Chapter 12

Val muttered, “I don’t know what is wrong with that guy. Why doesn’t he pay attention to me?”

Well aware of what guy Val was talking about, Danny didn’t bother to answer her. It was pretty pathetic the way that she was throwing herself at Steve. Any guy of lesser morals than Steve could have taken advantage of her without working up a sweat. Of course, making it somewhat tragic was the fact that Steve was completely unaware of what she was doing. He only had eyes for Stephanie.

Stephanie muttered, “God! Why doesn’t he stop staring at me?”

Stephanie was the third leg of the unnatural triangle that had developed in the dance class. Steve had eyes only for her, and she was doing everything possible to ignore him. It was leaving Steve frustrated. She was approaching a slow angry boil at the unwanted attention. Even worse, she was stuck dancing with the creepy guy. Not for the first time, she was wondering if she could live without internet service at home.

Frustrated at being the odd man out, Danny said, “I don’t know about you two, but I’m here to learn how to dance. I would appreciate it if one of you would get with the program and help me learn.”

Val said, “That’s her job.”

Stephanie said, “I don’t want to be here.”

Val said, “I’m Steve’s dance partner.”

“Stephanie, don’t you think that if all Steve was interested in was putting another notch in his belt that he would have had sex with Val by now?”

“He probably has.”

“He hasn’t,” Val said. “The guy won’t even pay attention to me.”

“That’s probably because you’re not a challenge. He’s looking for a virgin to bed.”

“I’m virgin,” Val said irritated at what Stephanie was implying.

“You’re a cheerleader. We all know what that means.”

With a voice cold enough to freeze water, Val asked, “What does that mean?”

“It means that you’re putting out for the whole football team,” Stephanie said.

“You bitch! How dare you say that!”

Danny shouted, “Ladies!”

“Shut up! You don’t know anything,” Val said.

“You’re totally clueless,” Stephanie said glaring at Danny.

Danny said, “Stephanie, I hate to tell you this, but there are hundreds of virgins at this school. If Steve wanted to bed a virgin there are a lot of girls who would be quite happy to give it up to him. Don’t you wonder why Steve is interested in only you?”

Val’s face wrinkled in jealousy. She looked at Stephanie and said, “You? He wants you?”

“Why not me?” Stephanie asked defensively.

“Well ... you aren’t in his league,” Val said feeling bad even as the words left her mouth.

“Excuse me? Did you just say that I wasn’t in his league?” Stephanie asked with a definite chill in her voice.

The truth was that Stephanie believed that, herself. Steve was a football star and she was just a mousy shy girl who did everything in her power not to be noticed. Although she shared the belief that she wasn’t in his league, it didn’t make it any less insulting to hear someone else say that about her. She was firmly convinced that football stars liked to take advantage of girls like her. That’s what the big sports guys did.

Danny knew that he was about to have a front seat at a major cat fight.

“Val, you are a very attractive woman. It is probably safe to say that you are the subject of masturbation for half of the boys in school.”

“Oh, gross,” Val said with a look of disgust on her face.

“You might not like the idea of that, but it’s true. Guys want you. In fact, a lot of guys want you.”

“Well, I don’t want them.”

“I’m not surprised. Steve says that you’re smart. I don’t know because you haven’t ever said anything that suggests that to me, but that’s what he says. In fact, he thinks you are probably the only woman on campus that could keep up with me.”

“Like I would be interested in that,” Val said.

“I’ll ignore the insult to me for the moment. Let me just say that I figure that a smart girl is probably insulted when she finds that all a guy is interested in is her body. I think that half your interest in Steve is that he doesn’t look at you with lust for your body, but with respect for your brain.”

“Uh...”

“Stephanie, I think you’re a reasonably attractive woman. I’m sure that you’ve served as fantasy material for a number of guys here at school. I know that you are definitely Steve’s fantasy girl. That guy is head over heels for you.”

“Uh...”

“Here’s what I suggest. We switch partners today. Stephanie, if Steve does anything rude, then slap him across the face and let him know that he just blew his one chance. That will be the end of that. Val, I’m not interested in you and you’re not interested in me. So let’s just learn how to dance instead of you imitating an octopus when you are with Steve. This way, I’ll actually learn how to dance and everyone wins.”

Val asked, “How do I win?”

“You win by not looking like a fool,” Danny said.

She was about to slaughter him verbally when Mrs. Shapiro entered the room with Steve following behind her looking a little upset. Mrs. Shapiro wasn’t looking all that happy herself. Steve walked over to where Danny was standing.

“What’s the matter?” Danny asked in a quite voice.

“She turned down my request to quit class and return to my other class,” Steve said.

“Why would you want to quit?” Danny asked a little louder.

“This isn’t working. She doesn’t even notice that I’m alive,” Steve said.

Danny said, “Mrs. Shapiro! We decided to change partners.”

Steve said, “Really?”

Mrs. Shapiro said, “That’s a good idea.”

Somewhat irritated, Val said, “I don’t remember agreeing to that.”

“I don’t want to be the virgin sacrifice to the God of Football,” Stephanie said while crossing her arms across her chest.

“Now that that is settled, Val, may I have the honor of this dance?”

Sighing, Val answered, “Sure.”

“Miss Morris, may I have the extreme honor of this dance?”

“Yes,” Stephanie answered.

The two young men led their dance partners to the area where they normally danced. Mrs. Shapiro went over to the record player to start the music. It should be noted that in this day and age of digital music, she still preferred using old style records, feeling that it was much easier to start and stop the music in specific locations.

“Since you are new partners we’ll start with something simple – the Waltz,” Mrs. Shapiro said.

“Okay,” Danny said.

When the music started, Danny and Val moved effortlessly into the waltz. Val was quite surprised at how good Danny was at dancing. He moved with grace, and his lead was quite commanding without being overwhelming. She had thought that he’d be pawing her and trying to pull her in close, but he’d set a comfortable distance between them.

Mrs. Shapiro stopped the music and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Danny and Val looked at each other. Neither thought there had been any problem with their dancing.

“Uh...”

“Well...”

“You two are just standing there like statues,” Mrs. Shapiro said.

“I don’t want her to think I’m trying anything.”

“You are supposed to be trying something. It’s called dancing. You put your hand on her waist and hold her other hand. Then you move with the music. I know you know how to do that. I’ve seen you dance with Val.”

“Well...”

“Well what?”

“She’s not comfortable with me,” Steve said.

“You nailed that one,” Stephanie said.

Shaking her head in disgust, Val said, “He’s scared to death of her.”

“No. He’s scared of chasing her away,” Danny said, “Christopher Morley said, ‘In every man’s heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty.’ I think we now see Steve’s secret nerve responding to the vibrations of beauty that is Stephanie.”

“That’s kind of nice,” Val said looking at Danny. “It’s almost poetic.”

“Thanks.”

Val said, “I wish that he’d look at me that way.”

“Sorry,” Danny said.

Still talking to Steve and Stephanie, Mrs. Shapiro said, “Take her in your arms.”

Steve did as instructed. Stephanie stood there stiff as a board. Mrs. Shapiro looked at them and shook her head in disgust. Steve’s right hand was straight out like he was pushing her away.

“There’s enough room between the two of you to drive a truck. This is the waltz, not line dancing.”

When neither one moved closer to the other, Mrs. Shapiro went over and pushed them together. Each froze for a moment standing chest to chest, belly to belly, and well ... below the waist to below the waist. After a couple of seconds, Steve bolted from the room.

Shaking his head, Danny said, “That went well.”

“What’s his problem?” Stephanie asked looking puzzled at his reaction. She’d really expected him to start grinding up against her. Instead, he was as nervous as a guy on his first date (which was actually pretty close to the truth). She added, “He’s getting his wish. Now’s his chance to paw me.”

Irritated, Val said, “He never reacted that way to me.”

“What? Run off?”

“No. Getting an erection,” Val answered.

“What?”

Shaking her head, Mrs. Shapiro said, “Youth is wasted on the young.”

“George Bernard Shaw,” Danny said.

Stephanie asked, “What about George Bernard Shaw?”

“He’s the one who said that youth is wasted on the young.”

“I thought it was one of those fable things,” Stephanie said.

“No, it’s not,” Val said.

Danny said, “He also said, ‘First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.’ I’m not sure if that applies here. There seems to be a lot of foolishness going on at the moment.”

“Where do you get all of those quotations from?” Val asked.

“I’ve read a couple of books of quotes and took the time to memorize those that I thought would be applicable in awkward situations. I run into a lot of awkward situations, so I had memorize a lot of quotes.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

Ignoring the rhetorical question, Danny said, “I think that Steve was embarrassed.”

“He was getting an erection. I have a bit more experience with that than you do,” Val said.

“Getting embarrassed, or getting an erection?” Danny asked.

All three women looked at him like he had asked the stupidest question in history. Of course, if they had thought about it, they’d have realized that it wasn’t that stupid.

Stubbornly, he said, “I ought to remind you that I have a lot more experience with having erections than the three of you combined, and I’ve had my fair share of being embarrassed.”