She liked it?
Kristen rushed up and kissed me deeply in front of the entire chorus and band. As we broke it off, I heard a smattering of applause. A few of the chorus had started chanting the "Ouga Chaka" part again, laughing among themselves.
Patty was over by the musicians, talking with Toby.
Roy came over and handed me the two master cassettes from the recorder. I presented one of them to Kristen and said, "For you, my little blonde Goddess!"
I introduced Kristen and Roy, and they exchanged pleasantries. Kristen noticed how much Roy’s voice sounded like mine and commented on it.
"Tell that to Jim," Roy grinned. "He thinks my voice sounds great, but he doesn’t think his measures up!"
Kristen kissed me again.
Gerry, the guitar player, congratulated me on a great set, and asked me if he could use my arrangement for his band. I shrugged and gave him my master copy, asking him to just copy it and return it to me. I wanted to keep it as a souvenir of my "back to school" present for Kristen. Gerry didn’t seem to have a problem with that.
Kristen drove me from school, stopping by Lake Shore Point for a quick make-out session. We weren’t alone, and Kristen was careful not to allow our passions to overflow. She was still trying to determine if she could handle the cravings that I had imposed upon her.
We then stopped at Kristen’s house, where I saw Patty’s car was already parked. We went into the main house, and I once again met Kristen’s parents.
Patty came into the living room where we were and said "Hi."
Kristen hugged Patty and asked, "Who was that you were talking to in the band?"
"His name’s Toby," Patty answered. "Jim introduced us."
I nodded. "He seems to like Patty. He’s a really decent guy. He works hard at playing trumpet."
Patty beamed. "Toby had a lot of nice things to say about you, too. How you kept him from getting demoted in the trumpet section…"
"It’s not demoted, but you got the basics. But I didn’t do it for him. The trombone section looked weak."
Kristen beamed at me. "Such a gracious gentleman."
"How was your first day back to school?" Kristen’s mother asked.
"Great," Kristen answered. "Jim, here, seems to be multi-talented in the music department. He made this recording for me today." Kristen held up her cassette.
"You’re a musician?" Kristen’s mom asked.
"I play a bit," I squirmed, disliking this kind of attention.
"Mom… he arranged an entire score, and got a bunch of guys from school to make a recording. All on the first day of school!"
"Really?" Mrs. Swift said, impressed. "We have a piano in the parlor, you know."
"Mom," Kristen said, rolling her eyes. "He doesn’t want to entertain during your parties!"
Patty and I laughed at this. I doubted that Kristen’s mother actually had such a design on me.
The three of us excused ourselves and went into Kristen’s play room. I needed to get back before six for dinner.
Kristen gave me a tender kiss, and pulled Patty in to make it a three-way. She was shivering.
"What’s wrong?" I asked Kristen.
"Dale’s starting rumors," Kristen said. "Talking about me, Patrice, and the rest of us. She actually had the nerve to ask me to pay her $250 in order to prevent the rumors from running rampant."
Patty nodded. "I heard some of them already. She was with you at your car before school, wasn’t she?"
"Yeah," Kristen said. "If it wasn’t for you two and the others, I don’t know what I would have done."
"Too bad you have third period lunch," I said. "Patty and I share lunch the next period."
"Yeah. I saw Patty in between periods. She invited me to the music room." Kristen changed the subject. "Jim… that was the sweetest thing. How’d you know I liked that song?"
"I didn’t," I admitted. "But I felt it appropriate. I mean, who’s addicted to who?"
"That’s, to whom," Patty pointed out.
"Yes, Mother," I said.
The two girls laughed at my expense.
"You’re still sweet," Kristen said. "I’m working on a surprise for you, but you’ll have to wait. OK?"
"Sure," I said, kissing Kristen again.
Patty offered to drive me home, surprising Kristen. Patty was insistent, though.
I accepted, and we left at about five thirty.
Once in the car, Patty said, "Jim, you have no idea how much that song meant to Kris. She really had a bad day today, and you completely turned it around for her."
"I didn’t know about her day until we were in the play room," I pointed out. "I got the idea when I was watching the ladies model dresses at Martin’s."
"Well, you’re definitely the best thing that ever happened to Kristen. Just remember she’s fragile. She can break into a million tiny pieces. Be careful with her."
I nodded. I wouldn’t want to knowingly harm Kristen again in a million years.
Patty turned into an empty road. "I have something to show you."
I wondered what Patty was up to. She turned to me, and pulled up her blouse along with one of the cups of her bra. On the top of her breast was a signature: Toby.
I moved over and kissed Patty. "That’s great, Patty. Must have taken some courage!"
Patty just nodded and started the car up again. She drove me home, and kissed me on the cheek as I left the vehicle.
Merry met me at the door. "How’d your surprise go, Jim?"
"Better than I had ever hoped, Shortcake!"
I picked up my step-sister and planted a wet kiss on her cheek. "Thanks for the help last night."
Merry blushed and squirmed out of my grip. She grabbed the cassette from my hands and ran into her room to play it. I made a mental note to make sure that I got the tape back from her; it was very special to me.
Patty met me again the next morning, and we had our mutual make-out session. I was really missing Kristen. It wasn’t that Patty was a poor substitute for my little blonde Goddess, but Patty and I weren’t really in love, and it seemed to make a big difference to me.
I found myself fantasizing that I was with Kristen, now that Patty’s technique was becoming more and more similar to Kristen’s, but I realized that this wasn’t completely fair to Patty.
To compensate, I tried to put my full enthusiasm into Patty’s back rubs, and Patty would squirm and moan in appreciation.
"Every girl should have a back rub like this before having to go to school," Patty commented.
We found Kristen’s car at school, but Kristen wasn’t anywhere near it.
I didn’t see Kristen at all until fourth period. I did notice some members of the chorus in the hallway chanting "Ouga Chaka," occasionally, especially when they noticed me. I hoped that those two words didn’t become a nickname for me in the future.
Patty and Toby were already sitting together at lunch, talking animatedly. Patty caught my eye and signaled me to sit across the table from Toby and her.
I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t sitting next to Patty, but I knew that it wasn’t my place to be intruding on her love life.
I was shocked when Patty smiled at something behind me and noticed Kristen walking toward me, smiling, with a tray in her hand.
"Kristen! You’re here!" I said, stating the obvious.
"Yeah," Kristen grinned. "They are still making minor schedule changes. And when your daddy is the one that donated the new scoreboard on the football field, you can get some minor adjustments to things a bit easier."
"That’s great. We’ll have lunch together all semester!"
I felt great being able to sit next to Kristen. She was smiling, something I figured she didn’t do very much the previous day.