Chapter Text
It’s a great day. Beautiful resort, beautiful beach, the sound of seagulls in the distance. Eddie Diaz, beautiful as always, lying on a towel, listening to “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” through his portable radio. Evan Buckley, Buck, handsome as ever, ending his shift at the hamburger stand, changing into his street clothes.
Eddie, still at the beach, is there, looking forsaken, as if he’d been forgotten, staring out at the water, listening to his music. Buck is frantically running down the beach away from the pier, quickly buttoning and zipping up his clothes to make himself look presentable.
Just as Eddie was about to leave, Buck slides down a sand dune right in front of him, and grabs and pulls Eddie into a hug. After a minute, Buck pulls back, out of breath from the running.
“I thought you forgot,” Eddie said.
Buck, still out of breath, replied, “How could I forget?”
“I mean, you know what they say about summer romances.”
“No, uh, what do they say? Buck asks, confused.
Eddie glances away, looking disappointed. This just makes Buck even more confused.
“I have to leave in the morning, Buck. My father wants to beat all of the Labor Day traffic,” Eddie finally says, after a beat of silence.
They look at each other for a moment, with eyes full of longing and enamour. Buck then kneels, pulling Eddie with him. He looks into his eyes longingly before pulling him into a deep kiss. After a moment, Eddie pulls back.
“Buck, please don’t spoil this.”
“Eddie, this isn’t spoiling it. This is simply making it better.”
They sit side by side on the beach, staring out at the water crashing into the sand. Buck is going to throw his arm around Eddie’s shoulder, but then remembers something. Something is very wrong. He freezes, arm midair, causing Eddie to turn his head towards him in confusion.
“Uh, Buck? What is it?”
Buck looks down, embarrassed. Eddie puts a hand on his shoulder, thumb digging into his collarbone, and forces him to look at him.
“Whatever it is, Buck, you know you can tell me.”
Buck looks up, staring at the sky before sighing and looking at his feet.
“I’m left-handed.”
Eddie just stares at him for a second.
“Huh?”
Buck motions towards Eddie, miming swapping seating positions. Eddie understands and they swap sides.
“So, left-handed.”
“Yeah, Eddie. Left-handed. In a world of right-handed people.”
Eddie glances down, smiling and chuckles before pulling Buck into a tender kiss.
“This feels like the last time we’re ever going to see each other. Going to two different schools feels like two different worlds; imagine two different countries in completely different continents and time zones.”
Eddie turns and looks at Buck, making intense eye contact.
“God, Buck, is this really the end? Does it have to end?”
Buck grabs his face with his hands gently and smiles at him, keeping eye contact.
“No, Eddie. This is only the beginning.”
Eddie smiles at him and pulls him into a sweet and gentle kiss.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Maddie pulls up to Rydell and parks in her spot. She grabs her Pink Ladies jacket from her passenger seat and pulls it on. She checks her lipstick in the mirror before opening the door and stepping out. Ravi and Julie come up to her from their own cars.
“Hey Mads!” Ravi says.
“Glad to be back, huh, Mads?” Julie asks.
“You know, it was great when we were freshmen. Good when we were sophomores. Okay when we were juniors. But now, since we’re seniors, it’s just boring. So boring. I just can’t wait to get this year over with. I’m ready for my life to really begin.”
Maddie heaves a big sigh and starts walking towards the school, with Ravi and Julie walking beside her, one on each side. As they walk to the school, all of the excited young girls and boys rush past them and look as if envying their position in the Pink Ladies.
All of the T-Birds, except for Buck, meet at the steps, coming from different directions, all happy and in high spirits. Albert has his lunch bag, which, when Chim gets there, he steals and starts tossing to the rest of the boys. Then, Chim opens up the bag and fake gags at the smell.
“Whoaaa, Albert, you are not supposed to eat this. You should bury it.”
“Hey now, Chim, that is a homemade lunch,” Albert says, reaching for his lunch.
“Dang, did your mom dig up a carcass to give to you?” Hen says jokingly.
“She does it every year on the first day! You guys know this!” Albert says, finally grabbing the bag from Chim and checking to make sure he didn’t do any damage to his lunch.
“So, Chim, where were you all summer?” Hen asks.
“Damn, what are you, the FBI?”
“I was just asking, man!”
“I was working, which is more than you nerds can say,” Chim says defensively.
“Working?” Albert asks, doubting it.
“That’s right, you moron. I was lugging boxes over at Bargain City. I am saving up to buy me some new wheels,” Chim responds, feeling really proud of himself.
“Well, Chim,” Hen starts, rubbing her hands together, “wanta hear what i did?”
She looks around at the boys, eager to tell her story. But, before she can start, the boys start to look away.
They’re looking at Buck, who has just arrived and is crowding up against the wall feeling up some random girl, who keeps looking over at her friend that’s giggling beside her.
“Yo, Buckley!” Chim yells, getting Buck’s attention.
Slowly, Buck turns towards the T-Birds, grinning and gives them a nod before playfully slapping the girl on the ass and winking at her friend, then starts walking towards the group. The group all looks much more excited to see him than he does to see them, but he is still excited. He missed his friends.
The group all start playfully pounding on Buck, welcoming him back home.
“Man, isn’t it great to be back?” Hen says.
“Are you kidding? After a summer at the beach? And let me tell you, Hen, there is a whole lot more to lifeguarding than lifeguarding….if you know what I mean,” Buck says, winking at her.
“Oh I know what you mean. It’s just so tough when they won’t leave you alone,” Albert responds, clapping Buck on the back.
“Yeah the only thing that won’t leave you alone, Albert, are the flies. Be quiet; I want to hear about the beach,” Hen says playfully pushing Albert away.
“Nah, I wouldn’t want to bore you guys with all of the horny details.”
“No, Buck, bore us!” Hen says, grabbing and shaking Buck, making him chuckle and pull back.
He looks up and winks at Chim and the rest of the group.
“I mean, I did a lot of biology experiments, let me put it that way. I found out what exactly biology is all about…and it sure isnt earthworms.”
With that, Buck heads toward the building, with the others trailing behind him, barely missing Karen and Eddie walking up the stairs.
“So this is Rydell High,” Eddie says with a Texan accent, looking up at the architecture of the building.
“You’ll love it, Eds,” Karen says, gently pushing into him with her shoulder.
‘I loved Sacred Heart,” he says under his breath. “I just don’t understand why they just had to wait until my senior year to move for work…Still, I’m no stranger to heartbreak.”
“Why? You got psoriasis or something?”
As they walk down the hallway, continuing their conversation, they come across the office.
“Oh, you need to check in with the office to find out your homeroom. Just pray that you don’t get Lynch the math teacher,” Karen says, pointing out the office.
Eddie turns to her before he goes inside. “Why? Is she bad?”
“Hmm. Bad? All i do know is that she flunks people in homeroom. Didn’t even know that was possible.”
Eddie grimaces before opening the door and heading inside. In the office, there are so many teachers. He sees the secretary looking through a bunch of files at her desk. An older man walks in.
“Martha, where are the new schedules? Do you have them?” he asks the secretary.
She looks up nervously and smiles shortly.
“I swear i just had them, Bobby.” She starts looking around at all of the papers everywhere before making an ‘aha’ sound and pulling out a big stack of papers.
“Oh here they are. Right here. Gosh, if they were a snake, I’d have been bitten twice.”
Bobby takes them from her before pausing, glancing over the schedules, and raising an eyebrow.
“Martha, these are the last spring semester’s schedules we never found. I guess we’re going to find this semester’s next spring.”
He shakes his head and walks back towards all of the other teachers. They start talking about how long until Christmas vacation, and when one of the teachers ask how long until the vacation, Eddie can’t stop himself from saying,
“Eighty-six.’
All of the teachers look over at him in surprise. Eddie instantly blushes, feeling the heat from his head to his toes.
“I counted,” he says embarrassed.
Bobby looks over at him and smiles.
“Can we help you, son?”
“Um, this is my first day? I need to know where to go for homeroom.”
“Oh, okay, yes. Well, I’m Principal Nash, and welcome to Rydell! So, tell us a bit about yourself,” Bobby says, walking back over to him.
“Oh, um, well I…”
“Oh, here you are, son. These are the forms to fill out.” He hands him a stack of papers, presumably forms to fill out, and walks back over to all of the teachers.
Eddie looks down, going over the forms. He reaches towards his bag, before realizing he didn’t have a pencil. He glances over at Martha, who is still frantically going through giant stacks of paper.
“Um, do you have a pencil I could use?”
Martha then glances at him, before looking around and making sure nobody is looking. When she notices that no one is paying attention to them, she pulls the meanest face and harshly says,
“No!”
Eddie is very taken aback and looks away.
Guess he’s going to have to find a pencil somewhere else.
Down the hall from the office, the T-Birds start coming up the hallway, making a giant russ, like usual. All of them are looking at their schedules and groaning. Albert drops his head into his hands and sighs a very loud sigh.
“Jeez! Every single teacher I’ve got this semester has flunked at least once!” he says, groaning even louder.
“If you don’t watch it, you’re gonna end up spending all of your class time in Principal Nash’s office,” Hen says, playfully pushing him into the lockers.
“Well, I ain’t taking no crap off of him this year. Nope, not this year,” Albert says, walking past the office, not noticing that all of the others had stopped at the office when they noticed just who was standing outside of it.
Just as they were walking past, Principal Nash had stepped out of the office and overhears everything Albert said. Albert didn’t see him, but the others did. Naturally, he continues his rant, unintentionally digging himself into a hole.
“If he crosses me, man is he gonna find out who’s boss.”
“Albert!” Principal Nash says, standing behind him with his arms crossed. Albert turns around, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. The others all stand behind Principal Nash grinning, before busying themselves with their lockers to keep from getting in trouble themselves.
“Uh, yes sir?” Albert answers, sounding terrified.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”
“Uh, I, uh,” Albert stammers out, not sure of what to say.
“You are just here dawdling, aren’t you? That is a great way to start your semester, Mr. Han… Well are you just going to stand there all day, or are you actually going to go to class?”
“Uh, no sir. I’m going to class.” Albert is still frozen in his spot, not moving anywhere.
“Then move!”
“Right! Right! I’m so sorry, Principal Nash. I’m going now,” he says rushing past the principal and back towards his groups of friends.
“Oh, and Mr. Han? I do think it is best for you—and your school spirit—to join the Clean-up Committee. You’ll meet after school in front of the custodian’s office,” Principal Nash suggests, although he doesn’t sound like he is suggesting anything.
“Yes sir, thank you, I will do that,” Albert responds before scuttling over to the other guys.
Principal Nash shakes his head and walks off down the hall.
“I am very glad you didn’t take any crap off of him, Albert,” Buck says, before busting out laughing.
Albert mockingly laughs towards them before rolling his eyes and starting to walk towards class.
Buck, having a different class, is heading past the office, barely missing Eddie once again as he heads in the opposite direction.
Bobby is sittin gat his desks behind a microphone, watching his watch, waiting on the clock to hit 8:01. When the clock strikes, he signals to Martha and hits the microphone button. Martha, who is sitting in front of a small xylophone, does a short jingle, signaling the beginning of the announcements and the school day.
“Good morning boys and girls, and welcome to the start of a new year, and hopefully the greatest year, at Rydell.”
As Bobby does his opening announcement speech, Hen and Ravi are talking in their homeroom, which is Mrs. Grant-Nash, who is reading an auto-repair magazine at her desk. Karen and Eddie are talking in their homeroom, which is Ms. Lynch, who is just staring from behind her desk as if she could threaten them into never speaking. When Eddie coughs, he gets a look so violent and he thinks she just might get up and strangle him.
“Now, we have some new of coming events. Flu shots and chest x-rays will be administered by our very capably nurse Nurse Wilkins.”
Buck and Chim have the biology teacher’s homeroom, so they are in the biology lab. A person across the room opensup a refrigerator, only to reveal it full of partially dissected frogs, which causes multiple of the students to laugh. Their teacher doesn’t seem to care very much.
“This coming Saturday will be our first pep rally and bonfire and I want to see all of our students out there with spirit and support for our Rydell Rangers as they go to stomp those Glendora Gladiators”
Someone in Buck and Chim’s homeroom says, “If you can’t be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.”
“God, be quiet, you putz,” Chim replies, making Buck groan into his hands. Chim picks up a frog out of the refrigerator and touches one of the girls at his table with it. First, she just brushes it off, but when she notices what it is, she screams, making the teacher stand up to see what the raucous is about, causing Chim to toss the frog to Buck, who just catches it and hides it under the table.
Maddie and Julie are in homeroom together in the home economics classroom. Maddie is chewing gum, but when the teacher sees her, they motion and tell her to stop, so Maddie takes it out of her mouth and puts it behind her ear.
Bobby, mid announcements, is trying his best to keep from sneezing, but he fails, sneezing into the microphone.
Laughter rings out in all of the classrooms. Well, all of the classrooms except for Ms. Lynch’s room. There is dead silence in there. Granted, Karen is doubled over in silent laughter, trying so hard not to let it out.
“Now, for some major economic news: school lunches are now 35 cents rather than 25 cents.”
Groans ring out in all of the rooms, with heads banging on tables.
“I know, I’m sorry, I had no choice in the matter. Also, yearbook photos are $2.50 a set and senior class rings are $35 instead of $25. We have heard that previous students have been selling their old class rings at a discounted price, so if you are a student that wants to purchase those, just remember that you will have to walk around for the rest of your life with the wrong year on your finger.”
In Buck and Chim’s homeroom, Buck tosses the frog back to Chim, who drops it into a random girl’s purse. She does not see it.
“Now, for the really good news. This is probably one of the best things to ever happen here at Rydell High. The National Bandstand Television Show has selected our school as a representative American high school and will be doing a live broadcast from our gym with winners in the National Dance-off! This is the very first time that the National Bandstand have left their studios to do a location show. This gives us a great chance to show the country what a fine, bright, clean-cut, and wholesome group of youth we have here at Rydell High.”
Buck and Chim watch with delight as the girl puts her hand into her purse, only to pull out the frog, making her rush out of the room, clutching her mouth.
Mrs. Grant-Nash doesn’t even look up from her magazine as all the students in her classroom start going wild and jumping up and down, cheering. All she does is blow one time on her whistle, causing all of the students to calm down and sit back in the seats.
“And to end this, I would just like to say, on this first day of the school year, we, the faculty, are here to help you. If you need help, at any time, feel free to speak with any of us. Remember, there’s not just a ‘prince’ in ‘principal’, but there’s a ‘pal’ in there, too.”
Maddie holds a hand to her stomach, as if she’s going to be sick.
“God, please make this stop,” she says, groaning.
A FEW HOURS LATER — LUNCH TIME
Karen and Eddie walk into the cafeteria, going down the lunch line holding trays.
“That is Mrs. Overton, our dietitian. A lot of people call her Mrs. Over-a-ton, but if you’re nice and friendly with her, she gives you extras. Hi Mrs. Overton!” she says, with the end directed towards Mrs. Overton.
Mrs. Overton smiles and walks over to them.
“Well, hello, Miss Karen. We have peach cobbler today.”
“This is Eddie Diaz. He’s new.”
Mrs. Overton looks over at Eddie and looks him up and down.
“Well, darlin’, aren’t you just skin and bones? We need to put a little meat on them bones, baby.” She picks up a dessert plate, sticks two pieces of cobbler on it, and hands it to Eddie with a wink.
“Just remember people like their husbands with a little bit of meat on their bones, darlin. Trust me, I haven’t looked at another man in thirty years.”
Karen finishes grabbing her food and pulls Eddie along with her.
“Come on, I want you to meet the Pink Ladies.”
Eddie stifles a giggle as they reach the cash register.
Mrs. Overton grabs a dessert for herself and starts nibbling on it as she walks down the aisle to where Buck and Hen are eating the food as they go. As Mrs. Overton walks up to them, Buck swallows part of a stuffed tomato.
“The hash is good today,” Mrs. Overton says.
“It always is on Mondays,” Buck replies.
They keep walking down the line, where Hen decides to take a spoon and take a big bite out of her applesauce. As Hen and Buck get to the end of the line, they’ve already eaten their food, so they have empty trays, meaning that once they get to the registers, they feign no appetite and don’t pay for their lunch.
Maddie, Julie, and Ravi are all sitting at the Pink Ladies table with two of the chairs flipped onto the table. They’re talking about nothing when Karen and Eddie walk up.
“Hey, you guys, this is Eddie Diaz. This is Maddie, and that is Julie and Ravi,” Karen says, pointing towards each of them.
“Hi,” Eddie says, awkwardly waving.
They sit down at the table, with Maddie giving Eddie a dubious look and never stops chewing.
“Hey, does any of you guys want my coleslaw?” Eddie asks, since he doesn’t like it.
“Man, does the Pope wear a dress? Give it here,” Julie says, reaching for it.
Maddie glances over at Eddie’s plate.
“Oh, I see that you got the shit-on-a-shingle,” she says, looking disgusted.
Eddie looks down at his plate and then over at Karen, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t mind her, Eddie. Some of us have halitosis of the vocabulary.” Ravi slightly shoves his shoulder into Maddie’s, giving her a look. In response, Maddie picks up her fork and drags it across her throat, making Ravi roll his eyes.
Julie glances back at Eddie’s plate before smiling at him.
“You know, if you don’t want your peach cobbler….”
Eddie gets the hint and forks over his cobbler. Julie's grin gets wider as she takes the cobbler. Eddie smiles and shakes his head as he continues eating his lunch.
Karen leans over towards Maddie and Ravi.
“So, how do you guys like Eddie? Maybe we could get him into the Pink Ladies?” she whispers to the others.
“I don’t know. He seems a little pure to be pink,” Maddie says, looking Eddie up and down.
“Uh, I don’t know about that, Mads,” Ravi says, making Maddie turn over towards him.
“Puh-lease!” she says, voice rising.
“What happened?” Julie says, looking up from her cobbler. Ravi quickly takes his glasses off and comes up with an excuse.
“One of my diamonds just fell into the macaroni!” he exclaims, staring into his macaroni, drawing the rest over to look with him.
Maddie suddenly stands, and, in a fake accent, says, “I’m going to have Viceroy on the verandah!”
Karen rolls her eyes, leans towards Eddie, and says, “Which, in Maddie speak, means that she’s going to sneak behind the cafeteria garbage dump to smoke cigarettes. If you get caught, you get suspended.”
All of the T-birds are sitting on the bleachers at the football stadium, having already eaten their lunch. The football team is jogging around the track.
“Dingleberries on parade,” Chim says, provoking the football captain, Jonah Greenway. Greenway, in response, shakes his fist in their direction, but in doing so drops his football helmet from his hand, causing him to trip over it and get his foot stuck in the helmet. This sends all of the boys laughing so hard they tear up.
“Oh, boy, you have really put your foot in it this time, Greenway!” Hen jokes, laughing so hard she’s doubled over.
“Try hopscotch,” Albert says.
“Oh, hey, did you guys see that new guy at registration? He definitely beats the rest of the guys around here,” Chim says, lightly slapping at Buck’s arm.
“Okay, forget about the new girl. I wanna hear what Buck got up to at the beach,” Hen says, shoving Chim.
“I mean, it was really nothing, guys,” Buck responds, shrugging.
“Oh, come on, Buckley. Give us the details!” she says, shoving him a little with her shoulder.
“Okay, fine. There was this one guy that was kinda cool, ya know?” he finally says, smiling at the memories.
“So, Eddie, what’d you do this summer?” Karen asked, since she’d finished her lunch.
“I, uh, spend most of the time at the beach….I met a boy there,” he says, ducking his head and blushing.
“So you went all the way to the beach for some guy?” Maddie says, scoffing.
“Well, he was a special one, Maddie,” Eddie starts before getting interrupted.
“Are you kidding? There’s no such thing as that, Eddie,” she responds, shaking her head. Eddie hesitates after that, but leans forward anyway.
“It really was romantic, Maddie.”
“Okay, fine. You guys, want to know what really happened?” Buck finally says, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees.
[‘summer lovin’ starts playing; Buck, Eddie, BOTH, T-birds, Pink Ladies, Hen, Ravi, Karen, Chim, ALBERT, MADDIE, JULIE]
Summer lovin’...Had me a blast
Summer lovin’...Happened so fast
I met a boy crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be
SUMMER DAYS DRIFTING AWAY
TO UH-OH THOSE SUMMER NIGHT
Tell me more tell me more
Did’ya get very far?
Tell me more tell me more
Like does he have a car
He swam by me; he got a cramp
He ran by me got my suit damp
I saved his life; he nearly drowned
He showed off, splashing around
SUMMER SUN, SOMETHING’S BEGUN
BUT UH-OH THOSE SUMMER NIGHT
Tell me more Tell me more
Was it love at first sight?
Tell me more, Tell me more
Did he put up a fight?
Took him bowling in the arcade
We went strolling, drank lemonade
We made out under the dock
We stayed out ‘til ten o’clock
SUMMER FLING, DON’T MEAN A THING
BUT UH-OH THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS
Tell me more, Tell me more
BUT YA DON’T GOTTA BRAG
Tell me more, tell me more
‘CAUSE HE SOUNDS LIKE A DRAG
He got friendly holding my hand
He got friendly—down in the sa-a-and
He was sweet—just turned eighteen
Well, he was good—you know what I mean
SUMMER HEAT–BOY AND BOY MEET
BUT UH-OH THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS
Tell me more, tell me more
HOW MUCH DOUGH DID HE SPEND?
Tell me more, tell me more
COULD HE GET ME A FRIEND?
It turned colder; that’s where it ends
So I told him we’d still be friends
Then we made out true love vow
Wonder what he’s doing now
SUMMER DREAMS, RIPPED AT THE SEAMS
BUT, OH, THOSE SUMMER NIGHTS