Chương 40: Book 2 - Chapter 10 A

The following Monday was cold. Matt was used to following me around everywhere I went and the students were used to him too. They were even used to him standing outside the bathroom, guarding the door, even when I took a long time. I was walking in the parking lot towards the minivan after class when I heard somebody shouting my name. Matt was not expecting a busty blonde to come running up and grab me, hugging me to her chest.

He started to move towards us but stopped when he realized I wasn't struggling, but hugging back.

"Hi Amber!" I greeted, my voice muffled. She pulled back. Holding me by the shoulders, she looked me over.

"You've gotten taller!"

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm here to visit my brother. My parents are waiting in the car. He's coming to go to dinner with us. You should come too!"

"My Mom is expecting me home for dinner," I told her.

"Is she coming to get you? We can drop you off after dinner. There's a phone right there you can call her!" She started to drag me towards the pay phone, but I was still grinning. So was Matt.

"Hold on, I've got a ride home. This is Matt. He's my driver. Our car is right here in the parking lot." She stopped, looked around, then saw Matt standing there huge, imposing and trying to look small.

"Wow! In an emergency he could carry you!" she said.

"I could carry you both, that's why I have the job," he rumbled.

"What do you think, Matt? I can call Mom and see if she'll let me go. Then we can follow them to the restaurant," I asked him. He shrugged, so I went to the pay phone and dialed the number.

"Hi Mom... Everything is fine... A couple friends from my High School are here with their parents. They want me to join them. They are going out to eat... I don't know, I'll ask." I looked at Amber.

"Sizzler. Mom wants to see Clark eat vegetables," she said. I turned back to the phone, "Sizzler... Yes I have money, and Matt does too... Okay, I'll be home before nine o'clock... love you too, and thanks for letting me go," I hung up.

"She wasn't home," I teased Amber. Her face fell for a moment, then she realized she had heard the conversation herself, and a huge smile broke over her face.

"I'll go tell Mom and Dad. Oh there's Clark!" she said, running off and yelling Clark's name. I turned to Matt.

"Just follow my lead," I said, and walked towards the car two older people were getting out of. The woman was hugging Clark.

"Hi Mr and Mrs Amber's parents. I'm John, I was in High School with your kids."

"Oh yes, I remember you. You're John the Genius," said Amber's mother, making clear where Amber got her personality and her body. I reached out to shake her hand.

"I'm Mrs Petworth, but you can call me Janet," she said, ignoring the hand and giving me a big hug. When released I offered my hand to her husband.

"John Cook. Pleased to meet you, Mr Petworth."

"Call me Harry," he said, giving me a proper handshake.

"Good to see you Clark," I said, shaking his hand too. Matt was standing behind me, so I turned to him.

"This is Marine Sergeant Matthew Preston, retired. He's my driver, nanny and bodyguard." If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. He gave a nod to Mrs Petworth, afraid to get within hug range. To Mr Petworth, he reached out for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, and your family," he said, with a firm handshake.

"I was a Marine myself," said Harry.

"Always good to meet a fellow Marine." I could see Matt relax a bit. Then he spoke up.

"If you guys want to eat together I can just sit in the car and wait," he suggested. Mrs Petworth looked like she wanted to take him up on the offer, so I interjected quickly.

"Oh nonsense, Matt. You're practically my big brother these days, I'm sure one more will be fine," I said loudly.

"Oh yes, one more will be fine," Mrs Petworth immediately agreed.

"Shall we follow you?" I asked.

"Sure, you know where it is?" Harry asked Matt.

"Yes, I've been there several times," Matt told him.

"Then let us follow you," Harry suggested.

"That will be fine. We are the black minivan on the next aisle over." Harry nodded, and ushered everyone into his car.

"I'll pull around, and wait to follow you out," he said to Matt.

"Wait, I want to ride with you guys," Amber shouted, running after us. I got to the van, and pulled open the sliding side door.

"Ladies first," I told her with a flourish. She climbed in and I slid in next to her.

"This is nice, do you always sit back here?" she asked.

"I'm the passenger. He's the driver. We each have our spots," I answered.

"That is so nice, I hate driving. Always so much to pay attention to, it's hard to talk."

"So how's life as a Junior this year?" I asked her, as Matt tried hard not to laugh behind the wheel.

"It's good, I'm a varsity cheerleader now. Oh, I saw your book at the library, and some kids brought it to school. It was so funny, they were freshmen, they didn't know we had a copy of the original in the library. Ms Peters bought ten of them in French for her class to use. Your book is part of required reading in French 2 now. Do you like college? Is it hard, it must be easy for you. Clark is having a hard time, his girlfriend broke up with him. His grades are okay, he is on a football scholarship.

We were all afraid he wouldn't keep his grades up, but he's doing good. Are you still getting a 100% on every test?" I felt the necessity of interrupting.

"I had the publisher send ten of the French editions to Ms Peters. I like College very much. I find it about as difficult as High School was. I'm sorry to hear about Clark's girlfriend. I'm glad he's keeping his grades up. I'll have to let him know that if he's struggling on something I'm happy to give him a hand. I had my first ever 99% on one of my finals in December."

"Oh No! Did you get an answer wrong?"

"No, the question was on the back and I just didn't notice it."

"I knew it. You're still John the Genius. I saw the news when you won that chess tournament. The guys on the news kept talking about how brilliancy you are. I just jumped up and down and shouted, it's John the Genius!"

"How is Ms Double?" I asked.

"Oh! She's so good! She's dating Coach now. Someone told her that he likes pies and now she bakes them almost every period before lunch."

"Coach really does love a good pie. Ms Double does a very good pie. The secret is her pie dough."

"Really? What is it?" she asked, sensing new gossip.

"She replaces half the water with vodka. It makes the dough workable without making it too soggy to be flaky. The alcohol disappears in the oven, but it sure makes the crust perfect."

"Oh! I'll have to remember that!" she said as we pulled into the parking lot. I helped her out and she ran over to her parents car. Matt looked at me smugly.

"Don't look at me like that. You remember Brenda at Camp Lejeune. She was much worse." His jaw dropped.

"How! But!" he sputtered, then he blushed.

"Yeah, you better blush, buddy. Don't worry, she's not ever my girlfriend, but she will be a friend for a very long time. When we get in there, Amber's going to be on one side of me. Her little brother on the other. I want you to sit across from me, okay?"

"Yes, boss," he said, trying to control the blush. Getting out of the car to join Amber were her parents, her brother Clark and another guy I hadn't met, as he had stayed in the car at the University parking lot. He had the surly expression on his face that only teenagers seem to master. I walked up to him and put out my hand.

"Nice to meet you. I'm John Cook. Are you another brother of Amber?"

"I'm Dick," he said with a handshake that needed some backbone. I put my hand out again.

"Sorry, let's do that again, I know I can do better," I told him. He gave me a much better handshake and I gave him a nod of acknowledgment.

"Thanks. That felt much better. I'm starving. How about you?" I asked him. He smiled nicely.

"I've been starving since we left the house hours ago."

"This place has a pretty good all-you-can-eat buffet. Let's go find out how much all we can eat is. I bet we can put them out of business!" I told him.

"That sounds great!" he said with enthusiasm. His Mom and Dad gave me a grateful smile at his change in attitude. I just smiled back. I was hungry and I really was going to try to eat this place out of business.