Will You Go To The Dance With Me? (Part 3 of 6)

Secretly, I was using deodorant, at least some of the time. And I took a bath more often. I even combed my hair with greater earnest each day. But I couldn’t bring myself to tell Charmian how I felt about her. I didn’t know what to do. And I would have been absolutely mortified to ask my parents what to do.
And then I got an idea. I’d ask Charmian to the next school dance. In my family, we knew we weren’t allowed to date until age sixteen. That was the council of the Church and my parents certainly supported that council. My parents figured they had nothing to worry about for a few more years anyway. My Mom probably figured she’d have to pay me to get me to go out with anyone. I had heard that Donny Osmond’s parents allowed him to double date when he turned fifteen. I figured a school dance had a lot more people than a double date so it was okay to ask a girl to a school dance when you were fourteen. Of course I never asked anyone if this was the case. I was an independent thinker and just figured it out myself. It was one of those “don’t ask permission, just claim ignorance later” type things. I’d only been to one of the school dances before. In seventh grade my Mom saw a notice for a school dance. “Billy, are you going to go to this school dance?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Oh, I have too many things to do.”
“Billy,” Mom said, “the school dance is during school. It’s not like it will take up extra time. And I think they’ll have a live band.”
“I think I will just go to the study hall,” I said, “ and read an electronics book.”
“Come on Billy, I’m sure you can read an electronics book some other time.”
“Well, Mom, it’s just that I don’t have enough money.”
“How much does it cost?”
“Fifteen cents.”
“Fifteen cents! Billy I will give you fifteen cents if you just go to hear the drummer.”