Chapter 3: Summer Begins

Summer, the time of year that just about any student (well, any normal student at least) looks forward to. Sure, there are some friends you probably won't see for a while, but you also won't see any teachers for that same amount of time. Then again, when you have teachers for parents it doesn't really count. When you see them all the time, it's to be expected. One nice thing about summer in my family was that my mom and dad taught school during the summer as well, only now it was for a private company that ran classes for at risk kids. One of the nice things about that was it meant they would take them on trips during the summer, going to learn about some of the rock formations and science type areas that were around. It had its advantages; they got to take the kids around to some of the state or national parks around Utah. It was nice, I'd had the chance to go with them for a few years. I got to spend weekends with kids my own age and basically going on camping trips while we'd go check out the Grand Canyon, Arches, Cedar Breaks, Zions and other national parks that were in the area.

This year was probably going to be a little different though. With me working over the summer I'd be busier, and probably working during the majority of weekends. I could always try to schedule time off for some of the ones I'd want to try to go on, but otherwise I'd be left home so I could work while they'd take the class and probably my two younger sisters with them on the trips. Summer time as a sixteen year old boy, with access to a car, and at least several weekends with an empty house, I can definitely see the advantage there. All I needed to do now is figure a way to actually use that advantage.

The school year had ended on a Thursday this year, and for now I was enjoying my first Friday out of school. As the last few weeks of school had wound down we'd ended up winning the regional for track once again over Viewmont. I'd been relegated to sitting in the stands and watching but it was fun seeing the team succeed and knowing I was a part of things, even if I wasn't competing at that level yet. We'd sent a good number of competitors on to the state championships, Aaron having made it for both the 1-mile and 2-mile races. As a team we had a good state meet as well and ended up placing second overall. Dixon, our top pole vaulter, had placed in the top three for both 100 and 200 meters and had ended up winning in the pole vault while setting a state record. I couldn't feel too bad though, I'd had a good year myself. My time for both the 1 and 2-mile runs had improved on almost every race and as a sophomore I was looking to be in a good position to compete in the regional in at least cross country if not track as well.

The preseason meetings had also finished up at Lagoon the last week of summer. I'd shown during training to be a jack of all trades type, and so my game assignment schedule had me doing a little of everything. It wasn't bad though. I'd be switching from game to game so I figured that would help keep things new. It could also make for getting to know more people, since there were a lot of people who were only getting assigned to either specific games or specific types of games. I hadn't officially met either of the two brunettes I'd spotted that first training day, Tonya or Tenille, though I think Tenille had realized that we'd gone to the same junior high. She'd said a quick hi when I was walking past her a few days ago. Course, she could've just been being friendly, but I'd seen her head turn when they were calling out full names. Coming from a Japanese family my last name stands out, and since she'd had my dad as a teacher she'd caught it when they stumbled over Yoshizumi. I'd had to bite back a little bit of a chuckle, for a Japanese name I've always figured it's one of the easier ones to pronounce.

Two weekends before school ended the park had opened, so we were pulling limited hours with it being just a weekend schedule. I'd even started getting to know a girl from Salt Lake named Nicole. We'd worked games that were right next to each other for the first weekend on both days, and since it was a slow start we had time to talk a little bit while we worked. She seemed nice. Being from Salt Lake she lived about twenty minutes south of the park (and about 30 minutes drive south of me), so I probably wouldn't have met her without working at Lagoon. I'll admit, it also didn't hurt that, in my opinion at least, she was sexy. Her hair was a light brown (ok, so I like brunettes ... sue me) and she looked to be about my height at 5'3, I'd hazard a guess at probably about 115 pounds or so. Her hair was a little past shoulder length and had a slight curl to it, she'd had it both days so I thought it might be a natural curl but it was too soon to say for sure. She looked cute in the uniform that we had to wear, too. We wore green t-shirts that had a collar and dark blue-almost black shorts. The shorts in her case showed that she did have some nice curves, and I'd seen her from behind enough now to know she had a nice little ass, too. Course, her ass wasn't the only thing that was nice, her legs looked good, and I didn't know at that point, but she filled out her 34B bra nicely as well.

Since today was the first day of summer break I was enjoying the fact that I didn't have to get up as early as usual for school. I did have work later that afternoon, but that wasn't until 3:00 that I needed to be there. The schedule had me listed from 3 till close. It'd been explained to us that the closing time would vary, depending on when people were clearing out of the park. Even though I didn't have to get up early, I'd decided to get up 'early'; nine am. The reason for that was that I still wanted to stay in at least a little bit of a running shape, and it got hot quick in the summer. So, if I was out on my run by ten it shouldn't be higher than maybe mid 80's at most.

The nice thing about my summer workout plan was that I was lowering the frequency but upping the mileage per day, since I didn't have to target a relatively shorter distance race. So instead of running 5-6 days a week and doing 3-5 miles per day, I was going to be running 3-4 days a week and probably average around 5 or 6 miles when I'd run. At 16 and still in really good shape from track this morning's 6 mile run wasn't much of a challenge, but it wasn't meant to be. I was mainly just wanting to keep my endurance up, didn't need to worry about speed for a few months. It was nice, too. Since I was running on my own, I just went out with my walkman. It had a strap to go around my wrist, and since it was a tape player it wouldn't skip. I'd thought about trying to run with my CD player when I'd gotten that, but there was no way that was going to work, could barely take a heavy step without it skipping. So tapes it was, and, for today at least, a little "Use Your Illusion II" sounded like a good idea to me.

I got back to the house to see my mom's subtle hint that she wanted the lawn moved before I went to work. What was subtle for her was having the mower out in the driveway waiting for me. Oh well, at least I hadn't taken a shower yet. The nice thing about it was the extra time it took to get the lawn mowed, let me get into a repeat of the GNR I'd been listening to. It hadn't taken too long though; by the time that ended, I'd showered and had lunch. Since there wasn't anything else going on I decided I'd head to work a bit early. I had access to the car today, so I decided I'd go and just put my work clothes in. The nice thing about working in an amusement park, when you weren't working you could go get your roller coaster fix in. The other thing I could do would be to see if anyone else had come in early, or just go see who was working and maybe talk a little. The way things worked was most of the early shifts were run by the 15 year old "red badgers" as they were called, since the park couldn't work them past 8 pm.

The way the park was set up they had a separate much larger parking area for the general public and north of that was the employee parking. If you were going into the park even when you weren't working as an employee you used the employee parking. Otherwise, you'd end up having to pay the $3 to park that they charged the public. Yeah, places like this are the same where ever you go – they try to get money from you where ever they can. I'd decided since I worked anyway I'd wear my work shorts with a regular white Powder Mountain t-shirt, that way all I'd have to do is go back to the car and change shirts before my shift started. Granted, the shorts were probably going to be a give away to anyone who worked there that I did also, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I'd started walking towards the south end of the park when I heard my name being called. Turning around towards it I saw a football coming my way, lobbed up so I had time to react since it was thrown when I wasn't looking. It wasn't a bad throw aim-wise; just a bit wobbly, but I still caught it. Looking back towards where it was thrown could explain the wobble – Tenille had thrown it.

"I thought that was you I saw in training last week. You should've at least said hi or something." I chuckled a little; evidently her thought process was that since we'd gone to school together for two years that was enough of an ice breaker here. She gave me a little bit of a smile, a playful look to it. "Though it might've been more Tonya that had your attention, is that it?"

That one got an outright laugh out of me before I responded. "You think she had my attention, hmmm? You must have missed the times I was checking you out too, then." It still baffled me a little, I was shy when it came to thinking of asking a girl out, but I could joke and tease back and forth without much of a problem. My boldness here had been a surprise to me though.

"Yeah, I saw you checking her out. I guess I must've missed you checking me out though." She shrugged after that. "Not that there's all that much to draw someone's eye with me." While she was talking I took the steps needed to close the ground between us, after all conversation was better when you were closer together.

Since she'd said she didn't think she could draw someone's eye I went ahead and took that as an opportunity to let my eyes wander over her body. Like I'd described her earlier, she was a petite girl, light skinned with brown hair that stopped at her shoulders. At her height she would probably have to be dripping wet to top 100 pounds, if she did it even then. Once I'd let her see my eyes move over her I looked back up to make eye contact before I continued on. "Well, from here I can't see your ass but from what I see and saw before there's nothing for you to be ashamed of or worried about, you're a sexy girl."

She rolled her eyes, but watching her I was pretty sure that was a little bit of a blush I was seeing. "Whatever, you're just saying that cause you're a nice guy and trying to make me feel better." She was trying to take it lightly, but I could tell that she was glad I'd said it. I made a mental note to remember that for in the future, and to make sure that, like I was here, I was giving my honest opinion when I did it. I wasn't the type of guy to tell someone something they wanted to hear if I didn't mean it. She was right though, most people, myself included, thought of me as the nice guy type. At times I thought that was part of my problem, after all it seemed the old adage that nice guys finish last was true with a lot of women.

"You've known me a couple of years now, or at least known me a little bit, I think you know me better than that. I wouldn't just say something if I didn't believe it. And in your case, I do believe it. You are very sexy." The blush was back, with what looked like a slight smile as well.

"Bah, I still think you're just saying that just 'cause you're a nice guy. Well, that, or that you're trying to sweet talk me." At that one I just rolled my eyes, and then decided to lightly toss the football the few feet between us for her to catch, which she did.