The Bridge to College

Chapter 10 Meeting Scott Again

Scott came over at 9:30 sharp. Since ROTC, Hoager always made a habit of arriving at places either early or right on schedule. He was never late, which was a unique habit. Jess was out on the baseball field doing some extra practice by himself against the batting cage when he saw a familiar face in the stands. He trotted over to Hoager still in uniform.

"Greetings Private," Hoager said jokingly doing a small salute.

"Scott," Jess said with more excitement then he normally has outside of hanging with Leslie, "I didn't think you would come to the field."
"Well," Scott said, "I always liked baseball, and Leslie kicked me out of the house because she didn't want me interfering with the dinner."

"LESLIE'S COOKING," Jess exclaims.

"What is there something wrong," Scott asked confusion reading on his face.

"She can't cook," Jess said, "She'll burn the house down."

The image of the Burke's kitchen covered in ash after Leslie tried making banana and blueberry muffins comes to mind. Jess begins running as fast as can bringing the messenger bag containing his stuff over his shoulder. Scott barely runs alongside Jess and calls to Jess.

"Hey my car is over there," Scott said, "It's much faster."

Jess nodded and walked to Scott's old car. Unlike Jess, Scott was not as meticulous with his car as he was. It was known as Truckzilla and was an old beat up pick up truck Scott got from the scrapper. It worked just fine but it was a weird car that made odd noises as Hoager drove it.

"So I see Truckzilla is still alive and in one peace," Jess said to make conversation before whispering, "What a surprise."

Scott chuckled and said, "Yeah I couldn't get rid of the old girl. We have been through so much together."

"So what do you do for the army," Jess asked.

"M1 Armored Crewmember," Scott said, "My job in specifics is to load the tank."

The duo stop talking and drive the short ride to the apartments. Scott Hoager and Jess Aarons had the relationship where they were best friends who would do stupid shit with each other and smuggle beers and stuff, but it wasn't a very talkative relationship. They stopped by the apartments and hopped up.

"Well there's no smoke," Jess said sniffing the air, "So I think we may be okay."

"That's good," Scott said before joking, "If your apartment burned down you could stay with me. But then you would have to live in the barracks."

"No way," Jess said as he walks to the apartment. Inside, however, smelt great. It smelled of a few Cornish game hens perfectly roasted with potatoes. A pretty good smell.

"So you didn't burn the house down," Jess teased sneaking up on Leslie to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Jess-se," Leslie said with fake exasperation, "If you haven't noticed our school has clubs, and one of them is Cooking for Beginners. I have been taking it, and this was something I learned how to do."

Jess smiled, he always got a rise out of teasing Leslie, like how she occasionally teased him.

"You two sure changed," Scott said.

Jess smiled and looked at Scott Hoager. Instead of his former wildly curly hair, his head was clean-shaven per military standards. Scott was more of the short and stocky type before enlisting and was now short and formed with muscle. His eyes lost the mischievous glint and now looked perfectly serious and analytical.

"Hey can I see that," Scott asked picking up Jess's notebook containing his Calculus problems.

"Sure go ahead, but I don't see why you'd want to it's calculus," Jess said.

Scott examined the pages and said, "Da-amn you're a mathematical genius. I took some math courses for the army, but this is beyond my level. And you still don't want to become a math major?"

"Yep, I'm fine with being a mechanic," Jess replied, looking over Scott's shoulders hoping Hoager does not bring up an error in his work, "Sciences and math are too troublesome."

Scott nods as he sets it down and walks around the apartment to put his stuff in his room. Leslie walks to Jess and smiles.

"So your buddy is back," Leslie said.

"Yeah he is," Jess said giving a shy smile.

Leslie snuggles into Jess until Scott returns.

"Did I interrupt a moment," Scott asked now dressed in civilian clothes.

"Uh...well," Jess nervously said. He was always nervous about his relationship with Leslie. Not that he was ashamed of being seen with her. Rather Jess was still somewhat shy in some regards.

"We were about to make..." Leslie began as a joke before Jess covered her mouth.

"LESLIE," Jess said as Scott began dying on the floor of laughter at the couple's debate..

The trio had dinner before heading off to bed. They were all really tired. Leslie seemed to sleep pretty well as was the norm. Jess lays awake. Was Scott and Professor Jensing right? Was Jess squandering his potential? Maybe he should major in the math field. But being a mechanic made him happy, and isn't that what mattered.

The rest of the visit was uneventful. Occasionally, Scott would drive Leslie and Jess crazy by teasing them playfully (unlike their childhood) but it was a fun visit. And Jess was sad to see Scott go.