Final Friends

page 4

'Please to meet you, Michael. ' She wondered if this were the first meeting. She could have sworn she had seen him before.
'Are you a senior?' 'Yeah' 'So am I' 'I thought so. Did you just get here?  I didn't see you earlier this week.'

'Yeah, my family's vocation run a few days too long.' Michael nodded, looking her straight in the face, as he did, Jessica realised that, besides seeming familiar, he was rather attractive. He had thick black hair and eyebrows, pleasant friendly features. Yet it was his eyes that sparked her interest. There was an extraordinary alertness and intelligence in them, a sharpness she had never seen before in anyone her age.

But perhaps she was imagining it. For all she knew, he could be the local druggy, high on something.But he seems Nice  enough. 'I bet you were Switzerland,' he said. She laughed. 'How did you guess?' 'Your accent.' He glanced about. 'I supposed this place looks like old to you after Mesa.' She nodded. 'And crowded. And hot. We had air conditioning.' 'Some of our rooms are cooled. The gym is. We take our basketball very seriously here at Tabb.'

Jessica brightened. 'Oh, now I know who you are! You're on the basketball team. I saw playing last year. You killed us, didn't you?' Michael shrugged. 'It was cool most of the way.' 'Yeah, right, all through warm-up.'

Michael shrugged. 'It was close most of the way'. 'Yeah right all through warm-up'. 'Well,you guys were never very nice to our football team. What did we lose to you,the last nine in a row?'  'The last ten. And you know what's worse? Practically our whole varsity was transferred to Sanders High'

'I guess we couldn't expect to get beauty and brawth both' Did he just compliment me? It sounded like a compliment. Jessica didn't take compliments well. To simply accept them, she felt, was to acknowledge that her looks were important to her, and she always thought that was the same as saying to the world that was superficial. On the other hand, she did love to be complimented. She was nuts, she knew it.

She laughed again. 'Before the football season's over,  I know you're going to think Tabb got the raw end of the deal.' 'I hope not', he muttered, lowering his head,pulling a tissue from his pocket, and wiping up the few remaining drops of juice from the locker. 'I'm going to pay you for the sweater no matter what you say. What's a swiss franc in U.S. money these days?' 'One and a half pennies. Forget about it,really.  I have parents who can spend who can spend enough on their darling daughter'.

'It must be nice. Did you enjoy Switzerland?' 'Yeah. And the Greek islands. It was neat floating on a raft in the Mediterranean. The Vatican was amazing too'. He nodded,repeated himself. 'It must be nice'. Then he began to back up. 'Well,I have to go. I hope you like Tabb. I'm sure you will. If you need help finding your way around, just let me know.'

'Thanks, Michael. See you later '.
'Sure'.