MANIC MAY... and it was (Part 44d)

I called Elle as soon as I got into the house. She told me that I was crazy and that I had to take the exam. I hung up the phone telling her to be ready to go at around 3pm on Tuesday. I was really excited. I did some honest studying (cramming) over the rest of the weekend and after my Monday exam. I left the Tuesday exam feeling confident that I had earned my ”hook“ (a C). I left to pick Elle up immediately and was at the sorority in mid afternoon. In spite of her ”chastising“ me about my decision she had all the things she wanted to take home ready and waiting. I was in the best mood I’d been in for a while. Elle snuggled up to me as we headed for home.

My mood changed after we stopped for Elle’s first rest room break. She had a grim look on her face as she approached the car. Her period had started. Talk about sticking a pin in a balloon! I’d fantasized about all the ”alone“ time we’d be spending together for the next three days ever since I’d hatched my plan to skip the Psych exam and now it was gone. Elle wasn’t as disappointed as I was and tried to find the bright side in that at least we didn’t have to worry. I couldn’t disagree but it was still a low blow.

Elle didn’t help my now dark mood when she asked how I was going to make up for the missing credits. As hard as it may be to believe but I honestly hadn’t thought about it. For some perverse reason I got it into my head that I was sending Professor W a message by not showing up and deluded myself into believing that, somehow, it would all work out. I don’t know, even now, how I let myself go so far wrong.

I knew some of my friends had gone to Summer school but I’d never, ever, given it a thought. I did know that my college didn’t have Summer classes. As we drove I was stretching my memory trying to think of any college near the race track that I might attend. I came up with a few but I had no real knowledge to guide me. Now my mind was turning in a whole different, manic way. How would I be able to work with the horses? How would I pay for classes? How would I be able to go back in the Fall if I didn’t work all Summer? I became so immersed in all of that that I neglected to make the second rest stop for Elle and had to turn around and go back.

The rest of the trip home went by fairly quickly. Elle slept and I started to strategize on what I would say to my parents to explain what would become evident when my grades got sent home. They didn’t expect me until Thursday night. I lied and told them my Thursday exam had been moved which took the immediate pressure off. I was in good shape with them until my mother asked where my books were. I never even gave them a thought as I’d figured on cramming for the last two exams over the weekend after I’d gotten back to school. That wasn’t an option with them and told me they wanted me headed back on Friday, Memorial day. I had no argument for them and resigned myself to leaving early.

I knew Elle wouldn’t be feeling too good on Wednesday so I spent the morning trying to win some favor with my father by doing some chores around the yard. I went over to Elle’s around lunch time thinking that her mother was working. She wasn’t... and that turned out to not be a good thing. When Elle and I had told our parents that we were engaged, my mother had asked that Elle’s mother not make the announcement at that time. Nothing more had been said or done since that time. Elle’s mother had become tired of waiting and, having the two of us together, pinned us (me) down as to just what our plans were. We’d originally told her that our intention was to get married right after our graduations. She said that if that was so, she needed to start planning for the wedding right now. Elle and I had sort of ”danced around” the topic in some of our talks but, because she knew how touchy the subject was in my family, we didn’t come up with anything. It was a something that I didn’t need right at that moment.

Elle and I didn’t have an answer for her mother who had to leave for work. Having to bring that topic up with my parents with the specter of my upcoming need to go to Summer school hanging over me made me want to go hide in a closet. I certainly wasn’t ready to talk about it right at that moment and Elle, not feeling well, didn’t either. She said she was going to lie down and I went back to doing chores at home. I didn’t feel all that well either.

To be continued...