Chapter three:
The summer flies by. My father, brother and sister think it's funny to see me get worked up over each letter from Eric. I just can't believe that he is for real. I develop my pictures and go shopping for my school supplies. I land a part time job at the book store at the mall and other than tending to my car, gas and insurance, I save my pay checks.
When I get in the building, on the first day of school, my tormentors are waiting for me.
"We missed you, Sookie. What did you do this summer?" A couple of the annoying guys call as I walk by with my friends. I ignore them and walk off, which as usual makes them more pugnacious.
A month later, they finally wear me down. The fact that I have a boyfriend slips out while I'm trying to tell them off. It wasn't that I was trying to keep it a secret, my friends knew. Of course, these idiots can't leave me alone.
"So when can we meet him? We need to make sure that he's good enough for our girl." Jason and Hoyt tell me one day, in the hall. 'Yeah, I can't wait to crush him. She has never had a boyfriend before.' Hoyt thinks, slightly depressed about the whole thing. It's a wonder that he actually was interested enough.
"Maybe someday, he lives in Tennessee. I'll mention it when we talk tonight." I walk into my class, groaning. Then, I think about their faces when he does show up one of these days.
For two months, I show the pictures off. The letters, I keep to myself, because there's some sensitive stuff in there.
Eric calls in early October, he can come to the masquerade dance, the weekend of Halloween. He asks me what I am planning to wear. I haven't thought about it. "As long as you don't dress me up as Edward Cullen, I don't care what I am. Hey what about getting Alice and the Mad Hatter costumes or Jean Grey and Cyclops."
"Really, you just want to be able to wear your sunglasses all night. We could go Greek on their butts. Hey, you would make a good Viking." That's not a bad idea, Eric done up in a Spartan uniform, or animal skin. That's enough for a few fantasies. I need to get my mind out of the gutter. I think for a bit.
"You know what, I like the Alice bit. I'm glad I'm blonde."
We agree on the costumes being from the newer movie and make arrangements for the dance. He will be staying at one of the local hotels. He offers to rent our costumes, but I tell him I'll get mine. I end up finding a Alice costume in Spencer's. It's a sexy Alice, but I like it.
When the night comes, I get a little gruff from my uncle and grandfather about my costume. I admit it's a little revealing, but I can't help that I have a fairly large bust. I'm finally winning them over when there is a knock at our door. I open it and introduce Eric to them and my grandmother. I am sure his appearance was confusing to them.
"OK guys, I'm Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" and he's the Mad Hatter. It's a costume dance." His costume was great. It almost looked like Johnny Depp's from the movie. We get out the door and walk to his rental car.
"You look great honey, very sexy!" He growls in my ear as he opens my door. 'How am I going to keep my hands off of her all night, with her wearing that? Just not seeing her for this long has made me want to drool; now she is wearing the sexiest Alice costume ever.' I am happy that he is still attracted to me.
We drive to the school and talk about how nice it is to be with each other again. We arrive in no time. The doors are not open yet. He parks and puts in some contacts to make his eyes all crazy. Now, it really does look like Depp's.
"Do you want to get out now or do you want to stay here for a few minutes more darling?" He asks with a slight drawl at the end. I shiver a little at the sound of the twang. It is a little funny hearing the cowboy come out of the Mad Hatter. 'I vote for steaming up the windows and never going in.' He thinks. I almost smirk at the thought, it has merit. I kiss his cheek.
"As much as I want to keep you to myself, let's go get our groove on." I move to get out.
"Oh, no you don't. You know that I open your doors." Eric bites out, as he jumps out and runs around the car to open my door and give me a hand out. He locks the doors and we walk up to the que, hand in hand.
They open the doors soon after and we pour into the gym. The whole place is decorated with twinkle lights and gauze drapery. I hand our tickets to the person collecting them.
We sit down at a table and start chatting with a few people. Of course, we don't know who they were with the costumes; I hope they aren't people I can't stand in real life.
Eric leans over to me, "So Alice, would you like to dance with your "mad" date." He wags his shaggy fake eyebrows.
"Sure." He smiles at me and holds up his finger for me to wait a minute. He runs up to the dj and walks back with a crazy grin on his face. He pulls me up and we walk to the empty dance floor. "Time of the Season" by the Zombies comes on. We dance a loose swing to the song while everyone stares. He grins all through.
"You know they are talking about us, right?" He whispers in my ear. "They have no idea who we are. It is kind of fun." He spins me around and kisses me when he pulls me back to him. "You want to give them a show?" He winks at me and I nod. I was expecting another kiss, but he twirls me around the floor to the music. "Gee, I feel like Ginger Rogers." I giggle into his frock coat. 'I am glad she is having fun. I know the bull some of these people put her through. I never want this night to end, that way I would not have to let her go.'
When the song ends, we go back to our seats. The table erupts in a round of applause. From some of the smiles, I can tell that we are sitting with my friends. I breathe a sigh of relief at the knowledge.
"They are my friends." I tell him, as we sit back down at the table. He lets out a breath, "Good," he leans over and kisses me. "Are you going to introduce me to them?" I nod and proceed to do so.
We are getting into a group discussion about subjects that we need to graduate in June, when some others walk up. Just by the tension around the table, I can tell that I was in for a hard time.
"Sookie, who's the "Hatter"?" Jason asks, rudely.
"If you must know, I am her boyfriend. The name's Eric Northman." Eric stands and holds out his hand to shake with Jason, who he towers over. When Jason clasps his hand, Eric squeezes hard.
"Nice to finally meet you, Sook has told me about all of you. Now will you excuse us, I want to spend some time with her and my new friends. I don't get to see her as often as I would like." When he sits down again, he pulls me into his lap and kisses me. Jason and his cronies leave.
"I can see what you mean about them, plain and simple bullies. I'd love to see what Pam would do to them, not to mention what the guys would do."
"Guys?" My friend Claudine asks.
"Yeah, my twin Alcide and our friend Sam, they are about as protective of my little Sook as I am. Pam too, she would love to pulverize those idiots." We both laugh at the mental picture of Pam tearing into the jerks at my school.
The rest of the dance flies by. He takes the contacts out; it's nice to see his blue eyes again. Eric drives me home, grabs something from the backseat and walks me to the door.
"I'll talk to you in a couple of nights, OK. Then there's the letters. I love you baby. Have a good night." He leans down for a kiss. 'God, I am going to miss holding you in my arms.' I lean against the wall and pull him to me, by the lapels. Our mouths fuse for a few minutes. "I want you to have this; it's my spare home jersey. Both of us made the team. When you said that your rival school was royal blue and white, I could not resist." Eric snickers as I look at the jersey. The number is low that means that he is on the offensive side. A/N: It has been a while since I payed attention, but I think that the low numbers are offensive. I am sorry if I have it wrong. My dad would be so disappointed. :(
"Eric, what position do you play? It's offensive, I can tell by the number." My handsome boyfriend grins at me. "My love, you are dating every high school girl's dream, the quarterback. Our team is not that good, but they have heart. We've won a couple of games more since we joined the team." He pecks me on the cheek. "This is why I won't be able to call as often as I want. The season will end in a couple weeks and I plan to try something else." He winks and opens the door. "I love you."
I wear the jersey to school the next day, over my white turtleneck. The shocked looks that I get make me smile. My friends are about to call sacrilege before I turn around, showing the name on the back. They laugh at the coincidence. The football team is about to go against our rivals that Friday. My arm is caught by Hoyt. I look around for Jason, he is nowhere to be seen.
"What is this? Why are you wearing one of their jerseys? How did you get it? If you wanted to date a football player, you could have…" He cuts off there as I remove my arm from his grasp.
"Let me guess. If I wanted to date a football player, I could have dated you? Hoyt, this isn't a jersey from them, it is from my boyfriend, Eric. He thought that it was a good joke that his school colors were the same. He is playing for the season and then moving on to something that he wants to focus more energy on. The team was something his brother wanted to do. So they made a deal, they would play football for the season and then they would start making money competing on the circuit. He could care less, about the game.
Now let's discuss this thing about you. You have never shown any interest in me other than to insult my intelligence and try to lead me on. When I finally show interest in someone, you start to come around, seeking me out to talk and pay attention to me. Yet, you still do it in secret, still have a girlfriend that seems to think that you are devoted to her. I will never be party to someone cheating on his girlfriend. Hell, if anyone ever dared to do it to me, they would be gone. Because of the games that have been played on me, I have little to no trust in the opposite sex, Eric is helping me work on that." I walk away to my class. I am glared at for most of the day, but I smirk and go about my merry way.
We talk and write over the next month and a half. I start a Christmas Club to save for presents. I have decided what to get my family; it is easy to shop for them but not for Eric's. I send out Christmas cards right after Thanksgiving.