Dawn of the Knight: The Lance Rock Chronicles Volume 1.

  ***

  The day of the field trip arrived. For convenience sake, I had spent the night at Peter's house. We were now standing at the bus stop. This excursion was going to be a new experience for me and I was nervous. On the ride to school I noticed a couple of girls who looked old enough to be seniors and who were sitting up front. They were occasionally glancing back in my direction and talking amongst themselves. Upon arriving at the school, I followed Peter to his homeroom. He introduced me to the teacher. After roll call the teacher introduced me to the class as a homeschooled boy that would be joining them on the trip. Then we all gathered in the gym to wait for the bus. While standing there alongside Peter, I again noticed several girls glancing in my direction and talking to each other. He also took note of it.

  "Dude, those girls are checking you out! What's up with that?"

  "I don't know," I nervously replied.

  "Go over there and introduce yourself to them, especially to that blonde. Her name is Kim Dowling. She's incredibly hot and currently available."

  "No way."

  "Eh? Go on, dude. She's eyeballing you out and not even being subtle about it. I can tell. Now's your chance."

  I, however, was petrified and my stomach was in knots. At length we boarded the bus. Peter and I sat beside each other and Kim and her red-headed friend Leanna sat in the seats in front of us. On the drive up Kim turned around and smiled at me. Peter nudged me, but I ignored him. He nudged me harder. Then he stared at me like I was stupid. Turning to the girls he said, "Hi Kim. This is my friend Lance."

  "Hi," she replied while smiling at me. "Are you a new student, because I've never seen you in the school before?"

  "I… ah… I…"

  Peter shook his head in disbelief and remarked, "He's homeschooled and a little shy. He's been living up in the North Bay woods all his life and he's never actually seen a girl before. Please excuse him."

  Kim and Leanna both laughed hard and I stared at Peter angrily as my face turned red. Drops of sweat seeped out of my armpits. An hour and a half later we were at our destination and I was overjoyed. For the past 90 minutes I had done everything I could to avoid talking to or looking at Kim, and she had graciously complied with my wishes by ignoring me.

  "Man, you blew it," Peter remarked with frustration as we disembarked the bus. "With babes like that you don't get a second chance. Don't you know how to act cool? Don't you even know how to talk to a girl?"

  I said nothing as I stared at the ground.

  "You have been up in the woods too long. You need to come to this school for your senior year and come into the real world. I noticed other girls eyeballing you too. I'm your best friend. I'll help you score."

  "I'd like to come to this school but Scott is against it. He wants me to stay with him so he can complete my training."

  "So he can complete your what?"

  "My… homeschooling," I sheepishly replied.

  "Man, you sound like you're in some kind of hellish boot camp. You have got to get away from him—now!"

  "Maybe you're right. I'll talk to him about it when I get home."