Day 10 - The Practice Date

Lauren Rousseau from MSN News

By the second year, there were three in the Russian class - Margaret, Steve, and Lauren. They had been a much larger group the year before, but most of the rest didn't make it past the first semester. Greg, a music major, dropped out after the first semester since he was only in the class to learn more about pronunciation so he could sing Russian operas. Ron, a football player, stuck it out through the full year because he didn't want to have to start over. Two semesters of a foreign language were required to graduate, and that's as many semesters as Ron was prepared to complete. Most of his football teammates had chosen Spanish or French, languages they believed were easy.

Both Steve and Lauren lived in town. Margaret was from out of town and lived in one of the dormitories. And that meant that Margaret was out of town during the holidays. That's why Lauren ended up being Steve's practice date.

Image by San Diego Shooter via Flickr

Lauren envied Margaret. She had very long blonde hair, real blonde, not the dishwater blonde of Lauren’s. Margaret’s was straight. Lauren had a couple of kinks that she thought spoiled her much shorter chin-length bob. Margaret lived in the dorm; Lauren’s roommate was her younger sister. Margaret joined a sorority. Lauren didn't even dare attend the rush parties because she feared being rejected. Margaret always seemed to have dates on the weekend. Lauren always went out on the weekends with her girlfriends.

Steve asked Lauren out a couple of times, usually during one of those holidays when Margaret was out of town. During one Christmas holiday, he asked Lauren to the Christmas party for employees of the hotel where he worked as the night bookkeeper. He introduced Lauren to blended whiskey, although both Steve and Lauren were still too young to drink legally.  While they were the same age, had graduated from high school together in fact, Lauren always felt Steve was more experienced, more worldly. She felt Steve behaved towards her more like a tutor than a date. But her dates were few and far between, and she liked Steve.

Image by OPUS Hotels via Flickr

When classes resumed after the new year, Margaret mentioned to Lauren that Steve had driven the 60 miles to her home to take her out for New Year’s Eve.  The hotel where he worked had a blow-out New Year’s Eve party where it was no problem for Steve and his date to be served liquor. Lauren didn’t ask whether Steve drove her back home or had reserved a room in addition a table at the hotel.

Then there was the time during the spring break when Steve invited Lauren to attend the weekly Saturday evening dance held at the local Armory. Lauren was surprised as well as pleased. She loved dancing, but she didn’t think Steve did. She was at least partially right. Steve wasn’t all that comfortable dancing, but he made a good effort and they both had a good time.

The next weekend, the first one after classes resumed, Lauren was out Saturday with her girlfriends, at the dance, their usual hangout. And Lauren saw Steve there again, this time with Margaret.

Lauren didn’t know how often Steve went out with Margaret. She saw them often. She never asked Steve if he considered her his practice date. She just assumed.