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love
flying in the way that she herself did, Prissi knew that if her
roomie were grounded, the results would be so ugly that their
friendship, begun the first week of their lower mid year, would not
survive.
    Prissi took a tai breath to calm herself
down, but, it didn’t help much. She took another breath and held it
even longer. Prissi told herself that she needed to stop being so
judgmental, even though being judgmental was one of the
Constitutionally-guaranteed rights and privileges of teener girls.
She looked over at Nancy who was scowling and waiting for a
comeback. Prissi clamped her jaws and smiled.
    To get away from feeling meek and indecisive,
Prissi turned her attention from Nancy back to Jack. Even though
Jack Fflowers had no VCB, he was not without a certain darkside-ish
charm, and it was that which is what had gotten Prissi in her
current mess.
    In the classroom , but, especially, on the
playing field, Dutton and Bissell had been fierce, but friendly,
rivals for more than two hundred years. On the ice, up and down the
steep hills of cross country courses, on the links, in sculls, on
football, baseball and soccer fields, thousands upon thousands of
contests had been played out in hard fought and, often, close
competition. Each fall, the schools alternated hosting an
afternoon’s athletic contests, then a dinner, and, afterwards, a
dance.
    The previous year, it had been Bissell’ turn
to host the events. Prissi, the only lower mid on the varsity
soccer team, first met Jack Fflowers when he complimented her play
as she came off the field after an agonizing 3-2 Dutton loss. Later
in the afternoon on that perfect October day, Prissi watched Jack
play on the junior varsity soccer team in a game in which Jack had
gotten two penalties as his team lost to Dutton 5-4. Prissi and
Jack bumped into each other at the dinner and, again, at the dance.
Giving into the teener version of the fates, the two new
acquaintances talked a little and danced a lot before it was time
for the Dutton students to return to their campus.
    The next time Prissi saw Jack Fflowers was in
three months when he showed up at Dutton for January’s Winter
Dance. Again, there was more dancing than talk. At the end of the
night, there was something in the shadows outside Mullen Hall that
made Prissi’s lips tingle for what seemed like a week. Afterward,
they traded a half-dozen txts. By the time Bissell came to Dutton
the following fall, Prissi’s friendship with Jack’s cousin, Joe
Fflowers, had begun. Joe had been both surprised and unhappy when
Prissi told him that she knew Jack. Joe made it very obvious that
the two cousins did not get along. Against her better judgment, but
enjoying the frizz it gave her, Prissi got together with Jack after
their respective 3D FRZ-B contests. Both had given up soccer after
having fledged over the summer. They met by the pond and talked a
little before Prissi, to relieve the awkwardness she was feeling,
challenged Jack to a flying contest. When Prissi easily won that
contest, Jack stalked away angry. She saw him staring at her at the
dance while she was dancing with Joe. The boys’ faces made plain
their feelings, even though the band was too loud to hear what they
said to one another.
    When Prissi was back in home in Manhattan
over winter break, Jack had txtd her and apologized. A day later he
called and she had agreed to meet him at the Diddy Center to ice
skate. Since Prissi had grown up in Burundi, where the only ice
skates to be found might be in a colonial-era museum, Jack easily
outskated her before taking her to dinner at Nam’s, one of the most
expensive restaurants in Manhattan. Back at school, they had txtd
one another a couple of times a week, a practice Prissi had not
quite gotten around to sharing with Joe.
    Despite their intersections and interactions,
Prissi had been surprised when with only two days notice Jack had
invited her to the ceremonies for the dedication of his
grandfather’s gift to