Chapter 48: Little Sister

School had started. The good thing was that Warren was now with license and with car-his mom's old minivan, to be precise--so he didn't have to take the bus anymore. He drove in. With him was a friend, David Linnet.

Warren had met David on the bus last year, and they had occasionally chatted on the phone or done something together. David was only a sophomore-and Warren a senior, now-but Warren never worried about stuff like that. He liked Dave. When he mentioned to Dave that he was going to be driving in, Dave asked if he could join him, offering to split the gas money. Dave hated the bus. Warren readily agreed.

It was the second week of school. During the first week, Warren and Dave had started a little ritual-they made sure Warren picked Dave up early enough to swing to the Dunkin Donuts for some coffee. That's where they were headed now, when they saw two girls walking out of a side street.

"Hey, it's my Pookie! I forgot, her car is in the shop this week. It's not a long walk, but let's pick them up anyway."

"That's Sophia, I take it?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, the one with the straight black hair." He pulled over, and leaned over Dave and yelled out the passenger side window-"Hey Gorgeous, need a ride?"

Sophia looked up. "SNUGGLEBEAR!" she exclaimed happily, and ran over to the van. She pulled the sliding door open and climbed into the back seat, accompanied by Kate. "What a wonderful surprise, sweetie," Sophia said, kissing Warren on the cheek. "Hi Warren," added Kate.

"Ladies, this is my co-pilot, Dave. Dave, this is my girlfriend Sophia, and her sister Kate."

Dave shook both their hands. "Nice to meet you." Then he looked at them again. "Sisters?"

Sophia laughed. They did not look like sisters. "Stepsisters, actually. Kate's Dad married my Mom this summer. But she's my sister, as far as we're concerned."

"Cool," Dave said. "You guys go to Oceanview?"

"Yeah. I'm a senior, and Kate's a freshman. And I know you go to St Mike's with Snugglebear over there."

"Yeah, I'm a sophomore."

"Hey, we were gonna get coffee," Warren interjected. "You ladies up for it?"

"Sure." Sophia said.

"Yeah", agreed Kate.

They pulled into the parking lot, and all got out. They had enough time to go in and sit for a few minutes, so they did. Warren and Sophia got into a discussion about their first Grand Prix event, in Kiev in a couple weeks. David and Kate were both shy, so they spent a lot of time just kind of sitting there, stealing glances from one another.

"Is Kate short for something?" David asked.

"Katherine. With a K."

"I always liked that name." Dave sipped his coffee. "Did you live in Oceanview before you moved into Sophia's house?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah. I live up off of Lawrence Street, near Kingston Park."

"That's not too far."

Dave looked at the girl in front of her, and, he realized she was really cute. She had great eyes and a wonderful smile, and he liked her style. She was wearing a light blue long skirt and a dark blue shirt, had about thirteen bracelets on, and some sort of floral-design wire headband in her hair.

Unbeknownst to him, Kate was looking at him with just as much interest.

They repeated the same thing on Tuesday, except that Kate and Dave talked a little bit more. Dave found out that Kate liked basketball-and Kate found out that Dave not only liked it, he played it.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I was on the freshman team last year. I'm a guard."

"Cool!"

Kate noticed that Dave was always holding doors for her and stuff. She also noticed his warm smile. Dave, for his part, noticed her offbeat style and unique way of looking at things.

Wednesday, they did the same thing. Kate was dressed in an ankle-length purple floral print dress, with a matching floppy purple knit hat with a pink flower on the front. Plus her customary bracelets. They were talking about basketball, and then started telling each other about school-he cracking her up with his imitations of some of his teachers, and her cracking him up with her witty observations about hers. Both shy, they both realized the other was really easy to talk to.

At one point, Kate leaned over on the table, resting her chin on her hands, smiling. The image burned itself into his mind. When he got to school, he was still 20 minutes early, and went to find a corner where he would not be disturbed.

Warren was in Sophia's room, that night, when Kate asked if she could come down.

She plopped in a chair, and looked at the floor, kind of twirling her hair. Then she looked up at Warren and said, "Warren... tell me about Dave."

Warren cracked up laughing. "Now, where have I heard that song before?"

"What do you mean?"

"'Hey, Warren, tell me about Kate.'"

"Really?" Kate lit up in a big smile.

"Really. What, you haven't noticed that he can't keep his eyes off you?" Warren smiled at her. Kate blushed.

"No, I don't think I noticed, because I was too busy not being able to keep my eyes off him."

Sophia interjected, "I certainly noticed that!"

"Well," Warren said, "This I'll tell you. He's a good kid. He's a bit of a loner, has his own attitude about things, doesn't make friends very easily. He got teased a lot on the bus last year, because he was always in a corner, lost in whatever he was doing."

"Boy, does that sound familiar," Kate smiled.

"I know. He's very gallant. We've talked about girls and stuff, and he's never had anything even remotely resembling a girlfriend. And he's got some definite ideas about how a guy should treat a lady, and knows that it would take a special girl to appreciate it. He's into chivalry."

"Chivalry?"

"Notice how he always opens the door for you? That kind of thing. He's also a sensitive soul. He's very gentle."

"It almost sounds like your describing my dream date, Warren. I hate macho guys. I hate guys that have to show off. I hate guys that aren't sensitive. Now you've got me even more intrigued than I was previously."

Warren just laughed. "I also happen to know that you guys have something very important in common, but you will just have to figure that one out yourselves. I didn't spill those particular beans to him, either."

"Aw, come on!" Kate begged. But Warren wouldn't budge.

Dave got in the van the next day and jumped into the back seat. "We're picking up the girls, right? I just thought you might appreciate having Sophia up front with you."

Yeah, riiiiiiiiigggght, Warren thought to himself with a smile. All he said was, "Why thanks, Dave."

They pulled up in front of Sophia's house, and the girls came running out. Sophia looked quizzically at the seating arrangements. "Dave just thought you should have your customary seat back, Pookie." Sophia just gave Warren a smile.

Dave got out and opened the door for Kate. "Thank you, kind sir," she said with a giggle. The long wraparound skirt was red today, with a floral arrangement, as was the cotton shirt. The beret was black. Beret? Dave thought to himself. This girl has got style.

They rode mostly in silence to the coffee shop, Dave and Kate sitting right close together. Dave was trying to work up his courage for something. They pulled into the coffee shop and decided to do the drive through today.

On the way to Oceanview High, Dave finally screwed his courage on and reached into his bookbag. Kate, curious, watched him. He withdrew a piece of heavy paper and handed to her. "Here," he said, his voice a bit shaky. "This is for you. I did this yesterday morning."

Kate looked at it. It was a pencil drawing. Of her. It was a very, very good pencil drawing of her, wearing the hat she had had on yesterday, resting her chin on her hands and smiling, bracelets running down her arm. She remembered sitting like that at one point yesterday. He did this from memory, she thought to herself, amazed. "KATHERINE" was written on the top. She couldn't take her eyes off of it. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. He made her look beautiful.