Chapter 30

Monday, I crawled out of bed feeling a little groggy. Last week had been a busy week, and I didn’t feel rested even after a good night’s sleep. By the time I had performed my morning exercises and finished my run, I was ready for the day. Since the mornings were now cooler, Mum had switched breakfast over to porridge.

The round box said, “Quaker Oats, oatmeal.”

If Mum wanted it to be porridge it was porridge. No matter what you called it, it was warm and filling. Put enough brown sugar on it and it even tasted good.

As usual, Tom and Bill were coming down the walk as I came out the door. The conversation all the way was about the dinner and dance. Bill bragged about the way Nancy kissed him. He made some other comments about what they had done that hadn’t any relation to reality.

Tom and I both tried to tell him to tone it down. If he spread that sort of stuff the girls wouldn’t go out with him. Bill didn’t seem to get it, as his story just got bigger.

Classes were back to normal after the hectic homecoming week. While classes may have been back to normal the rumor mill was working overtime discussing who broke up over the weekend, and what new couples had emerged. The limo was considered the neatest item of the weekend. Already girls were talking about a limo for Prom.

What interested me; was that Janet was getting credit for dinner and the limo. She had managed her date well.

As far as I was concerned the best thing about all the conversation was that my name didn’t come up alone. Even when talking about the limo; Tom and Bill would get equal billing with me.

I got a few, “Go Bellefontaine’s” for beating Sidney in golf but nothing was said about a course record. That would appear in the Monday edition of the Examiner. There wasn’t a paper on Sunday, so the record wouldn’t be common knowledge until Tuesday.

Going from Algebra to Latin I met Janet in the hallway. She gave me a cheerful, “Hi,” but didn’t stop. I returned the greeting and kept moving. This established that we were now friends and nothing more.

Lunch was more of the same; one of the seniors did stop at our table.

“Hey guys, I saw you at the country club with your dates and then getting out of that limo at the dance. You are making it hard on us normal people.”

Since this was said with a smile, we took it as a compliment.

Bill had to add, “It was worth it for how the girls treated us,” he leered as he said it.

Tom and I just shook our heads.

Tom added, “Well, how some of us thought we were treated.”

When the senior left Bill took Tom to the task.

“I’m trying to build up the gang’s reputation. All the girls want to be with real men.”

Bill found out how much his reputation was built up immediately after lunch. As we left the school to take a walk a very irate Nancy Sparks caught up with us. She started to berate Bill for all the lies he was telling about her. Tom and I looked at each other and took off walking leaving Bill to his fate.

The golf practice was different. All the other guys could talk about was the course record. They had to replay every stroke. They did this while we practiced putting. Coach Stone had us putting more and more. He also would add in some little tricks, like how to hit the ball around a tree.