Sweet Dreams-42

Chapter 42

I’d like to say that the next few days were just run of the mill stuff but it’s not. Or it’s not for me. There’s school and classes which is starting to feel normal and I’m catching up with things but what’s not and what’s new for me besides my impending surgery and going to see my father’s grave on Sunday is the fact there’s a home game here Friday afternoon and later after that a dance.

It’ll be my very first high school dance.

And I’m actually pretty nerved up about it. I’ve always wanted to sort of go to one and while my dances at my old school are likely a lot different that this one will be it’s still something that was kind of alien to me.

But now.

I like dancing, I found that out at the whole bowling alley night that we had and this is really different since it’s a dance here at this school and hearing the other girls talking about all those things like what they’re going to be wearing and how it will work with the theme and stuff and make up and so much stuff I don’t really know it’s really scary.

Actually the only thing I do have down is the dancing and that I have a date.

I’m so glad I don’t have to stress about getting a date or wanting a specific someone to ask me out on a date or the stuff that seems to have this hidden meaning of who’s talking to who and who’s wearing what and what the people that get together mean in the whole context of the school.

But even with all the pluses it’s still…

Clothes…make-up…finding a look?

Alex is lucky guys just have to dress at least sort of clean and neat and stuff and they’re sort of good to go.

Us girls we don’t really just dress for our guys or even just for ourselves really we dress for other girls too apparently and this reflects our status and stuff in school.

I know honestly I should be a person that doesn’t give a shit about that stuff but the thing is. I’m tired of the popular non-cheer girls running their attitudes with me and looking at me like I’m trash. There’s this clique that date the varsity guys and the money guys and they’re not the cheerleaders but the cheerleaders get a pass socially when dating the popular guys because of some unwritten teen law.

I’m with Alex and I’m skinny, poor, kind of a semi-goth-punk-loli girl and not just dating Alex but living with him and fucking him. So…apparently I broke their rules about people staying in their place and they hate me for it on general principle.

I’m apparently Alex’s little hooker.

Which bothers me but not the way that they think it might but more like they’re those silly cuntwuffles from the restaurant. It don’t really hurt but it does make me want to have them eating crow in the same way.

Besides dances are school activities and I need to be able to show on my college applications that I have the ability to be social and play well with others. I need maybe some extracurriculars too.

But right now I’m over at Jen’s place while Alex has practice until late with the game coming up and I came over on the bus after work. Jen’s surfing the internet drinking a coffee while I’m at the kitchen near the sink with Cindy looking through magazines for maybe a new look for my hair while she’s unpacking a couple of boxes that are sort of like tool boxes except they’re full of cosmetics and they have a whole bunch of hair tools too pretty much the whole shebang when it comes to the whole idea of a mobile salon.

“So you know a lot about this stuff huh?”

Cindy nods smiling as she sets up. “Mom put herself through college as a stylist and there’s a lot of us at home so we saved a lot of money doing it ourselves and she taught most of us even my cousin Mark.”

“Mark so no wonder your folks are good with you being gay?”

“No….Mark’s straight but he wanted to save money too so she showed him a few things and now he’s a barber in the army.”

“Really? I thought the barbers in the forces would be the semi-retired guys?”

“No, it’s no different than Army cooks, it’s a job that needs doing and he’s actually pretty good.”

“Not a fighter?”

“No he went in to Iraq but took a couple of rounds that luckily didn’t kill him and instead of getting his discharge he appealed it and applied for the barber post and he got it.”

“Oh why?”

“Work, if they just cut him loose he’s been headed back to Lansing and there’s really only so much work to go around still. There he’s getting paid, has base housing for himself and his wife and they’ve a kid on the way.”

“I didn’t know you could fight a discharge?”

“Well it was an appeal more than a fight and he still was lucky that he wasn’t disabled from the attack and they take stuff into account and a soldier having other skills sometimes.”

“Good, I’m glad that works out there’s a lot of military vets on the streets…used to see then a lot in the places that I’ve lived.”

Actually it’s one of the weirdest things that this country has to offer is our sense of duty and patriotism. I’m not a USA chanter type or a flag-waver type but it’s so messed up that when it comes to something like the way we treat our veterans in this country it was actually something, maybe the only thing that I ever agreed with the step-shit on.

Really, messed up right?

And No…not enough to cut Cliff any slack for the things that he’s done to me.

I sigh and look through some more of the magazines. “I don’t know girls a lot of these just seem so…permanent looking and I just want something for the dance.”

Cindy’s like. “Okay we can try some things we can really do a lot with rollers and irons and crimpers to get a look going with a bit of help from some product.”

Okay I’ll admit this is fun but it’s also work. Between trying out hair and looks for make-up and some outfits it’s all this really girly kind of thing I mean it’s this girly show thing and it’s off the charts a femi-girly thing really and I’m so not familiar with things and I’m learning but at the same time it’s a lot to take in.

Then thing is that when something we do just clicks and it looks right we get so excited that it really does spur you on. I’m laughing along with the girls and we’re even giggling and there’s the odd Squee or two when we really hit on a look and okay so we haven’t hit on a look for the dance yet but we’ve found out all of these other ways for me to look for all sorts of different times and that’s kind of cook too.

And part of that allure to it, the draw for us. I’ve figured it partway out. We get to reinvent ourselves just a little with each look. And that’s important because so many of us as just people live in these boxed in little lives and to do this is a way of release. So that outfit your girlfriend bought what you think is too expensive it’s not…as passports and tickets go it’s pretty cheap usually.

Alex might get where I’m coming from or maybe not he’s a bit out there compared to most guys that are grounded in their version of reality but still while he might get this idea. The whole scene would be way too girly for him to take I think.

Cindy is really good at both the hair and the make-up stuff too that honestly if she went to school for this I think she’d ace it.

“You should really do this professionally.”

“Maybe it’d be a good stepping stone to make money I guess.”

“Stepping stone?’

“I want to get into government.”

“Oh like?”

“Congress or better?”

“Why?”

“We need more women in those seats, we need to show people that it’s okay for you to be a girl and be taken seriously.”

“I can see that. I’d likely vote for you.”

“Likely!? I thought we’re friends?”

“We are but I’d never vote for any candidate unless they run a well thought out platform.”

“Honey…Hunter’s really political.” Jen calls out from where she’s at behind her computer.

“I see that.”

“So Jen what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take over dad’s business.”

“What does he do?”

“It’s Detroit he sells cars.”

“Oh so he’s not doing good then.”

“He sell’s Cadillac’s as you’d put it Dad’s in the top ten percent selling to the top two percent.”

“That’s a very male-centric industry Jen.”

“I know, but it’s what makes me want this all the more. Dad doesn’t have a son, just me and I want to prove to him that I can be that kid. That I’ll be the one to take over the business.”

“Okay then I’m glad that I’m going to be a lawyer then I can represent you both.”

We’re laughing but things actually turn semi serious as we talk about stuff like college and the future and how Cindy want’s to be part of things that make things better for women and better for everyone in the whole LGBTQ in this state and in this country.

Me I want to make a difference right here at home. Make my old neighborhoods a bit better somehow and stick up for the little guys when they can’t afford legal council and maybe work a few cases to make some keep it together money.

Jen want’s to take over her dad’s business and she’s got a real good bunch of ideas. One’s like asking for a higher price for a car that has a certified made in America sticker on it. So that those that can afford a caddy can show that maybe they’ll pay the extra to show that they’re against sending jobs offshore to other countries.

And she’s got some of her other ideas that could work too.

Detroit has a car culture and a very strong street car culture it’s not quite like the stuff in the movies but there’s enough of it that specialty car part places are big money in this city and in this state.

But we even come up with something that will be good for student council and just plain good for the students and other people. I take a drink of my coffee while checking out my latest look in the full length mirror Jen has.

“Interschool adoptions…a school can choose to adopt an even more cash strapped school or schools and help everyone along. I know some of the money that just gets wasted at our school at lunchtimes and break times and stuff there’s a couple of hundred that goes to waste every week. So you take my old school another three hundred dollars for say the cafeteria budget would make a huge difference.”

Jen looks at me. “You should run.”

“Run?”

“Student council, it’ll look good on your college apps, you and Cindy and I can rally support for the two of you.”

“Really?”

“Really, you’re really smart Hunter and you’re still new which we can play up as you not taking sides and we can start things rolling now for you guys to get elected.”

“But we’ve already got a student council.”

“That’s last years, they keep on and then the have the stuff starting in the fall and the election is the week before thanksgiving.”

“Oh…”

I’m thinking about it and it’d be a drain on my time but…really, really…I could do a lot of stuff this way to help a lot of other kids out if I can get people to go along with this. With my ideas.

I look at Cindy.

“Hey we are you willing to get into this now?”

“Yeah, there’s no point in hiding and maybe we can actually do something positive.”

“I’m all for that and the first step will be getting the student council stuff online and we can get things going and moving a whole lot faster.”

“Oh, that’s good…that’s really good.”

“Make the school board required to post their public meetings online.”

“Why?”

“Its way more public and we can effect changes to district policies by Tweeting and other stuff and use it to fight back against stuff that’s not in the interests of the students or even some of the teachers.”

“Teachers?”

I cough. “Student council is the elected official representatives of the student body and as there would be no faculty of any sort required without students we are as much part of the employment equation as the municipality or the state”

“Ohhh lawyerese….” Jen grins.

“We should really be able to effect policy and have a say in what goes on with our teachers.”

“But what about people that won’t want that?”

“Let them defend their attitude online, or go to the press…the problem isn’t that we don’t have the power it’s the fact they don’t want us to realize that we do.”

“Hunter that’s…”

“One of the big gaps for us today as kids. We feel that we don’t have a say, a say in anything so we make it so we can as students and that we can help each other out and even kids that need help in other schools.”

Jen’s nodding. “We can at least try, we can try and even if the school doesn’t back us we can do some of this stuff with social networking sites and do it ourselves if we have to.”

Cindy’s. “Right and if we get enough positive stuff going then when we keep trotting it out they’ll want to get involved at least then to make themselves look good.”

I’m smiling. “You do realize that no one will believe that there’s three blonde girls thinking all of this stuff up right.”

We all start laughing and we get back to choosing our looks and stuff for the Friday night dance.

I’ve flown under the radar for so much of my life just hiding and trying to survive but what if I can start to give back to other people now. Earn some good karma or something, give back because trust me I know, I really know just how lucky I’ve got it.

It’s kind of scary but kind of exciting too.