***
Cabe pulled her convertible into her parents' garage. It was proving to be a real challenge to keep Keith from noticing that she was back until they met at San Pueblo University.
Cabe was a quivering ball of nerves on the first day. Her first class was English Composition, not an art course. Cabe was frustrated with that, because English bored her to tears, but she had no choice.
Cabe flopped into a seat and watched her classmates enter, most of them as nervous as she was. Then, Cabe gasped. Keith walked in, doing an excellent job of hiding his nervousness. His hair was unchanged, and his pukas still lay in his collar. But his face looked sadder than she remembered.
"Keith!" Cabe cried. "Keith, I missed you so!"
Keith turned toward her, his face lighting up like a Christmas tree. He slid into the seat next to her, that familiar dimpled grin creeping across his face.
"Oh, Cabe, can it really be you?"
"Yes, Keith. I've made my decision. I couldn't face a year at Penn State without you. I was miserable the whole time since I left San Pueblo."
"Why didn't you tell me that you decided to come back?"
"I figured that we would meet here eventually, and it would be a pleasant surprise for you. I didn't think that we would have our first class together, though." Cabe said.
"Well, this is a nice way to start off my first day," Keith said. "Can you come over for dinner tonight?"
"What time?"
"I should be home by three. But my family will be glad to see you anytime."
"I'll be glad to see them too. How is Danny?"
"Discovering girls. The last few that he's brought home have only wanted to meet me, though. Danny is crushed every time it happens."
Cabe restrained a wicked snicker. "How does it feel to be America's newest heartthrob?"
Keith smiled a little. "I was offered a recording contract to go solo. They wanted to take me on a world tour--without my family. The worst part was the stage costume that they came up with for me. It was spandex pants and this horrid poet shirt thing open to my navel." Keith blushed fiercely. "I said I wouldn't leave my family for any amount of money. Besides, I would have felt like some sort of gigolo dressed like that."
"Do you own any spandex?" Cabe asked.
"I do have a spandex jumpsuit that I pose in for the teen magazines sometimes. It's more of a rock star look, and it's been on a couple of posters."
The professor chose that moment to walk in and interrupt their conversation. Keith and Cabe spent the next hour and a half focused on the endless list of requirements for their papers that the professor set forth.
After English Composition, though, Keith and Cabe had to split up. After lunch, Cabe was heading to Art History, and Keith to Psychology. Cabe had wanted to go for lunch with Keith, but it was not to be. Keith had promised a few of his friends that they would eat lunch together on their first day--no girls allowed.
Cabe ended up sitting alone at a table at the opposite end of the cafeteria from Keith. She munched despondently at her salad, the wilted lettuce and hard tomatoes making her glad that she was living at home and would have dinner there. A few other girls sat down at the table, all looking as out of place as Cabe felt.
"Hey there, pretty flower," a rough male voice said, and a meaty hand clapped Cabe's shoulder. Cabe turned around to find an absolutely huge boy standing behind her. He was obviously an upperclassman and also obviously a football playing jock of the sort who put Cabe's teeth on edge. He would have been good-looking, if Cabe's taste had run to square-jawed quarterbacks. When Cabe mentally compared him with Keith's delicate good looks, this newcomer just didn't measure up.
"Hello," Cabe said softly, and she returned her gaze to her salad.
"What's a pretty little thing doing in a place like this?" he asked, his tone jesting. "A girl like you, Pretty Flower, should be at one of those fancy girls' schools."
"Thanks, I guess," Cabe muttered. His crude speeches and thinly-veiled leer made her feel filthy, but she didn't want to offend this giant who was three times her size.
"I'm Braden. Wanna go out for tacos tonight with me?"
"No thanks. I'm visiting a friend tonight." A shudder ran through Cabe at the thought of going on a date with this crude beast of a football player. She didn't even want to contemplate the possibilities.
"Some other time, then." Braden said, with an open leer at her breasts.
Cabe felt sick. She wanted to cuddle up to her sweet Keith. Somehow, she had sensed that it would be unwise to tell Braden that she was already going out on a date with her boyfriend. She could barely wait for the end of her art history class so that she could get to Keith's house and all the sweet memories that it held for her.
At two, Cabe's last class of the day was over. She wanted to go home and relax until it was time to join Keith at his house and forget all about Braden.
As she got into her convertible, she heard the voice that she had so quickly learned to despise at lunch. Braden was behind her. Cabe tensed unwittingly.
"Nice car that you've got there, Pretty Flower."
Cabe turned to look behind her, and Braden was indeed there. As soon as she caught sight of him, he winked at her and crooked his finger in the universal come hither gesture. Cabe backed away.
"Can I have a ride?" Braden asked, the glint in his eye clarifying the agenda lurking in the recesses of his filthy mind. It was an agenda that Cabe didn't like one bit.
"No," Cabe said, getting into the driver's seat.
"C'mon, Flower, whatcha mean, no?"
"My boyfriend wouldn't like it." The moment the angry words escaped from her mouth, Cabe regretted them. She was sure that Braden would have no qualms about beating up Keith, and Braden seemed very determined to conquer her.
"Oh, ho, so the Flower has a boyfriend! What's his name?"
"None of your business," Cabe snapped as she gunned the engine and tore out of the parking lot.
Cabe pulled her car into the Partridges' driveway. Laurie and the others would still be in school, and the bus blocked the view of her car from the house. She walked up to the front door and rang the bell.
Shirley pulled open the door. Her face showed her surprise at having Cabe turn up on her front doorstep.
"Cabe!" Shirley exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing here?"
"I've come back to San Pueblo, Mrs. Partridge. I wanted to be with Keith. I couldn't face a year at Penn State without him for company. We really do love each other, I've discovered."
"Come in," Shirley said. "Keith will be thrilled to see you when he gets home. Laurie will be thrilled that you're back too, but not quite in the same way, of course."
Cabe smiled. "Actually, I already saw Keith today. He's in my English Composition class."
"How can Keith be..." Shirley looked confused for a moment as her voice trailed off. Then she put the pieces together and smiled. "You're going to San Pueblo University, aren't you?"
Cabe nodded. "You should have seen the look on your son's face when he found me waiting for him in his English Composition classroom."
"Well, at least now my firstborn should be more pleasant to be around. He moped all winter," Shirley said. "He couldn't get over you, Cabe."
At that moment the door banged open and the four younger Partridges walked in, accompanined by Punky. Punky was obviously in search of cookies to mooch--he made a beeline for the kitchen. Laurie, Danny, Chris and Tracy passed on the cookies in favor of mobbing Cabe.
"Cabe! You're back!" Laurie exclaimed, embracing Cabe.
"Maybe Keith will finally cheer up and be tolerable to live with again now," Danny said.
"Keith is a big star now," Tracy told Cabe innocently. "There were magazine people here with lots of cameras to take pictures of him, and they asked a lot of questions. Mom got mad at them."
Cabe gave Shirley a questioning look.
"Keith didn't want to take off his shirt," Shirley explained, tears welling in her eyes. "They wanted some beefcake poses, and Keith said no. One of them tried to tear his shirt off. I made them leave."
"Oh!" Cabe cried out, almost unable to believe Shirley's story. "He never told me about anything like that happening to him." Cabe felt a pang as she thought of her handsome boyfriend held down and stripped against his will.
At that moment, Keith walked in. After Braden's coarse face hounding her all day, Keith's delicate good looks were a relief to Cabe's eyes.