"Susan!" I heard someone yell. "Wait up!" I looked back to see Peter and Diana come running up, hand in hand. Lindsay and Judd followed close behind.

"The gang's all here! We are gonna rock this year!" exclaimed Lindsay. "We're Seniors now, and we're gonna rule, the school!"

"Thank you Rizzo," I said sarcastically as she giggled. "But Diana and Peter are not Danny and Sandy, and although I did play Kenikey in our school play last year, I am definitely not in love with you. Judd does look like Jan, though."

"Ha, Ha," Judd retorted lamely. "But it's true. We are going to rule the school this year."
"Will you be my king?" Diana asked Peter lovingly as she hugged him.
"Only if you're my queen," he cooed back, kissing her nose.
"Guys, cut it out!" Judd said disgustedly while I sighed dreamily. "You're making her think of Mike, and we know how that makes her!"

I was thinking of Mike. I hadn't seen him since he left for California after my freshman year. I hadn't even spoke to him since the night of his motorcycle accident. Since he moved a lot, and needed money for rent and food, we couldn't talk.

"C'mon Susan, snap out!" Lindsay brought me back to reality. "You'll see him again it's true love.:" She sighed, "I feel like an old maid around you guys."
"You have Judd," I snickered.
"Oh, Shut up," she snapped, then brightened.
"Let me see you guys' schedules," she said.
We handed them over and Lindsay swore. "Nothing! Diana, you and Peter have most of your classes together, but the rest of us have nothing but lunch!"
"Well, at least we have lunch," Peter said.

We went to classes. I had, Gym first then Theater, Band, and Science. In my Theater and Science classes I noticed a kid I'd not seen before. People seemed to be not noticing him so I walked over and said hi.
"Howdy! I said. "I'm Susan, what's your name?" I looked at him. He was tall, with light, curly brown hair that fell into his brown eyes. He was dressed almost as hip as me, bellbottoms and everything. "He looks right up our alley," I thought.
"Hi," he said, "I'm Micky Dolenz." He smiled, and I saw him looking at my clothes with relief.

We made friends quickly and he came and sat with me at lunch. I introduced him to everyone. He took to Lindsay almost instantly. A couple of guys walked past our table and said hi to Lindsay, but she kind of snubbed them.
"Why do you do that?" I asked. "You said yourself that you're jealous of me and Diana."
"They're jerks," she said. "I want a nice guy."
"You have Judd," I reminded her with an evil grin.
"I just said, I want a non-jerky nice guy!" She grinned.
"Well, good luck," Diana put in. "They're hard to find. But I found mine," she said kissing Peter's cheek. He started to kiss her neck.
"Cut it out!" said Judd. "I'm eating!"
"Judd, grow up!" I said. "You've been like this since 8th grade!" I leaned over towards him, grinning wickedly. "Maybe if someone kissed you it wouldn't gross you out so much." As I moved closer, Judd leaned back, forgetting we were on our school's evil no-backed stools. He fell over, sending us into gales of laughter. Micky looked on bewildered, and then began to laugh as well.

"Susan, what would Mike say? You're cheating on him!" Diana admonished between laughs.
"Yeah, and with Judd!" Lindsay choked out, tears streaming down her face. (We all were laughter starved, so we found this more funny than it really was.)
"What?" asked Micky.
"Oh, Susan's boyfriend in California," Judd said, picking himself up off the ground.
"Do you all have boyfriends and girlfriends?" he asked.
"Not me," piped up Lindsay and Judd.
"I wonder why not Judd," Peter put in dryly and we began to laugh again.
"Well, Me neither," said Micky. "Most girls hate my hair."
"I think it's cute!" Lindsay, Diana and I said at the same time, making him blush. I knew he'd fit into our group fine.

Diana and I talked that night about finding someone for Lindsay. We used all tactics to get guys to ask her out, even bribing some guys. But Lindsay ignored them all. One day in May I was on the phone with Diana and she said, "Susan, if Lindsay ever finds out that we paid guys to ask her out, she'll kill us!"
"You're right," I sighed," Let's just give up."
"Have you heard from Mike lately?" she asked.
"No, I said sadly. " Not this whole year. I don't even know if he'll call soon enough for me to invite him to the prom. We went to his, but I want him at ours!" I began to cry. " I mean, it's MAY already!"
"It'll be fine," she soothed, "You know it will."
"Yeah," I sniffed. I said good-bye and hung up.

It was about then that I began to notice a change in Lindsay. She seemed happier. I asked her what was going on.
"I have a date, for the prom," she said. "And a boyfriend. Took you long enough to notice. I mean, we've been going out since December!"
"Who?" I asked excitedly
. "Hey," said Micky, walking up. "She finally notice?"
"You and Micky?!" I said, amazed. "The one person I never thought of."
"You mean the one person we never thought of!" said Diana walking up. "This is great! Now we're all couples!"
"What about me?" Judd asked.
"The principal's single," Diana joked.
"Good idea," he said sarcastically, bopping her on the shoulder.

I had begun to cry at the couples comment, missing Mike. No one needed to ask why I was crying. They all automatically tried to comfort me.

The next day I was still upset. I was sitting in science, with about 5 minutes left before lunch, just staring at a picture of Mike glued to my binder when the intercom announced that a visitor would be coming to the classroom.

I paid no attention when the door opened. I just stared at the picture, barely holding back tears. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Here's a more recent one," said a familiar Texan voice, lifting my chin up with strong hands attached to even stronger arms.
"Mike!" I cried, jumping up and wrapping my arms around him. I felt tears of happiness trickle out of my eyes as I buried my face in his chest. (Diana wants me to add my trademark saying of "Sigh" here, so I will.) His gentle fingers tilted my chin up, until I gazed directly into his loving eyes. My breath caught as he leaned down ever so slightly to kiss me (Sigh)

Our lips touched as we pressed against each other, at first gently, but increasingly more and more intense. The burning desire building through three long years of separation letting free in one blazing kiss. (Sigh) We clung together in the swamp of passion until together, we surfaced for air. (Am I overusing weird metaphors?) I let my hand drift up his cheek, then pulled him back into a hug.

The first thing I noticed when I could see something besides Mike and hear something besides our breath and heartbeats was my classmates. They were clapping, as if they were watching a romance scene from a play. Each person had a shocked grin on their face. Micky seemed normal, with just a knowing smile, but only he really knew who Mike was. Even my teacher couldn't hide a grin. I turned back to Mike.
"How..." I began.
"Sh," he put a finger over my lips, then removed and kissed me gently. "I'll tell ya later."

The bell rang before I could say more and I let out a little shriek as Mike picked me up easily, cradling me in his arms. As he carried me down to the lunchroom I wrapped my arms around his neck, sighing happily.

When Diana saw us coming her jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly and grinned.
"Special delivery," Mike said with a smile and set me down on one of the stools. He sat on the one next to me, wincing on the tiny stool that was much to short for his long legs. He looked pointedly at me and said hi to everyone.
"Oh!" I said with a start. "Mike, you know Lindsay, Diana, and Judd. This is Peter and Micky. Everyone, this is Mike. Isn't he cute?"
"Not as cute as mine!" Lindsay and Diana said at the same time.
"Mike's a musician," I told Peter and Micky.
"Really?" Peter asked. "So am I. Well, I write songs, and I play a couple instruments."
"A couple?" Diana laughed. "Try guitar, banjo, keyboards, and about eight others!"
"Hey, cool," Micky said. "I play guitar too."
"I have my guitar strapped to my motorcycle, "Mike said. "Let's go!"
"You can't just leave school," Judd protested.
"Wanna bet?" Mike said, scooping me up in his arms again. "Let's go troops!"

I sighed and again wrapped my arms around his neck as he walked out, followed by, Lindsay, Micky, Diana and Peter. (at this point, Judd manages to disappear from my writing. when I wrote this, I was P.O'd at him. Also, it makes things easier in the long run.) We sat outside on the steps and Mike got his guitar. First Peter sang a song called Auntie Grizelda. It was silly, but really cool. Then, Micky played a song called Randy Scouse Git.
When he said the title, I began to giggle. "What?" he asked. "It's just some British slang I heard once."
"Susan," Lindsay explained, "is a self-proclaimed, master of the obvious and unimportant. What's it mean?" she asked, knowing full well I'd tell whether she asked or not.
I giggled," Scouse means Liverpudlian, like the Beatles from Liverpool. Git means jerk, or teenager. And Randy, well, Randy means horny. Randy, Liverpudlian, Jerk!" I began to laugh again while Micky played the song. It was real groovy, with references to about eighty different things.

Mike played a song he wrote about me a long time ago, called Sunny Girlfriend. Then I surprised them all by playing a song I had written about Mike. I played the guitar right-handed, even though I usually play left-handed. The time flew by, and we were surprised when kids began coming out to board the busses. Mike told everyone to meet us at my house at six.

They all showed up promptly at six, and we piled into my parents' minivan. Mike drove, and Peter sat in the front seat. He didn't want me to know where we were going, so I sat in the back with Lindsay, and Micky and Diana sat in the middle. We pulled up to the same restaurant where Mike and I had our first real date. We went in and sat at a big table in the hushed dining room. We ordered and talked.

While we were waiting for the food, Mike clinked his glass.
"And now," he said, "the reason you're all here. I don't know about you guys, but for me, life after high school can be tough. So, I have a proposition. I recently inherited a house with beach front property. I'd move in, but it's to big just for me. I've been trying to put together a band, and I would share the house with them." He took a deep breath. "So, what do you say?"
"You mean us?" Micky and Peter asked.
"If you want to. And you could come too," Mike said to Lindsay and Diana.
"What about me?" I asked.
"Well you get this birthday present to make up for the ones I've missed. And," he added nervously, "To make sure I don't miss another one." He handed me a big box all wrapped in fancy paper. I opened it and took out a smaller box. (etceteras, etceteras. old box gag.) Finally, I reached the smallest box, about the size of a jewelry case. I opened the last box, and inside was a small gold ring with a tiny diamond chip sparkling on the crown.

I looked up in surprise, and Mike took the ring and slid it on the ring-finger of my left-hand. I laughed a little as I nodded and began to cry with happiness as he kissed me. He had remembered my stubborn left-handedness. We kissed for a while, and then I looked up and pleaded, "You guys have to say yes!"
"Of course!" Peter said, grabbing Diana's hand.
"Count us in," Lindsay added, and Micky nodded as well.
"Great!" Mike said. "We'll leave after graduation."
Later, Mike and I were talking and he said casually, "you know, I've never seen your room."
"Hey, you're right I answered, and walked him up to my doorway. "I should've warned you," I said as I opened the door.
He walked in and stopped. "This could be a stupid question," he said, "But do you like the Beatles?"
I blushed and tickled him. "There's no stupid questions," I said, "just stupid people. I like you too," I finished as I pointed to a wall covered with pictures of him.

"Good. Because I like you." He began to kiss me, over and over, his lips traveling from mine, to my eyelids, cheeks, and down my neck. He kicked the door shut, and started to nibble on my earlobes. His hands began to wander down my back, and then... *< ?: ) Author's note: At this point I would like to describe my story bedroom, which is just like my real bedroom, 'cept cleaner. And the remote control for the stereo you'll hear about is fictional. (Great place to interrupt, huh?) I have a white, metal bunk-bed, but the top bunk has no mattress. I have two dormers, one with a wooden window seat, and the other with a black beanbag-chair. Each dormer has three Beatles posters and a lamp. All of my windows have homemade yellow and black smiley face curtains. There are many more Beatles and other psychedelic posters and various year calendars decorating my walls, and three are on my ceiling. Pictures of my friends cover my mirrors and dresser, which is pale purple and I've had for 8 years. Also on my dresser are two original Beatles music boxes. My bookcase is made out of crates stacked on their sides, and my guitar stands right by them. My fan's blades are, respectively, dark green, dark blue, yellow, and red. I have three over! sized dolls I won at carnivals, and a bulletin/white board with my cartoon drawings of the Beatles, as Beetles. I call it tacky-psychedelic. Blocking my closet doors is a giant purple-plastic, air-filled sofa. ( :?>*

It was on to this sofa that I tripped and fell, as Mike's passionate kisses made me step backwards. Still holding onto me, Mike fell and began to unbutton my shirt with his free hand. (NO! I JUST CAN'T DO IT! PETER MAYBE, BUT, AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!)(Besides, how can you write something like that?)

Mike sat on my sofa as I got up and switched my regular light off, at the same time flicking the switches that turned on my black light and stoplight. I hit the remote next to it, and my favorite Beatles album came on.
"Let's dance," I said, pulling Mike up from the sofa. The next morning I woke up on my bed, still wearing what I had the night before, Mike snoozed on the couch. I got up and changed, then quietly put on some music, waiting for him to wake up. I went to my window and opened it, looking out to the bright sunny day. I yawned and stretched, the diamond on my finger glinting in the sun. I could feel a new life beginning for me, and I smiled.

A few weeks later, Mike and I put the last of our suitcases into the van my parents had given us for a wedding present. (Like my parents would ever let me get away with not going to college) We all piled into the car, Mike and I in front, Peter and Diana in the middle, and Lindsay and Micky in back.
"California here we come," I sang as we backed out of the driveway.
"Watch out Californians!" Mike said, and we were on our way.