"You gotta come in." Scott said putting his arms around her and bringing her in. He raced to his closet and grabbed a towel. He draped it around her. Not until a split second later, he realized it was a big fluffy towel, as in the dream. He went to the closet again and grabbed a towel for her hair. He balled it up and he started to pat her hair dry. "You must be freezing." He said quietly.
"Snows kinda cold." She chattered. "I'm a New Englander. We're supposed to be used to this, hah! Baloney." She said.
"Is there something you want?" Scott asked her.
"Want?" Lizzie asked.
"You came here for something didn't you?" He continued.
"Well..." She said pulling the towel closer to her. She felt so cold. She would have waited to talk to him tomorrow, but then she saw what Cheryl Holt had added to her website. She decided then she couldnt wait. She needed to talk to him now. She shivered a little.
"Hold that thought." He said quietly. "I'm going to get you something warm to drink. You are practically an icicle young lady." He half scolded her. He went out to the kitchen. He looked through the cupboards. He didnt have much there. He hadnt been able to go shopping much lately. Luckily, since he was a single man living alone, he really didnt need to get much when he did go shopping. "I have no coffee or tea, unfortunately." He said. "Would you like a cup of soap?"
"Soap?" Lizzie asked.
"Soup." He shook his head. "I mean soup. Chicken noodle soap wouldnt be that good." He held up the package.
"I dunno. It does sound interesting." She said. "I'd love some."
"All right." He said opening the package."It might be a few minutes." He said as he got a kettle on the stove. He emptied the contents into a school coffee mug. "Maybe we can talk while we wait for the water to warm up."
"Okay." Lizzie said. She shifted in her seat.
"Are you all right? Would you like a drier towel?" She said. No sooner than she stopped moving, Scott was at her side. She looked at him. Suddenly she could see him in a whole new light. It seemed like once you got him away from the school and the demands and rigors of the day that he turned into a different man. He was very attentive. Very gentle, she noticed. Not much at all like a man most students would rather hate than like. He whipped the towel off her and threw it in a small dryer in his bathroom. He grabbed another and wrapped it around her.
"I'm fine, really. I feel better already." She protested. "You don't need to do this."
"I do too, and you know it. I'd rather not have another teacher go sick in the middle of a teacher shortage." He said. "Now, what did you come for."
"This." She held up the wrist with the charm bracelet on it. "I know you sent it to me."
Scott was speechless. She was right though, he had sent it to her.
"I did." He said. "I found out about the party through Lauren. I then remembered that bracelet you lost so long ago. I had said you would get it again." He said.
"But how did you remember what it looked like after all this time?" She asked.
He looked at her. "I have an outstanding memory. I remember everything about you." He said to her. "The way you used to wear your hair in a french braid on game day. The music that you used to pick for your routines. What you smelled like after a shower in the ladies locker room. It was always a faint strawberry mix." He said.
The word "shower" struck a nerve in Lizzie. "Thats another thing. I know it was you that morning."
"Huh?" He asked. He had faded into a dreamlike stance.
"The morning I was in the new faculty shower. You accidentally stumbled upon me...you ran off." She said. "The footage that Cheryl Holt has up on her site."
He sighed. It was very embarressing that she knew, but he could feel an enormus weight coming off his chest the minute she said it. He felt even better once he was able to speak again. "I am so sorry for that." He said. "Hopefully no one else will find out, or it will be all over school."
Lizzie looked down.
"Whats wrong?" He asked.
"That may change by morning." Lizzie said. "It would be a good idea, I think, for you to check the web site right about now."
"Why?" He asked. "Is there something else there?"
"Yes, come and I'll show you." She said. She rose with him. She stumbled a bit because she stepped on the towel. Scott caught her before she fell back on the couch. She looked up at him. Their faces were about an inch apart.
A loud whistle went off in the room. Lizzie and Scott jumped apart. Scott blushed two shades of red. Lizzie smiled rather sheepishly.
"I better get that kettle." He said quickly going to the kitchen.
"I'll start your laptop....computer!" She said as quickly going to his dining room. She dropped the towel on the way in. It suddenly felt so hot to her. The chicken soup would no longer be needed. Her racing pulse and rising temperature was warming her up very quickly. She tried to focus as she started the computer. She waited a few seconds while it went through the usual motions. She found her eyes straying to the kitchen. Scott was busying himself pouring the hot water into the coffee cup with the instant soup powder mix. She started to think how close were they to kissing each other. If the kettle hadnt gone off, what would have happened?
A computer beep distracted her.
"Uh Scott I need a password here." She said looking at the screen.
"I'll be there in a minute." He said coming out of the kitchen. He had the chicken soup with him. "Okay." He said giving her the soup. He stood in back of her. "Close your eyes." He said.
"Why?" She asked.
"We may be friends, but even you can't see my password." He said. She sipped her soup then set it down. She closed her eyes. Scott reached over her left shoulder to type it in. Lizzie could hear the keys go clickey clack as he typed it in. She could feel his breath on her bare neck. Her skin felt tingly as as result. He rest his hand on her shoulder.
"Okay I'm done." He said. Lizzies eyes opened.
"All right. Here we go." Lizzie said as she opened up his internet browser. They bypassed his homepage and his email section and headed straight for Holts website. It quickly uploaded. The duo sat there as a picture uploaded.
"This is what I saw." Lizzie said. "Apparently whoever was able to focus in on the mirror and your face sent it to Cheryl." She said.
"My lord." Scott said taking his hand off her shoulder. She looked at him. "I know I said it before but I'm so sorry. I never meant to deliberately come in like that." He explained. She nodded. "I usually do a little walking tour of the school in the morning. I was just about finished when I heard the shower running. The only reason I went in is because Lauren left it on by accident the last time she used it in the morning. I thought this was the case and went in. I guess I knocked on the door harder than I thought I did cause it opened. I didnt know if you saw me or not. I thought your eyes were closed." He said. "I ran out and stopped in the hallway some distance away. When you walked by, I hid." He said. "I thought it would blow over, but since then I havent been able to look at you the same way."
"That day in the office when you tried to open the window." Lizzie said.
"Yes." He said.
"I don't know what to say." She said. "Had it be a man like Harry Senate or any other guy it might have been all over school by the end of the day."
"I thought no one else would know." Scott said. "Now I guess everyone who sees this does." He looked at it. "Theres something at the bottom of the picture."
"Yeah." Lizzie said. "Posted courtesy of DP2001." She read. "Whos that?"
"Theres only one person with the initials DP that I can think of." He said. "Dana Poole."
"Who?"
"Dana Poole." He repeated the name. "Harry, I believe, kissed her at one time."
"Ah." Lizzie said. "Havent had the pleasure yet." She said. "Of meeting Dana Poole I mean. But why would she work with Cheryl?"
"Ms Poole is going to college. She was in it for the money I believe." Scott said taking her hand off her shoulder. He grabbed another chair and sat in it.
"I can deal with her if you want." Lizzie said.
"Don't bother. Like I said she's graduating this year." He said. "Besides, if you dealt with every student that crossed you, you'd run out of mascot costumes to stick them in." He looked at the screen. "What is this link?"
"Beats me." She said clicking on it with her mouse. "Its seems to be new. I came over right after I saw the picture."
Up on the screen popped two articles from a school paper. It was dated the year that Lizzie attended. Senior year.
"This is that underground tabloid paper that went around while I went to school there. It was like a second
school paper." Lizzie said. "The official school paper
never had stories like this. This must have been like
the predecessor to Holts site." She pointed to the
stories. "I never saw these issues though."
"What do they say?" He asked as they both squinted.
"I think I do now." She sat back. "I remember it now. The girls on the team where always sniggering about it. These two issues dealt with whether or not we were having a secret affair the afternoons we talked after
school."
"But we weren't." He said.
"I know." She replied. "But based on all these things happening now people might think otherwise."
He nodded.
"There is something we can do about it, that doesnt involve school mascot costumes." She said.
"We can fight this Scott. Say the rumors and the thing at the site arent real. We can say that Cheryl manufactured it with Poole." Lizzie said. "But we have to be together on it. One unit." She sighed. "In order for that to happen, I have to know one thing."
"What?" He asked.
"I have to know if we can say theres nothing going on between us, and be able to say that with no doubt in your mind." She said. "Can you say that? That theres no feelings for me whatsoever?"
He got out of his seat. He stood next to the window. Lizzie stood behind him. "Well? Can you say it?"
He turned to her. "No, I don't think I can say it and have it be the truth." He said as he put his hands on her shoulders. She was still slightly damp. "I don't think I can say I never had them for you." He looked deep into her eyes. She looked back at him. He kissed her on the lips. It surprised her. He pulled back quickly before she was able to react."Do you think you say the same thing now?"
"No Scott. I don't think I can." She said. They moved close and kissed each other again. She pulled back. "At least I know we're on the same page now. But what do we do?"
"Come to school early tomorrow." He said. "We'll talk about what to do then." He said. "The cheerleading competition is in two days. Maybe if we're lucky and nothing happens, it will truly blow over and Cheryl will fixate her attention somewhere else."
"What about us?" She asked.
"I don't know." He said. "We'll cross the bridge when we get to it."
"I'll see you tomorrow." She said.
"Tomorrow." He said as he led her out. "Oh by the way, happy birthday."
"Thank you." She said. She closed the door. She went out onto the street. It had stopped snowing when she was in the apartment. She looked up while she walked to the bus stop. He watched her leave. She could see a faint hint of a smile on his lips. It was hard to see. She smiled back waved. A minute later the bus arrived, she got on and rode off into an uncertain tomorrow.
