The crowd cheered.
“We need a place to air our anxieties and insecurities and grievances. Sure, weird issues come up. Some kids are just weird. So are some adults. That’s life. All that weird stuff exists whether we write about it or not. If you don’t let us express our feelings freely, they will find other ways to come out—less healthy ways.”
The students in the crowd cheered again. Mads glanced at Rod, who shifted in his seat. Belinda sat with her lips pursed tightly. Was she getting through to them? “You’re doing great,” Holly whispered.
“The Dating Game has helped make lots of students happier,” Mads said. “And to prove it, first, we present our Parade of Happy Couples and Other Supporters.”
Holly and Lina had gathered as many happily matched couples as they could find to march across the stage and testify on the Dating Game’s behalf. Each couple, holding hands, stopped at the microphone, and made a brief speech.
“I’m Kris, and this is Jorge,” a girl said. “Before I met Jorge, I had no friends. I spent all my free time writing fan letters to obscure actors and hoping they’d write back. Then I filled out a Dating Game questionnaire, and they matched me with Jorge. He taught me how to skateboard, and I taught him how to hunt down famous people’s addresses. Jorge is my soul mate, but I never would have found him without the Dating Game.”
“She’s a wicked good skater,” Jorge added.
Everyone clapped for them. Kris and Jorge beamed and walked off the stage.
“We’re Autumn and Vince. Until the Dating Game matched us, no one would listen to me,” Autumn said.
“And no one really talked to me,” Vince said.
“Now we’re really happy!” Autumn finished.
“I thought nobody would like me unless I was perfect,” a pretty girl said. “But on the Dating Game, I found out that even the perfect girls don’t think they’re perfect. And that I have two secret admirers!”
After several more testimonials, Mads returned to the mike.
“This school is supposed to be a center of liberal education. It has a long and rich history of dissent. Some of the parents and teachers in this room were once like us, fighting for their right to express themselves.”
She pressed the clicker, and a slide appeared on the screen. It showed a crowd of neatly dressed high school kids jammed into the Rosewood lunchroom. “In 1967, Rosewood students protested the dress code. Girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school. Can you believe that? And boys weren’t allowed to have hair that reached below their collars. The students took over the cafeteria and refused to leave until the administration gave in. The students totally won. Of course! What a ridiculous dress code.”
She pressed the clicker again and a page from an old copy of The Seer flashed on the screen. “Here’s an article from our school newspaper dated May 14, 1972. ‘Yearbooks Destroyed! Students Outraged at School Censorship.’ The students had used their yearbook to protest the draft and the war in Vietnam. The school administration actually banned the yearbook! They wouldn’t let the seniors have this important memento of their time at Rosewood. All because they didn’t like the way the students had chosen to express their feelings. To this day, the 1972 yearbook is not available to the public. An outraged student wrote this in The Seer: ‘As students, it is not only our right but our duty to upset the status quo. The status quo is unjust! We must do whatever we can make our world a better place. But we cannot do it unless we’re allowed to express our truest thoughts and feelings right here at school, which is, for now, the center of our lives.’”
The students roared with cheers. Rod and Belinda seemed stunned.
“And now,” Mads said, “I would like to show you why the 1972 yearbook was censored.” She clicked again. Up it came, blown up huge: the 1972 class picture. The moon shot, larger than life.
The crowd screamed and shrieked with laughter and shock. Belinda Crocker turned red.
“I admire the class of 1972 what they did in this photo,” Mads said. “They made an important point. Maybe you parents have forgotten what it was like to be our age. But you were once like us—passionate about important issues. Remember your own high school years. Sometimes we need to do things that look foolish to you—but we can’t grow up without these experiences. Reinstate the Dating Game and let us be our whole, weird, goofy, free, crazy selves!”
The students in the crowd roared. Mads, Lina, and Holly left the stage. The students started chanting, “Mad-i-son! Mad-i-son!”
Lina, Holly, and Mads jumped up and down in a group hug. “You were great! You were so great!” Lina and Holly shouted over the noise.
Mads’ parents pushed through the crowd to hug and kiss her too. “Good going, Mads,” Russell said. “You ought to be a lawyer someday!”
“Please, Dad, anything but that,” Mads said, but she grinned. From him, it was a high compliment.
Rod took the mike.
“Settle down, please! Let’s settle down. The parents’ board will meet in Classroom 104 across the hallway for an emergency meeting—immediately. Everyone else, I urge to you please leave the campus peacefully. You will be apprised of our decision. Thank you!”
He and Belinda hurried off the stage to jeers and boos. Nobody left the room. Everybody wanted to wait and see what would happen in that meeting.
While the board disappeared into the classroom, the students kept chanting. “Dating Game! Dating Game! Bring back the Dating Game! Bring back the Dating Game!”
“The whole school must be here!” Lina said.
“This is amazing!” Holly said. “I think we did it!”
Mads looked at her father. “What do you think will happen?”
“Who knows?” Russell said. “It takes a lot to get people like Rod and Belinda Crocker to change their mind. But whatever happens, you did your best.”
Rod reappeared on the stage fifteen minutes later. The rowdy audience cheered. “That was quick,” Holly said.
“I have an announcement to make,” Rod said. “In light of the recent arguments made by Madison Markowitz, Holly Anderson, and Lina Ozu, the parents’ board has voted to reinstate the Dating Game on the school blog.”
The auditorium erupted in happy shouts. “We did it! We did it!” Mads, Lina, and Holly jumped up and down, hugging and holding hands and screaming happily. “Mads, it’s all because of you,” Holly said.
“I’m so proud of you!” Mads’ mother said.
Rod left the stage and approached Mads. “May I see you privately for a moment, Madison?”
Mads followed him out of the auditorium. Rod led her to the relative quiet of an empty classroom.
“Congratulations,” he said. “I admire your conviction, your willingness to stand up for what you believe in, and your thorough research skills.”
“Thank you.”
“I—” He started laughing, then choked out, “I have to admit, that picture is funny.”
“And it makes the Dating Game look like kindergarten stuff,” Mads said.
“In a way, it does,” Rod said. “But remember—the parents’ board will be watching you. You have to keep your blog clean. Okay? Don’t make me look at that old picture again—I can’t take it.”
“Okay,” Mads said.
“Good. Your suspension is over. Please return to school tomorrow. I will see that this episode is stricken from your record. It won’t hurt you in any way.”
“Thank you!” Mads nearly jumped up and hugged him, but held herself back.
“You would have fit in well with us back in the old days, Mads,” Rod said. “You would have made a great hippie radical. Now go celebrate with your friends.”
’Thanks, Mr. Alvarado.” He’s really not so rigid, after all, Mads thought. Maybe he didn’t deserve the nickname “Rod.” Mads thought maybe she should stop calling him that, even privately. But she knew she wouldn’t.
25
Backne Check
To: linaonme
From: your daily
horoscope
HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: CANCER: Your long, winding, painful path has finally brought you your heart’s desire. Would it kill you to take the short, straight, pleasant path next time?
Hey, congratulations!” Walker said. Lina, Mads, Holly, Rob, Sebastiano, Ramona, and tons of other kids had flooded the Rutgers Roadhouse, a rock club, Thursday night for a big post-meeting celebration. A band was playing, and the students were in a happy mood, amped on a sense of their own power.
Lina hadn’t had a chance to talk to Walker since their kiss. She wondered what was going on—did he regret it? Did he feel guilty? Did he tell Flynn about it? She looked up at him nervously.
“You guys were amazing,” Walker said. “That stuff Mads dug up—she should go into investigative reporting.”
“I know,” Lina said. “She was fantastic. I’m just glad she can come back to school now and everything’s okay.”
“Um, look, can I talk to you?” Walker said. He nodded toward the door.
“Sure,” Lina said. She followed him outside. What did he want? Maybe he was going to say they couldn’t kiss like that again because of Flynn. After all, he did have a girlfriend. …
A few kids were smoking in the parking lot. Walker and Lina leaned against a car.
“I just wanted to tell you that I broke up with Flynn,” Walker said.
“You did?” Lina stared at her feet, trying not to give away how happy and surprised she felt.
“Uh-huh.” He faced her and took both her hands in his. He was shaking. He’s nervous! Lina realized.
“Lina—I want to be with you,” he said. “In a girlfriend/boyfriend way, I mean. More than friends.”
“You do?” When she looked into his face, she felt flooded with a warm, happy feeling. Walker! He wanted to be with her! He was her guy! And it seemed right.
“So—what do you think about that?”
“I like it,” she said. “I want to be with you, too.”
“Really? You’re not messing with my head?”
“No—really! I’ve liked you for a long time,” she said. “I was just too stupid to realize it for a while.”
“Me too,” Walker said. He bent his face toward her. She tilted hers up. They kissed. Their second kiss. It was soft and sweet and better than the first one. Lina sighed and put her arms around him. He pulled her against him and held her close.
Finally she liked someone who liked her back! No more impossible dreams, liking people who were unavailable or taken. He was hers and she was his. She wondered why it had taken her so long to get here. But sometimes that’s just the way things go.
We’re back! The Dating Game is back on the RSAGE school Web site. Thank you all for your fabulous support! We couldn’t have done it without you! Free speech for everyone! And matchmaking forever!
X-Rating
OFFICIAL CORRECTION
A few weeks ago an X-Rating from someone named “Elvira” appeared on this site in error. It contained much false information and never should have been allowed online. First, there is no Elvira, it was a false name. Second, nothing she wrote about her victim, Walker Moore, was true. I repeat: Nothing! We have erased Elvira’s X-Rating. I would like to replace it with a Current-Girlfriend Rating.
Your name:Lina Ozu
Your grade:10th
Your boyfriend’s name:Walker Moore
Your boyfriend’s grade:11th
How do you know him/her?school
How have you been together?a day
What do you think of your boyfriend?He’s patient, honest, smart, a good writer, not as good a speller as he thinks [oh, yeah? Prove it! -WM], a little quick-tempered, and really, really cute.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, you rate your ex boyfriend:10 plus
And for the record, Lina wrote, stopping to peek down the back of Walker’s shirt—and, she noticed, he let her—he doesn’t have backne.
Here’s a sneak peek at The Dating Game #5
Speed Dating
That dirty little punk,” Mads said.
“He’s not exactly little,” Holly said.
“Okay,” Mads corrected herself. “That big, weird-haired dork. I always thought his hair looked like it was sewn onto his scalp.”
“Now you tell me,” Holly said. They were talking about Rob, Holly’s boyfriend—make that ex-boyfriend—whose hair was so thick, it looked like teddy bear fur. Unlike Mads (news to Holly), Holly had always loved his hair. Uh-oh—tears coming on. Holly pinched her forearm to suppress them. Once they started coming, it was hard to stop.
“We’re sympathy-trashing him,” Lina said. “For your sake. Doesn’t it make you feel better?”
“Not really,” Holly said.
“You should go online and X-Rate him right now,” Mads said. “Really give it to him so no girl will want to come within five miles of him. He won’t get another girlfriend until he’s thirty!”
“That’s abusing the system,” Holly said. “And, anyway, Rob doesn’t deserve it. I don’t think. I haven’t quite sorted out my feelings yet.”
Mads reached into the shopping bag she’d brought with her to Holly’s house and pulled out three pints of ice cream. “Let’s get down to business. We’ve got Strawberry-Banana Happiness-in-a-Tub, Mint-Chocolate Love-Substitute, and Intense Chocolate Brainwash to chocolatize your troubles away.”
Lina dropped her shopping bag on Holly’s kitchen island. “And I’ve got cheese popcorn, Cheez Doodles, and Wheat Thins, in case you get a salt jones,” she said.
“I’ll start with the hard stuff,” Holly said, reaching for the Chocolate Brainwash. “Thanks for coming over, you guys. I was almost on the verge of tears there, for a minute.”
“The verge of tears?” Mads picked up a soggy pile of used Kleenex and tossed it in the trash.
“You heard me.” Holly was playing the tough guy, though she knew Mads and Lina saw through it. It made her feel better to pretend she wasn’t hurt.
“I still can’t believe he dumped you,” Lina said. “After all you went through with him! After he begged you to be in his sister’s wedding—”
“—and she made you wear that heinous bridesmaid’s dress—” Mads said.
“—and you practically planned the whole thing for her,” Lina said.
“Not to mention all the swim meets you went to,” Mads said. “We all went to. Cheering him on like a bunch of cheer-bots.”
“Rob should be shunned for this,” Lina said. “Ostracized from the community. Like the Amish do when somebody breaks the rules.”
“It’s not that bad,” Holly said. “He has his reasons.”
“Like what?” Lina asked.
“Well, he said he was so busy with swimming—”
“Lame.”
“—and school—”
“Lame.”
“—and studying for the SATs—”
“Totally lame.”
“—and dealing with his parents’ divorce—”
“Please.”
“—that he doesn’t have time to be in a relationship right now,” Holly finished.
“Yeah? Well, who doesn’t have to deal with school and activities and parental insanity?” Mads said. “We’re all busy.”
“You have to make time for love,” Lina said.
“Well, that’s what he told me,” Holly said. “He said, ‘You’re a cool girl, I’m really into you, we’ve had fun, but I don’t think I can spend as much time with you as you’d like, so maybe we should be friends.’ Then he played this old Bob Dylan song I used to hear at his father’s house. You know—the one that goes, ‘No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe, it ain’t me you’re looking for, babe’?”
“Ugh,” Lina said.
“Like father, like son,” Mads said.
“It was a total shock.” Holly’s tough-guy act was breaking down. She was getting teary again. She didn’t have the strength to stop it. “I never saw it coming. I thought everything was fine. I thought w
e were in love!” She started full-on crying. It was the surprise that bothered her the most. She’d thought she had everything under control. Then Rob pulled the rug out from under her. That scared her. If it could happen once, would her next boyfriend do the same thing? How could she protect herself? And worse, what if she never found another boyfriend?
Mads and Lina hugged her. Mads passed her a handful of Kleenex. “You’ll be okay,” Lina said.
“You’re better off without him,” Mads said.
“You’re too good for him,” Lina said. “You can do way better.”
“I know that,” Holly said. “But it still hurts.”
“You know what you need?” Mads said. “Nothing helps you forget a guy like another guy.”
“I don’t know,” Holly said. “I’m kind of sick of guys.”
“You’re just sick of Rob,” Mads said. “He represents all guys to you. But he’s just a lower form of guy. There are higher forms to be found.”
“Please,” Holly said. “What percentage of the total male population could be a higher life-form? It must be tiny, like two percent.”
“Maybe five percent,” Lina said.
“All right, if you want to be optimistic,” Holly said. “Five percent. So out of all the guys at RSAGE, there are maybe—maybe—twenty good ones. And at least two of them are taken—by you.” Lina and Mads were both enjoying happy times with their new boyfriends, Walker and Stephen. “What are the chances that I’m going to bond with one of the few higher life-forms left?”
“You could date outside of school,” Mads said. “That gives you much better chances.”
“But how will I meet a guy who doesn’t go to our school?” Holly asked. “And even if I meet someone, it takes time to figure out if I like him and he likes me and if he’s a decent person or if he’s got bodies buried in his backyard. …” She dropped her head on the kitchen counter and moaned. “I’m doomed. I’ll never have another boyfriend as long as I live! The odds are just too low!”
“That’s ridiculous,” Lina said. “It feels that way now, but you’ll find a new guy before you know it.”
Ex-Rating Page 13
