I began to snap my fingers, which caused Cassidy to look at me sideways. When the tune started, it had an upbeat feel that made me want to dance. I began to strut my stuff and shake and shimmy what God had given me as I practiced my ‘Walk Like
Cassidy caught up with me and jerked the jack out of my phone so everyone would hear the music as we approached the school. Watching their reactions was fun. They ranged from ‘Oh. My. God. He is
Overwhelmingly, my entrance put smiles on their faces. I understood why they would want to take a video of me doing my thing. That way, they could say they were there when I first developed my signature walk for my James Bond movie.
As I made my way to the school’s front door, I saw Mr. Palm, our vice principal, with his arms crossed.
“Mr. Dawson,” he said in greeting, or at least that’s how I chose to take his tone.
“Sir?”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m preparing for my role in the James Bond movie.”
He contemplated his response.
“Very well, have a nice day,” he said and opened the door for me.
I strutted and danced my way towards my locker. When I was almost there, Destiny Crown stepped in front of me. She looked me up and down like I was something the cat had dragged in.
“You’re so weird,” she decided, and then turned and walked away.
That made my day. Weird was the new cool, right?
◊◊◊
I’m just saying, people are rude. My ‘entrance’ might need some work if social media was any indication. Even my own mother made some unflattering comments. She claimed this might be better than naked baby pictures at scaring off unwanted potential girlfriends.
The thing was, I didn’t really care. People loved to give me a hard time. What could I say? Haters were going to hate.
I was almost to the lunchroom when my day was really made. I spotted Tracy Dole talking to her BFF, Pam. Tracy saw me coming, crossed her arms, and began to tap her foot with a scowl on her face.
“I have to come visit you?” she scolded.
I hung my head. Of course, I realized she couldn’t be too mad because we’d recently seen each other in LA.
“You’re right, I should have come to visit sooner,” I admitted.
“Come here, you ‘stupid boy,’ and give me a hug,” Tracy said, holding out her arms.
“What are you doing here?” I asked when she let me go.
“Lexi called me. We’re planning your signing-day event,” she explained.
It sounded like my dad had gotten the ball rolling. Tracy had been our de facto press-facing spokeswoman since freshman year. She planned to go to USC in the fall with the goal of becoming a sports journalist. I couldn’t imagine anyone I would rather have introduce everybody on Wednesday.
Once we finally got through the lunch line and found our seats, Tracy explained the plan for our announcement. Wolf, Tim, and I would share the stage in the field house. I suggested that Ty be a part of it because he was also going to Michigan, even though he had signed in the winter.
Tracy had already spoken with Mr. Palm, and we would have an all-school assembly for when we made our announcement. Frank had contacted a streaming service that would host the event so everyone could watch it live on the web if they wanted to.
When Tracy was done with her explanation of the arrangements, I reminded her that we couldn’t talk about anything having to do with acting or modeling. That included the upcoming Academy Awards and my nomination for Best Supporting Actor. She looked at me in her patented way that said, ‘you’re being a stupid boy again’ and then smiled. I suspect Tracy must have desired some scoop since she was at State and didn’t eat lunch with us every day.
“Who are you dating now?” she asked me.
“No one wants me. I always expected you would be my backup plan. I was sort of planning to get you drunk, making it special,” I teased.
“You’re hilarious,” Tracy said.
“I thought you weren’t ready to date,” Gina said.
“The problem is, I’m used to the women in LA. They dress better,” I said, to offer my opinion.
“Oh, here we go again,” Tim mumbled as he shook his head.
“Are you saying that we should dress better for you?” Gina asked as her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.
I was about to answer when Wolf offered his little gem of an observation.
“I don’t think so. Women dress for other women. If they dressed for men, they’d all run around naked.”
He received high fives all around. Okay, maybe just from the guys.
“I miss this,” Tracy said, amused at our antics.
“What? All the boys being dorks?” Pam asked.
“Yep. College boys try to be suave and sophisticated. Sometimes you just want your boys to be ‘dorks,’ as you called them. It’s a lot more fun,” Tracy said.
After lunch, I took a moment to talk to Tracy one-on-one. She made me promise to come to visit her at college. I figured I would combine it with a trip to see my brother and his rug-rats while I was there.
