Chapter 6: The Yearbook Dance Night...

Surprisingly, this whole sit in/riot/protest rally surge of energy didn't last long. The end of the year was coming and along with it Spring Fair, Spirit Days, Spring Break and summer blessed summer. The seniors got senioritus and the rest of the school just sort of moved on to other things. I guess it's really true what they say..."Today's Headlines line tomorrow's trash cans". That's about how it went around our school. There were rumors, break ups, hook ups, fights, parties and Western Festival to focus on. So we didn't have a lot of time to continue our crusade to save our teachers from the oppressive powers that be. The thing that diffused our strife the most was that both teachers were given the choice as to whether they WANTED to transfer as a result of our protest so...mission accomplished. And Ed Skeen was rumored to be seriously looking at other school districts. So Yay for the power of the people and we could all move on to things like the Barn Dance.

Mike continued to sit by me in English Class. And those weird feelings of excitement in seeing him and the desire to be around him didn't go away like I thought they would. I applied Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker everyday before English and we spent most classes passing notes back and forth and completely ignoring the other students and Mrs. Santora's new assignment of Macbeth. Or was it the Odyssey? Or hmmmm....what DID we study? Obviously, what we were studying in English class was not my big concern. However, who I was studying it with was a major focus of my day. Mike had just been given an appointment to the Air Force Academy and I found it so dreamy Top Gun Maverick that he wanted to be a fighter pilot. And that he had a cause. His cause and own personal crusade was my freedom and liberty which apparently he was willing to DIE for. And I am such a sucker for a guy with a cause. I find it more irresistible than power, money, a sense of humor, a nice butt etc etc etc. A do-gooder, who has something more important than their own comfort and more important than me is just asking for me to fall in love with them. Barack Obama BEWARE.

So now what do I do? I had a good boyfriend who I was totally faithful to and even though we had been fighting more lately, I didn't want to break up. Instead, I started doing covert missions to get to spend more time with Mike in order to gauge just where he was at when it came to the Aimster. The depths to which I would sink are shameful. I hid. Behind the bathrooms. Waiting for him to come out of class. Then, I would casually appear as if out of nowhere just as he was walking up. So I was ahead of him. And he had to catch up to ME. So he was all "Hi Amy" and I was all "Oh Mike, I didn't see you there - sup?" (which was my super cool way of saying how are you?") and we would inevitably walk to our next class together, talking the whole way and laughing and reveling in the throws of a crush. This became our regular routine for months. Nothing more than long talks on the way to class, passed notes in English and the growth of a friendship. We started to not want to get to our next class. We found more and more reasons to hang back and become tardy. We might come up with the most clever of plans which involved me needing Mike's help on some pressing student government issue and we would go check in with his teacher and make sure he could take the first few minutes of class to help out the student government. This usually meant I made up some needless banner we needed to hang in the lunch room or books we had to take back to the library. One sunny afternoon, I convinced him to run an errand for a teacher off campus during classes. All in the name of student government. He agreed to every request and I started finding him (by accident of course) after school and gave him a lifts home in my rad 77 Celica. Beige. GT. With no air conditioner.

One day we were doddeling on getting to class and the final bell rang and we were still talking outside of the portables near the Antlerette room and Mr. Cavanaugh walked by and said "Did you guys hear the rumor?" And we looked sheepish because we knew we were supposed to be in class and figured we were going to get busted. "what rumor?" He got that twinkle in his eye and replied "Amy Oliver and Mike Meeker went crazy and went off and eloped and now they are married!" Huh? "harr harr Mr. Cavanaugh. You're such a joker." I said as I licked my lips and wanted a hole in the earth to appear in which to swallow me. "Ha Ha Mr. C. Amy Oliver would never be dumb enough to elope with me." Mike replied. Huh? Our eyes locked. Mike's held humor and mine held all the questions swirling inside me. Like... do you like me in that way? Like really really like me? Are you really worth liking? Do I really like you? Like really really? Is this just a passing fancy? What about Kelly? You are Mike Meeker for crying out loud. I'm not meant to like you am I? But your smile is so cute and you have so much PASSION about life and issues and causes like freedom and the military and I just totally dig that ever since I saw the musical Evita and the character of Che. The Spring of 1989...it was a very confusing time.

The yearbook dance was coming up. I went. I saw Mike. He danced with Janina. Then he left. I just decided to bite the bullet and drove to his house to see if he wanted to grab a bite to eat. After all we were friends, right? I mean, he's probably got to eat. So I pulled up my rad car that my parents blessed me with for the first of what would turn into a million times of pulling up in front of the Meeker house on Elk Ridge Way.

Ding Dong.

Now, I had no idea this house held 6 brothers ages 3 to 18, 2 parents and 1 Grandmother. The door opened. It was Mike's brother that went to our school. "Hi Little Meeker" I said. I'm here to see Mike - is he home? "No, but he should be soon." Ron replied. "Cool." I said. "I'd just like to know if he wanted to go grab something to eat. Can I leave you my number? "uh...sure" and he took down the digits. I got a call from Mike about 25 minutes later asking me if I wanted to go to dinner. I told him I would pick him up. I'm sure that was weird for his traditional, conservative, limited dating self to wrap his brain around. That a girl came to his house. And left her number. And asked him out. And now was driving to his house to pick him up. Go Feminism! We went and got fried shrimp. Don't ask me why. And I paid for dinner. Then we went to a little play ground and hopped on the swings and talked for 3 hours. I have no idea what we talked about. Just that it was on these swings, where I have since taken my girls to swing, under the light of a full moon and a North Star that we fell in love. There was no kiss. No holding hands. Nothing wonky. Just talking and the bearing of our souls. It was a magical night. And I asked him out. And I paid. And I recommended the park. Homeboy had to be lead around by a ribbon in his nose.

So now we were in love. Happy and in love. And he knew it. And I knew it. And Kelly was picking me up in the morning for a day trip to the ocean. So my life sucked as much as it could for a 17 year old girl in love...with 2 boys.