Ch73: Undo the Love magic

“Great game, Wesley,” Donny said.

“So, you actually watched this time?” Wes asked.

“I did,” Donny lied,  not looking his son in the eye. 

“So, Janet kept you off your cell?” Wes said, grinning at her, and she also avoided his eyes. 

“It was me,” Wendy said, bouncing into the kitchen wearing snug jeans and a tight fitting top. “He couldn’t possibly talk on the phone when I was constantly chatting with him. Wes, it was a great game. Ooh, I have something for you.” 

She went for her purse and rummaged through it until she extracted a baseball cap. She put it on his head then made a face. “That’s no good. It’ll flatten your curls, but your dad said it was better than throwing it into the mud.”

Ch72: Puppy Love

Donny watched in an amazed déjà vu moment. Wendy reminded him of Margarita as she whirled around the kitchen, popping this into the oven, that into the microwave and stirring something else on the stove top, all the while chatting up a storm with him and Cindy. She was nothing short of a dynamo…and a very pleasing one to look at.

“Have any homework, Cindy?” Wendy asked.

“Yeah, math. I was hoping Steve would help me with it before dinner’s ready, but he’s still in the shower,” Cindy said, tugging a math book out of her backpack.

“What is taking him so long?” Wendy said.

Ch71: New Best Friend

Cindy had just found a new best friend. Before she knew what she was doing, she swiftly kissed Steve on the cheek and blushed when she saw the stunned expression on his face. 

“Sorry,” she said. “I just wanted to thank you for sticking up for me.”

He blinked several times then shook his head. “I’m not, sorry.”

They stared at each other neither knowing what to say, and just as they both opened their mouths to speak, they were rudely interrupted.

“Hey, kids,” Donny said. “Ready to go home?”

Cindy quickly dropped Steve’s hand, turned to her father and then she hugged him round the middle. 

“Hi, Daddy. We can’t go home. Ms. Meadows invited me and Wes to dinner,” she said casting a hopeful glance at Wendy. Would she invite her dad, too? Oh, she sure hoped so!

Wendy elbowed Donny playfully. “See? I told you. Now you have to come too.”

Ch70: Old Enemies

Cindy and Steve walked straight up the bleachers to their parents and the first thing out of Cindy’s mouth was, “Oh, Ms. Meadows, you look beautiful!”

“She certainly does,” Donny said, without thinking.

“Thank you, Cindy, and you too, Donny,” Wendy said, smiling at him.

“Mom,” Steve hissed, “Why are you dressed like that here?”

She looked up at him stunned. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Donny replied, under his breath, but loud enough for Steve to hear.

“You…you’re a mom! You gotta wear jeans and sweat shirts and stuff, not all that makeup and fancy dress and heels,” Steve said.

Wendy laughed. “You sound more and more like Jeffery every day. Sit down, Mr. Grumpy pants, and watch the rest of the game.”

Steve glared at her until Cindy grabbed his arm, pulled him away and sat him down a few seats away from them.

“What? Why are we sitting here?” he asked, his eyes glued to his mother and her way-too-friendly behavior toward Donny.

“I didn’t want them to hear,” Cindy whispered.

“Hear what?” Steve said finally giving her his full attention…well, almost full. He still stole a glance at their parents every few seconds.

“About your mom and my dad. I think they’re friends now,” she said, excitedly.

Steve said nothing, but sat with a scowl on his face.

“I think my dad likes your mom. Isn’t that cool?” she added.

“No, it’s not!” he snapped.

Cindy gaped. “Why not? Your mom is great and my dad’s nice and he needs to start dating and…”

“My mom is married!” Steve snarled.

“She’s separated and that means…” Cindy corrected.

“That my parents are getting back together,” Steve said, fiercely.

“But…I thought separating is just the first step before divorce, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not. They’re…” Steve said searching for right the words. “They’re working things out. They just need time. They will definitely get back together.”

“Oh, okay,” Cindy said. “I guess I have my mom’s sense of romance.” She then laughed.

“What ya laughing at?”

“Well, I just was thinking,” Cindy said, covering her mouth to smother a giggle. “If my dad and your mom got married, you and me would be brother and sister. That’s so funny!”

Steve had never heard anything less funny in his entire life. He sat in stone-cold silence shooting daggers at Donny and wishing Cindy would shut her mouth about the whole thing, but to his dismay, she didn’t.

“Wes would be your big brother and you’d have to get used to him bossing you around, but he’s really nice, so you don’t really hafta worry and I’m not too much trouble, like a sister, I mean…at least that’s what Wes says. If you were my brother, maybe Wes would stop worrying about me getting in with the wrong people. You could protect me instead of him…” she said, giggling again. “At least you wouldn’t be all like don’t go there, Cindy, and don’t do that, Cindy and stuff, you’d be a much easier brother to …”

“Shut up already!” Steve snapped.

“What is wrong with you?” she asked, stunned.

“Shut up about us being brother and sister. I don’t want another sister. I already have two and two is more than enough,” he said.

“Don’t hafta be mean. I was just kidding around,” she said, and for good measure she stuck her tongue out, then turned her back on him, and folded her arm over her chest.

Steve might have been upset about Cindy being mad at him, but he had more important things to worry about…namely Mr. Sebastian stealing his mom away from his dad.

“Oh, no,” Cindy mumbled, hiding her face.

“What’s up?” Steve said, but he soon saw exactly what. Three very annoying girls were heading straight at them and they were smiling at him and totally ignoring Cindy, their supposed friend. He had not forgotten what they did to her and he was pissed as hell about it.

“Hi, Stevie,” Vicky Stratter, Hillary Gillen, and Patty Berg said simultaneously.

“What do you want?” he said, not even bothering to be nice.

“Just saying hi,” Patty said.

“You were so great at the game last week,” Vicky gushed.

“Yeah, just awesome,” Hillary said.

“Yeah, thanks,” he muttered reluctantly. “Now go away.”

“Can’t we... like... hang out?” Vicky asked.

“We were gonna get some ice cream. Wanna come with us?” Hillary said.

“Not if it was the last ice cream ever,” he said.

“Why?” Patty said.

“Cause you were mean to Cindy, that’s why,” he said.

“No, we weren’t!”

“We didn’t do anything to her.”

“So, you didn’t invite her to a party then, uninvited her?”

“No,” they all said, exchanging guilty looks.

“She’s lying,” Patty said.

“You expect me to believe you over her?” he snarled.

“It was just a joke,” Hillary said.

“A joke? You’re so totally lame,” he said.

“We’re still friends, right Cindy?” Vicky said, fake smiling at her for the first time.

“Forget it. She’s never gonna be your friend and anybody that’s mean to Cindy can kiss my ass. So go away and don’t ever let me hear you say anything bad about her. Got me? Good, now go away!”

The girls could do nothing but leave. They didn’t even dare give Cindy the dirty looks they had been giving her all day.

“You tell me if they bother you again, okay?” Steve said. “I hate girls like that.”

Cindy bit her lip and started crying.

“Hey! Whatcha doing that for? They won't bother you again. I swear.”

“They were my best friends…” she mumbled.

“They were never your friends!”

“You didn’t let me finish. They were my best friends, but now I think you are,” Cindy said, wiping away a tear, taking his hand and squeezing it.

Steve suddenly forgot all about his mother and Mr. Sebastian.

Ch 69: You don’t want to know

Janet spent almost the entire first half of the game talking with Kenny and another boy, Bobby. They were both desperately in love and neither knew what to do about. At least they were receptive to her advice. That was more than she could say about others who asked for her services.

“Wes is gonna kill me,” she muttered as she was flagged down by a group of giggly girls. “Please, God, don’t let them be brainless fools.” 

Unfortunately for Janet, God had more important matters to intervene on and she spent most of the second half of the game listening to the drivel of what could only be accurately described as bimbos.

Ch 68: Let the games begin

“Oh, look! The game’s started,” Wendy said. “Gosh, I haven’t been back here since...gees, since I was a cheerleader. Makes me wish I still had my pom-poms.” 

“Yeah,” Donny said, in total agreement, his imagination perfectly capable of imagining Wendy in a cheerleader outfit. His mind wandering to such forbidden places, he hadn’t noticed she was speaking to him. “I’m sorry. I was... I... what did you say?” 

“I said it doesn’t matter how many times I see it happen, I just don’t understand off-sides,” she said. “I think it’s the lack of testosterone.”

“Pardon me?” he said completely bewildered.

“I’m convinced only males understand off-sides. Makes sense if it is attached to testosterone because I don’t have any of that,” she said with a shrug.

Donny shook his head. “No, you don’t,” he said, unable to keep his eyes from checking out evidence of her lack of testosterone. He then cleared his throat and added, “Want me to explain it?” 

Ch 67 Suddenly Smitten

“ Mr. Sebastian, what are you doing ?” Janet shouted.

Donny slowly turned around, still talking into his phone. “Uh, can I get back to you on that, Larry? I’m in the middle of something here. Yeah, okay, bye,” he said, then put away his phone and smiled. “Hello, Janet. Did you want something?”

“Yes, I do. I want you to stay off the phone,” she said, slipping her hand into his coat pocket, taking his phone and turning it off before handing it back to him. “Wes is paying me good money to make sure you watch the game.”

Donny laughed. “He is? Well, then we must do as he wishes so you’ll earn your keep, mustn’t we?” he said.

Ch 66: Make me happy

Wes found Janet in the courtyard at lunch time shivering and hopping from foot to foot with her arms hugging herself and like an idiot he said, “Are you cold?”

She glowered. “No, this is the newest dance craze I’m practicing for the McIntyre wedding,” she snapped. “Great idea of yours, having lunch out here.”

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled off his sweater and wrapped it about her like a blanket. “That better?”

“Won’t you get cold?” she asked, watching him shake his head, sending his curls bouncing.

“I’m used to it. We play in colder weather than this just wearing shorts and a t-shirt,” he replied, frowning as he brushed his hair out of his eyes. “I need a haircut.”

Ch 65: That’s high school!

Janet didn’t notice it at first. It came to her slowly. 

Some kids merely whispered behind her back as she past, others stared at her with stunned expressions on their faces, but a few came up to her beaming for no other reason than to say hello…at least that’s what they told her. She suspected they just wanted to see if she and Wes were really going out. High school kids can be so nosy! But then...so were adults. Evidence of that was the school nurse winking at her and Wes.

Perhaps her mother was right, Janet mused. She often heard Wendy say, "High school never ends!" Now she understood.

Janet tried not to laugh at them, but that was her favorite part of high school, getting to laugh at her fellow students and even some teachers plus all the silly things they do.

Ch 64: Doing it on their own

Janet filled the vase with water and then placed the flowers in it one by one. “They’re really nice, Wes, but you shouldn’t have taken them from your mom’s garden,” she said.

Wes stared at her reflection in the mirror and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s what guys in love do,” he whispered, nuzzling his face in her hair. “You’re so beautiful.”