Dark Night

Invitation

I yawned as I stared out the window. It was a perfect May day, soft breeze, no clouds in the sky, not hot. We were supposed to be filling out a psychology worksheet, but my mind kept wandering. One more month of school, then summer, and drill team would start and I'd be having fun with my friends. The girl in front of me was chatting quietly with her friend; they were sophomores who were going to their prom this weekend. The junior prom was next week, but nobody'd asked me and there wasn't really anybody I wanted to ask myself. I blinked and made myself pay attention to the worksheet. It wasn't hard, I was just bored.

My English teacher had an interesting announcement, however. "Some students are forming a book club, which I am advising. There's a formation meeting tomorrow at lunch to choose leaders and books for next year, and the books will come from literature as well as genres, so there will be something for everybody. I urge you to come and sign up if you're interested." It did sound interesting, and I told John about it in earth sciences. He grinned.

"I'd like to have one normal high school thing to put on my applications," he said, and we agreed to go.

"I've never been to a book club before," I said. "Wonder if there'll be wine? In all the ones I've heard of, it's more an excuse to drink during the week than to discuss the books." John burst out laughing, not a good idea when we were supposed to be doing homework.

Alas, no wine, we found out the next day. The club first talked about what books we wanted to read, so we could get some done during summer when everybody has more time, and we decided on one book a month for each month we had school, barring August because we only had about ten days of school that month and it took time to settle back into school and December, because of finals and Christmas. We voted and chose three classics: Their Eyes Were Watching God, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Love in the Time of Cholera. Two nonfiction: Making the Monster: The Science Behind Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Hellfire Boys. Then the genre fiction: my suggestion, Some Danger Involved, was accepted, and we would also read The Eyre Affair and Master of Crows. Then we chose officers. I was stunned, walking out, to have been elected president.

"I felt sure that one of the kids who organized the club would be president," I said. John just smiled.

"Everybody knows you after your campaign for student body president and you work at the library. You're the most qualified." I laughed. It felt really good to be have won something I wasn't expecting. We were back at my locker and I picked out my books for the next class.

"Hey, Leia, do you want to go to the prom with me?" John asked suddenly and I hit my head on the shelf in my locker as I straightened up. "I know it's last minute, but it sounds like fun." He smiled ruefully. "I've come to realize how much of normal high school I'm missing out on to skate."

"Thank you, I think that will be fun," I said, and we smiled at each other. "But you realize that this will mean photographic evidence that we're friends," I warned him, and he laughed.

"Yeah, I'm not going to let a bunch of guys I don't even know tell me that I can't go places and have fun with my best friend," he said. "I'll get the tickets and pick you up for dinner next Saturday, then."

"I'm not a very good dancer," I warned, and he rolled his eyes.

"You just got on the dance team."

"Choreography I can do, apparently. Dancing in the wild is a different proposition."

"Huh." I didn't think about that," he said, frowning slightly. "We might just end up being the goobers flailing away out there, but we'll still have fun."

I was a little dazed still when I met my friends for an emergency meeting at the skate park after school. "I'm glad you're getting to go," Carol said. "What's the point of having a friend who's a boy if he won't take you places you need a date for?"