of a right triangle you..." She suddenly cut herself off, mid-sentence.
This was followed by about fifteen seconds of awkward silence as the two of them stared each other directly in the eyes. Finally Ian spoke softly, as his face slowly started to show signs of a smile.
"Thank you."
"What are you thanking me for?" there was a slight quiver in Phoebe's voice.
"You were about to call me a moron as usual, but you cut yourself off. I appreciate that." There was another pause as the two of them gathered their thoughts. "There's a big test coming up this Friday. If I flunk it, my parents have threatened to take me out of this school, and put me in one for retarded kids." There was another pause, as Ian's voice took on a tone of surrender. "You're better at this kind of stuff than anybody I've ever met. Would you please help me?"
Holding back tears, Phoebe quickly rose from her desk, nearly knocking it over in the process, and grabbed a piece of chalk. "The Pythagorean theorem is not nearly as complicated as this crummy book makes it out to be. Watch me." She proceeded to scribble a lot of letters and numbers and plus signs on the board that all looked Greek to Ian. "The length of the hypotenuse is the square root of the sum of the squares of the two legs. So if the base is 6 inches long and the height is 2 inches..."
"Phoebe, slow down," pleaded Ian. "You're going faster than Norman, and this stuff doesn't come as easily to me as it does to you."
Phoebe realized he was correct. "I'm sorry. Let's take it one step at a time."
It was at this moment that Rita wondered down the hall towards room 201, and noticing the door was ajar, took a peek inside, careful not to make any noise. Phoebe now had her hand on Ian's left shoulder as they were both writing on the board. Rita was ecstatic. Her boyfriend and her best friend were not only finally getting along, but actually working together. She quietly closed the door, wiped a joyful tear away, and decided to go watch her softball team-mates play a game. Although she was still under the Doctor's orders not to engage in any strenuous activity involving her arms for at least another few days, she looked forward to cheering them on from the bleachers.
After about fifteen minutes, Ian was finally starting to catch on. "Thank you so much." He picked up the book and turned to another page. "Now here's another thing I'm having trouble with..."
"Ian, put down the book for a minute." Phoebe interrupted.
"Sure," he did so.
Phoebe put down the chalk, turned towards him, put her arms around him and started crying uncontrollably, which completely caught Ian by surprise.
"What's wrong?"
She stood back, and they both continued to hold each other by the forearms as she spoke. "The last 24 hours have been the most traumatic of my entire life. Have you ever wondered what it's like to be holding an airline ticket of a plane you just missed, that later crashed?"
"No, I can't say that I have." Ian wasn't quite sure where she was going with this.
"You do know about Felix being in the hospital right now, right?"
Ian nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, I heard about that." He paused. "Look, I'm not the sort of person who revels in other people's misfortune, but I would be lying if I were to say that I was in any way moved by his predicament."
"Ian, you have no idea how close I came to being in that hospital right now."
He thought about that for a moment. "Phoebe, does this have something to do with me and my sisters picking you up last night?"
A hint of a smile now started to show through Phoebe's tears. "Yeah, you and Rita were really big helps last night." She thought for a moment. "But believe it or not, the person who really deserves credit for saving my life is Humphrey Bogart."
Ian was understandably confused, "Huh?"
"I'll explain it to you later Ian. Look there are two other things that I need to look you in the face and say. My mom is a whore, and you are a true gentleman...and quite a loveable one at that."
"Well, I'm certainly sorry to hear about your mom." He now was showing a hint of a smile. "You know Phoebe, Rita told me that you think I'm a wild-eyed sex maniac who's always staring at you and the other girls in Mrs. Pinny's class."
"Yeah, I suppose I did say that." She was genuinely embarrassed.
Ian's voice now took on a playfully sarcastic tone. "Well just for the record, I'd like you to know that that is very true, and I hope you won't hold it against me."
Phoebe nearly fell over laughing. "Alright Ian, let’s get back to the geometry. The thought of you getting kicked out of this school is now officially as unacceptable to me as it is to you."
3:15 pm
While Ian was receiving his math tutorial from Phoebe, Rita managed to run into Steven on her way to the baseball diamond.
"Hey Steven, wait up"
"Hello."
"You doing anything right now?"
"Nope, just going home. Did you have something in mind?"
"I was just heading to the park to watch my team play. I could use some company."
"Sure. So where's Ian?"
"Believe it or not, he's back at the school getting a crash course in algebraic geometry from Phoebe."
Steven stopped in his tracks. "Say it again?"
"I’m not kidding. They are actually friends now."
Steven was in shock. "I never thought I'd live to see...I mean how...?"
Rita cut him off. "It's kind of a long story, although it happened in a short period of time." The two of them resumed walking. "I take it you've heard about Felix Allan."
"Oh yeah, it didn't take long for that news to spread around. The details are a bit sketchy though. All I've heard is that Phoebe was supposedly the last person to see him conscious or something."
"Well, the short version is that she was at his house last night, suspected that he was up to no good, and slipped out the front door when he wasn't looking. Since everyone's folks were at the P.T.A. meeting, she called me in a panic, I knew that Ian had an older sister with a driver's license, so I sent him out there to pick her up and bring her to my house. Surprisingly, she was quite moved by the gesture, and felt that she owed him a favour."
"Do you think she's going to continue to not treat him like vermin after she's finished performing that favour?"
"Yup, I've got a pretty good feeling about that."
The two of them rounded the corner, and the park was in eyesight.
"Do you mind if I ask why Phoebe was at Felix's house in the first place?"
Rita thought for a moment. "You know, I'm sure she's spent the better part of today asking herself that very same question. If I may change the subject, I had a pretty interesting exchange with Sheila in the girl's bathroom today."
"Really? Was it about me?"
"Uh yeah."
Suddenly a voice carried over from the baseball diamond, "Hey look, it's Rita!" As the two of them approached, all her teammates ran to greet her. There were lots of hugs.
Rita spoke up. "Hello gang. My doctor says I've got to wait another week before I engage in this sort of activity, so me and my friend Steven over here have just come to cheer you on."
"We'll try not to disappoint you" at least three of the girls said in unison.
The opposing team was already in the outfield throwing a ball back and forth, as Rita and Steven settled down in the bleachers among a handful of other spectators.
"So," Steven resumed the conversation. "Did Sheila give you any indication of why it is she's so repulsed by me...I mean, other than the obvious fact that I'm a funny looking nerd with thick glasses?"
Rita shook her head and smiled. "I swear Steven, when it comes to self esteem, you are even worse than Ian. You'll be pleased to know that your looks have nothing whatsoever to do with
it. Apparently the source of her discontent lies in the fact that you happen to be a normal guy."
He gave her an inquisitive look. "What does she want?"
"It’s hard to explain right out."
"Huh?" Steven was completely in the dark.
Suddenly a voice came out of nowhere. "I'll take it from here, Rita."
The two of them spun around as Sheila emerged from under the bleachers and took a seat next to them.
"Hey, did you follow us here?" Rita was caught completely off guard.
"No, my home is in this direction. I just saw the two of you, so I decided to come over and say hello."
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Just long enough to notice the direction the conversation was heading in. You know, I've been thinking about what you said earlier today. Would it be O.K. if I had a few words with Steven alone?"
With a big smile on her face, Rita stood up. "You bet!" She moved over to the other end of the bleachers, and focused on the game. While they had been talking, two players managed to get hits, and there were now runners on first and second base.
Sheila spoke in a repentant tone. "Steven, I'm really sorry for blowing you off a few weeks ago at the fairgrounds." She paused. "And yesterday, as well."
"That's alright. Um...for the record, I want to let you know that a couple of days ago, Ian just asked me if I'd like to go with him and some friends to the mall to see a movie. It wasn't until I actually got to the mall that he revealed to me that the friends he was talking about meant just Rita and you."
"That's exactly how Rita roped me into it. What do you suppose might've inspired them to do that?"
"Strangely enough, I do know the answer to that." Steven took a deep breath. "About two weeks ago, Ian was over at my house. We were working on a homework assignment. To make a long story short, the conversation eventually turned to the subject of girls, as it usually does when guys get together. He started talking about how pretty Rita is, and I mentioned your name...and I also told him that unfortunately, you didn't seem to like me. Well, here it is two weeks later, and I guess that Ian was kind of feeling bad that he and Rita were now an item, and that you and I weren't."
The two of them glanced over at Rita, who was now jumping up and down and cheering because the player who had been on second base had just made it past home plate.
"Steven, Rita was about to explain something to you, and I'd rather you hear it from me," said Sheila.
"Go ahead."
"Have you ever seen Rita and Betty working out on the uneven parallel bars?"
"Yeah, I've caught a couple of glimpses of them. Pretty amazing." Steven shook his head. "That's the kind of coordination and agility that one simply has to be born with. Good coaching can go just so far. The raw material has to be there in the first place. Obviously I wasn't born with it." He looked back at her. "How 'bout you?"
"I'll never really know for sure, and I'm glad you asked that. It's the crux of my discontent."
"I'm all ears." Steven leaned forward.
Sheila also leaned forward. "I tried signing up for the school's gymnastics program this semester. It looked like it might be fun. The coach took one look at me, pulled me aside and said in no uncertain terms, that I really should be trying out some other type of sporting activity, like soccer or tennis or something. He said that even if I were to lose about twenty pounds, I still wouldn't have the body type that lends itself well to anything that happens in a gymnasium." Sheila looked down. "Needless to say, I was a bit crushed, but at the same time, I knew he was right. I'm way too short, too buxom, and just plain too endomorphic to be allowed within fifteen yards of a balance beam. Let's face it, to do that kind of stuff, you've got to have a natural build like that." she nodded towards Rita. "Ever since that day, I've been a bit overly self-conscious about my body. Every time a guy looks at me, I just naturally assume that he's only looking at my boobs."
Steven was now smiling. "Well, thank you for sharing that. Now there are a couple of things I think you should know."
"Go ahead."
"Sheila, I've always thought you were cute. Even as far back as the 5th grade, and needless to say, that was before you had any boobs. I've always liked your big brown eyes."
"Really?" Sheila's face lit up. "This is news to me. How come you've never said anything up until a couple of weeks ago?"
"You have no idea how much courage I had to muster just to speak to you that once. I've never thought of myself as being much to look at, and when it comes to initiating a conversation, I'm a complete loser."
"Hey, let's get something straight. I'm the one who was a complete jerk that day, and not you."
There was a ten second pause, before Steven spoke. "So I guess this means we're friends, huh?"
She coyly winked, and took his hand in hers. "You know, I might even be willing to have a go at being a little more than just friends."
Steven could feel his heart start to pound. "Sheila, there's one last thing..."
"What's that?"
"You know, your paranoia about guys always staring at your chest isn't entirely unfounded. I hope you’re not going to slap me or anything if my eyes occasionally drift downward while I'm talking to you.."
"It’s okay, I'm over it." She smiled broadly, and leaned on his shoulder. "I can't go through life moping about the body I was born with. Especially considering it's a healthy one."
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a bat connecting with a ball. A huge fly that resulted in Rita jumping up and hollering "YES!" Her enthusiasm was soon quelled when it was easily caught by the opposing team's center fielder.
"Hey Rita!" Steven yelled out.
"Yeah?"
Steven motioned her over, and she sat back down next to the two of them.
"Congratulations, you've got Phoebe getting along with Ian and Sheila getting along with me. Might there be any other magic tricks in your repertoire?"
"Mmmm, could be" was all she answered.
The three of them stayed until the last inning. Rita's team lost, but everyone still left in good spirits.
7:07 pm
Ian and Freddy went on to the Hasting schoolyard grounds like they had planned. Freddy switched on the floodlights, illuminating the now completed half-pipe. It was both spectacular and intimidating. Just lugging their bikes up to the top was a feat in itself. Fancying himself an experienced daredevil, Freddy wasted no time in testing out the new apparatus.
Ian just sat there on his bike, watching in both awe and horror as his friend delved into the pipe, shooting up into the air on the other side, executing two tail-whips before returning safely back to the starting platform.
"Whoa, those guys who built this thing really have their act together." His heart still racing, Freddy looked over at his friend who was now staring down into the abyss. "So what do you think?"
Ian sighed, "I'm just contemplating whether or not I'm going to hate myself more tomorrow morning if I try this or if I don't try it."
"You don't have to do anything fancy," his friend encouraged. "Just make it over to the other side and park."
"That's easy for you to say. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not quite as coordinated as you," Ian muttered sarcastically.
There was a twenty second pause before Freddy spoke up again, changing the subject slightly. "You know, I've seen Sonia actually do a full vertical 360 degree, land backward, whip around and pedalled right back up to the top of one of these things as if it was his second nature." He paused once again and looked down. "I hate it when she does that."
Ian concurred, "Yeah, that sounds awful dangerous."
"It is, but that's not the main reason I wish she wouldn
't do it."
Although Ian already had surmised what his friend was getting at, he decided to ask him anyway, "So what is the reason?"
Freddy looked him right in the eye. "Because I can't do that. Shuck, it's downright humiliating."
Ian could only smile at the youth's candor. "Your girlfriend does one trick that you can't, and you think you've got issues? Hell, mine does everything better than me. Math, science, baseball, jogging, you name it."
"Ian, By any chance, is your mother an old school feminist?" Freddy took a swig from a small plastic thermos.
"Oh yeah. Both of my folks are what you'd call stereotypical baby boom social liberals."
"Same here. My mom has given me a lot of lectures about how girls are just as good as guys at everything...and sometimes better." Freddy Paused "And not to let that fact bother me."
Realizing just how much the two of them were on the same page, Ian decided to let his guard down a little as well. "Yeah, not letting it bother me is important." he concurred. "And if I do say so myself, whenever I'm around Rita, I think I do a pretty darn good job of pretending it doesn't." Both boys were now giving each other knowing grins.
Freddy nodded towards the other side of the pipe, "So are you going to take the plunge, or not?"
Ian didn't even stop to think. "For sure!" With that, he and his bike lunged over the edge. Upon reaching the other side, it slid out from under him, heading up the incline by itself, leaving him lying on the bottom. He barely had time to roll over to avoid it landing on him.
Freddy cringed as the bike hit the pipe with a thud. Teaching his friend how to navigate this thing was obviously going to be a bit trickier than it was teaching him a few flatland skills.
Suddenly, a familiar voice emerged from the side of the apparatus. "What the hell are you two clowns doing?" It was Polo.
Oh great, Ian thought to himself. Now in addition to looking and feeling like an idiot, he was probably in trouble.
Freddy immediately spoke up, "The same thing you obviously came here to do. Sampling the equipment before it officially opens."
"At least that's what he's doing," claimed Ian. "I'm just lying here looking up at the stars."
Polo looked at Freddy and pointed at Ian. "Freddy, are you trying' to get this poor guy killed?"
"What a stupid question. You know as well as I do that he's completely indestructible."
"Look, just shoving him over the top like that is not the way you teach a novice how to negotiate a large pipe." Polo was now helping Ian up. "First you've got to start him off from the bottom, pedaling mid-way up the side, to get him used to the feel of the curve."
"Alright Mr. expert, you coach him." Freddy knew that Polo had no authority over him when it wasn't school hours, even if it was on the campus.
Since Ian was once again attending all of his classes in school, it would have to be during clandestine gatherings like this that he would be learning some biking skills over the next couple of evenings. The main trick would be to keep it a secret from his parents, who just assumed he was over at Rita's, and