Charlotte's Connecton

The Bells of St. Anthony's Ep. 19

We are now officially so back. I’m not done with these girls yet. I just wish I could come up with a better series title.

Charlotte’s Connection

As told by Charlotte herself

I watched everybody from my perch on the stage, keeping an eye on the sound levels, making sure the playlist was in order, kind of envying all the couples out there. Everybody was having a great time, dancing on the gym floor, and I was alone, up on the stage. Not that I'm much of a dancer. And I did have a job here, after all.

A high-powered dance song faded out, and I had something softer and more romantic queued up. "All right, everybody," I hollered into the mic. "Time to slow things down again!"

And by now Helena had arrived, fully made over, totally unrecognizable, and as the song rolled in, started dancing with Lucius Farley. I chuckled to myself every time I looked at them, especially when it finally dawned on him who she was.

I may have told her the other day that I wasn't interested in this stuff, but I was actually jealous now. It would have been nice to dance once or twice with somebody out there. Maybe Carlton Shore, or Jacob Valentine, or who knows, even Helena's brother Dan.

But between this gig and the piece I was writing for the talent show, I really didn't have much time to think about guys.

I tapped Blake Fernandez, who was working lights. "You mind if I go mingle for a bit?"

I showed him my screen. I had a good enough number of songs up ahead, alternating nicely between fast club songs, gentler love songs, and requested pop songs. I gave him a quick rundown of how the mixer worked, and hopped off the stage.

I grabbed a Coke and an Oreo and caught up with Helena. "You looked great out there!" I yelled under the music.

Helena was chuckling. "He had no idea! I hope I made his night!" She looked back into the crowd. "Who should I go for next?"

Earlier I would have suggested Landon Werther--everybody kind of felt sorry for him--but there he was with Swift. I swallowed my pride and pointed out Carlton.

"You sure?" she said. She knew how I felt about him.

"Go for it. I'm busy."

The song faded out, and a Carpenters song came in, and Helena faded into the crowd.

When the heck did I put the Carpenters on here?

Next I said hi to Zeke and Lucius, and some of their buddies, and gave Lucius a pat on the back. "Helena's quite the lady, ain't she?"

He chuckled uncomfortably. "I guess so. If you're looking for Bonnie, she stepped out with Theresa and Augusta."

"Cool. Well, just wanted to say hi."

And I navigated through the throngs of classmates swaying to the music. A new song began to play... Yes? "Roundabout"? Seriously? At least nobody seemed to mind. And here my friends were getting on my case for one anything other than Genesis. I guess I had to give Blake some credit.

Still. I put so much work into that playlist! I had a dozen requests that still needed to be played. His job was just to make sure the laptop didn't crash, not to start picking his own tunes!

It was while I was chatting with Swift that Blake started playing Frank Zappa.

I stormed to the stage and leapt right on. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Take it easy, I just thought I'd liven things up a little. They can't all be pop songs."

"Okay, but now I'm gonna have to rebuild the playlist in the middle of the dance." I bumped him aside, and he moved back toward the lighting controls. "You're lucky this is an instrumental. I don't think the principal would appreciate 'Don't Eat the Yellow Snow' at a school dance."

"Do I look stupid?" He looked at the knobs in front of him. "You like Frank Zappa?"

"Most of it. You like Yes?"

"Mainly 'cause of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but yeah. How about--"

We both said it at the same time. "Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?"

He was a junior. I was a sophomore. Could I be any clearer?