Ch 65: That’s high school!

Janet didn’t notice it at first. It came to her slowly. 

Some kids merely whispered behind her back as she past, others stared at her with stunned expressions on their faces, but a few came up to her beaming for no other reason than to say hello…at least that’s what they told her. She suspected they just wanted to see if she and Wes were really going out. High school kids can be so nosy! But then...so were adults. Evidence of that was the school nurse winking at her and Wes.

Perhaps her mother was right, Janet mused. She often heard Wendy say, "High school never ends!" Now she understood.

Janet tried not to laugh at them, but that was her favorite part of high school, getting to laugh at her fellow students and even some teachers plus all the silly things they do.

It wasn’t, however, until after the third boy came up to her asking if she’d be interested in going to a movie, for ice cream or just to hang out that it finally dawned on her that something odd was going on.They must have realized the rumors about her weren’t true. Janet coming into school holding Wes’ hand proved she wasn’t really a lesbian. She never cared to correct this misconception before, because it hardly mattered to her what others thought. Now it seemed she was out-ed …only in the reverse.

She laughed and shook her head at the absurdity. So, now that she had a boyfriend, all the guys wanted to date her? What a crock! But then, that’s high school for you! Nothing ever makes sense in high school.

Wes was perfectly right, too. He had told her she needed to understand romance by being in love herself before she could truly be successful at her craft of matchmaking. Well, she would never admit to being in love, that’s for darn sure! That was, obviously, because she was not in love…her story and she was sticking to it, thank you ever so much!

The kids at school apparently thought she was, though, and that was the only thing that mattered to them. Her Yenta business was reaping the profits of her new Facebook status… in a relationship. Business nearly tripled that first day alone and she could only attribute it to her having a great looking guy crazy in love with her—her clients’ words, not hers. She still got queasy every time she heard that word. 

Love…yikes! It was just too scary to think of it! People do extraordinarily stupid things when love gets in the way, and Janet—gosh-darn-it—was not a stupid girl!

Janet supposed she should have seen it coming, but then why would she?  Who knew she would get all this attention just because she finally had a boyfriend? It’s not like she ever thought she would have a boyfriend, either. As a matter of fact, she had been determined not to, and might still be, in her heart. 

She frowned wondering about that as she sat pretending to listen to a recital of Robert Burn’s poem To a Mouse. Did she want a boyfriend? Weren’t they nothing but trouble? Especially one like Wes, who insists at every turn that he loves her, would be very much trouble. Yeah, she saw trouble coming all right. She did, after all, only just admit to herself that she thoroughly enjoyed kissing him. Didn’t kissing always lead to other things, problematic things? She shrugged and recalled that Wes was okay with her plan of staying a virgin forever. 

Then the teacher read, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men…" and panic set in, but she swiftly got a grip on herself.

 

So, as Robert Burns concluded the mouse was better off than he was, Janet came to the ridiculous, albeit comforting, conclusion that Wes was more of a friend than a boyfriend, and that she had nothing to worry about. She was the yenta and she would look for his perfect girlfriend. She had to be around the school somewhere and Janet, his friend, would find her for him. She didn’t know, however, if that resolution gave her more pleasure or pain.

Wes came late to English class, the only one they shared. Janet couldn’t help noticing how her heart gave a start when he bounded into the room. She had wondered where he was, but hadn’t worried. What could happen to anyone at their boring school? A paper cut? He looked perfectly fine to her when he took a moment to converse with the teacher. He didn’t even have a bandage on his little finger, she noticed, but he did have a note for the teacher. He also had something up his sleeve for her which would shock her to no end.

He apparently was not the type to care about keeping his feelings to himself. Janet sort of knew this, but she didn’t think he’d go this far. After he handed the note to the teacher, he headed straight for her with a broad grin on his face. Before she knew it, he swooped down and kissed her right in front of everybody, even the teacher! He then sat down at the desk behind her as if he’d done that every day of his life. 

She could feel her cheeks glowing pink with embarrassment, but she didn’t dare look up. What would the teacher say? What would the kids think of this?

“Do the rest of us get a welcome like that, Wes?” Mr. Steadman asked, smirking, as the students laughed.

 

“Uh…no, Sir,” Wes replied, sheepishly looking around. “That’s strictly for Janet, my girlfriend. You get the late pass though.”

"I guess that will have to do then," Mr. Steadman said, returning to his book of poetry.

“Too bad,” Gracie whispered to her best friend, Jenny, neither of whom ever missed an opportunity to try to capture Wes’ attention.

“Hi, Wes,” Jenny and Gracie simultaneously sighed, fluttering their eyelashes at him. 

“Hi, Jenny. Hi, Gracie,” he said, and as usual, he ignored them for the rest of the class. He then whispered to Janet, “What did I miss?”

“Robert Burns going on about a stupid mouse’s house he trampled,” she replied irritably. His soft chuckle in her ear and his hand softly touching her hair made her smile and she soon forgot to be embarrassed.

At the end of class, Wes grabbed Janet’s hand before she bolted and was talking quietly with her by her locker when Jenny, closely followed by Gracie, tugged on his shirt.

“Hey, what’s up, Jenny?” he said.

“Good luck at your game today, Wes,” Jenny said, smiling brightly. 

“Yeah, we’ll be cheering for you,” Gracie gushed.

“Uh, thanks,” he said, and immediately turned away from them and back to Janet.

“You know they like you, right? Jenny especially,” Janet said, watching Jenny slump away obviously depressed with Gracie trying to comfort her.

“Uh…so?” he replied.

“So, she kinda fits your criteria for a girlfriend. She’s not blonde, she’s not too dumb, she’s not too skinny and she…”

Wes gaped at her. “What the hell, Janet. You’re my girlfriend! I don’t need another one!”

“All guys look for something better and I thought, cuz I’m the yenta…”

“I don’t care what you thought. You obviously got it all wrong with me,” he said, angrier than she’d ever seen him.

“Okay, take it down a peg,” she snapped, turning her back on him and stuffing books into her locker before pulling out others. “So, Jenny’s not good enough. Fine.”

“Janet, don’t you get it yet?” he said, turning her around.

She shrugged his hands off her shoulders and slammed her locker shut. “Are you going to have lunch with me or not?” she said.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, for one thing, you’re royally ticked off at me when I was just trying to be a good yenta.”

He sighed. “I’m not mad, Janet. I just wish…I don’t need your yenta services, in case you can’t figure that out for yourself. So, don’t think like a yenta when I’m around, okay?”

“Oh, really?” she said, a sardonic laugh bubbling up in her. “And are you gonna stop being a computer wiz in front of me?”

“If it ticks you off, yeah!” he yelled.

She stared up at him for a minute then giggled. “You know, if we keep fighting like this it’ll be very bad for my Yenta business.”

He shook his head, utterly exasperated, and then he hugged her tightly. “God, you drive me nuts, but I love you!”

“I may have to embroider that on a pillow for you…course, I gotta learn how to embroider first,” she teased.

He laughed and was about to kiss her when the late bell sounded. “We’re late.”

“Yup, meet you later, in the cafeteria,” she said already heading down the hall.

“No, in the court yard. It’ll be quiet there,” he said and he watched her go muttering to himself, “What am I gonna do with her?”

He hoped to find that out at lunch.