Where Did the Time Go? : Part V
"Are you sure this car is as sexy as you were trying to say?" Ron said, looking down between the bucket seats. Being one of the last rear-wheel drive compacts, the car still had the huge hump down the middle, plus, right between the narrow bucket seats was a stick shift (with somebody else's monogram instead of the shift pattern) and a parking brake lever. "Look, we can't even hold hands when I'm driving since I have to work the gears and don't get me started on having to work the clutch right."
"Ron, don't be a baby. No, this car isn't sexy but it runs and you could afford it without begging your Dad for your trust fund money. Would you rather walk to Middleton College this morning?" She waved her hand at the steady drizzle running down the windshield of the little car.
They were parked right at the covered walkway at the main entrance of Middleton High. They were still twenty minutes shy of the first bell so Kim was loath to leave the meager heat put out by the old hatchback, or the greater heat put out by her boyfriend. Even though it was awkward she leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, resting a hand on his thigh. She wanted to do everything she possibly could to relax him before his interview.
"KP, what if I blow this?"
"Shhhhh. You can't possibly blow this. If they didn't want you, they wouldn't have called for this interview. They called you, remember?"
"But you didn't have to go to one of these. I just get the feeling our whole future is going to turn on what happens today."
"Ronnie, Honey. Look at me." She pulled his chin up so he could meet her eyes. "I love you whether you're going to Middleton College with me next fall or whether you're just going to the community college. Out future is together no matter what, you understand?"
"Sure, it's just…I just don't feel like I measure up to you sometimes."
Kim pulled him closer and kissed him. She'd made sure just to put on clear lip balm that morning instead of lipstick just so she wouldn't chance messing him up.
"Ron, I think the next time we sit down with Rabbi Katz, we need to have a nice long talk about your self-esteem. You measured up a long time ago. Now there's nothing wrong with improving yourself, but you are not now nor have you ever been a failure. Getting into MC is a really big thing and it's also tough. Don't think for a minute I didn't have to interview, it's just I went before we were officially together so I didn't mention it to you then."
"I thought you were a 'double-legacy' since your parents went there." Ron said, burying his face in her hair and breathing deeply.
"That's what they thought, but it's gotten too competitive these days, so I had to get in on my own merits." She leaned back a little and caressed his cheek. A little giggle escaped her lips as she ran across a tiny patch of rough stubble. He had finally crossed into the realm of having to shave every day. For a moment she tried picturing him with a beard, but just couldn't quite imagine him that way.
She fixed him with her eyes, holding both his cheeks. "Listen, I just want you to go in there and be yourself, okay? Don't worry about whether you get in today. He's not going to tell you, at least not right away. If it helps, just think about the school ski trip weekend after next. You can do that, can't you?"
"I like." He said with a silly grin. "Especially if we can get away from the chaperones."
She touched the tip of her nose to his. "I can do anything…and so can you. Now I've got to go raid my locker before class, so let's save some of this for our date tonight." She kissed his cheek and leaned in closer to his ear, "We've got to break this car in, you know. Knock 'em dead, Baby."
Monique stood just under the awning waiting for her as the little car chugged away. "Girl, what on Earth were you thinking making him get that particular car?"
"That bad?"
"It's a good thing you've decided to shun the whole 'food chain' thing, cause that thing would have knocked you right off."
Kim turned and looked as the gray car turned out of the lot, headed across town to the college. "It was really just a numbers thing, Mon. I have Wade run some calculations of insurance costs and what was available that he could buy for cash and that was the only thing we came up with."
"Well, I guess it's better than that old heap of his mother's, though I can't see the two of you taking that thing out parking or anything. Is it the least bit comfortable?"
"To ride around in? It's okay. As for what you're thinking, there's a parking brake sticking up right in the middle, and the back seat? If we were going to be doing anything besides kissing we'd have to be contortionists."
"Still just kissing the poor boy." Monique said, shaking her head slightly. "And you two have been together how long?"
Kim stopped to think a moment. "Seven and a half months."
"Mmm, hmm. More like about a year or so. I think you could count all the way back to when you realized how awful you felt when he started hanging out with Felix on your date nights."
"Those weren't dates." Kim said defensively. "I was just used to hanging out with Ron, that's all."
"The only difference between then and now is you two are kissing and holding hands and…doing that thing that sounds like it'd chafe."
"Monique!" Kim hissed. "We've only done that a couple times…you know, special occasions."
Her friend shook her head a little harder. "Look, the two of you love each other so much, why not let nature take its course. Both of you'll feel better. Trust me."
"It's not that simple for me. At least for now we're waiting until we turn eighteen. Besides, Ron's starting to…well…"
"Something's getting on your nerves?"
"Well…yeah." Kim finally admitted.
"Should I call the school paper? I can see the headlines now; 'The Honeymoon is Over, Could the Big Breakup be Far?'"
"Mon, it's not like I'm going to break up with him over every little quibble I have. In fact, that's what's starting to bug me."
"What, that you're afraid you'll break up?"
"No, not quite. This morning he asked me if I was going to leave him for some college guy. See, that's what's bothering me. His self-esteem is so low he thinks I don't love him enough. Either that, or he's implying I can't even look at a good looking guy."
"If he ever breaks out with that all you have to do is ban him from even looking at the other cheerleaders or ever picking up the 'swimsuit issue' ever again, cause you know he's got to be looking."
"That's not the problem, Mon. I just think if it keeps going on like this it's going to hurt us in the long run. See, I'm not going to dump him over this, but, I don't know, maybe he could get this strange notion in his head he's not good enough for me and ends up doing something ferociously stupid like dumping me for my own good."
"Now who's the one thinking too much. Kim, look at him. I mean take an honest look at him, forget for the moment you love him."
"Doesn't work that way, Mon."
"Well, okay, then I'll just tell you. Ron may be the greatest guy on the planet and he may be pretty good looking if you really get right down to it, but he's not the best looking or the smartest. He's a whole package kinda guy and you fell in love with that, but he doesn't see himself that way and it's not entirely his fault. Even when you two started officially dating he was still kind of small and a bit goofy looking and since his birthday is so late in the summer he's always been a little younger than all his friends. You didn't see that since your birthday is just a week before his. Kim, he's trying to overcome seventeen years of training to believe he's a second tier loser.
"Look at what happened last spring, too. He saw what happened the moment you laid eyes on you-know-who. I was sitting right there too. You took one look and your eyes got big as saucers and you had a goofy expression on your face that would give Ron's goofiest a run for the money. Now take the fact Ron was standing right there looking at the two of you, wishing he could get that reaction from you and knowing it wasn't going to happen."
"But…I…Ron."
"Yeah, I know, you love him now but you didn't know that then. You probably had a thought in the back of your mind he would always just be a friend and he wasn't even considered boyfriend material, right?"
"You're sounding like my mother now." Kim said dangerously.
"I think the boy lives in mortal fear that some day somebody is going to walk up to you and you're going to go all ape again."
"But I feel that way about Ron now. I miss him already and he's been gone five minutes." Kim spun the dial on her locker almost absently.
Monique rolled her eyes up into her head. "I know that and deep inside he knows that too, but since you've been with him so long now I don't think he'll ever actually see that kind of reaction out of you all at once. It can't be helped, it's just the way the two of you came together. Look, I don't have an easy answer for you. Maybe this is something the two of you are going to have to work on, maybe for a long time to come."
Kim laughed a little. "Maybe on our fiftieth anniversary I'll lean over and say 'Hey, look, I stuck by you, pretty boy.'"
"There you go. Now, maybe what we need to do is get the two of you alone with no interruptions. Maybe even make it a 'special occasion.'"
"You're not letting that go, are you?"
"No, cause I still think that boy is going to explode by the time he's eighteen and you know what they say about those stick shift cars."
"MO-NIQUE!"
"Just playin' ya girl. Hey, see you after class. Dude-boy gonna be back for lunchtime?"
"He's supposed to be. Later."
Kim turned toward her class shaking her head. Ever since her friend had started exploring her womanhood with her boyfriend, she had been on a mission to get her and Ron together that way. It was a pleasant thought and she did want that, but there was still the issue about them being just seventeen. True there were lots of people her age who already had lots of experience by that age, but that just wasn't her.
They had been to the point of almost taking that step before and for some reason they backed down. Much as she desired Ron, she was frightened beyond words when it really came down to it. She was frightened of the pain, frightened over how she might feel afterwards, perhaps even frightened how Ron would feel afterwards (though if all the stuff about guys was to be believed then that shouldn't be a problem.)
There was also the fact she loved her parents. Her father made it quite plain there were certain things minors were not supposed to do and he had shown an immense amount of trust toward her when it came to Ron and so far she had not abused that trust. She'd taken it to the breaking point on some occasions but she had never crossed that line.
She kept telling herself that if Ron ever asked she'd agree in a heartbeat, no matter the consequences but she wondered if they would really go through with it. Ron was starting to talk about waiting even for marriage and that was fine with her, though somehow she was getting the impression that some people were starting to assume they would elope the moment they turned eighteen. Much as she loved him, she wasn't ready for that. They needed to get a few years of just being boyfriend and girlfriend under their belts before they made it forever.
Though somehow that just didn't seem right. She wanted forever already. She wanted the happy ending in all the fairy tales.
"Yep, Kimderella." She said to herself as she entered her first class. "Except I'd probably have Ron trying to put the Valkyrie 1000 shoes on my instead of a glass slipper." She whispered as she took her seat.
She was a bit surprised when a short, white haired man in an old brown suit walked into the room just as the bell rang. He put a briefcase down on the teacher's desk and faced the class.
"Good morning. I am Doctor Snyder and I will be taking over this class for the remainder of this school year. I know some of you are accustomed to receiving top-level grades on a regular basis, but as this is supposed to be a college level class, I believe it should require college level work. I'm not here to ask you to do your best. I'm here to make you better than that and to do that we are going to work harder than you ever have before. Your best might not be good enough and if it isn't, your grades will reflect that."
His eyes scanned the room, finally coming to rest on Kim's. "Some of you may have been coasting and you didn't even know it. That stops today. I'm sure each and every one of you are taking this course in order to get a jump on college. That's fine. That's good. College starts today and you're all responsible adults as far as I'm concerned.
"I have one rule. See that brief case? When the bell rings at the end of my class I will close and lock it. Now, I don't care if you come to my class and sit here like a bump on a log. I don't care if you don't even show up, though the school regulations say you have to be here anyway. That's between you and the rest of the administration. I'm here during class to teach you and if you want to partake then that's your business. During class I will give you an assignment. It may be a short little thing, it may be just one or two lines you have to write. It may be a ten-thousand word essay. The day that assignment is due, it's going to be in that briefcase when I lock it and leave or you get a zero for that assignment. That's it. No excuses, period. I don't care if you're out sick, I don't care if your car breaks down. That's not my responsibility. Your one and only responsibility to me is to have your work in my hands when it's due. Oh, and it has to be quality work, but that's another issue we will be getting into."
He pulled a stack of papers from the briefcase and started passing them around. "This is your new syllabus. Throw away the old one, it has no bearing whatsoever on what we will cover in these last remaining months. We have a lot of ground to cover, especially with so much ground to make up. It's time to tell your boyfriends and girlfriends that play-time is over. There's work to be done." For some reason he focused on Kim again. "More for some than others."
Kim read over the printout, which for some reason appeared to have been run off with an old-fashioned mimeograph machine instead of a modern printer. That didn't matter, what did was the schedule that had been set for the remaining five months of school. There was more work there than she had done in all six classes the previous half-year.
"We will begin with the first assignment on Monday." He started handing out copies of the book they were going to be working from. They were paperback and looked like they had never been touched, meaning there would be no old notes to be gleaned from them. "I'll also warn you, I know every word written in every Cliff's Notes ever printed so I'll know the difference if you've just read those things. Don't bother, those things were written for idiots and I don't think any of you would have qualified for this class if you were. So, first assignment, due Monday by the final bell. I want five hundred words on the first ten chapters. Don't care what you talk about, just make it worth my time to read. Now, you can spend the rest of this period reading or yapping on your phones…don't care about that rule this year, I'm a teacher, not a cop. You want to yack on those things then go right ahead. Just have the assignment on time.
"Oh, and by the way, this is the last time I will leave you like this. I'm not cruel. Go on your dates this weekend and tell them this might be it for a while. After all, you'll still need to set aside time for your other classes." With that he closed his briefcase and sat down behind the desk, eying the class warily.
Kim looked at the assignment sheet and the two-inch thick book on her desk.
What just happened?
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