10/31
I've never had a more fun Halloween in all my life. So today is Halloween and it all happened last night. It was cool, though. I haven't dressed up since I was about nine. At least not for anything that wasn't a project for kids. Not just for the sake of it being Halloween.
We drove up to the Vanish show in North Palo. Embarrassingly enough, it was the same club we saw Jax in back in January. Thankfully, I have great friends who didn't say anything about it. It was bad enough being there, let alone having my stupid mistakes rubbed in my face.
I rode up with Ducky, Dawn, Christian, and Christian's friend, Perry. Perry is nineteen and very cute. However, he sat in the back seat and I was in the front with Ducky.
"I still can't believe your dad let you go after..." Ducky stopped. "You know."
Dawn nodded. "I know. It was okay as long as Christian wasn't coming."
Ducky's eyes flashed in the review mirror. "So who is this guy you have with you?"
"Okay, I lied," she said. "But for a very good cause."
"You're starting to sound like me," I teased, turning around in my seat.
The greatest part of this club experience is that it's their Halloween show. So not only are all the staff and performers (including Vanish) in costumes, they expect their patrons to be as well. So I had a terribly unoriginal costume of a cat that I bought at the last moment and Dawn painted whiskers on my face. However, the catsuit was a nice fit and my tail curled around me, so hopefully it wouldn't get in my way.
Dawn, being so Dawn-like, dressed as a hippie. She wore bell bottoms that we made out of an old pair of jeans, and a fluffy shirt that was Mom's. She wore a leather headband that was also Mom's. I painted a peace sign on her cheek. When we went downstairs Dad took one look at her and left the room. Which is how I got out of the house in my obviously much too revealing costume.
I did NOT do that on purpose, though.
Christian was also a hippie, in clothes that once belonged to Dad that I found in the attic. I don't know why Mom kept her stuff in the closet (until I took them) and Dad hid his stuff in the attic. But we found jeans and vest with beads on it. They made a cute couple.
Ducky wasn't dressed up and he refused to let me paint his face. Perry wasn't dressed up either. Too cool for school.
We got to the club, and it was PACKED. I don't remember this many people being there for Jax. But then again, this wasn't a ticketed event and we were seeing three bands. Nearly everyone was in costume, but there were plenty of people who weren't, so Ducky and Perry didn't look totally out of place.
"Did you see Maggie before we left?" I asked, looking at Dawn. She shook her head.
"Nope. I talked to her on the phone and all she said was that Mr. and Mrs. Chavez were bringing all of the band up here themselves."
My costume was a hit. Sooooo many guys were coming up to me. Of course, they didn't have anything intelligent to say. But they did buy me drinks. Dawn shot me quite a few disapproving looks, but I knew better than to shove them down Ducky's throat so what harm was I doing?
The first band came on, and we all cheered, even though it wasn't Vanish. They were coming on second. The band wasn't bad, I thought, but Christian and Perry didn't seem to like them much at all. They ragged them the entire time, critiquing the smallest details.
I looked at Dawn and she shrugged. I thought it was kind of weird that she would be with someone so negative. The little time I'd spent with Christian didn't give me that impression at all.
Finally, Vanish came on. I screamed my lungs out for them. Maggie looked AMAZING in her fairy costume. She wore a blue minidress and these sheer silver wings and tons of silver glitter. She looked really nervous, though, which is normal. Plus it had to have been hard for her, wearing such a revealing dress. But she looked stunning.
We all danced with each other during Vanish's set, and screamed after every song. Halfway through the set they stopped and Bruce introduced everyone in the band (Maggie introduced him when he was done), and it was so cute to see Ducky jumping up and down and hollering when Bruce introduced Justin.
I guess he felt less inhibited where there weren't any Cro-Mags around.
Oh man, they sounded so great. And the best part was that we weren't the only people who were going crazy over them. There were tons of people who wanted to hear them. I even heard one guy shout, "MARRY ME, MAGGIE!" Dawn and I looked at each other and started laughing.
Christian and Perry didn't have anything bad to say about Vanish.
After they were done, while we were waiting for the next band to come on, something crazy happened. Something that even in my wildest fantasies, I could not have for seen.
I was getting a drink from a vampire who had called me Kitty, when I heard a voice from behind me ask, "Sunny?"
I spun around, rum and Coke in hand, and, in my stupid cat costume, was face to face with Mr. Rutherford.
"Mr. Rutherford!"
He wasn't in costume, just in a button-up shirt and khakis, but he was a little sweaty and his hair was kind of messy. Things I don't see in class that are totally hot. I felt my knees go a little weak, but that might have been because I was starting on my third drink, or because my teacher was witnessing my underage drinking.
He grinned. "I thought that was you."
"Uh...huh," I replied, sounding like a total idiot.
"I was up here visiting my sister and I knew that Vista's most popular band was playing here, so I had to come check it out. They're really good. Apparently I missed the show of a lifetime over the 4th of July Bash. I was in Europe over the summer."
"They were great," I said, finally forming real words. I took a sip of my drink hoping he'd figure it was just a regular Coke. "They're having a CD put out soon."
"Really? I thought that was just a rumor."
"No, I'm friends with the band. I've known Maggie since we were kids. And my best friend Ducky is dating Justin." BLABBERMOUTH.
"I thought that was just a rumor too," Mr. Rutherford said, laughing a little. I must have looked a little surprised, because he said, "We teachers know what's going on around the school too, you know."
I laughed. I couldn't believe that I was having a real conversation with my gorgeous bio teacher! "So, your sister is here?"
"Yup. She ran off to the ladies room." He looked around the room. "Oh wait, there she is." He waved and a gorgeous woman waved back. She made her way over to us.
"That bathroom is filthy," she said, laughing. "I hate places like this."
"No, you just hate the bathrooms," Mr. Rutherford replied.
"Well, yeah, Lew. But who doesn't? Who's this?" LEW? Mr. Rutherford's name is LEW? I don't know what I could have conceived it being, but it was not LEW. It rhymes with glue. And shoe.
"This is Sunny Winslow, one of my students. Sunny, this is Winnie."
We shook hands. "Nice to meet you," she said. She was about my height, a little taller, with blonde hair and brown eyes. She didn't look anything like Mr. Rutherford, which surprised me, since they're siblings.
I took another sip of my drink. "It was nice meeting you, and nice seeing you, Mr. Rutherford, but I've got to get back to my friends."
"Wait," Mr. Rutherford said. "Save me a dance, Sunny."
My jaw dropped. And I almost dropped my drink. "Uhhhhkay," is what came out of my mouth.
The last band came on about two minutes later, and I'd finished the last of my drink by then.
"Come on, Sunny," he said, grabbing my hand. Was this proper conduct for a teacher? Well, we weren't in the classroom. But I was still calling him Mr. Rutherford. Should I call him LEW?
I didn't. I couldn't.
I can't write anymore.
7:01 PM
I just realized. What am I going to do tomorrow at school? Ignore him? Acknowledge what happened?
We went out to the dance floor by the stage and we danced a fast number. It was fun. He had good moves, and after a the first minute or so, I stopped thinking of him as Mr. Rutherford, more as Lew, and I stopped moving like a robot.
"That was great!" I said when the song was over.
"Have the next one?" Lew (Since this is my journal and it's shorter, I'm just going to call him that. Gluey Shoe or not) asked.
"Yeah!" I said, grinning. My grin sort of dropped off when the band started playing a ballad. "The one-" I was going to say "The one after this?" but Lew wrapped his arms around my waist, so I went with it. I slipped my arms around his neck and we slow danced.
I've never slow danced with a teacher before. All I could really think about was the way his hand was on my back and his breath was on my neck. It felt good.
The song was over and they started to play another fast one, and we walked off the dance floor. Lew grabbed my hand.
"That was fun," he said. "You're a good dancer."
"You too," I said, grinning. "I know who I'm taking to the next school dance."
He laughed.
We were home around two in the morning without event. But before we left, Dawn and I did see Amalia.
"They were great!" Dawn exclaimed, giving Amalia a hug.
"I know! Did I tell you, or did Maggie or someone tell you, that they're going into the studio this Friday?"
"NO!" I screamed. "That's so great!"
"I know. It's just going to be a little cd, this isn't Sony or anything, but yeah. Vanish will have a CD!" She jumped up and down with us, even though she obviously already knew. "Then we can sell them at things like this."
"Sunny, who was that guy you were dancing with?" Dawn asked. "He was hot!"
"Oh, it was... uh, Mr. Rutherford. He came up here to check out Vanish."
"The coolest teacher at Vista likes Vanish?" Amalia asked. "That's great publicity!"
"You guys were dancing really... slow," Dawn said.
"Yeah," I said, sarcastically, "every girl at Vista is going to come kill me because I danced once with Mr. Rutherford."
Amalia laughed. "You never know!"
Gotta go, trick-or-treaters.
