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Show 117. There was silence. Then Carol Sue, big-hearted Carol Sue, spoke up. "Yeah, hi, Gayle." It wasn't much of a welcome. Stephanie couldn't bring herself to squeeze out anything at all. Apparently, no one else could either. "You missed all the events," Laney moved around the fire to Claudia. "The Bar Maid's Race, the Gay Gallop, the Sinner's Slalom . . ." she named them off on her fingers. "Oh, wow!" Claudia giggled, "we should've got here sooner!" Gayle, acting like she'd done Claudia a big favor just to come with her, scanned the long tubing hill above them. She's looking for JD, Stephanie thought. Then Chic surprised all of them. "Hey, Gayle, let's you and me go slidin' in one of them big inner tubes. C'mon, it won't hurt you to have a little fun!" Stephanie thought she looked glad to be noticed, anyway. "Sure," she smiled icily. Chic was up to something, Stephanie could see that. But when Carol Sue whispered, "What got into him?" all Stephanie did was shrug. they'd just started the climb up the gully when JD came into view driving the snowmobile with Fred on behind. For the first time tonight, he looked like he was having fun. "Vroom . . . vroom . . ."he gunned it, making like a cycle demon, then cut the engine and sat there laughing with Fred. Stephanie ran across the snow to be the one to tell him, leaving the others by the fire. "Hop on, Steph, I'll take you for a ride," JD said. "Don't you wish we had one of these?" "Wait a minute," she got a firm hold on the handlebars, as if to keep him there awhile. "Claudia just came. And guess who's with her?" She didn't wait for him to guess. "Gayle!" JD's expression hardly changed at all. "So? Gayle's here. Bully for her." "Well," Stephanie backed off, "I thought you'd want to know." He reached out and patted her on the head. "Thanks." "You and Gayle seeing one another any more?" Fred asked, sliding off from behind JD. "Nope." |