Laughing Like Children, Living Like Lovers

Disclaimer: I don’t own Scott Hall or his family and I don’t own the rights to the songs by the Beatles, Barry Manilow or Elton John used in this fic. I don’t know that Scott and Dana knew each other in school but this fic is written from the perspective that they did.

"The first day of school is the most fun or the hardest, depending on the way you look at it," the teacher told his students. For one young man it was harder than any other first day of school. He had dated his high school sweetheart for two years and at the end of summer vacation they broke up. Now he had to face the next semester seeing her pretty much every day and knowing she was seeing someone else.

"Sure he says that. He doesn’t have to face Dana every day of his life. Why did I let her do that to me? I spent all my money on her and she used me. We went together for two years and now just before homecoming she breaks up with me." These painful thoughts went through Scott’s mind while his teacher talked to the homeroom class about what would be ahead of them this school year.

When the bell rang he got up from his desk and went to his next class. "Maybe I’ll start out the school year right and skip the rest of it." He was mumbling under his breath and not watching what he was doing when he turned a corner in the hallway and walked right into his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

"Watch where you’re going!" Dana spat the words at Scott.

"Great!" He said as he picked up the usual first day of school items he was carrying. Then looking away from them, "excuse me for living, but all the graveyards are full."

"So clever Scott. Now I wonder why we broke up," Dana taunted him. He was a clever guy but at that moment he had nothing cleverer to say and it stung a little that he didn’t have a snappier comeback for her.

As he went through the day going from one class to the next on auto pilot he had another painful reminder. The students were all asked to vote for their choice of couples for the homecoming court. He had taken a quick look at it and blanched when he saw her name and the new boyfriend’s name next to it.

Scott had carefully avoided the topic with his friends all day but as the day drew to a close a couple of them brought it up and he couldn’t avoid it any further. One of them was his oldest and best friend.

"I’m so sorry about this Scotty. If you need to talk, you know you can call me," Teri said, walking by his side as they walked to her car.

"It’s ok Ter. I knew I would be seeing her but I should have known she’d be on the court. It doesn’t matter cuz I’m not going to homecoming anyway."

"Scott, you can’t avoid this. You should go just to show her that you’ve moved on." Teri hoped that he would but she had a feeling that he would just mope around the whole school year if he didn’t at least show Dana that he was over her.

"What do you want me to do? Show up without a date?" Scott gestured emphatically and she stood at the driver’s side looking at him like he was not really that lame. He got the message. "Ok, ok. Maybe I’ll find someone else to ask but I don’t know. What good will it do to ask someone else when they will know I just broke up with her?"

"You don’t have to take someone else just to pretend you’re over her Scott. You can ask someone else because you like being with them. It doesn’t have to be a romantic involvement.

Scott stood there for a moment looking at her like she was speaking Martian and then he nodded and said she was probably right.

"Scotty, you’re a nice guy and a nice looking one at that. Any girl would be happy to go with you. Any girl with a brain in her little head that is," she qualified, thinking that Dana didn’t possess such a thing and that her head was bigger than most.

"Cute Ter," he said cocking his head to the side and smirking at her. "Ok, I’ll think about it." He got in the passenger side door and turned on the radio immediately. "You know," he said off handedly, I could ask you." He threw it out to Teri and waited for her reaction.

She started her car and sat looking at him as it idled. "You toying with me, Hall?"

"No. It was your idea and I just asked that’s all. Hey, if you don’t want to then you shouldn’t have brought it up," he said, sulking in his seat feeling annoyed that she thought it was a joke that he’d ask her.

"I didn’t say that!" Teri didn’t mean to tease him or make him feel bad. It was just a suggestion to get him to start thinking about someone new. "Scotty," she said not looking at him but putting her hand on his, "I would be happy to go with you."

He heard a degree of humility in her voice and he squeezed her hand gently, not looking at her either but feeling something he had never felt before.

Releasing her hand Scott said he was glad she accepted and he’d have the sweetest girl on his arm at the dance. This made her smile a little because she felt the same thing he did before he let go of her hand.

The next month went by fast and before she knew it, Teri was in her homecoming gown waiting for Scott. His dad had bought him a used car so that he could pick up his date and take her to the dance rather than her picking him up.

Over the last month Scott had spent time trying to get over losing Dana and he spent a great deal of time with Teri. They had been best pals for years, growing up together and when Scott got involved with Dana she felt it was a big mistake. She had real reservations about it and had even tactfully tried to talk him out of going out with her but she didn’t feel she could interfere much beyond that so she watched her best friend go through the agony of dating the bleached blond shrew. Finally when Dana dumped him for the captain of the football team Teri was there at his side still being his friend and not telling him ‘I told you so.’

Scott was grateful that Teri hadn’t rubbed his nose in it and make him feel like a big fool. He had done that all by himself.

The night of homecoming he wore a sport coat and pressed slacks, penny loafers and a neck tie. He found out what colors Teri was wearing and bought her a corsage of lavender Orchids. When he picked her up she was wearing an off white strapless gown with lavender satin trim and little lavender patent leather slippers. She looked real sweet and Scott beamed when he walked in the high school gymnasium with her on his arm.

The homecoming court was already there and getting their pictures taken so the others had to wait for theirs. When Scott and Teri walked in and stood under the arbor, draped with streamers and flowers everyone turned and watched. No one knew that he was bringing her and the gossip started.

If they danced near Dana and her date, Teri would try to engage Scott more in conversation. It worked and when the evening was over and the dance ended, he hadn’t even noticed that she had left. There was one point in the evening when they accidentally bumped into them and Scott apologized but Dana ignored him.

"I guess she didn’t hear you," Teri said knowing that Dana did it intentionally. Then as they came near them again Scott saw that they were close to colliding again so he swept Teri away from the other couple and caught a look from Dana. Teri pretended not to notice but Scott saw it and grinned at her.

Teri just smiled back at him and when the dance was over they strolled out to his car. When they left the gymnasium they walked arm in arm but when they left the building Scott took her hand and held it the rest of the way to the car.

"Ter," Scott said in her ear as he lowered his head to hers. She felt his hand go around her waist and his lips on her neck. Teri’s heart was in her throat. She had slowly developed feelings for Scott that went beyond friendship but she kept this to herself because she was pretty sure he didn’t share her feelings. Leaning against his car Teri felt like she was melting with Scott’s hot breath on her neck and his hands moving around her waist and stopping at her back. He looked into her eyes and saw what he suspected.

She looked down, embarrassed because she knew she was transparent. "Please take me home Scott," she sighed, feeling like she was going to be ill. Her pulse was racing and her mouth was dry.

"You sick Teri?" He asked wondering if she was ill or just nervous. "I’m not gonna hurt you," he whispered lifting her chin slightly and then tilting his head a little to the side, pressing his lips to hers. She hesitated worrying that her kisses wouldn’t do to him what Dana’s had and Scott persisted until she gave in and kissed him fully and with as much feeling as a teenager could. She had never kissed anyone before and her first time it had to be her best friend.

"Scott, I-I don’t think we should do this," she gasped breaking their kiss.

Looking up and around and finally down at Teri, Scott opened her door and she got in. On the drive home Teri didn’t say a word knowing she had blown it with Scott. He was everything she ever wanted in a boyfriend and future husband but it just felt awkward because they had been best friends all their lives, since they were babies. "Maybe that’s the way it should be. We get along so well and we are so much alike. Yeah, maybe we belong together," she told herself as he took her home.

The windows were steamed up and the radio was playing softly as Teri and Scott slowly pulled away from each other. They touched and loved and shared their hearts that night and when they came to school the next day everyone knew that what they had seen the night before at the dance was not just for one night. Scott pulled into her usual parking place and parked and turned off the engine. Looking over at Teri he grinned.

"You ready to set this place on it’s ear?" He raised an eyebrow and she smiled.

"Scott, we set the world on fire last night in your back seat and I’m ready to face what’s left of it now."

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A month went by when Scott’s parents had some bad news for him. Being a military family they had to move and there wasn’t much time to tie up loose ends. They knew this would be hard on him because he had just begun a new relationship with Teri. They liked her so much better than Dana too but it couldn’t be helped. They told him after school the day they got their orders.

"No! I’m not going anywhere. I won’t leave Teri behind." Scott was irate and they understood but they reasoned with him.

"We don’t want you to either but we can’t leave you here. You’re a minor, Scott. Please try to understand son," his mother pleaded with him.

Scott didn’t handle this news very well and that night he stayed out all night. He called Teri and they met to talk. It was 5:00 AM when he brought her back home to get ready for school.

Getting ready for school Teri thought back to what had happened in the night. She had snuck out of the house to wait for him, thinking they would just talk but Scott was restless and anxious. He had broken up with Dana and thought his world sucked. Now he was with a sweet girl he had cared about all his life and had recently come to have real feelings for and now he had to leave her behind.

"Ter, I’m gonna find a way to stay here."

"How can you? You’re not 18 yet."

"I don’t know but I’m gonna find a way to stay so we don’t have to be apart."

"We can write to each other," she said knowing it probably wouldn’t work but hoping that it would. Being just that much older than Scott, about 5 months she knew he would have to go with his parents.

He wasn’t going to accept this so he drove to a nearby hotel and got them a room. Going into the lobby, he requested a room. Teri stayed in the car because she looked younger than he did. Being 6’ 8" tall Scott could pull it off. He was 17 but the clerk didn’t question it.

When they entered the hotel room Teri felt a little nervous. They had been intimate just once, the night of the homecoming dance, and she wasn’t exactly sure what Scott had in mind. "Did he bring protection with him? I don’t have any on me," were the thoughts running through her mind and when Scott pulled the chain across the door she became visibly nervous.

Taking her hands in his, he pulled her down to sit on the bed next to him. "Baby, I’m not gonna force you to do anything. I mainly want to talk about this whole mess." Scott put his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

They talked it over, finally knowing that he did have to leave. Teri had gotten through to him but in doing so the reality of being so far away from him set in and she started crying in his arms. Scott didn’t know what to do because he’d never been the cause of her pain and this night, even though he actually came to the same conclusion that she had, he still felt responsible.

"Sh-shh Ter. I’m sorry." He lay her down on the bed putting her feet up on it. He slid up sitting next to her and began to run his hands up and down her arms trying to comfort her when she reached up to him and brought him down to kiss him.

"Scott, I need you now." It shocked her to say it because it wasn’t what was in her heart when they walked into the room or when they sat on the bed but it was all she could say to him. He didn’t even question whether or not she really meant it. Without any reserve he slid his left hand up the back of her shirt and brought her up to him.

"Baby," he whispered in her ear, "I love you."

Teri gazed up into loving brown eyes that told her it was true. "Scott," she said as his lips met hers and a tear ran down her cheek.

He felt the wet on his face but he didn’t break the kiss. He knew why she was crying and he felt it too. Then it came to him. He pulled his head back and smiled at her, animated and dying to tell her something.

"Teri, we’ll get married!"

It took a second or two to sink in. "What?" Her eyes were wide as she asked him.

"Baby, we can go across the border and get married. Then they can’t separate us and we can be together." He was so excited that she got caught up in his enthusiasm.

"You really want to do this?" Teri had to ask. She never dreamed she’d be getting married before she finished high school. She had plans and teenage marriage wasn’t included in them but the thought of being separated from Scott was more than she could stand so she said yes.

Scott kissed her again and held her close and they spent the night planning their future. When he dropped her off at home that morning she had to sneak back in the house to get ready for school and pack one day worth of clothes. They had to cross the state line and it would take half the day to get there and they would probably spend a night somewhere. They didn’t have much money between them but they might have enough for a room for the night.

Scott arrived home and let himself in the back door which was nearest his bedroom when he was met by his father.

"Where were you coming from?" He was half asleep when he came out but he was suddenly wide awake when he saw his son walking in at dawn.

"Nowhere," came Scott’s innocent sounding response.

"Don’t tell me that. You’re dressed and coming in the back door. You must think I’m a fool." His dad wasn’t going to let him off the hook but Scott’s mother came out when she heard them and asked his dad to give him a break.

"You haven’t broken any laws have you?"

Scott said no and that he just had to let off some steam after being told he’d have to leave Teri behind. "You don’t get it do you? I spent the last two years with someone who stabbed me in the back and now I have the only girl I’ll ever love and you’re making me leave her."

"Son, we do understand and we’re sorry," his mother told him sympathetically but Scott went in his room and shut the door.

"They don’t get it, but they will," he said under his breath as he got ready for school and packed a few things to take on the road."

Leaving an hour later he picked up Teri. She opened her window and dropped her bag outside on the ground for Scott to pick up and put in the trunk of his car. He came up to her door after he closed the trunk and rang the doorbell just like he always did and her mother invited him in for a moment. She was pleasant and had no knowledge of her daughter’s all-nighter so she never suspected that the two planned to skip school and run off to get married.

Teri came out of her room and kissed her mom goodbye as she walked out with Scott. He took her books and her hand as they walked casually to his car as if nothing was different.

They arrived at school and went to their homeroom classes like usual but at around 9:00 AM Scott slipped out the back door and went to his car to wait for Teri. She had gym class the next hour so she planned to excuse herself at around 9:30 saying she had to use the facilities and then slip back in the gymnasium long enough to be seen by the teacher and other students and then make her exit when the teacher was distracted. It worked and she quickly slipped her street clothes on over her gym suit and snuck out the same door Scott had. She walked to his car and they took off for the state line.

About 5 hours later Scott and Teri were driving over the state line, she leaning on his arm and holding his hand. When they got to the nearest town they pulled over to a pay phone and looked up the Justice of the Peace. Finding a listing they called but there was no answer so they jotted down the address and got help from an attendant at a nearby gas station.

Teri read off the directions for Scott and with her help he found the place. As is the case with many small out of the way towns, the office was in an older building and when they walked up to the door they read a handwritten sign that said "Out to lunch, will be back by 2:00 PM."

"Hm, I guess we’ll have to just cool our heels until he gets back Ter," Scott said as they went back to the car and waited.

They were both feeling a little hungry so they decided to walk to a little diner they had seen on their way. It was just up the street and it was a fine day so they enjoyed the walk. About an hour later they walked back and saw that the sign had been taken off the door and it was unlocked. Going inside they saw an elderly woman doing paperwork and she was on the phone. Scott and Teri walked up to the desk and she motioned for them to wait a moment. While they stood there Scott was leaning on the counter and he and Teri were lost in their gaze not noticing what the woman was writing down. She slipped the piece of paper inside a file and when she hung up the phone she told them she would be right back and that the justice would see them in a few minutes. She took the file to an office just down the hall and when she came out she told them to follow her.

Scott and Teri entered the office and were greeted by a nice man who looked to be about forty. He shook their hands and asked why they were there and Scott spoke up saying he and his fiancée’ wanted to get married. The man looked at Teri and then at Scott and asked their ages. They had figured on him asking and they were prepared to lie if necessary.

"I’m 19 and Teri is 18," Scott said though she was really older than he was by about five months.

"I see. Do you have any identification with you?" The judge asked.

They didn’t other than their driver’s licenses and they couldn’t show them to him because he would see that they weren’t of age. They looked at him and then at each other and Teri somehow found her voice.

"It’s sort of spur of the moment and we didn’t think to bring anything with us. Scott is going overseas this week and we just wanted to get married before he left." She was telling the truth but she made it sound like Scott was enlisted in the military and had just gotten served his papers.

"Ah, these things happen. Well then I guess it’s pretty hard to plan ahead for something like this. If you’ll give me your full names I’ll make a call to the State office building and just get confirmation over the phone. I don’t want to be the cause of two young people in love not being able to spend their brief time apart from each other."

"Uh, we’re not from this state," Scott jumped in quickly hoping he would still just take their word for it. Teri had a bad feeling about the way this whole thing was going down and when the judge opened the file in front of him she knew. He looked up at them and shook his head.

"That’s right you are from another state. You’re from Maryland and you’re both under age."

Scott’s lower jaw dropped.

The judge noted his expression. "How did I know? That is your car out front isn’t it?"

Now Scott knew. The judge’s secretary had called the state of Maryland DMV and had found out that the car was registered to him and thus found out his age.

Looking at Scott the judge spoke to Teri. "I realize you’re in love but I need to know if you’re in trouble."

Teri flushed and vehemently denied that this was not the reason they were getting married.

"It’s true, we’re in love but no, that’s not the reason. My folks are in the military and they just informed me yesterday that they’re being shipped overseas and I have to go with them." Scott looked down and then felt Teri take his hand. He glanced at her and saw tears swimming in her eyes.

The judge noticed the tears too and felt a certain amount of sympathy for them but he couldn’t ignore the law for their sake and told them there was nothing he could do. It was a heartbreaking moment for them but they thanked him for not making it harder on them and they stood up and left his office. They walked out to the car and the secretary walked them to the door. Patting Teri on the shoulder she said she hoped everything was alright and that she was sorry it didn’t work out for now. Teri thanked her and she could tell the woman felt bad for them.

Driving back home Teri cried and Scott kept his arm around her. When he dropped her off at home her parents were waiting at the door knowing that they had both skipped school. It was the first time she had ever given them a reason to be concerned or upset the way a parent would be knowing their daughter had done something like that and then finding out that she had done it with her boyfriend. To make matters worse, they had received a call from Scott’s parents after the Judge called them to say that Scott and Teri were on their way home and as yet unmarried.

Seeing them waiting for her Teri turned to Scott and he said he would go with her to face the music. He did and it wasn’t a pretty scene. As he left her he was told that he was not to see their daughter again under any circumstances except when they were in school and then he had to keep his distance from her. Teri raised a major scene but she was sent to her room and told to stay there until morning. Her dad even went so far as to put boards around the edges of her windows so that she couldn’t sneak out.

Scott understood that he’d crossed the line and that they had every right to be upset. He tried to tell them that they should know he wouldn’t hurt her and that she would be alright but they had reason to be upset with him because they had no idea where she was all day and when they got the call from school that she was gone they were worried out of their minds. They pointed out that their daughter was a very good student and they never dreamed that she would have done something like that so they had were justified in keeping them from seeing each other from now on and until he moved away.

"It’s not as if we don’t understand what you’re going through. We were young once and we know what it’s like. Scott, we even thought of you as a nice young man and we’ve watched you grow up and we know you and Teri have always been close but we feel we don’t even know you now. We don’t even know our own daughter after what you two pulled today." Her father was right and there was nothing Scott or Teri could say to change their minds so he had to leave and they didn’t even let him kiss her goodbye. That probably hurt the most but Scott didn’t even try it. He was quite a bit bigger than Teri’s father was but he respected him enough to not push it.

As he was leaving, hearing Teri crying and her mother trying to console her Scott began to concoct a way to see her in school. He still had almost a month before he had to leave and there was no way their parents could control their every move.

When he arrived at his house he found out that his parents had received a call from Teri’s just after he left so they were expecting him. Scott was quite a bit taller than his father so there was not going to be a real punishment of a corporal kind, plus he was a senior in high school and the punishment needed to fit the crime. For one, he was grounded for the rest of the month that they were still living there and for another thing, the principal in his school had been apprised of what he and Teri had done so their teachers were going to be keeping a very close eye on both of them. Scott was angriest about this last part. It seemed that his parents could control his every move.

That last month went terribly slow and each day was more agonizing than the previous because five out of seven days Scott and Teri saw each other at school and if they ended up in the same proximity with the other their teachers were on the alert. There was to be no communication between them and the way it was going there wouldn’t be until one day just the last week of school there was a fire drill. It wasn’t planned and the teachers needed to make sure students filed out in an orderly manner. Preoccupied with making sure everyone was out of the school they lost sight of Scott and Teri. There were so many students that there was no way they could keep track of them and take care of their responsibilities too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One month later Scott and his family were in Germany and Teri’s family was moving away. Scott had written to Teri but his letters were delayed by red tape and by the time they reached her home with his new address, she and her family had moved away. It was another month before his letters started coming back unopened and stamped returned because Teri’s family had moved and the forwarding address had expired. His father had picked up the mail and found the returned letters but he kept them until three came back and then he confronted Scott with them.

As usual, his mother was more sympathetic and she came to his defense asking her husband to show some compassion. Scott and Teri would be of age before the year was out and it was unfortunate timing that they had to move away before they were old enough to marry legally. His dad listened and just dropped the envelopes in Scott’s lap as he walked into the other room and shut Scott’s door.

"Moved? When did they move?" Scott was shocked and hurt but he knew there was no way Teri could have let him know. He saw the postage dates that were stamped on each envelope from the U.S. and from Germany and he knew that she had probably never even seen them.

A little later Scott’s mother tapped lightly on his door and he opened it seeing her standing in the doorway with a plate with his dinner on it. She had been crying too and he could see that so he took the plate and set it on his dresser and came back to her putting his arms around her. It hurt his heart to see his mother cry. She did it so seldom that when she did it bothered him. This time he knew she was crying for him and for Teri and he couldn’t hold back his tears either. He reached over her shoulder shutting his door and the two stood there in his room sharing their heartache.

"Mom, what am I gonna do? I don’t even know where she is now. Even if I did, it takes weeks for the mail to arrive and I may never see her again!" His mother could see he was stricken by the reality that life had been so unfair to he and Teri and they were the ones who would ultimately pay the price.

"I’ll make some inquiries of our friends back home and see if I can find out anything but you have to promise me you won’t let your dad or your brothers get wind of this because if they do I won’t be able to help you."

"You’d do that for me? Oh mom!" Scott hugged her and told her that he loved her. With her promise on his heart he ate his dinner and for the first time since they had moved he slept soundly that night.

The next month dragged by as Scott looked to his mom each day when his dad brought her the mail on his way home from the base. He had commented more than once that their friends seemed to be missing them as he’d hand her the unopened letters. She always let him read them but she felt it was safe to do so because she always made it very clear that if their friends knew anything about Teri and her family that they were to only include their address or phone number in a little note and include it with the return letter. She asked them not to say anything about it in their letter. That way she could share any news with her husband without him seeing the note. Each time she opened a letter he went to his room. He couldn’t bare it to see her open it and not find a note inside the envelope. They agreed that if there were one she would come to his room and drop it on his dresser with his clean clothes or some other item he might leave lying about. If there were no note she would stop in his doorway and just silently shake her head no. It was all he needed to know and yet each time it happened that way it was like getting kicked in the gut. He began to think he never would see Teri again.

As the months went by he found the separation less painful to deal with and eventually he found work that would lead to his being able to fly back to the states and to Maryland where he entered college. His parents paid for his college education and in time he graduated with honors.

When he left college with a premed degree his parents were so proud of him and had high hopes of his making a successful way in life and becoming a doctor. What he did though was go into professional wrestling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The month after high school let out and Teri had graduated her family moved away and had not informed many people of their decision. They had a secret to keep and that required that they leave no forwarding address with their neighbors. They had left one with the Post office but it was only to run for two months, enough time for their bills to catch up with them and then it would expire.

As the years went by Teri and her husband raised Chelsea and after 18 years, Teri’s husband, James Johnson passed away. Chelsea had a good childhood and was raised with love and laughter. It was a sad day when her father died but she was just out of high school and he had seen her graduate. Now she and her mother were faced with making their way in the world alone. Her grandparents were all dead so it was just her and her mother.

Chelsea had dreamed of going to college but for the time being it looked like she would have to put those dreams on hold. She had received a scholarship but she needed to take care of other expenses if she were to go away so she opted for a local college instead of her first choice. It was alright with her but Teri felt bad that her daughter had to settle for second best. Still she was grateful for a loving daughter who would make such a sacrifice to help her out.

A year later Chelsea was a Sophomore in college and juggling a full class load and working part-time in a friend’s bakery. Her mother had taken a couple of courses at the local technical college and had started working full time for a free clinic in their neighborhood so they made ends meet, barely.

Chelsea was coming up the stairs to their flat and came in giving her mother the mail.

"How was work?" Teri asked her.

"Sweet," was her favorite response and it usually got a chuckle from her mother. Teri looked through the mail and for the first time she came across something that she had not seen before.

"What is it mom?" Chelsea asked seeing that her mother was pouring over something of interest.

"Um, it’s a newsletter from my old high school and there’s an invitation to our 20 year class reunion."

"Oh mom, that’s neat. You should go," Chelsea said looking over her mother’s shoulder at the invitation.

"I don’t know. I haven’t kept in touch with any of them because your grandparents and I moved away just after I graduated and I’ve never been back there," Teri said brushing her daughter’s hair out of her eyes. Chelsea was about 3 inches taller than her mother, at 5’ 7" and her hair had slid forward from behind her ear as she leaned over her mother’s shoulder.

"That’s all the more reason to go. You should do it mom just to see all your old friends again and find out what they’ve been up to."

"I’ll think about it," Teri said thinking she probably wouldn’t but her daughter was the persistent type and she would keep bringing this up if Teri didn’t at least say she would give it some thought. "For now though what are you making me for dinner?"

Chelsea grinned at her mother. "Same as usual."

"Oh, we had that last night," Teri teased. "What else ya got?"

"Beats me," Chelsea said and Teri said that was the same old boring dish they’d had the week before and they both laughed.

Chelsea pulled out a bag she had brought from the bakery and presented it to her mother. "It may not be the most nutritious but it’s cheap! Let’s warm this up and I’ll slice up some lemon to have in our water."

Teri looked inside the bag and frowned at Chelsea and then hugged her. "Oh I won’t be able to go to that reunion now because I’ll be too fat to fit into anything I own after I eat this."

Chelsea laughed and said she didn’t have to eat the Brioche all at one time and Teri said she probably would though.

After their dinner Chelsea hit the books and Teri sat down with a cup of coffee and picked up the newsletter again. Noticing that the names of former students were listed alphabetically by last names her eyes immediately went to the H’s. She felt a little guilty about it but she had not heard from Scott all the years after he moved and she supposed that he had gone to college after he finished school. She scanned the names and suddenly her eyes focused on his name. Suddenly ancient memories came flooding back to her as she became lost in thought about the last time they were together.

Reading that Scott had graduated with a premed degree and then had gone into entertainment was surprising to say the least. "I wonder what field he’s in. I’ve never seen him on television. Hm, this is wild!"

"What’s wild mom?" Chelsea had come back in to get a cup of tea when she heard her mother’s exclamation.

"Oh, just a former classmate of mine. He’s evidently in the entertainment industry but it doesn’t say what he does. I guess they only provided so much room to tell about each person. He graduated with honors from his college too. That’s so nice." She tried to sound nonchalant about him but Chelsea picked up on something different in her voice. She couldn’t put her finger on it just then but she had her suspicions about it and decided to look him up in her mother’s high school annual. She had read it with her mother as she looked over her shoulder so she knew his name.

The picture she found of Scott astonished her. She secretly took the annual into her room and closed the door. Looking at the picture and then looking at her reflection in the mirror Chelsea started to get a strange feeling. After studying the picture she looked at what he had written.

"One night with you in paradise and I’m yours for life. I love you Ter, Scotty"

"Scotty?" Chelsea knew that she had been conceived before her parents were married but she had always believed that James was her biological father. She didn’t really look like his side of the family but her mother just said she took after her instead and Chelsea never gave it any further thought. She swallowed hard and looked at herself in the mirror again and then at his photo. She closed up the annual and then opened it again and put a sticky note on the edge of that page and put it back in her mother’s room. She didn’t put it right where it had been however because she wanted her mother to notice that it was out of place and then she would see the sticky note and open it knowing that Chelsea had seen it.

She also wanted to know what Scott had been doing since he left college so she did what she always did. She went on the Internet and typed his name in the search engine. Different links came up. Some links were for a musician and some for others who were not in entertainment but the majority of the links were for the one she was looking for. He looked a little different from his high school days but she could tell it was him and then she stumbled onto a site that had current and older pictures of him as well as a biography on him and she began to read about her mother’s friend. Some of what she read she liked but some of it she didn’t. Still she didn’t know the man and she wasn’t going to prejudge him in case those things weren’t true.

Teri got ready for bed and she came to her daughter’s door and knocked. Chelsea minimized the information she was reading and opened her door to say good night to her mother.

"You hard at it in here?" Teri asked, yawning. "I’m ready for bed."

"Oh I’ve just been playing on the computer a little. I’m ready for bed myself so I’m going to knock off and go to bed too."

"Alright honey, I’ll see you in the morning." Teri kissed her daughter’s cheek and went to her room.

Chelsea didn’t close her door right away because she wanted to know if her mother would see the annual and question her about it. Teri did see the book sitting out on her desk and wondered how it got there but she was too sleepy to give it much thought so she went to bed and slept for a while. She had a fitful night and got up around midnight to go to the bathroom. On her way back she saw Chelsea’s light on underneath the door and thought she must have stayed up a little later or that she fell asleep with it on so she just opened the door to turn out the light and saw her daughter still on the computer.

Chelsea didn’t realize that her mother had opened the door so she didn’t try to hide what she was looking at and when Teri saw the image on the monitor she gasped a little. Chelsea heard her and spun around in her computer chair, shocked that her mother had seen it. Teri’s hand covered her mouth as she walked up behind Chelsea.

"Chels, what are you doing? How did you-"

Chelsea looked like she had been caught red handed and felt ashamed to be checking on one of her mother’s schoolmates and she looked down, feeling sick in her stomach. "Mom, I-"

"The annual. That’s why it’s out on my desk." It suddenly came to her. "Oh baby, I’m sorry. I should have told you that Jim wasn’t your father but I-I just could never bring myself to do it." Teri started shaking, not able to control her emotions. Chelsea reached for her mother and stood so that she could sit down in her chair.

"Mom, I’m sorry. I should have asked you first or I shouldn’t have snooped at all."

"No, you know you’re welcome to look at my annual and you have in the past. It’s not wrong for you to do this. Now I suppose you have a lot of questions, huh?"

Teri looked sympathetically at her daughter and Chelsea nodded. "I’ve found out quite a bit already but I don’t know how much of it is true." She paused and then looked directly at her mother. She was always very direct with people and looked them in the eye. "Mom, he is my dad. Isn’t he?"

Teri looked away and nodded her head indicating that he was. When she turned back to Chelsea, tears were in her eyes.

"Oh mom, please tell me about him," she asked as she put her arms around her and hugged her.

"Oh my, where do I begin? We grew up together and we were best friends. Then we dated for a couple of months before his family moved away. They were a military family and his parents received their orders to go overseas. I think they may have ended up in Germany but I’m not sure. I never heard from him again."

"You’re kidding! He was your best friend and your boyfriend and he had sex with you and he never-"

"Chelsea!" Her mother exclaimed, ready to defend Scott. "It wasn’t like that. Our parents kept us apart the last month of school because of something we did."

"You mean getting pregnant?" She didn’t say it accusingly but she wondered.

"No. They didn’t even know it until after his family moved away. We did something just after his parents told him he had to move away." She told Chelsea about their plan to run off and get married and how they were kept apart. She felt he must have written to her but in those days overseas mail took much longer to be delivered and then her family moved away too with no word to anyone that they were going. "My being pregnant was the reason we moved. Mom and Dad couldn’t live in that community any longer with an unmarried pregnant daughter so we left. If we could have gotten married things might have turned out very different."

Chelsea listened to her mother and heard the whole story for the first time. Then Chelsea shared with her mother what she had read on line. It was almost 3:00 AM when they finally went back to bed. Teri let Chelsea know that her real father was not the man the Internet rumors led people to believe he was and she went to bed wondering and wanting to meet him. Teri went back to her room and opened up her annual to the page Chelsea had marked and read Scott’s comment. It had been a long time since she’d read it but she knew it by heart and she could still hear his voice as he said it after he’d written it in the book. She went to bed wondering herself if he would be at the reunion and hoping she had the courage to find out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Can you tell me if this is my Teri?" Scott asked hoping that the girl at the other end of the phone line could just confirm this for him. He gave the girl his Teri’s maiden name but she said they didn’t have that information. "We only have her current last name and that she was a student who graduated from our school 20 years ago."

"Well then do you have her address?" Scott knew he was probably not going to get that information out of the girl but he had to try.

"Yes we do but we’re not allow-"

"Yeah yeah, I get it. I figured as much. Thanks anyway," he said annoyed with the girl and hung up studying the newsletter again for anything he might have missed and of course he hadn’t. The only other person who could tell him was not someone he was on good terms with so he pretty much felt he had to let it drop. "Man with a last name like Johnson it could take me forever to track her down so I guess I’ll have to go to the reunion to find out for sure."

He thought about it some more and he wondered if this was his Teri if she was still married. He wondered if she was happy and if she ever thought of him. So many questions and absolutely no answers. It was very frustrating but it seemed there was nothing he could do about it until the night of the reunion.

The weeks went by slowly and at times Scott considered not even going although he had already sent in his RSVP. He figured that no doubt most of his former classmates knew of his exploits in and out of the ring and he wondered if he would be accepted or if they would shun him. When the self-doubting started he would decide not to go but then the thought of maybe finding Teri again was just too much for him and he would argue with himself until he changed his mind again. He kept this up until the day before the reunion and finally after hearing him vacillate a million times Kevin told him if he changed his mind one more time that he would hog tie him and deliver him to the reunion, naked. He told Kevin that’d be alright if it really was his Teri because she’d seen him that way already.

"Man, if it is her I want to be there too. I’ve never seen you like this before. It’s like you’re meeting royalty or something," Kevin grinned at him.

Scott promised he wasn’t going to change his mind again but being Scott, he did. Remembering Kevin’s threat and knowing that he has been known to pull some pretty bad pranks on his buddies he kept this to himself. Still, the next day Scott got his best black dress slacks, an off-white V-neck sweater and a black sport coat that matched the slacks out of his closet and got dressed. He was in his hotel room when his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Just checking to make sure you’re still going."

Scott shook his head and laughed. "You’re a big pest. You know that?"

"Just doing my duty."

"Yeah, what’s that? Driving me nuts?"

"Scott, just relax ok? It’ll be her and she’ll be single again and she’ll want you all over again. Trust me."

"Sure Kev, whatever you say," Scott chuckled and they hung up. "He is a big pest," Scott said aloud but in his heart he thanked Kevin for always being there for him.

He looked at his watch and he knew it was time to leave. His hands were clammy and his stomach was doing summersaults all the way. When he pulled his rental car into a stall he had to sit and pull himself together. "It’s gonna be ok man. Just go in there and be yourself."

He’d only been in the door for a minute when he heard someone say his name. Someone remembered him and he turned around to see an old classmate who’d been on the basketball team with him. They visited and Scott was relieved that there was someone at this affair whom he could talk to and not feel nervous around. His friend knew he’d gone into wrestling and had followed his career up to a point and most of them knew he’d married Dana after he returned to the states and Teri had moved away. Others began coming up to Scott welcoming him and most looked up to him, not because he was a celebrity of sorts but because they were happy for him that he’d beaten the alcohol problem and that he was looking so well and the fact that with his height and bearing he commanded their respect.

When Scott had a quiet moment he sauntered over to the guest book to see if Teri Johnson had signed it but so far she hadn’t or she wasn’t there yet. He was pretty sure he’d know her if she was his Teri. As he walked over to the refreshment table his back was to the room and he stood looking down at the punch thinking he’d rather have something else but he would settle for this.

A few seconds later it was as if a hush had fallen on the crowd and Scott thought it was odd but he thought maybe their old Dean had walked in or something. Setting his glass of punch down he turned around and his eyes locked onto hers. She almost turned around and ran out of the door but Chelsea grabbed her shoulders and kept her in the doorway facing him.

Scott didn’t bother to look around him. He walked straight over to her and seeing there was no man with her he smiled down at her not hiding his love for her and wiped a stray tear away from her cheek. For a moment they only saw each other and then Scott looked past Teri and saw his daughter for the first time. He had no idea but the second they looked at each other he knew and a bigger smile appeared on his lips.

"Scotty, this is Chelsea," he heard Teri say. She emphasized her daughter’s name giving him the impression that she was making it crystal clear that her daughter was of real significance to him.

Scott held out his hand and said hello to her. She shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him. They smiled at each other for a few seconds and then he returned his gaze to Teri. "You’re still short," he teased, grinning down at her and it broke the ice for real. At once they embraced and were laughing like they had never been apart.

Realizing that the crowd behind them was trying not to watch Scott and Teri walked into the room again and someone dimmed the lights and the music began again as the crowd separated to let them have the dance floor.

At their homecoming dance they were not on the court but this night it was their time to be in the spotlight as a slow song started. Scott took her right hand and she put her left hand on his shoulder as they picked right up where they left off a little over 20 years earlier.

"You know, I tried for months to reach you after we moved but my letters all came back. Even ma tried to find out anything but nobody knew where your family had moved or why."

Teri looked down for a couple of seconds and then she slowly looked up and looked him in the eyes, the way her daughter always looked at her. "Scott, we moved as soon as school was out and I had graduated because, well-" she sighed and took a shaky breath but didn’t finish her sentence.

"Because?" He dipped his head a little to see her face. "Ter? Was it something I did?" The way he looked at her and then glanced over at Chelsea she could tell that he knew now.

"You were such a problem child," she said grinning at him. "I never knew that you came back to the states or where you were overseas though I guess I knew you were in Germany. If I had known how to reach you I would have told you about her."

Scott’s expression told her that it hurt to know that he hadn’t been a part of Chelsea’s life and that he couldn’t be the one to raise her. "Honey, I don’t blame you. I blame myself. I was young and stupid and if I hadn’t come up with that hair-brained idea to get married maybe things would have been different. I can’t fault our parents either. It was a foolish thing to do."

Teri could see that he had great regrets over what they had done and he had paid for it as much as she had.

"I understand you have two younger children and that you married too." She didn’t say Dana’s name but Scott got the impression that she knew. "Scott, I’m sure it was difficult for you but why-?"

"Why . . . her?"

Teri looked down again and Scott looked up and closed his eyes. "I’m not sure really. I know I didn’t feel for her what I felt for you but I thought she had changed. If you know I married her then you probably know the rest of it too."

Teri bit her lower lip. "I’m sorry Scott. I know all the junk she said about you were lies. I just wish everyone knew that. It hurts my heart to think that anyone would see that and believe it of you."

"It’s ok Ter, I deserved a lot of it."

Teri never took her eyes off of him and she saw resolution and sadness in his eyes. She knew he would never put any blame on Dana so she dropped it. It was hard enough knowing that he had fallen pray to her devious plans and Teri didn’t want him to suffer any more. He was out of Dana’s clutches now and she intended to keep him out of them if he really felt the same way she did. If he didn’t she still did not want to bring up the past.

"Were you happy with him, Teri?" Scott wanted to know but he felt awkward asking her.

"Scott, I won’t lie to you. Jim was a wonderful man and he married me knowing I was pregnant and that I didn’t love him. My parents pushed me into it because he was a respectable young man with a promising future. I said no at first because I still held out the hope that you and I would find our way back together but after about 3 months after we moved and he had asked me to marry him I finally agreed to."

Teri saw the hurt Scott tried to hide and she tightened her hold on his arm. He pulled her closer as they danced and when the song was over they walked toward the door.

"Are you still married?" It was blunt but not unkind.

"No. He passed away over a year ago," Teri said as they approached Chelsea.

Scott smiled at her and she held out her hand to take his.

"Chelsea, I want to get to know you but for tonight can I borrow your mom and bring her home late?" He sounded like he was asking her permission and it made her smile.

"Of course you can." Chelsea leaned in to whisper something in her mother’s ear and Teri blushed a little and nodded, kissing her daughter goodbye.

When Scott and Teri got outside he asked what Chelsea had said.

Teri tried to look calm but she was ready to go up in flames. "She said if you wanted to you could keep me for the night and return me in the morning."

Scott laughed and put his arms around her. "Baby, that was my plan."

Teri grinned and got in his car and they drove back to his hotel.

"Scott, if Jim hadn’t died we’d still be a happy family. I wish you’d had the same kind of marriage that I had." She reached for his hand. "I never loved him the way I love you. You were my first and my last love. If we had never come together again tonight, I would have lived out the rest of my life alone."

Scott hadn’t been looking at Teri until she said that and when he did, he saw her lower lip tremble and her eyes filled with tears for the torture she felt having been apart from him for over 20 years. In those 20 years she hadn’t loved Jim the way she loved Scott in the two months they had dated. It hurt deeply that she couldn’t have given Jim the same kind of everlasting love and he knew it every day though she tried and she was a good wife to him.

"Sweetheart," he whispered to her as he pulled her to him. Trying to make her laugh he asked her if she remembered the fire alarm the last week of school. She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile and then broke down and sobbed as he held her very close. She cried for several minutes but finally she got it under control and told him it was very bad to do that. "I know honey but you were on fire." Teri pulled away a little seeing him grinning. She grinned back at him and then she started to laugh.

Soon their laughter turned to something a little quieter but equally satisfying for both of them. Teri put her arms around his neck and leaning in kissing him she hid her face in his neck. His hair had been pulled back but by now it was ready to come out of the band and she ran her fingers through it.

Whispering to her Scott told her he felt like he had waited a life time for this kind of love and he wasn’t in the mood to wait any longer. "We don’t have to wait for some judge to grant his permission Ter, we can do as we please." He pulled back a little looking into her eyes and soon they were under the covers laughing like children and living like lovers . . .