Folded Notes from High School

by Matthew Boren

  An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

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  RAZORBILL & colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  First published in the United States of America by Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018

  Copyright © 2018 Matthew Boren

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  Ebook ISBN: 9780451478221

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  The Folded Note

  September 1991

  October 1991

  November 1991

  December 1991

  January 1992

  February 1992

  March 1992

  April 1992

  May 1992

  June 1992

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For my parents, Daryl and Joe, who gave me a pen that’s never run out of ink.

  The FOLDED NOTE (n.) was a popular form of communication in high schools across America in the 1980s and 1990s, providing a forum for friends and lovers alike to share their most intimate thoughts about the world, their teenage angst, and the twists and turns in their hearts. Written on college-ruled notebook paper, notes were often folded and passed in high school hallways, shoved into book bags, pocketbooks, lockers, and desks. Folded notes were often sprayed with perfume or cologne and decorated with hearts, stars, and other doodles to enhance the reading experience. In the late 1980s, folded notes grew in size, becoming more than handwritten sound bites, but shared diary entries, short stories, or monologues. As the folded notes expanded, new folding techniques emerged to address the fact that notes were getting too thick to sneak into locker vents. No one is certain who invented the great flattening technique whereby one takes one’s thick folded note and presses it in the center of a math textbook, but that concept alone allowed for folded notes to get bigger and bigger, all the while enabling teenagers to continue passing them discreetly through the hallways of high schools across America.

  The following account represents the folded note correspondence surrounding one Tara Maureen Murphy, senior at South High School, c. 1991–92.

  SEPTEMBER 1991

  Dearest Christopher,

  What’s up? Q even believe we are 1 day away from being Seniors? Who woulda thought that I, Tara Maureen Murphy, and you, Christopher Patrick Caparelli, would end up a Supercouple after all this time? I guess what people say is wicked true, C.P.C.—summer before Senior year is super important slash life-changin’.

  Christopher, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me in this two-bit town. I’ve been longing to get the hell outta this place, but now that I’m with you . . . well, it doesn’t seem so bad here after all. Suddenly, Shoppers World seems like a magical kingdom and not some average outdoor mall. Don’t get me wrong, Christopher. I AM NOT A TOWNIE! I long to see the world. A girl’s gotta make moves, know what I mean? But for now, my heart is here. With you. If you don’t dance with me when they play “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” at Prom, I am gonna be devastated. ’Cuz the song says it all, Mr. Mister . . . I HAVE had the time of my life, and you wanna know who I owe it all to, Christopher? You! Durr!

  God, I shoulda listened to Kim McCardle all those years ago when she swore hockey players are the sexiest. Ohhhhh, Christopher. J’teme (that’s French, silly). No matter where I go to University (better be NYU!!) I will be “Forever Your Girl” (ATTENTION: Paula Abdul, if you’re reading this note . . . stop reading . . . THIS is a PRIVATE NOTE. J TO THE K) (that means “just kidding”).

  K . . . I gotta run now. Goin’ shopping so I can get an awesome top to go with my candy cane miniskirt. A girl’s gotta look hot on the first day of school. I cannot wait to meet my guy under the stairwell in F Hall so we can make out as dumb teachers walk by.

  Forever and a day,

  Tara Maureen Murphy

  P.S. I have auditions for the Fall Musical at the end of the week, so don’t bother me!! If I don’t get to play Sandy I will go crazy!

  P.P.S. I will totally be nice to your neighbor slash freshman friend, Adam. Or is it Marty? Wait, I feel so stupid because I simply can’t remember . . . what is his name? Oh yeah . . . Matt.

  Dear Tara,

  Sweet. A note in my mailbox. Awesome way to start Senior year. I’m gonna swing by your house on the way to finally gettin’ a sunroof cut into my car, and I’m gonna stick this in your mailbox.

  I will dance the crap outta you at Prom. Don’t even worry. When that song comes on, I will be dirty dancing all over your face. And I know it’s wicked far in advance, but we should rent a stretch from Kurt Cutter’s dad’s company and definitely go with Tzoug and whoever he is dating, Dube and whoever he is dating, and obviously Stef and whoever she’s hooking up with—I mean dating. Hey, maybe we can finally get her interested in Tzoug or Dube. How awesome would life be if there could be another couple in town as sick as us, especially if one is my best friend and one is your best friend? Sick, right? So friggin’ psyched for Senior year!

  Oh and yeah, my across-the-street neighbor’s name is Matt. Matt Bloom. You can call him Matty B. He’s into all that theater stuff, too. If you see him in the hallways or at auditions, just say hi to the little guy. I’m sure the hottest girl in school saying hi to him would make him feel pretty cool.

  I gotta go to the gym. These muscles don’t just happen. Wish you had let me buy you that claddagh ring so everyone could know you were mine, but hey . . . maybe down the line? I also wish I was under the F Hall stairs with you right now!! But hey . . . we got all year, and I’ve got that old giant-sized vodka bottle from my dad and it’s filled with pennies, so I’m not concerned about wishes.

  See you tomorrow morning. First day of Senior year. I can’t wait to see that candy cane skirt.

  Love ya,

  C.P.C.

  To-est Soup!

  Hi, other most beautiful girl in New England! And so it is, we have officially been goin’ to school together since kindergarten—that’s 13 years, Tomato!

  Okay, first of all, could you look more gorgeous on the first day of our Senior year? I’ll answer that! NO! Oh my god, what did your mom (my second mom, and let’s be real, my first mom on most days) feed you in Nantucket all summer? Gorgeous pills?! We should dress identical this week and walk down the halls in slow motion—the school will literally freak out.

  I missed you more than life this summer. Not havin’ my best friend around for TWO MONTHS really shined a light on what it’s gonna be like when we go to college. We’ve been together, like, every day our whole lives. (Except this past summer, Miss Nantucket (tee-hee, tee-hee), so happy for you that your family got a cottage there!) Were you sooo lonely there without me? I’m sure it’s beautiful, and you had your family, but
NO BEST FRIEND FOR THAT LONG! Well, what am I even saying, I know how you felt because from our friendship pins to our matching telephone-wire bracelets to our best friends necklace . . . I know everything you feel because I feel it, too. And I was lonely without you. Don’t get me wrong, I had Christopher, but nothing replaces my Stefanie, Stef, Steffed-Animal, Soup!

  So, now that you’re a supermodel, who do you wanna go out with? Tara and Christopher, Stef and blank? We have to be very, veeery careful about who your boyfriend will be. No one is good enough for you (we know that), but let’s make a list.

  While you were in Nantucket this summer I changed my entire bedroom. You are gonna freak, it’s so good! You know my little corkboard to the side of my desk that I had all our movie stubs (Mystic Pizza, Pump Up the Volume, etc., etc.) and concert tickets (NKOTB, Paula Abdul, etc., etc.) on? Gone! I was like, “Tara, you do not need two corkboards as a Senior, and Tara, you do not need to have all your memories with your best friend EVER out for any not-as-important person to see, because my lifetime history with Stef Campbell is no one’s business except for me, Stef, and my diaries . . . duh.” So, yes . . . I now have a one-corkboard bedroom. Classier, college-ish, right?

  I got brand-new sheets at TJ’s! I know you’re like, “Wait, you got rid of your hearts-and-stars sheets? You lived for those!” I know, Stef . . . Q even believe? But I’m growin’ up and so is my bed. Oh, my new sheets are just white. Off-white kind of, but I wanted a clean slate. It’s not every day you start your final year of high school!

  I feel like you were in Nantucket ALL summer! Well, I guess that’s ’cuz you were. Do islands like that not have phones (tee-hee, tee-hee)—no, but for real (not for fake), I missed hearin’ your voice, Minnie Strone! Tell me everything about your time there. Were you so bored with no best friend? Wait, did I already ask you that? Well, I hope you carried me with you all summer, and I’m sure you held your half of the necklace as much as I held mine (every day!).

  Christopher and I are already talkin’ about Prom. You are coming with us no matter who you are dating (we need to make that list ASAP). Do you think Tzoug or Dube is cute for you? Whatever. You know Christopher, he is like dyin’ for there to be another Supercouple in this town like me and him.

  Anyway, I am beyond hopeful that I get cast as Sandy in Grease. You think I will, right? Of course you do, you’re like, “Tara, YOU ARE SANDY!” I know, I know. I gotta stay calm, just wicked excited to play her.

  I wonder what Senior Superlatives we’re gonna get come spring! Can we split Most Beautiful (like our necklace)??

  OH MY GOD, WE ARE SENIORS!!!

  Okay, I love you “More Than Words.”

  Your best friend (and don’t you forget it),

  Lives, Loves, Laughs (TRIPLE L for LIFE!),

  Tar

  P.S. Christopher’s across-the-street neighbor is a Fresh-man and apparently interested in theater. Think I should write him a welcome note?

  To-est Tara, T. Murphs, Tmurphette,

  I can’t wait to see your “new” room! It sounds fabulous. And yes, you were so right, I was like, “Holy crap, Tara got rid of her hearts-and-stars sheets!” My god, the memories. Those sheets have been with us 4-eva! They’re, like, famous. If you didn’t throw them out maybe we can cut them up and sew them into something else.

  I know, I sew now. Such a long story, but it’s you, so I have to tell you.

  When we first got to Nantucket I was crying all the time. And I felt terrible about it because this cottage has been my parents’ dream for, like, their whole lives, and here I was bawling my eyes out because I was away from home, away from you. And, yes, Nantucket does have phones and we do have one at our cottage but my parents’ only rule was for all of us to “stay present, be off the grid.” Easier said than done! I mean, that first week there was so intense, Tara! Like I couldn’t even see how beautiful the island was, and oh my god, it is so beautiful. You have to come to the cottage with me one day. Pinky swear you will?

  So, it was the Fourth of July, which is a bigger deal on Nantucket than even those times we went to the Hatch Shell. People take the 4th wicked seriously on island. And so my family biked into town for the festivities. We did a sandwich grab at Something Natural—the greatest sandwiches in the world—and then we were off to the boats. Most of the roads there are cobblestone, so biking at first was wicked challenging, but when you get the hang of it it’s awesome!

  And you know me when I’m sad. Well, you totally do because you used to be the only person on the planet who could make me NOT SAD!

  So I’m, like, feeling super lonely on island and it’s the 4th, which I always spend with you, and then I ran into, literally, Stacey Simon! My sandwich flew out of my bike basket, and I flew into a tree, and my bike landed on top of Stacey!

  All I could think to myself was, “I hate Nantucket. Of all the people in the world to run over, it had to be the biggest bitch in our entire school!”

  I was dying. My whole family stopped and peeled me off the tree, and then we all went over to help Stacey. Her knees were wicked cut up, and I thought she was gonna kill me. But she didn’t. I was like, “I am SO SORRY!” And the first thing she said was, “Stef Campbell?” I was like, “Umm, yeah.” And she was like, “I didn’t know you come to Nantucket.” And I told her it was our first summer there, and she told me her family has had a house there since ’85, which I knew, obviously, because everyone in our town knows everything about Stacey Simon, right? But I played dumb, and I was like, “You have a house here, too? Wow!” And my family helped her up, and we were all apologizing so much, and I offered my T-shirt to her so she could stop her bleeding—I had my bathing suit under it—and she was like, “Oh my god, no, it’s okay.” And she took the bandana out of her hair and used that to, like, stop her knees from bleeding out.

  Anyway, she invited me over to her house, which was totally surreal. I thought she hated us! But I was like, “I’m on island. I don’t know anyone here. Sure.” So, I biked over, like, the next day. Oh my god, their house is on the ocean, and it is so incredible! And she has a sewing machine in her bedroom there, and she collects all these great Nantucket fabrics and makes her own blankets. I was like, “Stacey Simon sews?!” And she taught me. So now I sew.

  I can teach you! We should for sure make something out of your old hearts-and-stars sheets . . . if you didn’t throw them out.

  I am so excited for this year, Tar! Let’s definitely make a plan to hang out and make a list of who I might date. Hmmm . . . so many possibilities, right?

  And who else could play Sandy in Grease? NO ONE! You truly are SANDY!

  Triple L for Life!

  Love you Muchly and Moreso,

  Soup

  Oh, and definitely write Chris’s neighbor a note. You’re, like, the theater superstar here, so that would be so nice of you!

  To Adam, I mean Greg, I mean Matt,

  Matt. It’s been such a long time since I’ve had to remember a Freshman’s name, Pete. Ughhhhh. Sat. Cat. Matt. I will get it one of these days. I pinky promise.

  Anyway, Matt . . . I thought I’d write you a folded note to welcome you to South High. My boyfriend slash your across-the-street neighbor, Christopher Caparelli, has told me lots about you. Well, I guess not lots. Just that you’re named Matt (a name that’s incredibly challenging to register) and that you like theater.

  I hope to see you later at auditions. I’ll be the girl with long blond hair (it’s, like, down to my butt ’cuz I grew it out over the summer), and I will be singing “On My Own” from Les Misérables, and for my dance routine, well, let’s just say I’ll be doing a couple of splits, soooooooooo . . .

  What are you gonna sing, Freshman Guy? Do you dance, too? What part do you want? Don’t be bummed out if you only get chorus ’cuz it’s beyond rare for a Freshman to get lead parts or even supporting. I’m gonna play Sandy. It’s been a lifelong dream of mine
. And there’s no better way to start my Senior year than by getting one of the great roles in American theater, Derek.

  Cat. Sat. Matt. Ughhh. I WILL REMEMBER YOUR NAME AT SOME POINT!!!!!!

  Anyway, Matt . . . best of luck to you at auditions. Just be confident, know what I mean? Do you? Do you know what I mean?

  Take care,

  Tara Maureen Murphy

  Dear Tara,

  Thanks for writing me a note. Pretty awesome to get one from a Senior. Chris is an awesome guy. He even drove me to school this morning. That was pretty awesome because most of my friends took the bus except for people with older siblings at South. My brother is at Syracuse University this year, otherwise he would have driven me. Did you ever meet my brother? David Bloom? Heather Gould offered me a ride to school, too, but she makes everyone pay gas money, and when she misses a green light she says, “Shoulda-woulda-coulda,” and when she sees a car with a headlight out she says, “Padiddle.” So I said no.

  I’m gonna sing “Dogs in the Yard” today. It’s from the musical Fame. And yeah, I dance. I think I’m just gonna make up a dance routine when I get up there. I really want to play Danny Zuko. So, we’ll see what happens.

  How do you fold your notes like an envelope? That’s pretty awesome.

  Matt Bloom

  Hey Mark (Sat, Cat . . . Matt)—hey Matt,

  You say “pretty awesome” a lot. That’s cute. Very Freshman-y. You’ll learn more expressions now that you’re at South. Just don’t say MINT CONDITION. It’s overused by average people. And whatever you do, never say KHED instead of KID. People around here think it’s cool, but I’ve gotta tell you, it’s not.

  Danny Zuko?!!!!! That’s the lead, Matt. You’re in 9th grade. I mean, good luck and junk, but I’ve gotta be older-sister-ish and tell you that it’s very impossible to beat out Ari Levy or Joel Waldman. I mean, those guys are Seniors, and they’re majorly talented. But good for you for tryin’. I always say, “Aim for the moon,” ’cuz in case you miss you’ll be hangin’ among the stars. Know what I mean? Do you? Do you know what I mean, Young Person?