Suzie’s House 300 : Promises, Promises

Rey hated to douse on Tracy’s parade, but when he found her hanging by her fingers from a climbing rope in the gym, he felt he better do something about it. Not that he hadn’t found the entire day entertaining, but she looked so pale she might drop at any minute. She’d gone from naughty into dangerous.

“Get down from there right now.” He yelled as he crossed from the doorway to Bruce Benson’s side.

“Yeah. Go ahead and jump.” Bruce held his arms out like he thought he’d catch her from near the ceiling.

“And you.” Rey turned on the boy. “Go home.”

“Go home. Go home.” The kid mimicked with a sneer. “Is that the only thing you know how to say, Mr. Ungar?” He turned Rey’s name into derision. “You don’t care if it’s snowing on us or what. Just because we aren’t in the Jazz Band or anything, you just want us out of the building.”

Rey ignored him for the time being. “Tracy! Get down.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” She wrapped her legs around the rope and shimmied slowly down.

“First I see you hopping on one foot from one class to another while wearing that ridiculous hat.” It had been in impressive hat, with ostrich feathers, flowers, and a veil. It bounced and swayed with every hop.

“Then I heard you singing in the bathroom.” And what a voice! Not always in key, but full of enthusiasm and loud enough to make the windows rattle.

“Then you were hiding behind people in the hallway. I don’t even want to guess what that thing with the desks in the English room was about. What has gotten in to you today?”

“Bruce made me do it.”

Rey turned his attention to the boy, who now stood with his arms crossed, and amused look on his face. The overgrown kid glanced back, and shrugged.

“He has tickets to Passion Pit this weekend. He said I could have them if I did everything he said today.” She dropped down lightly to the floor, apparently no worse for the wear.

“That is bullying, Bruce. How many times have a warned you….”

“It’s not bullying. It’s making a deal. Right, Tracy?”

“Whatever. So the day is over and I did it all. Give me the tickets.” She put out her hand.

“Not so fast. You have to do one more thing.”

“Yeah, fine. But only one. What is it?”

“You have to kiss me. Right here.” Bruce tapped his lips with a finger.

“Bruce! What are you thinking,” Rey sputtered.

Tracy made a rude noise, and turned her back on him, already leaving.

“I take that is a no?” Bruce went after her.

Rey followed along a step or two behind.

“Look. I may put up with you for the sake of the band, but that doesn’t mean I have to like you. At all. You already know Gene and I are going out. Right? So now you’re just… What he said.” Tracy waved at Rey. “You’re bullying me. Deal’s off, and you better believe I’ll let everyone know what you did. Nobody will be making any deals with you again anytime soon.”

“Yeah. So what?”

Bruce and Tracy stopped in the hallway. Rey turned off the lights and closed the door to the gym. He pretended not to be listening, but found their conversation fascinating.

“So how can we trust you to set up any of these gigs you keep talking about? Or even come through on a place to practice?”

“That’s completely different!” Bruce went red in the face. “I brought the recording equipment like you wanted last time, didn’t I?”

“What? One little microphone you plugged into your synthesizer? Yet you can’t come through with a pair of tickets that I even agreed to pay for.”

Angry, Bruce pulled something out of his pocket. It was a stack of ticket. Rey suspected Bruce intended to scalp them. Bruce pealed off a couple and handed them to her. Then, swearing, he stomped out of the building, swearing every step of the way. Tracy stood there and watched.

“What’s so important about Passion Pit? Doing some research for your band?”

“Something like that.” She smiled at him.

“You kid’s are pretty serious about it, aren’t you. I thought by now you’d have broken up and forgotten about it.”

“Why? Because we’re kids? We may have our problems, but we’re not just goofing around, you know. You’ll see during the school talent show.” She headed for the exit.

Rey winced. He hoped they’d sound good for it. There was nothing worse than badly played Rock that you couldn’t get away from.

“Well. Good luck with that.”

Actually, with a bit of practice, they might be fairly good. If only there was something he could do to help.

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