To the Reader:
All sexually active characters are age 18 or older at beginning of this story.
This romance is told from a male point of view (POV), so if this is not your preference, your time might be better spent elsewhere.
*****
The Sadie Hawkins Day Dance was still a custom at my rural, 1980's highschool. I always suspected it continued so because the community mothers pressured the school administration and the community fathers to keep it that way. After all, wasn't the purpose of any school to prepare the students for life, and wasn't a young woman's foremost goal in life snaring a husband?
Too many of the boys just didn't appreciate the importance of husbandliness, and thus left many eligible girls out of the wifeliness training program. In fact, almost half of them. Sadie Hawkins Day, and the big, all-school dance that Friday evening, promised an opportunity for these girls to catch up and get into the game.
Somehow, the school managed to make it a matter of male honor and good manners to accept any invite from any girl who chose to invite the miscreant male, no matter how reluctant he was. Girls already paired just had to ask early, but occasionally a quarrel or two did erupt as to which girl had the right to ask which boy.
DeeDee Wertz got left out of the wifeliness training program my senior year because she crapped on her steady so bad no guy would ask her out. So, for some reason I'll never understand, she came after me for our Sadie Day Dance. Maybe because, although she was a bit on the tall and rangy side, I liked tall women—particularly if they were blonde. I eye-balled plenty of tall blondes and didn't care if they knew it.
Fourth period she caught me on the stairs from second floor to the main floor, right in the main hall where all her snooty friends could ridicule my lack of social couth if I turned her down. And if I didn't, they'd have it spread all over the school that I was DeeDee's charity date.
I saw this coming a few steps before it commenced.
"Jerry?" she said as she came at me. "I'd like ...," she started in. There was no 'will you,' or 'please' to it.
But I raised my hand abruptly, palm toward her in a 'halt' gesture. The resulting surprise stopped her and set her back.
"Sure, I'll take you, DeeDee. Any decent guy's gotta give a charity date every once in a while."
Her mouth dropped open at least as fast and far as those of her entourage.
I waved my hand a bit, then said, "We'll talk it over later, okay? What time and where to pick you up, right? I suppose there's a protocol for charity dates?" Her mouth hadn't recovered before I turned and hurried off for Wood Shop. I sure as hell didn't look back.
***
She waited until the end of sixth period to try me again.
"What did you mean, Jerry? I'm no charity date!" she said as she came at me from the hall into the main part of the building. Her voice carried some of that exaggerated whisper that's loud enough to be heard, but gives the impression the content is supposed to be secret.
"Sure you are. You crapped on Darren real bad. No wonder nobody will take you! How many guys turned you down already?"
"None!"
"Why not, then? You been afraid to ask? Afraid they will, and then everyone will know? The whole school knows what you did. Most guys will turn your down just because they like Darren. Sure you're okay looking, but not good enough for a guy to put up with that."
She tried to look mad, but didn't pull it off very well.
"Yeah, DeeDee. You're a charity date, and if you don't know it, you're the only one in this school who doesn't.
She wilted, mouth open, and I'd bet she'd have at least one tear to shed later when I wouldn't see it.
"I ..."
"Don't worry, DeeDee. You'll have a good time, I'll see to it. Even a charity date deserves that, don't you think?"
She turned abruptly, hid her face, and walked away. I figured this served her right. Darren, one of my better friends deserved better than this from his girl. I planned to stop by his house on the way home and brief him on my plan.
That was easier said than done. Word that I was taking DeeDee to the Sadie Hawkins Dance the following week had spread like wildfire. And Darren was the one who suffered at the fire's first blast.
But once I got past his mother—after all, I could be seen as an interloper here—and got to him directly, half an hour later, I got him settled down.
"Darren, she shit on you. No doubt, man. You want a girl who would do that to you? You can do far better than her."
He shook his head, but it was one of those shakes that says 'I don't know.'
"Yes, you do! Take Merry Sue Jordan. She'd never do something like that, I guarantee. Or Keri Morton. Both of them are real good looking girls ... and nice and smart, too, even if they are just sophomores."
He shook his head.
"Come on, Darren. Just go out there and act available. Good god, man! You're captain of the football team. Stand up and be the leader of your life, too!"
He just stared blankly for a moment.
"Go ask Merry Sue. I know she's got no date because she's too shy to ask anybody. And Keri Morton needs a date, too. In fact, get them together—they're friends, you know—and ask them both. If anybody gives you a bad time about being with two of them, just say they're both so good looking, you couldn't make up your mind, then treat them both like that's exactly the situation. You'll look like studliness incarnate, and if you do your part, they'll look like royalty of the realm."
"But I ...?"
"Darren? Do it, already. If DeeDee comes back to you afterwards and you decide she'd be okay, then fine. If she doesn't, then you'll have two great looking, sophomore girls trying their best to thank you. Believe me, all the girls in our school will be wishing they could get a date with the captain of the football team who's so thoughtful as you've been toward girls who might need encouragement. You'll likely have to fight them off with a stick."
He gave a combined snort and muffled chuckle. "What about you, Jerry? And DeeDee?"
Well, that question still required some thought, but my present thoughts ran something like this:
"Oh hi, Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein. Nice of you to chaperone tonight. I'd like you to meet DeeDee Wertz? This Sadie Hawkins Day thing kind of snuck up on her—surprised her so bad she couldn't get a date so I'm just helping her out. I'm sure somebody will come along and figure out she's really not
that
bad."
Darren chuckled, and this time enjoyment hinted in his voice.
"Or maybe, DeeDee? Why don't you go have a dance with my friend, David, here. He doesn't mind giving a charity dance now and then, and his date won't mind because you're no threat. After all, it'll only be a charity dance."
Darren's chuckle grew more firm as he enjoyed this thought stream. "Oh, that'll be good!" he said slowly shaking his head.
"Sure will, and you just might like Merry Sue and Keri. If I didn't have to go with DeeDee, now, I might be hanging out myself, trying to get one of them to ask me. You can probably get them both like I said."
***
By the time the dance rolled around, I'd firmly briefed Darren and David and several other friends who would be going to the dance: At every turn, hit DeeDee over the head with her charity date status. Darren did get a double date (sort of) with those two sophomore girls, and without knowing so, they played right into my plan.
I bought a corsage for DeeDee, but told the florist not to worry if it wilted some, that I needed it wilted for a joke. So what I got was quite wilted.
When I gave it to DeeDee, I took it out of the box and said, "Sorry, it's wilted. But even so, it'll make you look better."
At the gymnasium door, she begged off to the ladies room. My okay went like: "Yeah, go ahead. I hope you can do something about your hair, and there's something odd looking about your left eye."
She must have been in there a half hour. I went ahead and, per plan, found a table and organized David and his date, Matilda, around it. The music had begun a while before DeeDee returned, and by then Matilda and I were trying out the dance floor. I'd told David to complement DeeDee on her hair and make up so she wouldn't feel so much like 'charity.' As David's date and I walked back to the table, I heard him say, "DeeDee, you look better, now. Don't give it another thought."
After I seated Matilda, I helped DeeDee sit down. I noticed she looked around the room, obviously looking for Darren.
"Looking for Darren?"
"No." That was a little too quick to indicate being true.
"Well, there he is. Aren't those two at his table pretty? Girls that age can be so pretty. Just as fresh as flowers. And he's got two of them."
She turned to look that way just at the right time. Darren stood from his table and after both his dates made it plain they'd follow him to the ends of the earth, he took one's hand, said something that returned him a gentle and receptive smile from the other, and stepped onto the dance floor. The girl on his arm immediately swept both her arms around his shoulders and pulled herself up and against him.
"That girl must be hard up," DeeDee said.
"I don't think so. He asked them, both of them. They're good friends, you know." I waited a moment for that to sink in. "Really, it's okay for a boy to ask a girl to this dance, particularly if the girl is as pretty as either of those."
"They're charity dates."
"I don't think so. He fussed all last week, trying to get up guts enough to ask them. Glad to see he made it, lucky bastard! Look at those women!"
I eased up on DeeDee for a few minutes, got her a Coke and helped her hang her coat on the back of her chair.
By then Darren and Keri had sat at their table and appeared to start making small talk. Well, maybe not so really small talk. Merry Sue, who had sat out the previous dance took his arm and made it plain she wanted to dance this waltz. Smiles all around confirmed it was mutual.
"How can they do that?" DeeDee said. "Be one of his two women."
"Guess they figure he treats them right and it's only fair they treat him right."
She slouched further into her seat.
"Come on, DeeDee. It's not that bad. Try not to look so ..."
She looked up, How? On her face.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You don't really look all that bad now. Of course, that happens to every woman, just more to some than others, and some sooner than others. To take your mind off how you look, let's go dance. That'll make you feel better. You can hide a lot on the dance floor if you don't trip and fall or something."
With that I stood, took her hand, and led her to the dance floor. She tried that arms-around- the-shoulder business that Darren's partner had used, but I didn't let DeeDee get away with it, I reached back and returned her hands to where good dance posture said they should be.
We danced three dances before I led her back to our table. David and his date ran out of enthusiasm for the dance floor at the same dance, returned, and sat down, too. As the next song started up, I turned to DeeDee and said, " Why don't you dance a couple with David. He doesn't mind giving a charity dance once in awhile, and I'll get to dance with his beautiful date here. That'll be a nice change." I nodded toward Matilda, and got a positive response.
By the time the band quit, I'd used up all the left-handed complements I had ever heard. In DeeDee's eyes I saw the result: Defeat. How a girl that good looking could look like hell puzzled me.
In her parents' driveway, I stopped, left my engine running, came around to her side, helped her out, and walked her to their front door. There, I opened the door for her, I said, "Thank you, and I had a pretty good time tonight." With that, I stepped back as if to leave. She turned toward the door, then turned back, tears in her eyes. Those caught me by surprise.
"Please? Jerry?" She said. I suspected she'd never before ended an evening without her date trying to kiss her—at least.
"What?"
