"So how about you? Were you in the concert band when you were a teen the first time around?" asked Nancy.
"I mean, I tried trombone for about two years in elementary school before I just quit. Otherwise I just sorta kept to myself when I was a teen the first time around. I was a bit of a quiet comic book nerd too--which now isn't so much of a big deal, but back then--"
"Yeah, back then that would have gotten you beaten up. I recall... well my older self recalls, just what it would have been like 40 years ago. Thank god that generation is long out of the school system--I would not have wanted to relive my teenage years with them... present company excluded of course," said Nancy when Doug gave her a look.
"Do you like being in band this time around?" she asked, trying to get the conversation back on course.
"Strangely... I kinda do. Like I have a bunch of friends that I just melded in with while we were getting our instruments ready for practice, and it felt like we'd been pals since elementary school, and while we all might be a little different with different interests now, we all love playing in the band and shooting the shit with each other. And I feel like that's the difference this time around--that I had Jake, Ron, and Pete to mess around with at band practice, and that kept me interested in sticking with it, this time around. The last time around all the kids my age were super into practicing, their parents were stage moms and dads about it all, and everything was a little more cutthroat of everyone trying to be the best or to be first chair and all that bull shit, and I guess... I guess all I ever really wanted from band was a bunch of buds to hang out and jam with... and who gives a shit who sits where, and I have that now."
"Funny, I kinda have a similar sort of thing--at least that's what my new memories are telling me in the cheer squad. Erica has been my BFF since preschool and we've done everything together, and she dragged me into doing cheer squad with her... and she turned out to be right that it was a lot of fun. The difference doing activities with friends makes... though, I do wish I'd have gotten a sibling or two like you in this deal."
"Why not pick someone to be one?" asked Doug, thinking of the coin.
"And use the coin on them? I dunno... we both kinda wished for this--well, sorta... I guess I unconsciously wished for it... I'm not too happy about making someone who wouldn't want to be younger, younger," said Nancy.
"Well, okay, but what if you do find someone, what would you want them to be, ultimately?" asked Doug.
"What do you mean?" asked Nancy.
"Well, do you want a big brother?" asked Doug.
"God no! A big brother would get all over protective and try to scare you away, and that's the last thing I'd want."
Doug felt his chest puff out a bit with pride at hearing that. Nancy wanted him, and that really made him feel like he was walking on clouds.
"A little brother might be good--especially if he were the same age as your brothers. They could hang out, we'd have an excuse to meet up often without our parents too worried about what we're doing... yeah that would be nice. But if I were to have an older sibling, I'd want an older sister, cause I'd like to have someone to lean on like that, and little sisters from my first time around can just be outright brats, so it's a no go on a little sister."
"Okay, so big sis, or little bro then, ideally. Or how about both?" asked Doug.
"You may like being the middle child, but I was one the first time around and I'd rather be the oldest or the youngest, and not stuck in the middle."
"Fair point. Isn't it almost time for cheer practice for you?" asked Doug
"It is... you want to stay and watch?" asked Nancy, grabbing his arm and looking at him with puppy dog eyes.
Doug laughed and said, "When you ask like that, how could I say no?"
The cheer squad practice today was out on the football field while the track team was out practicing--which allowed Doug to see his third youthened compatriot, Luis suited up and stretching out before warm ups for the hurdles he was known for being a good candidate for state champion for. Luis gave Doug a wave before smirking, laughing and making kissy faces as a tease. Doug rolled his eyes and situated himself in the lower stands, close enough to the field to watch Nancy and the cheer squad practice, but far enough away to work on some homework which simultaneously was giving him trouble and yet appeared so simple to his brain.
"Come on... I know I used to know how to do these equations," grumbled Doug as he stared at his pre-calc homework, trying to access his old memories but finding that it was little use, he'd just have to crack open the books and refresh his memory and look at whatever notes his teenage version of himself had taken in "class" this morning. That he'd technically not been in and yet remembered being in all at once.
Rubbing his temples, he looked up from his homework for a second, catching Nancy's eye as she was waiting to practice a lift toss with her squad mates. Seeing her seemed to ease the headache and he could think a little more clearly... remembering that his notes from Pre-Calc were in the red notebook, not his textbook. Odd... how being around Nancy just made his younger life feel more... natural. Was it some side effect of the wish putting them together like it had in this reality?
Doug was suddenly able to think his way through the equations a bit easier, remembering the practice equations from his morning class, and working through the problems at an even, if slower pace than he might otherwise have preferred. And then a loud and high pitched whistle broke Doug's concentration, and Doug looked up to see the Athletic Director and Track & Field coach, Dick Williams, drawing the attention of everyone. Although a product of his nickname being more appropriate from a long ago time, Dick lived up to his nickname and had been a horror to deal with when Doug had been principal. The man stood 6' 3" and was generally in good shape for a man in his early sixties and with all gray hairs. His mustache looked like a refugee from a seventies' era porno, and his wardrobe looked like it had stopped evolving in that decade as well, wearing white knee socks, sneakers, short men's shorts, and a polo underneath his school-issued windbreaker. Dick was loud, abrasive, and demanded perfection and complete devotion to the sport--he didn't have any time for those who weren't completely committed to whatever sport he was in charge of in a given season. In the Spring, like now, he lived and breathed track and field, and he was calling over the entire Track and Field team to the stands right by where Doug was sitting.
"Come on Calderon, your parents managed to run across the border fast enough while not getting hit by bullets, you can at least share their hustle," called out Dick when Luis, who'd been flirting with one of Nancy's squad mates, failed to come over.
Doug's attention immediately zeroed in on Dick Williams. His principal brain immediately thinking of the lawsuits from anti-defamation leagues that that mouth could get the school in trouble for, and how inappropriate the sixty-something old man was in saying anything approaching a comment like that. However, unlike what Doug expected from his fellow classmates and former students, for them to stand up and challenge the coach on his comment, most of them just bowed their heads and looked at their feet as Luis made the slow and uncomfortable approach to join the rest of his team. The Cheer Squad looked on in complete and utter shock at how the entire Track and Field team simply shut up and said nothing.
Unable to sit there any longer, as the staring contest between the obviously hurt, angry, defiant, and betrayed Luis and Old Man Dick continued, neither one moving, Doug tore a piece of paper from his notebook, crumpled it up and tossed it at the back of the head of the Athletic Director.
"Who the hell threw that?" asked Dick, turning around immediately to see Doug standing in the stands.
"I did, and I think you ought to shut your racist mouth," said Doug, feeling rather strongly about the subject and rather oddly inspired by what he'd seen on tik tok and other apps about standing up to old racist clowns like this... his older self fully on cheering his younger self taking control.
His comment earned a few whispers from the Track and Field team and look of respect from Luis.
"When I'm through with you, you'll be lucky to be enrolled in any public school in the county," said Dick.
"Go ahead, I've been recording everything on my phone, and I can share everything you said to the world with one click of the button," said Doug, pulling out his phone in a complete and utter bluff, but one which clearly had an effect.
"We're not done with this conversation," promised Dick before turning around to torment the Track & Field team back into submission.
As Doug sat down, surprised that he'd stood up to an adult like that--that definitely wasn't something he'd have done the first time around, but his younger self remembered years of adults teaching him to be an upstander not a bystander and apparently taken everything they'd said to heart.
Perhaps what Dick Williams needed was an education like what Doug was remembering--something which would make him a better person and less of a racist old ass. Then Doug remembered what Nancy had said about wanting a sibling... and how having a little brother would be ideal.
Well, Nancy sorry it's gonna be Dickie, but I think cutting him down in size will be good for his ego and hopefully erase his racism.
Doug knew he was going to wish for Dick Williams to become Nancy's little brother, but before saying anything he'd have to think about how young to make him.