1961 // louis dimucci

Chapter 4

Rhonda honks the horn as she swerves across the road and into the parking space where Steph is standing.

"God, you coulda killed us, Rhonda!" Sharon exclaims.

"Good move, Rhonda," Stephanie laughs, shaking her head. Rhonda gives her a thumbs up.

"How'd you even get your liscense?" I ask, smiling.

"Can you imagine?" Paulette gets out of the car, "Dying a virgin." She says to Sharon, the only virgin ever to manage to get into the Pink Ladies.

We all groan and walk away.

"Apparently, Mr. Spears got a substitute," Sharon says, "So meet me in the bathroom during homeroom because I've got a great idea for the talent show!"

"The talent show?" I ask. The talent show?! I'm not going to be in some dumb talent show.

"Yes, the talent show!" She throws her hands up in the air, "There are a hundred albums at stake here!"

"Yeah, and?" I ask, blowing a bubble with my gum.

"And... I think we could win it."

I laugh, "Good joke, Sharon."

"We can! I can do ballet, and we all can sing, and it'll just be wonderful!" She claps her hands together.

I sigh, "When are auditions?" 

"October 1st," She smiles, clutching her books to her chest, "I just know we can do it."

During homeroom, Sharon tells us this idea that we can all be "Calendar Girls" and each have our own season. But there's five of us, and only four seasons. When I brought this to her attention, she just shrugged it off and said she'd figure it out.

"We need to have a sleepover, ya know, to plan everything," Sharon says, writing a few things down on her clipboard.

"How about my house? My parents aren't gonna be home tonight," Rhonda volunteers.

"Perfect! We can just go right after school! Thanks Rhonda!!" Sharon exclaims, now scribbling furiously on her clipboard.

"How do you feel about being a tree?" Sharon asks Rhonda.

"A tree? No." 

"Okay!" Sharon shouts, sitting her pencil down on Rhonda's white carpeting.

"Okay, what?" Steph says, chewing her gum loudly as she sprawls herself out on Rhonda's bed.

"I've finished the designs!" She smiles, and proudly shows us her drawings, while Rhonda enters the room with a bowl of snacks.

"We've got four seasons, right? And five girls, so two of us can just have the same season! I'll be Spring, and I'm going to be a clover. Paulette, you can be Summer, and I thought you could wear something white and fitting like a swimsuit. Rhonda and Chloe, you guys will be Fall, and Rhonda, you will be a tree and Chloe can be a witch, for Halloween, ya know? And then Steph, you'll be Winter, and you will be a Christmas tree!" She sighs, "I know, it's perfect."

"A tree?" Rhonda sits the bowl on her nightstand, "You want me to be a tree?"

"You're Fall."

"But can't I be a leaf or a, I don't know, like something cute and-"

"ROMEO, ROMEO, WHEREFORE ART THOU, ROMEO!?" Someone who sounds just like Goose shouts from outside.

"Oh my God, is that Goose?" Paulette jumps up on the bed, "Is Johnny with him?!" She then catapults off the bed to look out the window, and Stephanie flips off of it.

"Geez, Paulette," Steph rubs the back of her head.

"Sorry..." She shrugs sheepishly and turns back to the window, "They're all here!" She gasps.

"What are they doing here?" Sharon stands up, and by now, we're all crowded by the window.

"Well, we can't just leave them out there, they're screaming!" Rhonda shouts, "The neighbors will tell my parents that they were here!"

"Then let em in!" I shout back.

She opens her window and shouts, "The door's open!" Then slams it back down.

It only takes about a minute till we hear them crashing around downstairs.

"Guys, they're upstairs," Goose shouts, "In her room."

"Hey!!!" Rhonda's bedroom door flies open, hitting the wall, knocking a poster of Vince Fontaine off the wall.

There stands the T-Birds, their arms wide, as if they were presenting something.

"Well, are you guys just gonna stand there, or what?" I ask.