WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28TH

7:30 AM

   Dana got up later than usual. All the excitement of the previous evening had taken it's toll. Not having time to carefully apply make-up and choose exactly the right clothing as was her normal routine, the still tired girl just slipped into an easy fitting pair of corduroys and threw a sweatshirt over her head. She made her way to the breakfast room, poured herself a bowl of cereal and wolfed it down. After quickly gathering all her books together in her backpack, she made her way towards the door, when her mother walked in.
   "Dana, what are you doing?"
   Dana turned around slowly, still half-squinting. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to school."
   "Dressed like that?" The disaproving look on the woman's face seemed to make little impression on her daughter. "That's the sort of stuff that's alright to relax in around the house, but what are all your friends going to think..?"
   "Mom, believe it or not, this is how most of my friends dress. Stacy, Rhonda and Cindy are the exceptions."
   "I don't care how most kids dress. I don't want anyone to think we can't afford..."
   "I don't feel like getting tarted up today." Dana cut her off. Stacy's words were still ringing in her ears, and she was seeing and hearing her mother in a whole new light this morning. "Look, I'm not pregnant or on drugs, and I'm getting good grades. I believe I've earned the right to wear what I want."
   It was then that something unexpected happened. Ms. Lefkowitz grabbed her daughter's arm, and her voice suddenly became vindictive and went up a few decibels. "You listen to me, and you listen to me good. The reason I am now able to feed and clothe you as well as I do, is because I realized something early in life. Now I'm going to share some of that wisdom with you..."
   "Can we do this some other time? I'm going to be late..." Dana was now genuinely worried.
   Now her mother was really screaming in her face. "To men, looks are everything. Women have a very narrow window of opportunity to take advantage of that fact. You just wait 'til your over thirty and they start looking less and less. And then when you're over forty, when they stop looking altogether. You'll be sorry you didn't squeeze every last dime you could out of them while you were still young and pretty. Men are only good for one thing. Take my word for it, in thirty years, when you're over forty you'll be thanking me for this."
   Dana quietly responded, "Uh mom...Instead of following your plan, what if I decide to go to college instead? Maybe if I get a degree in math, I'll be able to teach math at that very same college. Then I won't have to rely on men before or after I'm forty."
   "Getting an education is all well and good, but if you can manage to nab yourself a rich boyfriend, then you'll have someone to pay for that education! And you're never gonna get one dressed like that!"
   Although she was seething inside, Dana's voice managed to remain calm. "Please let go of my arm."
   Her mother did so, and Dana started to head for the back door, which enraged her mom even more.
   "Aren't you going to go upstairs and change!?" The woman was now in a state of near hysteria.
   Dana turned around for one last time. "I'm going to ask a few of my friends if any of their parents might be willing to adopt me. It'll serve the dual purpose of relieving you of a major financial burden, and I'll never have to listen to shit like this again."
   With that, she turned around and exited. Her mother continued yelling at her as she made her way down the walkway and on to the sidewalk, but to Dana, the woman's voice was now sounding like alot of white noise. She was still pondering whether or not Gavin had fallen for the trap she had set by reversing the glasses. Why else would he not try to contact her after she mysteriously disappeared from his house? She would find out soon enough.

9:00 AM

   Dana's first period history class was going about it's business as usual, when Principal Lazarus entered the room and whispered something in the teacher's ear.
   "Dana," Mrs. Kelton called out.
   "Yes?" She was still a little dazed both by the previous evening's excitement, and her mother's tirade.
   "Would you please go with Principal Lazarus."
   There was some whispering among the rest of the class. It couldn't possibly be anything too serious. They all knew that Dana could be temperamental, but would never do anything to get herself into serious trouble.
   Dana got up and did as the teacher said. "So what did I do now?" The Principal ignored her question and remained pokerfaced as he escorted her down the hall to his office. Two men were waiting there for her when they arrived. One was wearing a suit, the other a police uniform. They were comforting a woman, who was crying and upset.
   The Principal introduced them to her. "Dana, this is Lieutenant Carnahan and Officer Morton of the police's Faircrest branch."
   "W-what can I do for you?" she asked nervously.
   Lieutenant Carnahan spoke, "Miss Lefkowitz, we just need to ask a few questions. I understand that you were at the Marshall residence in Palm Heights last evening, correct?"
   "Y-yeah." Dana was now slightly trembling. "Is something wrong."
   The Lieutenant introduced the crying woman. "Dana, this is Mrs. Scaduto, one of the family's housekeepers." He took a deep breath. "I don't quite know how to tell you this, but your friend Gavin is in the hospital, in a coma right now. Apparently from a combination of liquor and horse tranquilizer. Since you were the last person to see him conscious, we were wondering if..."
   Before he could finish his question, Dana turned completely white, and fainted.

11:45 AM

   During lunch, Stacy ran into Linda in one of the girl's restrooms. She decided to try talk to her in a non-confrontational manner.
   "Heya Linda. Are you feeling any better?"
   Linda suddenly whipped around and shouted in her face, "Don't you ever try to pull something like that again!"
   Stacy was startled. "Uh, like what?" Of course she already knew exactly what Linda was talking about, but wanted to get a dialogue going.
   "Asking me to go to the movies with you, when you were really tryin' to set me up with Carl!"
   Stacy quickly attempted to diffuse her anger. "O.K, guilty as charged, and I apologize. Can we still be friends?"
   "Yeah." Chagrined, Linda resumed washing her hands.
   "Linda, can I ask you something personal without you screaming back in my face?"
   Linda eyed her suspiciously. "I suppose. Does this have anything to do with Carl?"
   "Well, yeah. Jeff and I suspect that he's a little lonely, so we've been trying to hook him up with someone. I'd like to know exactly what it is that you don't like about him, so that perhaps we'll have better luck in the future. Is it the glasses?"
   "His looks have nothing to do with it." Linda took a deep breath and dried her hands. "Carl is no different from any other guy. All he does is stare at my chest."
   This statement hit Stacy like a lightening bolt. "He was staring at your chest?"
   "Yeah, and by the way, so was your goofy boyfriend!"
   In one fell swoop, Linda had managed to reveal the source of her somewhat dour demeanor. A sly, devilish grin was now starting to form on Stacy's face.
   "What's so funny?" Linda now looked seriously annoyed.
   "Um, Linda..."
   "Yeah?"
   Stacy paused before delivering her one-liner. "I'm a girl, and I am staring at your chest."
   Linda was now steamed. "How do you think that makes me feel?"
   "To tell you the truth, I think it should make you feel flattered. Goodness knows, it sure makes me feel jealous. Do you have any idea how much money some women are willing to shell out to look like you?"
   Suddenly, the school bell rang. Linda started to leave, but Stacy stopped her.
   "Linda, before you go, will you just hear me out for a minute?"
   Linda took a deep breath and folded her arms. "O.K, go ahead."
   "Listen, it's one thing if you simply don't find Carl attractive. For that matter, at your age...our age, it's even o.k. if you're not into boys at all yet. But I feel I should tell you that if that is the reason you're not into them, I hope you are prepared to lead a really miserable life. Those things aren't going to get any smaller, and I only know of one guy in this school who would probably not notice them...And believe me, you wouldn't have a whole lot of fun dating Sol Gurvitz."
   "Are you through now?" sighed Linda.
   "I really hope that at some point, you make peace with the body that nature gave you. See you in a few minutes in drama."
   With that, the two girls exited the restroom and headed straight for their lockers.

3:00 PM

   The three o'clock bell rang and there was the usual stampede for the school's exits. Dana took and left whatever it was she needed from her locker and made her way upstairs navigating through all the foot traffic heading in the other direction. She entered room 202, leaving the door ajar. Jeff was using a ruler to draw an uneven right triangle on the chalkboard. Without even looking over his shoulder, he greeted her.
   "Glad you could make it."
   "So what am I doing here?"
   "Hold on a second, I'm almost done."
   She sat down at her usual desk in the front row, as he finished his artwork.
   "Here," He handed her his math book. "Would you please read this problem out loud?" Jeff pointed to a specific paragraph.
   Still not sure where he was going with this, she complied. "A man drives two miles south, then six miles west, for a total of eight miles. If he were traveling by plane instead of automobile, and thus not restricted by the lay of the pavement, how many miles would he have traveled."
   "Alright, now observe my illustration," Jeff was now using his ruler as a pointer. This vertical line is two inches, representing two miles. This horizontal line is six inches, representing six miles. If I take this ruler and draw a diagonal line from the start point to the end point it comes out to..."
   "Wait a minute!" Dana interrupted him loudly. "That's not how you determine the hypotenuse of a right triangle you..." She suddenly cut herself off, mid-sentence.
   This was followed by about fifteen seconds of akward silence as the two of them stared each other directly in the eyes. Finally Jeff spoke softly, as his face slowly started to show signs of a smile.
   "Thank you."
   "What are you thanking me for?" there was a slight quiver in Dana's voice.
   "You were about to call me a moron as usual, but you cut yourself off. I appreciate that." There was another pause as the two of them gathered their thoughts. "There's a big test comming up this Friday. If I flunk it, my parents have threatened to take me out of this school, and put me in one for retarded kids." There was another pause, as Jeff's voice took on a tone of surrender. "You're better at this kind of stuff than anybody I've ever met. Would you please help me?"
   Holding back tears, Dana quickly rose from her desk, nearly knocking it over in the process, and grabbed a piece of chalk. "The Pythagorean theorum is not nearly as complicated as this crummy book makes it out to be. Watch me." She proceeded to scribble alot of letters and numbers and plus signs on the board that all looked Greek to Jeff. "The length of the hypotenuse is the square root of the sum of the squares of the two legs. So if the base is 6 inches long and the height is 2 inches..."
   "Dana, slow down," pleaded Jeff. "You're going faster than Langsdale, and this stuff doesn't come as easily to me as it does to you."
   Dana realized he was correct. "I'm sorry. Let's take it one step at a time."

   It was at this moment that Stacy wondered down the hall towards room 202, and noticing the door was ajar, took a peek inside, careful not to make any noise. Dana now had her hand on Jeff's left shoulder as they were both writing on the board. Stacy was ecstatic. Her boyfriend and her best friend were not only finally getting along, but actually working together. She quietly closed the door, wiped a joyful tear away, and decided to go watch her softball team-mates play a game. Although she was still under the Doctor's orders not to engage in any strenuous activity involving her arms for at least another few days, she looked forward to cheering them on from the bleachers.

   After about fifteen minutes, Jeff was finally starting to catch on. "Than you so much." He picked up the book and turned to another page. "Now here's another thing I'm having trouble with..."
   "Jeff, put down the book for a minute." Dana interrupted.
   "Sure," he did so.
   Dana put down the chalk, turned towards him, put her arms around him and started crying uncontrollably, which completely caugh Jeff by surprise.
   "What's wrong?"
   She stood back, and they both continued to hold each other by the forearms as she spoke. "The last 24 hours have been the most traumatic of my entire life. Have you ever wondered what it's like to be holding an airline ticket of a plane you just missed, that later crashed?"
   "No, I can't say that I have." Jeff wasn't quite sure where she was going with this.
   "You do know about Gavin being in the hospital right now, right?"
   Jeff knodded afirmatively. "Yeah, I heard about that." He paused. "Look, I'm not the sort of person who revels in other people's misfortune, but I would be lying if I were to say that I was in any way moved by his predicament."
   "Jeff, you have no idea how close I came to being in that hospital right now."
   He thought about that for a moment. "Dana, does this have something to do with me and my sisters picking you up last night?"
   A hint of a smile now started to show through Dana's tears. "Yeah, you and Stacy were really big helps last night." She thought for a moment. "But believe it or not, the person who really deserves credit for saving my life is Humphrey Bogart."
   Jeff was understandably confused, "Huh?"
   "I'll explain it to you later. Look there are two other things that I need to look you in the face and say. My mom is a whore, and you are a true gentleman...and quite a loveable one at that."
   "Well, I'm certainly sorry to hear about your mom." He now was showing a hint of a smile. "You know Dana, Stacy told me that you think I'm a wild-eyed sex maniac who's always staring at you and the other girls in Mrs. Pickering's class."
   "Yeah, I suppose I did say that." She was genuinely embarassed.
   Jeff's voice now took on a playfully sarcastic tone. "Well just for the record, I'd like you to know that that is absolutely true, and I hope you won't hold it against me."
   Dana nearly fell over laughing. "Alright you, lets get back to the geometry. The thought of you getting kicked out of this school is now officially as unacceptable to me as it is to you."

3:15 PM

   While Jeff was receiving his math tutorial from Dana, Stacy managed to run into Carl on her way to the baseball diamond.
   "Hey Carl, wait up"
   "Heya."
   "You doing anything right now?"
   "Naw, just going home. Did you have something in mind?"
   "I was just heading to the park to watch my team play. I could use some company."
   "Sure. So where's Jeff?"
   "Believe it or not, he's back at the school getting a crash course in algebraic geometry from Dana."
   Carl stopped in his tracks. "Come again?"
   "I kid you not. They are actually friends now."
   He was in shock. "I never thought I'd live to see...I mean how...?"
   Stacy cut him off. "It's kind of a long story, although it happened in a short period of time." The two of them resumed walking. "I take it you've heard about Gavin Marshall."
   "Oh yeah, it didn't take long for that to spread around. The details are a bit sketchy though. All I've heard is that Dana was supposedly the last person to see him conscious or something."
   "Well, the short version is that she was at his house last night, suspected that he was up to no good, and slipped out the front door when he wasn't looking. Since everyone's folks were at the P.T.A. meeting, she called me in a panic, I knew that Jeff had an older sister with a driver's license, so I sent him out there to pick her up and bring her to my house. Surprisingly, she was quite moved by the gesture, and felt that she owed him a favor."
   "Do you think she's going to continue to not treat him like vermin after she's finished performing that favor?"
   "Yeah, I've got a pretty good feeling about that."
   The two of them rounded the corner, and the park was in eyesight.
   "Do you mind if I ask why Dana was at Gavin's house in the first place?"
   Stacy thought for a moment. "You know, I'm sure she's spent the better part of today asking herself that very same question. If I may change the subject, I had a pretty interesting exchange with Linda in the girl's bathroom today."
   "Really? Was it about me?"
   "Uh yeah."
   Suddenly a voice carried over from the baseball diamond, "Hey look, it's Stacy!" As the two of them approached, all her teammates ran to greet her. There were lot's of hugs.
   Stacy spoke up. "Heya gang. My doctor says I've got to wait another week before I engage in this sort of activity, so me and my friend Carl over here have just come to cheer you on."
   "We'll try not to disappoint you" at least three of the girls said in unison.
   The opposing team was already in the outfield throwing a ball back and forth, as Stacy and Carl settled down in the bleachers among a handful of other spectators.
   "So," Carl resumed the conversation. "Did Linda give you any indication of why it is she's so repulsed by me...I mean, other than the obvious fact that I'm a funny looking nerd with thick glasses?"
   Stacy shook her head and smiled. "I swear Carl, when it comes to self esteem, you are even worse than Jeff. You'll be pleased to know that your looks have nothing whatsoever to do with it. Apparently the source of her discontent lies in the fact that you happen to be a normal guy."
   He gave her an inquisitive look. "So she would prefer I grow a third eye or something?"
   "Funny you should mention that. Coincidentally, it's the two you already have that are getting you, and apparently every other guy she comes in contact with, in trouble."
   "Huh?" Carl was completely in the dark.
   Suddenly a voice came out of nowhere. "I'll take it from here, Stacy."
   The two of them spun around as Linda emerged from under the bleachers and took a seat next to them.
   "Hey, did you follow us here?" Stacy was caught completely off guard.
   "No, my home is in this direction. I just saw the two of you, so I decided to come over and say hello."
   "How long have you been standing there?"
   "Just long enough to notice the direction the conversation was heading in. You know, I've been thinking about what you said earlier today. Would it be O.K. if I had a few words with Carl alone?"
   With a big smile on her face, Stacy stood up. "You bet!" She moved over to the other end of the bleachers, and focused on the game. While they had been talking, two players managed to get hits, and there were now runners on first and second base.
   Linda spoke in a repentant tone. "Carl, I'm really sorry for blowing you off a couple of weeks ago at the fairgrounds." She paused. "And yesterday, as well."
   "That's alright. Um...for the record, I want to let you know that a couple of days ago, Jeff just asked me if I'd like to go with him and some friends to the mall to see a movie. It wasn't until I actually got to the mall that he revealed to me that the friends he was talking about meant just Stacy and you."
   "That's exactly how Stacy roped me into it. What do you suppose might've inspired them to do that?"
   "Strangely enough, I do know the answer to that." Carl took a deep breath. "About two weeks ago, Jeff was over at my house. We were working on a homework assignment. To make a long story short, the conversation eventually turned to the subject of girls, as it usually does when guys get together. He started talking about how pretty Stacy is, and I mentioned your name...and I also told him that unfotunately, you didn't seem to like me. Well, here it is two weeks later, and I guess that Jeff was kind of feeling bad that he and Stacy were now an item, and that you and I weren't."
   The two of them glanced over at Stacy, who was now jumping up and down and cheering because the player who had been on second base had just made it past home plate.
   "Carl, Stacy was about to explain something to you, and I'd rather you hear it from me," said Linda.
   "Go ahead."
   "Have you ever seen Stacy and Cindy working out on the uneven parallel bars?"
   "Yeah, I've caught a couple of glimpses of them. Pretty amazing." Carl shook his head. "That's the kind of coordination and agility that one simply has to be born with. Good coaching can go just so far. The raw material has to be there in the first place. Obviously I wasn't born with it." He looked back at her. "How 'bout you?"
   "I'll never really know for sure, and I'm glad you asked that. It's the crux of my discontent."
   "I'm all ears." Carl leaned forward.
   Linda also leaned forward. "I tried signing up for the school's gymnastics program this semester. It looked like it might be fun. The coach took one look at me, pulled me aside and said in no uncertain terms, that I really should be trying out some other type of sporting activity, like soccer or tennis or something. He said that even if I were to lose about twenty pounds, I still wouldn't have the body type that lends itself well to anything that happens in a gymnasium." Linda looked down. "Needless to say, I was a bit crushed, but at the same time, I knew he was right. I'm way too short, too buxom, and just plain too endomorphic to be allowed within fifteen yards of a balance beam. Let's face it, to do that kind of stuff, you've gotta have a natural build like that." she nodded towards Stacy. "Ever since that day, I've been a bit overly self-conscious about my body. Every time a guy looks at me, I just naturally assume that he's only looking at my boobs."
   Carl was now smiling. "Well, thank you for sharing that. Now there are a couple of things I think you should know."
   "Go ahead."
   "Linda, I've always thought you were cute. Even as far back as the 5th grade, and needless to say, that was before you had any boobs. I've always liked your bangs and your big brown eyes."
   "Really?" Linda's face lit up. "This is news to me. How come you've never said anything up until a couple of weeks ago?"
   "You have no idea how much courage I had to muster just to speak to you that once. I've never thought of myself as being much to look at, and when it comes to initiating a conversation, I'm at a complete loss."
   "Hey, let's get something straight. I'm the one who was a complete jerk that day, and not you."
   There was a ten second pause, before Carl spoke. "So I guess this means we're friends, huh?"
   She coyly winked, and took his hand in hers. "You know, I might even be willing to have a go at being a little more than just friends."
   Carl could feel his heart start to pound. "Linda, there's one last thing..."
   "What's that?"
   "You know, your paranoia about guys always staring at your chest isn't entirely unfounded. I hope your not gonna slap me or anything if my eyes occasionally drift downward while I'm talking to you. It would be a big help if I didn't have to be constantly policing myself about that."
   "Naw, I'm over it." She smiled broadly, and leaned on his shoulder. "I can't go through life moping about the body I was born with. Especially considering it's a healthy one."
   The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a bat connecting with a ball. A huge fly that resulted in Stacy jumping up and hollering "YES!" Her enthusiasm was soon quelled when it was easily caught by the opposing team's center fielder.
   "Hey Stace!" Carl yelled out.
   "Yeah?"
   Carl motioned her over, and she sat back down next to the two of them.
   "Congratulations, you've got Dana getting along with Jeff and Linda getting along with me. Might there be any other magic tricks in your repertoire?"
   "Mmmm, could be" was all she answered.
   The three of them stayed until the last inning. Stacy's team lost, but everyone still left in good spirits. The team attributed the loss to Stacy's lack of participation.

7:00 PM

    Jeff and Greil snuck on to the Scarborough schoolyard grounds like they had planned. Greil switched on the floodlights, illuminating the now completed half-pipe. It was both spectacular and intimidating. Just lugging their bikes up to the top was a feat in itself. Fancying himself an experienced daredevil, Greil wasted no time in testing out the new apparatus.
   "Geronimo!"
   Jeff just sat there on his bike, watching in both awe and horror as his friend delved into the pipe, shooting up into the air on the other side, executing two tail-whips before returning safely back to the starting platform.
   "Whoa, those guys who built this thing really have their act together." His heart still racing, Greil looked over at his friend who was now staring down into the abyss. "So whaddya think?"
   Jeff sighed, "I'm just contemplating whether or not I'm gonna hate myself more tomorrow morning if I try this or if I don't try it."
   "You don't have to do anything fancy," his friend encouraged. "Just make it over to the other side and park."
   "That's easy for you to say. I don't know if you've noticed Grei, but I'm not quite as coordinated as you," Jeff muttered sarcastically.
   There was a twenty second pause before Greil spoke up again, changing the subject slightly. "You know, I've seen Gretch actually do a full vertical 360, land backwords, whip around and pedal right back up to the top of one of these things as if it were second nature." He paused once again and looked down. "I hate it when she does that."
   Jeff concurred, "Yeah, that sounds awful dangerous."
   "It is, but that's not the main reason I wish she wouldn't do it."
   Although Jeff already had surmised what his friend was getting at, he decided to ask him anyway, "So what is the reason?"
   Greil looked him right in the eye. "Because I can't do that. Hell, it's downright humiliating."
   Jeff could only smile at the youth's candor. "Your girlfriend does one trick that you can't, and you think you've got issues? Hell, mine does everything better than me. Math, science, baseball, jogging, you name it."
   "Jeff, By any chance, is your mother an old school femenist?" Greil took a swig from a small plastic thermos.
   "Oh yeah. Both of my folks are what you'd call stereotypical baby boom social liberals."
   "Same here. My mom has given me alot of lectures about how girls are just as good as guys at everything...and sometimes better." Greil Paused "And not to let that fact bother me."
   Realizing just how much the two of them were on the same page, Jeff decided to let his guard down a little as well. "Yeah, not letting it bother me is important." he concurred. "And if I do say so myself, whenever I'm around Stacy, I think I do a pretty darn good job of pretending it doesn't." Both boys were now giving each other knowing grins.
   Greil nodded towards the other side of the pipe, "So are you gonna take the plunge, or not?"
   Jeff didn't even stop to think. "Hell Yeah!" With that, he and his bike lunged over the edge. Upon reaching the other side, it slid out from under him, heading up the incline by itself, leaving him lying on the bottom. He barely had time to roll over to avoid it landing on him.
   Greil cringed as the bike hit the pipe with a thud. Teaching his friend how to navigate this thing was obviously going to be a bit trickier than it was teaching him a few flatland skills.
   Suddenly, a familiar voice emerged from the side of the apparatus. "What the hell are you two clowns doing?" It was Andy.
   Oh great, Jeff thought to himself. Now in addition to looking and feeling like an idiot, he was probably in trouble.
   Greil immediately spoke up, "The same thing you obviously came here to do. Sampling the equipment before it officially opens."
   "At least that's what he's doing," Deadpanned Jeff. "I'm just lying here looking up at the stars."
   Andy looked at Greil and pointed at Jeff. "Grei, are you tryin' to get this poor guy killed?"
   "What a stupid question. You know as well as I do that he's completely indestructable."
   "Look, just shoving him over the top like that is not the way you teach a novice how to negotiate a large pipe." Andy was now helping Jeff up. "First you've gotta start him off from the bottom, pedaling mid-way up the side, to get him used to the feel of the curve."
   "Alright Mr. expert, you coach him." Greil knew that Andy had no authority over him  when it wasn't school hours, even if it was on the campus.
   Since Jeff was once again attending all of his classes in school, it would have to be during clandestine gatherings like this that he would be learning some vert skills over the next couple of evenings. The main trick would be to keep it a secret from his parents, who just assumed he was over at Stacy's, and from Stacy, who just figured he was at home, studying.

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