The Jimmy Soul Memorial Party

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Victor, that's immature!" Derek said. "And sexist, too!"

"What?" Neil said.

"It's all in good fun," Victor said. "The girls won't mind, since they'll have a date for once."

"What are you guys talking about?" Neil asked.

"Are you gonna tell him or am I, Derek?" Victor asked.

"Jimmy Soul was a singer," Derek explained. "And his big hit was about..." He turned and gave Victor an exasperated look.

"Sing it with me," Victor ordered, and in spite of himself, Derek did. "Get an ugly girl to marry you!"

"Oh, I love that song!" Neil laughed, to Derek's annoyance but not his surprise. "So the point is to bring the ugliest girl you can find to the party, right?"

"Eggggzactly!" Victor said. "Now, Derek, Neil, you guys are my top 5K runners, and I don't want you sitting out the season. But if you don't bring a couple of dogs to the party, I just might have to tell Coach you guys aren't hitting all the corners. Couple of freshmen were bumping up against your times in cross country last term, too, Derek." He patted Derek on the shoulder. "Think about it, boys."

"What an asshole," Derek said once they were alone again.

"Hey, it's just one party," Neil said. "Besides, it's not like you've got your eye on anyone, have you?" He vowed yet again to be there for his friend should he choose this moment to come clean.

"Even if I did, I mean, that's disgusting," Derek said. "How do you think the girls'll feel?"

"You don't think they tell them, do you?"

"That kind of thing always gets found out."

"Hmmm. I wonder about the swim team?"

"Too late to join," Derek said. "Their season starts in the fall."

"No, I mean asking a girl from there," Neil said. "Lots of 'em are pretty ugly. They probably go out for swim team because prancing around half naked is the only way they can hope to look sexy, you know?"

"Neil!" Derek felt like throwing his skim milk in his friend's face.

Neil reacted just as he always did when someone took offense at him. He laughed. "I'm gonna give it a try! Who's the one with the big ears, the Spanish major...Karen? No way she has a boyfriend."

"Enjoy the season, then," Derek said.

"Oh, come on, Derek, it's only one party! Besides, I know who you could ask."

"I'm not bothering with Nancy. I told you, I'm through with her."

"No, dude, I mean your new floormate! Carol! That girl could use a night on the town anyway. And I mean, how plain can a girl get?"

"Geez, Neil."

"Come on, you don't really like her like that, do you?"

"Maybe I do, or at least I could. It's early yet, you know."

"Yeah, well, I don't think you could do much better for this party," Neil said. "And she doesn't even need to know."

"Well, you heard what Kent said, didn't you? About the guy from Harvard?"

"You don't believe that!" Neil laughed again. "You know Kent, always having to put one over on someone, especially you if you don't mind my saying so."

"True," Derek admitted; he and Kent had nearly killed each other a couple of times freshman year. "But he always has some ulterior motive. What does he want here? If he liked Carol, he's the type who'd just ask her out."

"I don't know," Neil admitted. "But if she had a boyfriend, she'd have mentioned him at least once last semester. Come on, man, it's one party, and you'll be doing her a favor. She'll be getting out on the weekend for once!"

Derek pretended to give it some thought, knowing Neil would never take no for an answer. "I'll think about it," he finally said. And with that, he was able to steer the conversation into safer waters like the classes they'd be taking for the spring.

Kent hadn't been very happy about ending up in the same dorm as one of Derek's best friends, but to his surprise he and Nancy had hit it off. At the opposite end of campus, they were sitting down to dinner together with a half-dozen or so of their dormmates just as Derek and Neil were finishing up.

"So Derek's back from London, is he?" Nancy asked without looking up from her tray.

"Yep. He and Neil were their usual immature selves all the way in from the airport." Kent couldn't quite read Nancy's nonchalance, but he aimed to keep up the conversation until he could. "Fifty-one percent this and that and blah blah blah."

"Doesn't surprise me," Nancy said. "Hope he had a great time over there, but you know he never even emailed me?"

"He was busy," Kent said. "He said something about a woman he met over there."

"A woman?" Now Nancy did look at him. "I was sure he was..."

"No you weren't!" Kent couldn't help laughing. "You thought he had a crush on you. And you were probably right."

"Yeah, but he always insisted he didn't," Nancy said. "So what else could it be? Gay men adore me, you know." She sighed. "I was going to go see him, but if he is straight, maybe I shouldn't. Oh, that reminds me, when's the Valentine's Day Ball?"

"February fifteenth. The fourteenth is a Friday and they figured everyone would be too tired then." Kent had marked the date on his calendar well before Christmas, along with a list of women he planned to ask -- it was just a question of which one he wanted to ask first. On that note, he reminded himself, he must make a plan to keep Derek away from Carol and any other bio major. It wouldn't do for someone who'd seen his true colors to be literally in bed with the competition, not when the departmental award for highest GPA was practically his already. Maybe, he mused, Nancy could be of help with that. "Why?" he asked, doing his best to sound innocent. "Thinking of asking Derek as a peace offering? I think that's a great idea."

"The exact opposite!" Nancy exclaimed with that cheerleader's grin of hers that had at least let Kent understand why Derek had fallen for her. "I care about Derek, but I don't want to have to turn him down yet again. It's for his own good, really. I'll just have to be careful around him until after the ball, and make sure I don't see him during the ball."

"Would it kill you to dance with him once?" Kent did care about his old friend, as long as it didn't get in the way of anything he wanted. "It'd mean the world to him, and he knows you're never going to fall in love with him. What's one nice memory?"

"I don't trust him not to fall for me again. We don't have the chemistry, and he just doesn't get that. Any chance you could set him up with someone else, Kent? He's too shy to ask anyone himself, you know."

"I'll see what I can do." Kent had no such intentions whatsoever, but he'd figured out long ago that Nancy was just as manipulative as he was. So he knew better than to just say no, since his own reaction to that was to just dig his heels in more.

Nancy gave him her patented tilted head and grin look, the one she'd always used for telling guys ever-so-sweetly to fuck off. "Thanks, Kent. You're a real pal. I'm really glad you and Derek were able to get over your differences, you know."

"Me too," Kent said. After all, how else would he know to keep Derek away from Carol? But for the moment that story about the guy from Harvard ought to do the trick. Poor little Derek always did have a major inferiority complex about the Ivies, after all.

Derek, for his part, made no effort to find Nancy or to avoid her. And for the first three days of classes, he didn't see her. That was just fine with him, as she'd left him with a lot of bitterness last spring. He'd done his best to understand that she'd rather keep her distance from most of Neil's friends after he dumped her, after all, but hadn't they been close friends in their own right?

Derek had thought so anyway. But try as he might, he hadn't been able to interest her in doing anything together -- unless she thought Neil might be involved. Derek was still kicking himself for trying so hard for so long when she obviously just didn't care that much about him. But the semester in London had finally broken the chains, and he was more than content to give back just what he'd gotten from Nancy for those long and lonely weeks last spring: absolutely nothing.

He was also content to go to track practice for the time being. It was two weeks to the Jimmy Soul Memorial Party, and he had some hopes yet that Coach Meller would catch wind of the whole thing and tell Victor to grow the hell up.

It hadn't happened by Wednesday afternoon, when he saw Neil coming out of the communal shower at the far end of the locker room. "There was plenty of room in this one," Derek said.

"And plenty of privacy in that one," Neil said. "Man, I did it! I asked Karen to the Jimmy Whatshisname party."

"You're not really going through with that, are you?" Derek was disgusted but, he admitted to himself, not exactly surprised.

"Man, it's one party!" Neil said, sliding his boxers on under his towel. Derek, who had removed his towel, took no notice; he was used to Neil's modesty. "She'll probably even have some of her friends there. Just please tell me you haven't invited Nancy?"

"Haven't even seen her," Derek said.

"Fuck yeah? You haven't?"

"And I don't really want to. I thought we were best friends, but I thought wrong." Derek pulled on his t-shirt and sweater in one go. "No sense in making a fool of myself about it."

"Good attitude," Neil said. "Want me to see if I can get one of Karen's friends for you?"

"I told you, I'm not going to that party," Derek said.

"Aw, Derek, I didn't even hear that!" came Victor's voice from over his shoulder, and they both turned to see him standing behind them, still swathed in his towel.

"I'm afraid you did, Victor," Derek said. "Don't expect me to believe you'll kick me off the team for that, either. It's a cute joke, but enough is enough."

"Don't make me do that to you, Derek," Victor said. "I like you, dude, but tradition is tradition."

"Yeah, whatever, Victor." Derek slipped on his loafers. "Dinner, Neil?"

"Please."

Derek ignored Victor's final warning as they headed out of the phys ed building. But as soon as they were out in the snow, Neil picked up where he'd left off. "You're not really going to try to call his bluff on this, are you? You know he will can you from the team."

"It's a good job to lose, then," Derek said. "I mean the whole thing is so thoughtless and sexist!"

"Man, it's only a party," Neil said. "Let me at least talk to Karen for you?"

"Tell me this," Derek said. "Does this Karen gal know why you asked her?"

"Course not!" Neil laughed. "How rude would that be?"

"Then what are you going to tell her when she finds out?"

"What do I care about that?" Neil was still laughing. "Besides, she has a sense of humor."

The phys ed building was on Nancy and Kent's side of campus, so they ate at their dining hall. Derek was busy with the Italian vinaigrette at the salad bar when the inevitable finally happened: he looked up and caught Nancy's eye. She was seated at a table with four guys he didn't know, and much to his surprise she was giving him that same smile she'd always given him back when she and Neil were together. Derek returned the grin and nodded, and then set his salad bowl on his tray and turned to join the team at their table.

He opted to sit at the far end of the table from Neil, rather than risk telling his best friend what he really thought of him right now. This put him in the thick of a clutch of freshmen who had heard his name last fall but hadn't met him, and he welcomed the chance to get to know them instead.

He was in the midst of regaling them with tales of London when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Derek!"

His heart leapt at that too-familiar voice, but he kept his cool as he looked up. "Hey, Nancy. How was last semester?"

"It was great, but why didn't you email me from London?"

"Because I wrote to you over the summer and you never replied?"

"Geez, Derek, I never knew you to give up so easy! Listen, I'd love to hear more about it, if you're free sometime this week?"

"I hear he needs a date for a party we're having on the first of Feb!" one of the freshmen piped up.

"Nah!" Derek smiled through his irritation. "She's not interested in that, guys!"

"Probably not, with that attitude!" Nancy said, looking for all the world like she might well say yes if he did ask. But, Derek reminded himself, he had seen that look before.

"Yeah, I'm probably not going to that party anyway," Derek said.

"Oh, you should, Derek! You need to bond with the team, don't you?" Nancy looked absolutely encouraging.

"I'll think about it. Anyway, Nancy, I'll be seeing you around?"

"Come by my room sometime to tell me about London, will you?"

"Sure," Derek lied. "See you then."

"You know, I'm taking Scott LeClair's class this semester. Rock history? I could use your help with paper ideas."

"Don't say anything nice about Frank Zappa. That'll piss him off. I think they met once and Zappa was a real prick with him."

"Thanks! Later, Derek!" She rubbed his shoulder flirtatiously, just the way he'd always longed for her to do a year or so before.

"Why didn't you ask her to the Jimmy Soul party?" one of the freshmen asked as soon as she was gone.

"Because there's no way I'm going to that thing with anyone," Derek said. "Besides, she doesn't want to go out with me."

"She sure sounded like she did," said one of the others.

"That's because Neil's at the other end of the table," Derek said. "That's what she was really up to. Trying to make him jealous."

"And you know this how?" asked the one who'd brought up the party with Nancy.

"Very painful experience. But forget about that. How was cross country last fall?"

Kent was up to his eyeballs in genetics homework when the knock came at his door. "Kent?"

Kent stood up. It was Nancy. "Hey there," he said. "What's up?"

"Do you know anything about any track team parties that are coming up?"

"No idea, except that they tend to be a bunch of assholes about things. Why don't you ask Derek that?"

"I just saw him at dinner, and some guy practically ordered him to ask me to their next party, but he didn't do it."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Kent asked. "Didn't you want him to leave you alone?"

"Not completely," Nancy whined. "I mean, I'd have said no, but he could've asked me. And he didn't even mention the Valentine's Day Ball."

"Isn't that what you want?"

Nancy sighed. "I guess so. Maybe he forgot about it. Anyway, I'm curious about this party they're having, that he says he isn't even going to go to."

"Derek always says that about every party, every dance, and then he always does go and have a great time," Kent said. "You and I probably wouldn't understand. It's an introvert thing."

"Must be," Nancy said. "But I wonder why he didn't even ask, or even come see me all this time."

"We've only been back four days," Kent said.

"It never took him that long to track me down before," Nancy said. "He's acting really weird."

"And giving you exactly what you want," Kent said.

"Yeah." Nancy sounded as disappointed as Kent had ever heard her. She turned and left without another word, leaving him flummoxed as to what she was after.

Not that he couldn't find out if he wanted to, of course. But did he care? Kent took a moment to sit back and think of it. At the airport, hadn't Derek acted just a little bit too happy to hear about Carol living on his floor? Could that have something to do with his loss of interest in Nancy? Or was that just his own imagination? Kent wasn't sure. But there was doubt, and Kent didn't like doubt.

He also did not like the idea of Derek dating any bio major in their class. Derek knew too much about what Kent was willing and able to do to get ahead. But what could he do if Carol and Derek did start to fall for one another? The possibility was real. Those two were both a couple of hopeless romantics, after all. Nancy, a poli-sci major who hadn't even taken any science courses since freshman year, was much safer. She'd never fall for Derek, of course, and evidently he knew it now. But if any hope could be rekindled in his heart...that was what Kent would have to do. It sounded like she was willing to make that happen, too, if only so she could have the pleasure of shooting him down again. Kent wasn't crazy about putting his friend in that position, but something had to be done to keep Derek and Carol apart.

It was just a question of how. This mystery party of his was probably a good answer. Kent wrote himself a note to find out just what the story was once he had a free moment.

One thing about the prospect of getting kicked off the track team, Derek thought as he slipped his favorite doo-wop CD into his player the next afternoon: it would free up a lot more time for studying. He could certainly use that. His grades had improved a lot in London and he wanted to keep them that way.

Before hunkering down on his bed to study until practice, he went to the door to close it. But when he saw Carol's door across the hall and remembered her comment about his CD collection, he decided against it. If she liked what she heard and wanted to come by for a studybreak, Derek decided, he'd really like that. She had never aroused any strong feelings in him one way or the other before, but he didn't appreciate the way Neil or Kent had talked about her the other day. Something about hearing other people, especially women, put down like that tended to make Derek want to see something more positive in them -- especially a gal like Carol who had never been anything but pleasant in that one class they'd had together.

He wasn't crazy about being called "Doo Wop", but there were worse things to be known for.

So Derek was reminded only minutes later when a knock came at the door. "You got your CDs out of storage, I hear!" It was Carol, once again dressed in a peasant skirt and tights and an angora sweater -- was she really looking awfully cute, or was that just his defiance against Neil and Kent?

Derek didn't care. He got up from his bed and welcomed her in. "Yes, just listening to my favorite doo-wop mix for the first time since last spring." He handed her the jewelcase. "I thought of this one a lot over the summer, and in London."

Carol looked at the number on the machine, and then at the jewelcase. "The Nutmegs," she said. "Never heard of them." Then she read the song title. "'Story Untold'."

"Yep," Derek said. "All about pining for a gal who never loved you. Songs like this saved my sanity a couple of times last year."

"It's none of my business, but was this because of Neil's ex?" Carol asked. "I used to see the three of you together all the time."

"You've got my number," Derek said with a wry chuckle. "My own fault, falling for my best friend's girl, though."

"Like I said, none of my business," Carol said. "But you could do better than her anyway. No offense, but any girl could see she was the type who fell for guys like Neil for exactly the reasons they should've stayed away from them."

"I had that thought so many times last spring!" Derek agreed. "But I'll tell you what, I eventually got it through my head, you know, love is blind, and it makes no sense trying to be logical about it. Sorry, I know that's probably the last thing a science major wants to hear." He laughed, hoping she would take it as a joke.

She did, and she laughed along with him. "That's what I love about you humanities majors, so much more in touch with yourselves about romance! Yeah, that all makes perfect sense, and I'm glad you figured that out about...sorry, what's her name?"

"Nancy. And having a crush on her while she was with Neil, well, you can see why I was so fond of songs like this."

"It's beautiful." Carol crouched down to have a look at the rest of his collection in his bookcase. "Orioles, Flamingoes, Ravens...what was it with naming your group after a bird, anyway?" she asked.