Because this chapter takes place the day after the events of the previous chapter, I didn't want too long of a break between posting 8th Grade Part 1 and Part 2. I hope you all enjoy the second half.
...
8th Grade, Spiro T. Agnew Middle School
Age: 13-14
June 2006
...
Gretchen glances down at the watch on her wrist and sighs. They were supposed to meet the boys at TJ's house ten minutes ago so their mothers could take pictures of them before the semi-formal end-of-school dance at the middle school. But, Spinelli and her mother have been arguing for the last twenty minutes about shoes and now her friend has locked herself in the bathroom, refusing to come out until her mother concedes to letting her wear her boots.
"Ashley, you get out of there right now!"
"No! I'm not wearing those stupid girly things – no, no, no!"
Gretchen briefly wonders if she should leave and tell the boys the situation so they don't just wait over at the Detweilers' for them, but perhaps Mr. Spinelli has already phoned over there to let them know. He hasn't come up the stairs since he nearly got hit in the head with a flying kitten heel.
Something clangs against Spinelli's bedroom window and Gretchen stands from the bed, walking over and lifting the pane to stick her head out. TJ and Vince stand on the ground below, TJ with a handful of pebbles and Vince with his arms crossed.
"What's taking you girls so long?" Vince complains. "We gotta go."
She shrugs. "World War III has started, so it may be a while yet."
TJ groans. "What happened now?"
"They're arguing over her shoes."
Vince rolls his eyes. "Figures. It's always the boots," he grumbles, just loud enough for Gretchen to be able to hear. "Can't she just suck it up and put on the stupid shoes so we can go already?"
They all already know the answer. Even though Spinelli has started exploring a slightly more feminine wardrobe and they aren't even the same boots as they were in fourth grade – possibly even the second or third incarnation of them due to her increasing shoe sizes – Spinelli is insistent on wearing her black boots with any outfit she chooses. Aside from gym class and sports practices, Gretchen can't think of a time when her friend has worn anything else, even in the dead of summer when it's almost too hot for even sandals.
"Is she ready otherwise?" TJ asks, tapping his chin.
Gretchen nods.
Right up until the shoe issue, things had been going relatively okay. Spinelli's dress of choice was a black skater dress she actually seemed to like and she had even put on a pair of earrings and a bracelet from her mother's collection. She hadn't even balked when Mrs. Spinelli put a little powder on both their faces and brushed a small amount of eye shadow on their eyelids. She even agreed to carry the small tube of lip gloss her mother had given them for the night. Or, actually, she agreed to potentially reapply it during the dance if she remembered to grab it from Gretchen's small bag since Spinelli didn't want to bring a bag of her own.
Then her mother took it one step too far and told her to wear a pair of cute black kitten heels she had bought instead of her trusty boots and that's when the meltdown started.
TJ smirks. "Okay, I've got a plan. Can you get her boots and come back to the window? We'll be right back!"
Then he grabs Vince and the two rush back down the street.
She isn't sure what exactly TJ has in mind, but she goes along with it. TJ's plans tend to work well and at this point they're already going to be pressed for time to get to the dance. She goes into Spinelli's closet and digs around, looking to see if her mother had hidden the boots there. When she can't find them, she walks out of the room and starts poking her head in side closets. Mrs. Spinelli is so focused on her daughter that she doesn't even notice Gretchen walk by.
She takes to the stairs to go check by the door, thinking that maybe Mrs. Spinelli bluffed about having hid the boots. They aren't there, but when she turns back around, she is met by Mr. Spinelli.
"Looking for these?" he asks with a grin, holding out Spinelli's infamous black boots out to her.
"Thank you," she says, accepting them. "TJ has some sort of plan."
"I figured," Mr. Spinelli says as they walk back toward the stairs. "Now we just need to get her out of the bathroom."
That is going to be easier said than done.
Mr. Spinelli climbs the stairs after her but stops to talk to his wife as Gretchen continues down the hall to Spinelli's bedroom. TJ and Vince are already back when she gets to the window, holding up a floppy pink backpack she knows is Mikey's old one from Third Street.
"Throw 'em down!" TJ shouts. "We're going to smuggle them in using Mikey's overnight bag."
"And where are Mikey's overnight things?" Gretchen asks.
"In a pile on Teej's floor," Vince says. "Now, come on. Toss one at a time."
She does just that. The first time she's nervous to throw the shoe down to them, but Vince catches it easily. Satisfied that she isn't going to hurt them, she sends the other one down as well. The two boys stuff the boots in the bag and zip it up, tossing the bag over TJ's shoulders. He adjusts the straps and then grins up at her, like a little kid on the first day of school.
"Now, go get Spin and let's get out of here," TJ says.
She sighs and turns around, trying to prepare herself to cut into the mother-daughter face-off, but when she pokes her head out of the room, Mrs. Spinelli is gone. Mr. Spinelli must have somehow managed to get her down the stairs, leaving Gretchen to tackle Spinelli herself. She walks to the bathroom door and knocks.
"Spinelli, it's me."
"Is she gone?" comes the quite voice from the other side of the door.
"Yes."
The lock clicks and Spinelli sticks her head out, looking in both directions before visibly relaxing.
"Help me."
"I did," she says, taking Spinelli's hand and yanking her out of the bathroom and toward the staircase. "Behave and you'll get your boots."
"Gretch, you're a lifesaver."
Gretchen rolls her eyes. "It was TJ's idea," she says as they take the stairs quickly. "You can ask questions later, but now we really have to go."
She at least looks a little sheepish for keeping everyone waiting.
The group suffers through a few rounds of pictures at TJ's house, all six mothers agreeing with how grown up they have become. A few of the mothers even appear to be holding back tears. After they escape, they pile into Mrs. Griswald's minivan to be dropped off at the dance. It's being held in the cafeteria and two of the eighth-grade teachers are manning the front entrance.
TJ adjusts Mikey's pink backpack on his shoulder as Mrs. Griswald drives away and turns to the group.
"Okay, let me handle this."
He has been sweet-talking his teachers since kindergarten and the chaperones at the door are a piece of cake. He gives his best puppy dog eyes and tells a ridiculous story about Mikey's bag of things and the teachers let him through even though they're technically not supposed to bring bags inside.
Right in front of the cafeteria doors, the group stops so TJ can take off the backpack. He reaches in and withdraws Spinelli's boots, barely having a chance to hold them out to her before she reaches for them herself, hugging them tightly.
"Oh, my God," she moans, a smile splitting her face in two and she squeezes her eyes shut like an excited toddler. "I could kiss you right now."
"Please don't," Vince says immediately. "No one wants to see that again."
While Gus laughs at Vince's joke, Spinelli smacks Vince in the arm.
TJ looks down at his feet, well aware that his face started to glow red with Spinelli's words and not wanting the others to see.
He thought his dumb crush on Spinelli would pass, but if anything, it's just gotten worse. Until recently it sort of sat dormant in the pit of his gut, something that he could forget about for the most part until something triggered it to bubble up. But ever since the Ashleys invited them to that stupid party, he hasn't really been able to think about much else besides what it would be like to kiss her. In fourth grade he was so preoccupied with cooties and not wanting to kiss anyone that he figures he could probably be kissing his soulmate and it wouldn't have mattered. He still would have hated it. But now...now kissing doesn't seem so bad.
It didn't seem so outrageous in his head that the Ashleys might pair them together – they did have the experiment to redo – but then Vince was convinced that they were both going to get Ashleys and the thought of watching Spinelli walk into the closet with someone else overwhelmed him with jealousy. And it whomped because he knew Spinelli didn't feel the same way and it felt wrong to be jealous about it when she was actually scared that she'd get paired with Randall, brought in by the Ashleys solely for the purpose of making her miserable. He had felt horrible.
But now he's just confused.
After Vince and Gretchen left, she thanked him for staying with her and they continued their movie. But then she rested her head on his shoulder and when he put his arm around her, just like he always does, she cuddled more into him. They stayed like that through the rest of Ghostbusters and when he changed out the movie when the credits began to roll, she resumed her spot curled up into his side, even wrapping her arm across his chest.
That in and of itself wouldn't have been too weird. He's a touchy person, always has been, and he thinks that makes Spinelli more comfortable with physical contact with him rather than everyone else. But the weird part was when Gus and Mikey came down the stairs, Gus charging down like a mad man with multiple stories waiting to be told, she leapt right off him as if he had suddenly caught on fire, her cheeks stained red as she kept biting her lip. That made him pause.
Because...maybe she does like him back.
"Teej!"
He shakes out of his thoughts to find Vince staring at him, eyebrow raised. The other four are heading out to the dance floor.
"You okay, man?" Vince asks as TJ falls into step beside him.
TJ nods. "Yeah. Fine. Definitely."
Vince doesn't take it as easily as TJ would have hoped.
"Really? Because you've been more of a space cadet than Mikey lately," he says suspiciously. "You sure nothing's up?"
Normally, Vince is the person that TJ would go to with problems like this one. He is the one who helped him in fourth grade when he had all the girls chasing him around the playground after his Valentine's Day card fiasco. Vince was the person he went to when he had his forty-eight hour crush on Ashley A and thought the world was ending. It isn't even that he thinks Vince would tell Spinelli or any of the others – if Vince didn't say a word about the Ashley A thing, he wouldn't squeal now – but there is something that keeps TJ from wanting to tell him.
"Yeah, Vin," he says, putting a hand on Vince's shoulder as they approach the other four. "Don't worry about me. I'm just...ready for summer."
Vince grins. "You can say that again," he says. "Football camp and baseball camp! Man, our summer is gonna rock!"
TJ keeps his grin tightlipped. He hasn't told Vince that he isn't going to football camp yet. He will be going to baseball camp with him, but at the last minute he dropped out of football camp in favor of going to camp with Spinelli instead. Her mom was only letting her go to wrestling camp this year if she went to a camp her mother thought sounded more appropriate and, since it was co-ed, Spinelli sort of strong-armed him into going with her.
He isn't sure when the best time to tell Vince about the updated camp schedule is, but he knows it sure isn't now.
"Yeah, it's gonna be something," he says, letting Vince lead him out to where the rest of their friends have found a spot.
They dance as a big group for a few songs, but then Gus gets claustrophobic and Gretchen goes with him for company. It seems like every group of kids tries to steal Vince and each time he has a harder time returning to the rest. They lose Mikey not long after Vince doesn't return from getting pulled away from the basketball boys. And then it's down to two.
They haven't been alone since last night and TJ watches for any body language that might betray her inner thoughts. But Spinelli continues to dance as if the others haven't left. Any awkwardness he thought might arise doesn't and he tries to calm his thoughts. He is reading too much into the situation. That's it.
"Spinelli!"
The pair turns to see a few girls from the soccer team come over to join their duo. Meghan Rigalli takes up the spot next to Spinelli and the other girls follow suit until they've formed a decent-sized circle of girls and him. He doesn't mind. He likes the girls on the soccer team fine, but mostly he likes that Spinelli has been able to make some additional friends outside of their group just like everyone else. He had been worried she would have trouble but he should have known that once she and Meghan Rigalli got over their initial competition they would bond over their previous history of sharing names with mean girl cliques and their mutual love of wrestling.
The soccer teammate immediately to his right bumps into him, swaying almost so their bodies touch. He shuffles a little further from her to give her some space. Then she does it again. This time, he moves so far over that he bumps into Spinelli, who stops dancing to look up at him and then over at her teammate. She glares at the other girl and then she takes a side step so she's standing right in front of him, as if she's guarding him from the rest of her friends, and takes both his hands in her own. He can feel her back swaying to the music against his chest and occasionally their hips bump.
Whoa. What brought that on?
...
"Hi Gretchen!"
She turns away from Gus and smiles at the two boys who have come up to talk to her. Steve and Rodney shared a few classes with her during their time in middle school and, for the most part, she actually enjoyed their company. Unlike many of their classmates, the two former Pale Kids actually put effort into their schoolwork so when they asked for her assistance she never hesitated to give it.
She smiles and greets them each by name.
"How is your night going?" Rodney asks, fiddling with his bowtie. He tightens and untightens it as he speaks. "It's quite boisterous here."
She nods, not surprised the boys feel out of their element. She doesn't remember either at any of the other more casual dances the school hosted once a month. The dark room, loud music, and bumping bodies are things she imagines the boys don't often experience. She also isn't surprised they sought out her company. She doesn't see any of the boys' other friends and she is a recognizable face in the unfamiliarity.
"I believe that's the point," she says, then she gestures to Gus beside her. "You remember Gus?"
The boys both nod and, after a moment of hesitation, take the hand that Gus extends for a shake.
They talk for a few more moments, mostly about the kinetic energy of the room of dancers, when Gretchen feels someone take her hand. She nearly jumps out of her skin, not suspecting the contact, and narrows her eyes when she notices Vince beside her.
"I'm gonna steal Gretch for a minute," he says to the boys and then he gently guides her away.
She expects him to bring her back to the dance floor, where he and the other three have noticed her missing now that the dance is close to over, but he doesn't do it. Instead, he leads her to the refreshment table on the other side of the floor, far enough away that she can no longer see the three boys they left behind.
Vince drops her hand and goes to get a drink. She crosses her arms.
"What did you need?" she asks.
He finishes filling his cup and looks at her in confusion for a minute. "What do I need?"
She nods. "You seemed like you were in a hurry when we left the boys."
He snorts and puts the cup to his lips, taking a sip before responding. "Did you seriously not notice the heart eyes Rodney was sending you? Steve, too, for that matter." He smirks and nudges her arm. "I had to get you out of there before they play any sort of slow song or else you would have been dancing with a Pale Kid."
"I find it highly improbable that all boys have an inability to speak to a girl without being attracted to them," she says.
"Yeah, you're right." He is still smirking, a dimple showing in one of his cheeks. "But those boys are crushing on you and I saved you from having to humiliate them."
"Why would I humiliate them?" she asks.
He shrugs. "Would you have danced with Rodney if he asked?"
Probably not. Every slow dance this year has been to the Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, a song eight minutes in duration, so given the pattern she expects that to be the song the DJ chooses tonight as well. She wouldn't want to dance to a song that long with anyone unless she really liked that person and, if she was honest, she would probably say no to even her best guy friends for a song that long. But, she doesn't like the way Vince wiggles his eyebrows at her as he continues to tease her.
"Perhaps," she says, but even with the pounding bass of the current song, she can hear her voice waver.
And so can Vince.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire," he says. Then he knocks her shoulder with his fist playfully. "Why would you dance with those two when you have me at your beck and call?"
She rolls her eyes. "Be careful, Vincent, your ego is showing."
He scowls at the use of his full name, but then shakes it off. "But seriously, Gretch. You ever need an excuse not to dance with someone, use me. Got it?"
She highly doubts she would ever use that, but it is a nice excuse to hold in her back pocket. Vince is arguably the most popular boy in their grade and to have him as one of her best friends has already afforded her some social leniencies.
"Yo, Vince! Come on, man!"
A group of rowdy boys grab Vince and off he goes in what looks like a mini moshpit. She sighs as she looks around. With Vince now gone, she goes to find someone else to talk to on the outskirts of the dance floor.
Greta Grobler stands alone, looking uncomfortable with her arms crossed. Gretchen has shared many of her classes with Greta over the last two years and now considers her a friend though it has been slightly rocky in the last couple of months.
She and Greta both sat for the entrance exam for the Arkansas School of Science and Technology, a boarding charter school in Little Rock far from their hometown in the northwest corner of the state. It had been nice to have Greta taking the exam on the same day since it was a multi-hour test and it gave her someone to chat with during breaks. Then when the acceptances came in the mail, Greta assumed they would both go.
In hindsight, Gretchen probably should have been more honest with her new friend about her apprehensions. It wasn't that she didn't want to go to the school or that she meant to hurt Greta's feelings. Ultimately, it came down to her friends and her long-held opinion that there is more to an education than what is to be learned in books.
Besides, it wasn't like their school system was lacking in any way that was substantial evidence for her to leave it. Superintendent Skinner often touts it as the best school district in the state and their scores on statewide exams are always at the top. She knows that students from their school district have been accepted to many top institutions. Chad LaSalle got into Stanford, where he will be going in the fall. A few of his friends had accepted full scholarships to other high-ranking programs. They did just fine at the local high school.
But Greta doesn't have the friendships that she does. Time has not been as kind to her and her group as it has been for Gretchen and hers. Greta came into school in seventh grade still sitting at a lunch table with Vance Lombardi, Meghan Rigalli, CJ Rottweiler, Russ Rimpol, and Mickey Yang, but slowly that disintegrated. Russ moved away and the others just moved on, as people tend to do. The fact that so many Third Street friendships have remained intact is something rare.
She can't help but think that when she declined her acceptance, Greta took it personally. Spinelli told her to forget about it, that a nerd like Greta wasn't worth Gretchen's guilt, but this may very well be one of Gretchen's last chances to say her peace.
"Hi, Greta."
The girl looks up briefly and then back out toward the dance floor. "Hello, Gretchen."
"You must be getting excited," Gretchen tries. "Pre-classes start in July, right?"
Greta nods her head but doesn't respond.
Gretchen feels her shoulders slump. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by declining my acceptance. I know you were excited for us to go together."
Greta had been talking about potentially being roommates and studying together. It had come as quite a shock to her when Gretchen told her she would not be going to Little Rock in the fall.
"You did what's best for you," Greta says, staring at the dance floor. "I hope that I can find friends who understand me while I'm there. Friends worth staying behind for, like you have."
The music has since changed and Gretchen glances back toward the dance floor. She feels a rush of relief for Vince as she watches duos of boys and girls beginning to slow dance. There is a fair amount of commotion and she follows Greta's eyes to where Meghan Rigalli has Vance Lombardi by the tie, dragging him out to the dance floor while a few of the lacrosse boys wolf whistle.
From what Gretchen has seen, those two are the only ones from their original elementary school group to survive their group crumbling. They're the two sportier ones, so similar to Vince and Spinelli it's uncanny. But when she turns back to Greta, hoping to convince her that she is sure the new school will be a great opportunity for her, she recognizes the look in the other girl's eyes. She misses her friends. It's plain as day.
"I am going to leave before the rush," Greta mumbles. "I'll see you, Gretchen."
She takes off before Gretchen can even say goodbye.
Gretchen sighs and turns around. She better find her friends. They often leave the dances during the final song as well, none of them particularly interested in slow dancing and much more interested in getting a booth at Kelso's before they're all full. But she stops, her eyes focusing in on a couple on a dance floor near Meghan Rigalli and Vance Lombardi.
She watches as Spinelli puts her hands on TJ's shoulders and the two begin to dance with each other.
She doesn't know quite how to feel as she stands, stone still, looking out at the dance floor. She should have seen it coming, really, and maybe she did and just ignored it, too focused on her academics. But, for some reason, she can't help but look at the two and feel her stomach drop.
The amount of friend groups that have stayed intact since Third Street is rare after all and she knows if those two pair off it won't be good for the rest of them. While she knows some friendships between the six of them are stronger than others, this is something entirely different. She wonders if this sort of fracturing is something their group as a whole would be able to survive.
...
Gus wanders through crowds of friends trying to find his own. It shouldn't be as difficult as it has been. The room where the dance is being held isn't enormous and he has circled the area what feels like a hundred times now. He feels like he's lost in a superstore, looking for his mother in all the aisles. Maybe if he just stands in one spot and doesn't move his friends will eventually be able to find him.
But not moving makes him anxious as he just looks out at the other groups having a grand ol' time together so he starts searching again.
Finally, he sees Mikey across the room getting a drink of water and he barrels through the Ashleys to get to him.
"Hello, my friend," Mikey says. He drinks the rest of his water in one gulp before throwing the cup in the trash so he doesn't have to hold onto it. "You look stressed."
Gus rubs the back of his neck. "I couldn't find anyone. Once the Pale Kids left I was all by myself."
"I didn't realize you were friends with the Pale Kids," Mikey says.
Gus shakes his head. "Nah, they really came over to talk to Gretchen. But then Vince took her and left me with them and then they left."
Mikey chuckles and Gus frowns at the reaction.
"What's so funny?" he asks.
"Oh, nothing," Mikey says, almost like it isn't a big deal at all. Gus raises an eyebrow and Mikey finally explains. "It's getting close to the end of the dance. Rodney and Steve were probably staking their positions for the slow dance."
Gus still doesn't understand what Mikey is talking about. "What?"
Luckily, Mikey is patient with him.
"I'm sure one of them was going to ask our dear Gretchen to dance during the slow dance," Mikey says. "I'm sure it didn't even occur to Gretchen, but Vince probably helped her duck out so she wouldn't have to hurt their feelings."
He thinks about what Mikey said for a minute. He knows that each of their school dances in the past has ended with a slow dance, but none of them have ever danced to it. Typically they all just dance in a big group and when the slow dance song starts they leave, beating everyone out of the dance and into the night. It didn't even occur to him that any of his friends would be slow dancing at this dance.
"Gretchen?"
He says it more to himself than to Mikey and the other boy doesn't even seem to hear him anyway. Gus looks out at the dance floor and realizes for the first time how diverse the groups are tonight. Typically at dances in the past, their group was one of the few mixed gendered groups. Just like at the lunch tables and in classes, the seventh and eighth graders at dances tended to pair off boys and girls.
But tonight he looks out and there are boys and girls dancing next to each other in ways Gus has never really taken much notice of before. He supposes he knows that boys and girls like each other, he has had some crushes himself in the past, but he never really thought about the rest of his friends.
So, it does make sense that someone would probably want to dance with Gretchen. She is a girl after all, even if he has never taken much notice. Same with Spinelli. There's probably a boy or two for each of his friends, like Mikey said, trying to get in good position to be around them when the slow song starts.
He feels his gut churn. He is friends with girls. It wasn't like he didn't know they were girls but it just never made a difference to him when they were younger. But now he understands why Vince cut into their conversation with the Pale Kids. Gretchen shouldn't have to deal with boys she doesn't like asking her to dance. Same with Spinelli. A lot of boys at their school have become cocky overnight. In the gym locker room he has tried to tune out their talk about the girls and their appearances.
Oh, man. He's friends with girls and boys like girls. Boys who like girls are going to want to dance with his friends because they are both nice and pretty and popular in their own ways. He wonders if they've realized that. From what Mikey said, it seems like Gretchen hasn't and if Gretchen hasn't because she's so smart, Spinelli is probably completely clueless.
He feels the need to watch out for them for the rest of the night. He'll try to mimic Vince and when he sees someone unworthy he'll cut in. He can do that. It's the least he can do for all the times they've each saved his butt in various occasions.
"Shall we see if we can find the others?" Mikey asks.
Gus shakes out of his thoughts and nods his head. It'll be easier to do his job if Spinelli and Gretchen are nearby.
They head toward the dance floor where they can see Vince's head bobbing in a group of baseball players. Gus doesn't want to go near that, afraid for his health and wellbeing, and he keeps looking for TJ, Spinelli, and Gretchen. Those three must be around somewhere. He can't find Gretchen, but he sees Spinelli and TJ with a group of girls that play on the soccer team. He doesn't really want to go over there either. Meghan Rigalli is like another Spinelli, but without the years of friendship taming his intimidation, her somewhat salty exterior gives Gus the shivers.
He keeps an eye out for Gretchen. Like Gus, Gretchen isn't thrilled by the masses of sticky bodies bumping together. She tolerates it better than he does, but she takes breaks from the dance floor and he often joins her. He looks for her along the sides. He hopes she's out there. He is already feeling claustrophobic.
The fast beat of the typical dance music comes to a stop with the last few chords of the song. Everyone on the dance floor looks up toward the lights, waiting to see if they'll turn back on and signal for everyone to leave or if the pause just means an announcement. It ends up being the latter, when the DJ of the night tells the group of celebrating eighth graders that there's one final song for the evening.
"Uh oh."
Gus looks up and Mikey gestures to their left. Gus doesn't see anything of any importance. Randall and Menlo are standing together off to the side and then they break apart. Menlo seems to be walking toward the Ashleys and Randall toward the group with TJ and Spinelli.
"It looks like Randall has plucked up some courage tonight," he says, leaning down close to Gus so the other boy can hear.
"What courage?" Gus asks, but as he watches he can see what Mikey means.
The boy is inching his way toward the group of girls. Gus wonders which girl Randall is going to ask but regardless of who it is the request isn't going to go well.
Mikey even bites his lip. "I do hope I'm wrong, but my guess is he is planning on asking Spinelli to dance and he may end up with a black eye."
Gus's eyes widen. Of all the boys he thought might ask Spinelli to dance, Randall wasn't one of them. He steels his nerves and leaves Mikey's side, trying to intercept the situation. He told himself he was going to protect the girls from weirdos tonight and Randall is number one on that list, even if Spinelli can probably handle the situation better than Gus can.
But as he gets closer, dodging newly formed slow dancing couples, he sees TJ take Spinelli's hand and Randall's movements falter. The redhead stands still and watches, just as Gus does, as Spinelli gives a little nod and puts her hands on TJ's shoulders and the two of them beginning to dance themselves.
Gus blows out a breath. Good. He and TJ are on the same page. He must have seen Randall. Now Gus doesn't have to get in the way. He turns around, ready to go back to Mikey but his friend has disappeared again. He groans. Now he has to find his friends all over again.
...
The music changes. Rather than the upbeat dance music played all night, this isn't a fast song. The first few seconds are only the plucking of a guitar before more instruments join into the slow melody. Spinelli has heard this song played before at other dances but she has never danced to it. Her group typically ditched when it started playing, ducking out to fool around outside while their classmates awkwardly paired up or equally gawkily sat in the bleachers to watch.
The guitar plucking is the signal for most of the students to leave the dance floor, but she doesn't immediately turn around. TJ stands behind her, where he has been all night because she wouldn't let him go. After her teammate's embarrassingly horrible attempt to get TJ to notice her earlier, Spinelli hasn't let him near her friends while also not letting him stray far from her side. She did a perfectly good job of positioning her body between the rest of the group and TJ.
She feels him squeeze her hands, which she also didn't let go of since she grabbed them early in the night, and she finally turns her head to look up at him.
He smiles and she notices that it's different than his typical smiles. This one lacks a little bit of the cocky grandeur that encompasses TJ Detweiler. Instead, the corners lift up only a hair and his eyes shine with nervousness.
"Do you want to keep dancing?" he asks.
She nods her head and lets go of his hands to turn around.
Her gut bubbles and she feels like she can't breathe. Slow dancing with TJ should not be this big of a deal. It isn't like he likes her or anything. Just because she has harbored a crush on him since before she knew what a crush even was doesn't mean that this changes things. They're friends. Friends dance.
But out of the corner of her eye, she can see Meghan Rigalli pulling Vance Lombardi out to the dance floor by the tie and start dancing together. They're dancing, but also laughing and seem to be teasing each other. They're friends and that's how friends are supposed to look like when they're dancing.
She and TJ are still just standing awkwardly next to each other.
She looks down at her boots. What if he figured it out? She did hold him hostage for the majority of the dance and she wasn't exactly subtle in her actions the previous night. He is probably just being nice, being TJ, offering to dance with her because he realized she's a sap and he has already wasted his entire night attached to her hip anyway.
TJ's hand finds hers and she looks up as he squeezes it. He shrugs.
"We don't have to, you know," he says.
She knows what she should do. She should let him go. She should roll her eyes and make a comment about how she wouldn't be caught dead slow dancing at a middle school dance. She should remind him that she has a reputation to maintain as the toughest girl in school.
That's what she should do. But instead of running away she takes a step forward and puts her hands on his shoulders.
The gym is hot and sticky from all the dancing. Because of this she long discarded her leather jacket with Mikey's backpack and her girly shoes over in a corner. Now she wishes she hadn't because when TJ places his hands on her hips she can feel their warmth through the thin material of her dress. It makes her shiver and that seems to cause the warmth to cascade through her entire body.
There has to be something wrong with her because she's overheating. This song is notoriously long and what if she passes out? There will be no saving her reputation then.
She feels TJ lightly squeeze her hip and she looks up from her boots to meet his eyes. He gestures his head and she follows his gaze to where Dave is dancing with a girl she doesn't really recognize. But he keeps looking away, anywhere but at the girl he is dancing with – at the walls, at his feet, at other people.
"Thank you for not wearing a disco ball tonight," TJ says, leaning closer to whisper it in her ear. "I give him a minute or two before he hurls."
"You're terrible," she says, but she can't hide her grin. Dave does look like he's about to throw up. "Maybe he likes her."
God, she hopes she doesn't look like that right now. She'd never live that down.
TJ shakes his head. "Maybe her dress is making him dizzy."
Her laughter slips before she can catch it.
"You wouldn't catch me dead in all that glitter," she tells him.
"Uh, I seem to remember otherwise," TJ says, grinning. Spinelli tries to think of what he could be referring to and groans just before he says it. "All those sequins at that dance recital in fourth grade ring a bell?"
"That was not my choice. That was a costume."
He smiles, one corner of his mouth lifting a little higher than the other, his eyes sparkling sweetly. "You looked really pretty in it, you know? I can't remember the dance but I remember the outfit."
Oh, man, why is he doing this to her? This is just cruel. Her cheeks are flaming hot and even though it's dark in the gym she knows he's close enough to be able to tell. She leans close enough to bury her face in his shoulder, not wanting him to see how flustered he made her. Then she feels his arms circle around her, pulling her into what feels like more a hug than a dance. All their classmates are arms lengths away from each other and here the two of them are, chest to chest.
Though, she can't say she is upset that the song playing is eight minutes long.
Across the room, Vince walks away from the spot where he was originally standing with Phil after the other boy goes to the refreshment table. He barges through Randall and Menlo, not even paying attention as the two tell him off, and finally stops at his destination next to Gretchen. He is pleased to see that she is already looking in the direction of their two friends on the dance floor. At least he doesn't have to point them out to her.
He doesn't know why it bothers him so much. So what if Ashley B was right at that stupid party and they do actually like each other? It won't last. Crushes don't last. He has noticed girls, especially now that he has kissed one, and it never really lasts all that long. But TJ usually tells him about his crushes, just as Vince tells him, and he just figured that TJ would tell him if he had a crush on Spinelli.
It is Spinelli after all. Doesn't he have a right to know? A crush on someone in the group is a mandatory tell.
Together, Vince and Gretchen stare at TJ and Spinelli, unconsciously crossing their arms in unison as they watch their two best friends. The two aren't the only ones on the dance floor still, though some couples have broken apart during the long finale song, but there is something different about the two of them in comparison to the others. Whereas their classmates sway uncomfortably, awkwardly silent as they keep an arms length between them, TJ and Spinelli look like they've done this a thousand times before.
Vince's eyes focus on TJ, who seems to testing the limits of how close he can pull Spinelli before a teacher steps in to embarrass them for being too close. He narrows his eyes and shakes his head at his own jealousy. The summer will change everything. He and TJ will go off to camp and he'll forget all about Spinelli and when they start high school everything in their group's hierarchy will be back to normal.
Mikey comes to stand next to Gretchen and sighs loudly, capturing the two's attention away from their swaying friends.
"Oh, finally," Mikey says, holding a hand to his heart.
Gretchen turns away first. "Come again?"
Mikey blinks at his two friends in mild confusion before gesturing to TJ and Spinelli. "You didn't notice? Those two have liked each other forever. Since sixth grade at least."
"Wait, what?" Vince exclaims. Sixth grade? That's impossible.
Mikey chuckles at a memory. "Oh, yes. The younger kids all called our dear Spinelli 'Queen' behind our backs. They figured that TJ chose me as a bodyguard instead of her so Spinelli could take that role instead."
"Third Street never had a queen. You know that," Vince insists. "TJ chose you because Spinelli is a girl and no king has ever had a girl bodyguard before. That's it."
He remembers exactly how TJ chose his bodyguards, arguably the two most important positions a king fills on his playground. TJ came to him a few days after it was announced that he would be succeeding Freddy to discuss his choice for his second bodyguard, Vince being a no-brainer for the first.
TJ had, of course, been thinking of Spinelli for the other position. Most people assumed she'd be chosen, a rare move for a king to choose a girl bodyguard but at the end of fifth grade not many people thought of Spinelli as a girl yet. She was, to most of the playground, some sort of enigma that no one really wanted to cross. But, still, Vince didn't want TJ to have any issues and, knowing their class, someone might have made a comment, so he told him not to choose her.
He remembers exactly how he said it too. "Look, you can't ask Spin. She'd be great at it, but...Teej, she's a girl and that...you just can't do it." And that had been all the reason TJ needed to change his choice to Mikey and give Spinelli a new title all to herself.
He shakes his head again. That's exactly how that went down. There was no ulterior motive, no Queen debate, no nothing. So, Vince finishes his argument with, "You've just been watching too many romantic comedies again, big guy."
A sigh escapes Mikey's lips and he lets the topic drop. Instead he turns back to the dance floor, where the song is beginning to wind down.
Vince is right. Mikey is a bit of a romantic, always has been, and is even someone who believes in soulmates and all that. He has no doubts that when their two friends begin a relationship that it will be the first step in their lifelong partnership. But, he also knows that even if that isn't the way fate decides to take them, it isn't for him to decide. His purpose, as their friend, is to be supportive – in good times and in bad.
"What if they date?" Gretchen asks quietly beside him.
Vince grunts and Mikey turns to look at both of them. Gretchen looks up at him and Vince looks down at his feet. It isn't often that Gretchen asks questions of the gang. Usually it's Gretchen offering up solutions or statistics. But now Mikey sees a wave of uncertainty in her eyes.
"More specifically, I guess," she continues, crossing her arms and uncrossing them twice before finishing her thought. "What do we do if they break up?"
Again, Vince huffs and mumbles something about it not happening so why worry about it. But, Mikey knows Vince well enough to know that this is just denial. It's coming from a spot in Vince's heart that feels like he is being replaced as TJ's left-hand man, a position he has held mostly without question since kindergarten.
Mikey moves slightly so he stands between the two of them so he can rest either arm on Gretchen and Vince's shoulders.
"Well then, my friends, if that is the case we love them because that will be the hardest thing they'll ever do."
The other two don't respond. Not a peep comes out of either of them.
Gus appears beside them as the song ends. "Hey, there you are! I've been looking all over for you guys!"
The three glance toward the dance floor, seeing that TJ and Spinelli have since broken apart, just talking in the middle of the crowd of kids moving toward their various friend groups. Silently, the three agree not to mention their previous conversation to Gus. The poor kid is already so freaked out about high school as it is, they don't want to burden him with the idea that their friend group could be on the precipice of a major change that is completely out of their control.
...
Notes
And that concludes middle school. Like I said in the notes last chapter, we flew through middle school because there really wasn't much change that happened for the gang in terms of their 'status quo' and high school is really when this starts to be tested. If there's anything you want to see from middle school, let me know and maybe I can have some outtakes posted along with the main story.
I'd love it if you leave a review and let me know what you think!
See you all in high school.