Ladies Choice
PART 5
“So, Bess, dear,” her
mother, Amy, began. “Have you asked Dan
to the dance yet?”
Bess and her parents, Amy
and Laurie, were sitting in the parlor at Plumfield drinking their tea. It was Thursday and the others had went to
the creek for an after school swim, but since the Laurence’s stopped by, Bess
stayed behind.
“Uh, no. I haven’t gotten around to it yet,” she
answered uncomfortably.
“Why on earth not?” Amy
asked surprised.
“Well…”
“Doesn’t Dan want to go to
the dance with you, Bess?” her father asked.
“Yes, he does. At least he’s been hinting a lot,” she
grinned.
“Hinting?”
“Yeah, he’s always
mentioning the dance then looking at me really weird like I’m suppose to say
something.”
“That would be hinting.”
“Then why haven’t you asked
him, Bess?” Amy asked her daughter.
“I want to make him suffer a
little,” Bess giggled.
“Suffer? You mean you’re going to wait until the last
minute?” Laurie guessed.
“Not the last minute. I’ll ask him soon.”
“What if somebody else asks him
before you do, and he says yes?”
“Nobody will ask him,
Father. Dan’s been too stuck on me for
years for any of the other girls to notice him.”
“If you’re sure,” Laurie
looked hesitant.
“Positive. I’ll ask Dan soon. I just want to make sure he’s willing to go to the dance with me
and only me.”
“Bess is never going to ask
me,” Dan was frustrated.
Dan and Nat were down the
creek a little way doing some fishing.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Nat told him.
“Nan asked you?”
“Nope,” he looked over at
his friend. They both started laughing.
“Maybe we’re trying to hard
to get them to ask us,” Dan said quietly.
“Maybe. Maybe we should just quit hinting; and if
they don’t ask us, they don’t ask us.
We stay home Saturday night.”
“Yeah. Hey, Saturday night wouldn’t be so bad at
home. You and I could find something to
do together,” Dan put his arm around his friend.
“Yeah, we could. Who needs girls anyway?” Nat agreed with a
smile.
“Not us.”
It was Friday and the kids
were finishing up their last class for the week. Nan leaned across the aisle between her desk and Nat’s and passed
Nat a note while Jo had her back turned toward the chalkboard.
“Nan?” Jo turned toward the
children. “You know better than to pass
notes. You know the rule. You pass
notes; I read them aloud to the class.”
Jo walked over to Nat as Nan
hid her face in her hands. Oh, no,
she thought. Not to the whole
class! Why to teachers have to have
eyes in the back of their heads?
Nat looked as uncomfortable
as Nan, because he wasn’t sure what Nan had wrote to him. He looked up at Jo.
“Hand me the note, Nat,” she
said quietly. He hesitated, looked over
at Nan who looked totally embarrassed, and handed over the note.
Jo opened it up and read
it. “Will you go to the dance with
me?” Jo looked at Nan, who still had
her face covered by her hands.
The children laughed at the
note, Dan groaned at losing the bet, but Nat just smiled.
After a pause, Jo
continued. “So Nat, are you going to
answer her?” She grinned, a twinkle in her eyes.
Nat took a small piece of
paper, wrote his answer on it, and laid it on Nan’s desk. Jo just rolled her eyes at the thought of
another note being passed, but she didn’t take this note.
Nan looked down at the note
and over to Nat. She picked up the
paper and read one little word.
“Yes.” She began smiling.
“I’ll take that smile to
mean yes,” Jo said. Nat and Nan both
blushed, as the children continued laughing.
Dan had slouched way down in his chair.
“I have a feeling there’s too much romance in the air to finish school
today, so I’ll let you go early. Class
is dismissed.”
