Chapter 17: First Day With Kari

When Monday came around, Jeff woke up in a bad mood. He was not looking forward to this day. The thought that he would finally meet Kari Williams should have thrilled him, but instead it terrified him. It wasn't that he was particularly shy, not any more at least. Rachael had quickly cured him of that. But he knew that first impressions were always the most important, and he had no idea how he would act when he saw her.

Added to that worry was the thought of spending a couple of hours with her father, Allen. The man was a giant, or so he had seemed in class that year. No doubt he could pick up Jeff and break him over his knee.

Jeff sighed. He had to go through with it, but he didn't have to like it. He took a shower then headed gloomily down to breakfast. Allison was the only one in the kitchen, and she smiled when she saw him. Normally he enjoyed seeing Allison smile, but today he was too distracted.

"Now that won't do," she told him, sliding some pancakes from a pan onto a plate and setting it in front of him. "What would Kari think if she saw you sitting and frowning like that?"

Jeff shrugged. "I don't care."

Allison laughed. "No, I think you're in a bad mood because you do care. Are you nervous?"

"I suppose."

"Okay, let me tell you how to act in a way that girls can't resist."

His eyes lit up at that. That sounded helpful. "How?" he asked.

"Be yourself," she replied, and Jeff's hopes sank.

"So I should sit in the corner and read a book in front of her?" he mumbled.

Allison laughed again. "No, you should be funny and charming and friendly and playful. Like I said, just be yourself."

"So you think I'm funny and charming and friendly and playful?"

"I know you go too far sometimes teasing your sister, but just the fact that you like to tease each other is sign that you've got a sense of humor, and you like to play around. Girls like that sort of thing."

"I guess so."

"Do you remember what you said when you first met me?"

"What?"

"You called your Dad and said there was a mysterious and gorgeous woman to see him. That's the real you, not the guy who sits and reads all day."

"Yeah, but with you it's different."

"How?"

"I don't know. I guess it's just easy to say things like that with you."

"Thank you, dear. And that's another thing. Never miss an opportunity for a compliment."

"Allison, you're beautiful."

She laughed. "Thanks, but I meant with Kari."

"Just practicing," he replied, but he was starting to feel much better now. Allison had that effect on him.

By the time they left, his spirits had lifted considerably. Maybe it was just the adrenaline rush of finally meeting Kari, or maybe Allison's cheerfulness was contagious. Whatever the reason, he was actually eager to meet her.

Allison drove him to the Williams house. She dropped him off in the driveway, and in nervous excitement he made his way to the front door, then pressed the doorbell.

When the door opened, he found himself staring into the beautiful face of Kari Williams. She had her long, brown hair tied back in a ponytail, a style that he found extremely sexy on her. She had big brown eyes, and a slightly suntanned complexion. Her lips were a little below average in size but had a slight pucker to them even when she wore a neutral expression. It was as if she were at every moment asking for a kiss. But her smile was the type that could turn storm clouds away and brighten up a dark and dreary room.

"Hi, Jeff," she beamed.

This was almost too much. In all the years of school together, he could not recall her ever smiling at him. Heck, for that matter he could not recall her ever speaking to him.

Allison had to get back to the house to finish making breakfast for the rest of the family, so she waved at him and turned her car around to head back home.

"Hi," Jeff replied, trying to sound casual. "It's Kari, right?"

"Right. So how are you doing, Jeff?"

He shrugged. "Okay, I guess. I'll be able to give you a better answer after I've seen your dad's torture chamber."

Kari laughed. If she had never smiled at him, she had certainly never laughed at any joke he had made. His confidence was beginning to grow now that he had broken the ice.

"Don't worry. No one's died in there in at least three weeks," she replied.

Just then her father appeared in the hall. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with slightly graying hair and a chiseled chin. During school, he had reminded Jeff of a drill sergeant, but he looked quite different out of uniform. With a pair of slacks and a simple button-down shirt, he seemed quite a bit less threatening than in P.E. class.

"So you two know each other?" Allen Williams asked.

"Sure," said Kari.

Jeff's heart leaped in his chest. While her answer was simple enough, there was an implication there that boosted his spirits. It meant that he hadn't been anonymous to her after all. Though certainly not a grand revelation, just the fact that she had known who he was gave him a great thrill.

"All right, Jeff, why don't we get started? I'll show you my weight room, and you can try out some of the equipment there. Your mother said--"

"Stepmother," Jeff corrected absentmindedly. He didn't like to think of her as his mother, because then it would feel so wrong to fantasize about her.

Mr. Williams didn't push the issue. "All right, your stepmother said that your father's all in favor of getting you in shape, so he's going to set up some equipment in the rec room. Today we'll just go over the machines and have you try them out, see which ones you like the best. Tomorrow we'll start organizing an actual workout routine. What do you say?"

"Sounds good."

"Can I watch?" asked Kari.

"No, dear," her father replied. "Some people get self-conscious about working out when there's an audience."

"Oh, I don't mind," said Jeff. "She can watch if she wants." Anything that got her to spend time with him was good enough for him!

"Well, if it's okay with Jeff, it's okay with me," said Allen.

Then Jeff spotted another girl sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV. She looked astonishingly like Kari, except younger. She looked to be about Brit's age.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's your sister," said Jeff.

Kari laughed. "So you can see the family resemblance?"

"Well, you know, it is kind of subtle, but..."

"We have to make sure we clearly label the pictures in our family photo albums, or a few years later we can't tell if it's me or her in the photos. Hey Crystal," Kari said. "Come here for a second."

The girl got up and walked over to them.

"Crystal, this is Jeff. Jeff, Crystal."

"So you've finally managed to bring a boy home with you," Crystal grinned maliciously. "It's about time."

"Shut up!" said Kari, growing red.

Jeff just shrugged. "Little sisters," he commented, and he could see a look of gratitude on Kari's face.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Crystal.

"It means you're as much a tease as my sister Britney."

She put her fists on her hips and flashed him a playfully haughty smile. "Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," she said.

"Let's get out of here before she really gets going," Kari said hurriedly, grabbing Jeff's arm and half-dragging him down the hall to the weight room.

It looked every bit as scary as he had expected it to. There were numerous machines that looked like they belonged in a medieval torture chamber. Mr. Williams began to point them out, describing how they worked and in most cases demonstrating. He explained how to change the weight settings for heavier and lighter weights, and suggested that since Jeff was just trying to get into shape instead of building up strength, he should keep with light weight and perform the sets rapidly and without breaks in order to get his heart rate up. As he went over the devices, Jeff began to have less and less apprehension. They seemed simple enough. Kari even showed off some of her favorites, and Jeff found himself enjoying just watching her move. She was the type of girl that he could just watch for hours on end, no matter what she was doing.

Then Mr. Williams had Jeff try a few of them. Some were designed to work the major muscle groups, but others worked muscles that Jeff didn't even know he had. On some of the machines, he even had trouble with the lightest weight settings, to his embarrassment, but Kari explained to him that that was expected; the muscles that those machines were designed to work were usually extremely weak unless specifically trained, but would grow strong surprisingly quickly if he continued to work on them.

The ultimate humiliation, though, came when Kari and he alternated on the bench press, and he discovered that Kari could lift more than he could. But she actually came to his rescue by telling him that she had deliberately worked on her upper body strength to be better at volleyball. Mr. Williams agreed, adding that Kari was at the peak of her potential strength while Jeff was toward the bottom, and since he was a man, he would pass her in just a few weeks of practice. It made for a good, if somewhat embarrassing, goal at least.

"If it turns out that Crystal can bench press more than me though," he said, "I'll kill myself."

As he tried out the various machines, he told Kari's dad the ones he liked. Mr. Williams had a clipboard with him and jotted down notes. An hour later, he said it was time to quit.

"Okay, we've got some ideas here," he said. "Tell you what, Jeff. I'm going to have a talk with your father. He already said he's willing to buy some equipment for you. Maybe later this week the three of us can get together and make some orders on the Internet."

"Fine," said Jeff. Actually, now that he had had a chance to try it, he was actually excited to start working out on a regular basis. There was still plenty of space left over in the rec room, especially if they rearranged some of the chairs, so a few of these machines down there would work out nicely.

"Well, we're done for the day," said Mr. Williams, "unless you want to keep going. Your stepmother isn't expecting Kari for another hour and a half, but we can head back over to your house now if you'd like."

"Well, maybe I could go back over some of my favorites for a few minutes."

"Good! You're getting into it already. I'll tell you what. I've got to do some yard work, but I'll leave Kari here with you. You don't mind, do you Kari?"

"No problem," she said.

"Okay. Just remember to spot him if he wants to use the bench press."

"Spot me?" asked Jeff.

"Yes. Other than the occasional sprained muscle if you're not careful, none of the machines in here are dangerous except the bench press. That's because if your strength goes out on the other machines, all that happens is a loud noise as the weights come crashing down. But on the bench press, all the weight is over your chest. You could collapse your rib cage that way. So you have someone spot you, which means they stand over you ready to catch the weight if it looks like you aren't going to be able to get it back up."

"That makes sense."

"All right. I'll be back in to check on you in half an hour," he said.

Jeff was overjoyed. As Mr. Williams left the room, he found himself alone with Kari for the first time. She offered to show him her routine that she usually did when working out, and he readily agreed. Not only did he want to get an idea of how it was all supposed to fit together, but it also gave him an excuse to just look at her.

She showed him how to alternate sets on one machine with sets on another so as to work different muscle groups while keeping the heart rate up. They took turns on the different machines, though Jeff had to take frequent breaks because he couldn't keep up with someone as fit as she was. She gave him encouraging comments, making him feel much more confident with his shortcomings, telling him that he would get better over time.

They tried the bench press then. Kari went first, and Jeff stood over her, staring down into her beautiful face. Even all sweaty as she was, she still looked gorgeous. Then Jeff took a turn, and found it just as pleasant to stare up into her beautiful face as she stood over him with that encouraging smile.

Afterward, they took a break, resting from the exertion.

"You're not used to working out," commented Kari, noticing him panting.

"No I'm not. Apparently you are, though."

"It's my dad's fault. He's always been big into sports, but he doesn't have any sons to throw a football around with or play basketball with. So he had to make do with what he had. That's what got me started on athletic activities."

"Whatever the cause, I think you turned out great."

Kari laughed. "I think you did too, Jeff," she replied.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You may not be as physical as me, but you've got plenty of other good qualities. Speaking of which, this is the first chance I've had to thank you," said Kari.

"Thank me? What for?"

"For getting me out of summer school."

"That? Oh, that was my stepmom's idea."

"But you're the one who decided you wanted to help me."

"Oh, yeah, I guess so."

"That incident in the cafeteria was so embarrassing. I wanted to die. Everyone else was laughing at me, but you felt bad enough to do something about it."

"I just don't like to see people cry, that's all."

"Well, that just means you're a decent person, unlike most of the kids in school."

"I suppose so. Besides, it's not the first time I've seen you cry."

"Really?" asked Kari. "What was the other time?"

"Um ... maybe I shouldn't mention it. I mean, it might bring up painful memories."

"Just tell me, Jeff."

"Okay. It was at your mother's funeral five years ago."

"Oh, that. Don't worry, Jeff. It doesn't bother me to think about it any more. That was a long time ago. Besides, we all knew it was coming, so she was able to talk to us to prepare us for it."

"It was cancer, wasn't it?"

Kari nodded. "Your dad and my dad were good friends back then, weren't they?" she asked.

"Yep. That's why he made us go to the funeral. I'll tell you what, though, as sad as it was to see you crying, it was the weirdest sight to see a big, scary guy like your dad crying too."

She laughed. "You think he's scary?"

"You think he's not?"

"Oh, Dad's just a big teddy bear. He's the greatest guy in the world if you give him half a chance."

"Yeah, he wasn't half as frightening today as he was in P.E. class this year."

"I guess he doesn't show that other side of himself very often, at least outside of our family, or at funerals."

"I think that was the first time I started noticing you," said Jeff.

"Noticing me?" asked Kari, and Jeff realized he had just made a big mistake.

"I mean ... I had never even seen you before that."

"And you've been stalking me ever since," Kari grinned.

"I didn't mean it that way!" he exclaimed, blushing.

"But you have been 'noticing me'?" she asked.

"Well ... I guess."

For some reason that he couldn't quite fathom, her face lit up in a smile at those words. "So how come we never talk at school then?" she asked.

"Are you kidding? A nerd like me talking to a popular girl like you?"

"If you believe in all those stereotypes. I never did."

"That's easy for a popular girl like you, but not for a nerd like me."

"Have you ever thought that maybe that's the reason I'm popular?"

"So you wouldn't have minded if I just came up and started talking with you, right in front of all your friends?"

"Of course not. I would have felt flattered."

"Flattered?"

"Yes. Most of the kids at school are too preoccupied with how other people think of them. That's why they organize themselves in their little cliques or groups or things. It's all about their identity. So if someone were to just come up to me out of the blue and start talking with me, I'd take it as a sign that they were more interested in me than in how I thought of them."

"I guess you have a point."

"So now that you've actually met me, you'll talk to me at school, won't you?"

"I don't know," he grinned, feeling a lot better about things now. "As a self-declared nerd, it is my solemn duty to only worship popular girls from afar, never to speak to them. I mean, what would people think of me?"

"Oh, very funny. Well if you're not going to talk to me, I'll have to talk to you instead."

"No! You threaten the very foundation of the established order!"

"Didn't you know? It's my mission in life to destroy the established order. I'm recruiting volunteers for the cause. Do you want to sign up?"

"I don't know. What's in it for me?"

"For starters, you get to be seen in the company of a so-called popular girl."

"Oh. As long as she's pretty."

"Me, you idiot," she grinned, slapping him playfully on the shoulder.

"Well you certainly meet the requirements."

"You think I'm pretty?" she asked.

"Oh, I wouldn't exactly say 'pretty.'"

"Oh really?"

"I'd say you're more like ... oh, about halfway between 'beautiful' and 'gorgeous.'"

Kari laughed. "I never knew you were such a flirt, Jeff."

"If we're going to single-handedly tear down the whole establishment, I need to practice not being shy with popular girls."