Chapter 15: An Outing

The rest of the afternoon proved to be great fun. We started out playing one of the larger linked racing games that allowed up to eight players. The first round went to Jason. After that we quickly discovered that Beatrice's real world experience helped her find the fastest route around many of the tracks. She went on to win six of the ten races we ran before everyone decided to scatter and try other games.

Ashley made sure to stay near me at all times. If we played a game that only allowed one person to play at a time she would stand behind me with her arms around my waist. At one point I tried a one person driving game and wound up with her sitting on my lap and facing me as I tried to maneuver. It was one of my worst performances ever on that game, but we left the booth with huge smiles on our faces.

Kathy hovered near Jessica. Her Victorian garb attracted a number of stares, but she stood proudly. I noticed a fond look in Jessica's eyes whenever she watched Kathy play.

Jason and Mrs. Roberts seemed to move between the other pairings as the interest in the games demanded. Mrs. Roberts struggled in the games that required one to shoot things, but was dominant in most of the racing games. Jason was one of the best at the shooting games. He was a popular partner in any of the cooperative games, although he could never seem to defeat me when I paired with Ashley nor Jessica when she paired with Kathy.

I had expected Millicent to only join for a short time and then wander away, but she stuck by all of us. She was consistently last in any competitive game, but after a couple of frowns early on, she relaxed and seemed to really enjoy the afternoon.

We had been in the arcade for over an hour and had regrouped at a large networked game where each player was the owner of a racehorse. You got a chance to feed and train your horse before each race and then would participate in races where up to sixteen people were linked in. I was bumbling along with a horse that usually finished in the middle of the pack and trying to decide if I wanted to talk Ashley into shopping when I heard someone shouting.

"Dude! Jason! Mark! What are you doing playing this game?" rang out over the sounds of the various games.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Walter weaving his way through the crowds. I waved to him and then turned back to watch the screen as the next race started.

Ashley was sitting to my right, guiding a horse that had been near the rear of the field for the last two races. Mrs. Roberts was to my left with Jason on her left. Walter walked up to stand behind Mrs. Roberts as the race began. "Dude, talk to me."

"Hard to do," Jason replied, although his voice could barely be heard over the ambient noise. "We need to watch the race."

"Dude," Walter whined. "What's so important about a stupid horse race? You should be playing the formula racing game or something."

"Did that," I said. "Mrs. Roberts beat us all."

"All?" Walter cried out. The skepticism in his voice was evident and caused Millie and Kathy to glance over their shoulders. They were sitting in front of me at their own control stations.

I had to hit a button to tell my jockey to push my horse as the race entered the backstretch. "Jason, me, Ashley, Jessica, Kathy, and Millicent," I said. "We all played against Mrs. Roberts and lost to her."

"But she's a mom!" Walter protested. His shout was loud enough that a couple of other players turned to gaze at the disturbance.

"Doesn't mean I can't win," Mrs. Roberts replied.

"Bea!" someone shouted over the growing din. I concentrated on the race for a moment. My horse had made a frantic charge on the backstretch and was now second as we came through the final turn. The leader was not a member of our group, and I hoped I would have my best finish and beat Ashley in this race.

Walter reached out and slapped my controls several times. "Dude, seriously, you can't play games like this!" he whined some more.

Walter's antics caused my horse to stumble and fall back into the pack. I whirled to glare at him as a tall, well-muscled man with red hair and moustache emerged from the crowd and walked up to Mrs. Roberts. He bent over to kiss her on the cheek as the race came to an end.

"Mark, what happened?" Jason asked as I watched Mrs. Roberts relax and lean back into the arms of the man who had just arrived.

"Walter decided to interfere," I said coldly. "I guess it's time we broke up the gaming."

"How about we go to the café and sit down?" Jessica said. "I'm willing to hang out longer. Um ... who's the man?" she asked as she turned around and stood up from her control station.

I hit a button on my control station that caused it to issue a card with the information on my horse. I could see the rest of our group doing the same. We gathered around the control station Mrs. Roberts sat at. "Oh," she said as she noticed that we had stopped playing. "I guess I was enjoying having Morgan here. Everyone, this is Morgan, he and I have been dating for a while. Morgan ... Oh my ... let's see if I can name everyone."

Mrs. Roberts hit the end game button and stood up while her card was being printed. She looked over at Jason and pointed. "This is Jason, my son. I'm sure you recognize him from the pictures."

Morgan nodded. "He's a handsome young man."

Jason smiled and stood a little straighter, and Mrs. Roberts spun around to look at Ashley. "And I know you'll recognize my daughter Ashley."

"A beautiful young woman," Morgan said with reverence as he looked at her.

Ashley blushed and ducked her head before grabbing my arm. Mrs. Roberts noticed and smiled. "And the young man she is hanging onto is Mark."

Morgan nodded. I noticed that Jessica had moved to my left. She had Kathy and Millicent standing at her shoulders. Mrs. Roberts looked at me; I could read a silent plea for help in her eyes.

I reached out and put a hand on Jessica's shoulder. "This attractive blonde is Jessica. The young lady in the elegant dress standing behind her is Kathy, her other friend is Millicent."

Jason playfully punched Walter. "And this loud and annoying one is Walter, one of our classmates."

Morgan smiled at everyone. "Hello everyone. It's nice to meet all of you. I'm Morgan Cunningham."

"Hello," everyone replied.

"Right," Morgan said as he turned to look at Mrs. Roberts. "I was a bit surprised when you sent me the text that you were here. What is up?"

"I thought I'd spend an afternoon with my children," Mrs. Roberts said. "I haven't done that enough in the past few years."

Morgan nodded. "That makes sense. Now that I'm here, what do you want to do?"

Mrs. Roberts looked at the assembled group. "I think pizza would work for everyone. Can you live with that?"

Morgan smiled. "I think we might be early enough to get one of the private rooms at Harrard's. Does everyone like their pizza?"

"I've never been there," Millie admitted. The rest of us were nodding in unison like a bunch of bobble head dolls.

Mrs. Roberts laughed. "Don't worry; they are the best in the state. Come along ... Well, if it's fine with the others. I guess Jessica should be the one to decide."

"No takebacks," Jessica called out. "Besides, I have to admit that Millie has been very nice today. If she can remember how to act like this in the future, I could almost see dragging her along."

"You're kidding!" Jason said. "She's been nasty to just about everyone in our class. How could you make that decision?"

Jessica glared at Jason. "She's trying. Look, you don't know Millicent as well as I do."

"I wouldn't want to," Jason said gruffly. He put a hand behind his back, and Walter immediately slapped it before smirking at Jessica.

I was shaking my head as Jessica continued. "You really are a jerk sometimes, Jason. What I'm trying to tell you is that Millie isn't a bad person. She's just a bit shy and very sheltered by her family. I guess her father is more than a bit paranoid about people approaching the family looking for money."

Millicent blushed and then stepped forward to stand in front of Jason. The young lady was looking at the ground, but determination seemed to pour from her as she faced my friend. "I know I haven't been very friendly," she said softly. "My father is always telling me to be very careful who I am friends with."

"Why?" Jason asked as he crossed his arms across this midsection. Walter continued to smirk behind him. I glanced over to see Mrs. Roberts leaning against Morgan and watching the exchange.

Millicent sighed. "My father inherited his wealth. I don't know how, but he is the sole member of the family that the trust fund kept paying after grandmother died. But some of his cousins have tried several times to get access. Mortimer's mother was a good friend of one of the cousins. She tried to force father into marrying her, and even fought to force him to pay extremely high child support once Mortimer was born."

"That must have been fun for your father," Morgan muttered sarcastically.

Millicent shrugged. "I don't know, I wasn't there. My father then met and married my mother, but the cousins have tried numerous times to force them to divorce. My mother won't go out anymore because any time she's not with father, the cousins start trying to make it look like she's plotting against him."

"Ouch," I said. "That isn't something I knew."

"I don't talk about it," Millicent said. "Jessica knows only because my father was willing to allow me to have her as a friend. He says her father is wealthy enough that she won't be interested in our money."

"And the endless pursuit of money once again makes someone unhappy," Kathy mused. 'I'm sorry Millicent. I never knew."

"No one did," Millicent said softly. "It's not something that's easy to talk about. I'm just lucky that Jessica understood."

"Hated it though," Jessica said with a smile. "It hasn't made it easy to be your friend."

Millicent smiled wanly. "At least you have been a friend. My father doesn't have any friends. The few he had all abandoned him because of his paranoia. It gets very lonely at home."

"And is probably a factor in your brother's ability to mess up your father's attempts to rescue a restaurant," I observed.

"Well, on that note," Morgan interrupted. "How about we continue this talk at Harrard's? I can take four people in my pickup."

Jessica nodded. "Kathy, Millie and I can ride with you. I'm sure you won't mind taking three lovely ladies to dinner."

Morgan shook his head. "Alas, I have already pledged my love to another. I shall happily escort you to dinner, but you will have to find your own men."

Ashley giggled. "That's so bad. Where did that come from?"

"Misspent youth in drama club," Morgan said with a smile. "I guess we can divide up. See you at Harrard's."

The man turned and started to walk out of the arcade. Mrs. Roberts looked at the rest of us. "You can come with us Walter. We should get going."

She turned and started walking away, heading to the exit of the arcade. I tapped Ashley on the shoulder, and we ran to catch up, slowing down when we were walking alongside Mrs. Roberts. Jason and Walter were behind us, complaining that Millicent was going to be eating with us.

Mrs. Roberts looked over at me. "You don't seem upset about Millicent joining," she observed.

"I never knew the whole story, but I guessed that she wasn't as bad as people made her out to be. Jessica has been a friend of hers for years," I replied.

"And you always accept Jessica's opinion?" Ashley asked dangerously.

"No," I replied firmly. "But I do respect her. She's probably the most grounded person in my class. I laugh a bit with Jason and our friends about her clique, but Jessica is never mean to them, and surrounds herself with a positive crowd. If Jessica sees something in Millicent, I won't discount it immediately."

Ashley smiled and then hugged me. "I should have known you'd thought about it."

I nodded. We had made our way to the exit of the mall. I moved ahead of the group to open and hold the door while Mrs. Roberts and Ashley exited. Jason ducked through just before I released the door. Walter was just behind him.

"So you are talking to that rich bitch Jessica?" he asked.

"She's a very nice person," I replied calmly.

"Dude!" Walter called out. "She hangs out at the same table all the time during lunch and lords it over that little swarm of friends. Half of them hang out with her because of her money."

"And I can bet you that Jessica is very aware of who is there only because she has money," I replied calmly. "She's not a fool. If you'd get to know her, you might be surprised."

"Why would I want to?" Walter barked. "She can't help me. Everyone knows that I'm planning on a career as a firefighter."

"Something I'm sure you will be quite good at," I agreed. We were most of the way across the parking lot, and I could see Ashley carefully climbing into the minivan's front seat ahead of us.

"I wanted shotgun!" Jason said with a curse.

"But we have Walter here," I reminded him. "We should pick his brain and find out if he's heard anything new."

Walter laughed. "Me? My mother had me on lockdown at home for the past three hours. She was convinced that some madman was going to be stalking the city looking for people to kill."

"You would have been safe," I said. "After all, who would consider you a threat? I heard that Bart was after the girls who wouldn't date him and the boys who did get the dates."

"You did?" Jason whispered to me as we reached the minivan. Walter climbed in first. He slid down the rearmost bench seat leaving the middle bench empty.

"It does make some sense," I said as I jumped into the minivan. I slid down the middle bench until I was able to lean against the body of the van.

"Get in and close the door," Mrs. Roberts said. "I'd like to arrive at the same time Morgan does. He's a man who likes to see people show up on time."

"Who was that man anyways?" Walter asked. "I didn't know you were dating Mrs. Roberts."

"It's not exactly your business," Mrs. Roberts admonished Walter. "Morgan and I met at a café nine months ago, and we started meeting during the day to talk. He's a successful contractor and appears to be quite interested in me, but I have no idea why."

"Why wouldn't he be?" I asked. "Mrs. Roberts you are a beautiful woman. It only makes sense that a man is interested."

Walter made some gagging sounds from the back seat as Jason slid the door closed and then settled in next to me. My friend looked over his shoulder. "Please," he said. "Let's not insult my mother."

"Why not?" Walter asked with a slight sneer. "What's so special about Morgan?"

I sighed. "Walter, you do realize she's the one driving and paying for the pizza. If you want to continue being a jerk, she just might leave you at the side of the road. Now I can sense that you are upset, but insulting people never solves anything."

"I'm grounded," Walter snapped.

Jason and I looked at each other. "Um ... you are in a minivan going out to get pizza," Jason said slowly. "How is that grounded?"

"Not for today?" Walter whined, "My mother said I could have today as a last day of freedom. After today I have to run home right after school and can't go to any friend's houses. She's still panicking about what happened at Central High and now doesn't want me out of her sight."

"But you were allowed out today?" I asked.

"She said that there is so much police activity right now that no one will try anything," Walter said. "She's sure that once the media goes away there will be ten killers on the loose, and all of them will be stalking her oldest son."

"And I thought your parents were crazy," Jason said to me.

I shrugged. Ahead of me I could see Ashley slip her left hand back while keeping her eyes forward. I leaned over and took her hand in mine giving it a gentle squeeze. Jason shifted over to block Walter's view as I spoke. "My parents are just a bit too involved in my father's work," I said. "They tend to ignore anything that won't have an impact on that portion of their lives."