B0075M2D1U EBOK (7 page)

I shook my head in disbelief as I scooped another spoonful of sundae into my mouth. “No way…” I mumbled with a mouthful of ice cream. My dad would have been so annoyed that I was talking with my mouth full. But this was just incredible. Nick patted his hands on the counter and announced, “Well, I gotta run. I told my buddies I’d meet ‘em up at the Cineplex. We’re gonna see that paranormal ghost hunters movie.” I nodded, “Sure thing!” I spooned another bite into my mouth. “Thankssfffthscream!” I mumbled, my mouth full again. He turned and walked back towards the door. As he opened it, he gave me his trademark smile and waved, “Cool. Later!” he yelled as he strutted out to the sidewalk. I finished the rest of my sundae and thought about what Nick had just told me. There’s no way the storm last night could have turned over all of those boats in the marina. Thinking of that reminded me of the mysterious dark hump I had seen in the water days earlier. Maybe it was the Loch Ness monster? I mean, fairies were real. It’s possible, right?

Chapter 9

It was Thursday night, and after another boring day, I was running around my house like a chicken with its head cut off. (As my mom would say.) Oh gross. I just thought about what that actually looks like. Ewww, yuck. The last thing I needed to be thinking about were headless chickens running around my house when I’m trying to prepare myself for another outing with Nick. Actually, I spent half of the day sleeping and then I sat in the garden and read for a bit. After a quick swim in the lake and an even quicker shower, I was now rummaging through my drawers, frantically looking for something to wear tonight. It was my second date with Nick. Okay, it was more like a group outing, but still, it counted. Since we were going to play miniature golf, I definitely wanted to be in shorts. I could only pull off that dress-wearing thing so many times. Tonight was definitely not one of those times. I pulled on some white shorts and a bright green tank top. I had a pair of bright green Converse that would match perfectly. Of course, I didn’t have enough time to fix my nasty toenail polish so my tennis shoes would camouflage them nicely. I quickly dressed, threw on a white headband and silver hoop earrings and skipped down the stairs so I could wait for Jeremy and Anya to pick me up. I heard a car horn honking and yelled that I was leaving to my parents.

“
Me too!” I heard my brother yell as he followed me out the door. I turned abruptly and asked, “Where the hell are you going?” I watched my brother run in front of me and grab the front door handle of Jeremy’s mom’s huge Buick. “Crashing your date Scooby!” He squeezed into the front seat next to Anya, pushing her closer to Jeremy. Leo was a little smitten with Anya. After all, she was beautiful. Who wouldn’t be smitten with her? As I stood there, stunned, on the front porch with my mouth hanging open, I noticed Brennan walking around the back of car and opening the back door for me. “What the hell are YOU doing here?” I exclaimed, “This is supposed to be a
four
-some! Not a… a SIX-some!!”

Brennan laughed, “Nice. Is that even a word, Kansas? Relax. It’ll be a fun little trip to Oz. Come on…your carriage awaits!” With that, he made a big sweeping motion with his arm, as if to usher me into the back seat, and deeply bowed. I rolled my eyes. What a sarcastic ass. I shook my head as I climbed inside the car.

“
Just what is going on here? I thought it was going to be just the four of us?” I whined to Anya, who had twisted around in the front seat, squished between the two boys, to see me. She was craning her neck up and could barely see me over the seat as she said, “Ohhhh Ruby. Your brother really wanted to try this place out. He doesn’t drive, none of his friends drive yet… I didn’t think it would be a big deal if he and Brennan joined us.” She looked apologetic. Brennan climbed in the car beside me and flicked Jeremy on the back of the head with his hand, “All in!”

“
Heyyyyy!” Jeremy whined as he rubbed the back of his head, “That hurrrrt!”

“
Oh, quit being a baby,” chimed Leo, “You’re worse than Ruby.”

I leaned back in the seat and shook my head. Sure, this was going to be no big deal. Ha! Anya had no idea what she was in for. I only prayed that the immature antics of Brennan and Leo wouldn’t scare off Nick.

We pulled into Martino’s Pizza a few minutes later, and I jumped out of the car to get Nick. He was waiting out front, so I didn’t have to go inside. I took a moment to take in all of his gorgeous yumminess. As usual, he looked perfect. Wearing plaid cargo shorts, and a green t-shirt that set off his gorgeous green eyes combined with his glistening golden shoulder-length hair, he looked like preppy California God. And he was with me. I smiled at the fact that we also happened to have coordinating outfits on. How cute is that? Maybe I could get Jeremy to take a picture of us with his cell phone. That would probably be too cheesy, but Jeremy could totally get away with it. My heart started racing just looking at him walk towards the car. I climbed back into the backseat and tried not to pant as Nick slid in next to me. He looked around noticing there were six of us packed in like sardines. Before he could speak, I said, “Oh, my brother and Anya’s brother are crashing. They’re losers and couldn’t get dates though. So tonight, they’ll be courting each other.” I smiled and Nick smiled back.

“
Ha ha,” my brother fake-laughed from the front seat. Brennan reached out and put his arm snugly around my shoulder and slyly said, “Actually, I thought I’d share Kansas over here with you, Nick.” He smiled coyly and winked. I punched him in the side and leaned away from him.

“
Just ignore him. He’s an ass,” I retorted.

Nick smiled, but seemed a bit puzzled and said, “Why did he call you Kansas?”

I shook my head in embarrassment, “It’s a
Wizard of Oz
thing…never mind.” Brennan smiled as he looked out the window and Anya cranked up the radio. There was an awkward silence as I sat squished between Brennan and Nick in the backseat, and Anya sat squished between Jeremy and Leo up front. This was going to be the longest 15-mile drive of my life.

“
Soooo…Nick!” Jeremy started as he began tapping his fingers in time with the song on the radio and glanced in the rearview mirror, “I love your ensemble! That shirt is great – super spiffarific! Like minty-fresh zing! And just
look
how cute the two of you are! All matchy-matchy!”

Oh God. Jeremy is flirting with my date. Kill me now. Who the heck says “ensemble” anyway? Does he think he’s Tim Gunn from
Project Runway
or something? Nick nervously cleared his throat. “Ahh. Thanks?” (And yes, he said it like a question.) Because how else is one supposed to respond to my dorky friend’s remarks? I was like a deer in the headlights. Completely stunned. All I could think was,
somebody else, say something! Please!
I fiddled with my hands in my lap and tried not to let my feet touch either Brennan or Nick. Finally, Anya spoke up, “So has anyone heard anything about this place yet?”

Then, suddenly a good song came on the radio, and Leo cranked it up even louder as he turned to look at us and shouted, “I love this song!” Then he started doing air guitar and making wah-wah noises. Nick smiled in agreement, “Yeah, yeah. Cool.” The next thing I knew, we were all singing along at the top of our lungs, playing imaginary instruments and playfully joking. The conversation flowed from music, to different bands, to people we knew in school…and before I knew it, the not-so-long drive to Cadillac was over and we were pulling into the golf place. It was a pretty spectacular miniature golf course. It was carved into the side of a hill, and featured a huge pirate ship, waterfalls, landscaped rocks and winding paths with treasure chests and little ponds and streams running through it all. I felt like I was at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney World.

We each grabbed a club and a brightly colored golf ball. Jeremy stuck an extra one into his pocket and made Nick take an extra one for him too. Then we all took off for the first hole. Brennan leaned over and whispered to me, “Why did Jeremy take extra golf balls?” I smiled and answered quietly, “Jeremy sucks at miniature golf. He loses balls all the time.” Brennan was perplexed. “But don’t you just hit them on the little green patches and they bounce around until they find the hole they’re supposed to go in?” he asked. I smiled again, “Just wait, you’ll see.” I sometimes forget that Anya and Brennan don’t live in our world all the time. They haven’t had as much exposure to all of these pop-culture activities and things. They were in for a special treat…watching Jeremy play miniature golf was definitely a sight to see.

We all strolled onto the course, Jeremy and Anya in the lead, Leo and Brennan next with Nick and myself lingering towards the back. “I’ll have you know, I am an expert mini-golfer,” I told Nick, with a sly look on my face.

“
Oh yeah?” he glanced sideways at me. “Cool.” I heard Brennan snicker. Ugh. He is going bug the crap out of me tonight. I didn’t think anyone could annoy me worse than Leo, but Brennan is sure winning that race this evening. As we played through the first few holes, Jeremy soon made his suckiness at the sport apparent. He hit his ball way too hard and it ricocheted off the side of the fake-rock wall of the green, went flying into the little stream next to it, and then quickly floated away. “DAMMIT!” he yelled. “I lost my first ball already and it’s only the third hole!” He stomped off the green, while pulling his extra golf ball out of his pocket and impatiently waited for the rest of us to take our turns. He kept letting out big sighs and stood there tapping his foot with his arms folded across his chest. I looked at the score card. There were 18 holes. I started laughing. Yep. Jeremy was screwed. Nick and I chatted casually as we walked through the course, and I was really trying hard not to stare at his biceps every time he took his turn. My goodness. His arms looked rock solid as I watched the muscles flex as he gently swung his putter. “Ahem,” Leo cleared his throat loudly as he caught me staring at Nick’s arms yet again. “The ball’s going
that
way, Scooby,” as he pointed in the opposite direction of Nick. I flashed my brother the evil eye, silently warning him to shut his mouth. Leo looked away like he didn’t see me, and then Brennan playfully punched him in the stomach, which of course, made Leo retaliate. Great. Now the pains-in-my-ass were going to start play-wrestling right here on the miniature golf course in front my date, Mr. Hotness. How embarrassing. We continued on, and Jeremy began making inappropriate small talk with Nick again. Even though I love the kid, sometimes he just never knew when to quit. Anya caught on and quickly steered Jeremy away from Nick. I had to remember to thank her for that.

We played through the next few holes without incident and meandered into the huge, dark pirate ship prop on the course. Nick moved closer to me and our hands brushed. It was like electricity ran through my fingertips and all the way up my arm, sending my heart beating into overdrive. As we walked into the darkened ship, Nick gently grabbed onto my hand and held it. Unbelievably, my heart beat faster. My palms got instantly sweaty and my knees felt like Jell-o. I glanced down at our hands in the darkened cavern, and then looked up at Nick. He was looking directly at me when our eyes met and locked for a brief second. I quickly looked forward and smiled in the darkness, feeling his eyes watching and burning a hole right through me. I felt him give my hand a little squeeze. Jeremy went up to swing again. Using a little too much force, he hit his ball directly into the wall of the pirate ship, where it then bounced high and landed in a spittoon behind a railing of a fake balcony about ten feet above us.

“
DIGGIDY-DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!” he shouted, stomping around, shaking his head madly and pulling on his hair with his fists. Geesh! Jeremy was having a full-blown temper tantrum right there in the darkness of the fake pirate ship. Nick dropped my hand (which sucked because I wasn’t quite ready to let go of his) and trotted over to Jeremy, handing him the extra ball from his pocket that Jeremy made him take when we got to the place. “Here man, I gotcha covered, ‘member?”

Jeremy looked flirtatiously at him like he was some kind of hero. “Yesss! My knight in shining armor!” Jeremy gratefully snatched the ball out of Nick’s hand and pumped his fist into the air above his head, announcing, “I SHALL PREVAIL,” and marched out of the pirate ship. Yeah. Jeremy is a bit of a drama queen. No pun intended. Nick just shook his head and kind of laughed as he walked back towards me. We took our turns and followed the others. I was hoping he would take my hand again, but sadly, the moment was over. As Leo and Brennan chatted with Nick, waiting for their turns again, I leaned into Jeremy and quietly pleaded, “Hey, lay off trying to woo my date, okay? He’s sooo not your type. You get what I’m sayin’?”

Jeremy nodded, “Sure, sure. Whatev. I didn’t mean to step on your toes. But maybe he’s confused. Guys our age always are, ya know?” I stood there shaking my head in exasperation and hissed, “He is not confused, Jeremy. Now leave him alone!” Jeremy looked wounded and held his palms up toward me in defeat, “Okay, okay! Geesh! Don’t get your panties in a bunch!” I rolled my eyes and walked back over to Nick. Here I was worried about Brennan and Leo scaring Nick off when I should have been keeping a closer eye on Jeremy!

We were finishing up the course, with just two holes left, when Jeremy did it again.

He took a hard swing, hit his ball and we watched it fly over the green, jump the fake rock wall, bounce off the pirate chest sitting on the edge, then fly into the waterfall next to the green.

“
FOTHER MUCKERRRR DAMN-A-RAMA KING-KONG SONOFA-BISCUIT-BOOTY LINT-LICKER MUNCHER-MUTHAHHH!!” Jeremy yelled his ridiculous stream of made-up curse words with precise enunciation at the top of his lungs and threw his club across the green. Anya’s eyes got wide, Brennan and Leo started laughing out loud, and Nick and I just looked at each other, trying to conceal our chuckling. Which, of course, made us laugh harder. You know when you shouldn’t laugh at something, but then as you try to hold it in, it makes you laugh harder? That was us. Jeremy was about to pop a vein in his head he was so mad. Nick, the hero of the day, rushed over to him and patted him on the back, “Dude…Relax. You can play with my balls, remember? Here. All yours.”