“You scared me to death,” I told him.
“Sorry, I just wanted to see if you wanted to run with me?” he asked.
“I’m doing interval training. Are you up for it?”
“Sure, you want me to push you?” Mitch asked.
“No, but I need someone to, so do your worst.”
Mitch was about five-ten and weighed maybe 150 pounds. He was fast for a distance runner. I could outsprint him, but he buried me by the end of the run. I had too much body mass to make a good distance runner. When we got back to my house, I collapsed in my front yard. He was having none of that.
“Get up and walk it off,” he ordered me.
I had my hands on my hips as I tried to get my heart rate back to normal. He told me he’d meet me tomorrow at the same time. I wondered what I’d gotten myself into.
I WENT UP TO MY APARTMENT to find Tami waiting for me.
“Does everyone know the combination to get into my apartment?” I complained.
“We get an update every time you change it,” she teased me.
Since I had never changed it, I knew she was bullshitting me. I gave her a quick kiss and went to shower. I was surprised when she joined me. She wrinkled her nose when she saw I was about to use my Red body wash. I really had no idea why girls didn’t like the smell of it, because I liked it. Angie had gotten me some lavender-smelling body wash Tami handed me instead.
I got a good lather going and then Tami took over. I found I had been doing it all wrong. I didn’t pay enough attention to my naughty bits. She made a mess and I had to wash her. We were both smiling when we left the shower.
“I thought I was getting up early enough to wake you up,” Tami told me.
“Maybe you should just sleep over,” I suggested.
That got me silence, so I tried another tack.
“Well, I’m off my diet for the day. Dad will make his Country Eggs Benedict,” I said.
Instead of an English muffin, he used buttermilk biscuits. He substituted the Canadian bacon with sausage patties and the Hollandaise sauce with cracked pepper sausage gravy. When you added an over easy egg it was one of Tami’s favorites.
“I picked a good day to come to breakfast. Get dressed, I’m hungry.”
We found everyone up when we made it to the kitchen. Tami made a pig of herself. She ate four of the biscuits. I had to join her, since Dad was in rare form, cooking, today. After breakfast, I opened my presents. The apartment was the big one, so I only received small stuff. Kyle was the star. He got me a Dodge Charger keychain. He sure was smart to be able to guess what kind of car I was buying. I wondered if his Aunt Tami had something to do with that.
Greg’s gift was five coupons for massages. Tami and I took him up on it and used two of the coupons. It had been several months since he’d given me one.
“Dang, Bro, you can feel the difference in your muscles. You’re going to kill them on the football field,” Greg said.
“That’s the plan.”
When we were done, I couldn’t find my three remaining coupons. Then I realized Miss Tami had snagged them. I guess what was mine really was hers.
DAD, TOM AND COACH Hope were working with Mrs. Sullivan and the Booster Club to run the fundraiser. This meant we all had to chip in and work it, too. Brad and Cassidy were put in charge of the bake sale. Greg and Angie helped several of the boosters with the gates. I grabbed several of the guys and we handled parking. Dad was in charge of collecting the money for parking. Tami and Tracy were in charge of the dunk tank.
I got a break around lunchtime and walked the midway. The Chinese restaurant had their peanut butter chicken, so I had it for lunch. I went to the Sullivan tent to sit in my car. They had me take my picture with some kids.
I was on my way back to parking duty when I ran into Kendal. She was with a couple of cute girls her age. She introduced me to them and then we caught up. I wanted to know about the Sunday flyer. It wasn’t a hoax because Mom still had the ads since she hadn’t gone through all the coupons yet. I found the flyer and sure enough, it showed the obvious outline of my member.
“Mr. Hill is beside himself. He wanted to let you know he takes full responsibility. I guess they have backup software that copies all files if they’re connected to the network or Internet. They pull the photos off the server to do the ads. He has it set up so the backup isn’t deleted if something’s deleted off a PC. This way they can recover the photo if there’s a mistake,” Kendal said.
“So how are they going to fix this?” I asked.
“For now they’re disconnecting the PC from the network until they’re done. They’re working on a better solution, but for now, this should work.”
We said our goodbyes and I went back to ushering in cars.
MY SHIFT WAS OVER AT three o’clock. The guys I worked with all wanted to go on the rides. I went to the dunk tank to see Coach Hope was this half-hour’s victim. Cassidy had bought six balls. I watched her miss with all six. The next guy was no better. Cassidy bought three more. She missed on the first two.
“He looks awful dry,” I teased her.
She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.
“Do you think you can do any better?”
“Give me the ball,” I told her.
Coach Hope had been making fun of everyone.
“David has no arm. I’m safe,” he announced to the crowd.
Actually, it was a smart move. Piss them off and they’ll overthrow the ball. I just smirked at him and tossed it.
Clank ... Splash
He was a good sport. I went and found Tami checking out the baked goods. There was a German chocolate cake I’d set aside. Mary Dole had made it, and it was my favorite cake.
“What did you get?” she asked me.
I showed her.
“I should have figured. Will you buy me the peach crumble?” she asked me.
“What about the coconut cream pie? I thought it was your favorite.”
“You could get me both,” she said, batting her eyes.
I knew we were going to Tracy’s house for dinner and her dad was grilling. They’d invited half the school. The plan was to swim and eat. We would then come back to the carnival since the fireworks were scheduled for sundown. Then there was supposed to be a dance for the teens.
They were down to only about ten items left at the bake sale. All the proceeds went to the fundraiser since the baked goods were donated and they would have a new batch tomorrow. I decided we could just take them to the cookout. I was sure a pack of teenagers could polish off what was left.
“Just sell me the rest,” I told the girl.
“Thanks, David. That means I get to go to your party,” she said with a smile.
I sent a text to Greg and Angie to help us take all the food to the car. Between the four of us and the girl manning the booth, we made it in one trip. Mrs. A had taken Kyle for the day, so we picked him up on the way home to get our swimsuits. Tami had brought her bag to my place, so we were soon on our way to the Dole residence.
We walked in with all the baked goods, and Mary had us put them on one of the buffet tables she’d set up. Tami and Tracy got small paper plates and plastic forks and started cutting the cakes so people could have a slice. I went with Mary and helped her make side dishes. She had me on the food processor, cutting up cabbage and carrots for coleslaw. Mrs. A and Beth showed up with a huge pan of mac and cheese.
When I was done with the coleslaw, she sent me out to help Tom with the grill. Mr. Anderson was his helper.
“Tom, don’t let him near your grill or you’ll have a fire,” I warned him.
Mr. Anderson just shot me with the squirt bottle.
“Careful, Smoky, don’t be starting something you can’t finish,” I warned him.
My mom chose that moment to show up and whack me in the back of the head. Tom and Mr. Anderson were trying not to laugh.