Cory

Chapter. 13

Charlene pulled into the parking lot beside the high school's new wing, let the motor idle for just a second, and then switched it of. Cory sat on his  side of the seat, holding his around him. It suddenly seemed to him that he was living in a dream of hidden intentions and had just become aware of the fact. What could he be doing? He had left Momma alone.

"Nervous?" shee asked, and he jumped.

"Yes."

She laughed and got out. He was about to open the door when she opened it for him. 'Don't be nervous,' she said

"What if they all laugh at me?" Cory asked nervously

"They won't" Charlene replied with a warm smile "Now come on"

Cory smiled back and got out Charlene wrapped  her arm around his

Georgia Dawson and Freddy Jason were standing by the Coke machine.  Donna Thibodeau was taking tickets at the door along with David Bracken. They were both National Honour Society members, part of Miss personal Gestapo, and they wore white slacks and red blazers - the school colours. Caleb Saunders and Norman Watson were handing out programmes and seating people inside according to their chart Both of them were dressed in black, and Cory supposed they thought they were very chic, but to him they looked like cigarette guys  in an old gangster movie.

All of them turned to look at Carlene and Cory when they came in, and for a moment there was a stiff, awkward silence. Cory felt a strong urge to wet his lips and controlled it. Then Georgia Dawson said:

"Gawd, you look pretty, Charlene."

Charlene smiled. 'When did you come out of the treetops, Bomba?'

Georgia lurched forward with her fists up, and for a moment Cory felt stark terror. In his keyed-up state, he came within an ace of picking Georgia up pushing her across the lobby. Then he realized it was an old game, often played, well-loved.

The two of them sparred in a growing circle. Then Georgia, who had been tagged twice in the ribs, began to gobble and yell:- "Kill them Congs! Get them Gooks! Pongee sticks! Tiger cages!" and Charlene collapsed her guard, laughing.

"Don't let it bother you," Freddy said, tilting his letteropener nose and strolling over. "If they kill each other, I'll dance with you."

'They look too stupid to kill,' Cory ventured. "Like dinosaurs." And when Freddy grinned, he felt something very old and rusty loosen inside him. A warmth came with At. Relief. Ease.

"Where'd you buy your suit?" Frieda asked. "I love it."

"I made it."

"Made it?" Freddy's eyes opened in unaffected surprise. "No shit!"

Cory felt himself blushing furiously. "Yes I did. I ... I like to sew. I got the material at John's in Andover. The pattern is really quite easy."

"Come on," Georgia said to all of them in general. "Band's gonna start." She rolled her eyes and went through a limber, satiric buck-and-wing. "Vibes, vibes, vibes. Us Gooks love them big Fender viyyybrations."

When they went in, Georgia was doing impressions of Flash Bobby Pickett and mugging. Cory was telling Freddy about his suit, and Charlene was grinning. Spoiled the lines of her dinner jacket Brandon would be telling her, but fuck it, it seems to be working. So far it was working fine.

Her and Georgia and Freddy had less than two hours to live.

The classroom wings were dark and silent and deserted; the lobby was lit with a standard yellow glow, and the bank of glass that was the gymnasium's east side glowed with a soft, orangey light that was ethereal, almost ghostly. Again the bitter taste, and the urge to throw rocks.