Romance in 1-2-3-4

-- SJ

Journal entry
Page type: Notebook
Association: Teenagerhood

When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to play "the Game." Which looks like something from a Stephen King novel. Trust me: it wasn't that exciting. But then, neither was my teenagerhood.

Our "game" was a variation of that schoolyard classic MASH, but without things like cars or houses to clunk you down in the real world. First we'd list our names, then a matching number of boys' names, then the same number of places, actions, and songs. We hardly ever varied the elements, so a typical Game looked like this:

Sara
Friend A
Friend B
Friend C

Silicon
RBFC
Bromine
Radium

(We used code names for the boys in case our Game was discovered. We were silly, but we weren't stupid.)

Kissing
Dancing
Hugging
Fighting

England
The park
Football Game
Grocery store parking lot

Unchained Melody
Stand By Me
Release Me
Everything I Do I Do It For You

(The list of songs almost never changed; eventually we just abbreviated them. Which is why I still refer to the Bryan Adams' song as Eididify)

Next, we numbered each list 1-4, but in random order. So our names might be numbered 1-2-3-4, while the boys' names were 4-2-1-3, and so on. Once all the numbers were assigned, the results were tallied:

"Sara and Bromine Fighting in England to SBM.
A and Radium dancing in the parking lot to Eididify.
B and RBFC hugging at the park to UM
C and Silicon kissing at a football game to RM"

Then we'd giggle over the results. In this case, I'd have loved B's result -- RBFC was my favorite, as was Unchained Melody. But I was happy "fighting" with Bromine, whom I actually liked quite a lot but wouldn't admit it. C's was funny because Silicon was a football player -- what was he doing kissing her during a game? I guess that's why "Release Me" was playing. And Radium could actually dance, which A could not.

After we'd enjoyed the results, we'd set it up all over again. We must have done hundreds of those Games on into high school. We'd even keep "good" results. As one friend remarked, the laws of probability dictated that we'd get a setup we liked if we just did enough of them.

To girls who didn't have boyfriends to kiss, hug, dance with, or fight with, these Games gave us a romantic thrill. And a lot fewer awkward memories.

P.S. My ringtone for Darren's cell is Unchained Melody.