The Fling

My junior year continued to cruise on by, and my chances of finding a woman were about the same as my chances of getting a 4.0 that year - nil. I did finally go on my first date with everyone's darling, Samantha. Seemingly the only guy I knew that didn't have a crush on her at some point, it seemed at least somewhat ironic that she was my first date. That was during the winter, and I hadn't been on another date heading into spring.

Here, the order of things gets lost on me, but I'll start with my 17th birthday, and what a crazy day that was. I had been planning an ambitious party, (ambitious because I intended to invite all my various groups of friends) but my high school's basketball team threw a wrench in my plans. In glorious fashion we won the state championship, and one of my friends started for the team. While I had spread the word earlier that I would have a party at my house, many of my friends were swept up in the euphoria of the moment and started wild calls of "party at Matt's house!" (Matt being my friend on the team, of course). Ever the willing martyr, I shrugged it off and decided that only my closest group of friends - those who didn't know Matt - would show up. While a horde of my friends did go to Matt's house to celebrate, surprisingly they soon came over to my party and I didn't know if my house would hold everyone.

"Where is Jane in this story?" you might be asking. Well, as I understand it the reason everyone eventually showed up at my house was in large part due to the efforts of Jane. Using her influence, Jane reminded the mob of my party, and convinced them to attend. In retrospect, I almost wish she hadn't convinced them, because the disparity between my different groups of friends made the whole thing awkward. However, it truly is the thought that counts, and I was happily surprised that Jane did that for me.

Perhaps it was due to the aforementioned anecdote, or it was just my generally spot-on intuition, but I began to think (hope?) that Jane would ask me to Spring Fling. As far as I knew, Clint was no longer in the picture, and I thought there was enough between us for her to ask me to a dance. Time passed, and I began to lose faith in my intuition, but right before the dance I received a mysterious brownie on my doorstep. After eating my way through the good-sized dessert, I found out that Jane had indeed asked me to Spring Fling. We went as part of a larger group that consisted mostly of seniors that I hardly knew. For dinner, we had KFC. This truly terrified me, because I am a messy enough eater without greasy finger food thrown in the mix. I found myself being terribly self-conscious about everything I did. Luckily, the KFC dinner went without too much incident. We also played a small game in the living room of whoever's house we were in, in which you tried to pass secret signs behind a person's back. Sorry, I just can't really describe the game very well, suffice it to say I don't like it very much. The room was small, and the group of people large, so Jane invited me to share a chair with her. Now those of my friends who have actually kissed a girl or held a girls hand would think nothing of this, but to me and my inexperience, I was wowed to sit that close to a girl. Sad, I know.

While the date had gone well up to that point, when we finally hit the dance floor, it really shined. I guess Jane had never really seen me dance before, because she was obviously impressed. Well maybe impressed isn't the right word . . . let's try entertained. While every other time I'm around girls I'm stiff and uncomfortable, something about dancing lets me lose my inhibitions. I know that sounds like the plot of at least a dozen movies, so I pardon my lack of originality, but its true. I had a blast dancing, and I was fairly sure she did as well. This is also - I believe - where we first danced to the Spice Girls, a song that we have danced together countless times. All in all, it was a nice little fling.