Balls to the wall

James biked to the mall, parked his bike and chained it before heading inside. He looked around for Carrie as he slowly walked the perimeter of the food court, looking at the store windows. On his second circuit he saw Carrie come in. Waving to her, he walked up to her.

“Hey, Carrie.”

She smiled, “Hi, James.”

“Glad you could make it. Did you have any trouble?” James asked.

“No, but I have biked to this mall before,” She replied.

“Great,” he smiled awkwardly, trying to sound more confident than he felt. His dates in the previous timeline had been uncomfortable and had not gone all that well. He rarely got a call back and had only ever had one hand job in a dark cinema. This time he wasn’t expecting anything from her other than a nice time.

Walking over to the movie theater, Carrie asked, “So what do you want to see?”

“I was thinking From Dusk till Dawn,” James said offhandedly. “But Mom said that probably wasn’t a good idea.”

“I don’t know. It does have George Clooney in it.”

He laughed, “Good point.”

“What about Independence Day?”

“Oh, are you into sci fi?”

She shrugged, “I’m not, but I’ve heard good things about it.”

“Okay, that sounds fine. We’ll try that one!”

After buying the tickets, they entered the theater. He bought popcorn and drinks and they went to their seats. During the previews he watched a couple, and chuckled as the man yawned and stretched his arm around the woman, who then giggled.

“What?”

He pointed and she snorted. With a grin, she looked James in the eye, then yawned and draped her own arm over James’s shoulder. He laughed and leaned in as the trailers finished.

“You don’t have a problem with role reversal?”

“No,” he grinned. “Cuddling up to a cute woman is never an issue for me.”

She smiled.

The film finished. It was a good movie, but too long and he was tired. He yawned and stretched, popping his shoulder and neck, eliciting a brief grimace from Carrie.

She wondered aloud, “It was a good film, all in all. Do you think they’ll do a sequel?”

James did actually know the answer to that and knew how terrible it would be, but had to answer in a way that wouldn’t let on.

“Probably,” he shrugged. “The only issue with sequels is that most of the time they suck.”

“True,” she nodded and they started listing off sequels that sucked and laughed as they walked out.

“I’m famished. You want a burger?”

“Sure, why not?” The two sat down in one of the mall restaurants. After a brief conversation over the menu, he ordered and they were served

After the meal, they walked the entire mall, looking at each store’s windows. James thought, ‘This is nice, walking, holding hands with some mindless chatter. So much different than a first date on my first pass.’

The date ended on a high note. He rode with her back to her house and then he pedalled home. When he walked in, he was confronted by all of the women, waiting for him.

“So,” his mother asked.

“So...”

“How did it go?”

He launched into detail, knowing what they were expecting.

After he finished, Mom asked, “Are you going to asked her out again?”

“Definitely. It was very low key and I enjoyed myself. I might even ask her to the Spring Dance.”

Rachael jumped in, “Then you need to go shopping for a decent outfit. We are already taking Amanda since she has a date, so one more isn’t a problem.”

“I don’t need anything fancy. A shirt and a pair of pants is enough.”

Mom’s voice actually rumbled, “Think again, James.”

“So, Mom, when are we going?” He then turned his head and stared at Amanda who was sitting there laughing. “Am I amusing you?”

“Absolutely, but it’s what you do,” she replied.

Mom stood and said, “It’s late. Everyone get ready for bed.”

James went to school with a smile on his face. Not even the ribbing he got from the jocks could sour his mood.

He went to work in the same happy mood and found it became infectious. He treated the customers jovially and answered all their inane questions without snark or sarcasm and even received a nice compliment or two in response.

The biggest improvement at work was with the techs; all the time, effort and energy put into the job was starting to pay off and they were taking him seriously now. He had done everything they’d asked and jumped through all the hoops. Even Pat was working hard, although he bitched about it after work.

Work also provided a unique challenge for him; before he had only used a computer for porn or gaming, now he was actively learning how to code. He was becoming more skilled and was respected at work for his motivation and growing skill.

Walking to his station he tapped Roger, the new junior tech, on the shoulder. “Move it, buddy!” The grin on James’ face made it clear he was in a goofy mood. Laughing, Roger stepped back, gave a mock bow, and went over to Trevor for his next assignment. James made sure his workstation was ready and went over to the open tickets.

Before he could grab one, Mr. Addison pulled him off to the side for a conversation. “I just wanted to let you know that the checklists you created have been instrumental in helping Roger get up to speed quickly.”

“Thanks. I made them for me but realized that the items could help others,” James replied.

“Have you shown these writeups to your instructor, Mr. Gale? The worksheets would probably fulfil all of the work study requirements and maybe even get you out of class.”

“No. Honestly, it never even occurred to me. I thought that they were too specific for Micro Center.”

“James, a computer is the same whether it is in a school lab or a counter in the back. The same steps are used to identify the problem and make the repairs. So he will be very interested in these,” Mr. Addison replied. “Have you thought of more checklists you can create? And another thing, you never put the time you spent creating these on your timesheet. You need to do that.”

“Why? I did them for me so I could get the tech job.”

“You need to understand how business works. You are correct that I do not need to pay you for your creating checklists that you personally use. But this is no longer the case because we are using them for other employees. So the company needs to own the rights, which means we have to pay you for them. But I cannot give you money because I would run into problems with the government.”

James had a confused look on his face. “That sounds like a catch 22, so I’m going to ask why?”

“It’s absolutely true. If you ever go into business, you will need to avoid people who cut corners. If they do it in their own company then how can you trust them to honor their commitments? Tell you what, give me a total of the time you spent and I will come up with a way to pay you and keep the government off my back. Wait. I have it. You wanted to buy your twin a computer. Maybe we can apply the money for the checklists towards her computer?”

“That would be fantastic. And a huge surprise for Amanda.”

“Get me the hours and we will sit down and work out the numbers.”

The next day he headed into the AP class and quickly took a seat. The others were still ignoring him, but were not as hostile as before. The temperature was still cool though.

For the last few weeks it had been the same. He operated in a bubble, ignored by his classmates. On one hand, he didn’t care because he did not need their help to pass this class. But on the other hand, he was bothered that they never even made an attempt to know him. With all of the changes he’d made, the fact he was getting along with people was his proudest achievement.

So he sat in his assigned seat, physically and psychologically isolated from the others. But the benefits from this class outweighed the petty bullshit from the others.

Today was different; Mrs. Meyer split the class into four-person groups for a contest. She would post a math question and the first group to solve the question won a prize. James was partnered with three people he had never talked to before. She walked to each group and handed them the rule sheet and said that only the person with the sheet was allowed to give the team’s answer. To his surprise, she gave him the sheet. And, maybe not so coincidentally, there was now a reason for the others to talk to him.

Grinning inside he started, “Let’s all introduce ourselves. I am James.”

One of the girls spoke “I am Susan. This is Lynne and he’s Tom.”

“Okay, well let’s go over the rules,” James said and then quickly read out the rules. “I assume that this is a regular occurrence and you are all familiar with them.”

“No,” Lynne responded, “this is new to us.”

James wondered if the teacher devised this exercise just to break some of the barriers down? But he shrugged and vowed to dazzle the others with his memory palace enhanced skills.

Soon the contest began. When he saw the first question, he realized that he knew the answer, even though it had not yet been covered in class. So he immediately raised his hand and gave the answer when Mrs. Meyer called on him. She looked at him and said, “Exactly right and in record time. Congratulations, here are the first round prizes – a free ice cream cone at Dairy Queen for your group.”

Tom whispered “How did you know that? Much less that quickly?”

James responded, “I had to study by myself before joining the class so I jumped around in the curriculum in a different order from what we’re doing in class. I have a good memory and remembered the problem. But I should have asked you all to see if you also knew the answer rather than jumping in. I will do better on the next question.”

Lynne laughed and said, “If you know it, go right ahead. Maybe we will win a complete meal.”

For the next 30 minutes, after each question, James checked with his group before answering. He was taking advantage of Mrs. Meyer’s plan to bond with the team and did not want to come across as a self-centered jerk. He didn’t mind when some of the other groups won the question because the bonding was more important than a snack.

Finally the contest was over and James was able to marvel that there were people who would talk to him. He waited until everyone left and walked up to Mrs. Meyer. He started, “That was pretty sneaky to arrange a team project just to get them to talk to me. Thank you.”

“You noticed that? They were quite content to ignore you and keep to themselves. Hopefully the other three will spread more information about you.”

“Mrs. Meyer, do you have another moment?”

“No, James, I do not. Why don’t you come back after school tomorrow and I can give you some time. Today is all booked up.”

“All right, I will see you at 3:30 tomorrow.”

That night he knocked on Amanda’s door. “Who is it?” she called out.

“Very funny, Am. Can I come in?

Walking in, he grabbed the desk chair and straddled it. “Fast request. I wanted to ask Carrie to the dance while we are jogging tomorrow. Could you give us a little space while we are running?”

“Can you now talk and run?” she joked.

“Hey, I am getting better. If it wasn’t for running, I would not even have a chance with her.”

“Okay, I will just skip tomorrow. And I will not be dreaming of you during my extra bed time tomorrow.”

“I am so glad you have my best interests at heart, Am. G’night”

The next morning, James was waiting outside for Carrie to run up. He noted that she had one speed when they ran together and a faster speed when she ran by herself. ‘She must like me to reduce her training regimen when we are running together,’ he thought.

Carrie smiled and waved, the normal pattern for them to set off. After about 10 minutes, James signalled for then to slow to a fast walk. “What’s wrong,” she asked.

“Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. Thanks to your efforts, I am in much better shape, but still can’t talk effectively and run,” he replied.

“Okay,” she said as she stretched her arms above her head and walked next to him.

“Carrie, I really enjoyed out date and wanted to ask you to the Spring dance in two weeks.”

“Wow, I did not expect that. I enjoyed the date and would love to go,” she responded.

“Wonderful. My mother is threatening to take me clothes shopping so I have something appropriate for the dance. She rejected all of my choices so something new is on the agenda.”

Carrie laughed and said, “Now that that is out of the way, let’s get back to running.”

At 3:30 that afternoon, he entered Mrs. Meyer’s classroom. She was at her desk grading homework turned in by the last class. Looking up, she put the papers into a drawer and said, “Have a seat, James.”

“Thank you for seeing me so quickly.”

“That is not a problem. You have been working hard in the class and I have seen a significant improvement. As we discussed the first day, you were a stranger to these classes and I did not know enough about you to have any expectations. I have been pleasantly surprised at your dedication and your attempts to get along with the others in the class.”