II-6

Changes in the Early Summer

The first event of the summer, actually late spring, was the prom. Betty and Sara looked lovely in their dresses. Both showed off the girls figures far more than their fathers liked, but the mothers assured the fathers they were right for the time they were living in. Betty’s dress was a light blue while Sara’s was a dark red. Especially, in Sara’s case the color was surprising because it certainly caught everyone’s eye and Sara had been trying to stay in the background.

Okay, Karen wasn’t really Betty’s mother, but she took the role of convincing Ben that the dress was proper for his daughter. Ben stared at Betty and was sure he was seeing more and more of Julie Betty’s birth mother in her appearance. He frowned a little and then smiled as he remembered he was seeing none of Julie’s personality in Betty. Ben thought Julie’s looks were knock out quality, but her personality was similar to a greedy viper.

The prom festivities started with the obligatory pictures at the parents’. First it was Jim’s backyard, then to Rob’s parents who opted for the photos in the living room. Ben had made it easy saying they could double up with the pictures taken in Sue and Sid’s backyard. They were fortunate it was a mild late April day. Ben and Sid chatted about how it seemed proms were getting earlier and earlier and were so different from when they went to school. The pictures were taken without incident, and the kids were off to the prom while the parents opened a bottle of wine – actually the ladies open the wine, and the dads uncapped a couple of beers.

The prom itself wasn’t much. It was held in the multipurpose room at the school. The decorating committee tried very hard to make it look special, but it was still the multipurpose room they had been in many, many times through their four years. There were snacks and punch, but again nothing really special.

What was supposed to, and did, make the evening special was the dinner cruise and entertainment on Lake Michigan. It started with getting downtown on luxury motor coaches – not the school buses they had grown to detest going back and forth from schools. These were soft and comfy. There were even drinks and snacks.

Shortly after they got on the bus, Sara called Betty aside and asked, “Did you see that guy that was staring at us as we got on the bus?”

Betty looked quizzical and responded, “No, where was he?”

“He was standing by the cars, wearing a West letter jacket, and staring at us like he despised us all. I wonder if he’s one of their swim team who got in trouble because of that party.”

Betty paused for a second and then shook her head, “I don’t think so. What would someone like that be doing here? It’s most likely some guy whose girl is going to prom with someone from East. That sounds more logical to me.”

Sara didn’t look convinced, but said, “I guess. Let’s get some root beer.”

~ ~ ~

While the trip downtown was super nice in the motor coaches, the time on the boat was spectacular. There was a lovely dinner on the upper deck and then there was a small band playing on the lower deck. Betty, Sara, Jim and Rob had finished their dinners and spent some time just looking at the lights of the city from the lake.

They were heading down for dancing when there was a small incident. Betty was leading the group down the stairs when she saw a classmate who was about two-thirds the way down the stairs stumble. The girl’s date tried to catch her, but it was too late and it looked like she was going to take a nasty spill. Betty muttered something no one could hear and, while the girl did sprawl on the floor, she was completely unhurt and popped up immediately.  

Once they were down the stairs, Sara grabbed Betty’s arm and said, “Let’s go to the washroom.”

They made their way to the restroom but as soon as they were out of earshot of the guys, Sara asked, “Did you do that?”

Betty smiled and nodded. “I think so. Fortunately, I remembered ‘Arresto Momentum.’ If I had to convince ‘it’ that I really meant to slow her down, she’d been splattered all over the place. We’ve still got practicing to do.”

Sara smiled and clapped her hands together. “I knew it was you.” She paused and then got a quizzical look on her face. “I wonder? What would happen if you came up with your own spell names? Could we convince ‘it’ when you said a phrase before something, you really mean it.”

Betty thought for a second and then smiled. “That’s why you’re the valedictorian! That’s a great idea! But we’d better get back to the guys.”

The rest of the evening/night was great, and it was about 3 AM when the motor coaches pulled back into East’s parking lot. But that’s when things turned sour. Rob had brought Sara in his car as Jim had brought Betty. They got to Rob’s car first and found all four of his tires flat. They quickly developed a plan. Jim would drive the girls home along with Rob and then they’d return to deal with the car. They headed towards Jim’s car. Betty lagged a little behind and turned back to look at Rob’s car. She then mouthed “Repairo” and saw the car raise a couple of inches. She was sure they guys would have questions when they got back but it’s something they’d have to deal with. But, dealing with the question of “how” was easier than dealing with four flats.

~ ~ ~

The time between prom and graduation was interesting. Actually, Sara said it was a waste. The grades had already been determined, and the teachers were stuck with trying to come up with things to consume class time. Betty thought some of the teachers came up with interesting discussion topics. Others, she admitted, came up with rather lame videos to watch. Sara didn’t feel anybody was learning anything. The personality leading her to being valedictorian didn’t think this was what school was for. Even though she didn’t think it was what school was for, she did enjoy the lack of homework so she could work on her speech. As was typical of Sara, she wasn’t about to settle for just any speech. It was going to be the best valedictorian speech the East teachers have ever heard.

The lack of homework also gave Betty and Sara more time to practice magic. They decided to see if Sara’s idea of a keyword to trigger “it” would work. Of course, before they could figure out if it worked, they needed to decide what it should be. Sara was concerned that it had to be a word that wouldn’t normally be used thereby confusing “it.” Betty was concerned it had to be something easy to remember and short. She realized at times it was important to get the spell out fast; like when the girl tripped on the steps at the prom. If she hesitated trying to remember what to say, or tried to get out a long phrase the girl would have splatted on the floor – or was that called a deck?

The first afternoon the girls worked on it they didn’t get very far. A big part of the problem was they were rehashing everything that went on at the prom. Sara was especially interested in how Rob’s car ended up with four flats that repaired themselves. Of course, Betty was able to clue Sara in on how the tires were repaired and Sara told her that she had thought something like that had been the case. They were stuck on how they got flat in the first place. Sara was convinced it was the guy in the West jacket, but Betty thought she was getting paranoid about the guys from West.

Their conversation switched to Judy and Kevin who broke up at the prom. Sara and Betty agreed the breakup was inevitable. They were headed to different coasts in the fall – Judy was headed to University of South Carolina and Kevin to Washington State University. But the girls decided the real problem was they weren’t right for each other. They felt Judy was a beautiful, down-to-earth girl and the only thing she had in common with Kevin was she was beautiful. He got to show how wonderful he was by having such a good-looking date. Kevin took Judy to nice places, but it always seemed they were there so that Kevin could be seen.

Recently Ted, one of Rog’s friends and a classmate of Judy’s, helped Judy with some physics homework. That led to walks in Busse Woods where Ted listened to Judy’s plans and concerns. Something Kevin never did. The process led Judy to realize she wasn’t just a bauble to be shown off. Thus, when Kevin started acting that way at the prom it was over.

With Ted staying in Illinois and Judy heading to the southeast in a couple of months, Betty and Sara thought the relationship would not last, but they had gone out a couple of times after the prom.

That discussion did take up one afternoon when Sara and Betty were planning to work on getting “it” to work when Betty wanted it to. They promised themselves they’d be more disciplined next time.

The next afternoon Sara and Betty were again in Betty’s bedroom. Sara was sitting at the desk, and Betty was stretched across the bed. Sara pulled out a sheet paper and said, “History class was really lame today. She was showing us her pictures of Rome again. I decided to jot down some possibilities for telling “it” you’re serious. Want to hear what I came up with?”

 Betty gave her a withering look, “Duh, of course I want to hear!”

“I won’t bore you with my early ones. I went through a bunch of stuff when I realized we needed to name it something. By saying its name, you then could follow it with anything you wanted. Then the problem came. It has to be a name ‘it’ wants or at least will accept. I thought maybe Potter, to honor where all this came from, but the more I thought about it, what’s more logical than calling it ‘wand’, since we’re using it in place of the wand and it isn’t a word you’d typically use. What do you think?”

Betty looked pensive, then nodded her head and said, “I like it, but the proof is whether ‘it’ likes it.” She paused and looked around the room, then said. “Wand, bring me the blue sweater on the dresser.”

There wasn’t even a momentary pause as the sweater came flying to Betty. The girls high fived, hugged, and danced around the room. Then Betty stopped and got a questioning look on her face. She went to the other side of the room and stopped. All of sudden the sweater flew from where Betty had dropped it and landed on Sara’s head.

With that Betty started jumping up and down. “I don’t even have to say it out loud. All I have to do is think ‘wand’ and then what I want it to do. Can it get any better?”   

~ ~ ~

It was two days later. Sara was waiting for Betty at her little red Hyundai and scanning the parking lot. She was looking the other way when Betty came up behind her. “What are you looking for? Is Rob meeting us?”

Sara shook her head. “I thought I saw that guy from West again, but I can’t see him now.”

Betty shook her head. “I think you’re getting paranoid. Where are we going this afternoon, my house or yours?”

Sara got into the car. “Do you have any ice cream at your place?”

Betty started the car, and said, “Something really must be bugging you! Sure, we have ice cream. I won’t even bug you about what’s you until we get a dish in front of you.”

~ ~ ~

Betty put a large dish of chocolate ice cream in front of Betty, and said, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t be so flippant about the guy from West. Perhaps we can figure out how to use the wand to find out who he is.”

Sara shook her head, “No that’s not what’s bugging me. Like you said I’m most likely being paranoid. What’s bugging me is my valedictorian address.”

Betty went wide-eyed. “What! I thought you said you had finished that a couple of days ago?”

Sara nodded. “I did but I was bored in Mrs. Fisher’s class today and I got to wondering what would happen if I asked A I to edit it. I asked Copilot to do it and what came out is so much better than what I wrote. Now, I don’t know what to do. Do I use what I wrote knowing it’s not as good or what Copilot did?”

Betty frowned and shook her head. “I see your dilemma. When I get stuck on something like this, I usually go down to talk to Mrs. Lindquist.” Betty paused, then got a smile on her face and said, “You should use what Copilot did if you like it.”

Sara had a puzzled look on her face. “What’s your logic?”

Betty started digging out ice cream for herself. “First and most importantly after Copilot got done with it wasn’t it still pretty much what you had written.”

“I suppose so, but the changes it suggested made it so much tighter and I think understandable. I’m not sure I’d use all the changes it suggested but most of them really work.”

“You’re making my point. I remember a story Grandpa told me about an article he wrote for a trade magazine. The magazine had asked him to write a piece on some darn thing or other. He wasn’t sold on the idea, but the magazine promised to help. Grandpa wrote the piece and sent it to the magazine. He told me it came back all marked up but with the instructions to consider the suggested changes. According to him, he accepted almost all of them and sent it back to the editor with a note saying next time he’d just give the idea to the editor to write. The article was published with Grandpa as the author and a nice note from the editor saying his just giving the idea to him wouldn’t have worked. The editor said editors edit and writers write and if editors write they need an editor to edit anyway.”

Sara put her spoon down and looked at Betty. “What does that have to do with A I improving my piece?”

Betty shook her head. “For a valedictorian you sure are dense.” With that Sara threw a napkin at her, but Betty ducked and continued. “Editing doesn’t change who wrote it. If you asked me to read it and I suggested something, would you feel it wasn’t your piece? Did you show it to your mom? Did she suggest anything? Copilot was your editor but it’s still your speech even if you use suggestions from others – A I or real people.”

Sara put a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and thought for a while. Finally, she nodded and said, “You know you’re a pretty smart witch!”