice.
But the carton wasn't quite empty yet.
"Quit it," he muttered to himself. "The longer you put it off, the harder it'll be." Dragging the telephone across the counter, Ronnie dialed Mr. Graham's number before he could stop himself and took a deep breath as he listened to the ringing on the other end of the wire.
Tamsin picked up after a few rings. "Hello?"
"Hey, Tamsin. It's Ronnie."
"Oh. Hi, Ronnie." She didn't sound as happy to hear from him as she usually did, but after what went down at Homecoming last night, he didn't blame her.
"I just wanted to know if you were OK. I mean, after…uh, you know…last night."
"Oh. Well, I'm fine, thanks for asking." She chuckled briefly. "The sun still came up this morning and I'm still alive."
He smiled. "That's good to hear. How are your arms?"
"My arms?"
"Yeah, your arms." There had been red marks on them last night, where Miranda had held her tightly and maybe even scratched her.
"They're fine. No bruises or anything."
"Good. So…" He drummed his fingers on the countertop. "You have to go to Hilliard's office tomorrow."
"Hmm."
"D'you suppose he'll give you detention?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe Mr. Graham can get you out of it." Tamsin's uncle had been very nice about the incident on the ride home last night. He hadn't looked or sounded angry — he hadn't mentioned it at all, in fact.
"No. It wouldn't be ethical to ask Uncle Jon to get me out of detention just because he's a teacher."
"But Miranda took the first swing."
"Well, I'm sure Mr. Hilliard has some nice surprises for her, too."
Ronnie moved his glass in little circles over the counter surface. "Look, I'm sorry she had to put on a scene like that—"
"Don't apologize. It's not your fault she's a psycho." She barked out a laugh. "I should be the one apologizing. I mean, you got dragged into this whole mess."
"Tamsin, if what Miranda said about wanting me back is true, then I was involved in that mess even before you came here."
She was quiet for a moment. "Well, besides that, I also put you on the spot about, you know, what I said when you asked me to Homecoming. It's a good thing she didn't force you to answer."
"I would have told the truth."
"Oh." Her voice lightened and Ronnie could imagine her smiling. "Well, thank you. Um, Ronnie," Tamsin said after a moment's pause, "I have to go. We're going to church."
"Alright. I guess I'll see you in school, then."
"Guess you will. 'Bye."
* * *
Ronnie got more than his usual share of curious stares as he walked up the front lawn to school the next morning. Well, the incident at Homecoming last Saturday was going to be pretty hard to forget, he thought. People were probably still going to be talking about it at their hundredth high school reunion.
He caught sight of someone who, instead of slowing down to gawk at him like everyone else, was walking quickly past. He didn't need to see the long hair streaming behind her like a banner to know that it was Tamsin, preparing to do battle.
"Hey, Tamsin!" Ronnie called, starting after her. His injury slowed him down a lot, however, and she marched up the front steps without a backward glance.
"Don't try to run after her, man," Gerry said as he rolled up next to him. "You don't want to make that knee any worse."
"Yeah," Big Julius echoed. "You'll get the chance to talk to her later."
"She didn't even look at me," Ronnie said.
In fairness to Tamsin, she didn't snub him on purpose. She didn't hear him call her name at all, being too busy thinking about her appointment with Mr. Hilliard. Uncle Jon would be there, she told herself. While they'd agreed that he wouldn't use his position as a teacher to lessen or remove her punishment, she was sure he wouldn't let the principal kill her. You're exaggerating, Tamsin.
On her way to the principal's office, she stopped by her locker to drop off the things she wouldn't need until her afternoon classes. Tamsin quickly checked her schedule to make sure she had everything for her morning classes, then shut her locker to find Ray Budds smirking at her. "Yes?"
"Thought you might want to know the good news," he drawled. "The wrestling team's opening a spot for you."
"Oh." She smiled coolly. "I guess they had no reason to keep you around any longer. Sorry, Ray."
Tamsin hurried off to the principal's office before he could reply. She wasn't in the mood for any kind of confrontation with that jerk. She also didn't have the time.
Uncle Jon was already in Mr. Hilliard's office when she arrived. He was standing on one side of the room, talking quietly to the principal, while Miranda and her parents stood together on the other side, watching them suspiciously.
Mr. Hilliard was the first to notice her presence. "Ah, Miss Lee is here," he said in his rumbling voice. "Now we can begin."
"Finally," Tamsin heard Mrs. Fleming mutter as they took their seats before the desk.
"Alright." The principal cleared his throat and shuffled through some papers. "Well, I think you know why you have all been called here — our young ladies were involved in a little incident at last Saturday's Homecoming Dance. It was the first-ever Homecoming Dance for TC Williams High School, and I must say it was very memorable, although not in the way that I had hoped.
"Ladies," he addressed Tamsin and Miranda gravely, "you've had all day yesterday to think about what you've done. I trust that you both understand that your actions reflected poorly on the school, your families and yourselves, and that these must not go unpunished. You will each serve detention after school beginning today until Wednesday, and this will, of course, go on your permanent records."
Tamsin nodded silently. She had hoped that she would only get detention for one day, but what the heck. It wasn't like she had plans for after school, anyway. Her only worry now was how the blot on her record might affect her chances of getting into a good college. Maybe they'd consider the fact that it was a first offense.
"Why should they get the same punishment?" Mr. Fleming demanded. "Shouldn't the girl who started it —" and the look he gave Tamsin let her know exactly whom he thought started it "—get a more severe punishment?"
Mr. Hilliard cleared his throat again — he loved to do that — and nodded. "Yes, well, there is also the problem of this." And he laid a pack of cigarettes on the table in front of him.
"That's not mine," Tamsin blurted out. "Uh, I'm not saying it's hers," she added quickly. "Just that it's not mine."
"I know it's not yours, Miss Lee," the principal said. "And I saw where it came from. I'm afraid, Miss Fleming, that in addition to your three days' detention, I must also suspend you from cheerleading for the next month." He tapped the cigarette carton meaningfully.
Mr. and Mrs. Fleming rounded on their daughter as Uncle Jon tugged at Tamsin's hand, signaling that it was time for them to leave. Mr. Hilliard nodded to them and they hustled out of the office, leaving the Flemings behind.
"Well, compared to what Miranda's getting," Uncle Jon said as the secretary wrote up a late pass for Tamsin, "I'd say three days' detention isn't so bad."
"Yeah." Tamsin thought of the chilling looks the Flemings had given Miranda and shuddered. "It isn't."
* * *
The cafeteria didn't exactly lapse into a dead silence when Tamsin entered it that lunchtime, but she got her fair share of stares and whispers. What had happened last Saturday was definitely more humiliating than her spectacular entrance in Homeroom on the first day of school, but the way to deal with it was the same — keep your head up and pretend that nothing's bothering you. She also briefly considered blowing a few flippant kisses at the gawkers and at Miranda's friends, who were walking past her with their noses stuck ostentatiously in the air. No autographs, please.
Tamsin ran into Robin and Corey while looking for a place to sit. "Hey, Tamsin," Corey said with a friendly smile.
"Hi," she replied politely.
"Do you wanna sit with us?" Robin asked. She gestured toward a table occupied by Liz and a couple of other people whom Tamsin knew wrote for the school paper. "It's guaranteed Miranda-free."
Tamsin laughed. "Thanks, but I kind of feel like being by myself today. Maybe another time?"
"Just show up and we'll make a place for you," Corey told her.
She smiled. "Thanks."
Tamsin wound up taking the empty table near the tray return. No one really liked to sit there because the noise made it hard to carry on a conversation, but she didn't have anyone to talk to, anyway.
She was only a few bites into her lunch when someone snatched the book right out of her hand. "Hey there, baby sugar!" Petey grinned down at her, dangling the paperback over her head. "What are you doin', sittin' here all by yourself? Come on, sit with us!"
"Uh…no, thanks." Tamsin pretended not to see Emma and Ronnie smiling encouragement at her from the Titans' table. "I'm all set right here."
"You sure? You ain't got no one to talk to back here."
"That suits me just fine," she replied pleasantly. "I don't really feel like talking to anyone right now." She gave him a small smile. "May I have my book back?"
Petey pouted but didn't push the issue. He pretended to hand her book over, snatching it away at the last minute, a few times, before finally letting her take it from him. "You'd better sit with us tomorrow."
"We'll see about that," she called after him, grinning as he stalked away.
It was a nice, quiet lunch despite the noise from the tray return. Maybe it would have been nice to sit with Emma and the Titans, but Tamsin really needed some time by herself. The solitary lunch was a declaration of independence from Miranda's clique.
She went to the library after finishing her food. For the first time in over two months, she did not have to follow the flock and it felt good. The air in the library was kind of musty from all the books, but it was smoke-free. Blessed quiet.
Almost. "Tamsin!" a female voice hissed just a few moments later.
"Sssshhh!"
Tamsin looked up at the sound of her name and saw Emma walking toward her, looking apologetically at the librarian. "Hi," the blonde girl whispered as she approached. "May I join you?"
She shrugged. "I guess so. Bathroom session's over already?" Tamsin asked, checking her watch as the other girl took the seat across from her.
"I didn't go," Emma told her.
There was a trace of disgust in the reply that almost made Tamsin smile. "Smart move."
The blonde girl opened her Social Studies book and ran a studious finger down the page. "So…how did it go in the principal's office this morning?"
"Fine. I got three days' detention, if that's what you want to know."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's not as bad as what Miranda's getting."
"I still don't see why you had to get punished, too. She started it. Couldn't you argue self-defense?"
"I couldn't. The minute I sat down, he started giving out punishments."
"Oh." Emma drummed her pencil on the tabletop before looking at Tamsin again. "You never did like Miranda, did you?" she asked quietly.
"I wouldn't say 'never,'" Tamsin replied. "I mean, she was nice at the very first, but when she started throwing her weight around…" She made a face and shook her head. "And those friends of hers…" Her voice trailed off as she realized to whom she was speaking. "Sorry. They're your friends, too. Let's just say I just don't get along with them, all right? I'm the one with the problem."
The other girl was silent for a while. "No," she said finally. "You shouldn't change who you are just so you can get along with other people. I mean, if you can't…then you just can't."
"Thank you."
Emma leaned over her book. "But you ain't mad at me, too, are you?"
"Why, because you're Miranda's friend? No." Tamsin gave her a small, reassuring smile. "What's between me and Miranda has nothing to do with you."
"So we can still be friends?"
"If you want to," she replied slowly. The truth was, Tamsin wanted to be friends with Emma very much, but she had to give Emma the choice. "The others might not want you hanging out with them anymore, though, if—"
"Oh, pooh." The blonde girl made a face and an impatient noise. "Maybe I don't want to be with them anymore, either. Gerry's part of who I am, you know, and you were the only one who understood that."
"They were nice to him, too."
"But not like you." Emma smiled hopefully at her. "I don't want to lose your friendship, Tamsin. Maybe we can…study or have lunch together, just the two of us, or talk on the phone sometimes?" She grinned. "Maybe even double date?"
Tamsin found herself grinning back. The idea of having a friend did that to a person. She would deal with the possibility of double-dating later. "It's a deal," she said, "so long as you also promise never to call me Tammy."
The girls giggled, earning them another loud "Sssshhhh!"
* * *
She hadn't spoken to him, hadn't even looked at him, all day.
Ronnie fought to remain focused on Mr. Graham's lecture that afternoon, but thoughts about Tamsin kept niggling at him. Is withdrawal this bad?
He rocketed out of his seat when they were dismissed. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he tried to catch up with her, but she didn't even turn around when he called her name. "Oof! Sorry about that," Ronnie apologized when he accidentally walked into someone's back on his way to the front of the classroom.
The person he had bumped into turned around. It was Ray, and he didn't look happy at being jostled. "Hey, sorry, man," Ronnie repeated, stepping away.
Ray still looked annoyed. Maybe he always looked like that, Ronnie thought. He couldn't recall ever seeing any other kind of expression on the other boy's face. "I'd stick to my kind if I were you, Sunshine," Ray told him.
"That's the kind of mindset that produces rednecks," Ronnie replied coolly. "Now, don't you have better things to do than stand around and make bigoted remarks?"
The other boy snorted. "Fine, go off and have little Jap babies. It's your funeral."
"Tamsin's Chinese," Gerry said as he wheeled up next to Ronnie. "Didn't you hear her the first time?"
"Apparently not," Blue remarked. "But then you have to tell Budds something a couple of times before it sinks in, right?"
Ray glared at his former teammates. "Y'all think you're so funny?"
"And you think you're so smart?" Rev jumped in, sounding uncharacteristically sharp. There had been rumors that Ray was responsible for the injury that had taken Rev out of the lineup last year, and it seemed as if the Titans' former quarterback wasn't in the mood to forgive and forget that afternoon. "There's more than your kind in this world, brother; and if you can't live with that, then you're going down."
Just then, Mr. Graham arrived on the scene. "Problem here, boys?" he asked mildly.
"No, sir," Gerry told him. "We were just exchanging ideas about genetics."
"Well, would you mind taking it outside? The custodian should be coming any minute now and we don't want to be in his way."
"There's no need for that," Ray said. "The discussion's over."
"See you on Wednesday, then." The teacher smiled as he left the room, then turned to the other boys. "Tamsin's in detention," he told them.
"Yeah, we know," Gerry said. "Until Wednesday. Emma told us."
"You'll have to wait until after that if you want to talk to her," Mr. Graham went on. "Maybe you can just call her tonight."
"I think I'll wait, if that's all right," Ronnie mumbled, blushing at the teasing hoots from his friends.
The teacher smiled at him. "Sure thing, Sunshine."
"What'll you do 'til then?" Gerry wanted to know as they made their way out of the classroom.
"I think I'll go to the weight room," Ronnie said. "There's a punching bag in there and I feel like hitting something."
"I'll join you," Rev said, then grinned. "But after that, you're on your own."
After almost an hour whaling away at the punching bags, Rev regained much of his good humor. Ronnie, however, remained wound up even after he had said goodbye to his friend. He'd had a lot on his mind since Homecoming and the thought of talking to Tamsin face to face frankly didn't help improve things. Still, maybe getting it all off his chest this afternoon would make him feel better.
Or crush him forever.
He saw her coming down the hall just moments after he shut his locker. "Tamsin!" he called resolutely, walking toward her. They were the only two people in the hall and there was no way she could pretend to not have heard him.
She stopped at her locker and dumped her books inside. "Hi, Ronnie."
When he finally came to a stop, he found himself at a loss for words. "Uh…how was detention?" he asked. Smooth, Bass, real smooth.
Tamsin shrugged. "Fine." She shut her locker. The door still hadn't been fixed — she lifted it slightly before closing it, just the way he had shown her on the first day of school. "I got all my homework done even with Miranda trying to stare holes into my head."
Ronnie ignored the last remark. He wasn't there to talk about Miranda. "May I take you home?" he asked. "I didn't bring a car — I can't drive with this leg yet — but I can ride with you on the bus…if you want."
She gave him a small smile. "That would be nice."
All the leaves had long since fallen off the trees and the late afternoon air had a winter bite. "It should be snowing soon," Ronnie observed as they walked to the corner bus stop.
The driver greeted them warmly when they got on — everyone knew the Titans in Alexandria — and took seats near the front. Since most of the students had already gone home and most of the people working in town weren't due out for another hour, the bus was almost empty.
"Why didn't you tell Miranda about us?" Ronnie asked her quietly when the bus began to move.
Tamsin blushed. She briefly considered asking him why he hadn't told Miranda, but it made sense that she be the one to break the news, since she was the one who had been around Miranda more often. "I didn't know there was an 'us' to tell her about," she replied.
"Sure there is." He looked hurt. "We've gone out, haven't we?"
"That doesn't mean anything. I mean, it was special to me and I had a great time with you and everything," she explained hastily, "but it doesn't mean that, you know, we have a hold on each other."
"It does to me."
Her eyes widened and suddenly she couldn't look at him straight. Ronnie remembered the way she had acted on her porch the night of the Titans' first game, when he'd told her that he liked her. He remembered her telling him she'd never had to deal with boy-girl stuff like this before. "Tamsin? Talk to me."
But she didn't speak again until after they had gotten off the bus. "I had to give you the choice," she said carefully as they walked down Gartner Street.
"So you push me away and don't tell anyone that we've gone out?"
"It's not that I didn't want people to know. I wanted to be realistic about things."
"It's a fact that we've gone out. I'd say admitting to it would have been realistic."
Tamsin hugged her books to herself but he took them from her. "I didn't want to flatter myself into thinking I had the right to cling to you like some spineless, I don't know, jellyfish or something."
"Well, since we're an 'us,' you can cling all you want. In fact, I'm looking forward to it."
She blushed. "But are you looking forward to what people are going to say about you and me…us? I've hung around Miranda and her crowd long enough to know what kinds of things they say about people who cross them. I'm not going to put it past them to start all kinds of nasty rumors about us."
"I'm sure whatever those girls had to say has already been said today, and I don't give a damn what people think. I thought you didn't, either."
"I don't. I was just thinking about you."
He grinned. "So you do care about me?"
"Yes." Tamsin's cheeks burned. "I do. I never said I didn't."
"You had me at 'yes.'"
Her eye fell on the scar on his chin. She'd never noticed it before. It was small enough not to be disfiguring, but big enough to make him less than pretty. Ah, well, who wanted a pretty boy, anyway? "What happened here?"
"Fell out of a tree when I was a kid." Ronnie pressed his lips to her fingertips when she reached up to touch it. He was leaning in to kiss her when Uncle Jon's chartreuse VW came chugging down the street.
Tamsin leaned away, alarmed. "Uh—"
He gave up and laughed, but didn't let go of her hand. "Just once I'd like to kiss you without interruption," he said. "Wanna go out Friday night?"
* * *
Ronnie went back to his tai chi the very next day. "Ain't it a bit soon for you to be startin' that up again, man?" Petey asked as he and some of the other Titans stopped by. "Won't it hurt your bad knee?"
"It's gotten a lot better over the weekend," Ronnie replied as he turned and executed a Double Lotus Swing. "And Dr. Weston said I should start strengthening it at around this time, anyway."
"When do you think you can start practicing again?" Gerry asked.
The blond boy grinned at his friend. "I think I'll be up to it next week."
"But you should clear it with Weston first," Big Julius reminded him.
Ronnie took the time to toss off a flippant salute. "Of course, captain."
"Someone's in a good mood today," Gerry then observed in an amused voice. "I trust the little talk with Tamsin went well?"
He grinned. "Yeah, it went OK."
The other boy grinned back. "Glad to hear it."
"Am I going to hear all about this 'little talk' later?" Petey wanted to know.
"Maybe," Ronnie replied evasively, turning again and throwing a fist.
Big Julius chuckled. "Oh, Petey'll get it out of you, one way or another. Come on, y'all; let's go inside. Later, Sunshine."
"Yeah, see ya, bro."
They left Ronnie to his tai chi and entered the building, coming across the usual group of Sunshine watchers in the stairwell. "He is so cute," one girl sighed.
"I'm so glad to see he's starting to get better," her friend said.
Petey rolled his eyes at his friends. "Aww, man! Can't y'all get it through your pretty little heads?" he asked, exasperated. "Y'all ain't got no chance with Sunshine!"
"Why, because he's from California?" a sophomore asked, turning to him with an eyebrow raised.
The black boy looked over their shoulders and grinned. "No, baby sugar," he replied, pointing to where Ronnie stood talking to Tamsin. As they looked on, he took her books, then her hand, and started with her toward the school building. "Ol' Sunshine's already taken!"
Concluding Remarks: Well, they've sorted things out, but this story isn't over by a long shot! Unfortunately, I'm uploading faster than I can write (thanks to the great reviews!), so it'll be a little while before the next chapters will be up. I need time to write! Stay tuned, though — up next, Sunshine receives a phone call and Lewie Lastik comes to visit!