Hi everyone, Al here. Thanks again goes out to all of you that took the time to write me. I really appreciate it. Also, THANK YOU ESPECIALLY for being so patient. My virus has been dealt with, and things are back on track. This part is rather short, but I promise that the next part will be considerably longer. Well, on to part eight!
Thanks goes out to my friend Ed for his editing expertise.
Oliver and I Installment #8:
The 3:00 bell rang like a fire alarm, and the thunderous rumble of a stampede of anxious students shook the structure of the building. Closing my math book and clutching it under one arm, I leapt from my desk in the front row and charged ahead of the crowd through the classroom door. The hall was filled with the conversation of students and the slamming of locker doors as everyone prepared to go home. 'TGIF' was shouted from one end of the hall, and a million sighs of relief hit my ears at once as I made my way through the masses. It was Friday, and the weekend was finally here! I could barely contain my excitement, and, as I rounded the corner I walked straight into someone. I had at least a foot and a half on him, and the poor kid went flying backward onto his back. His books were released in a large spray pattern across the floor around him. I suddenly froze, mentally kicking myself for what I had just done. A few of the surrounding kids began to laugh and I shot them a mean enough glance to send them quietly on their way. I acted as quickly as I could and took the boy by the hand. "Man, are you okay?!" I asked worriedly as I pulled him up off the floor. I couldn't believe that I had knocked the poor kid over. He nodded his head yes, but remained quiet. "Geeze, I am so sorry about that, man. Are you sure you're all right?" "Yeah," he said a short time later, nodding his head again. He finally looked up and made eye contact with me. I knew that look. He must have been scared shitless, so after I picked up his books I stuck out my hand and shook his. "My name's Albert, but most people call me Al." "Jim," he mumbled, returning the handshake. "Look, Jim, I'm really sorry about that. I should have been watching where I was going. I feel like such an ass right now." I was so embarrassed. "I...It's okay...really." "The hell it is. At least you can let me buy you a soda or something." He was a little hesitant at first, but then he shook his head yes. "Come on, let's go." I put a hand on his shoulder and we headed for the stairs that led down near the cafeteria. As we walked I looked over at Jim. As hard as I tried, I couldn't recognize his face. I guessed that he was probably a freshman. He stood only just over five feet high, with dark hair that was long enough to spike up. He had a pale complexion, and his big brown eyes remained cast down at the tiled floor beneath our feet. The kid was still a little bit uncomfortable, so I decided to break the silence. "So, are you a freshmen?" "Yeah," he nodded, still keeping his eyes to the floor. "That's cool. I remember my freshman year. It all goes by real quick. Before you know it you'll be the big guy running into people," I said, giving him a friendly nudge in the arm. He smiled slightly and I was glad that he was beginning to loosen up a little bit. "So what do you think of school so far?" "It's okay, I guess." "What teachers do you have this semester?" He told me and I began talking about my experiences with them. I remained as positive as I could, mind you. I didn't want him to dislike school or anything. Better that he makes his own assessment of everything. When we got into the cafeteria I walked over to the nearest pop machine and stuck in some change from my pocket. "What would you like?" I asked. "Sprite," he said. "Sprite it is." I hit the button, took the can from the machine, and handed the drink to Jim. "Thanks," he said, pulling off the tab and taking a sip. "Hey, you didn't miss the bus or anything, did you?" "No. I usually bum a ride home. Sometimes I walk." "Where do you live?" "It's about a five minute drive from here." "If you'd like, I'd be happy to give you a lift. Most people are probably gone by now." "I don't know. I don't want you to go out of your way or anything." "No problem, it's nothing. I'll be leaving in about thirty minutes or so. I'm going out to meet some friends tonight." "Okay, that'd be great. Thanks." "Sure. Come on, we'll go upstairs and wait. I've gotta get my stuff together and ready to go anyway." The two of us walked back upstairs and I led him into my dad's classroom. My dad was nowhere to be found, so I assumed that he had taken my little brother home. "Have a seat," I said. "Why do you keep your stuff in here?" "My locker doesn't work, and I know Bob will never get around to fixing it, so I just keep my books and stuff here in my dad's prep room." "The Bio teacher is your dad?" he asked in surprise. "Yeah. Why the look of horror?" "No offense, but I've heard that he's the meanest teacher on staff." I couldn't help but laugh at the genuine concern on his face. "Yeah, a lot of kids seem to think that. Must be some horror stories that go around about him. Don't worry, he's not nearly that bad. He's strict though. Hey, I live with the guy, and I'm still here. Right?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Look, you have to take things like that with a grain of salt. Experiencing things for yourself first-hand is the only way to be certain of something. You'll learn real quick that rumors spread like wildfire in this place." "Yeah, it seems that way. It's kind of hard to make friends in this place." "Yeah, I know what you mean. But don't worry, you'll have plenty of friends." I walked into the prep room and began packing my things. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. "Hello," a familiar voice called out. "In here," I said, gathering the last of my belongings before leaving the small closet-like room. Oliver was waiting by the door with a smile on his face. "Hey there!" "Ready to go?" he asked. "Yeah. Oliver, this is Jim. Jim, this is my best friend Oliver." "Nice to meet you," Jim said as Oliver gave him a handshake. "Likewise." "I promised Jim that I'd give him a ride home before we met up with everyone." "No problem," Oliver said. "What's with the accent?" Jim asked, puzzled. "I forgot to mention that Oliver is visiting from Germany." "That's cool," Jim said. "How long are you gonna be here?" "Till next fall," Oliver answered, "so we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other. Have you two been friends long?" "We really just met today," I said. I was about to start up again, but Jim cut me off. "Your friend here ran me over in the hallway," he said, looking back at me with a slight grin of sarcasm. "Look, I said I was sorry. I really am." Oliver began to chuckle. "That's it, kid, give him the guilt trip. He's a sucker for that." He gave Jim a pat on the back. "You should be more careful, Albert," he said, shaking his finger at me while trying to make a stern face. "Oh fine! Go ahead and gang up on me, why don't ya!" I said, throwing my arms up in defeat. The two of them laughed and I put on my coat. "All right, you two, time to go." "Okay," Oliver said, allowing Jim to walk ahead of him. The three of us walked outside to the back parking lot, where I had left the van that morning. The lukewarm air hit me like an invisible wall, and I started to wish that I hadn't worn my coat. After unlocking the van I removed my jacket and slung it over the back of the seat. Oliver and Jim hopped in and I started up the engine. As we exited the school parking lot I looked over to Jim, who was sitting in the front seat next to me. "So, where do you live?" "Just down this way," he said, pointing his finger in the direction of a side street. "Once you go down there you make one more turn before you get to my street. Pretty simple, really." "Okay, cool," I responded. In almost no time at all we made it to his house, and I pulled up into the driveway. It was a nice place - looked like your average home. "Well, this is it. Thanks for the ride." "No problem. It was the least I could do. If you ever need a ride, let me know." "I'll remember that," Jim said as he waved briefly before walking around the back of his house. Oliver crawled up into the front seat and buckled himself in. "Ready?" "Yep, let's go," I said. I backed out into the street and headed back past the school toward town. After fighting rush hour traffic on the main drag of the city, we finally arrived at Salvatore's Italian Grill - a local restaurant chain owned by a good friend of the family. After finding a spot by the front door, Oliver and I stepped out and looked around. I glanced down at my watch and rolled my eyes. It was 4:00. I told Chris to meet us there at 3:30, because I knew he'd be at least a half-hour late. Whenever you need him to be somewhere, you need to tell him to be there earlier than he has to be so that he gets there on time. It's always been a running joke between us that he has his own time zone. And, lo and behold, Chris's car pulls up with his three passengers. "Right on time!" I said as Chris got out of the car. "We've been waiting here for you." "Oh shut up, Al. You two just got here." "How do you know that?" "Because I was a car behind you when you ran that red light." "Who, me?" I said in mock innocence. "Don't be coy with me, reckless bastard," he muttered in a joking tone. "Hi, Oliver." "Hi," Oliver said, going over to talk with Chris. "Hi, Al!" Julie said. Behind her Jessica and Natalie (whom we called by her middle name - Lois) followed close by. "Julie, Jess, Lois," I said in greeting. "How are you guys today?" "Great," Jessica said. She stood about Chris's height, and was somewhat overweight. She had beautiful creamy white skin, and long, perfectly straight blond hair that hung down to the small of her back. She was very good-humored, and never failed in cheering somebody up. She was always giggling about something, and that kept the spirits of our group pretty high. "Hello," Lois said as she came over and gave me a hug. Her shoulder-length ebony hair was put up in a sort of braid today, and her brown eyes shimmered in the sunlight overhead. "How are you?" "Very good actually. Have you met Oliver yet?" "No I haven't, but I'd like an introduction." "Okay, cool." I walked over to where Oliver and Chris were talking, with Lois following on my heels. "Oliver, I'd like you to meet Lois. Lois, this is my best friend Oliver." "Nice to meet you," he said. "Likewise," Lois replied. "Okay, so now that everybody knows each other," Chris interjected, "why don't we go in and eat." "Sounds good to me," I said. With that the six of us walked into the restaurant. Almost immediately Salvatore (whom we called Sal for short) spotted me and began flailing his arms in welcome. "How ya doin', big guy?" he asked happily. "Pretty good, and yourself?" "Ah, 'mense-a-mense' (an Italian expression for so-so, or okay)," he said with a miming of his hands. "So, you come to eat, or just cause trouble?" "Well since I haven't done either here in a while, I figured I'd do both," I replied with a smirk. "Always a smart-ass." Sal slapped me lightly on the cheek and laughed. "You and your buddies order whatever you like. It's on the house." "Hey, we were gonna pay," I argued. "Yeah, right. Leave the waitress a big tip." Then he disappeared into the kitchen. "All right, guys, let's find a spot to settle down. Order whatever you want. Sal's giving us a freebee." "Cool," everyone resounded. We quickly took a seat over in the corner by the window. After ordering our meals we returned the menus to the waitress and started up a conversation. Though we talk about nearly everything, there's always one topic we try to avoid...politics. It always seems to bring out the worst in us, and sometimes we can debate for hours on end about it. As we talked, Oliver brought Lois up to speed on his background and his coming to America. The rest of us, meanwhile, were talking about various things for school. "Have you finished that math homework yet?" Chris asked as he took a sip of his water. "Of course not," I replied with a dismissing gesture of my hand. "I'm sick of looking at it. I need time off for a couple days." "Always the scholar," Julie interjected with a smile. "Like you've never slacked off once in a while," I said. "Well, when you decide to work on it, let me know. I don't understand hardly any of it," Chris said. "Well, neither do I, so I guess we can both figure it out." "If you guys want, I can help." "Sure. You free, saaay, Sunday?" I said. "Yeah, but it'll have to be after 3:00." "Sounds like a plan," Chris replied. "Okay, Sunday it is." "So what you doing tomorrow, Al?" Chris asked. "I promised Oliver I'd take him kayaking tomorrow." "That should be fun." Chris's gaze cut over to Oliver and Lois, who had finished talking and were now listening to the rest of the conversation. "You're not hitting any rapids like last time, are you?" he asked in a concerned tone. "No," I said in an almost whining tone. "We're hitting the lake." "That's good. No one wants a repeat of last time's little episode." "Oh quit, you're whining. You know you had fun." "Fun? I was scared shitless!" I couldn't hold back a smile as the look on his face reminded me of that day. "Why, what happened?" Oliver asked with genuine interest. I was about to answer but Chris cut me off. "Last spring a bunch of us went kayaking on a river a couple hours from here. We had tandems, so I paired up with Al. Everything was fine until this jackass decided we could take a shortcut." Again I tried to intervene, but to no avail. "Well, anyway, we ended up in the rapids, headed right over a ton of huge rocks." "It was just a little rough spot," I tried to convince. "The hell it was. We hit that boulder so fast that we shot over the top of it and landed about ten or fifteen feet ahead." I began laughing uncontrollably as I recalled Chris cussing at me from the back of the kayak. "It was pretty fun, wasn't it?" "Fun, my ass. My life flashed before my eyes." Everyone laughed while Oliver's mouth hung open. "Oh sure, go ahead and laugh." Chris was beginning to smile as I gave him a playful nudge in the side. Oliver seemed worried now. "Now you've gone and scared him. Thanks a lot, guys," I said in between giggles. "Don't worry, man," I began, putting a reassuring hand on Oliver's shoulder, "I'd never do that to ya." "That's good to hear," he said, seeming relieved. "Yeah, that was done just for Chris," I said smiling. I quickly ducked away from Chris's oncoming hand. "All right, everyone, our food's coming, so settle down," Lois said with a motherly tone. Our laughter eventually subsided, and we graciously took our plates from the waitress. The food - as always - was great, and the six of us had fun talking with each other. It was close to 6:00 PM when we finished, and the sun was still barely shining. The days had begun to get slightly shorter, I had noticed. All of us sat there for a long moment, staring at our empty plates and holding our hands against our guts. "You guys full?" Sal asked. We all nodded in agreement, which got a big smile from Sal. As we got up to leave I shook Sal's hand and thanked him for the meal. Everyone else followed suit and we went outside. "Well, Al, I guess I'll see you Sunday then," Chris said. "Yup, I'll be there. Take care, guys," I said, shaking Chris's hand and giving the girls a hug. Oliver said goodbye as well, and then the two of us hopped back into the van - or Old Iron Sides as I always called it. Once inside, we sat still, completely stuffed. Then I looked over to Oliver. "Did you like dinner?" "Yeah, thanks for taking me. It was nice to talk to some of your friends. They're really nice people." "Cool. I'm glad. I figured you're probably tired of looking at the same old face every day anyhow." "How could I ever tire of that face?" he said, touching my cheek with the back of his slender hand. Our eyes locked for just a moment. "Thanks," I whispered, smiling. Then I started up the van and we drove off. The sun was just above the horizon by the time we got home, and my father's truck was nowhere in sight. Figuring that he had gone off to run errands, I parked the van in the garage and we got out. "Looks like no one's here," Oliver pointed out. "Yeah, seems that way. What do you say we walk some of that pasta off?" "Sounds like a good idea to me." Taking his hand in mine, I led the way out the back door and into the field. I hadn't cut it for several weeks, so by this time the wildflowers had taken over and were in one last full bloom before winter. Purples, yellows, whites, reds, and blues blanketed the field like paint on a canvas. The aroma was wonderful, and the slight, warm breeze felt good against my skin. The clouds were high and fluffy like cotton candy, covered in the bright pink and orange highlights cast from the setting sun. "Isn't it beautiful?" I said. "It certainly is," he sighed, allowing his head to lean against my shoulder as we walked through the tall grasses. We continued to hold hands as our shadows were cast long behind us. We didn't say anything more for what must have been an hour. We just held each other's hand and walked side by side until darkness began to creep across from the east, making the first few stars of the night sky just barely visible. Then suddenly the dog began to bark. I twirled around to see Jack (my German shepherd/husky) behind me with his snout in the air. He must have been trailing us for some time, and I hadn't even noticed. "Your dad's home," Oliver pointed out, following the dog's gaze. Then Jack took off to greet him, as he always did when someone came home. "He's always gotta spoil our fun," I said with a smirk. "Hey, we've got all day tomorrow to fool around," he said with a wink as he squeezed my hand one last time before letting go. "Thank heavens for that." We quickly returned to the house in time to speak some with my dad before going to bed. We had to depart early the next morning, and we would need all the sleep we could get...
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