August 16, 2014 - Upper Darby Performing Arts Center
27 years after graduation from Upper Darby High School in Pennsylvania, Tina Fey was coming back. And she was bringing her biggest movie back to the school that inspired it.
Tonight, Tina would be at the school's performing art center for a 10'th anniversary screening of her film "Mean Girls," which she wrote and appeared in. She would also be at a meet and greet and a q&a session after the screening. I knew this intimately because I helped arrange it.
It was by accident at first. Technically it wasn't, since I worked at the school and at the performing arts center for the summer, so I was where I was supposed to be. I just stayed later than I should have and was the nearest one to answer the phone when Tina called, to arrange this screening and fundraiser.
After the initial disbelief that it was her - complete with a minimum of stammering when I was proven wrong - I managed not to blow the deal. In fact, even after I got her on with my superiors, she let me serve as a liaison between the school/center and her representatives over the phone in the coming weeks. Sometimes I even spoke to her directly again.
Maybe it did the trick when I mentioned I was a 26-year-old teacher and the school was my alma mater. Perhaps the idea of getting into teaching as a career, at such a young age, was funny in today's cynical world. Tina was an expert at funny things, although her comedy wasn't that kind of cruel - arguments by Sarah Palin supporters to the contrary.
Either way, I was already in her graces when we talked over final preparations a few days before she arrived. The level of comfort kept us talking over the phone, even when business was settled.
Why I wound up making a joke about me being a virgin - a true joke, at that - I puzzled over for the next few days. While trying not to get an anxiety attack before Saturday.
Admitting to someone else I was a virgin at my age...well, if my job wasn't comical, that sure was. Admitting it to a famous person I had to meet soon, was another level of humiliating hilarity.
I could have sworn I didn't drink too much while we were talking. What else could have made me feel that free?
The time to wonder that was over on Saturday night. Luckily, I was part of a group welcoming Tina to the performing arts center. Maybe I could ride their coattails the rest of the night in the background.
As such, I tried not to stare conspicuously when Tina arrived, sporting a white shirt, blue blazer and skirt. When it was my turn to greet her, she joked she was glad to put a face to the Darth Vader phone voice. Otherwise, it didn't look like she was someone who knew my most embarrassing secret.
Then again, she had improved as an actress since Mean Girls.
As further proof, she wasn't the one who flinched when we sat down in the theater, and the seat I found was next to hers. And she pulled off a good stage whisper when she leaned in and quietly said, "The only guys I did stuff with around here were gay."
"Huh?" was my only answer.
"You know that from my book, right?" she whispered anew. "Almost everyone who got excited over me in high school tried to forget I had breasts. Or what I had passing for them at the time." After a pause, she added, "So that disqualifies me from making comments or jokes about any kind of sexual history. In case you were wondering."
"Was I?" I asked, which was stupid. But I recovered by adding, "Was I that obvious?"
"My 'holy crap, I said something way too personal' radar went off a bit. It felt stronger over the phone, though," Tina noted. "But you don't need to set it off that bad just for me. And since I'm the special guest, you gotta obey."
"How Plastic of you," I felt okay enough to say.
"Then if that's a yes, we can both relax and enjoy this movie for the 200'th time. Can't we?" Tina offered.
"It's just the 12'th for me. But I get the point," I agreed.
I got it enough to sit back and watch the movie without any more worries. I got it enough to laugh at the same classic jokes and quotable lines for the 12'th time like everyone else, only right next to their writer. I even relaxed more when Tina stage whispered some little on set tidbits during certain scenes.
I figured that would be the extent of our personal interaction, once the movie was over and she went through her q&a and meet and greet. But instead of leaving afterwards, she apparently made the decision to stay and tour through her old stomping grounds.
Guess who wound up chaperoning her.
Everyone else was allowed to clean up and go home, while I showed Tina around her old school and my current one. Between my little tidbits on the school today, and her far more amusing accounts of school life in the mid 80s - including stories that didn't make her book - there weren't many quiet moments.
Finally, I made it to the most personal part of the school for me - my classroom. As I went to my chalkboard, Tina sat in a seat on the front row, putting a few images in my head.
"Actually, I think we should switch," I said. "I have the most seniority in real teaching, but you've got the most star power. No one will be quoting my lessons in 10 years."
"I could argue, but that would be pretty after-school special of me. Usually no one wants to hear that in summer," Tina jabbed. Either way, she got up and headed for the chalkboard, and I went over to her seat.
"I think you'd find me a more cooperative student than the Plastics, Ms. Norbury," I addressed Tina, assuming she would be in Mean Girls character mode.
"Actually, Ms. Fey would like to take this one," Tina corrected. "It's nice to be on the other end of this. At least in here. Of course, after running two writers rooms like grownup classrooms, this would seem slightly more manageable."
"I get a share of managing done in here. At least I like to think so," I responded.
"I guess it's easier when you know what you're teaching. Or when you at least know more than your students," Tina commented. "There are some things you're an expert on, and some you know just enough about to fool and teach them. Other subjects, you're just not qualified on. Even if so many others your age are."
I was beginning to see a deeper, more troubling meaning to this. "But like I said, there are some subjects you just can't judge people on," Tina jumped ahead. It kept me from bolting for the door, at bare minimum.
"More than a few troubled boys thought I could teach them how to appear straight. In here, the performing arts, college, camps, you get the idea," Tina went on. "I just wasn't qualified to teach them how to enjoy straight sex. Now, with everything I've done since...I know enough to fool people."
Tina had sat down on the teacher's desk during her little monologue. In between paying attention to her words, I wound paying attention to her bare, crossed legs as well. I soon began to feel evidence that I paid attention to them all too well.
Unfortunately, it was too late to make the evidence go away by the time Tina got up and walked towards me. In fact, once she got to my desk, it got harder to make it go away.
"I missed out on that around here. Granted, it would have been wrong to use that knowledge on confused gay kids. But they were the only audience I could have gotten for that back then," Tina explained. "My target demographics are more...receptive now."
I could buy that. I was buying it now as proof. Between gawking at Tina's legs, the tone of the conversation, having her right in front of me, the glances I took at her white shirt, imagining Tina in all the hot teacher stereotypes, and my pre-existing crush on her before all this...that evidence wasn't going away.
"Case in point," Tina interrupted me - then visibly glanced down at me. Understanding why, I all but jumped out of my seat and covered my crotch, as if that would solve anything.
"No, no," Tina quickly said. "Outside of here, I'd see that as a problem. Here...well, someone doing that because they're turned on by just me, and by complete choice...I never experienced that here. Just like you've never experienced a few things too."
At that point, I did get out of my seat, eventually taking my hands off my visible boner. Tina just came closer to me and said, "Since we are technically two teachers...that makes us qualified to teach each other those few things. Even in summer. You wouldn't mind staying after class for lessons like that, would you?"
The part of me that might have nitpicked shut up when Tina's lips approached mine. I settled in quickly when they met, although the rest of my body was probably stiff - only one part in the good way. When Tina put her hands on me, I remembered this was something I did know how to do.
We stood between my students' desks as we kissed slowly, then started to go deeper. Once I put my hands on Tina's hips, I let out my first moan, and hers followed when our lips started opening up. Yet she soon broke and backed up to the teacher's desk, and I rushed to follow.
"How much have you done after that part?" she asked me.
"Okay, well..." I tried to recount quickly. "I've had my hands on other places once or twice. I got my fingers involved once. We just weren't awake enough to finish. We weren't close enough to try again, either."