A Penny For Your Truth

Chapter 4 - Welcome To Winters (Dallas POV)

      I don't really know what's happening here, but I'm not gonna lie, I am kind of enjoying it. A cute guy, a new place, the middle of summer break, it could definitely be a lot worse. Why he's talking to me, I don't know, but I'm going to just roll with it.
    Now, what can I say to keep a friendly conversation going without making it obvious that I'm an awkward person? I'm thinking...still thinking......I'm still just staring at a tree, trying to think of a topic that isn't super personal yet isn't small talk. Why is talking to people so hard? I mean, conversation topics comes easy for me when I am talking to strangers. But in all fairness I am usually the one who initiates the conversation. I was caught off guard. Ok, I can do this. There is nothing to be scared of. Now what to talk abo—

"You look a little scared. You alright over there?" Jonah said.

"Uh, yeah. I-I'm fine." I replied.

  He look at the playground for a bit. I tried to follow his eye to see what he was looking at, but all I see over there is a whole bunch of small children and their parents running after them. Maybe he sees someone over there that he knows. Just as I'm about to turn to face him, he spoke again.

"I know what'll make you laugh. You see those monkey bars over there by the kids swings? Did you know they used to be white?"

"What?" I say in disbelief, "No way."

"Yep, last summer." He said,"The entire baseball team was out here until midnight practicing. We were tired, hungry, and got bored. Someone suggested a dare that involved spray paint and the monkey bars and we all jumped at the opportunity. I blame hunger and the lack of sleep on that decision. After a quick run to Walmart and a few confused and concerned looks, we came back to the park."

He continued, "A couple of the guys put paint under their eyes like we were going to battle and climbed up the tower like they were king of the world or something, we managed to paint the monkey bars without getting caught and I've still never heard anyone say anything about the color."

I sputter a laugh. In disbelief I look at him and ask, "Neon green?! Out of all those colors in the world you guys picked neon green. That is crazy."

He laughs as well. "I wish it had gone more noticed, but every time I see it at least I can remember the one time we did something completely crazy and didn't get in trouble for it."

I turned more towards him with one eyebrow raised and asked,"What other crazy things have you guys done?"

I'm super curious to hear some other insane stories he did with his team.

"Well," He starts out, tilting his head a little with a smirk, " Lets see....... there was that one time we put itching powder in the opposing team's gloves."

"Really? Itching powder. Where do get that stuff?" I asked.

"We have our connections." He replied quite mysteriously.

"Why?" I asked.

"Why not? It was very entertaining. Our team most definitely got a kick out of it. What was NOT funny though was during the next game, the other team put superglue on our bats. That was rough." He said

I burst out laughing. "That. Is. Amazing." I take a deep breath. "You kinda deserved it after the itching powder. That was a smart idea. Man, I wish I could have been there for those two games."

He frowns at me. "Hey, it's not funny when it happens to us. We're the home team. Besides, do you know how hard it was for my friends and I to stand with our families leaning on our baseball bats that are still stuck at this point and act like this is normal?"