Intrigue (11 page)
Rafe sounded confused, “You want to avoid him?”
“Flock, yeah! I don’t need that kind of embarrassment in my life! That boy is wayyyy out of my league. Pretty please—get his schedule for me.”
I could visualize Rafe’s mental headshake, “I will try, but Delian can be persistent when he wants something or someone. You definitely caught his attention. He’s not going to let you out of his web that easily.”
“
The supple willow does not contend against the storm, yet it survives,” I quoted Master Po from Kung Fu at him to test his mad karate skills.
Of course, he laughed devilishly and threw a Caine quote right back at me, “I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.”
“Whoa. You’ve got some mad Kung Fu skills. Thrace made me watch every single episode at least three times.”
Rafe scoffed, “You know you can’t really have a black belt in karate unless you’ve seen the whole Kung Fu series at least five times. I think your measly three times might be grounds for disbarment.”
“There is no such thing as black belt disbarment. Wait a minute, do you even know, Delian?”
Rafe laughed and commented, “You could say we’re close.”
“Please don’t tell me you have a bromance going. You are the one that told him that I am a heartbreaker!”
This time it was uproarious laughter I heard on the other end of the line. I just hung up. I got a text a minute later.
“Was it somethin I said?”
I just furiously typed back, “U r the 1 that told him that!”
“Rnt U a hartbreka?”
“NO I AM NOT!”
“Ya broke mine…Just thought he should b warned”
“I’m sorry”
“I know…..U always take the safe route, Calli….sometimes the other road is more fun.”
Chapter 9: Busted
Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. ~Faith Whittlesey
If you looked up
lame
in Wikipedia, it would have a full description of DAI’s Back to School Dance. However, it was Thrace’s senior year, and I could not convince him that we should ditch and head to the rave that night instead. The one good thing about the dance was that it was a Sadie Hawkins Dance. It was a tradition for the girl to come up with an elaborate way to ask her date. As of Wednesday night, I was still clueless about a creative way to ask Thrace. As I was venting to my dad about the problem, he came up with a devious plan and helped arrange it. I believed Thrace’s lack of fear of my dad was no longer gonna be an issue.
One of dad’s cop buddies busted Thrace for me after karate class. (And they say fireman and cops can never be buddies!) He cuffed him, read him his rights, and turned on his flashing lights—which was a nice touch. I got to play the confused girlfriend for the audience’s benefit, which was most of our karate class. Luckily, we got permission from his parents for this gag. I think his dad actually wanted us to film it for him. Officer Dan told him he was under arrest for drunk driving. They caught it on tape, and they only recently got the tape back from the crime lab with the license plate number. He took Thrace to the
old 8
th
Precinct Police Station
, which was abandoned but still had its cells. It looked like a cross between a gothic mansion and a church. Officer Dan also took the really, really long way to the station to make Thrace sweat a little more. He put Thrace in one of the cells and interrogated him for a few minutes on the ‘incident.’ I think Thrace finally got it was a joke when Officer Dan started to interrogate him on the 21 steps. What website it came from? What search terms did he use to find the 21 steps? He didn’t videotape it, but thank heavens I was spying because I have never laughed so hard in my life. Finally, Officer Dan said he had one phone call and suggested he call me. The transcript of the phone call is listed below:
Me: Hello?
Thrace: What the
FLOCK
did you do, Calli?
Me: I would rethink the yelling at your one phone call person, Thrace.
Thrace: I thought you forgave me for the whole pool party thing.
Me: I did. This has nothing to do with the pool party.
Thrace: Is it payback for the 21 Steps Thing?
Me: Wrong again.
Thrace:
(yelling again)
What, Calli, What!!?
Me: Thrace Oeagrus will you go to the Back to School Dance with me? And, keep in mind, only one answer will get you out of that cell.
Thrace: (
loud sigh)
Whose idea was it to have me arrested, Calli?
Me: It was my dad’s. He’s still pissed I won’t tell him what you did that warranted 100 Forgive Me Balloons.
My dad and I now walked into the room with the holding cell. Thrace saw us and just shook his head.
Me: Dad, Officer Dan, can you give me a few minutes alone with the prisoner?
Dad: Don’t cave honey. Stick to your guns.
Dad and Officer Dan headed outside. I walked up to the bars. I pulled a white rose from behind my back and gave it to Thrace through the bars. He looked at it puzzled as he took it in his cuffed hands.
Me: I still haven’t heard your answer. If you insist, we
could
stay here all night long.
Thrace: (
annoyed)
Fine….Fine….but we are going in Justin’s limo after this fiasco.
Me: Deal. You are going to look back on this and laugh. It will be classic.
Thrace: You notice I did not fold under interrogation. The 21 Steps are still a mystery.
Me: (
laughing)
Nice that you kept your mouth shut because my dad was right outside the door.
Thrace: (
gulping)
Calli, can we go before he convinces you to let me rot in here.
Me: The key to the cuffs is in the rose petals and the cell door doesn’t lock.
End of Transcript
Thrace unlocked his cuffs, opened the door, picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and hauled me out of ‘the precinct.’ Thrace’s car that I had driven there, dad’s car, and Officer Dan’s car were all sitting out back where we left them. Dad and Officer Dan laughed as they saw Thrace carrying me out the door. He smacked my butt, then set me down in front of the passenger door of the Mustang. Thrace stalked back to the driver’s side of the car looked at Dad and Officer Dan and said, “I take it I’m free to go, Officer?”
Dad and Officer Dan both laughed. Officer Dan said, “If you ever drink and drive, son, today is going be paradise in comparison to what you would face. You may take the Greek Princess home as long as you abide all traffic laws.”
Thrace looked relieved and said, “Done. Lethe, are we even now?”
Dad stared at Thrace in a thoughtful manner, “As always Thrace that depends on you. Don’t f*** up again.”
Thrace solemnly nodded, “Yes, sir.” He got in the car and was very careful not to peel out. Thrace finally asked, “I take it my parents knew?”
“Yeah, they are big believers in the punishment fitting the crime, especially since they are ungrounding you for the dance.”
We discussed the details of the very lame dance for the rest of the ride home. The one redeeming feature of the dance was that it was at
The Gem Theatre
. The Gem was built in 1903 by the Century Club, a group of remarkable women that wanted to make Detroit a better place by bringing more art and culture here. We still needed a little help in that area, since it was almost torn down for a baseball stadium. I was astounded they managed to move the whole building five blocks so they could build Comerica Park.
(It is in the World Records Books for heaviest building to be moved on wheels.)
I started to mock his friends for renting a Hummer limo for the dance even if it is at The Gem. Who does that? The answer occurred to me very quickly--A group of kids that wanted to pre-party, party, and after party with a guaranteed DD. Oh well, relationships were always about compromise--jail time vs. limo time.
When dad got home, he asked me a very unusual question. Officer Dan said the police department was getting a rash of parental complaints that their teenagers were staying out all night then coming home all beaten up with memory loss. Of course, the police didn’t really believe memory loss excuse. They believed they had a Fight Club in Detroit and wanted it stopped. In addition, there was a rash of missing teens in Detroit, and the Mayor wanted to put a task force together to address the issue. I told my dad that I hadn’t heard of a Fight Club, but I would ask around. I called Thrace that night and asked if he heard anything. He didn’t find my question odd or let me explain the details. He just went off on a boy tangent on the movie Fight Club and how cool it would be to have one in Detroit. Sometimes boys really were from another planet. I then called Rafe and asked him the same question. He immediately wanted to know the story behind the question. He was definitely interested in the topic but didn’t mention why.
I spent most of Friday doing two things. First, I had to explain my arresting Thrace as a dance invitation about 100 times to various classmates. I was now a legend at our school that inspired both fear and awe in most people but Siena.
As I walked by her at lunch I heard her snide remark, “Guess she has to arrest someone to actually get a date.”
I merely looked down at her with one eyebrow raised and my fists clenched. She shut up. If I was capable of having someone arrested that I love, what could I do to someone that I hated? My Ice Queen persona just grew and grew.
My second project on Friday other than schoolwork was doing research on my school’s facilities and finances. This was where the crappy school dance came in handy. I found out how much it costs to rent an incredible venue at least four times a year versus restoring our own Grande Ballroom. Now, all I needed to do was finish my historical research and create the PowerPoint for my meetings next week. Rafe and I were finalizing the presentation with Sadie’s help on Saturday. I think I was more excited about the Seymore Saves the World concert tonight than the dance.
Thrace picked me up for the concert at nine. I was wearing my “I’m with Stupid” gift shirt, but it would be the first and last time I wore it. The concert was kinda in a deserted area of town, but I tended to enjoy getting off the beaten path whereas Thrace just got jumpy. The concert was definitely fantabulous and was worth the pool party fiasco. However, some very odd things happened that were non-concert related. Odd Thing Number 1: Saw a petite and pixie like girl lift up and throw some drunk dude that was hitting on her into a storage room door several feet away. Weird, right? Odd Thing Number 2: This incredibly hottie looking dude was talking to this very nervous girl when she dropped her beer and in flash he caught it before it dropped 6 inches. Odd Thing Number 3: We had just pulled out of the parking lot and were going at least 25 mph when some running guy passed us. Seymore Saves the World must have an extraordinary following. I noticed odd things like that when I went to raves too, but
everything
is sorta distorted at raves.
Saturday before the dance Rafe and I worked hard to finish up the PowerPoint for all the groups we were presenting to next week. Delian came in while we were working, and I froze like a deer caught in headlights. Rafe told him what we were working on while I tried to remain calm.
Delian then turned his attention to me and commented, “Well, with Calli presenting I am sure it will be very persuasive.”
My eyes got big with his allusion to my nonexistent charm. I answered to his feet because I could not be caught in his mesmerizing gaze in front of Rafe, “It’s called research, not persuasion.”
Delian laughed as I saved our work and pulled my flash drive out of the computer. By the time he was done laughing, I was up and heading out the door as I explained, “Look at the time. I gotta run. See you tonight, Rafe. Always a pleasure Delian.” I still had no idea about my reaction to Delian, but today there was no time to dwell because I had to head home to get ready for the dance.
The pre-party was at Justin’s house. His parents were rather lax on their supervision skills. As I parked in Justin’s drive, Thrace gave me a box with a wrist corsage in it--unbelievably dorky, yet sweet. As I pulled out the rose, I saw underneath it was a piece of paper that said Step 3: Kissing on the Forehead. I laughed, leered at him, said “Nicccccceee” and kissed him on the forehead. As we entered the party hand-in-hand, several of my classmates were already drunk. Jazz and Key were already there with the basketball boys. Unfortunately soon after we arrived, Justin headed our way with a beer for Thrace and a “wazzzzup” for me.
Thrace looked at me and begged, “Please?”
When I shook my head, Thrace drank defiantly as he announced, “I bypassed probation and went straight to jail, so I think you owe me at least one drink.”
I commented, “I suppose even
my dad
would allow you one drink for that stunt.”
Mention of my dad immediately slowed Thrace’s progress down on the beer, and I didn’t
see
him drink the rest of the pre-party. However, the majority of my classmates actually sped up their drinking because they could only bring their flasks not their beer into the limo. Tiffany actually threw up before we even left. Justin, her date, warned her that she better not puke in the limo. My amusement for the night was going to be watching Rafe fend off Siena. Right now, she just had him in verbal handcuffs, and he was looking for a rescue. However, the more she drank the more he would have to fend off her other advances.
