Chapter 4

The rest of work that day went by fairly slow. The nice thing about that was that it meant they were closing the park earlier than they would have if it had been busy. Closing down the games each night meant we had to do a little inventory of things, tracking how many prizes had been awarded over the course of the day. The process itself took about twenty minutes to get everything taken care of for the night. I figured that time would vary depending on the game and everything, but that as I figured things out a little better and got used to it, I'd be able to make the process go quicker.

After I'd gotten back to the office and turned in my keys there were still a group of kids hanging out. For the most part there were kids from different areas, and it seemed like a lot were from a little further south, so we decided we'd go get a late dinner at a Denny's nearby. From what I'd gathered from some of the people who were there for a second or third summer, this was a pretty common thing. Before we were headed out Nicole came over to talk to me.

"Hey, I just wanted to let you know I was still looking forward to going out to the island. I'd go out with you guys to get food tonight but my dad's out in the car waiting to pick me up. Maybe next time you go I'll be able to go along with you." She still looked good in my opinion, even for the end of the day. She'd had her hair pulled back in a pony tail today and just a little of it had come loose, but that was fairly typical with girls I'd noticed.

"Ok, that's good to know, I'm looking forward to it too." I gave her a little bit of a grin, I couldn't help it. I was still in a good mood due to the fact I'd successfully asked her out. "It's cool you can't make it tonight, we'll see how things go for tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow. If you get back, and it's not too late give me a call. I'll probably be up till about midnight." She reached out and gave my hand a quick squeeze and then took off, heading out towards the parking lot. I couldn't help but watch her as she left. She did look good from behind, in my opinion.

Denny's ended up going fairly well, there was about ten of us that went. I wasn't really all that hungry, so I just ended up getting a strawberry shake. I'd always been big on ice cream. I think part of it was from times I'd eaten it at my grandparent's when I was over there. That, and, of course, the simple fact that I thought it tasted good. Most of going to Denny's, for me, was just a way to start getting to know some of the other kids. Josh had taken off already, so he wasn't around with us that night.

I ended up getting back home at about 11 that night. I hadn't really stayed all that late at Denny's, although there were a few who had. It was nice though, the kids that were around were pretty laid back and friendly. Hadn't run into anyone so far who was someone I hadn't liked. I'd let my parents know I was back and then went back downstairs. My house was located on Main Street in Kaysville, a split four level house. My parents and youngest sister in the top floor, the third floor had the kitchen and the living room, the second floor was ground level and had the family room, computer, and the garage, then in the basement was our utility/storage room, my room, and my middle sister's room. At 16 I was the oldest of the kids in the family with my sisters each two years younger at 14 and 12, respectively.

Once I was down to the third floor I grabbed the phone off the wall, sat down on the couch and pulled the number Nicole had given me earlier to give her a call. It was a little after 11 now, and she'd said it was ok to call up till 12. We ended up spending about a half hour on the phone talking back and forth. As the call ended, I started wondering what it was about her that was actually making me comfortable so far. In asking her out, I hadn't been nervous because I'd just reacted to the opportunity without really thinking about it. Talking to her over the phone was probably comfortable because, even though we had a date scheduled, there was a distance between us right now, it wasn't face to face. There was a part of me that was pointing out that maybe this was just the first step in me coming out of my shell finally.

I'd found out that we'd both be working the next day and both closing again, so I should have an opportunity to talk to her again the next night. Who knows? Maybe even, if I felt brave, see if she wanted to go somewhere after work. With thoughts like that in my mind, I took my walkman out and walked the dog before going back down to bed. Instead of a CD to fall asleep to tonight I ended up picking a tape that had an assorted collection of songs by Billy Joel. It was always easier for me to go to sleep to songs that weren't all too fast paced or loud, and Billy Joel was definitely that type of artist.

The start of the next day was much a repeat of the last, with the exception of taking my dog out with me for the run in the morning. It was always a little interesting when I did that. Grizz (my dog, the chocolate lab) had issues with his pacing, so it could get frustrating. He'd start out wanting to run like it was a sprint, pulling at the leash and then after about a mile I'd be pulling him to work on keeping him with me. Since I knew this pattern with him as a running partner I usually would do my runs in shorter loops so that when he was tired after the first mile I could be finishing up a loop and just drop him back off home, then keep going. That was what I did this morning, getting him inside to see my dad chuckling when he went straight to his water bowl before just laying down to relax.

When I got back from my run, I saw that Adam was around. He was shooting hoops in his front yard. So I set down my walkman and went over to play a little bit. I'd like to be able to say I was the better player and beat him but the truth was that neither of us were impressive players. Adam was maybe a little taller than average at 5'9 to my 5'3 and we had played each other enough to know strengths and weaknesses. I could usually neutralize his height, to a point, by the fact that I was quicker in slashing to the hoop while he could get most of the rebounds that I'd contest. Typically our games came down more to whoever was shooting better at that point and today that ended up being me.

I left to go to work later that afternoon, only getting there a little early this time and just walking into the park already in my uniform. I was heading towards the office when one of the guys I'd met last night at Denny's came up to me and started talking.

"Hey man, so I heard last night after you left ... you're taking Nicole out on Wednesday, right?" He waited to continue, and when I nodded my assent he went on. "Good job man, she's a cutie. Better keep an eye on her or I might try to take her away from you." He gave me a jab on the arm and we were heading into the office at that point, after only meeting him last night I couldn't tell for sure but I had a good hunch he was joking. If not, well I hadn't even taken Nicole out yet, so it wasn't like I could claim any type of attachment or anything.

Things in the office were a little noisy with people waiting to find out where they'd be going for their station for the night before heading off. I ended up being assigned to Touchdown Toss, it was the football game I'd seen Tenille at the day before. When I got to my game I noticed that it looked like the person I'd be replacing wasn't Tenille, in fact it was Tonya, the 15 year old friend of hers we'd talked about yesterday.

"It's Ryan, right?" When I nodded my head in response to her question she started untying the money apron she wore, although instead of handing it to me she walked behind me bringing it around my waist and then tying it in the back. "I always have a hard time tying it behind my back, so figured I'd give you a hand."

I wasn't about to tell her that last time I'd just doubled it around to the front and tied it there and who knows, this one might not have had the length to do that with. "Thanks Tonya. Tenille told me a little about you yesterday when she was working here and I stopped by. She and I went to the same junior high together for a couple years. You'll be going to Davis when school starts again, right?"

"Yeah, and the three of us will be in the orchestra together there too, from what she told me. That wasn't the only thing she told me though, she told me she'd caught you checking me out during training. Is that true?" I'm sure she could tell before I verbally gave my answer, I could feel my cheeks heat up when I blushed.

"Well ... maybe a little bit, yeah. Sorry." I just spread my hands and shrugged, I was busted, and there was no point in denying it. I could've tried denying it but I figured the safer bet was to just 'fess up and see what happened from there.

"Damn, that means I owe her 5 bucks. I told her I'd ask you next time I saw you if it was true. I bet that you would deny it and say you hadn't been. She thought you'd be honest and say that you had." She let out a little bit of a huff at the thought of the 5 bucks lost. It looked cute on her, too. "Oh well, I think I just paid you back, so we're even."

I was puzzled at that response. How was it we were even? Only one way to find out... "Okay, I'll bite. So how is it that we're even?"

She chuckled, waggling her eyes a little as she looked over at me. "Well, I wasn't just helping with the apron to be nice. She was right. She said that with as much as you ran you had strong legs and a nice ass." There was the heat again, that damned blush was back. That made twice and we'd only been talking for a few minutes!

"She was right, hmmm? So that would mean you agree with her that I've got a nice ass." Yeah, that was me, nothing like restating the obvious. "Thanks, I guess." Oh well, so much for trying to make up for the blush by saying Tonya agreed.

"Well, as much as I'd like sticking around and getting to know a friend of Tenille's, I'm going to get going. Either my mom or my dad is out in the parking lot waiting to give me a ride back home. I'm sure I'll see you around though." With that last bit she handed me the pen and paper that we used on this game to mark off what prizes were won as a quick tally sheet.

"Yeah, I can't blame you on that one. I probably wouldn't stick around much longer if I were in your position either." Taking the paper and pen from her I watched for a minute as she walked away, but not before she turned and gave me a wave and a little bit of a grin. I returned the wave and then as she started chuckling went red in the face again realizing that now SHE had caught me looking.

The shift as a whole went by fairly well. I had enough customers coming by to keep myself a little busy. And when there wasn't, well it was a football game so I could always entertain myself with a little target practice of my own. Even though I was a runner primarily I was athlete enough that I could do other sports like throw a football. I just wasn't the type to be challenging any of the football team for a position anytime soon. Ironically, that hadn't stopped some of the guys at the high school from telling me I should try out for the team. I might have considered it too, if it weren't for the fact that the defensive line would each be double my weight. Their argument of course was that I was on the track team so that meant I was fast. Luckily for the health of my body parts the easy counter to that was that I was fast, but only fast over a distance not a sprint.