Chapter 10: BOB

BOB:

Monday morning and I began what seemed to be a normal week at school. I was riding the bus today because mom needed the car to run some errands. I almost had enough money saved to buy my own car, but I was still a couple of months from being able to so for the time being I had to share with mom. She certainly couldn't afford to do much to help out. Her salary as a nurse kept us clothed and fed, but not much more. Dad was supposed to be helping, and for a few years he had, but when he found another family to join his assistance had pretty much ceased.

Walking across the parking lot on my way into school I saw a number of kids greeting each other with kisses and hugs. Oh how I wish that I was one of them, but I wasn't. I was just too geeky to get any interest from the feminine side of the school population.

I was heading down the hall in between my honors algebra and biology classes when I was stopped by Robert Haroldson. I have known Robert for years but we have not been very close.

Right now I was jealous of him because he seemed to have caught a cute sophomore for a girlfriend; in fact if rumor were true, he and his friends seem to have all gotten girlfriends and they were swapping them around like party favors. I don't generally believe the rumor mill, but I had seen things which gave this particular one some credence.

"What's up Robert? What can I do for you?"

"I would like to talk to you Bob. Would you be willing to wait for me after school?"

"I'd love to Robert; but I have to catch the bus today."

"How about if I give you a ride home? We can talk on the way."

"Sounds ok to me Robert. I'll meet you by the parking lot."

The rest of the day was pretty normal, but I was going through it in a fog. One thing that kept getting into my mind was that Mark and Jimmy and Robert had all found girls. Mark had always had problems because of his stutter, if he could have such a cute girlfriend as Jessica Cooper, then I had to have a chance as well. There had to be some kind of secret they could give me to help me out. I wasn't particular about what the girl looked like; as long as she was willing to spend time with me I would be happy.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I was still sitting in my last class after everyone else had left.

I hurried down to my locker and grabbed what I would need to study tonight. As soon as I got out of the door to the parking lot I saw a small crowd. Six of the football crowd had someone in a confrontation. Suddenly the leader took a swing at the victim, and as he did I saw that it was Robert Haroldson, the guy I was supposed to meet here.

I don't care what Robert may have done to deserve a beating, six on one was way out of line. When they started kicking him where he had fallen from the punches I knew that I had to take action.

Calm, calm. Identify and evaluate. Four to the right, kick behind the knee, forearm to the throat, back two down, step to the left, hammer strike to the nose of the leader. The man to the left of the leader tries to throw some kind of karate chop at me, automatic snap kick to the knee. Turn back to last two, they are running away. Check on downed assailants. The one I tripped is lying on his back with his breath knocked out and the one I forearmed is trying to breath. The leader is out cold, last man is not a problem, shattered kneecap.

I bring myself back to normal and reach down to help Robert up. "Are you all right Robert?" I looked over at the guy with the bad knee. "sorry about that man, but you rushed me while I was involved with two other guys. The only move I could make was to take out your knee. I hear that plastic ones work quite well now. Maybe you can almost walk normally again."

There was a teacher running at us by this time.

"What the hell happened here?"

"These guys attacked my buddy Robert and I stopped them, that's all.

"What do you mean you stopped them? They are out cold."

"When neutralizing a superior force one must use the tactics that remove a foe as quickly as one can. If there had been fewer bullies attacking Robert I could have stopped them with much less injury to them, but since there were six of them, I had to use harsher means. In other words it's their own fault; blame them."

I took Robert's arm and led him away.

"Damn Bob, where did that come from? I never knew you were a wizard at self defense. Oh, and by the way thank you. You saved me from a bad beating."

"No problem Rob. I had to learn Aikido when I was younger and getting beat on every day. I taught a few lessons to bullies till they stopped picking on me and by then I was hooked on the exercise and energy benefits so I kept it up."

"Well it sure came in handy today, I owe you one."

"No problem Robert, I would do the same for anyone, and so would you I think."

By this time we had gotten to Robert's car and this cute little blonde was all over him.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Back off hon. I've got a lot of bruises thanks to Billy's friends thinking that it was my fault that he was in jail. Bob here got them for me and saved my life."

The blonde then grabbed me in a big hug.

"Thank you Bob. I'm Regina Snowden and I'm Robert's girlfriend. I owe you a big one and I always pay my debts, I'm not sure how right now, but I will pay it."

"Excuse me Regina," Robert said, "this is Bob Hicks, the guy Mark was talking about at lunch. You and I were going to take him home so we could talk about the gig Saturday night."

"You two don't owe me anything. What's this about a gig and why do you need to talk to me?"

"John Galt is playing our first indoor gig and we would like to spice things up with some kind of a light show. Mark said that you were experimenting with lasers and I thought you might be willing to help us out."

"Sounds like fun. I'll be glad to help if I can. I have a few designs of my own that I would love to check out."

I gave Robert the directions to my house and we continued to talk on the way. I was quite excited and said that some of my designs would work outdoors as well.

"Do you have anyone running the sound board Robert? You know, keeping the balances good during a performance."

"No Bob, we are only on our second gig and don't have anyone to help yet."

"Well it won't take all my attention to work the lights so I'll run the sound too, if you don't mind that is."

"Hell no I don't mind, I don't think the other guys will either. We can use all the help we can get. We'll be glad to share any pay with you."

The next morning I was called to the office, as I expected to be. I was sure that I was going to be suspended for fighting, until Robert's sister Karen showed up. She had pictures taken at the clinic of Robert's injuries. These were bad enough that all charges against me were dropped and it was evident that the attackers were not going to get off without punishment.

I gained a little notoriety from my actions, but I played it down as much as possible. Mark did thank me and gave me a little background on the situation with Robert and the jocks.

On Thursday after school I went over to see how Robert was doing. He hadn't been in to school yet and after seeing the pictures of his injuries I was concerned.

He said that he would go to school the next day and should have no trouble with the gig Saturday night. I had something else I wanted to talk to him about though.

"Can you help me Robert? I see how you and the rest of the group have such fantastic girls and there are rumors going around about how you all act and I need some help. I can't get any attention from the girls at school and I was hoping that you could give me some pointers on dating."

"You have the wrong guy Bob. I spent most of the last two years trying to get a date. And as for the rest of the group, the girls picked us. We just got lucky. Now what do you mean that there are rumors about us?"

"Don't get upset with me Robert, but the rumor mill has it that you guys are swapping girls. One week you will be out with Regina Snowden and the next with Jessica Cooper or Sheri Morgan."

"Well they have it part way right; but the girls are the ones doing the swapping. Everything we do is at the behest of the girls. We guys just go along with the flow and count ourselves lucky."

He told me how the situation had come to be and the history without giving out any real details.

"So you see, I don't have any tips or advise I can give you. But I know who can."

"Karen! Would you please come in here?"

Robert's sister Karen came in from the back of the house. She was wearing just bikini panties and a T-shirt. My eyes bugged out and I could feel myself blush. Karen was unconcerned and seemed totally at ease, although she smiled when she saw the reaction she got.

"What can I do for you bro? Hello Bob."

"Hi Karen."

"Bob here has the same problem I had before we got together with your friends. Can you help him to get a date or two and maybe a girlfriend? He is a very nice guy getting overlooked like I was. Do you have any friends that might be interested in him?"

"If I don't I'm sure that one of the others will. The only thing is that you have to teach him your kiss, if you can do that there are any number of girls who would be willing to go out with him."

"I can't really teach him sis, all I can do is provide instruction. Someone else will have to be the practice dummy. Want to volunteer?"

"I sure do, I owe him something for saving you Monday."

I was confused as Robert told me about how he had captivated the girls with his method of kissing. He explained about shutting out the rest of the world and just concentrating on the kiss, on how it felt and how the girl reacted and nothing else.

"Wow that is very similar to how my teachers want me to concentrate on my moves in fighting. If I work at it that way I might be able to do what you say. It would only take some practice."

"Well that is what I am here for." Karen said. She moved over to me and put her arms around me and lifted her head for a kiss.

"Won't Jimmy be upset with me Karen?"

"We could go a lot further than a kiss without Jimmy being upset. He trusts me, and when I tell him about it he will be glad that I was able to give you some form of thanks."

"You're going to tell him?"

"Of course I am. The eight of us have no secrets. We decided from the start that the only way we could make this situation work was to be totally honest with each other. Thank you," she bumped her hips against my crotch, "that is a very nice compliment."

I was blushing again.

"Now give me a kiss and try to do it the way Rob told you."

I bent down and touched my lips to Karen's. At first I was a little tentative, but Karen wouldn't allow that and pushed me hard. I pulled her to me and put all my concentration on the feel of her lips doing like Robert said and trying to memorize every little bit in case I never get the chance to do this again. The longer the kiss lasted the more I had to support Karen. I couldn't believe that I was kissing this beautiful young girl.

This went on for a few minutes, and then Karen suddenly pushed away from me.

"Damn! We had better stop right now or Jimmy will have reason to be upset. You are already better at that than everyone but Rob. If you learn that fast at his other specialty I won't have any trouble getting you dates. I'll see if I can find you someone for Saturday night, but she may just be a temp until we can find you a permanent girl."

I was stunned at the intensity of the kiss. "Thanks Karen. All I wanted was a little help. I hope that once I get a girl alone I can get her to want to stay around; I just need a chance to do it. What do you mean his other specialty?"

"That's a discussion for another day, and if you kiss them like that you'll have to beat the girls away," said Karen. "Is there anything you want in a girl, anything you don't want?"

"As long as she is not fat, blubbery type fat, I'm ok with stocky. Otherwise she just needs to be nice and willing to talk."

"What about her looks, do you have any preferences?"

"No, I know that I am no prize and can hardly expect to have anyone as pretty as you Karen. Looks matter much less that personality. I know the old joke about a girl's personality being proportional to her looks, but that is ok with me."

"That makes it a lot easier Bob. You'll have a date Saturday. Just don't kiss me again unless you join the group, I don't know that I can control myself."

I thanked Karen and left.

Robert came to school Friday and I got some reflected glory from it. He obviously was not up to snuff yet and left in the afternoon. I went home and did some final wiring on a couple of designs.

On Saturday I packed my stuff up and took it over to Robert's house. I set up a couple and tried to follow along on their original songs. These guys were good. The thing that got me the most though was the way that these beautiful girls were all over them. They even had Marsha and Marilyn Idle with them and Marilyn was paying a lot of attention to Robert. What surprised me was the attention that Regina was giving to Paul without Robert giving one bad look at them. This was too strange for me.

Karen was nice enough to let me know that the girls had found a date for me tonight.

"Just treat her nice and make sure that she is in control of any sexual ideas and you will be ok Bob. You will probably be surprised by who she is."

I thanked her and once the guys were done I and they packed up. I made sure of where I was supposed to be and when and went to get something to eat.

I went home as I wanted to save my money in case my date wanted to go somewhere after the gig. Mom kept asking me why I was so nervous and I finally told her.

"I have my first real date tonight mom. Some friends have set me up with a blind date tonight and I'm afraid that I will blow it."

"Just be yourself sweetie, and I'm sure that any girl will like you.'

This really made me feel better, yeah sure.

I spent the rest of the time till I needed to leave in my room playing on the play station. I've never lost that badly before.

It was finally time to go. I told mom that I would probably be very late.

I headed out to the gig and started setting up. I put all my controls over to the side of the dance floor. I hoped that I could track the changes needed from there.

Some of the girls arrived and Regina came over to me.

"We brought your date with us Bob. How do you feel about Pamela Ainsworth?"

"She is much too pretty to be dating me. Did you tell her who she was going with?"

"Yes I did Bob, and she was pleasantly surprised. Karen tells me that you caught on to Robert's kissing technique very quickly. I still need to thank you for saving my boyfriend from a bad beating."

"No thanks are needed Regina. Getting me a date with Pam is thanks enough."

"I will be the judge of that, now hold out your arms and kiss me."

How could I refuse a request like that? I leaned down and pulled Regina into me and kissed her. I blocked out everything else but the feel of her lips, the scent of her breath, the taste of her mouth as she opened her mouth and pushed her tongue into my mouth. God this felt fantastic.

The next thing I knew Regina was being pulled from my arms and another girl was taking her place.