Daria Gender Flip From Not So Different JTL Version
62. Not Being Stifled
When he let himself think back on it, Sonny admitted to himself that he might have been just a little jealous of Jane.
He'd been jealous of her over Evan (and the whole track team business) and he'd been jealous of her over Tom—and they'd had words both times, and at that same pizzeria. Of course, back then he'd had nobody—and thought that he wanted nobody, not like that. Now he had Stacy, which made it horribly unfair of him to be jealous of Jane's finding somebody. Maybe his misgivings about Nathan would be confirmed by a purely objective dispassionate judgment … but just maybe, something else was coloring his thinking. Sure, he had Stacy … but he hadn't found Stacy, not the way that Jane had found Tom or Nathan or... And he could never have just walked up to somebody and picked her up the way Jane had picked up Nathan and not just because … well, even if he'd wanted to pick up a random girl, or if he'd been a girl and had wanted to pick up a boy, he couldn't have done it with Jane's nonchalant effortlessness.
Uncharacteristically, he hadn't even seen Nathan at the beginning. He'd been walking to the post office with Stacy and Jane. They'd been in a hurry to get there before it closed (it was the day the new wanted posters went up). Jane had been a few steps to the rear and had seen Nathan as she looked down the cross street from the intersection they'd already passed. She'd made an excuse and told them she'd catch them up later at the pizzeria, then turned down the cross street to enter the stationery store at the corner they were standing on.
When she'd met them later at the pizzeria, she'd been—there was no way to deny it—full of enthusiasm. She'd managed to strike up a conversation with Nathan in front of a big display of retro stationery. Sonny hadn't even been aware of the concept of retro stationery (fountain pens? sealing wax?). It fitted, though: Nathan was a big fan of all things retro. Jane hadn't been able to stop raving about his cufflinks, and the big old-fashioned car with fins, among the rest. Sonny had started to think about some things retro that might not be so comfortable, but he'd hesitated about mentioning them, so instead he'd said something about the advisability of picking up perfect strangers. Maybe he had been a little jealous.
'Hey', Jane had said, 'if I didn't have the nerve to pick up guys, you would be stuck with me even more.'
That had made it too difficult for Sonny to dodge the issue. 'Well, I guess you don't have to worry about this one going behind your back to break up with you. He sounds strictly gentleman. 1910's before women had rights gentleman.'
Jane's tone had stiffened. 'This is me you're talking to, remember?' She had given a hard stare at Sonny, then at Stacy, then back at Sonny. 'I'm not getting involved with any more idiots, right? It's just that Nathan appreciates the beauty and elegance of post-war American design, and there's nothing wrong with that.'
Stacy had made an effort to ease the strain. 'I don't know', she had said lightly, 'I can like, hate the present too, but not enough to wear a flappy skirt deal. So unflattering.'
'He doesn't wear a zoot suit or what ever else. He's a snappy dresser in the classical-elegant sense. Plus, he has impeccable manners and a biting wit.'
'If you put it like that, I'll revise my opinion.' Sonny had been trying to lighten the mood. 'You make it sound as if maybe he will go behind your back with me. Just in a different way.'
Nobody had ever said that Sonny was any good at lightening the mood. Jane had scowled and stood up without even finishing her slice. 'Thanks for the encouragement. Maybe some time you can teach me how to pass judgment on somebody I've never met.'
Sonny's eyes had followed her as she walked out. 'She's going to be disappointed', he'd said.
Stacy had been more relaxed. 'Yeah', she'd joked, 'that's not really, like, the kind of thing you can teach.' Sonny had appreciated what Stacy was doing, but he'd still felt uncomfortable.
Maybe he had been just a little jealous.
Maybe next time he saw Jane and talked with her he should try to be a different person, or anyway a slightly different version.
It was longer than usual before the opportunity came along—in the hallway at school, where Sonny found Jane closing her locker. He'd already figured, when he didn't see her around, that she'd been spending time with Nathan. The dress she was wearing provided additional confirmation. It wasn't a runner's outfit, even without the high-heeled shoes. Retro again. He'd meant to be conciliatory, but he couldn't help himself. He started making smart remarks about retro activities. He and Jane took little flicks at each other like that all the time. But this time she got defensive. It wasn't the first time that had happened, either, he'd been reminding himself of the precedents just the other day, but they weren't good precedents. When she said, 'You don't have to put Nathan and me down just because you and Stacy are in a rut', he didn't like it; maybe Jane was feeling a parallel dislike. When he frowned as she walked angrily away, he wasn't sure whether he was frowning more at her or at himself.
He was still feeling uncertain enough, when Stacy suggested pizza after a movie, to repeat what Jane had said about their being in a rut, although Sonny combined it with another smart remark about the time machine Jane was co-piloting. He asked Stacy for confirmation about Nathan's being pretentious.
Stacy's response was not favorable. 'I don't know. I mean, we haven't even met him. He could be nice. If Jane likes him doesn't that mean you should?'
'Why?'
"Well, she likes you, so she likes certain people. What I heard about Tom he was a lot like you. So like, maybe Nathan is like you too. But different. You know?" Stacy starts to play with her hair.
"Maybe.' Sonny sighed. "Lets get some thing different than pizza." He also thought if they went to their normal place that Jane might be there and he needed more time to think about what Stacy had said.
The different place he chose was a cheesily themed chain restaurant. At least, Sonny supposed it was meant to have a theme. Looking around at the décor, if that's what it was, as they waited for service, he realized that he couldn't have guessed what the intended theme was if his grade in Language Arts depended on it.
He talked with Stacy instead about Jane's social life and the impact on it if Nathan turned out to be a complete jerk. Stacy shared her concern, but suggested that they had to give Nathan a chance and let Jane make her own decisions. Sonny knew he couldn't disagree.
Then their server arrived and offered them a free side dish uninspiringly named with a warning 'Supreme' in the title. She had to. If she forgot to make the offer they'd get a free gift certificate good at any of the locations in the chain, whose name Sonny was now actively repressing. She was Stepford chipper explaining this, even though Sonny was ready to bet that the gift certificates came out of her wages.
Stacy looked at the expression on Sonny's face and understood better than most what it meant. After spending so much time together it had gotten easier for her.
Sonny was done with the place before they even ordered and said, 'Think we can catch the last rut out of here?'
The next time Sonny saw Jane she was wearing an outfit that he lacked the terminology to name or describe, but it included gloves, and some kind of netting over her hair. She was wearing high-heeled shoes again, too. But for that, she'd have been walking away from him too fast for him to catch up as they left the school building. But she listened to him apologize for giving her a hard time about Nathan. He even let the apology show on his face.
Jane put her hands on hips, gave him a hard stare, and said, 'Why do you always have to write people off before you even know them?'
Sonny's shoulders drooped and he tried to contain the defensiveness in his voice as he said, 'I've told you that before: because it saves time. Anyway, you don't usually complain about it.'
Jane softened. 'I guess it can be part of the unique Sonny Morgendorffer experience. And I suppose this retro thing can be silly. Look at me now, wearing a snood.'
Now Sonny knew which word to look up. It didn't sound as if there could be more than one spelling. He told Jane that he'd been pretending not to notice the snood. Jane said it was just for fun and Sonny told her (with lingering doubts about his own sincerity) that he'd finally figured that out.
'So', he said, feeling the atmosphere lighten, 'can I walk you to your steno pool?' This time Jane didn't take offense. At that moment, Nathan drove up to collect Jane, in his big old-fashioned car with fins exactly as advertised. Jane magnanimously offered Sonny a ride home too, and he hesitated only a moment before accepting.
Although he still couldn't find words for Jane's outfit, even he could see that Nathan's tie had been chosen to match it. He mentioned the observation as he slid into the car (a convertible, but with the top up), then figured he should say something more. 'Um … copacetic.'
'Hey', said Nathan, 'you speaketh the jive!'
'I dabble.'
As they drove off, Nathan did what presumably figured in his mind as returning the compliment (and full marks for intentions, maybe he did really have impeccable manners) by saying something about Sonny's 'look'. Sonny had spent years resolutely refusing to learn the lingo of the stylish and wasn't going to start now: the only part he understood was something about 'circa eighty-three', so he responded, 'Darn, I was going for circa eighty-two'. (He had meanwhile been appraising Nathan's own looks: he was big and well-built, well-groomed if you thought that kind of thing was important—Sonny could see all the visual appeal, for what it was worth.)
Jane changed the subject to invite Sonny and Tom to hang out with her and Nathan on Friday, 'checking out' a movie theatre outside town.
Why didn't she talk about the movie they'd be seeing instead of the theatre they'd be 'checking out'? What did that mean, anyway? Sonny was clearing his throat in readiness to respond to Jane's invitation as his mind kept ticking over. He'd been to places 'outside town' before now, not of his own will, they were the kind of places where bad things happened to people like him, where other people made bad things happen to people like him.
'Um …' he started …
The thing about taking a ride in Nathan's time machine, for people like himself—and Stacy—was that you never knew when the next offense would come. Had Jane told Nathan he was gay or did she tell him the truth?
'… I guess …' he temporised …
Jane had said, and he knew it was the truth, that she wasn't getting involved with any bigots. And Nathan was sitting right here while she extended the invitation and showing no strain. But how much did Nathan know? What had Jane said to him? 'My best friend Sonny is secretly straight but pretends to be gay'? Or what? And even if Nathan knew—well, did Jane really know what Nathan was like? He couldn't deny what Stacy had said about Jane having the right to find out for herself and make her own decisions—but there were other ways to find out than alone with Nathan in a movie theatre conveniently 'outside town'. There had been another reason why Sonny noticed how big and well-built Nathan was. Some men in the post-war years had ideas about how to impress women—come to that, some men still did—of course, those ideas were errors if applied to Jane, but Sonny didn't look forward with pleasure to his own possible role in a scenario where Nathan learned this in practice.
But shouldn't he try listening to what Jane and Stacy had been trying to tell him? The trouble was, he couldn't make himself sound enthusiastic. He did his best.
'… say, can you tell me what movie we'll be seeing?'
Nathan said, 'No movie.'
'This place is abandoned', Jane said. 'In fact, apparently it's practically falling apart.'
'I see where that would be worth checking out', Sonny said. 'It sounds kind of cool. In fact, it sounds like just the kind of thing I like to do. Or maybe Tom.' Instead of using tone of voice to add emphasis, which would have called on talent he lacked, Sonny added words to the sentence hoping to underline the point for Jane. Sitting behind Jane he could see her head move in a way that suggested she recognized what he was doing.
"Tom never would have gone this far from his couch. I don't even know why I thought it was ok to ask you."
"Hey, I didn't say I wouldn't go." Just wanted to point out that this is just a better dressed and maybe even weirder, if at all possible, version of...
"You could invite Stacy too."
'You know, I've never been on a double-date before', Nathan didn't turn a hair during this conversation.
That might just have been the effect of his pomade.
At school it surprised Sonny that Stacy said she might be too busy. "Oh, Fashion Club. I keep forgetting you're in that."
"Um," She twirls a finger in her hair. "Not the Fashion Club. Some thing different. But, um, I'll see about it."
Sonny had to be happy with that. Just because he didn't have an extracurricular activities didn't mean Stacy didn't.
He was, less than unhappy, maybe almost happy, when she showed up at his house that night.
On the ride out, Sonny returned to probing the subject on Friday evening as Nathan's car (top down now—it would have been nice to have been warned about the draft) took the four of them along the highway to 'outside town'. Besides, if he hadn't done that, the conversation would have revolved entirely around Nathan's wardrobe. His hat was custom-made (which was why it fit so well that it didn't blow off—and Jane wore a headscarf, so some people had warning and preparation) and he owned a pair of pants that once belonged to Sammy Davis, Jr. So as well as dropping hints about how the post-war era had not been a comfortable one for every one, Sonny threw in some comments about segregation, McCarthyism, and stifling conformism generally. Nathan didn't attempt to dispute with him about those things, he just didn't see why they should affect his attachment to the standards of style and decorum that he admired. By the time they reached their destination, Sonny was reasonably secure that Nathan's ideas about an evening spent in post-war style would not extend to a little impromptu weirdo bashing. Even if Sonny was his usual uncharming self.
The abandoned theatre was a drive-in, not a building, and as run-down as anybody could have wished: screen peeling away in large sections, fence way too dilapidated for the Tom Sawyer treatment to save it, some playground equipment near disintegration from rust. Jane, Stacy, and Sonny were all still making appreciative remarks and/or noises when Nathan said, 'Darn. We're the first ones here. I wanted to make an entrance.'
Sonny echoed interrogatively Nathan's remark about 'first ones here', but he knew what it implied. He switched back at once from 'warily accepting' to 'warily alert'. There must be more people coming. Yes, here they were, and Nathan was eagerly vocal in reaction. Their cars and, when they got out, their clothes were of the same vintage as Nathan's. Nathan, inviting Jane to be introduced to them, referred to them as 'the gang', a term which did nothing to reassure Sonny. As Nathan paused to look in the rear-vision mirror and run a comb through his hair, Sonny was already reflexively turning his eye to possible escape routes. An open space was good, but if he got clear he'd be stranded in the boondocks without transport.
Stacy didn't seem too upset by it. She had dressed fashionably for today, not the forties, but was loving the styles she saw and made comments about maybe trying it. Some day. After graduation when the Fashion Club wouldn't matter.
Meanwhile, outside the car some of the 'gang' had put music on and started practicing complicated dance moves. Stacy was commenting on their skill, while Nathan and Jane were getting out of the car.
'Aren't you guys coming?' said Jane, turning to look at Sonny and Stacy. 'Wait a minute, Sonny Morgendorffer, I know what that look on your face means.'
Sonny returned her gaze with equal steadiness. 'Then you know it's nothing I'm going to allow to disrupt my purposes, and I'm not going to allow it to disrupt yours either.'
'Nathan …'
'Yeah, I know, you told me, Nathan's a class act. But you don't know any more about his "gang" than I do. The old post-war witch-hunt spirit may not be dead for everybody.'
Jane turned her head to Nathan, who was waiting courteously for her. 'Nathan', she said carefully, 'if Sonny and Tom prefer to sit in the car, that's going to be cool with everybody, isn't it?'
'If that's what they want.' Nathan shrugged. 'Hey, they're with Nathan. You can't be more in than that! Now let's cut a rug, sweetheart!'
Jane flicked one quick glance from Sonny to Tom and back, then turned to join Nathan. Sonny felt Stacy's hand on his shoulder and turned to face her.
'There was more going on there than met the eye', Stacy said. She looked more closely at Sonny's face. 'Now I think I know what that look on your face means, too. This place brings back some … unpleasant memories?'
Sonny and Stacy had talked about Sonny's painful past experiences. They'd talked about them as much as Sonny wanted to. So he answered Stacy by saying, 'I'm not old enough to have memories of the post-war years. But I've heard how the House Un American Activities Committee used to feel about people like me, and who knows whether some of the people here might not share some of that inspiration? Weirdos who refused to conform...'
'So when you were looking all around before, you were checking for exits?'
Sonny nodded. 'That was just reflex, though. Now that we're actually here as part of their little get-together, running for it would be bad as tactics and bad in spirit. If anything's coming, I'll have to take it, and probably nothing is anyway. I've just got used to living my life a certain way.'
'I remember you telling me that includes reasonable precautions.' Stacy started fiddling around and after a minute or two she had the top up and securely fastened. Then he made sure all the doors were locked. 'That should be enough to keep us safe', she said.
'Good thinking', Sonny said. He leaned over and gave Stacy a rare kiss on the lips.
'I hope Jane and Nathan don't mind we aren't out there. I mean, like, I like being back here with you but it is like, rude. I guess.'
"I would rather be in the back seat of this car with you than out there where I might say some thing that gets me beat up."
"If they didn't show up would you still rather be back here with me?"
"I, yes. I don't know if you're up on your shots." She gives him a quizzical look. "Tetanus shot, for all the rusted metal out there."
"Oh, yeah, I don't know either. I don't like needles."
"So no worry about heroine or steroids." Stacy gave off a light giggle.
The two continue to talk in the back seat while Jane enjoyed her time with Nathan's gang.
Normally Sonny wouldn't have paid any attention to a hairdo, but in this instance the retro creation on Jane's head was one of the stupidest things he had ever seen in his life. The rest of her outfit was just no worse than any of the others.
He didn't, of course, say this as they walked the school hallway. He let her talk about how everybody seemed to have enjoyed Friday night's 'double date' (she emphasized the phrase with malice aforethought, which was fine with Sonny).
'We were in the back seat at a drive-in', Sonny said. 'We were supposed to get into the 1950s spirit. And now I suppose you want to have your girlish curiosity satisfied about whether your best friend and your best friend's girlfriend are going "all the way". No', he continued even more flatly, 'not even close. Also, credit where credit's due, Nathan was a perfect gentleman about everything.'
Their conversation was interrupted as they reached the principal's office, outside which Ms Li was sitting at a table with a roll of tickets and a cashbox. Upchuck was standing by the table, dressed for the stage in a powder-blue dinner jacket, and spruiking.
'Come see a feat of legerdemain so dangerous that I've taken out an insurance policy on my body, and my bodily fluids. This Saturday night, I will be handcuffed, strait-jacketed, and interred within an airtight, steel-reinforced, military-grade trunk. Then, it's either escape, or asphyxiate.'
'Do we get to pick?' Sonny said, but Upchuck wasn't biting. He and Li were both behaving as if it were a serious proposition, with the proceeds apparently to be divided between what the principal was calling a 'special expenditures fund for embedding microchips in the gym equipment' and (judging by a discreet cough from Upchuck to remind her of a detail she was overlooking) the performer himself.
Sonny looked at Jane. 'Upchuck, bound and gagged', he said. 'That does sound entertaining.'
Jane bought four tickets for another double date.
'Welcome one and all! I'd like to thank Mr Ruttheimer for supporting a most worthy cause, and for giving me some pointers for adapting the intercom system for post-hypnotic suggestions!' Ms Li leaned towards the microphone and spoke in what she might possibly have intended to be subliminal tones. 'I will tithe my earnings to Lawndale High, tithe my earnings to Lawndale High.' Sonny plunged into reflection as she returned to her more usually abnormal tones to introduce the performers, Upchuck and his 'lovely assistant...
"Stacy?" He thought she had been running late. Like Jane and Nathan were. Thinking about Li's financial (mis)management was better than letting his eyes take in too much of 'Ruttheimer the Prestidigitator', his powder-blue outfit only less garish now by comparison with Stacy's 'magician's assistant' rig, all sequins and bare legs and ersatz glamour.
Subliminal post-hypnotic suggestions? She'd be absolutely at the bottom of the barrel after her little conspiracy with Leonard Lamm to suck in soda company money had been scotched at birth. And now she had the increased salaries to pay after the teachers' successful strike. She must be desperate to find some way of solving the school's budgetary 'crisis'—short of abandoning things like microchips for the gym equipment and bulletproof skylights, of course …
Sonny let more of his attention back to the stage now that there was less of Upchuck to see. Muttering nervously throughout about whether she was doing things right, Stacy had helped the 'magician' into a putative strait-jacket and ostensibly fastened him in chains. Now he was lying down in a large allegedly steel-reinforced trunk so that she could purportedly padlock it shut.
No sooner had she done so than she whispered, just loudly enough to project all over the auditorium, 'Oh no! What do I do next?' A muffled noise which could conceivably have been Upchuck's voice came from the trunk. Stacy smiled nervously at the crowd.
Sonny looked around to see how the crowd was 'enjoying the show'. and two unexplainedly empty seats. Sonny wondered, 'Where are Jane and Nathan?'
As the noise which was presumably supposed to indicate Upchuck's continued struggles kept emanating from the trunk, Li stepped forward again to say, 'What's taking so long? I rented the auditorium out, and the single Scientologists will be here in less than an hour.'
Stacy was reacting the way she reacted to most stimuli, namely, with acute anxiety bordering on hysteria. 'He was supposed to signal me! Something's wrong!'
'Panic! Panic!' shouted Li, suiting words to action. 'I foresee a massive hike in insurance premiums!'
Mr Taylor emerged from the wings and went straight up to her. 'Principal Li', he said, 'as I mentioned, I had certain experience at my last school with certain incidents where …'—and then he interrupted himself to beckon at somebody offstage, before turning back to Li and putting one hand on her shoulder as he started whispering in her ear. After another moment DeMartino appeared in response to Taylor's gesture, carrying a crowbar.
'Why do I always wind up bailing out the naïve or incompetent when their ill-conceived plans go awry!' he bellowed with characteristic unevenness as he attacked the padlock with great vigour but little sign of skill.
Onepu rushed up on the stage from the audience. 'Oh, please, An—Mr DeMartino, one of our precious students is in that trunk! Oh, do be careful!' She flapped over to Li. 'We have to do something at once, but we must not be recklessly precipitate! We must be so careful of the welfare of the children!'
'The welfare of Lawndale High!' shouted Li.
Taylor had crossed back to the trunk to observe DeMartino's activity. 'I doubt that crowbar is going to be sufficient for the task', he said dispassionately.
Li rushed offstage as DeMartino continued his struggles and Onepu her panic. Only Taylor seemed to be taking events in his stride. Stacy had cleared out of the way, leaving the stage, and was now standing in the aisle, near the seats of the rest of the Fashion Club, weeping furiously in a state of total nervous collapse.
Jane continued to miss everything as Li returned brandishing a fire-axe. She rushed at the trunk, trying to swing at it, but having difficulty as Onepu tried to shield it, shouting, 'Principal! Principal Li! Please!'
Li, meanwhile was shouting incoherently, though a few words were distinguishable: 'Lawsuit!' 'Liability!' 'Bankruptcy!'
Sonny kept turning his head from the stage towards the entrance to see whether Jane might yet be in time for the climax, which promised to be much more richly entertaining than he had dared to hope, but still nothing. He looked back to the stage, and then back to the entrance. Stacy was still standing in the aisle distraught. The rest of the Fashion Club were loudly commiserating with her about her public embarrassment. At least, as far as Sonny could tell, Tiffany and Quinn were sincerely appalled, but the job Sandi was doing of concealing her secret satisfaction at the spectacle could have fooled only Tiffany and Quinn. 'Good thing Upchuck's buried alive in there', she said, 'so you won't have to spend the rest of your life seeking revenge for the way he's humiliated you in front of the whole school.'
Without a quiver, Stacy stopped sobbing and dropped her hands from her face. 'Oh, Sandi', she said, in a voice Sonny had never heard her use before, 'you are so naïve.'
At that moment, whether assisted by Li's wild blows with the fire-axe or not, DeMartino finally succeeded in raising the lid of the trunk. Taylor looked into it.
'Empty', he said.
'Empty?' echoed Onepu, literally wringing her hands.
DeMartino turned and pointed to the powder-blue vision at the rear of the auditorium. 'He's back there!'
'Shazam!' said Upchuck, right on cue.
Li was staring at him, bewildered, swaying wildly from one foot to the other. Then, with a wordless cry, she rushed forward, still waving the fire-axe in a circle above her head.
What her intentions were, nobody ever knew—or if her psychiatrists figured them out later, they were shielded by professional confidence. Halfway down the stairs from the stage, still ululating, she missed a step and fell headlong, the axe clattering harmlessly to the floor.
Jane missed out on another nail being hammered into the Fashion Club's coffin (Quinn and Tiffany were deeply impressed by Stacy's performance and hoped she could teach them the useful art of crying, and Sandi said … nothing). But Jane did arrive in time for the final scene of the drama, Li strapped to a gurney, conscious again and raving, and being loaded into an ambulance by psychiatric orderlies. Taylor had smoothly taken charge of the situation and was welcoming the single Scientologists as Jane walked up to Sonny and Stacy, still clad in her assistant costume, to be filled in on what she'd missed ('It wasn't all good: Upchuck survived'). She came alone, and when Stacy asked after Nathan she said simply that they'd broken up. Sonny had already figured that out: she was dressed in running shorts, boots, and a scarlet jacket over a T-shirt. Now that Jane was ready to admit that Nathan was a jerk, Sonny could confess his own feelings candidly.
'Maybe I did all that goofy stuff because I was a little too eager to be hanging out with a cool guy', said Jane.
Now that she'd made a frank admission, Sonny felt he should reciprocate. 'No. You were right about fun being fun. I'm gonna try and remember that on the off-chance that I allow myself to have some.'
'I guess Nathan's stylish good looks blinded me to the profound jerkiness underneath.'
Sonny said, 'You always did have a weakness for the weird ones', .
With things more comfortable between them again, Sonny later heard more from Jane about the circumstances of her break-up with Nathan. On the fateful evening he'd arrived to pick her up and take her to a tiki bar. She'd been a little put out when she'd reminded him of the agreed plan to go first to the magic show and he'd wanted to blow that off. Then he'd told her that he didn't think she was ready to mix eras by wearing 1940s shoes with a 1950s dress. She'd tried to get him to lighten up by saying that he was wearing a 1940s zoot suit (yes, he really did own one after all—'for special occasions') to a 1960s tiki bar, but instead of lightening up he'd been horrified to the point of going home to change. So she'd told him straight out that he was taking something they were doing for fun and being too serious about it. He'd started ranting about 'pride' and 'standards' and 'true believers', they'd had a brief stand-up shouting match, she'd told him to leave, and he'd left. Once she'd realised that they weren't doing the retro thing for fun (or at least that Nathan wasn't), she'd seen no reason to keep doing the retro thing at all. Or the Nathan thing. She didn't seem too broken up about it, so it couldn't ever have been serious.
A few other things also came out into the light of day over the course of that fortnight. A few members of the school board had been in Upchuck's audience and impressed by Taylor's performance in a crisis. It turned out that he'd had more experience as an assistant principal at his old school than Lawndale High's current assistant principal, who'd only been in the job a few years and also only had a few years to go before retirement (it figured that Li would want somebody in that position who was just looking for an opportunity to coast for the remainder of a career and wouldn't make any waves). So the school board appointed Taylor acting principal during Li's temporary absence at the funny farm.
Once Taylor was (even temporarily) in charge, some other things came to light. The pay rise the teachers' union had won had exacerbated what everybody knew had already been the school's budgetary problems, which helped to explain why Li had been so worked up about financial issues on the night she cracked. The money she'd been getting from things like renting out the auditorium to single Scientologists had helped a little, but it wasn't anything like what Leonard Lamm had led her to hope she might raise from a soda company. Then there was the little matter of the cryptically named 'liaison fees' she'd secured for Lawndale High from Grove Hills for unspecified services which had somehow come to an end the previous year. But Taylor had been able to make an impressive presentation to the school board, to the PTA, and to a hastily called school review meeting (clashing with no football games). If the school sold off the satellite scanner, the polygraph machine, the security cameras, and all Li's other favorite gear, and more importantly dispensed with the recurrent expenditure on bomb-sniffing dogs and 'miscellaneous security services', it could easily afford the teachers' pay rise and reverse all the other cuts to actual educational activities.
Sonny couldn't even claim to be any more unsurprised than anybody else when it was announced that Ms Li was taking early retirement 'for medical reasons' and that Mr Taylor would be the new principal of Lawndale High.
He was surprised when Stacy pulled him out of the hallway and in to the empty auditorium between classes. "Um, Sonny, uh,"
"What?" Sonny recognized the look on her face and the way she fidgeted with her hair. "What's wrong?"
"You're not mad about the UpChuck thing, are you?"
Now Sonny was surprised even more. "Why would I?"
"I, well, I hung out with him, and stuff."
"And?" She doesn't respond. "I hang out with Jane all the time. We're just friends. You can be friends with UpChuck if you want."
"Ew, no." Sonny almost, almost, smiled at her response. "I just wanted to learn how he did some of his tricks. I know it is like, nerdy, but I think magic stuff is interesting."
"Ok then. I never thought to be mad or jealous." Not like how I felt jealous about Jane hanging out with Nathan... Not going there. "We, hang out, date, but you're still free to be friends with any one you want."
"Ok!" Stacy hugged him before kissing him on the lips. They continued far longer than ever before when the bell rang. "Oh no! I'm going to be late!"
Sonny didn't mind. He was already more advanced than any one else in the science class and could be late with out missing any thing important.
Some dialogue from 'Life In The Past Lane' by Anne D Bernstein
