Prom went off without a hitch. None of the guys or their girls were Prom King or Queen. But that was OK because after the king and queen were announced, Ava said to them "If you can't be the Prom Queen then you can be the dancing queen."
"Young and sweet only seventeen. Feel that beat on the tambourine oh yeah," chimed in Dawn.
Rachel finished "You can dance. You can ji-ive having the time of your life."
Then all three girls sang "Ooh, see that girl. Watch that scene. Digging the dancing queen" They began a fit of laughter, then took to the floor with each other and danced. Just the three of them. The guys shook their heads at them.
While the girls were dancing, Bobby somehow felt it appropriate to tell his friends "Prom night is the second baby-making night of the year. The first of course is Valentine's Day."
Dutch agreed and began pointing out couples who would be "getting busy". This made Jimmy queasy thinking about those couples. "Some people should just not be in the baby-making business," he stated. His face held an expression of disgust.
As the night wore on, couples began breaking up. Dutch turned to his friends "And this is why I came single." He waggled his eyebrows as a group of crying girls was spotted across the way. Swaggering their way, he acknowledged them with a loud "Hey ladies."
Having had enough of prom, Ava and Johnny said bye to their friends and headed home. Unlike some of them, they have no need for a hotel room. Nor do they care to go to some after-party just to get wasted and hook up. Johnny still cringes from what happened at the last party he went to. So onward to their house, they went.
What Ava didn't know was that her thoughtful husband had planned a surprise. Instead of going directly inside their house, he led her around to the back patio. While she had been away getting prettier, he strung up white twinkle lights and set a stereo on the porch dining table. There was also a bouquet of a dozen red roses waiting for her, which he went inside to grab. He presented them to her and she threw her arms around him and held him.
This was their own"after-party". The two of them with their favorite love songs, dancing under the stars. And they danced, and they danced, until well after two in the morning. They closed their eyes and turned up the volume of their souls, dancing together in each other's arms. Because their love is like that.
While Ava and Johnny enjoyed themselves and were totally loving each other's company, many prom couples were the opposite. In fact, the school is still talking about Ali and Daniel's big breakup. As Tommy puts it "He went down like a cheerleader who sneezed on top of the pyramid."
There are a million things Johnny could say about that breakup, a million brilliant, sarcastic, and mocking things. Instead, he declared, "Wuss. She wrecked the idiot's car and for what? A breakup? Pussy moves like that kill me." The guys agreed. He waved his hand in emphatic gestures. "At least I'm married to my hot wife and don't have to worry about selfish chicks like her anymore."
A week later, one Tuesday afternoon (after soccer practice) everyone (guys and girls) was all sitting around in Johnny's living room. Jimmy, who had been minding his beer, decided to ask Johnny and Ava a serious question. "How did you know that you were it for each other, that you were in love? Why are you so OK with being married?"
Ava eyed him with suspicion. She wondered about this. "Why do you ask Jimmy? Are you in love?" She smiled at him.
He looked right at her and stated "God no. I'm not in love. I broke up with Jenny after prom. I'm graduating and she's not. We're going to be operating in two different worlds. I'm asking for a friend. But seriously, I think we all want to know how did you know?" He emphasized the "you".
Well, this put Ava on notice. A friend could only mean one of the guys in the room. But who? Trying to ignore the "who" part, she grew excited to answer. She loves talking about Johnny and their love for each other. Sharing their "love story" makes her happy and if it can encourage someone, then that's all the better.
"If you aren't willing to look for the light in dark places, without quitting, then you'll never find it." She took Johnny's hand. "Johnny is kind of like that. When people see him they see the Ace Degenerate. When I see him I see this beautiful person. My person. With a big heart, that has such a capacity for love and affection. I knew I loved him in ninth grade, but I wasn't ready for the long-term effects of that. It's sad, but good that we broke up. We had to break up to grow up and be what each other needed in the long run." She looked at him with love. Then caught the faces of her friends, who all looked thoughtful.
Johnny kissed her cheek before he spoke. And of course, his love talk started with "Bullshit. If you want bullshit, then you get bullshit. But if you want crappy things to stop happening to you, then quit welcoming crap into your life. Start requiring more from it. To have the best, you have to be the best. Ava is the best for me." He smiled at her.
"When I saw her, for the first time, there was something about her that made me freeze. When I got to know her, I loved her. Because to know Ava is to love Ava. But she was way up here." He motioned up high with his hand. "And I was way down here. Like she said I also knew I loved her in ninth grade, but I was emotionally immature. Some days I kind of still am, but I've grown a lot since then. Which made this year easier for us." He pulled her into his lap.
She spoke again. "It's not just one moment that's like oh yeah that's why I love him. It's a ton of different things like the way my heart speeds up when I'm near him or the way my eyes always search to find him in a room. The way he makes me nervous, in a good way, or the way he makes me feel like I'm the only girl in the whole world that's important."
Interrupting her, he said, "You are. Babe, to me you are the world." They pecked each other on the lips.
Continuing she told them, "I also love who he is as a person. I don't always agree with some of the things he does, or some of the things he says, but no one is perfect. There are going to be things we don't like about everyone. But my heart knows Johnny's my person. I love him." She sighed wistfully.
"It's funny because last year, and in tenth grade, I was just a girl. A girl who was looking for love. Real, true love because that's what every girl wants. Ridiculous, life-disrupting, devouring, profound, I-can't-live-a-day-longer-without-you kind of love. We all want that." She spoke passionately from the heart. Turning to Johnny, she admitted "And I had it with him. I just chose to ignore it until I was ready to do something about it."
Johnny sniffed, rubbed his eyes, then told them "I know Ava's it for me. I love her in this huge let her change the radio station in my car, Â have the last slice of pizza, clean the toilets so she doesn't have to, sing You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling on top of a table in a karaoke bar, and take the cold side of the bed kind of love." His friend's eyebrows raised at those words.
"But that's nothing because even though I tried to replace her, true love can never be replaced. My love for her is beyond any love I've ever had. It's this deep soul connection shit. It's hard to put into words. Her hotness and beauty radiate her heart, and I love that. And it's all the millions of little things that make me love her, like bringing me lunch every day. Who does that?" He looked around the room in question.
Then he turned back to his wife. He locked eyes with her. "I love Ava because she feels like home. She's my home. I know what love is because of her. She loves me and teaches me, love. It's not always easy and sometimes very messy. We work hard at this thing called marriage every day, but I do it because I love her. I love her and want her every day, for the rest of my life."
Ava wiped tears and brought her eyes back up to his. "If you love someone, you tell them and show them. Everyday. Even if you're scared to death. Even if you're upset with the person. Even if you have no clue what you're doing. You never let a day go to waste. Let your love be loud and go from there. Because you're not guaranteed tomorrow. You love them while they can hear you and see you." She held Johnny's hand and swallowed hard.
The conversation wouldn't be complete without one of Johnny's true words of wisdom. "Yeah, because if you go blind you can't see the love any more. That would be really sad." His expression is sincere, which made Ava hold in her laughter.
But she wrapped the love talk up with "Eventually all of the pieces will fall into place and everything just sort of clicks. Until thenâ-"
Dutch brought it on home with his interruption. "Party hard. Live it up. Because then you're going to be shackled to one babe for the rest of your life. Which looking at our fearless leader, sitting with his old ball and chain, might be a good thing."
With her mouth dropped open and huffing out a breath at him, Ava stated "No! No, don't listen to him. That's not true. Until then you just live. And believe that everything happens for a reason and it will all work out. You just have to believe it will."
After that, they settled in and watched The Ghostbusters on the VCR. Ava rented it on the way home. She announced to everyone "I want a Slimer. He's cute." The guys could not believe she said that. Then she remembered something. "Oh! Oh, I can have a Slimer! I can have a Slimer milkshake at Carl's Junior. They're still selling them, even months after the movie cause they're so popular. I heard that on the radio the other day." That made Tommy's mouth water. Now he wants one too.
The next day was Johnny's last soccer game, the championship tournament game. This game had more supporters than any game the whole season. The bleachers were full and then some. Ava sat with Johnny's mama. The two of them chatted about a lot of things. Things that were really random like bouquets of flowers, colors, how she feels about rose petals, and what are your thoughts on tulle." So random...
They both cheered when Johnny scored and also when the team won. It was a close game until half, then West Valle blew them away. Johnny went out to celebrate with his teammates, while Ava stopped by Carl's Junior. She got her Slimer milkshake and enjoyed a night of doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was a win-win all around.
Then Friday is the last golf match of the season. It's against Robin's team. This time Ava is more than prepared. She's been practicing and practicing for this possibility of beating Robin today. It's the last chance she'll ever get to beat her and she wants it so bad she can taste it.
So there she was on the back nine with their scores tied up. It's nerve-wracking but exciting all the same. The effort, she has to give maximum effort to this. No time for playing it safe. Today they're playing at the Beverly Hills country club today. Which is East Valley's "home turf". Ava has played these greens before but they aren't her favorite. There's a lot of slopes. Those make for possible difficulty.
As she looked at the ball on the green, she reminded herself to stay focused on the mission. She took a shot to the hole and it was bad. It was a poor shot, but the ball had a good break. It was crazy. There was no way that ball should have gone where it landed, but it did. Right close to the hole. All she has to do is tap it in. Insane!
After she tapped the ball in, her mind let go of playing against Robin. She's not playing that game anymore. Instead, she playing her own game. She's playing against par. Par is her opponent and she really wants to beat her best score, which could easily happen. All it requires is focus.
At hole fifteen she heard rounds of applause. Turning to Dawn, she asked, "What's that all about?" Dawn shrugged. The two of them are playing one after the other today.
The coach said "Robin just finished up. She hit a good game. Now it's up to you." What her coach didn't say was that Robin ended up having a score of 80. If Ava holds on she could beat that with a score in the range of 65-78. So Coach Leslie kept that to herself, no pressure.
Ava continued playing, trying to beat her par. Her best par ever was 75. That's no slouch work, especially as a female competitor. So she kept setting her balls on the tees and driving as hard as she could. All the while remembering to make sure to relax. As Dawn reminds her, "There's no need to throw your shoulder out."
The crowd had gathered around her. A crowd that included her mother, Ms. Laura, Johnny, the guys, Rachel, East Valley players who are finished (including Robin), coaches, LPGA scouts (a total nerve wrecker), and other folks. They all became blocked out. It's just here and now with her and par.
On and on it went to the last hole. It was there tension grew in the crowd. If she were looking she would see Dutch bouncing on his feet, Johnny wiping his face with his hand (then running it through his hair), Tommy pulling at his hair, both her mom and mother-in-law holding hands, Rachel cutting Bobby's circulation off, and her own coaches looking anxious. Except for Jimmy. Jimmy never looks anxious about anything. He's always Mr. Cool. She would have seen these things if she were looking. But she wasn't. So Dawn simply encouraged her. "You've got this Ava. Block it all out and just play."
Just play. Just play. Same as always, she inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly, clearing her mind and picturing the target. Head positioned, feet planted, the driver raised back and three, two, one... Just like Arnold Palmer, she boomed it with a massive power hit. It landed exactly where she wanted it to go. Either an opening eagle or birdie would be amazing. With a huge smile, she gathered her bag and put her driver back inside it.
On the putting green, she's ready to end this. Dinner is calling her name. Since she hadn't been paying attention to the score anymore, she had no clue why all the shouts were heard the minute she tapped it in. She had literally just turned to Coach Leslie when she felt arms surrounding her. Those same arms began lifting her up in the air. She knows those arms well. They're her favorite place. Johnny twirled her around.
That was when she knew she had won, finally. Hearing him say "You won Babe! You did it!" made her emotional. Feeling his joy and pride brought tears to her eyes. Once he put her down, she glanced at the scoreboard. Yep. She won. 65 to 80. But that wasn't what mattered. She beat her own par. She shot a 65. Un-freaking-believable.
As for Robin, she was true to her word. She walked up to Ava and didn't shake her hand. No. She hugged her and voiced the words "I'm glad it was you who beat me. You played a great game." And that made her cry too. Best opponent ever.
When real people fall down in life or lose a game, they get back up and keep going. That's what separates the champs from the chumps. Everything in our lives shapes us, every detail. If we were to reverse any of it, then we wouldn't be who we are. So we make mistakes. We make wonderful memories and we make friends from enemies. But we never let the past take away from where we're going.
If Ava had wanted to, she knew she could have focused on winning instead of beating her own game. Because sometimes the most challenging and significant game is the one you have trying to best your own self. Like love, when you love yourself that's the most rewarding relationship. And if you happen to find real, ridiculous, all-consuming love with someone then that's just icing on the cake.
This win and more importantly Johnny, are just icing on her own cake. She allowed herself to be immersed in the sea of congratulations. Hugs, handshakes, and tears were all there. She allowed herself to feel a bit of pride in her accomplishment, but then she put it away. Because tomorrow she'll be back at it preparing for the next golf match (in college). Right now though everything is on par.