About a month before this time, my friend Steffi had called me up to ask me to the Winter Dance at the girl's school. She was thinking far ahead. Basically, that conversation went like this:

"What are you doing in February?"

"Nothing."

"Want to go to Winter Formal?"

"Isn't it a bit early?"

"Yeah, well, I'm leaving for Australia for a month tomorrow, so I thought I'd set things up now for sure." For sure, I think.

But hey, might as well. I'll admit now that this is the first school dance that I've gone to , um, ever. So I'm not picky. And I know that Steffi won't be putting the moves on me and I won't have to worry about chasing her. Because I'm in lust with China. Who's dating John. My buddy who I don't really know at the time but who will become one of the best friends I make in school. Complicated, huh?

 

 

 

Winter Formal. I'm with Steffi. The pictures are hilarious, because she had to take off her shoes and I had to tip toe but the idiots snapping the pic neglected to cut off our feet. Yeah. Formal's hilarious in itself because Steffi is obsessed with this guy at another table. I have an off center picture of the two of use because all she wanted was a picture of him as he was sitting behind us. So to me, he's forever Tom, the Ear Blur. But I'm not resentful. Because I've never been to a school dance. How the hell am I supposed to know what's going on?

What I do know is that I'm really attracted to Jon's date. I slyly find out that they were set up for this night and the reason she came to the play was to see him in action so they'd have at least something to talk about. The dance comes to an end with most of my ego intact.

We go to Hannah Stitt's house, a location I'll have lots of experience with in the months to come. But how do I know any of this? How can I suspect? When I write my letter back to myself a month later, I should spend much more time, think a lot more about things like this. You're confused? Hey, at least you've got a guide who knows how it ends. I'm living this crap.

At Hannah's house, I basically try to avoid getting drunk and I try to impress Gwyneth. I believe my witty line is, "Well, nice being in your group for this dance." Well, I don't remember exactly, but the line couldn't have been that bad. I leave early because I have curfew.