Still, their academic life was packed – almost painfully so. Bucky had a full load of classes, and Dan, almost overloaded with the extra computer class he needed to graduate, complained during every lunch period. “I’m tellin’ you, Stone, this is one heavy - duty year, man.”
“Yeah, just wait till we have practice every day,” the younger student reminded him.
“I know it.” Dan sighed heavily. “Well, plus all the extras we got don’t help none.”
Bucky nodded. Even though basketball season hadn’t started yet, both he and Dan were jogging together a good four miles nearly every morning and then tacking on a quick twenty-minute shoot - around practice. “Last season, baby,” Dan grunted between almost every shot as they tried to hone that tiniest bit of advantage that could spell the difference during a big game. Between the long miles and shooting hoops and a guy’s devotional life and his twelve hours a week as a teller for First California Bank, it was with a sigh of relief that Bucky looked forward to the spiritual rest provided by the weekend.
“Boy, I’ve decided to stay a Christian forever,” he muttered to Mom as the sun slowly set behind the distant hills separating Hampton Beach from the Pacific Ocean. “Just ‘cause I’m pooped. Only two weeks of school already and I’m exhausted.”
“What do you hear from Sam?” she wanted to know.
“Nothing. I mean, he’s still working at the hardware store. College doesn’t start until almost the end of the month.”
“Will he be at church tomorrow?”
“I think so. Since we’re having him over for lunch, I’m sure he’ll be there.”
All three boys did attend the smallish youth division the next morning. Several times Bucky could tell that Dan Litton was still struggling to stay interested. Even though a solid summer of witnessing to kids at Sierra Pines Christian Camp had revived the chunky athlete’s spiritual life somewhat, he still showed his frustrations as the lesson study droned on.
“Kinda weak,” he grumped to Bucky as the trio made their way into the sanctuary. “I could teach it better than that.”
“Maybe you should.” Bucky pointed toward the back of the church. “Hey, did Miss Cochran teach that class?”
“Looks like she did,” Sam grinned. “That’s great! We should have gone to hers.”
They went over and visited with her for a moment while the praise team members were tuning their guitars. Bucky and Dan, who had her for English IV, both enjoyed the chance to see the attractive high school instructor on neutral ground. “I’m hurt,” she told them. “Took me three hours to get this Bible study curriculum ready, and you men run off to the kiddie division.”
“We’ll come next time,” Bucky promised, wondering as he did so what that would do to the already depleted youth program. He peeked at her notes. “How’d it go?”
“Good,” she responded. “Are you staying for potluck?”
“Naaah.” He looked to see where his mother and sister were sitting. “Dan and Sam are coming over for lunch, I guess.” He hesitated. “You can come too if you want.”
The English teacher thought for a moment, then gave a little nod. “Sure. That’d be fun. As long as you promise – no school talk.”
“Are you kidding?” Dan grunted. “As lousy as I am at English, you think I want to even think about it here at church?” They all laughed.
True to her nature, Mom didn’t complain when, right after the opening song, Bucky suggested the extra guest. “Oh, I think we can handle that,” she whispered. “If we run out of dessert Rachel Marie can do without any.”
“Mommy!” the fourth - grader protested. “Let her have Bucky’s. He’s always inviting people home.”
“Well, next week you can have Mandy if you want.”
Bucky had to put an extra leaf in the table, but Mom’s dinner was its usual masterpiece. “This is awfully good, honey,” Dad commented as he took another helping of her sauce - covered patties. “Numero uno.”
“Aroy makh,” Bucky added, pulling out one of his few remembered Thai expressions.
“It really is, Jen.” Miss Cochran awkwardly managed to use Mom’s first name.
“Well, I’m delighted that you can join us, Sheila,” Mrs. Stone told her. “I’m sorry we really haven’t gotten better acquainted. We’ve just been so busy, and then Phil had a streak of traveling that you wouldn’t believe. It makes it hard to have guests over.”
They lingered over the blueberry pie, talking about Sam’s upcoming trip to college. Miss Cochran, who had never seen the Angwin campus, asked all kinds of questions about Pacific College and the various majors offered by the large Christian campus.
The teacher nodded. “I think it’s great that you guys are all planning to go to Christian schools for college.” She turned to Mom. “Pastor Jensen told me about all that when we were taking studies together.”
“He certainly got you in the lineup quickly,” Mrs. Stone laughed. “Teaching the Bible lesson already?”
“I know. But he said that was the fastest way to learn.” Miss Cochran shrugged. “Plus with it being the book of Romans, I sort of knew some of it already from when I went to church as a teenager.”
Mom held the pie plate aloft. “Any more for anybody?” She set it down in front of Dan. “I know you want some.”
He looked at it. “Don’t mind if. . .”
“. . . I do!” Sam and Bucky joined in on the familiar refrain. Everybody laughed. “That is the Dan Littonism of all time,” Bucky explained to the teacher, pleased with himself. ‘“Don’t mind if I do.’ Have some more pie at the Stones’ house, that is.”
“Shut up, Stone,” Dan managed, his mouth full with a large bite.
The afternoon slipped by comfortably with discussion and a couple of spirited debates. Miss Cochran held her own and even scored a couple of points when Bucky and Sam were stumped on the doctrine of “once saved, always saved.”
Around 3:30 she excused herself and went to thank Bucky’s mom. “This was marvelous,” she said. “Eating with a family this way is such a treat for me. And the guys are so nice.”
“Come again real soon,” Mom told her.
That evening the three students parked themselves in front of the TV, along with Rachel Marie, and watched an old DVD copy of Angels in the Outfield. Dan and Bucky, in particular, groaned at the baseball inaccuracies. “Look at that guy,” Dan hooted. “Why is it that Hollywood actors can never look like they’re really pitching? That boy’s pathetic – looks like he’s throwing a shot put. And these guys run bases like they have sand in their pants.”
Sam shook his head. “That’s not as bad as the dialogue.”
“I think it’s funny,” the ten - year - old retorted. “Don’t you, Bucky?”
“Sure.” He reached out and gave his sister an affectionate nudge. “This is a very brilliant movie.”
“I know.”
The next time Rachel Marie hit the pause button for a bathroom break, he turned to Dan. “Any late - breaking news on our Hawaii trip?”
“Monday Coach’ll know for sure, he told me.”
Sam picked up a pillow and tossed it at Dan’s head. “Man, if you guys get a deal like that for free, I’m gonna be so mad.”
“Just Stone and me and three or four hundred hula dancers out there on Waikiki Beach,” Dan smirked. “In between Panther victories, of course.”
First thing Monday morning the two basketball players made their way over to Coach Brayshaw’s office. Just as they arrived, Dan suddenly grabbed Bucky’s arm. “Look.”
“What?”
“That guy from the paper. Max What’s - His - Name.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“I’ll bet that means we’re going.” Dan gave his friend a thumbs-up gesture. “You and me, Stone.”
“. . . And I think this is a great opportunity for Hampton Beach High School and the entire district to show everyone what kind of ball we play here in northern California,” Coach was saying. He l
ooked up. “Oh, and you might want to write down that the two biggest reasons we’re going just walked in the room.” He gave Dan and Bucky each a big handshake. “I was just telling Max here that we got the green light. The tournament sponsors are going for the full slate of sixteen teams, and Panthers are on the list. All expenses paid, new uniforms, everything.”
“All right!” Dan gave out high fives to Bucky, the coach, and even the newspaper reporter. “Anyone want a sound bite from last year’s co-MVP?” He laughed.
“Just remember, you ain’t made this year’s varsity squad yet, Litton,” Brayshaw warned, trying not to laugh.
“Oh yeah.”
“When do we go, Coach?” Bucky wanted to know. Then he reddened a bit. “I mean, when does the team go? Hopefully, us too,” he added.
“It’s right after the first of the year,” the athletic director said. “Five days. With a televised final contest on Friday afternoon.”
“If we make the finals,” Dan put in.
“Yeah.” Coach nodded. “Very big if, by the way.”
Bucky felt a glow all morning. Hawaii! And maybe the opportunity to play on nationwide television. His thoughts traveled back to last year, when his hot shooting streak had created such headlines throughout the entire district. Two weeks later he’d still been getting phone calls and interview requests, including one from a big Christian radio talk show. Now maybe God was opening the way for Dan and him to witness again.
With senior English being his final class before going to the bank to work, he didn’t usually have much time to spare. But today he simply had to pause and tell Miss Cochran about the Hawaii trip.
“Oh, I already heard,” she smiled. “There was a faculty memo about it this morning.”
“What do you think?”
She began putting away her papers. “Well, it’s terrific. I’m jealous, of course.” A laugh. “You may as well get used to hearing that these next two or three months.”
“Yeah.” He couldn’t contain his enthusiasm. “I’ve never been before.”
“No, I haven’t either. But I’ll get there someday.”
“Maybe for your honeymoon.” The moment he said it Bucky wished he could erase the remark. How stupid! But the teacher didn’t seem to mind. He tried to think of something to change the topic. “I . . . sure like the stuff we’re doing this year. Creative writing and all.”
“Oh, you do? I’m glad.”
“Yeah, it’s not too hard.”
She reached down and slipped her glasses back on. “You know what’s all of a sudden hard for me?”
“Huh uh.” He glanced down at his watch.
“I know you have to go,” she said, noticing. “But it’s hard being a Christian now . . . and not . . .” She thought for a moment. “And not . . . injecting that into everything when I’m teaching.”
He thought about that. “Like how?”
“Well, we talk about some of the meaning of these discussion paragraphs in your student guide. You know? And the first thing I would think of now is how Jesus’ teachings would kind of transform a person’s whole way of looking at the conflict in them. But I can’t say anything like that.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I guess, like, a couple of years ago when those college kids came here and did that gymnastics show for assembly. And then talked about Jesus and everything. They were just doing what came naturally to them.” He took a breath. “And now it’s that way for you.”
“That’s exactly it.” Miss Cochran picked up the rest of her things. “Well, you better get going. And I got a bunch of stuff still to do today. By the way, some girl in the hall was just looking in here as if she wanted to talk to you.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t know. She looked kind of familiar, but I certainly don’t know all the kids by the second week.”
“I better go see,” he grinned, thinking for a moment about Tracy, the little redhead who had very nearly bewitched him the previous school year.
“Good luck,” the teacher laughed. Out in the hallway traffic had almost come to a standstill as the juniors and seniors were mostly out in the quad and parking lot by now. At the far end of the building, a slender girl suddenly turned and faced him.
There was a very long moment, as if someone had hit a kind of pause button while he peered through the mid - afternoon shadows to see who she was. Suddenly he felt an old familiar tingle that started around his face and began to flush through him.
“Lisa, is that you?”
Chapter Three: Look Who’s Back in Town
She took a few steps closer to him. “Hi.”
He wanted to walk over to where she was standing, but instead stood clumsily frozen to his spot. How could it be her? After two years and several failed attempts to get together, could it really be Lisa standing right here in the murky hallway? A hundred questions wanted to burst out, but he couldn’t organize a single one of them into words.
“How are you?” Now she had stopped too. They stood facing each other, still a good fifteen feet apart. Behind him Bucky could hear the lazy shuffle of a student leaving a classroom and slowly walking in the opposite direction.
“I . . . fine. I’m OK.” His heart pounding, he managed to get the words out. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
“Yeah.” Lisa was two years older than when he had last seen her. A memory flashed into his mind of the final day they’d been together, during the summer before his sophomore year. She’d looked so young sitting in the back seat of her parents’ station wagon as the Nichols family departed for Seattle and out of his life. Now she was a senior. Her face didn’t have that tiny trace of preadolescence you sometimes saw in the freshman kids.
“When did you get here?” he asked, feeling as if he was throwing the words across the fifteen-foot gap that still separated them. He’d never sensed such a strange physical tightness before – not with Vasana or Tracy or even with Deirdre. He forced himself to thrust away his sudden shyness and look directly at her. She was dressed for summer, wearing a pair of jeans and a sleeveless top. More makeup than before. In every way, she seemed more of a woman than he had remembered, and the effect on him was jangling. Swallowing again, he took a step closer.
“Several weeks ago.” She seemed to notice how nervous he was and showed the trace of a smile.
“Are you . . . down here, like, visiting someone?” His mind was racing now, trying to remember. What was that guy’s name? Steve? Last year she had told him she was dating a Steve.
She shook her head. “Huh uh. I’m going to school here again.”
At first he wasn’t sure he had heard right. “You’re what?” he blurted out, not trying to mask the excitement. “Are you kidding?”
Now they were standing closer. Even in the late afternoon shadows he could see her tiny necklace. Had she always worn that? The odd thought flickered for just a moment. “I mean, what’s going on? Did your parents move back down here?”
She was quiet for a moment. “Yeah.” She hesitated. “Well, my mom and I did.”
Another awkward pause. The way she had said it, clearly a “situation” was brewing, but he didn’t know how to get at it. So he just waited.
“My . . . I guess my folks aren’t doing that great,” she said, her voice even. “I don’t think my dad’s coming.”
“Oh, man.” He took a breath. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “Well, it’s no big deal. I could see it coming way back when.”
“That’s too bad.” For no reason he could think of, he glanced behind him, half - expecting Miss Cochran to appear and moderate the awkward conversation and maybe give out debate points. But the hallway was still quiet. He looked at her again, suddenly aware of his own six - foot - four frame. You’re a senior too, stupid! “So when did you get down here?” Then he blushed. “I guess I already asked you that.”
“Yeah.” She brushed at her hair, which was now long, around her shoulders. “I guess actually it was more like about tw
o weeks ago.”
“I can’t believe I never saw you until today,” he said. “How come you didn’t call me or something?”
The moment he said it, he regretted the last words. Something in the girl seemed to stiffen. “What do you mean?”
The blood rushed to his face again. “I . . . well, I don’t know.” His mind a painful blank, he tried to start again, but it was no good. “I mean . . . I . . . I don’t know, forget it. I’m glad to see you again.” He said it all in a rush. Taking a deep breath, he added, “I’m sorry I have to run. I mean, I’m late for work at the bank.” As if to emphasize the point he glanced at his watch.
“OK.” She began to move away and then stopped, as if to give him one more chance to say something intelligent. But he still stood rooted to the spot, his tongue a thick, clumsy wad of cotton in his mouth. After a moment, she continued past him. “I’ll see you later.”
He drove to the bank feeling as disoriented as he could ever remember. Lisa! Somehow everything else he’d experienced since first meeting her had just now shrunk down into a little pile of very pale memories. The other girls – “heartstopping babes,” as Dan had cheerfully lauded them – abruptly got thrust aside into some kind of second - tier status. Why? What was it about Lisa Nichols?
A harsh blast behind him reminded him that green lights meant Go. Startled, he let out the clutch on the Toyota, only to lurch a few feet and kill the engine. “You’re in second gear, you nut,” he grunted to himself, starting up the car and squealing through the crowded intersection. Somehow seeing his old girlfriend again had turned the tables on everything. What kind of senior year will this be? Those five minutes in the hallway might have just written a brand - new answer to that question.
The two - and - a - half - hour shift at First California Bank seemed especially slow as he struggled to digest the incident. Bucky accepted bank deposits and helped a customer open a new five - year CD account, but his mind kept replaying the scene in the hallway. What had Lisa been wearing? She certainly had a new, mature look that gave him an intensely male feeling. Shaking his head again, he forced his thoughts to return to the pile of bills he was counting.
Bucky Stone: The Complete Adventure (Volumes 1-10) Page 83