We're Working On It (8 page)

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Matt said reluctantly.

Kelly smiled, turned and waved. She was lost in the crowd within seconds.

Turning back toward Cory, Matt remarked, “I think she’s after me. She’d already started asking to study together the day after I met her.”

“You could do worse, you know?” Cory replied.

“Uh, she’s just a friend. That’s all.” Quickly changing the subject, Matt said, “Hey! What’s your next class?”

“I’ve got gym next. How about you?”

“Me too and we’d better get our asses in gear before we’re late.” Both boys slammed their lockers shut, turned and began to run toward the gymnasium. The halls had cleared out by then as the next class period was about to begin.

The athletic complex was just outside of the hallway door, and as they approached the boy’s locker room, other students were walking out of the gym dressed in their tee shirts, school shorts, and sneakers. Cory and Matt ran through the double doors barely missing a few kids. There was a concrete block wall shielding the locker room interior from the outside doors which Cory and Matt barely missed slamming into as they tried to make the turn. It was much darker than the sunlit outside. There were aisles of lockers leading away from the main aisle with wooden benches in front of the lockers.

Matt asked, “Where’s your locker?”

“I haven’t got one yet. They told me to check in with the gym office when I got here to have one assigned to me.” Cory replied.

Matt, still walking toward his locker, pointed to the left.

“That’s over there. I’ll talk to you later Cory. I’ve got to get dressed out. You have an excuse for not being on time, I don’t.” Matt turned and walked down one of the aisles toward his locker.

Cory was watching Matt walk away from him and noticed that Kevin was seated on the wood bench in his gym shorts in the middle of the aisle, the aisle that Matt had walked into. Kevin was bent over tying his gym shoes. Cory noticed immediately that he was shirtless. Kevin’s not bad looking, he thought to himself.

Kevin looked up and saw Cory looking down at him and nodded his head at Cory. Kevin smiled.

Cory was a little embarrassed for being caught looking at another boy, but seeing the smile on Kevin’s face, shrugged the feeling off. Looking directly at Kevin, and acknowledging that he had seen him, Cory smiled and waved. Turning to head for the office, Cory suddenly walked directly into someone and was knocked backwards a few steps.

“Watch where you’re going,” the other boy yelled.

Trying to regain his balance, Cory stared at him for a moment and then attempted to walk around him.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you. Sorry,” Cory said.

Another boy walked up and stood beside the first boy. They both stared at Cory as Cory walked around them and down the aisle toward the office. Cory did not like these two boys. He knew that they could be trouble.

Cory had second lunch period, but he didn’t know anyone else who had second lunch, or anyone for that matter, except of course Kevin and Matt. As he walked to the service line, he kept looking around to see if Kevin or Matt would be there. As he moved through the line, he had to turn and focus his attention on what was being served. School food is universal, and it looked like the same uninviting food that he had at Plymouth High. Cory chose a green salad, a banana and a carton of milk.

Turning from the line after he had paid for his ‘lunch’, he looked around again for some place to sit and eat. He still didn’t see anyone who he recognized, but knew that each table was claimed by a particular group. Cory wasn’t in any ‘group’ so he couldn’t just sit with someone anywhere. He knew that he’d be eating alone. He finally saw a small empty table that only had two chairs next to it by the window. Cory headed in that direction, knowing that he should have brought a book to read or something because it was going to be a lonely lunch.

He took his lunch from the tray and placed it in front of one of the chairs. Putting the empty tray on the other side of the small table, he sat down to eat. He tried to scan the room again but still knew that he was alone.

Half way through his salad, a shadow appeared over the table. Cory looked up, and saw a face that he thought looked somewhat familiar, but it wasn’t the face that he recognized, it was that fantastic sparkle again. Cory’s heart took a vacation from beating for what seemed like two beats. Kevin was looking at him.

“Hey new guy, want some company?” Kevin asked, holding his tray in front of him.

It took Cory a few moments to recover. “Uh, yeah. Have a seat.”

Kevin slid into the seat putting his tray on top of Cory’s empty tray, but didn’t take his lunch from his tray, rather planning to leave it there and eat from the tray.

“How’s your first day going? I saw you in gym today. That makes two classes we have together.”

“Yeah, I saw you too. I was with another new guy, and I didn’t have much of a chance to get out and join you guys cuz I had to get a locker and then didn’t have any gym clothes. So I just read for a while. Classes are going good so far. Most of the teachers are cool. I think I’m going to like it.”

“I like it here too, but our PE coach is a nut crusher. I think the term ‘jock’ came from his soul.”

Cory and Kevin talked about classes that they were taking and school in general while they finished their lunch. Cory couldn’t keep his eyes off of Kevin’s eyes – that sparkle haunting him.

“See those guys over there?”

Kevin nodded his head to the left, interrupting Cory’s innermost thoughts.

Cory glanced over to where Kevin was nodding, and saw a table with about 6 guys eating their lunch.

“What about them?”

“Just don’t get mixed up with them. The tall skinny one is Jeremy. He’s mean as hell. I think his bed has two wrong sides for him to get up on in the morning. He’s just fucking crazy. The guy to his right is Johnny. Now, that guy is weird. He’s quiet, but his craziness puts Jeremy to shame. Johnny will do just about anything that Jeremy tells him to.”

Cory stared at the other table for a while, recognizing the one that he had bumped into that morning in gym and the other that had followed the first. Cory recognized the first guy, Jeremy, as a typical bully. Every school has them after all. The other guy, Johnny, unsettled Cory, but he didn’t know why.

Cory quickly put the two out of his mind, and turning his attention back to Kevin, Cory asked, “So why are you here? Where’s your table?”

Kevin laughed.

Cory eyed Kevin. “What’s so funny?”

“I don’t have a table. I never got into that shit so I just sit with whoever I want.” Kevin continued smiling. “I guess I want to sit with you today.”

The only thing Cory was thinking was that he’d take those eyes any day.

“Hey dude, I gotta run. If I don’t see you in any more classes today, I’ll see you in Geometry tomorrow morning,” Kevin said as he got up from the table.

“Okay. See you tomorrow. Oh, and Kevin, thanks for having lunch with me today. I don’t really know anyone here yet so it was nice to have someone to talk to.”

“What are friends for, man?” Kevin remarked, fluttering his eyebrows, just before he turned and brought his tray to the conveyor belt at the side of the room.

Cory watched Kevin walk away from the table. No, Cory’s eyes were glued to Kevin as he walked away.

Cory trembled. He just realized that Kevin had used that word ‘friend’. He was hoping that it was true, that Kevin wanted him for a friend. And to Cory, it had nothing to do with Kevin being as cute as he was. Cory grinned.

Cory’s first day of school had lasted forever in his mind. All was new to him, but he was glad that it was finally over as he headed for the bus. Getting through the first day was what Richard was talking about that morning, so he started to feel good about his first day. He had now gone through it. It was over. No, not quite. He still had to face ‘the bus’.

He hated riding school busses. It seemed that all of the tensions of school exploded as soon as you walked on the bus. The bus drivers usually tried to maintain order, some better than others, but no matter what they said, kids just didn’t listen. Cory found an empty seat on the aisle in the middle of the bus and sat quietly as pandemonium broke out around him.

He got a few looks from some of the kids but mostly they ignored him. No one actually tried to speak to him and he was quite relieved. This wasn’t like being in a classroom where there was a teacher keeping order. This was chaos. If he was going to be called names or hassled, this is where it was going to happen. Finally he breathed out a sigh as he reached his stop and nearly ran to get off the bus, relieved it was over.

He was let off just three houses away from Richard’s house which made for a welcome short walk home. His mood began to change for the better.

Nine

The Questions

As Cory approached the house, he saw Richard sitting on the front porch steps.

Richard was watching Cory as he walked up the front sidewalk thinking Cory looked like he was trying to fake an Irish jig. Finally, as Cory was just a few feet away from him, Richard with a slight grin asked, “How was school?”

“Oh man. It was great. You know, I might like it here. I think I made a couple of friends already today.”

“Cory?”

“What?”

“Well, are you going to tell me their names?”

“Oh. Yeah. One guy’s name is Kevin and the other is Matt. Kevin’s from here, but Matt moved here from California this past summer. They’re both great guys. Kevin actually started talking to me right away. He was kind of forward so I tried to be like him and approached Matt myself and said ‘Hi’ first.”

“So the day turned out okay, huh?” Richard asked.

“Oh man. I think I’m going to like it here.”

“I thought so,” Richard grinned.

He paused for a moment and then Richard’s grin turned from friendly to something else.

“How was the bus ride home?” Richard asked with his grin growing devilish.

“Busses suck, big time. At least I didn’t get tossed out the window today,” Cory replied with a scowl.

Richard had a hard time keeping a straight face.

“Well maybe you should take a look in the garage then. I think there’s something in there that will make the ride home a little better.”

Cory looked perplexed, as he looked at Richard, but then turned to go to the garage. He pulled up on the handle and opened the garage door, stared inside for a moment and then returned his stare toward Richard. A huge smile came over his face.

Suddenly Cory ran into the garage. As Richard rounded the corner and entered the garage, Cory was looking at his new mountain bicycle. Cory was actually caressing the handlebars with his right hand, almost sensuously.

“Is this for me?” Cory shouted. “My old bike got wrecked last year and dad wouldn’t fix it. Wow! This is so major cool.”

“I thought you might like this as a way to get to school instead of riding the bus.”

“Oh man, do I. Thanks a lot. I really mean that.”

Cory grabbed the bicycle by the handlebars, turned it around facing the driveway and pushed it out through the garage door. He jumped on the bike, kicked hard on the pedals and was off down the street before Richard knew what was happening.

Richard shouted at Cory, “Be back in time for dinner.”

Cory rode further away without looking back as Richard shook his head, and with a smile, walked back into the house.

“Kids!”

Cory rode his new bike to school the next morning. It really gave him a sense of freedom and his world grew beyond the few blocks around his house. Within a few blocks of the school, he noticed a boy walking on the sidewalk toward the school. A smile crossed him as he recognized that it was Kevin. He stopped his bike after jumping the curb, coming up next to him.

“Hey, Kevin.”

Kevin stopped and turned to Cory, a smile could be seen forming.

Cory got off of his bike so he could walk along side of Kevin.

“Hey dude. What’s happening?” Cory asked. “I didn’t expect to see you until first period, but it’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you again, too.”

“I thought you’d be riding your bike or taking the bus,” Cory said as they walked together.

“Oh. I live too close to take the bus, and I don’t have a bike, so I walk. It’s good exercise though and it gives me time to think.”

“No friends to walk to school with?” Cory asked walking with his bike next to Kevin. “You must know a lot of people.”

“Yeah, I do. I know just about everyone at school. I went through grade school with most of them.”

“So how come you’re alone then?” Cory asked.

“Like I said, I know lots of people but they’re just not friends. Friends are special. It takes a while to really become friends with someone, someone who you can trust without question. The last friend I had, last year, moved away this last summer. I’ve only got one other real friend now.”

Cory saw the similarity. He was thinking about Mike.

“My best friend moved away too so I know what you mean about getting close to someone and then losing him.”

Cory’s remembrance of Mike pleased him but then it faded when he realized that he had used the word ‘him.’ That might be too telling.

But then he looked at Kevin asking himself why Kevin’s opening up like that and so soon? Kevin just seemed so natural around people so Cory thought that that was all there was to it.

“Yeah, he was my best friend too,” Kevin continued. “His name was Kaz. Can you imagine that? What a name to carry around with you, Kaz,” Kevin laughed.”

“My friend’s name was Mike, just plain old Mike.”

“Was he special to you?” Kevin asked, looking at Cory again as they walked.

“Yeah, he was my best friend.”

Kevin turned his head and looked straight ahead. “You know something Cory?”

“What’s that?”

“I think I like you. I think we’re going to become friends.”

“But you don’t really know me yet. You don’t know anything about me, the kind of music I like, what I do outside of school, any of that.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Sure it does. You need to have stuff in common with someone who’s going to be a friend, don’t you?”