The Art of Being a Gentleman

CHAPTER NINE

THE NEXT COUPLE WEEKS flew by. Ricky had given David a small reprieve of gentleman sessions, focusing his attention instead on perfecting the things they had already covered. Which allowed David to trudge through his school work, getting by as best as he usually did. Also known as: putting in enough effort to not gain the teachers attention, but no enough effort that it actually became work.

To Ricky, the whole situation was a positive one. He was impressed by his handiwork, considering how little they had done so far. He had known David had the potential deep down inside of him. (He may or may not have realized just how far down it was... but nonetheless, he would get to it.)

To David, it felt like he was under 24/7 surveillance by the world's pickiest babysitter. Ricky was constantly watching how David dressed, how he talked, how he ate... always giving him 'tips'. It was like he couldn't help himself. Like it was part of Ricky's DNA to correct people.

It was annoying.

One Friday, Mack called a game together for David and the boys at the ball diamonds. He claimed that it had been far too long since they had played and he was going to lose all his mad skills if he didn't get back into it.

It really didn't take any convincing to get David out to play, he had been missing it, too. Sports were his escape. It didn't matter what was stressing him out, whether it was crap at home, stress at school, or girl problems... nothing was better than tossing a ball around to distract him from whatever was going on. So yeah, he was totally down for a game.

Gathering his things in a rush, David slammed his locker shut and headed for the school doors. Classes had been extra sleep-inducing today and his muscles were screaming to be outside and in use.

He burst through the doors, eyes down as he adjusted the items in his hands, and smacked right into another person, causing both of their things to hit the pavement.

"Frick, I'm sorry," David muttered, crouching down to clean up the mess he had caused.

"It's alright. Don't worry about it. I should've been watching where I was going," a sweet voice said quickly.

He looked up in time to see Alyssa Harvard kneeling next to him, picking up her papers that were strewn across the ground. His mouth immediately went dry and he froze for half a second. How was it possible for one person to be so freaking perfect? With his heart in his throat, he tried to think of something to say. He wasn't prepared for this! All of his interactions with Alyssa had been preplanned. He wasn't ready to go into battle without a strategy laid out!

"N-nah, that was all me," he spluttered a moment too late. He stood up and shifted on his feet, calling back the confidence that he normally had. This was what he had been waiting for, wasn't it? A chance to talk to her? To test out all of this gentleman stuff? "I hope you're okay," David said carefully, trying to think how to handle this situation.

Well, when in doubt... WWRD, right?

"I'm good. Thank you," she nodded, giving him a polite smile. Her eyes shifted from him to the ground. "Just too caught up in seeing what I got on my research paper, I guess."

Alyssa liked school. I should ask her about school, he thought with his Ricky-Brain.

"Did you do well on it?" Then he gave his head a slight shake and added teasingly, "Wait, I forgot who I was talking to. Of course, you did well."

She scratched at the side of her jaw, "Oh. I just—"

"That wasn't supposed to be insulting," David amended quickly with a small chuckle, realizing that she looked uncomfortable. "I just mean, like, you're ridiculously smart. Which is cool. I wish that I could be good at school like you are. I honestly feel like I should still be in the eighth grade sometimes."