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Tucky Charm -*- Copyright 1998 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


Tucky Charm


***
11:46 5 May

     Mike returned from making a couple of important phone calls.  He
flashed several important letters in sign language at me, and I laughed.

***
14:53 5 May

     "His cable is turned off, and I ordered him a few of those nice
magazines and catalogs we found once."  Mike looked impressively
innocent.
     "What kind of magazines?" Debbie asked over me laughing.

***
17:35 5 May

     I was practicing the harder bits in my piano lesson book when the
phone flashed.  I sighed, because I was doing pretty well today, but I
stopped and answered it.  "'Lo?"
     "Hey, Tuck," Debbie said.
     "HI TUCK!" chorused a lot of other voices.  I checked the caller
ID, and it was coming from Kim's house.
     "Uh, whatsup?" was the best I could come up with.
     Pam explained, "Well, end of school is coming up, and we need a
party, so we were gonna call you and see if you could think of anything,
y'know-"
     "Interesting," Kathy said in this ominous voice.  A couple of the
girls giggled.

***
18:02 5 May

     Someone, I guessed Brian, banged on my door.  When I checked the
clock, it was suppertime.  "Hey, I gotta go eat supper, okay?"
     "Okay," Debbie said.  The other girls chimed in with other
good-byes, and I finally told them goodbye myself, and hung up.

***
11:33 6 May

     "Jeez, we got two weeks left," complained George.
     "And then finals," Dan added.  We all groaned.
     Kim made a face.  "Well?  Are we gonna keep playing all summer, or
what?"
     George sighed.  "I gotta go visit my grandparents up in Michigan.
All summer."
     "Again," I added.
     George shrugged.  "You know.  Grandparents."

***
16:04 6 May

     "Oh," said Mike, "you wouldn't believe it, but ol' Miz Nickerson is
just about fed up.  She called some friend of hers last night and cried
on the phone for an hour talking to her about how bad Ol' Psycho is
getting."
     "Gosh, you know, that is just such a shame," I said.
     Mike chuckled over the phone.  "Guess the subsonics in his office
are affecting his home life."
     "Too bad we couldn't install them in his house, too."
     "What's this we shit?"
     "What EVER, Mike, I know you got the idea from me, and I made the
plans to build 'em, so just because I wasn't there to install them-"
     "Lazing around, sleeping the night away, while your loyal and
dedicated friends are out in the rain and cold-"
     "It's spring, Mike!"
     "-out in the rain and heat, doing all sorts of things to make your
life better, and do we get any thanks?"
     "Thank you, Mike."  I sighed.
     "By the way, how's the information collection going?"
     "Pretty good.  Almost done, in fact.  If you could go by the
mailbox and see what's there, I think I'd have everything."
     "Like, tonight?"

***
18:56 6 May

     I had just, I mean just gotten back to my room, when the phone
started to flash.  I grabbed the headset and put it on, then flicked the
phone switch.  "'Lo?"
     "Tuck?"  It was Debbie, and she sounded unhappy.  "Can, can I come
over tonight?"
     "Sure, Deb, what's up?" I asked gently.
     "It's, it's," she sighed.  "It's the same thing as last month."
     I thought and thought and thought, but I wasn't quite asleep yet,
so I got it before she got peeved.  "Oh.  Okay, yeah, sure."

***
20:35 6 May

     She snuggled against me, still warm from a bath.  And moaned
softly.
     I wished there was something I could do for her, but it was one of
those things.  It was just sort of every month, and there it was.

***
11:32 7 May

     I walked up to the Pack, and Debbie waved.
     "So," said Kathy, "has the master of disaster come up with anything
on Nickerson yet?"

***
11:34 7 May

     It was nice outside, especially since we'd found an unoccupied tree
to cluster around.  This sort of day was way too rare this year.
     "Okay," I said, digging in my pack, "this is 'all' I could come up
with, okay?  The rest is up to you."  I pulled out the folder, and
started yanking things out.  "Matthew Robert Nickerson, age fifty-one,
born in Rochester New York.  Birth certificate," I dropped that on
Debbie's pack.  "Social Security records, with every job he's ever paid
taxes for on it."  I dropped that.  "Income tax records for the last
three years. Credit reports from all three major agencies.  His driving
record.  His discharge papers from the Army.  His medical records since
he started working for the school system here.  His phone bill.  His
credit card billing information for the last two months, with all the
charges he's made.  His wife's birth certificate.  Copies of his college
transcripts, both undergrad and graduate school.  His wife's driving
record.  His wife's medical records.  Names, addresses, and phone
numbers of all first degree living relatives for each of them.
     "Good enough?"
     They all looked at me, in stunned silence.

***
12:02 7 May

     Kim came out of the bathroom, smiling.
     "So, I guess he's not going to have a car, huh?" Pam asked
rhetorically.
     "SHHHHH!" everyone else hissed.
     Mike had been a busy little dude.  Putting an 8 hertz sub-subwoofer
in Nickerson's office to make him crazier, phone taps in the bathrooms,
fiddling the alarm sensors...
     Kim handed me a paper bag with my lineman's phone in it.  I stuffed
it into the bottom pouch of my pack, under everything else.

***
14:03 7 May

     "Oh," Pam mentioned before classes started, "didja hear that
someone stole Nickerson's car?  It's gone, right out of the parking
lot."
     "No!" I gasped.  "Really?!"
     I wondered how long it would take him to figure out it had been
towed away.  I was also willing to bet that he was going to blame the
wrong person about it, too.

***
14:52 7 May

     "You gonna be okay tonight?" I asked Debbie.
     She grimaced.  "Yeah, I think so.  Lisa's free tonight, so I'm
going over there for a while."
     "How, I mean, how long has this been going on?"
     She made another face at me.  "Oh, since I was about twelve or so."
     "Every-"
     "Every time, yeah, pretty much."
     "God...."  There wasn't much else to say.  So I hugged her instead.

***
16:08 7 May

     The phone flashed as I was practicing on my keyboard again.  I
sighed, and answered it.  "'Lo?"
     "Tuck!"  It was Kim.
     "TUCK!"  It was the rest of the Pack, too.
     "Oh, hey, hi," I said back.  "Whatsup?"
     "Party planning," Kim said.  "My parents, may they choke on their
own spit and die, have decided that Linda and I can have our parties at
the same time, same place."
     "Oh, joy."  Let's see: the Pack, with their weird collection of
friends relations and dates; me and Da Boyz and whoever else WE could
scrounge up that wouldn't embarrass us; PLUS all the cheerleaders and
jocks that Linda would invite.  I'd have to remember to bring my Zapper.
Fifty thousand volts had been known to slow a jock down, if they had a
nervous system.  Some of them didn't.
     "So," Kathy said, "we need you and your little MacGyver friends to
come up with something REALLY interesting."
     "Let me conf call Mike," I suggested.  There were some ugly
chuckles.

***
16:12 7 May

     They didn't want interesting.  At least, not as Mike and I defined
interesting.  They just wanted something to keep the jocks in line.
     "So, hire a couple of jocks, pay them money to act as bouncers," I
suggested.  "Maybe run them in shifts so they all get to dance or
whatever."
     There was silence, then all the girls tried talking at once.  From
the voice tones, it was a good idea.

***
16:27 7 May

     "I think killing any of them would be a really bad idea, Mike," Kim
insisted.
     "No, look, it's not going to kill anyone-"
     "How do you know?" Kathy challenged.
     "Um," said Mike.  You could sort of hear him looking at me over the
multiple phone lines.
     I sighed.  "Because we tested it on me once, accidentally.  It's
safe enough.  I mean, if it didn't kill me-"
     "Didn't it hurt?"
     "Of course it hurt!  I just lived through it with no permanent
damage, is all."
     Mike added, "Minus the nervous twitches."
     "Oh," said Pam, "the one where he looks like his tongue is about to
crawl out of his mouth?"
     "Ewwwww!" complained several girls all at once.

***
11:57 8 May

     "I squeak like a rat," I told Mike.
     "You what?!" most of the girls protested.
     "I squeak like a rat!  I took animal imitation, so I'm going to
imitate a rat!"
     "Roll 'em," directed Mike, and I crossed my fingers as I tossed
dice.
     "Nine!"
     He thought about it for a second, then imitated the guard and said,
"Aw, ain't nuthin' but a big rat or sumpin'."  He rolled a handful of
dice.  "The other one says, you can just barely hear him, 'Well, go
check it out anyhow.'  The guard grumbles but walks towards you."
     "What's he saying?" I asked.
     "Oh," mused Mike, "mostly stuff about how he's tired and not
feeling too well, and Jack is being paranoid today, and it's only one of
those stupid rats, and so on.  He keeps walking towards you; you've got
maybe a second," as he rolled yet more dice, "before he gets close
enough to see you don't look much like a rat."
     "Can I cast a spell?" Jill asked excitedly.
     Mike shrugged.  "Maybe.  Want to try something?"
     "Simple illusion?"
     "I squeak like a rat some more," I added.
     Mike held up his hands.  "One at a time..."

***
15:09 8 May

     I settled in with the Yellow Pages up in the cave, and started
making phone calls.

***
19:16 8 May

     "Okay," Debbie said, "quiet down, everybody."  Conference calls, I
had noticed, were almost as noisy as talking in person.  "Tuck?"
     "I have reserved, two professional CD players, an amp and speaker
setup that'll run about nine hundred watts, four sets of lights, and
enough CD's to keep everyone dancing for two days without repeats.  Of
good dance music."  Not to mention a couple of Rat Boyz special effects.
     "Slow or fast?" Jill asked.
     "Both, but I figured I'd keep it fast to keep things moving."
     "Good idea," Kim approved.
     Debbie asked, "How much?"
     I took a breath.  "Um, you said you wanted a good loud party,
right?"
     "How much?"

***
19:19 8 May

     "I think three bucks at the door will cover it, assuming that half
the people get in without paying."  Funny thing; Debbie wasn't that good
in math class, but on anything related to business or profits, and she
was a wiz.  Specialization, I guess.
     "So how are we going to get them to pay?" Mike asked.  I thought it
was a reasonable question.
     The girls, most of them, just laughed.  "Oh," Kathy intoned, "we
have our ways...."

***
11:43 9 May

     "One week left," George mentioned to me.
     "And then finals."
     He said, "Erk!" put his hand to his chest, and flopped over on the
ground.

***
11:53 9 May

     "Hey, Tuck?" George asked quietly.
     "Huh?"
     "You know Julia, right?"
     "Yeah, why?"
     He looked kind of embarrassed, and when I figured out what he was
thinking, I almost laughed in his face.

***
11:55 9 May

     "I'll ask her, next time I see her, okay?"
     "I mean, like don't make it obvious, okay?" he begged.
     "Okay okay!  I HAVE done this before, you know."
     George looked over at Mike, who was taunting Kim with what looked
like a Snickers bar.

***
15:58 9 May

     "Thanks, Tuck," Kathy huffed at me as she set the box of books
down.
     "Sure, no problem."  I looked for a clear spot, and set the box
of.... stuff, I guess would be the best way to describe it.
     There were several girls here that I didn't think of as part of the
Pack, but they all went to McAllen, I think... I guess Kathy was
teaching it to a lot of people this time.
     Or D&E was bigger than I thought.

***
16:04 9 May

     Kathy stood up and clapped her hands, so we all quieted down.
"Okay, this is the standard first aid class.  We've already had CPR, and
this should be pretty easy.  Don't give me any grief, and we should get
done about eleven."
     "Eleven?" I gasped.  Kim kicked my leg.  So did Pam.  Kathy just
pretended it didn't happen.

***
23:19 9 May

     "I guess all that duct taping over the years gave me an advantage,
huh?"  I poked Debbie.  Duct taping what, I didn't say.
     "Shut up, Tuck."  She poked me back.  We'd both passed, at least.
     "Who else here is starving to death?" Kim asked.  Debbie and Kathy
and almost everyone raised their hands.  Even Pam, which I thought was a
good thing.

***
00:56 10 May

     "Tuck?"  Dad poked his head out of his office.
     I sighed.  All I wanted to do was go to bed, preferably with Debbie
except she had already left, and he wanted to talk.  I knew that tone of
voice.  "Yeah Dad?"
     "Out again?"
     "Yeah.  Sort of.  Well," I explained, "I mean, I have to take all
these Red Cross classes before I can work this summer, and Kathy,
remember Kathy?"
     "Tall girl, kind of blond?"
     I nodded.  "Yeah, well apparently she's some kind of Red Cross
goddess or something, because she's an instructor for all these classes,
so she's teaching everyone in Debbie's company.  Which includes me,
now."
     His eyebrows shot up, but all he said was, "Hmmmm."  Then he said,
"Does she teach outside Debbie's company?"
     "I dunno, why?"
     Dad scratched his ear.  "We were thinking about doing a company
safety program, and we could use someone to set up classes."
     "I can ask, if you don't mind being taught by a couple of high
school kids.  She and Vivian," who was the other girl teaching the
class, "they were pretty good."
     "Could you check on it, next time you talk to her?"
     "Sure, no problem."
     I mean, I hadn't learned all my networking skills from Debbie.

***
10:19 10 May

     "How are the antidepressants working out?  You're taking Zoloft,
right?" Sheila asked me.
     "Yeah, that's it.  Um, I guess okay.  I mean, I don't feel as, as,
I dunno, like..."  This was hard to think about.  "I mean, I feel
better, I guess.  And I'm not so tired all the time, like I was."

***
11:34 10 May

     "Another one?" Mom asked.  She was catching some lunch before a
showing or five.  She'd been busy lately.
     "Yeah, Mom, they want me to know a lot if I'm going to be sitting a
couple of kids all day, all summer long."
     "Well, what are you taking today?"
     "Um.  I think it's something on child care.  Then I gotta take a
water safety course, because the Parkers have a pool."  I took a deep
breath.  "Then I THINK I'm done."
     "Does Kathy do these classes-"
     "I'll ask, Mom," I sighed.  Kathy was going to be very popular real
soon, I could tell.  And, now that I thought about it, she'd probably
run everything through Debbie, or D&E, which meant that Debbie would get
her cut, which would make her happier too.

***
12:03 10 May

     I looked at the books Kathy had passed out, and hoped that they
were worth the cash they had cost.  "Welcome," she said, "to the Red
Cross child care course."

***
12:04 10 May

     "Tomorrow?!" I said before I could stop myself.  Debbie kicked me
before I stopped talking, I think.  Pam kicked me a little after that; I
think her reflexes were slower than Debbie's.
     Kathy glared at me as I rubbed my ankles.  "I already talked to
Mike, Tuck, so don't worry about it."
     I tried not to worry about it.

***
22:09 10 May

     "Oh, God," I mentioned to Debbie.
     "Well," she said defensively, "I mean, we said that everyone who is
a regular sitter has to be qualified, like in the advertising.  And, you
know, it's a leeetle bit more detailed than health class?"
     "Yeah, but..."  My head was swimming with all the info Kathy and
Viv had stuffed into my poor little head.  And me with finals in a week,
too.  Oh, God.

***
23:19 10 May

     "So, Tuck, learning all about little babies and stuff?" George said
nastily.  Then he said "Ow!" like he had expected Debbie not to kick him
or something.  Or maybe it was Kim that kicked him.  I wasn't sure.

***
00:14 11 May

     "Wanna come in for a minute?" I asked Debbie.
     She sighed.  "Noooo... I kind of need to get home and sleep, so I
can take the class tomorrow and finish my homework."
     Pause.
     "I wish you could stay or something," I mentioned.
     "I wish I could too."  She looked like she meant it.

***
07:30 11 May

     "Nuh?"
     "Tuck!"  It was Jill, sounding sickeningly awake.
     "Uhhhh?"
     "Come on, get dressed, we're getting an early breakfast!"
     "Uh?"

***
08:02 11 May

     I staggered out the door and almost tripped over a dust particle.
     "You don't wake up well, do you?" Jill asked rhetorically.
     "Nuh."  My mouth still hurt.  I must've been breathing through it
when I was asleep.
     "Wakes up like you, Kim," Jill commented.
     Kim's response was quite rude.  I agreed entirely with her.  Jill
was way too cheerful.

***
08:46 11 May

     A little orange juice, a croissant or two, and I was almost feeling
human.  At least I'd managed to brush my teeth while I was comatose.
That always helped.  Sort of.
     "More classes?" Jill asked.
     "Why aren't you taking 'em?" I asked her while Kim nodded.
     "Me?"  Jill pointed at herself.  "I don't really want to babysit
that much.  Besides, I re-qualified at the end of last summer."

***
11:52 11 May

     "Want to go somewhere after this?" I asked Debbie.  "Or just come
over and do homework together?"
     She was about to say something, but changed her mind.  "Yeah, that
would be cool.  I've missed you, you know."
     "Me too."  I picked up her hand and kissed it.  She grabbed me and
we proceeded to renew our acquaintance.  Or something.

***
12:04 11 May

     Child care, part two.
     "Part two," Vivian said.  "Did everyone bring their books again?
Please?"  I had cleverly left mine in Debbie's car yesterday.

***
20:46 11 May

     "Gah," I said to Debbie as we got into her car.
     "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts," she sort of half
said and half asked.  She looked a little panicked.
     "About sitting this summer?  No, I guess not.  It's just, oh, God,
all the classes..."
     She shrugged.  "You'd feel worse if something happened and you
didn't know what to do about it."
     "I guess, but still..."  I had a better idea.  "Hey, wanna get some
ice cream first?"
     She thought about it.

***
20:58 11 May

     "Double fudge, two scoops please."

***
22:36 11 May

     Debbie sighed, and looked at a clock.  "Tuck?"
     "You gotta get home, right?"  She nodded.  "I know.  See you
tomorrow, right?"  She nodded.
     Pause.
     Sometimes it just hit me, again, and this was one of those times.
     She grabbed on to me like she was saving me.
     I grabbed back like I was drowning.  I was.

***
07:54 12 May

     "Hey," said Mike.
     "Hey, howzit?"
     "Pretty good.  Just one week left."
     And then-"
     And then Mike put his hand over my mouth.  "Shut up, Tuck," he
suggested.

***
12:07 12 May

     "Hey, Deb, you know, Brian has a soccer game today."
     "So?"
     "So he won't be home."
     "So-ohhhhh."  She got the hint.

***
13:48 12 May

     School was really torture, when there was something else I, we,
could be doing instead.

***
15:39 12 May

     I was glad I'd bought two boxes of condoms, long ago.

***
16:42 12 May

     "Shower?" Debbie asked.
     "Sss, sure."  I had a great and powerful desire to sleep.

***
17:32 12 May

     "Wanna stay for supper?" I asked her.
     "Mmmm?"  She opened her eyes.
     "I said, want to stay for supper?"
     "Mmmm," she agreed, and pulled me back down next to her.

***
11:30 13 May

     Debbie waved and came up to me.  "Hey, Tuck, guess who called last
night?"
     "Um.  South America, they want a loan from you."
     "What?  No!  Rachel, remember her?  She's moving this weekend, she
wanted to know if you could find anyone who could help her move."
     "Are you kidding?  I've got finals!"
     "She said she'd pay..." she dangled.
     "And I've got that class," I mentioned, and her eyebrows
contracted.
     "Pay how much?" asked George.  We both turned to look at him.

***
14:53 13 May

     I was waiting for Debbie to show up at her car, when I saw Julia
instead.  "Hey!" I waved at her, and she changed course and walked over.
     "What's up?" she asked when she got close.
     "Ah," I thought for a second about how to phrase things.

***
14:55 13 May

     "George?"  She was clearly skeptical.  So was Debbie, by the look
on her face.
     "I just said I'd ask, and see if maybe you, I mean, what you
thought."
     Julia looked at Debbie, kind of confused.

***
15:02 13 May

     "Maybe, maybe we could do something together instead?  Like
Friday?" Julia suggested.  Then her face fell.  "Oh, no, that's-"
     "That's perfect," I interrupted.  "That'll give me something to
calm me down before I go back to that party."
     "They're not that bad!" Julia complained.
     "Don't insult the customers," Debbie insisted.
     I sighed.  "Look, I think we could all use something to, to, to
relax before we start selling, right?  So, we go out, like a double date
or something, maybe to eat?  And then we can dump him and talk about him
afterwards."  That seemed to be a favorite thing to do with dates, I'd
found.  I figured one of the reasons girls wore makeup all the time, was
to hide the dark rings under their eyes, from going on dates and then
spending three or four hours afterwards on the phone dissecting them
before they went to bed.

***
19:54 13 May

     "'Lo?"
     "Hey, Tuck!"  It was Debbie.
     "Whatsup?"
     She was about to cackle, I could tell.  It made me afraid.  "Guess
what?"
     "I'm scared to ask."
     She glared at me.  "Miz Montgomery, Nickerson's secretary, quit
yesterday.  She's not coming back, either."
     "Where did you hear that?"
     "An acquaintance," meaning un-named source, "said that she saw the
resignation letter, and someone else saw her leaving in tears today."

***
20:04 13 May

     "Hey, Mike?"
     "Yeah?"
     "Didja hear the news about Nickerson's secretary?"
     "No...."

***
02:17 14 May

     It was well known that Miz Montgomery was not a computer whiz.
This was too bad for her.  I wondered, idly, what she had done when her
computer booted up on April First, and instead of little clouds and
Microsoft logos, it put up a burning goat's head.  With Microsoft logos.
     I, on the other hand, could occasionally lay claim to the title of
wizard, or at least apprentice.  Especially when inspired.  And even
more especially when I had access to the hardware as well as the
software.
     I looked up from Miz Montgomery's used-to-be-hers computer for a
second, to rest my eyes, and caught Mike looking through one of the
grosser magazines that had come to Nickerson's house. We'd nabbed a few
for the address labels.  "Mike!" I hissed, and he guiltily dropped it.

***
07:56 14 May

     "Tuck?"  Debbie sounded concerned.  When I turned around to look at
her, she looked concerned.  "Are you okay?" she asked gently.
     "Yeah.  Just had a late night last night.  'Doing things,' you
know."
     She raised her eyebrows, and jerked a thumb towards Nickerson's
office, and I nodded.

***
11:44 14 May

     It was another sunny day.  It felt good to be outside, for a little
while, before it either started raining again, or heated up.
     "I just wish we could get a sperm sample, and like clone it," Mike
said idly, looking at a hangnail.
     "Oh, man," I enthused, "that would be so cool!"
     "WHAT?!?!?" Debbie shrieked.  "YOU-"

***
11:45 14 May

     "In their UNDERWEAR?"
     Mike nodded.  "So, when the cheerleaders complain, and they look at
it, it's guess what, and if they look at it a little closer-"
     "DNA testing," I stuck in.
     "-then," continued Mike, "guess whose it would look like.  See?"
     All the girls still looked entirely grossed out.  I would have,
too, except I knew, that since cloning the cells in question was
basically impossible, that I wouldn't have to try and get a starter
culture.

***
15:06 14 May

     I looked up from kissing Debbie, with the feeling that I was being
watched by Mike.  I was being watched by Mike.  And Kim.  Both of them
were smiling.
     "What?" asked Debbie as she opened her eyes, and then focused on
Kim and Mike.  And glared.
     "Ah," said Kim, "we were just wondering if you two wanted to do
something after school for a bit?"

***
15:46 14 May

     Mike had gotten up to go relieve himself, and the girls hadn't
taken the hint and were still sitting in the booth, when Debbie looked
up.  Then she hissed at Kim, "Kim!  It's Danny Linhart!"  She jerked her
head, and pointed to me with her jaw.
     So smoothly I barely noticed, Kim slid out of the other side of the
booth, and in our side, moving her food at the same time.  She smiled at
me.
     I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I smiled back.

***
15:48 14 May

     Mike was trying to set me on fire with non-existent psychic powers,
as Kim gripped stuff in her teeth from my plate for me to eat.  Finally,
like we were hoping, Danny came by.
     "Hi Danny!" Debbie said, just in case Danny was going to try to
miss us.  Kim and I waved, and Mike blinked, then smiled like he wasn't
really pissed or anything like that.
     I stuck an onion ring in my mouth, and Kim leaned over and bit half
of it off.  We smiled and chewed at each other.  Kim started to giggle.
     "Howzit goin'?" Mike asked her.  Danny and her friends were staring
at us.
     Kim swallowed first, and licked her lips in a way that made me
think of Debbie, and "studying" at my house.  Then Debbie tapped on my
shoulder, and when I turned around, she was holding a fry in her teeth.
So I leaned against her and bit it off, then took my time getting it
back in my mouth.  Kim giggled.
     Danny and her friends stared some more.
     Mike asked Danny's group, "Ready for finals?"
     They didn't answer; they just kept watching in this sort of
sickened silence.

***
16:04 14 May

     Debbie and I sort of hung and guarded things, while Kim made it up
to Mike in some fashion I was just as happy I couldn't see.

***
16:22 14 May

     I made it up to Debbie on my front porch, while Mike and Kim did I
didn't care what, back at the cars.

***
11:36 15 May

     Mike dinged the bell, and waited until everyone quieted down.
"Okay, this is the last session until finals are over, at least. Then we
can get together and figure out what we want to do.  Okay?"

***
15:02 15 May

     "So when do you want to pick up the party stuff?" Dan asked.
     "Um, I was thinking Saturday morning sometime-"
     Dan made a face.  "I said I'd go help that girl move, whatsername,
Rhonda?"
     "Rachel.  No, this is the next Saturday."
     "Oh," he said.  Then he thought.  Then he said, "That'll make
things easier."
     Duh.  Instead, I said, "So, you're gonna help with the moving,
huh?"

***
08:06 16 May

     Debbie, or someone, played Pink Floyd squalling "We don't need no
education," over the loudspeakers, and when that was finished, you could
hear a lot of kids screaming in approval but no announcements.

***
08:11 16 May

     "Nickerson's going crazy," Mike said quietly.  "I don't think he's
going to be back next year."
     "Let's hope you're right."

***
11:32 16 May

     Mike was smiling, a lot, and not nicely either.  He saw me, and
smiled larger.  "Hey, Tuck!" he waved.  "Guess what?" he asked when I
got closer.  "Miz Montgomery's temp replacement left already today."
     "Really?"  How strange," I commented.
     "Must be his bad ambience, or something, which reminds me: someone
threw a stink bomb in his office this morning too."
     "Oooh," I tried to say like I was sorry.  Actually, it was kind of
lame.  I was glad we had more class than that.
     He added, "And his car got spray-painted, too."  That too.
     "They paint anything interesting?"
     "Just 'asshole,' I think."
     "Ah," I said with false sympathy.  Lamers.

***
11:38 16 May

     "Okay, we gotta get there by nine, that's when they close, to pick
everything up.  I think we need another minivan or something."
     "I think I can help," Pam said.
     "Then," I said, "all we need is an hour or so to set up, and we'll
have everything ready."
     Kim made a surprised face at that.
     "Make that two hours," Mike corrected.

***
11:41 16 May

     "Linda said she'd supply the drinks and stuff, and I said I'd
supply the music and stuff, and we're charging three bucks at the door
to cover costs like for the professional sound system and stuff," Kim
told a couple of girls.  "It's gonna be a great party!"
     The girls looked like they believed her, too.

***
15:25 16 May

     "Okay, see you in a couple of hours?" Debbie checked.  I nodded.
"Okay, hon, see you then.  Kisskiss!"  I blew her a kiss, and shut her
door.

***
17:31 16 May

     Debbie honked outside, so I got my bag and waved bye to the folks.
They waved back and said have a nice time and stuff.  Brian just
pretended I wasn't there, which was fine with me.

***
17:32 16 May

     "I figured I'd change at Julia's house, when we got rid of George,"
I told Debbie.
     "Makes sense," she nodded, "since we're going over there first, and
she's gonna drive tonight.  At least over to George's house."

***
17:49 16 May

     "Hey," said Julia, and then looked kind of amazed when she saw how
much stuff we were carrying in.
     "Gotta," huffed Debbie, "get it inside, where it's cool, so it
won't melt."  I just huffed.
     "Ahhhhhh... how about my room?" Julia asked.  I didn't have any
problems with that, except it was up the stairs.  Oh, God.

***
18:04 16 May

     "A little late, not bad," Debbie mentioned as we all went up to the
door.

***
18:10 16 May

     "Well?" Debbie asked.  "Where to?"
     "Mojo's?" George tossed out.  Debbie looked at Julia, who looked at
Debbie, and they both shrugged at the same time.  At least we were all
dressed for it.  Pizza is not something to eat if you're dressed nice.

***
18:38 16 May

     "Hey!"  We all looked up, and it was Mike and Kim.  I started
waving to them immediately.  They both started waving back like crazy
people.

***
19:07 16 May

     "Dan-Man!" George yelled.  Ellen was with him, and I thought she
was going to run when George yelled, but she must've seen us and thought
we were safe, or something, because she didn't.

***
19:22 16 May

     It had sort of turned from a double date into a pre-party party,
when Debbie tapped me on the shoulder.  "We gotta think about going,"
she told me.  "It's almost time."

***
20:04 16 May

     "Jeezus, just hold on a minute," I complained.  "I haven't done
this every day this week like you two, okay?"  Then I worked on my lip
gloss.
     Julia stood at the door and tapped her fingernails on the
doorframe.  Debbie just watched.  When I finally got done and turned
around, Debbie looked really hard for a few seconds, and then nodded.
     "What?"
     "It'd really suck if you looked bad, you know," she commented.
     "I know, I know!"  Then I snorted.  "You know, you usually do my
makeup for these things..."
     Debbie took a breath, and so did Julia.  Debbie said, "I'm doing
her dad tonight..."
     I started to laugh.

***
20:28 16 May

     People were starting to filter in, and Debbie was glaring at
Julia's dad like she was going to burn holes in him.
     I finally leaned over and whispered, "Having second thoughts?"
     She shook her head like she was pissed off, and whispered back, "I
probably should have tried him in private first.  Damn, I'm used to
doing you, and I know what colors work on you..."
     "You can do it," I told her.  "You're good, a real pro!  No sweat."
     She took a breath, and glared at me for a second.

***
21:02 16 May

     Debbie waited until the applause had finished.
     "Good evening," said Debbie in a very professional sounding
voice, "and thank you for coming!"
     "Now," she continued, walking around a little, "I know that Mary
Kay is sort of a big joke to everybody, but they really do produce some
superior products, in my opinion.  And," she was going to say something
about her boyfriend, which was me, but she wasn't making me up tonight.
She paused, just long enough for me to imagine she was going to bobble
it and get embarrassed and run out and things would go to hell, when she
added, "I'm going to prove it all over your chapter president!"
     They all applauded again, especially me.  And Julia too, I noticed.
I felt a little stupid for worrying.  I mean, it wasn't like it was ME
up there...
     Said a little voice in the back of my head, "Yet."

***
22:48 16 May

     "You only get ten percent tonight, since you didn't model."
     "Oh.... darn."  I was a little irritated, but on the other hand, I
didn't have to wear a bag over my head while riding in a girls' dorm
elevator.  Though, at this point, it seemed kind of like a stupid thing
to do.  "Does her dad-"
     "No."  She said it firmly enough that I didn't argue or ask
anything else.  I think she wanted me to keep my mouth shut.  I had no
problems with that.  The more money she had, the more she could take me
out.  "And besides," she added, "you don't have anything to complain
about tonight..."  She waggled her eyebrows at me, which I took to mean
that she was having lots of profit tonight.  I'd taken more than a few
orders myself.  Including Julia's parents, who had dropped a couple of
hundred in just one order.

***
23:05 16 May

     I was chatting with someone who didn't look too scary, about
alternative music, when Debbie came running up, grabbed my hand, and
dragged me away.  I knew enough not to argue when she was this excited.

***
23:06 16 May

     "They've still got vendor's tables open, Tuck!"  She was
practically bouncing up and down.
     "So?"  I was more than a little boggled.
     "So?!  So, do you know how much I made tonight?  Do you know how
much I could make off a couple of HUNDRED of these people over three
DAYS?!"
     "Ah.  Oh...."  I started to catch on.  "Oh, my.  Oh my God."

***
23:18 16 May

     I was feeling a lot more charitable towards these folks, now that
they were going to help me finance a car.
     There were a bunch of people clustered around a computer, and I
naturally went to go see what was up.  They were looking at sites that,
I guess, were put up by the same sort of people that were here, and they
were all excited, some of them.  I gathered that they liked the idea of
web pages.
     "Yeah," one said, "but do you know how much it costs to scan a good
picture?  Two bucks!"
     "Two bucks?" I said before I could stop myself.  "What resolution?"
     The person who was complaining waved a hand in the air and scoffed,
"Six hundred something.  It doesn't-"
     "Six hundred DPI?"  They nodded.  "I could do that for a buck.
Maybe less."  I could do it for free, but Dad might charge me rental on
his scanner.  He was weird sometimes.  "At 2400 DPI, four times the
resolution.  Each way."
     "How does that work, anyway?" someone else asked.

***
23:23 16 May

     One buck per picture, assuming half of two hundred people wanted
one, and they had two pictures each, (someone had said it would be worth
a hundred or so to get GOOD scanning for a few dozen pictures they had),
plus a buck or so per disk, which I could get for half cost if I ordered
in bulk... or maybe I could take the CD-Recorder too, that would make
things a little more permanent, and people would pay ten bucks for a
CD, I thought, especially if they had more than a couple of dozen shots-
Oh, hell, I could take one of the video conference cameras, too, and do
a video capture and take digital snaps right there, and then bundle
everything together-
     "Valerie?"
     I came back to the physical plane, and it was Julia.  She looked a
little concerned.  "Uh.  What?"
     "You looked a little weird there for a second, I just wondered if
something was wrong."
     "Um, no.  Everything's fine, actually."  Actually, I needed to go
ask someone what they would pay - market research, as it were.

***
23:26 16 May

     "Well," I interrupted, "but how much would you pay to have photos
taken, digital shots, and get them right there on disk or CD?"
     "You can do that?" the guy asked.
     "Uh huh.  If I could make enough to pay the rental fees on the
equipment.  So, how much would you pay, per shot?"
     "Uh, I don't know... maybe a dollar apiece?"
     Debbie gave me this maniacal grin, where he couldn't see it.  I
nodded, keeping my own face under control.  "And if you had, say, twenty
shots, would you pay an extra ten dollars to get everything on CD, where
you don't have to carry a stack of disks or worry about them getting
erased?"
     "Uh, sure!"  He looked a little confused.

***
00:12 16 May

     Debbie and I jumped up and down and hugged each other.

***
00:43 16 May

     "It's a fashion convention," Debbie lied smoothly.
     "And," I went on, almost running over myself, "if I can just rent
the equipment-"
     "-my company will insure that it comes back in good condition, of
course-"
     "Of course!  And I'll be keeping it, so you know it'll be in good
hands," I'd never lost a piece of gear since I was ten years old, "so
you won't have to worry-"
     "-because it'll be covered two ways!"
     "And," I added, "it'll all be above board and legit-"
     "-equipment rental to another company-"
     "-so it'll be just pure profit for Freehold!"
     "What do you think?" Debbie asked Dad.
     We stared at him.  He stared at us like we were lunatics.  I didn't
care, as long as he said yes.

***


"No thanks, human flesh gives me the hiccups."  - ehayes


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"Tallyho!"      \   /     @>--,--'--  ehayes@nym.alias.net  + vicki .sig
Ellen Hayes --=(*)=(*)=-- Renaissance Woman    ==[--------  + virus 9.1a
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