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Author's Chapter Notes:


So I have to be honest, I don’t remember doing the Snowball dance- not sure if it's a new thing but I like the idea of it so it's part of this story.

I do remember playing lots of games which they still do today. and through my kids I've relived the experience at a one of these parties.

 

Jim pulled up at the light on Vine Street. Turning to gaze once more at the bubbly smile that had washed over his fiancée’s face, he broke into a wide smile of his own as a vat of memories bubbled up and came floating to the surface.

 

“I think you may be right.”

 

 

---

 

Adam Baum was an ass.

 

Jim knew him from his travel baseball team. They’d been teammates going on four years now and for four years Jim disliked him. He may have been a good ballplayer but he sucked at having a personality. He was extremely bossy, overbearing and high on himself yet he was a kiss-ass to the coaches. He was always the first to do the point as he rounded the bases after he hit a screamer over the fence but was the last off the bench to join the pile-up on a fellow player who accomplished the same feat. In the entire time Jim had played with him, he couldn’t recall him ever having a word of praise or encouragement for Jim or any of his teammates for that matter.

 

He thought the team would fall apart without him even though they’d played some of their best games the week he took off to prepare for his own Bar Mitzvah. Jim was glad he was only on his baseball team; he couldn’t imagine if he went to school with him, or worse than that, sat near him in any classes. He was probably a huge suck-up to his teachers too.

 

Jim groaned to himself as he saw Adam’s signature swagger making its way over to where stood with his new friend.

 

“Nice shirt, Halpert. Could it be any baggier?”

 

Despite the fact that Jim wasn’t all that interested in the blonde that hijacked his basketball game—she was a little too flashy and pushy for his taste—it still was a dick move to interrupt. Having two older brothers, Jim’s wardrobe consisted mostly of hand-me downs which meant his clothes were never quite tailored to fit. Still Adam was a douche for pointing it out in front of her.

 

“Nice face, Baum. Could it be any uglier?”

 

The two of them laughed it off, doing a cross between a hand slap and a handshake, dapping each other up even while Jim was steaming inside. He knew Adam was trying to make him look foolish in front of the girl, who he obviously knew from school as he acknowledged her by name, Marcy, after their little dig fest finished. She seemed to want little to do with him either, quickly directing her focus back to the growing crowd that slowly joined them. As more of Jim’s school friends and teammates made their way over following an epic battle on the air hockey table, Marcy, likewise waved over the girls from the other side of the room. 

 

Adam, noticing the basketball game was suddenly without a line, set down his drink on the table and headed over to the game to have the next turn. Jim noticing his opportunity set off in the opposite direction, returning with a shaker of salt which he half-emptied into Adam’s drink surreptitiously, or at least that’s what he thought. He realized he was caught when the cute girl standing at the edge of the circle began laughing. Now she, the giggling cutie with the warm eyes and shy smile, she was more his type especially after she silently promised she’d never tell what she knew. He wanted to approach her to say hello and introduce himself but just before he could, Adam returned to take a sip of his salt-spiked cocktail and threw an angry fit, which induced a laughing fit in both Jim and his new partner-in-crime and they both had to walk away from the scene before being caught. But even as he moved to the opposite end of where she was, he kept his eyes on her, mesmerized by her infectious smile and playful spirit.

Once the coast was clear, but before he could catch up with her again, they were called into the ballroom where Jim preoccupied himself with finding the dance motivator who was handing out the socks. Upon finding her he grabbed his pair and joined his friends as the dancing got going. A remix of KLF’s 3 a.M. Eternal brought the girls racing to the dance floor followed by Madonna’s Vogue, where teens and adults alike strutted around, posing and framing their faces with their hands, Jim with his hands adorned by the same socks the girls wore on their feet.

Soon it was time to cheer on the guest of honor and her family as the party emcee and his dancers escorted them in, leading right into the hora dance. Jim’s invitation to exit left and grab another soda. A quick gulp later he returned to the dance floor just in time to watch as the mother of the Bat Mitzvah was hoisted into the air and nearly dropped before catapulting her shoe halfway across the room taking down three helium balloons and a huge centerpiece topped with a glittery volleyball that now rolled across the dance floor.  Again, Jim, this time along with all the other teens who witnessed the comedy of errors, burst into uproarious laughter.

Despite the slapstick calamity, the party continued on with all the customary rituals. The blessing over the bread, made by her grandfather, followed by the eternally long candle-lighting ceremony where a corny poem preceded each invitation to help the Bat Mitzvah girl light a candle and was followed by a photo taken by the hired photographer. It was at the eighth candle, when he saw her again, called up as a member of the volleyball team along with Marcy, the girl he’d met earlier. Again, she seemed to hang back, hovering at the fringe of the group with a long-haired brunette trying to pull her closer so she appeared in the group photo. The ninth candle was for all the friends so the rest of the kids, males and females gathered around Robyn and were instructed to remain up there while the photographer climbed a chair in order to achieve a vantage point in which to frame the photo with all the teenaged attendees.

 

If he was correct the next event on the timeline would be the Snowball dance, aptly named for the way the crowd on the dance floor builds upon itself, becoming larger as each dancer is tasked with choosing a new partner at the call of “snowball” by the emcee. It began with the guest of honor and the partner of their choosing, or in most cases, one pre-chosen for them by their friends. After about a minute, 2 became 4 when each dancer ventured out to the crowd to bring back a new partner, another minute or so later 4 became 8, then 8 expanded to 16 and on it continued until the dance floor was filled with paired-up, slow-dancing teens.

 

Sure enough, after a chorus of Happy Birthday at the end of the candle lighting ceremony, the Bangles, Eternal Flame came over the speakers and the Snowball was announced. Robyn took the floor with Ryan McCarthy, the one friend of Jim’s who had already started to shoot up in height and broaden in the shoulders. Jim sat waiting with a group of his other buddies on the periphery of the dance floor, as the number of dancers grew.

 

Not usually one to be chosen early on, Jim was caught off-guard when Marcy, the peppy blonde he’d met earlier tapped him on the shoulder and invited him out to dance. Jim had never before been asked before the fifth round and felt a surge of pride and gratification as he accompanied her back into the burgeoning crowd of dancers.

 

Maybe he could see himself liking her, she certainly was pretty and seemed into him. Plus, she laughed as he batted his eyes and over-animatedly mouthed the words and, Is this burning an Eternal Flame?  His sister never did when he made the same flamboyant gestures any time the song came on the radio on their trip home from school. Of course, Larissa knew he was making fun of the way she and her friends would act out the song into hairbrushes at sleepovers hosted at the Halpert house. Marcy just thought he was being funny.

They rocked back and forth to the music while holding each other’s waists, Jim not quite sure what to say to her next and Marcy not offering up any conversation either. It was just about to get awkward when,

“Snowball.”

They broke apart, their mission now to seek out a new dance partner from the crowd still waiting around the dance floor. Jim scanned the crowd looking for a friend to ask from school when he spotted her again, the girl from the great salt caper. She was looking down at her feet, twisting her fingers, swaying ever so slightly to the song. Jim figured why not, she was pretty, she like Marcy, had also been a good audience for his comedic capers and he was feeling pretty confident from his status as a third-rounder in the Snowball. When she looked up, she had that same shy smile on her face and that was all he needed to make up his mind and he sauntered over to her, making dance moves more appropriate for Ice Ice Baby than the ballad being played in the hope she would find him funny again. He never needed to even say a word, when he reached her he held out his hand. She replied with a giggle, took his hand and followed him back to the dance floor.


 

Chapter End Notes:

So, here’s a little image I found on the Internet to help you picture the scene.

 

Happy to hear your thoughts and if I've done justice to the inner thoughts of a 13-year-old boy.


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