Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Bruce Lee, Sonny & Cher, Ike & Tina, James Brown and Arthur Murray belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film Remember the Titans belong to Disney. The title of this chapter comes from the 1971 song by Carole King (who absolutely ROX). The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City," the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Tommy James & the Shondells' "Crimson & Clover" all appear in my Good Morning, Saigon CD. Fists of Fury belongs to Bruce Lee's estate. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, their house, Tamsin's mother, the town of Drayton, Thaddeus McDonald High School and its football team, and assorted Titans and their friends. Oh, and Jim Frederick's nickname, "Footsteps," comes from The Replacements.
Introductory Remarks: Thanks to jess, Lioness, roxy and all the repeat reviewers for the encouragement; and very special thanks to Livia Liana, my football beta, for helping me beat the tar out of the game in this chapter.
02-20-03: To avoid having Tamsin whack Ronnie in the face with her trusty umbrella, I had to change the movie they saw. Thanks again to Livia Liana for wanting to know more about "Georgia Peach" — it isn't a movie about Ty Cobb like I thought; rather, it seems to be an adult film! Moral lesson of the story — research thoroughly, kids!
Chapter Ten — Brother, Brother
Where to begin?
Tamsin drummed her pencil on her notebook, stopping only when the soft tap-tap-tap began to pound in her temples. Instead of working on her next submission to the literary magazine, she had been staring at a blank page for over an hour.
She winced as a shrill blast from Coach Boone's whistle rang in her ears. Hanging around the Titans' practice was not helping. She wasn't looking for the kind of inspiration brought on by big, sweaty, grunting boys in tight pants. How did she end up freezing her rear off in the TC Williams football field instead of working in the nice, warm library, anyway?
"ALL RIGHT!" Coach Boone bellowed, clapping his hands. Tamsin could hear him quite clearly from her perch in the bleachers. "Good practice, everyone — Sunshine, that was some pass, boy!"
"What d'you expect?" Petey said loudly as the rest of the Titans applauded. She was able to hear him pretty well, too. "He's inspired!"
Tamsin arched an eyebrow at the football team as teasing cries of "Woohoo!" and "Taaaamsin!" drifted up to her. Her mouth twisted wryly and she blew a few kisses just to satisfy the onlookers before turning back to her blank page. "At least one of us is inspired," she murmured to herself.
Where was her inspiration? she wondered as the Titans trooped to the showers. Weren't people supposed to have the ideas coming out of their ears when they were in love?
After he was done with practice, she and Ronnie were going to see Fists of Fury. That was all Tamsin could think about. Maybe the anticipation was crowding out ideas.
Was she going to lose all her drive to write if they kept dating? She shuddered, then mentally shook herself. Don't be ridiculous.
"Hey, Tamsin."
Speaking of the devil. Tamsin smiled up at Ronnie, who'd just walked up to her, fresh from a post-practice shower. He was wearing a blue-gray sweater that matched his eyes. "Hi."
"Ready to go?"
"Almost," she replied, looking ruefully down at the blank paper before her. Tamsin wished she would have at least started something by the time they were to leave, but she had been too busy thinking about the upcoming date to do anything productive. And she was supposed to hand it in tomorrow! For a while, she was tempted to cancel so she could work.
Sorry, Ronnie, I can't go out with you. You're giving me writer's block.
She laughed as the sentences took root in her head. What a time to get an idea! "Just a minute," she said, beginning to write furiously. "I have to get something down."
"No problem," Ronnie said easily.
He watched her scrawl notes to herself, frowning slightly like she always did when she was hard at work. Tamsin looked up for a while to shoot him a small smile. "Don't worry, this won't take long."
"Like I said, no problem."
She scanned over what she had written, then smacked her pencil down. "OK, I'm done. Let's go."
"You sure?" he joked even as she began gathering her things together. He had once made the mistake of hurrying her through her writing, and she had been unable to concentrate on the date — or on him — all night.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Yes, I'm sure."
"All right then." Ronnie smiled at her and took her things, then her hand. "Come on."
They saw Fists of Fury as planned and he teased her about her possible kinship with Bruce Lee on the drive back to 125 Gartner Street. The Christmas lights strung along the eaves of the roof, up the posts and through the porch railings made it hard to miss the house. "Uncle Jon went a bit overboard," Tamsin noted sheepishly.
Ronnie laughed. "Guess he doesn't have much to decorate back in New York."
Mr. Graham was on the telephone when Ronnie and Tamsin entered the kitchen, stamping snow off their feet. He grinned when he saw them. "OK, Diana, you don't have to lose sleep tonight. Tam is home, safe and sound. I told you they wouldn't be out late — it is a school night, after all, and they're good kids."
Tamsin laughed and turned to Ronnie. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"
"No, thanks," he replied. "My mom will wait for me."
"Are you sure? All you have to do is eat," she cajoled. "It was Uncle Jon's turn to cook tonight."
Ronnie chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure. Some other time, alright?" He leaned over and kissed her quickly. "I'll see you in school tomorrow."
"He's leaving already," Mr. Graham reported to Tamsin's mother over the phone. "He just gave her a goodnight kiss. It was all very chaste, Diana; I told you they're good kids…"
"I think I'd better go," Ronnie mumbled, his face red.
"Yes, you should," Tamsin agreed, looking similarly embarrassed.
It took some doing, but Ronnie managed to look her uncle in the eye. "'Bye, Mr. Graham. See you in class tomorrow."
Mr. Graham grinned and held up his free hand. "Wait a minute, Sunshine. I'll walk you to your car—oh, Tam's mom says good night."
He smiled self-consciously. "Well, uh, good night to her, too."
"He says good night, too," Mr. Graham laughed into the receiver as Ronnie gave Tamsin one final nod, then turned to leave. "Hey, Tam, your mom wants to speak with you. I'll just go walk Sunshine to his car. We can't have him slipping and hurting himself — Coach Boone will kill me!"
Ronnie smiled as he and his teacher came out into the still winter evening. The eagerness in Tamsin's voice as she spoke to her mother carried all the way to the sidewalk.
* * *
On Friday, December 8th, the Titans were excused from their afternoon classes to travel to Drayton and defend their regional championship against the Thaddeus MacDonald High School Warriors. "They're a real tough team," Eddie noted on the bus ride to Drayton. "Would have made regionals last year, too, if they hadn't forfeited because of that flu epidemic."
"Hey, Sunshine; how's the leg?" Gerry asked quietly.
"Just fine, bro," Ronnie assured him. Despite his insistence that he was back at a hundred percent, and Boone's instructions not to be easy on him, everyone had been concerned about his condition leading up to the regionals. For a while there, Ronnie had been afraid that his own father was going to start carrying him around the house to avoid putting undue strain on the no-longer-injured leg. "I'm ready to start tonight."
"Still, you've got to be careful, man. You saw the game films — MacDonald has a guard who probably bites the heads off chickens in his spare time."
"It'll be cool, Gerry. I won't let him get near me." He grinned. "Besides, the offensive line is so scared I'll get killed that they shut down the defense in practice."
"We let them get away with it because we don't want you to get killed either," Gerry said defensively.
Ronnie chuckled. "Well, thanks."
Like the rest of the teams the Titans had faced during the past two seasons, MacDonald High was not yet integrated. The generous donation from one of Drayton's founding families that funded the school's brand-new, ultra-modern indoor football stadium had seen to that.
"At least they entertain guests in style," Blue observed as the Titans filed into the visitors' locker room, which boasted thickly padded benches and big, roomy lockers, "no matter what color they are."
"They'll probably fumigate first thing tomorrow morning," Big Julius said dryly.
"That won't stop me from enjoying their hospitality," the other boy replied, examining the whirlpool tub with great interest.
The mood was subdued as the Titans suited up. The stakes were now much higher, as this was a do-or-die playoff game; and despite the many game films they watched, the Titans still weren't sure how they would fare against the Warriors.
"Is Tamsin coming to the game?" Ryan asked Ronnie in the middle of strapping on his equipment.
"No." The other boy's blond hair fell in his face as he tugged on his cleats, putting the left one on first like he always did. "She wouldn't make the game in time even if she left right after school was let out."
"Couldn't she have ditched school to come with us?"
Ronnie forced a smile even though he definitely wasn't happy that Tamsin couldn't be at the game. "If she did, I wouldn't have anyone to borrow notes from."
Everyone had finished dressing when the coaches entered the locker room. "You're all on your feet," Coach Boone observed with a nod of approval. "I like that. To me, it means that we're ready for whatever is comin' our way tonight.
"And I know that y'all are ready to face MacDonald tonight," Boone went on. "We've spent the past week studying the Warriors' moves, matching their strengths and weaknesses against ours. The Titans are prepared for the Warriors, physically and mentally.
"But I think tonight is going to be won by heart. We have the strength and the skills, for sure; but in all our key games, it's been the team's heart that made all the difference between winnin' and losin'." The coach gestured toward Gerry, sitting on one side in his wheelchair. "Last year, it was Bertier who gave us our heart. We won for him. Tonight, I want you to win for Petey Jones."
Ronnie heard a small gasp from Petey, who was standing beside him.
A small smile played around the corners of Boone's mouth. "I may have found fault with his technique sometimes, but I have never doubted his heart. I hope all of you have learned about heart from him."
There was a short silence, and then Alan spoke. "For Petey," he said, smiling.
Big Julius looked at Gerry, then at Petey, and nodded decisively. "For Petey."
"For Petey!" Ronnie repeated along with the rest of the Titans, clapping his hands and grinning at his friend. For his part, Petey stood silently among his teammates, face red and eyes bright at the unexpected compliment from the exacting Coach Boone.
The Titans' coaches watched their boys jostle Petey's and each other's shoulder pads, pumped up for the game. "Good work inspiring the boys, Herman," Coach Yoast said quietly. "And good work putting pressure on my linebacker."
"Aw, he'll cope with it," Boone murmured back. "He's got heart, remember?"
* * *
It was a nail-biter from the opening kickoff. MacDonald intercepted a Titans pass and scored an authoritative touchdown early in the first quarter, but the Titans defense tied the score shortly after. "All right! Way to go, Julius!" Gerry cried, slapping his friend's hand as the Warriors called a timeout.
"Good work, defense!" Boone called, clapping his hands, while Yoast stood beside him, beaming proudly. "Offense, you're up next! Now, MacDonald drew first blood out there, but we came right back and cut them. What's important now is that they're the ones who keep bleeding! I want sticky hands out there — sticky hands!"
Boone got his sticky hands, all right. The ball rarely left the Titans' possession and, although the score remained tied, they slowly worked their way toward the Warriors' end zone.
"Ten yards," Ronnie said in the huddle sometime during the second quarter, "that's all we need to take the lead. Alan, we're going with you. We'll clear the way, but you'd better be prepared to jump right over someone's head if you need to."
Alan nodded. "You got it, Sunshine."
He grinned back. Besides Petey, Alan could teach them all a thing or two about heart as well. "All right, then. Let's go."
The small crowd of TC Williams supporters cheered as the Titans offense took the field. Ronnie took one look at his parents in the very front row, tamped down the disappointment that Tamsin couldn't be there, and squatted down behind the offensive line. "READY! GREEN 16! GREEN 16! Hut-hut!"
He took the snap and pitched the ball to Alan, who charged into the mass of Titans and Warriors. Moments later, Ronnie heard the whistle blow. He raised his arms, ready to celebrate, but the cheer died on his lips when he saw the Warriors celebrating and Alan slumped dejectedly on the ground. "What's going on?" he asked, jogging up to Eddie, who was standing on the fringes of the growing knot of people in the end zone. "Is Alan OK?"
Eddie's face was uncharacteristically tight as Boone ran over and began arguing with the referee. "The ref's saying he fumbled, but one of those jerks pushed him!"
Ronnie's heart sank when the Titans' head coach turned away, bellowing for a time out with a thunderous expression on his face. Not only did the call rob the Titans of a touchdown, but it also gave the Warriors possession of the ball.
Alan was obviously kicking himself when he walked by with Blue. "It's OK, man," the big black boy was saying. "You're didn't do anything wrong — look at how Boone was fighting with the ref!"
"That doesn't win us any points," the wiry blond boy replied.
"Not now, anyway." Ronnie fell into step with his teammates and pounded Alan's shoulder. "Don't lose heart, bro. We'll get it back."
But the bad call had dealt a serious blow to the Titans' morale. They were unable to regain possession for the rest of the quarter and trailed the Warriors by 14 points going into second half.
The Warriors weren't above rubbing the lead into their opponents' faces. They also weren't above taking the occasional cheap shot. There were insults against the black Titans and their mothers drawled across the line of scrimmage, surreptitious kicks and elbows, and one charming fellow on the Warriors defensive line even liked to spit on whoever was carrying the ball. (He got his own teammates a couple of times.) The one and only time the Titans tried to retaliate, Blue was given a ten-yard penalty for holding.
Boone erupted, and even Yoast was indignant. "He barely even touched him!" the normally serene defensive line coach roared from the sidelines.
"Man, this is like last year's regionals all over again," Ronnie murmured.
"Coach got pissed last year, too," Gerry reminded him as they watched Yoast snarl last-minute instructions to the Titans defense, "and we all know how that game turned out."
Indeed, just like last year, the talking-to from Yoast seemed to have lit a fire under the defense's feet, and they took the field with fresh determination.
"Hey, shut up, white trash!" one of the Warrior linemen snapped at Ryan, who had been whistling a little tune when he took his place on the field. "You're on our side of the tracks now!"
"First it's 'nigger,' now it's 'white trash,'" the blond boy observed coolly. "There's just no pleasing you, is there?"
"The only thing that's gonna please me is beating your sorry Titan asses into the ground."
"Well, then, let this be your first lesson in deferred gratification," Ryan said as the Warriors snapped the ball. He drove a shoulder into his opponent's midsection, taking him down. "Look it up if you don't know what it means."
After flattening the lineman with the big mouth, Ryan went for the quarterback, coming within a hair of sacking him. The Warrior QB fired a long bomb, and everyone watched as the ball sailed in a high arc toward one of his receivers.
Petey, however, had plans for that football. He picked off the pass before it could spiral into the opposing player's hands and ran 65 yards uninterrupted for a touchdown.
The Titans' bench went wild as the referee's whistle blew. "All right!" Gerry cried ecstatically, slapping hands with everyone within his immediate vicinity. "We ain't dead yet!"
"Great job, Petey!" Ronnie complimented his friend when the triumphant defense trooped off the field.
The black boy grinned at him. "Well, since y'all weren't winnin' the game for me, I figured I ought to win it myself."
"Hey, bro, we've still got a quarter to go. We'll win it for you yet."
* * *
If Yoast's little speech inspired the defense, it was the touchdown resulting from it that galvanized the offense. "Offense, are you gonna let the defense be more productive than you?" Boone demanded as the Titans clustered around him before the start of the fourth quarter.
"No way!" the offense thundered while Yoast and the defense looked on, grinning. Like the coaches, the players got on well with each other, but they couldn't help having a friendly offense-defense rivalry during game time.
Ronnie led his teammates onto the field, all of them determined not to let the defense — whether the Warriors' or the Titans' — get a leg up on them. "Green 49!" Ronnie called, ignoring the heckling coming from the other side of the scrimmage line. "Green 49! Hut-hut!"
Alan brushed by Ronnie after the snap. To the Warriors, it looked as if he had the ball. It was therefore a nasty surprise when the football was found under Jim's arm, and the speedy halfback was plunging down the middle, toward the end zone.
The Titans and their small crowd of fans roared their approval as he danced around two defenders to score a touchdown. "Way to go, Footsteps!" Blue cheered, giving Jim the nickname that would follow him all the way to the pros.
The almost back-to-back touchdowns apparently rattled the MacDonald High Warriors, forcing them to turn the ball over to the Titans more often than they would have liked. They suffered a failed field goal attempt and the score remained tied at 21 for the rest of regulation time.
"I want you all in the end zone," Boone instructed the Titans offense as the game went into overtime. "Sunshine is going to throw to one of you and I want you there to catch the ball."
The Titans' head coach took Ronnie aside as the offensive line ran onto the field. "Run for your life."
Ronnie gulped. He wasn't superstitious, but he had damaged his knee the last time he had run the ball himself. (Not to mention the first attempt during the season had gotten him tackled.) To have to do it again, and in a high-stakes game such as this, made him nervous. "Yes, sir."
The noise in the stadium faded away to a dull roar when he joined his teammates. This is it. "READY!" Ronnie called when he was in place behind the offensive line. "Green 49! Green 49! Hut-hut!"
The ball was snapped and Alan and Jim ran by him, thinking that they were going to run the previous pass action play again. He didn't pass to either of them, but the Warriors didn't find that out until after Ronnie himself was well on his way to the end zone.
It seemed awfully far away, even with him pouring all his energy into keeping his legs moving; and there seemed to be a lot of unfriendly people standing between him and a touchdown. Ronnie was dimly aware of someone yelling that the QB had the ball.
He prayed for sticky hands and leaped for the goal line as Warriors closed in on him from all directions. After a whirlwind of grunts and thuds, he again found himself at the bottom of a pileup.
Ronnie breathed in the smell of sweat and dirt and checked himself over as one by one, players were pulled off him. Mercifully, there was no unusual pain except for the football digging into his chest. Where's the goal line?
"Where's the ball?" he heard Blue asking as the last Warrior got off him. They found it in Ronnie's arms, resting a scant half-inch past the goal line.
The referee had just barely raised his arms when a tide of red jerseys stormed the end zone. "You all right, Sunshine?" Petey asked as Ronnie was dragged to his feet.
The blond boy grinned at the celebration going on around them. "I feel great." He clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Happy birthday, man."
* * *
Petey turned eighteen on the day that the Titans won the Northern Virginia Regional Championship for him. That Saturday, he threw a birthday-slash-victory party at his house.
"Summer in the City" was playing in Ronnie's car as he and Tamsin drove to the Joneses'. It was a crisp, cold afternoon and she was laughing at his attempts to sing along. "Ronnie, it's the dead of winter."
"Well, thinking about summer makes me feel warmer," he replied with a grin.
Tamsin chuckled. He hadn't stopped smiling since getting back from Drayton with the regional championship game ball. "That makes sense."
They were both singing along (badly) to "California Dreamin'" when they arrived. "So much for becoming the next Sonny & Cher," Ronnie joked as he rang the Joneses' doorbell.
The birthday boy himself answered the door only moments later. "Hey, y'all!" he crowed. "Come in!"
"Hey, man," Ronnie greeted his friend after they were yanked inside and divested of their coats. "Happy birthday again."
"Thanks, Sunshine," Petey replied, slapping the blond boy a low five, then turned to Tamsin. "Hey, there, Miss Tamsin."
She smiled. "Hi, Petey. Happy birthday, and congratulations on the great game. I'm still kicking myself for not being there to see it." She and her friends had watched it on TV at Emma's house, and Ronnie's parents were only too happy to lend Tamsin the home movie they had made of the game; but there was always something different actually being there to cheer on the team.
"You should!" he said, grinning and picking her up in a bear hug. "Just kidding, sweetness. Now, come on!" he urged as he put her down again. "Everyone's in the basement!"
The main floor of the house was filled with relatives, whom Mr. and Mrs. Jones had invited over to help celebrate. Petey's friends were down in the basement, where they could pretend that the adults weren't there. Several Titans were raiding the table laden with party food when they entered.
"Took y'all long enough," Big Julius said by way of a greeting.
"Someone was too busy singing to notice that he had made a wrong turn," Tamsin replied.
"I was not!" Ronnie said hotly as the others laughed.
"I didn't know you sang, Sunshine," Blue observed in surprise.
The blond boy grinned. "I do it only around people who sing as badly as I do."
Tamsin stuck out her tongue at him. "I'll sing to you again if you don't behave."
Gerry laughed. "Maybe if you had a duet, we'd have a snow day on Monday…hey, Alan," he greeted the wiry blond boy as he entered the basement with Lisa on his arm.
"Hey," Alan said, trading low fives with his friends. "Y'all know Lisa McAllister, don't you? Lisa, I'm sure you know the guys…and Tamsin Lee…" A look of uncertainty crossed his face when he remembered that the two girls sort of had a history.
"Yes, I do," the brown-haired girl said, smiling. "Hi, guys. Hi, Tamsin," she added cordially.
"Hi, Lisa," Tamsin replied with a civil smile of her own.
"Um, have you seen Emma around?"
"No, I'm afraid not. I just got here myself."
"Oh, she's right over there," Gerry said, pointing to a couch in one corner of the room, where his girlfriend sat with Robin and the Hunter twins.
"Thanks. I think I'll go over and say hi. Would you please excuse me?" Lisa touched Alan's arm. "See you later."
"Uh, Tamsin, I hope you don't mind that I brought her here," Alan said quietly after the other girl had gone. "I forgot that you had some problems with—"
"Hey, it's OK," she assured him. "If you like being with her, that's all that matters. It's not like we hate each other so much that we'll have a catfight the minute you put us in the same room together."
"I'd love to see that, though," Blue remarked, and Ronnie promptly slugged his shoulder.
Tamsin ignored that and smiled at Alan. "It was nice of you to think of me, though…however belatedly."
* * *
Since it was a team celebration, the Titans' coaches naturally dropped by to take part in the festivities. Ronnie found himself sitting up a little straighter as Boone and Yoast moved around the room, exchanging pleasantries with their students.
Tamsin felt the tension in his body and laughed. "Ronnie, this is a party," she told him. "Relax! They won't bench you for slouching."
"You'll never know with those two," Blue said.
"Sorry. We just can't help it." Ronnie relaxed a bit and smiled as Tamsin settled against his side again. It amazed him how well they fit together. When seated, her shoulder fit perfectly into the cup under his arm, and her head was just high enough to tuck under his chin. It felt nice to be able to hold her like this, even if other people would probably just shrug it off as a matter of relative size.
He tensed again and she nudged him as Yoast approached their group. "Well, hi, there, boys," the coach said with a smile. "And girls," he added, nodding toward Tamsin and Big Julius' Sharon.
"Good evening, sir," Tamsin replied politely.
"Is your uncle here, Miss Lee?"
She shook her head, her hair swishing like silk over Ronnie's hand. "Ronnie gave me a ride here."
"Oh, please!" Blue exclaimed, exasperated. "Girl, why don't you say that the two of you are here together? It's the truth, anyway!"
Tamsin shot the big black boy a dirty look as Yoast chuckled. Big Julius quickly changed the subject. "Did you bring Sheryl, Coach?"
"She and Nikki are right upstairs playin' with some of Petey's little cousins. I should be goin' up there in a while to see that she hasn't made any of them cry yet." The coach surveyed them all with a paternal smile. "So, final exams are comin' up. I hope y'all are getting ready for them…?"
Ronnie and the Titans all nodded. Their coaches insisted on maintaining high standards even in academics, and TC Williams High School expected its athletes to work hard just like everyone else.
"Hey, man," Blue told Big Julius, "you can still help me with Social Studies, right?"
"Oh, Tamsin, Emma's calling us," Sharon said as her boyfriend agreed to meet Blue in the library after school on Monday. The black girl pointed over to where Emma stood next to the record player. "Looks like she finally chased Alan away."
"Thank God," Blue breathed.
Tamsin laughed. "Would you excuse us?" she asked Yoast and the boys.
"Of course," the coach replied courteously.
"It was nice seeing you, sir." She smiled at Ronnie and patted his knee as she got up. "See you later."
Gerry and Boone later joined Ronnie and his friends. They all chatted for a while before Boone and Yoast moved on to trade jokes with Jim, Ryan and Eddie, all of whom stood up straighter at the coaches' approach. "Hey," Big Julius chuckled, jerking his thumb in the direction of the dance floor. "Look over there."
Emma, Tamsin and Rev's girlfriend Cat were dancing to Ike & Tina with Petey's young cousins, who had probably sneaked in from upstairs. "Oh, no, here come Rev and Ryan!" Blue cried as the two boys joined them. "And there goes Alan! Man, I've known him for a year and a half now and he still dances like a grasshopper havin' a seizure!"
"Come on, Blue, he ain't that bad," Gerry laughed. "He's havin' a good time and that's what matters."
Tamsin looked like she was having a good time, too, Ronnie thought as he watched her bump hips with one of Petey's cousins, who was just about as tall as she. She was flushed and laughing, the way she had been after dancing with his friends at Homecoming. He wondered if she would look the same way for him.
Before he knew it, he was on his feet and walking toward her. "Is this Sunshine I see before me?" Ryan teased as Ronnie joined them. Gerry and Blue were cheering him on from the sidelines.
"Someone take a picture!" Alan hollered, making Lisa laugh. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment!"
Ronnie made a face at his friends. Unlike the other boys, he wasn't that fond of dancing. This was probably the first time ever that the Titans were going to see him on a dance floor. "Shut up."
It wasn't as bad as he feared. He definitely didn't know how to do the James Brown-style shuffling that Rev was doing, but he managed to keep up with the rhythm. The trick was to look like you knew what you were doing; and if you didn't, make it look like you messed up on purpose. Ryan had them all in stitches with the crazy dance moves he kept trying out.
Ronnie faked his way through a couple of fast songs before the lights grew dim and someone put on "Crimson & Clover." Petey's cousins ran upstairs giggling as people began to pair off.
He turned to Tamsin and held out his arms. She smiled shyly and stepped into them. "You looked real good back there," he told her as he drew her close. Tamsin was warm from dancing and her perfume hung in a sweet, heavy cloud around them.
"You weren't bad yourself," she replied, smiling up at him.
Ronnie chuckled. "Well, thank you."
Slow dancing was easy. You didn't have to follow a set of steps like Arthur Murray did; in fact, you barely had to move at all. All you had to do was sway around a bit, face another direction every so often, and drag the girl around with you. (And watch where you put your feet.)
He stepped away, somewhat dismayed, when Tamsin withdrew her arms from around his shoulders. "Hey, come back here," she said as she put them around his waist instead and laid her head back on his shoulder. "Sorry. In case you haven't noticed, you're kind of tall. The blood was draining out of my arms."
"Now that's excellent dance-floor conversation," he laughed.
"I just want to make our first dance together memorable."
Ronnie laid his cheek on hers. "You don't have to say anything to make it memorable. And now that I know that you like dancing and there isn't much to it, I might do it a bit more often."
She chuckled. "I might not be worth it. Like I said before, I'm too tense to be graceful."
Ronnie grinned, remembering the day she had told him that. "And like I said before, there's nothing wrong with the way you move."
Concluding Remarks: Now I really need to get back to writing! I'm afraid it's going to be a while, but coming next, we're going to have some Christmas fluff and the state championship game!