Chapter 6

As soon as he finished eating, Jeff showered and put on his nicest jeans and a golf shirt. As soon as he combed his hair, he discovered time rushed by while he performed his hygeine. He must speed up or risk offending Candy by being late.

"Mom, I'm headed down to the basement in case you need me!" He hollered as he pivoted around the doorsill between the kitchen and the basement stairs. His hand slipped off the edge of the doorframe and he ended up tumbling down the stairs. As he rolled out onto the cement floor of the laundry area, he plopped into a pile of lint from the dryer that had fallen out of the trash can.

"Oh, man! Now I'll have to change." he brushed the front of his shirt in an attempt to knock the lint away, but the action simply lodged the grayish dust deeper into the coarse material.

He rushed through his chores, but he couldn't speed up moving the furniture around and vacuuming. He trudged through that last bit of cleaning and then ran to his room to change his shirt.

"Man, I've got to hurry. Cathy'll be angry if I'm late and if there's any chance that she's interested, I don't want her aggravated with me." He tossed the golf shirt into the clothes hamper in the bathroom and quickly hustled into his closet and rifled through the shirts hanging there. Nothing seemed quite right. He finally settled on a pink broadcloath with button-down collar. He decided to make a little bit of fashion statement and leave the tails hanging out.

"Wouldn't want to look too formal." and he skipped out his bedroom door and headed for the garage.

Jeff rode down Madison as quickly as his bike moved. The downhill ride always gave him a little bit of a rush, especially at the end of the block where it jogged right and then he took a hard left. Sometimes he made the ride with no hands. The challenge boosted his confidence that he wasn't just a brainiac geek.

Candy's house was only about three-quarters of a mile away. He knew he could make it in about eight minutes under normal circumstances, but the adrenaline buzz had him really rolling. He hopped the curb at Vine and Jefferson and missed seeing the sharp pebble right at the edge of the gutter. His front tire blew and he went rolling again. Fortunately for him, the bike slid into the street and he rolled along the gutter. A brown Buick's brakes squealed on the other side of the road as the driver whipped the wheels toward the opposite gutter and ended up only grazing the handlebars of the bike.

"Great!" Jeff stood up and brushed sand from his clothes as he walked over and picked up his bicycle. "I won't be neat and now I'll be late!"

He finally rolled his bike up in front of Candy's house just as her mother was walking out the door.

"Young man you just made it. We have a rule that Candy can't open the door once we've left even if she knows who is outside."

"Sorry, Mrs. Bush. My tire blew on the way over. I think I hit a rock or something. It was really loud!"

"I'm sorry. Well, when I get back from grocery shopping, I can give you a ride home. Do you think you guys can finish studying in two hours? Oh, Candy know, but I'll just mention that you guys have to keep an eye on Harry. He's watching cartoons right now, so mostly that means you guys have to make sure he doesn't thoroughly trash the kitchen getting snacks at commercial time."