The hotel had an immense lobby with lush carpeting, fat armchairs, and actual trees growing in huge vases. Gretchen and I had to sign both our names on the little card at the check-in desk. It was the first time I'd ever stayed in a fancy hotel, and the first time I'd ever shared a room with a girl.
Our room was halfway down the hall from the elevator. Gretchen inserted her key card with the savvy of a frequent traveller. The room had a bed, a TV, a desk, an easy chair. She put down her suitcase. "Only one bed," she humphed. "And it's only queen size."
"Seems nice enough to me," I replied, checking out the remote control. Gretchen opened her suitcase and hung some things in the closet.
I looked at our itinerary. "We've got to be back down in the lobby in about 45 minutes."
"That will barely give us time to get ready. Do you need to use the bathroom? Otherwise I'll just go ahead." Forty-five minutes seemed like plenty of time to me.
Gretchen and I had been classmates since kindergarten, although we'd never really had that much to do with each other. She'd always been the prissy teacher's pet with the perfect grades and the new penny loafers. I'd been the kid in the back with the dog-eared homework and the holes in his sneakers.
She went into the bathroom and ran the shower. I put on a clean pair of slacks and a clean shirt and turned on the TV. After a while she came out wrapped in a towel and used the hair dryer in the alcove. Then she got a bag from her suitcase and one of her outfits from the closet and went back in.
She hadn't been quite as prissy in high school. She still got her A's and A+'s, while I got my B's and C's. She still piled up her extracurricular awards, while I played my video games. But we were both growing up, I guess. We no longer looked at each other as if we came from completely different planets. I wasn't crazy about having to spend the weekend with her, but it wasn't the end of the world.
Finally she came out again, all dressed up for a night on the town. She looked nice. In fact, she looked stunning: a stylish skirt of bright swirling colors, a snug alabaster top, a hairstyle that tapered down to the nape of her neck in back and swept down to touch her eyebrows here and there in front.
That was the other thing about Gretchen. Somehow over the course of the semester she'd blossomed into a very attractive young woman. It was like she'd just given up on high-school fashion altogether and jumped straight to being a poised young professional. I'd never thought of her as particularly pretty before, but I was finding I had to recalibrate my assessment. She was pretty in an exciting, stylish, grown-up kind of way. Maybe having to spend the weekend with her wouldn't be that bad after all.
I pulled on my sports coat and felt completely underdressed. "You look really nice, Gretchen," I told her.
She took my compliment for politeness and gave me a polite smile in return.
- - -
When we got back to the room it seemed too early to go to bed. Gretchen plopped down in the easy chair and put her feet up on the bed. No need to keep being ladylike around me.
"Did you like it?" I asked, just to make conversation.
"It was interesting, I guess," she replied. "Learning about those mediaeval instruments. The music was a bit repetitious though I thought."
"I dozed off through most of it," I admitted. "I think that's the way it's meant to be listened to."
She gave a little laugh.
I got up from the desk chair and sat down on the bed, leaning back against the pillows.
"So where will you be going next year?" she asked. Not really that interested, just trying to keep the conversation going.
"Ivy Tech."
"You're not going to college?"
"My folks want me to."
"But you don't?"
"What for? All I want to do is be is an auto mechanic. They don't teach that in college."
She shrugged. It didn't make that much difference to her one way or the other.
"How about you," I asked. "Where will you be going?"
"State, probably."
"Really. I would have thought some big name university."
"I've applied to a couple, but I won't be able to go unless I get a scholarship."
"But you will won't you? I mean, . . ."
"We'll see. But State is pretty good in marine biology, which is what I'm interested in."
I hadn't known that. "That's like studying fish?"
"And plankton and algae and coral and seaweed and everything else that lives in the ocean." She kind of perked up talking about all that under-the-sea stuff. She told me about feeding cycles and ecosystems and the big changes that are taking place because of global warming. She told me about all the important decisions that will have to be made in our lifetime. She got pretty passionate about it all. People in high school are always talking about changing the world, it's kind of expected. But I'd never given much thought to what it would take to put yourself on a course to actually accomplish it.
"That's really cool," I said, kind of at a loss for words. My own career plan seemed pretty lame in comparison.
"Well," she said. "Big day tomorrow. Maybe we should get some sleep." She went into the bathroom and changed into her pajamas. White ones with long pants and long sleeves, like Hillary Clinton might wear. I took my own turn in the bathroom. When I came out she was already under the covers. I took off my pants and shirt and got in beside her.
Gretchen and I had been gym partners twice before, once when we were doing the standard missionary position and once when we were doing the rocking horse. But she hadn't seemed particularly enthusiastic either time. A couple of other guys had said the same. She put in the effort, but not the heart.
That was another reason I'd been less than thrilled about having her as my partner. Two nights sharing a hotel room with one of my female classmates, and I got the brainiac ice queen. Still, though, tonight hadn't been too bad. She'd been pretty passionate about her plankton.
I hadn't really planned to even bring it up, but . . . "So, um, Gretchen." She had her back to me but she turned her head. "So, um, here we are, senior class trip, nice hotel and everything. Do you want to . . . maybe . . ."
She winced ever so slightly. "Do you mind if we just go to sleep tonight? I really am tired. And I have a bit of a headache."
"Sure. OK. Of course. I'm sorry about your headache. I hope you feel better."
She smiled politely and settled herself back down. I settled myself down too. A headache! You'd think a National Merit Semifinalist would be able to come up with something a little more original than that.
- - -
The next day was a real whirlwind. Breakfast at the hotel, the Matisse exhibit at the museum, hot dogs in the park, shopping along the river, back to the hotel to dress. Dinner at La Traviata, mezzanine seats at the Orpheum Theatre's production of "The Tempest." 'Ban-ban-ca-caliban!'
We got back to the hotel about eleven, but everybody was too buzzed to let the night end so soon. The hotel had a pool, and we'd been told to bring our suits. Gretchen changed in the bathroom while I changed in the bedroom. A group of us went down, just horsing around mostly. But Gretchen put on a swimming cap and swam some serious laps. Then we all sat in the hot tub for a while and talked about the day.
Gretchen and I rode the elevator back up with Tom and Melissa. They invited us to stop by their room.
Melissa took off her bikini top and dried her cute breasts. Then she peeled off her bottom as well, still chattering away. That was one thing about having mixed gym class, we were all kind of used to seeing each other naked. Still, though, there was a definite thrill to be doing it in a hotel room. You could see that she was pretty excited to be showing herself off. You could see that Tom was pretty excited too.
"So what should we do now?" Melissa asked, stretching her nude self out on the bed. Gretchen steeled herself. This was going to be one of those things she'd have to go along with whether she wanted to or not.
"You know what?" I said. "I'm kind of bushed. Do you mind if I just call it a night?"
Gretchen was surprised, but she took the opening. "Me too, I'm afraid. It's been a long day."
They weren't that disappointed to see us go. Gretchen had somewhat of a reputation as a killjoy. Melissa was already on her phone seeing if anything else was going on.
"You could have stayed," Gretchen said as we got back on the elevator.
I just shrugged.
When we got back to our room, Gretchen went into the bathroom and changed into her pajamas. I changed back into a t-shirt and pants. She sat cross legged on her side of the bed. I stretched out on mine.
"Pretty spectacular day," I said.
"It really was," she agreed. "I hope I didn't ruin the evening for you."
"Not at all. I had fun at the pool." It had been sort of obvious that she hadn't really wanted to hang out with Tom and Melissa. I could understand. I've never been that big a fan of double's matches either. Besides, it had been a long day. "Are you about ready for bed?" I thought she would be, but she gave a noncommittal shrug. That was fine too. We could talk a while. Maybe I could swing the topic around to plankton again.
"Did you like the play?" I asked.
"I loved it, actually."
"That look in Miranda's eyes when she got her first glimpse of her fellow creatures."
" 'How beauteous mankind is!' " she quoted. " 'O brave new world, that has such people in it!' "
"And Prospero, waving his staff around, trying to keep everything on course."
"And what did you think of Caliban? He kind of reminded me of you."
"Me?" I retorted.
"Big, brutish guy, slunking around . . ."
I laughed. "And you know who reminded me of you?" I tried to remember the name of the drunken servant. "Trinculo!"
"What?" she laughed. "Trinculo? I pictured myself more of an Ariel."
"Ariel was a guy."
"A fairy!"
"Whatever. But a guy."
She leaned over mischievously and tickled me right in the ribs. I was kind of astonished that she'd done it. " 'Where the bee sucks, there suck I,' " she teased. Then she lay back on her pillow, all innocent and guileless. " 'In the cowslip's bell I lie.' "
So maybe she wasn't really ready for bed yet at all. Maybe I'd underestimated her willingness to have a little fun. I turned toward her.
"Do you know what they say that everyone should do at least once in their life?" I asked.
"What's that?"
