[Fiction]

[Execution Cover]

April, 1987: School Lunch

An Excerpt from Execution, Texas: 1987

LaTonia Freeman bolted ahead of Seeger, slicing through the air with her lunch tray to lay claim on the Curse's only free table. "Sorry, Troy," she sighed as she slid into the blue-and-gray bench. Troy and Seeger nodded; they were distant stepcousins of some sort through Joan's side of the family. Troy skulked away. Seeger settled across from his best friend.

The Curse was the fast-food property directly across from the expressway from Execution High School's front steps, on the terminal side of an L-shaped stripmall that also housed the Beauty Barn, Karla's Kuntry Krullers, and Fashion Fantasy. Seeger and Cordelia called it Alliteration Alley. Despite the school's constant customer base, businesses that moved in to the Curse inevitably failed. The property changed hands annually. An ex-football player's entrepreneurial venture marked its current incarnation: Tony Hill's Cowboy Catfish. Last year it had been Char-Dog, sophomore year it had been Wok 'n Roll, and Seeger's freshman year it had been Fatburger. Execution kids measured their lives in food from the Curse.

"Too hot to eat this shit outside." LaTonia scowled and stuck out her tongue. Seeger nodded, grimacing as he spit a scalding hush puppy into his palm. LaTonia shook her head. "Boy ain't got no home training a-tall."

Seeger's savior and co-conspirator in Honor Society, LaTonia had found the other "gifted" students as hopelessly inane as Seeger did. Together, they'd endured advance placement classes and associated activities she'd deemed essential to becoming her family's first powerlawyer. Seeger had no such aspirations, but since his father was a teacher and Seeger's aptitude percentiles high, he'd always been placed in the AP classes and honorary clubs. He'd tried to make the best of them. LaTonia and Seeger's study sessions usually devolved into scheming for parties only their circle of half a dozen friends would enjoy: a seventies Groove-a-Thon, replete with Pam Grier videos, Curtis Mayfield albums, and compulsory, marathon rounds of the Mod Squad board game. Going out with Cordelia had cut down on evening party-planning sessions, but since Cordelia spent her days at nearby North Texas State University, LaTonia and Seeger had plenty of time together at school.

"So," she said, snapping her paper napkin in the air and draping it across her lap, "what'd I miss at prom?"

Seeger swished Pineapple Crush around his mouth. He shrugged. "The VFW looking like it does for every other dance. Waiting in line for pictures: it was a fairy tale theme, you know? Prom Committee didn't want us art fags involved, so they did the set themselves. They built this backdrop that was all curled-paper spires for castles and shit. It looked like where the trolley goes in Mister Roger's Neighborhood."

"Meow-meow prom?" LaTonia purred in a feline singsong, imitating the kids'-show puppet. "Meow corsage? Meow-meow Everclear? Meow-meow rape?"

Seeger slapped his forehead. "Rape! I knew I forgot something, we were so busy with the rubber chicken -- "

"What you doing with a rubber chicken?"

"The food -- "

"I though y'all weren't going to eat?"

"I was still hungry."

LaTonia shook her head. "One day your metabolism's going to crash and you'll end up looking like me."

"Is that how you become Negro?"

LaTonia pelted him with a catfish plank.

"Oh!" he said. "The big deal was that Student Council brought in this DJ from Dallas who spins at Klub Sprx."

"OOOOH," LaTonia gasped, eyes wide.

"Supposedly. But he played total crap, worse than they play there, so it didn't make any difference at all. He played 'Hot for Teacher!'" Seeger shuddered. "Anyway, we just ate, got pictures, and then took off for Dallas; Cordelia got us in to Uz!"

"How was the X?"

Seeger scrunched up his face in recall, chewing a hush puppy. "Mmmm...It was really wavy, and not that speedy, so that was nice, but coming down seemed scratchier than usual. I ended up with a stomachache from all the grapefruit juice. I had real trippy dreams."

Seeger frowned, remembering the pre-X truck-wreck vision at dinner. He wasn't sure it had really happened. Here and now, at a fast-food hut across from school, gossiping with his best friend, surrounded by the jerks he'd sat in classes with all his life, the collision seemed ephemeral and vaguely ridiculous, like his post-X dreams of getting sexy with his mother. Eech. He shook his head.

LaTonia peered out through the grime-streaked glass. "Ashton used to go to Uz a lot with his ex; she was a real X-girl."

"Y'all should meet us there sometime! I can't believe you're still hiding him from all of us," Seeger slouched into his bench, sulking.

LaTonia rolled her eyes. "Remember? He doesn't know I'm in high school, OK?" She knocked knees with him under the table. "Maybe I'll tell him this summer, after graduation. 'Sides, you're one to talk about keeping secrets, when you've got a fantastic girlfriend already."

Seeger sat up. "What?"

LaTonia cleared her throat. "Kent Lozone?"

"Oh." Seeger looked around the restaurant. His voice dropped. "Nothing's happened between Kent and me. We hardly even know each other." Seeger forked coleslaw into his mouth, scowling.

"Yeah," LaTonia said, eyeing him, "but you're in love with him."

Mouth full of mayonnaise and cabbage, Seeger nodded glumly.

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