Eigth Grade
“Eighth grade boys stink,” Marilou said haughtily. “Why would we want to go to the Hollywood with them?”
“Steve Alt does not stink”, I responded. “We won’t be invited anyway, this another one of Barb’s schemes to corral her cronies before Highschool next year.”
After school I was surprised to get a call from Karen Laubenthal. This worried me a bit, because while Karen was a very kind person, she was one of Barb’s cronies. She asked if I would like to join them on Friday night to go see The Ten Commandments at the Hollywood theater. Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that!
“Sure, I would love to go,” I responded, immediately wishing I hadn’t sounded like my mother. Maryilou called five minutes late. “Sorry it took so long, someone else was contemplating their pig futures on the party line. Karen just called and asked if I would like to join them, I ‘bout fell over!” she sounded excited.
“Well, what did you tell her,” I asked.
“I said sure, I would love to go,” she responded.
Oh, no we both sounded like our mothers, I thought. Now the real fun would begin – we talked about clothing options, of course we couldn’t wear jeans. It was too much like a group date. Tops should be snug, but not too snug. Hair, face, shave…! Oh my goodness! I just remembered that Grandma Meyer was on our party line.
“I gotta go, Marilou, see you at school tomorrow.” I hung up fast.
We had two days until Friday. My palms were sweaty all day, and I had palpitations every time I passed Steve Alt in the hall, was he going to join us? He had such a nice smile – ear to ear, and that blond hair, with those blue eyes.
Friday came deliberately. The sun was still shining brightly as we all clambered out of our cars and into the Hollywood. Twenty five cents seemed like a lot of money to go see a movie about the tenets I had memorized years before, but here we went. Steve was there, in a soft blue shirt and khakis and as we entered the theater he asked me if he could sit by me. What? I wasn’t prepared for that!
“Of course” I said.
We proceeded to our seats, soft maroon velvet, and sank in. The movie started and within minutes Steve took my hand and my whole body smiled at him.
worldwidedeb 