"A girl who'd wait for the third time around, head in the clouds feet on the ground,
She's a girl he's glad he's found, she's his Shipoopi."
---Shipoopi, The Music Man
A few weeks later Summer sat in the computer lab, along with the rest of her drama class, attempting to finish the Roman History paper that was due for History that afternoon.
"Oh my god!" She heard Counterman exclaim from behind her, "Sophia Coppola is dating Quentin Tarantino!"
"She used to be married to Spike Jones?" Jackson asked
"I get it now." Wasman said shaking his head, "She dates these awesome directors and she steals all the talent from them. Or maybe she just steals from them. Run QT, run!"
"Sophia is a way better director then Quentin. At least her films are more than blood, guts, and death." Kristi said turning around to face the guys.
"Ooh, getting the smack down. By your ex no less." Jackson joked, "Want some ice for that burn?"
"Dude, shut up."
"I don't think you guys are working." Ms. Casey said from the front of the room
"We are!" Cat exclaimed as she attempted to minimize the PowerPoint she was making about kittens.
"I was talking to the actual guys this time around."
"Oh, okay."
"We're working too." Jackson said standing up for himself
"It doesn't sound like that to me. You know you were the ones who asked me to bring the class down here so you can work on your IB papers. I could always take everyone back to class."
"No!" Wasman exclaimed
"We'll be good and work, we promise." Counterman begged.
"Speak for yourself." Jackson whispered
"Dude, shut up." Wasman whispered
Ms. Casey shook her head and went back to grading papers while everyone else went on with their work. The room was quiet until Niki's voice came over the intercom.
"Hi everyone!" She exclaimed with a chirpiness in her voice that very few people have at eight-thirty in the morning, "This is Niki your dance commissioner here. Okay, so there were a few technical mishaps at the end of school yesterday so we weren't able to reveal the Loyalty court nom's. But everything's okay now, so here goes! Okay Freshman guys are John Mark Rhoades..."
Summer went on with her paper not really listening to the names being read until it was time for the senior's names to be read.
"Okay. And the nominee's for Loyalty king are: my boyfriend Andy Counterman, Taylor Fox, Sam Shilling, and Tyler Wasman. And the nominee's for Loyalty queen are: Carol Johnson, Jeanna Keaveny, Summer Roberts and Kristen Thompson. Congratulations to all the nominee's and if you can come to Mrs. Ronald's room during lunch to pick up information. Thanks!"
------
That night Summer sat at a table in the middle of the mall's food court, along with Katherine and Kristi, bouncing Sam on her knee.
"Okay so what dress you wear is important 'cause this is going to be captured on film and viewed for years to come, I think we need to move on to date options." Katherine said as she held a large cup of soda in her hand. "I mean the date could make or break you. I mean, yes looks are important but if he's boring, you're going to be screwed for the rest of the evening."
Kristi sat there for a minute and then her eyes lit up.
"I've got it!" she exclaimed, "Okay, so there's this guy who goes to church with me, Marc, he's funny and not to bad on the eyes. I'm sure he'll say yes."
"I don't know." Summer said apprehensive, "I mean, Mrs. Ronald said that unless we win we don't have to attend the dance and you know that I have no chance of winning. So I was just planning on going home after the game and calling Seth and then watching the new Dawson's Creek DVD's with Kellie for the millionth time."
"Dawson's Creek?" Katherine asked raising an eyebrow
"Shut up."
"Okay, that's great and all." Kristi interjected, "But this is the last all school dance of your High school career. You can't just pass that up."
Summer gave up, "I'll think about it. Okay?"
"That's all I'm asking for."
------
The next morning Summer sat on the couch in the drama room with Gwen and Becca while Cat and Sarah sat on the couch across from them.
"Okay, so Dill and I went to Hollister in the mall the other night and I told him that he would look hot in a pink shirt." Sarah said as she attempted to run a brush through her hair, "Then I managed to talk the sales girl into telling him that she would sleep with any guy in a pink shirt. Then he went around the store trying on every pink shirt he could find."
She tossed the brush down in frustration, "That's it. I give up. Remind me to never curl my hair before I look at the weather report again. Moisture is not my friend."
"My mom used to do my hair in spirals with ripped up t-shirts and blow dry it. When she'd take them out my hair would look like Shirley Temple's on crack." Gwen said
"Dude my hair always looks like Shirley Temple's on crack." Cat joked.
"What are we talking about?" Kristi asked walking into the room followed by Katherine
"Hair." Summer told her as she took a seat on a pillow in between the two couches
"Oh." Kristi said nodding her head, "So Katherine and I called Marc last night and he said yes."
"Oh god Kristi. I told you I'd think about."
"Please, just give him a chance. If you don't like him you don't have to stay the whole time. Just go in dance to a few songs, smile for a few camera's and then get out of there."
"Fine. I don't know why I'm agreeing to do this but I am."
"Good!" Kristi exclaimed, "'Cause then you get to see Wasman and I back together!"
------
"Why won't you tell me why you asked Kristi to the dance?" Summer whispered that afternoon in Math class while Mr. Upton went on talking about why he never partook in 'inappropriateness' in high school.
"Summer, why do you care so badly?"
"Because Kristi is one of my best friends and just days ago you were avoiding her like the plague. What happened?"
"You really want to know?"
"Yes!" She exclaimed a little too loudly.
"What's that Ms. Roberts?" Mr. Upton asked from the front of the room
"I just agree so much that teenagers today are being damaged by marijuana usage." She said, hoping that they were still on that topic.
"See Ms. Roberts is an outstanding example of a good decent teenager..."
Summer turned back to Wasman and looked him in the eye, waiting for an answer.
"So?" she asked
"I love her."
"You do?"
"Yes I do. And that's why I had to break up with her."
"You broke up with her because you love her?"
"I'm seventeen Summer. And I can see her in my future. And I figured that if I end it with her now then it wouldn't hurt as bad as it would when we break up later in life."
"What makes you think that the two of you are going to break up?"
"Statistic's."
"Screw statistics."
"That's what I ended up saying."
"I still don't understand why you want to get back with her if your afraid of how much pain breaking up in the future will cause you."
"Because not being with her hurts even more than anything I can possibly imagine."
"You really do love her don't you?"
Wasman nodded his head and Summer opened her mouth to say something but her phone going off stopped her. She quickly reached into her purse to try to turn it off but it was to late. Mr. Upton was already back there grabbing the phone out of her hand.
"Give me my phone!" Summer exclaimed
"No phones in school."
"It's probably an emergency!"
"Hello?"
"Ugh!"
"No, Summer's busy right now...I'm sure it is...I sure will...Yeah...okay...goodbye."
"You mind telling me who that was?"
"That was Seth. He says you need to call him back, it's an emergency."
------
That afternoon Summer sat on the front steps of school dialing Seth's number on Wasman's phone while he played peek-a-boo with Sam.
"Hello?" Seth asked
"It's me."
"Hey. I'm so sorry about getting you into trouble."
"It's no problem. What's the problem? You said it was an emergency. Is someone hurt?"
"You know emergency is really an open term, don't you think?"
"So it's not an emergency?"
"Oh it is, just not exactly the type that your teacher would count."
"What's wrong?"
------
A few weeks later Summer sat in Anne Marie's old bedroom while Anne stood behind her doing her hair.
"So, you talk to Seth lately?" Anne asked as she set the curling iron down.
"I talked to him before I left for school yesterday. It was so hard to get off the phone with him."
"Well you know what they say. You know it's love when the hardest thing to say is goodbye."
Summer sighed and shook her head.
"How's it going with the two of you?"
"He uhm, he asked me to go to his aunt's wedding with him."
"Like as his date?"
"Yeah."
"Congrats! When is it?"
"During Spring break."
"Spring break? So you're not going with us to New York?"
"Sorry."
"I understand, I mean if I had to choose between going with my friends on a trip or going with the father of my child to a wedding, I would choose the wedding."
"I'm glad you see it my way."
Anne put the final bobby pin in Summer's hair and backed away.
"Okay, take a look."
Summer stood up and walked to the floor length mirror that was hanging on the closet door. She was speechless over how she looked. The red strapless dress that Kristi and Becca help her pick out was the perfect shade and Anne did an amazing job with her hair. For the first time, in a long time she really felt like she was Summer Roberts from Newport again. She felt like that girl who was always getting dressed up for cotillion or whatever charity event was hot on Newport's radar that week.
Anne Marie's voice finally brought her back into reality.
"So, what do you think?" she asked
"I love it. Thank you so much for doing this for me."
"It's no problem. Every girl deserves to have someone else be anal over how they look."
"Hey." Katherine said poking her head in the door. She was wearing a short pink dress with the front of her hair done in cornrows, "How's our queen doing?"
"Don't jinks me." She laughed, "So how do I look?"
"Beautiful."
Anne started heading towards the door.
"I'm going to go downstairs and make sure that Jackson isn't trying to kill Seif."
Summer took a seat on the bed, "So you really think that this guy will like me?"
"Oh Matt will love you."
"I thought it was Marc."
"Matt, Marc something like that. Kristi knows him better than I do."
"Did I just hear my name?" Kristi asked coming to the door dressed in a black dress with a plunging back and neckline.
"Hey!" Summer said standing up, "Yeah, we were just talking about my date for the evening."
"Oh yeah, Mike. You'll love him."
"Marc." Katherine whispered
"What did I say?" Kristi asked trying to play dumb
"Mike." Summer said crossing her arms, "What is going on?"
"Ladies!" Becca exclaimed coming to the door dressed in a long black and purple dress with freshly dyed purple streaks in her hair, "Ready to go?"
"Is he here?" Kristi asked excited
"Mmmhmm."
"Come on Summer!" Kristi said as she took one arm while Katherine took the other.
"Why am I suddenly so nervous about this?" Summer asked as she walked down the stairs
"You'll be fine." Katherine assured her.
The girls stopped at the bottom of the stairs and all at once they took a deep breath.
"Okay! Wasman, Jackson bring him out." Anne called out
The guys walked out from the kitchen all holding freshly opened can's of Fresca. Summer was suddenly speachless when she saw who was standing inbetween her two friends.
"Seth." she whispered
"Hi." he said smiling.
She's a girl he's glad he's found, she's his Shipoopi."
---Shipoopi, The Music Man
A few weeks later Summer sat in the computer lab, along with the rest of her drama class, attempting to finish the Roman History paper that was due for History that afternoon.
"Oh my god!" She heard Counterman exclaim from behind her, "Sophia Coppola is dating Quentin Tarantino!"
"She used to be married to Spike Jones?" Jackson asked
"I get it now." Wasman said shaking his head, "She dates these awesome directors and she steals all the talent from them. Or maybe she just steals from them. Run QT, run!"
"Sophia is a way better director then Quentin. At least her films are more than blood, guts, and death." Kristi said turning around to face the guys.
"Ooh, getting the smack down. By your ex no less." Jackson joked, "Want some ice for that burn?"
"Dude, shut up."
"I don't think you guys are working." Ms. Casey said from the front of the room
"We are!" Cat exclaimed as she attempted to minimize the PowerPoint she was making about kittens.
"I was talking to the actual guys this time around."
"Oh, okay."
"We're working too." Jackson said standing up for himself
"It doesn't sound like that to me. You know you were the ones who asked me to bring the class down here so you can work on your IB papers. I could always take everyone back to class."
"No!" Wasman exclaimed
"We'll be good and work, we promise." Counterman begged.
"Speak for yourself." Jackson whispered
"Dude, shut up." Wasman whispered
Ms. Casey shook her head and went back to grading papers while everyone else went on with their work. The room was quiet until Niki's voice came over the intercom.
"Hi everyone!" She exclaimed with a chirpiness in her voice that very few people have at eight-thirty in the morning, "This is Niki your dance commissioner here. Okay, so there were a few technical mishaps at the end of school yesterday so we weren't able to reveal the Loyalty court nom's. But everything's okay now, so here goes! Okay Freshman guys are John Mark Rhoades..."
Summer went on with her paper not really listening to the names being read until it was time for the senior's names to be read.
"Okay. And the nominee's for Loyalty king are: my boyfriend Andy Counterman, Taylor Fox, Sam Shilling, and Tyler Wasman. And the nominee's for Loyalty queen are: Carol Johnson, Jeanna Keaveny, Summer Roberts and Kristen Thompson. Congratulations to all the nominee's and if you can come to Mrs. Ronald's room during lunch to pick up information. Thanks!"
------
That night Summer sat at a table in the middle of the mall's food court, along with Katherine and Kristi, bouncing Sam on her knee.
"Okay so what dress you wear is important 'cause this is going to be captured on film and viewed for years to come, I think we need to move on to date options." Katherine said as she held a large cup of soda in her hand. "I mean the date could make or break you. I mean, yes looks are important but if he's boring, you're going to be screwed for the rest of the evening."
Kristi sat there for a minute and then her eyes lit up.
"I've got it!" she exclaimed, "Okay, so there's this guy who goes to church with me, Marc, he's funny and not to bad on the eyes. I'm sure he'll say yes."
"I don't know." Summer said apprehensive, "I mean, Mrs. Ronald said that unless we win we don't have to attend the dance and you know that I have no chance of winning. So I was just planning on going home after the game and calling Seth and then watching the new Dawson's Creek DVD's with Kellie for the millionth time."
"Dawson's Creek?" Katherine asked raising an eyebrow
"Shut up."
"Okay, that's great and all." Kristi interjected, "But this is the last all school dance of your High school career. You can't just pass that up."
Summer gave up, "I'll think about it. Okay?"
"That's all I'm asking for."
------
The next morning Summer sat on the couch in the drama room with Gwen and Becca while Cat and Sarah sat on the couch across from them.
"Okay, so Dill and I went to Hollister in the mall the other night and I told him that he would look hot in a pink shirt." Sarah said as she attempted to run a brush through her hair, "Then I managed to talk the sales girl into telling him that she would sleep with any guy in a pink shirt. Then he went around the store trying on every pink shirt he could find."
She tossed the brush down in frustration, "That's it. I give up. Remind me to never curl my hair before I look at the weather report again. Moisture is not my friend."
"My mom used to do my hair in spirals with ripped up t-shirts and blow dry it. When she'd take them out my hair would look like Shirley Temple's on crack." Gwen said
"Dude my hair always looks like Shirley Temple's on crack." Cat joked.
"What are we talking about?" Kristi asked walking into the room followed by Katherine
"Hair." Summer told her as she took a seat on a pillow in between the two couches
"Oh." Kristi said nodding her head, "So Katherine and I called Marc last night and he said yes."
"Oh god Kristi. I told you I'd think about."
"Please, just give him a chance. If you don't like him you don't have to stay the whole time. Just go in dance to a few songs, smile for a few camera's and then get out of there."
"Fine. I don't know why I'm agreeing to do this but I am."
"Good!" Kristi exclaimed, "'Cause then you get to see Wasman and I back together!"
------
"Why won't you tell me why you asked Kristi to the dance?" Summer whispered that afternoon in Math class while Mr. Upton went on talking about why he never partook in 'inappropriateness' in high school.
"Summer, why do you care so badly?"
"Because Kristi is one of my best friends and just days ago you were avoiding her like the plague. What happened?"
"You really want to know?"
"Yes!" She exclaimed a little too loudly.
"What's that Ms. Roberts?" Mr. Upton asked from the front of the room
"I just agree so much that teenagers today are being damaged by marijuana usage." She said, hoping that they were still on that topic.
"See Ms. Roberts is an outstanding example of a good decent teenager..."
Summer turned back to Wasman and looked him in the eye, waiting for an answer.
"So?" she asked
"I love her."
"You do?"
"Yes I do. And that's why I had to break up with her."
"You broke up with her because you love her?"
"I'm seventeen Summer. And I can see her in my future. And I figured that if I end it with her now then it wouldn't hurt as bad as it would when we break up later in life."
"What makes you think that the two of you are going to break up?"
"Statistic's."
"Screw statistics."
"That's what I ended up saying."
"I still don't understand why you want to get back with her if your afraid of how much pain breaking up in the future will cause you."
"Because not being with her hurts even more than anything I can possibly imagine."
"You really do love her don't you?"
Wasman nodded his head and Summer opened her mouth to say something but her phone going off stopped her. She quickly reached into her purse to try to turn it off but it was to late. Mr. Upton was already back there grabbing the phone out of her hand.
"Give me my phone!" Summer exclaimed
"No phones in school."
"It's probably an emergency!"
"Hello?"
"Ugh!"
"No, Summer's busy right now...I'm sure it is...I sure will...Yeah...okay...goodbye."
"You mind telling me who that was?"
"That was Seth. He says you need to call him back, it's an emergency."
------
That afternoon Summer sat on the front steps of school dialing Seth's number on Wasman's phone while he played peek-a-boo with Sam.
"Hello?" Seth asked
"It's me."
"Hey. I'm so sorry about getting you into trouble."
"It's no problem. What's the problem? You said it was an emergency. Is someone hurt?"
"You know emergency is really an open term, don't you think?"
"So it's not an emergency?"
"Oh it is, just not exactly the type that your teacher would count."
"What's wrong?"
------
A few weeks later Summer sat in Anne Marie's old bedroom while Anne stood behind her doing her hair.
"So, you talk to Seth lately?" Anne asked as she set the curling iron down.
"I talked to him before I left for school yesterday. It was so hard to get off the phone with him."
"Well you know what they say. You know it's love when the hardest thing to say is goodbye."
Summer sighed and shook her head.
"How's it going with the two of you?"
"He uhm, he asked me to go to his aunt's wedding with him."
"Like as his date?"
"Yeah."
"Congrats! When is it?"
"During Spring break."
"Spring break? So you're not going with us to New York?"
"Sorry."
"I understand, I mean if I had to choose between going with my friends on a trip or going with the father of my child to a wedding, I would choose the wedding."
"I'm glad you see it my way."
Anne put the final bobby pin in Summer's hair and backed away.
"Okay, take a look."
Summer stood up and walked to the floor length mirror that was hanging on the closet door. She was speechless over how she looked. The red strapless dress that Kristi and Becca help her pick out was the perfect shade and Anne did an amazing job with her hair. For the first time, in a long time she really felt like she was Summer Roberts from Newport again. She felt like that girl who was always getting dressed up for cotillion or whatever charity event was hot on Newport's radar that week.
Anne Marie's voice finally brought her back into reality.
"So, what do you think?" she asked
"I love it. Thank you so much for doing this for me."
"It's no problem. Every girl deserves to have someone else be anal over how they look."
"Hey." Katherine said poking her head in the door. She was wearing a short pink dress with the front of her hair done in cornrows, "How's our queen doing?"
"Don't jinks me." She laughed, "So how do I look?"
"Beautiful."
Anne started heading towards the door.
"I'm going to go downstairs and make sure that Jackson isn't trying to kill Seif."
Summer took a seat on the bed, "So you really think that this guy will like me?"
"Oh Matt will love you."
"I thought it was Marc."
"Matt, Marc something like that. Kristi knows him better than I do."
"Did I just hear my name?" Kristi asked coming to the door dressed in a black dress with a plunging back and neckline.
"Hey!" Summer said standing up, "Yeah, we were just talking about my date for the evening."
"Oh yeah, Mike. You'll love him."
"Marc." Katherine whispered
"What did I say?" Kristi asked trying to play dumb
"Mike." Summer said crossing her arms, "What is going on?"
"Ladies!" Becca exclaimed coming to the door dressed in a long black and purple dress with freshly dyed purple streaks in her hair, "Ready to go?"
"Is he here?" Kristi asked excited
"Mmmhmm."
"Come on Summer!" Kristi said as she took one arm while Katherine took the other.
"Why am I suddenly so nervous about this?" Summer asked as she walked down the stairs
"You'll be fine." Katherine assured her.
The girls stopped at the bottom of the stairs and all at once they took a deep breath.
"Okay! Wasman, Jackson bring him out." Anne called out
The guys walked out from the kitchen all holding freshly opened can's of Fresca. Summer was suddenly speachless when she saw who was standing inbetween her two friends.
"Seth." she whispered
"Hi." he said smiling.
