Be My Friday Night (6 page)

Otto nodded in agreement.

“Exactly, that’s why I couldn’t live there,” he said.

Sam laughed. She wanted to ask Otto more about sailing when City Hall came into view.

Grover’s City Hall resided in a 1960s style wooden building located on the municipal main street of town. The post office, public library, fire station, and community pool could all be found on the same street. It had been built when meeting in the library had become a bit of a tight fit for the entire town.

While Rosalind had always loved to come down and stir up trouble at town meetings, Sam had never attended one. A strange feeling crept over Sam as she entered the building and looked up to the high vaulted ceiling. She felt as if she’d walked into a church for a spiritual ritual. She couldn’t help it; in many ways interest in city government was sometimes the only thing the citizens of Grover had in common, except for living in a town that Sam thought was pretty easy to forget.

Attending a town hall meeting was a rite of passage. One Sam had always avoided. She never really liked getting involved. As she looked around at the familiar faces, she realized it wasn’t as scary or nerve wracking as she’d anticipated.

Gus and Randy sat on opposite sides of the room. Randy was going over a few index cards. Gus sat next to a chalkboard on wheels. His eyes were closed. He seemed to be meditating. Wanting to remain neutral, she didn’t say hello to either of them.

Standing next to her, Otto scanned the room for seats.

“We can sit here; it’s the best spot,” he said. He motioned toward the third row of seats next to the center aisle. Sam began to move toward the seats with him.

“Samantha?” said a voice all too familiar to Sam’s ears.

Sam whirled around to see Rosalind, her white bob freshly cut, her knit cardigan resting perfectly on her shoulders. Sam knew Rosalind saved this ultra conservative look for when she was planning to go to battle. The primmer Rosalind looked, the more likely she was to bare her teeth and fight to the death.

“Hi Mom,” Sam said, trying for ease. She chastised herself for not actually anticipating the presence of her mother. As if Rosalind was somehow not supposed to be a part of Sam’s rite of passage.

That’s why you move out of your hometown
, Sam reminded herself,
so your mother would have no knowledge of your after work activities.

“I’m looking forward to this joust between Randy and Gus,” said Rosalind as she enveloped Sam in an embrace.

Sam didn’t blink in response to her mother knowing about the night’s agenda. Sam had known as soon as she’d posted the document to the school’s website she’d given the town a gift. They'd loved having something to talk about all afternoon until the meeting started.

Still high off of putting a little more fun in everyone’s day, Sam offered her mother a bit of gossip about the afternoon fraught with tension in Otto’s office.

“Oh, now I really can’t wait,” said Rosalind with a glint in her eye.

“Sam,” said some other familiar voices behind her.

Sam turned to see Layla and Holly sitting in the back corner of the back row. They waved. They had also dolled themselves up for the occasion. Sam marched right up to them.

The grins on their faces were too mischievous, and Sam was going to go back there and wipe them off herself if she had to. For high school teachers who kept order in the classroom, the two of them did a pretty great impression of students who sat in the back of the class and giggled the whole time. Sam stood in front of them, crossed her arms, and frowned.

“What are you guys doing here? How’d you get here faster than me?” said Sam.

“We’ve come to support you. You know, now that you participate in community events,” said Holly.

“We took the shortcut behind the house, down the alley. We wanted to watch you and Otto come in together. You should have seen the look on Rosalind’s face when she saw you here. Pure bliss,” said Layla.

Sam glared at her.

“I thought you’d be here to support Randy,” she said.

“Oh, I am. He’s being so stubborn about all this coach hiring business. He just needs to let it go. It will all work out,” Holly said. Her practicality surprised Sam. Holly still had every right to be on the couch, drinking wine and watching Nora Ephron movies. Instead, she showed up to tease Sam. Sam kept the frown on her face. Secretly she was delighted. Holly looked the happiest she’d been in two days.

“I just wish I was sitting back here with you guys,” Sam said.

Layla shook a finger at her.

“No, you’re part of the entertainment. Now go back to your seat next to Otto,” she said.

Sam rolled her eyes and did as she was told.

The board slowly took their places at the front of the hall. It was a hodge-podge group.

Maisey James, head librarian, rapped the gavel against the table, and shot everyone her famous laser beam stare. The general chatter hushed.

Sam wished she’d had a scary librarian glare when the freshmen class had gone berserk on her.

Maisey pushed her glasses up her nose and addressed the crowd.

“It’s good to see we have a full house tonight to address the hiring of our new football coach among other things,” said Maisey.

There was an overall murmur of approval.

Sam turned in her seat to view the crowd. From where she sat she couldn’t even see Layla and Holly. The room was packed. She gave a quick wave to her father who had snuck into a seat next to Rosalind, and saw Holly’s mother sitting with Holly’s eldest brother, Paul, and his wife, Heather.

In accordance with the agenda Sam had sent all the meeting’s participants earlier, the meeting began with the principals of the Grover Elementary School and Grover Middle School giving their spiels about what was new and the status of ongoing projects. Sam heard whispers and shuffling behind her. No one seemed to care about the fourth grade class’s recycling initiative. Even in a Southern California small town most people still cared about their high school football over teaching kids about the environment.

Next, it was Otto’s turn to talk.

He stood tall at the podium. Sam’s breath caught when he smiled at her. Embarrassed, she looked around to make sure no one had seen her reaction. She was in luck. Everyone was watching Otto. People leaned in to listen to what he had to say.

“I promise to be quick. I know you all didn’t come to listen to me,” said Otto.

The crowd laughed and quickly quieted down again to listen.

Otto proceeded to give a quick rundown of what was new at Grover High.

“Last but not least, I have a new executive assistant. She’s a hometown girl many of you know, and I just wanted to welcome her tonight and say what an awesome job she’s doing. Will you all help me welcome Sam Henry back to Grover.”

Sam snapped her gaping mouth shut as she realized people were turning toward her and cheering. In a blind moment of panic she stood and waved to the audience. The cheers intensified before they quieted down. It had probably been seconds, but it’d felt like eons.

Otto sat down next to her with a big grin on his face. Sam wanted to punch him in the arm. Instead she raised her eyebrows at him.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she murmured.

“Just wanted to show you some appreciation,” he whispered back.

Sam rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but grin in spite of herself.

“Thank you for your report Otto. The floor is now open. Is there anyone who’d like to share an issue with the board?” said Maisey.

Gus raised his hand. Everyone looked toward the man who was attempting to replace Ethan Cooke. Sam held her breath. She knew how Gus must’ve felt, alone and against the world. She knew the citizens of Grover had the ability to suffocate you with love. They also had the ability to make you feel isolated and outside the tribe.

He slowly wheeled the squeaky chalkboard to the front of the room. He held up the chalk as if he were about to begin a math lesson.

“Hello, I’m Gus Avery. Many of you may know me as one of the math teachers here at Grover High School. I’m applying for the position of assistant coach under the new head coach Randy O’Malley.”

“We hear you’re a ballet dancer,” a deep yell came from the back of the crowd.

There were a few muffled giggles. Sam turned in the direction of the shout. Some Grover Guanacos football players were sitting in a small herd in their letterman jackets. Sam shot them her best withering librarian glance, and was surprised when it actually changed smirks to shameful looks on a few of the players.

Rather than give a reply to the interruption, Gus looked squarely at the boys. He took a step forward, leaned into his front foot and twirled into a pirouette.

In his street clothes Gus looked magical and athletic twirling out of nowhere. Sam gasped in delight. The rest of the crowd was struck dumb by Gus’s sudden showcase of talent.

The spin stopped as gracefully as it had begun. Gus turned back to the chalk board with the attention of every person in the room.

“So,” Gus began. He raised the chalk and placed it against the board.

“We actually have an extremely solid defense, which is unusual for a high school team. This can be credited to Coach O’Malley’s hard work. What the Guanacos need now is to be more creative with offensive plays. Let me break down new possibilities for three typical Guanaco plays.”

Gus walked the town through the three plays. His chalk flew over the board in his math teacher style. The flourish of the chalk was a display in itself.

Everyone listened with baited breath. At one point, Sam turned to look at the crowd. People were sitting and listening. The crowd had parted in a way that she could see Holly’s face.

Holly watched Gus intently with a look of calm that made Sam silently thank Gus for his performance tonight.

“Whatever happens, you need to hire Gus,” Sam found herself whispering into Otto’s ear.

Otto leaned into her a bit. A shiver wriggled down Sam’s neck. His mouth came close to her face.

“I don’t think I’ll have to do any convincing. Look at everyone. They can’t take their eyes off of him,” he said.

Sam nodded in agreement and turned back to Gus. He was a good distraction from her burning cheeks.

In a dramatic gesture, Gus plopped the chalk down into its tray.

“Our pride has been hurt. We have a vendetta to settle with a certain hometown hero who has done us wrong. I’m not a native of Grover, but I understand your pride. Let me help Randy regain this pride and bring it back to our town,” said Gus his hand outstretched.

The hall was struck with a silence rare to the people of Grover.

Gus looked toward his outstretched arm a little surprised as if a spirit had possessed his body, given a crazy amazing speech, and had suddenly left him. He was back to being Grover High’s best math teacher who had somehow ended up in front of a packed town hall with everyone’s eyes on him.

Gus looked out into the hall, his eyes unsure.

In the midst of the silence Sam stood up.

“Go Guanacos,” she said from her seat. She began to applaud Gus.

Holly jumped to her feet and started clapping too. Otto followed suite.

Soon the whole hall was on their feet cheering for Gus.

Gus nodded bashfully in response to the applause. The startled look on his face acknowledged he’d just signed up for something bigger than he’d originally thought.

* * *

“
W
ow
, what happened in there?” said Sam.

Otto shook his head and chuckled.

“I’m not quite sure. Guess our hippie town has more school spirit than anyone ever realized,” he said.

Gus had had Maisey at his pirouette, but by the end of the speech the rest of the board had been drawn in. They unanimously recommended Gus for assistant coach to Otto.

A stunned Randy had no choice but to comply.

The jubilant audience exited the building in a chattering herd. After listening to the comments of a few of the enthusiastic attendees, Sam and Otto escaped to the edge of the crowd. They walked down the main street toward Grover’s business district where many restaurants and boutiques could be found, including Zelda’s.

“Are you hungry?” Otto said.

Now that she thought about it, Sam's stomach was rumbling.

“I could eat,” she said.

“It’s unoriginal, but I kind of feel like a slice of pizza. Also, Zelda will want to know what happened at the meeting,” said Otto.

It didn’t matter it was unoriginal. It was practical. This wasn’t a date in which getting creative would score Otto points. The problem was Sam hadn’t had this much fun on the past many dates she’d been on with guys who’d been trying to score points.

Sam looked across the street. Small twinkle lights hung in the rafters of Zelda’s. The space looked magical. The smell of melting cheese, warm marinara sauce, and roasting garlic wafted toward Sam in a cloud. She closed her eyes to savor the smells.

She opened her eyes to see Otto watching her with an amused look on his face.