Elizabeth Eulberg - The Lonely Hearts Club

"And what the hell is this about Diane quitting cheerleading?" He started shaking his head. "There's just too much weird crap going on."

"It's not that weird. Anyway, how was your night with..."

"Hilary," he said angrily.

"Oh, right, Hilary! She's really cool — you must have had fun." I tried to cheer Todd up a little, since it was strange to not have him goofing around.

"I wouldn't know — she spent most of her evening with you guys."

Oh, that's right.

Todd opened up his notebook and pretended to be really interested in his notes. This was not normal behavior at all.

I was sure he'd get over it soon. It really wasn't that big of a deal.

"Why do you care what Todd Chesney thinks?" Tracy asked as she and I headed to join Jen and Amy at our usual lunch table.

"It's not just him — I've been getting weird vibes from guys all day." I threw my lunch bag down on the table. "And all these girls have been coming up to me saying the nicest things."

"I know — isn't it great?" Tracy responded.

"Hey, guys, is it okay if Kara joins us?" Morgan asked, with Diane and Kara right behind her.

"Of course," Tracy said. "Good to have you back, Kara."

Kara blushed. "Well, you said I could come back when I was ready…"

Tracy's eyes got wide, "Of course! Welcome to the dark side!" She laughed. "I guess we should probably move the other table over to make room."

Sure enough, Teresa Finer and Jessica Chambers asked to join us. Soon our table was packed with people talking about Homecoming, Teresa mentioned that her date was forty-five minutes late picking her up and the "fancy dinner" that Jessica's date had promised her ended up being a Burger King drive-thru, Kara's date spent the evening hitting on another girl.

"You guys were right." Kara shook her head and played with her apple stem.

"It's not about wrong or right — it's about being with people who appreciate you " Diane said. "I'm really glad you're here, Kara."

Kara smiled and took a bite of her apple.

"So basically, I had the best dates there," Tracy said.

While Diane, Jessica, and Jen discussed basketball plans for the weekend, I couldn't help but be impressed by how Diane showed absolutely no hesitation in discussing her big change. There wasn't any remorse or regret — she knew she was making the right decision, even if she didn't end up making the team.

It seemed like we had a team of our own now.

IT GOT TO THE POINT WHERE I had no idea how many girls would be meeting at my house on Saturday night. Sure, a lot of them had said they were coming. According to Tracy, Mike's girlfriend, Michelle had even dumped him just so she could attend. He, in turn, was getting his own ride to school. I felt torn — I didn't want Mikes heart to be broken, but if Michelle was going to dump him over something like the Club, odds were that the relationship wasn't a keeper anyway.

"Is everything all right, kiddo?" Dad asked me, right before all the girls arrived. Morn had gone out without him since he was getting over a cold. "If you're worried that I'm going to get in your way, don't worry about a thing. I've got my tea and paper and I'll keep quiet in my room."

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm just a little worried about how many people are showing up tonight."

"Penny Lane, your mother and I are so proud of you, so don't worry about how many people show up. Marisa Klein was in for her cleaning today, and she was telling me what a hit you and your Beatles Club are at school."

"Dad, I keep — "

"I know, I know." He threw his hands up. "I'm still proud of you, kiddo."

The doorbell rang and I headed over to open the door. "You just go upstairs and feel better," I called after him as he headed toward the stairs.

Tracy and Diane were the first to arrive. "Tonight is going to be so much fun!" Diane said.

I looked past them and saw a stream of cars pulling up. Jen and Amy brought Jessica Chambers and Teresa Finer with them.

Maria Gonzales and Cyndi Alexander parked behind them in Maria's truck.

"Hey, guys — come on in."

We headed downstairs and the doorbell rang again — Hilary Jacobs, Christine Murphy, Meg Ross, and Karen Brown. Then again — Jackie Memmott and Marisa Klein, with seniors Erin Fitzgerald and Laura Jaworski.

And again — Mike's now ex-girlfriend, Michelle, Eileen Vodak, and Annette Ryan — the freshmen contingent.

And again — Morgan and Kara, with Paula Goldberg rounding everything out.

I got to the basement and couldn't believe that there were over twenty girls from McKinley sitting there — freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Everybody was staring at me. It hit me. they were expecting me to say something. I'd thought we'd just watch a movie or something and eat pizza.

"All right, Penny!" Hilary shouted and started applauding. The whole room erupted. What had I started? I turned around expecting to see that some celebrity had walked into the room.

"Shhhh! Let Penny speak."

Who said that? I had no idea what people were expecting. I opened my mouth and prayed for the best.

"Thanks, thanks for coming. Um, I'm a little surprised by the turnout. I'm not sure what everybody came here expecting, but..."

I looked at Diane and Tracy for help, and they were smiling at me.

I could tell that they had faith in me. I wished I did.

"I really don't know why everybody decided to come this evening. I guess all I can tell you is why I'm here — well, except for the fact that I live here." Everybody laughed as I took a deep breath, "To be honest, I'm just tired of it all. The games.. guys… everything. I doubt that there is a single girl among us who hasn't obsessed about whether that guy is going to call, or if we're going to have a date to go to a party. And because of the pressure to go to this and that with a guy we settle for someone who isn't worth our time. And then when we do find someone we think is special, we forget about our friends." I tried not to look at Diane. "Or we change something about ourselves to please a guy instead of doing what makes us happy or what we know is right. Why do we do this? Why do we even bother?"

I felt my nerves subside as I saw every girl in the room nodding in agreement.

"I know some people will think that I'm being pessimistic — but seriously, let's examine the male population of McKinley, shall we?" Laughter filled the room. "It's not like we have a huge wealth of decent guys to choose from!"

A few people cheered, "Hear! Hear!"

"Now, I'm not saying that we have to give up guys for the rest of our lives. I'm not that crazy. But I feel that we shouldn't settle, that I want to spend the last two years at McKinley having fun with my friends. Guys can only mess with that. If you look around you, you'll see that there is an amazing group of people here tonight, a perfect support system. We can do anything if we stick together. We just have to believe in ourselves. And we deserve whatever we want. If one of us needs help with a test, we should be there for that person. If one of us wants to pursue our dreams, no matter what anybody else seems to think of it" — I winked at Diane — "we will be there for that person. So all we're asking is that members put themselves and their friends before some guy. Every Saturday night, we have a standing date with one another. We need to be here for one another to remind ourselves how special we are. And the best part? We don't have to put up with any more crap from guys!"

Amy stood up. "To Penny!"

"No," I protested. "This isn't about me, it's about us. To The Lonely Hearts Club!"

The room went up in loud cheers. Diane went over to the stereo and put on the only guys allowed at the meeting: the Beatles.

"You know, Penny" Diane said to me over the music. "Had I known that getting dumped would be such a positive influence on everyone else, I would've had Ryan dump me a long time ago."

I started laughing. I had no idea if it was the high I was on from the Club, the music, or just Diane's sense of humor, but for some reason that was the funniest thing I had ever heard.

"What are you two dying over?" Tracy asked, rocking her hips back and forth to the music. She smacked her hips into mine, and I almost fell over. "Do you have any idea what you've started, Miss Penny Lane? We've single-handedly changed the social structure at McKinley High. You know what this means?"

I'd never thought about it that way. "What?"

She smiled. "Well, if we thought guys were jerks before this, you can guarantee they will be staying miles away from us now."

The three of us looked at each other before we started laughing again.

If this was what it was going to be like being single for the rest of my high school existence, I wasn't going to mind at all.

"HEY, PENNY, IT'S RYAN."

I stared at the number on my phone — why was Ryan calling me? It was Tuesday night, and I'd just seen him at school a few hours before. The fact that we'd been having surface-level conversations ever since the dance made it even stranger to hear his voice now.

"Hello? Penny?"

Speak! Say something.

"Ah, yeah — hey, Ryan, what's up?"

"Not much. I had a question about History. I think I wrote down the wrong chapter we were supposed to read. Is it chapter twelve?"

"Hold on, let me check…" I had to run over to my desk to grab my book.

"Crap." A surge of pain shot up my left toe as it slammed into the leg of my chair. This was just great. "Yep, chapter twelve."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Are you okay?"

Apparently I was not okay. "Yeah, I'm fine — stubbed my toe…"

"Okay, thanks, Penny." Another long pause. "Actually there's something else I wanted to ask... Ah, my parents got tickets to see this Beatles tribute band at the Civic Center in a few weeks, but realized they have to leave town early to attend this wedding, so they were going to see if any of their friends wanted them, but I thought it would be kinda fun to go to... if you're interested."

Ryan was talking really fast for him, so it took me a second to comprehend what he was asking.

He wasn't asking me on a date, was he?

Of course he wasn't. That was stupid. He was dating that short, curly-haired thing.

I was his friend. His Beatles-named friend, no less. It made sense for him to ask me out on a non-date to see a Beatles-ish band.

"Hello? Penny?"

Oops.

"Um, sounds great," I could still be friends with guys. Ryan and I had always been friends, and there was no way he would see me as anything else.

What had he said at Paul's party? "I'd never do anything with her."

"Awesome," he said now. "Diane told me your parents are against tribute bands or something, but she thought you might get a kick out of it."

Diane knew! Why hadn't she given me a heads-up that Ryan was going to ask me.. on… some sort of social outing.

I cleared my throat. "I think it'd be fun. Thanks for thinking of me."

"Of course! I think it'd be cool to go to a tribute band with none other than Penny Lane herself."

Ugh.

"So I guess we can figure out the details later, but I figure we can head into the city early and grab a bite before the show. Does that sound okay?"

"That sounds great, Ryan. See you tomorrow."

I hung up the phone and just stared at it. Then it hit me, I had agreed to go to a Beatles tribute band concert with Ryan Bauer. Now I had to tell the one person who was going to absolutely hate this idea.

"Oh, Penny Lane, no, no, no. I'm so disappointed in you. How could you?"

This was going to be harder than I thought.

I sat down at our table. "Come on, Mom, it's not that big of a deal."

Mom set her coffee mug down and looked at me like I had a second head. "Penny Lane, I just thought your father and I raised you better than to go to some complete rip-off band. it's just… Dave, help me out!"

Dad stopped hiding behind his paper and set it down. "Now, Becky, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. At least she's interested in learning about her heritage. And I think we should trust Penny Lane to know that what she will be hearing is nothing compared to the real thing. Remember how embarrassed she was with the massacre at Lucy's graduation?"