"...you're fifteen!?"
I can still remember the first day I met Tanya Thorpe. She was sitting behind me in algebra, it was third-period class, and it wasn't a class we shared. "Harold Bright, can you stand and introduce yourself to the class." I had been living in the States for a year or so at that point in my life. My English accent was still very thick, and it made an impression.
"Yes, of course."
Standing up, I turned to take note of a senior staring at me oddly enthusiastically; that was Rosie Mulligan. She was also from the UK and not exactly the shy type.
"My name, as it already has been informed, is Harold Bright. Harry, if you all would rather call me." He explains with his nerves on edge as he speaks to the class. "I will be a teacher's aid this semester, as I've no other; choice but to be here." Bright was trying to make a joke out of reality, and it caught the laughter of only a few.
The dry sarcasm wasn't worth much in a small American town.
"So, you're here to teach us a lesson or two?"
The young man's eyes came down to the woman next to Rosie. His brown eyes met two of the bluest eyes he had seen since arriving at the high school. "No, I'm here to correct your lack of effort."
"Bright!"
"Pardon.." Harry responded to the scolding of Mr. Richardson. "I'm here; to effectively challenge you to do better."
"Best of luck with that!"
Harry gave the woman a glare of concern before she smiled a Cheshire cat-like smile. "I'm Tanya, Mr. Bright." Her introduction was blatantly a jab at his reason for being there.
It would be a long semester if he had to deal with that one,
A month into his time at the small-town high school, and; Tanya was the bane of his existence. She was always acting out, and he was always having to 'help' her in class. Which consisted of listening to her trying to gossip about some football player as he was hoping she would solve for x and end his suffering.
"Tanya, please...I'm begging you. You don't need much to pass this class. I know this isn't as difficult as you believe; it's numbers."
Thorpe rolls her eyes, having been painting her nails at the table the whole time he's been working with her. "Yes, but those letters don't belong with those numbers, and they don't get involved in what I need." Harold was fighting a losing battle, she was a get-rich-quick trophy wife-to-be, and he was a future banker with a possible murder case in his future.
"I may just kill you."
"You can try, but you don't have the stomach."
Two months into the year and it had happened. Something in the young man's mind had snapped. One moment he wanted to get away from Tanya, and the next moment he missed her when she was gone.
"Y-you can tell me the truth if it's me."
Rosie had confessed to liking Harry at a local meet-up for the Senior Class. He hadn't expected it, having so hung up with things in his mind. "Rosie Mulligan, you are a firecracker." He says with a genuine but weak smile. "I'm just a bit torn up with other things."
"With...another someone?"
She had noticed the way Harry had begun to look at Tanya. Even from afar that very night, he clearly showed something of care. Rosie knew that look because she had the same for him and before him for another.
"She likes you in her own way.." Rosie mentions as the two are standing alone together, away from the big crowds of teens their age.
"Tanya is just a flirt. A harmless one, but she can't seem to help her nature." Bright wasn't so sure if he could believe her at that moment. He could see Tanya with the quarterback, his arm around her as she was laughing up a storm. It was a rough feeling, as he couldn't see himself ever making her laugh like that.
Harry got a call from Mr. Richardson one day after school.
He was impressed with his work in the class but still saw some issues with one student in particular. Bright knew to whom he was referring and decided to try a different approach. He met with Tanya the day after class, trying to reason with her. Oddly enough, it didn't take too many words for her to agree with him. The two would begin to see each other after school to help Tanya study to pass her class.
Two weeks into the sessions, he realized why she had agreed. "You're doing all this for a trip to Europe at the end of the year?" He asks sharply, but she smiles happily. "Of course, I only get to go if I pass all my classes, and this is the only one I'm failing."
"You have a D in Mr. Parker's English class..."
"Not anymore; I got a B, thanks to Donna and Rosie."
Harry rolled his eyes at the selfish nature of the woman's vanity. "So beautiful, and yet so vain." She smiles one of her bright, perfect smiles. "You think I'm vain?" Tanya asks, leaning closer to the young man, speaking just by his ear.
"That's kind of neat, and you are slipping, Mr. Bright."
A chill went completely down and then back up his spine. Harry jumped up quickly at what Tanya had just said to him. His eyes whelmed with tears at the realization of that instance. "H-how long?" He didn't know what else to say before she whipped her head back and ran a hand through her brown hair.
"A month or so, I've had my assumptions," Tanya answers. "Rosie confessed she knew something of those lingering stares of yours." He was hurt and hurting as his chest felt so tight. "I'm not upset, Harry; it makes more sense why you're helping me so much."
"I'm helping because you're dragging the class down." Harold snaps at the accusation.
"...And because you like me, which I'm not too surprised about."
Bright was feeling shameful and regretful at her matter-of-fact judgment against him. "Tanya, just because half the football team wants to get you to mess around with them behind the bleachers. Doesn't mean you're as popular as you believe to be." He wanted to hurt her, and he wanted to make her see the action of her ways. Though it only riled a shrug from the woman as she began to collect her things.
"They all want me until they can have me; then, I'm a waste."
The thought she put in Harry's mind made his stomach churn. She knew what she was doing, and the glint she gave him said so. "Try not to think much about that, Harry; it might hurt your brain."
Bright wouldn't dare speak to Tanya or Rosie after what had happened after school. Two more weeks would pass before he even dared help either of them. It hurt; to feel betrayed by one person and judged by another. People you thought highly of for a brief moment.
"Harry!"
Donna Sheridan was a well-known senior in their classes. She was the leader of the Dynamos, which Rosie and Tanya were a part of. "I've heard a little rumor!"
"A-a rumor?" Harry felt like he was about to faint. "Yes, and I'm so glad to know about it!"
"You are?"
The blonde was smiling and nodded at the young man. "Yes! We need you! Someone who can play guitar in this school is rare!" He was dumbfounded. "How did you know I play guitar?" Sheridan gave a look that seemed awkward and concerned.
"Tanya let it slip; she saw you practicing in the music room."
"H-how...I only go there in my free period."
It was a statement as he knew Tanya usually had a class when he practiced there. "She just mentioned seeing you play, and I have taken it upon myself to beg you to play for the Dynamos!"
Donna was good at roping people into things. One moment he was avoiding Tanya and Rosie, and next, he was their guitar player. It was all for Donna, of course, though he had to admit she was someone he felt easy to open up to, even going as far as teaching her how to play in between sessions.
"You do like it, right; It sounds like something you can be involved in?" Harry didn't understand what Donna was trying to ask him. "I-I don't believe I want to be the dancing queen." She laughed at his response while her friends watched the two from the other end of the stage.
"No, Harry. I understand that, but the music is. It has a good feel to it, right?"
"She's just using him."
Tanya says more to herself as Rosie looks up at her. "Thorpe, your jealousy is showing." "Jealous? Of Donna? She's my best friend; I just don't think she should tease the boy as she is." That was different; Tanya was never so interested in someone that another person showing interest seemed like a challenge.
"Donna isn't interested in Harry, she's just thinking about the future of the Dynamos."
"It's got something to it; It's a little event that opens people to trying something new." Donna was so excited to hear Harry describe her music in such a way that she hugged him so quickly and hard.
"She's hugging him," Tanya says, pointing.
"Tanya, she hugs everyone...even the teachers," Rosie responded, and her friend knew that to be true.
They were all starting to get back on even footing. Harry was more and more involved in the girls' productions. He had even gotten to the point he and Donna were working together on songs. Everything was starting over in its way of things. "Headbanger, Harry!" Donna announced as she walked up to a spiked-haired Harold Bright.
"Look at you, embracing the scene of things!"
The droll look on the young man said it all in his Sex Pistols, Jonny Rotten t-shirt. "The flair of it all feels a bit off for the music." If they were both being honest, Donna couldn't agree with him more, but this is what Harry said made him feel empowered. "Well, we can lose the spiked collar if it would help...and the eyeliner." Bright had a pout on him at what she mentioned removing from his attire.
"Then I guess we have an anarchist in the group, so suck it up, headbanger!"
"Headbanger sounds like something you'd name a dog." Rosie rolled her eyes, hearing Tanya over her shoulder. "You're supposed to be helping me learn this new dance routine, not watching them chat it up."
The taller brunette scoffed at what her friend had just said. "Why can't you see she's setting the boy up for heartbreak!" Her friend turns to glare up at her. "Tanya, I've listened to you complain about Bright for the last time. Either stop flirting with the stupid hick jocks and ask the boy out, or accept that she's the better option than him!"
"Better option!?"
"You're a bloody tease and a flake, Tanya Thorpe! At least Donna believes in love, she believes in romance, and finding someone of worth. Not just someone to marry and have them lavish them for the rest of their lives."
It was the look on Tanya's face that told Rosie was scolding was hitting her deeply. "I-I never said I didn't believe in love." Mulligan sighs, seeing her friend now hurt. "I know, dear; I'm just trying to get you to stop this weird game you're playing with your heart." Rosie went over to Tanya and wrapped her arms around her. "Truth be told if anyone has the best chance at a man like Harold Bright. It's you; he's still hung up on you." If it wasn't clear before- Tanya could see that even Rosie felt something for Harry.
"Rosie, you deserve to find love as much as anyone of us." The shorter brunette smiles up at her friend. "Don't I know it, love? I deserve someone who's going to sweep me off my feet...it's just not going to be a man like Harry. He's just too wiry for that to be true."
Tanya laughs a bit before giving her friend a teasing look. "Listen, I'm not picking you off your feet yet, doll. I've got needs that need to be met!" Of course she was only playing, but Rosie sighed and pulled away from her friend. "I'm sure you'll come running back when you're unfulfilled in life and love!"
There was deep laughter from Tanya and then Rosie, knowing all too well the things the rumor mill had created based on Donna and her Dynamos!
"I think I'll swan off for the day,"
Bright said as he picked himself up to gather his things. "Big plans for the weekend?" Donna asked, gaining a shrug from the younger man. "Not really; I've got nothing to do and nowhere to go." Before Donna Sheridan had the chance to offer to hang out with her new budding friend; Tanya came over to the two people with a grin that stole the show.
"I think we should all have a party at my house this Saturday!"
She and Rosie got the idea in a flash when they both realized Tanya's parents would be out of town. "We can invite a few other people or a lot! Or it can be just the four of us!" Truth be told; the brunette was more excited about the ideas in her head than the ones she and Rosie cooked up.
"Please, please say we can do this!" She practically begged! "If we invite people, we can even pull off a performance away from the school auditorium!"
Donna and Harry kept looking at each other and then at Tanya and Rosie. "I'll admit, I'd love to do something the school wouldn't approve of." Bright could agree with what Sheridan had said. "I can bring some equipment from home, so you girls can work on costumes and all." Rosie saw her friends start to come together in this situation.
"What about food and such? If we invite people, do we say to bring your food?"
"We also say booze Rosie, because my father will kill me if his expensive wines go missing." Rosie wasn't exactly fond of the idea of any one of them getting intoxicated around each other. "Do you think that is wise?" Donna shrugged even though she wasn't being questioned about it.
"Even if Tanya doesn't mention it. Someone is going to bring alcohol, Rosie. Teenage angst and parties drive high schoolers to act out."
While the three women her starting to plan for the weekend to come. Bright decided it was his time to exit. If there was anything he knew; it was that those three had everything covered, and he was just along for the ride.
"Super trouper beams are gonna blind me, But I won't feel blue; Like I always do; 'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you!"
The Dynamos began to sing their heart out to the sound of a guitar playing near them. A few classmates had shown for their 'parents are away' party of the evening.
"I was sick and tired of everything...When I called you last night from Glasgow" Donna led the show with Tanya and Rosie in tow.
The group synchronized with the movements and tone of the performance. They gave the music their all, and Harry was happy to share the stage with the three women.
"Didn't you count six when we were doing 'Super Trouper'?" Rosie asks, looking around the room they've been performing in.
"I counted twelve just as we finished 'Knowing me, Knowing you.'"
"You're both wrong; there are twenty people here now." Harry corrects the woman as he stands up from his chair. "21," Donna added to his response catching sight of someone coming in through Tanya's front door. "We only have three songs planned out."
"I say we end it as it is; any more people, and we're going to have too much of a mess to face tomorrow." Harry was the reasonable one, and Donna felt the same. Even if she wanted to finally play 'Dancing Queen' for a crowd of people...this wasn't the place or time.
"If we are going to perform anymore, what is there to do?"
Tanya got the brightest Cheshire cat-like smile on her face at her idea. "Oh, we're going 'old school!'" Donna, Rosie, and Harry; all looked at the woman with concerned expressions.
"Gather round boys and girls, get close, and get comfortable!" The tall brunette began to gather the crowd of people into her living room. "It's time to play the game we all love to play at these kinds of gatherings."
"Game?"
Bright was confused, and Rosie rolled her eyes. "Dear heavens Tanya, can't you keep it in your pants!" Donna put an arm around Harry and smiles at her guitarist. "Guessing you don't know of the bottle game?" He noticed people who were gathering had begun to sit down in a circle in the large room.
"That's right, everyone we're getting this thing going! You know the drill, grab the bottle when it's your go, and spin!"
"Spin the bottle is overrated!" Rosie shouted from across the room. "Sit yourself out, but Donna and Harry will still play!"
"I don't have a choice in this, do I?"
Donna gave the man a look that said it all before she could even speak. "Come on now, be spontaneous, Headbanger! Maybe try to kiss some girl?" Even Donna could see the blush behind the man's light makeup. She wasn't certain of what it meant exactly, but she was thinking one thing that made her drag him over to the group of people.
"You're sitting right next to me."
Tanya noticed how her friend was behaving, feeling a bit self-conscious about the situation now. "O-okay, since I'm usually the one starting this off. We're going to change it up a notch...Donna!" Sheridan jumped slightly, hearing her name. "Now?" Thorpe gave a nod, before she went to her friend with an empty bottle she had taken from some random guy.
"One spin, no backing out!" A sigh came from the blonde as she nodded her head. She knows the rules; they all have done this routine before.
"You say this now, but you better not go backing out if you get someone you don't like," Donna told her friend, taking the bottle from her. "Tanya Thorpe backs down from no challenge!" The brunette says in return, only to have Rosie laugh out loud.
"You say that now, but wait until you end up with someone like Harry!"
Harold blushed hard, turning his head to the ground when the group started laughing at the idea. "What are you talking about?" Tanya asked her friend, who decided to sit out the game and lay on the taller brunette's couch.
"I can prove to you, you're wrong!" She added before going across the area to where their guitarist was seated. "Harry, can you look at me?" Bright shook his head while keeping his eyes on the floor.
"I'm not going to be a part of whatever you're trying to prove, Tanya."
Donna stood concerned with the bottle in her hand and the group watching her friend make such a scene.
"Tanya, we all understand you won't back down."
Something about the situation meant a bit more than proving a point. "Please..." The brunette got down on her knees in front of the young man. "Just look at me, Harry." It took all his nerves to turn his eyes to the woman now in front of him.
"Tanya, just play your game." Her head shook before her hands came forward taking ahold of him by his neck.
"I-I don't need to play a game just to kiss you."
Rosie shot up to see what was going on, as Donna was still so confused by what was happening.
"You want to kiss me?" Harry asks before the woman puts on a weak smile and nods. "I have for some time." Leaning forward as she pulls him towards her. The vain young woman kisses the budding anarchist. Both kiss each other with little fear or regret for the moment.
Tanya would receive mixed reactions from the crowd, with some cheering and others booing her because of her reputation from their high school.
"I can't believe it; she's gone off her rocker,"
Rosie said, coming up to Donna, who was now even more confused. "Are we playing a game or watching a show?" The shorter brunette laughs before Harry begins to part from the kiss slowly. "I-I think you've proven your point." Tanya shakes her head at him in disagreement.
"No. I think this is just the tip of proving it."
Bright felt heated and began to move back a bit from Tanya. "I do think it's enough for now." He says as he's still got his hands on the woman's waist as he had gotten onto his knees when she kissed him. "We can do anything more, away from prying eyes." Tanya's smile grew a bit as she ran a hand across the studded collar he was wearing.
"Now you are just making promises," she says before leaning in to kiss him on the cheek as if to say goodbye as she leaves him on the ground.
Before Bright could say anything in return, the game had begun for real; It was a couple of hours of awkward moments and shifting bodies.
Tanya kissed a few guys, Donna kissed a random guy, and a girl from her language arts class. Rosie refused to join in at all, as Harry ended up spinning the bottle, only to have Tanya decide the party was over; When the item landed on a boy from their math class together.
"Listen, people! It's getting late, and you all have to go!"
"Jealous much?" The boy comments as Harry is relieved someone stopped them. "One kiss, and she now believes she owns me." He responded, only for both men to laugh.
"She's not playing people; You don't have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here!"
Donna joined her friend as the random group began to stand and spread out to leave. "You kissed live five guys, and Harry couldn't kiss one!?" Rosie says, to have Tanya glare at the shorter girl.
"Harry isn't gay! Did you see the fear in his eyes!? He can't handle that!"
Bright was still talking to the boy he landed on in the game, as the three girls were watching him from afar. "I don't know; I think Harry can handle it," Donna tells her friends though this is coming from a girl who had no fear about that subject.
"You know, if you decide not to go for the girl. I'm open to hanging out." Bright's head tilted before he laughed faintly. "I don't rightly know what to say to that." A hand came up to touch Harold's shoulder.
"You don't have to say anything, just think about it."
"What's there to think about?"
Tanya asks, coming up off the side of Harry and putting her arm around the guitarist. "He's been claimed by a Dynamo, little boy." She mocks, seeing that the male hitting on Harry is a freshman. "You're far too young and the wrong gender for this one." The Englishman's heart was racing in his chest at everything he felt and everything going through his head right then.
"I-I think I'm going to stick with the bird." Harry finally can speak before his arm wraps around the brunette. "I've been keeping my feelings guarded for too long."
"Right."
Their younger classmate rolled his eyes at it all before he began to leave in tow with the rest of the people who came that night.
"Bird?"
"It means 'woman' I'm sticking with you." Tanya smiles and hugs him at the clarification.
"Good to know."
After the party, the months went by fairly quickly; Tanya and Harry hardly left each other's sight. It was in Bright's best interest that he made sure Tanya stayed focused on school as they had begun to 'date'. The last thing he wanted either of them to do was forget their future as they were creating a separate part for each other.
"Hold still; I promise it will look good if you stop worrying."
Bright was doing his best to sit as still as he could for Tanya, but he was worried she was close to poking him in the eyes. "I don't understand what's better about your makeup than mine."
"This one is waterproof, and you won't have to keep applying it so much if you just use this one kind."
Harry found putting on eye makeup tedious, although he appreciated the result in the mirror. Tanya finished the makeup application and handed Harry a compact to inspect the final look. "What do you think?" she asked.
"I like it; you did good work."
The brunette grinned before she pushed the mirror down and leaned in to kiss him. "I'm glad you like it." She wishpers to him aftward.
"Won't you two get a bloody room!?"
Rosie shouted from across the stage they were all sitting on. "Rosie, they are just enjoying each other's company. You act like there is something wrong with those two together." Donna mentions to her friend as she's trying to tune Harry's guitar by ear.
"It's a bit suffocating with those two; it's supposed to be a rehearsal for our next performance. Not will they, or won't they fuck!?" The blonde practically dropped the guitar, and the clang made everyone jump.
"Donna!"
Bright shouted before the lead gave her friend next to her a glare. "One, that was just rude!" She says to Rosie. "And two!" A hand came up to gesture with two fingers pointing to the couple.
"How do you know those two haven't...done things?"
"Oh, they have done 'things', but I know for a fact they haven't done that 'thing."
"How!?"
Rosie leaned close to Donna so they weren't directly sharing everything they were talking about. "Tanya keeps trying to get the boy to make a move, but he keeps sidestepping each chance she's given him."
"Why do you think that is?"
"Well, probably because he thinks Tanya's been with all the guys at this school...and he's just a virgin."
"Harry's still a virgin?" The question didn't sound like one she was waiting for an answer to, "I mean, we're in high school. I'm still on the fence about doing anything when we're far away from here."
"I could care less if I ever do it...but those two; Tanya's probably done it with someone already. Harry admitted to me he's never done it at all. So that has him worried that maybe she won't want him after their first time together."
"Do you think Tanya is that type?"
Rosie shook her head at that question. "No, but he sure does."
"Please, slow down a moment..."
The solid three-month mark was approaching, and Tanya was starting to feel like something was wrong. "I-I don't understand." She pulls back from her boyfriend, looking like a kicked puppy. "If you don't want to do this or don't want to with me. It's okay if you just come out and tell me, Harry."
It was the moment the man had been dreading from the start. He was visibly shaking as he lay there next to the woman. "I want to do this, I-I want to be with you...but I can't." The night at her party, she knew something was different with Harry.
"It's because of that freshman, right?"
"What?" Harry was confused for a moment before he sighed. "Tanya, I-I'll be sixteen in a few weeks, and this is a lot for me."
Tanya sat up off the bed before turning her body to the man. "Did you.." She was trying to process the information she had just been given. "Y-you're fifteen?" Bright nodded as he sat up next to her.
"Yes."
"...you're fifteen!?" Given the question, Harold didn't need to answer it a second time...yet he did. "Yes, and I'll be sixteen in a few weeks."
"Oh dear god, I almost slept with a child!"
"I-I am not a child!"
Harry tries to defend before the woman glares at him. "Oh, but you are!" She says quick! "Does your mother know what you've been doing this whole time!?" Was this some jab on his part!? "What?" Thorpe started gathering her things as she got out of the younger man's bed.
"I knew you were younger; all the boys are always younger...but fifteen!?"
Bright realized this wasn't some joke; she was visibly upset with him. "I-I don't understand; I'll be sixteen soon, Tanya." He just wanted to hold off until then. "No...Harry, we can't do this."
"What do you mean?"
Harry sat there waiting for the woman to answer, and when she tries she is in tears. "We're through; this ends here for us." She doesn't go into details about why, and she doesn't dare look back at the man. As Tanya leaves his room, Harry feels as if his heart has been ripped from his chest.
"I-I don't understand." He whispers to himself, unknowing that it's only the beginning.
The End; Part 1: Highschool aka 'We Never Sing 'Dancing Queen'Writers Notes;
I'll admit I hate writing high school based things because my high school experience was rushed, to say the least. This is why this was a very rushed but also interesting way start to a series based on these characters. I wanted to give a good start to them all and bring them together before tearing things to pieces a bit.
As I go into writing the next part of the story, it will be a time jump and all out of the high school years.
I'm going to go with about four years of a jump.
So Harry is just getting into his twenties, and Tanya is well; a bit older considering she was held back in school while he was pushed forward some grades.
I thought those ideas worked because this is based on the idea that these characters are based around the first Mamma Mia movie and that Colin Firth and Christine Baranski have a bit of an age gap between them.
Though these two characters won't have a nine-year gap, it is still enough to give Tanya development into her reasons for pushing and pulling with Harry. {Among other things.}