Normal is Relative

Page 4

"She's got to wait until she's fifteen. That's two years. Gonna wait that long?"

"Yes sir. We can be friends until then, right?" I nodded.

"What kind of grades do you get?"

"A's and B's mostly."

"He only gets C's in math because he sits behind me." I heard Cassie said a smile in her tone. This was a smart kid. She might not want to date him, but she still thought it was cute that she distracted him.

"Well that's understandable. What's your favorite subject?"

"Biology."

"Really?" I hated biology.

"Yeah. My moms a nurse I like seeing how the body works. I wanna be a doctor someday."

"Really?" Cassie asked interested finally. I suppressed the grin. He was smart enough to keep up with Cassie, wanted to be a doctor, was willing to wait two years to date her and was brave enough to stand up and be respectful to me. He had my vote.

"That's funny. Cassie was just telling me over the weekend she wanted to be a doctor as well. That'll take a lot of hard work, long years at college."

"I know but it'll be worth it. Mom works with people everyday that have trouble. It's hard for them I wanna make that better." He was blushing now. He also had a soft side for helping people. Yeah, I approved.

"Well seems like a guy like you has it all figured out. Good luck." I held out my hand and he shook is smiling it was as good as rubber stamp on his forehead. "Come on sis we got to go." She got on behind me and sighed.

"You were supposed to scare them both off not approve of them."

"He's a good kid. Give him a chance you might like him."

"Just because he wants to be a doctor does not mean I should give him a chance."

"No but the fact he stood ups straight looked me in the eye spoke respectfully about you and was firm in what he wanted says he got some nice potential. Not to mention if he makes it wait two years, he'll show he's serious." She frowned as she strapped on the helmet.

"Maybe."

With Matt on the team I ended up seeing him more often then not through the day. The team had taken to him pretty well. Two things I noticed about him as the week went on, he said little shrugged a lot and more often than not was waiting for me after practice. I had a feeling I was dealing with an admirer, but he'd not pressed it after that first discussion after practice. I hoped he was settling for being my friend.

We were long past the season for us but since we had the weather for it, we kept up practices all school year. For us seniors it was a last hurrah and fun as a team before we went on to college or got jobs. I was already enrolled for some classes locally in the fall. Centering on business and economics. I liked the idea of helping dad with the store. He'd wanted me to have more, but I'd refused until he finally given in.

As January ended, I found that I wasn't the only one who had noticed that Matt seemed to like me. Some around school had noticed but the biggest problem was Neil. He'd become a major jerk toward Matt. It did bother me since Matt was a nice guy and Neil was a jerk. I found exhibit A one day when I was heading toward practice. Neil was chest to chest with Matt.

"Hey." I said calling their attention to me as I headed for them. Matt was quick to shove Neil away and back up. Looked like he didn't want me to think he was going to trash him though that's what he looked like when I caught sight of them. "What are you doing Neil?" I asked stepping between them.