"Don't worry, I could do this with my eyes closed," Bobbo said. Right about at that moment, Bobbo began to stumble and then fall over the fence. He landed with a thud on the ground in a tulip garden. When Bobbo finally rolled over and stood up to leave the garden, most of the tulips had been flattened.
"Bobbo!" a voice screamed from the direction of the house. "My tulips! What do you think you're doing?"
"Sorry, Mr. Popadopolis," Bobbo muttered. "There was this girl and..."
"Get out!"
Bobbo ran from Mr. Popadopolis' backyard and back around to where the girl was. "Are you okay, Bobbo?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Can't say that about Mr. Popadopolis' tulips though."
"Well, Bobbo. It could've been worse."
"I guess. What a great way to start a friendship," Bobbo sighed dejectedly and began sauntering home.
"You should have seen it, Max. I made a fool of myself in front of that new girl, Brooke," Bobbo complained to his best friend, Max, as they walked through the wall.
"You make a fool of yourself in front of a lot of people, Bobbo, how is this different?" Max asked, drily.
"Har, har. I just want to impress her. What should I do?"
"Stay away from her. That would impress me, anyway, if you could stay away from a girl for 24 hours."
They walked by a kiosk where something caught Bobbo's eye. He stopped to look in the case at the kiosk and saw a bracelet with five charms on a small chain link. "What about that? Do you think she'd like that?" Bobbo pointed at the bracelet. The charms were a heart, a music note, a four-leaf clover, a peace sign, and a star.
Max snorted. "I don't know. How would I know what she likes? I haven't even met her."
"How much is that charm bracelet?" Bobbo asked the guy working the kiosk.
"Ten dollars," he answered.
"I don't have ten dollars," Bobbo sighed and he and Max walked away. "What can I do to earn some quick money?"
"You should spend this kind of energy on your chores and schoolwork," Max said.
"I got it!" Bobbo exclaimed. "I'll see you later, Max."
"No rush," Max said.
"Is that you, Bobbo?" Old Lady Vandacourt asked. She had wheeled herself over to the door to answer it when Bobbo knocked. Old Lady Vandacourt was around 100-years-old, still spry and sassy, she relied on the kindness of her neighbors between the times her daughter and granddaughter would come out to help with groceries and doctor's appointments.
"Sure is. I wondering if you had any odd jobs I could do. I'm looking to earn ten dollars."
"I could probably find something for you. Come on in," Old Lady Vandacourt wheeled her wheelchair backward to give Bobbo room to go in. "You can help me clean out my kitchen cabinets. I've been wanting to do that for months," they walked to the kitchen which was stuck in the 1960s. Everything was at least clean but very dated. "Just go through that cabinet and tell me what's in the can and the expiration date. I'll let you know if you can get rid of it."
For the next hour, Bobbo went through the cans in the cabinet. Half the cans were deemed unsuitable to keep while the other half could be kept. Old Lady Vandacourt then told Bobbo to help clean out her refrigerator. Dozens of moldy plastic containers were tossed out as were a couple cartons of milk. Bobbo was excited when he was finally done with that.
"Anything else, Ms. Vandacourt? I really need to get the ten dollars," Bobbo panted.
"One more thing," she said.
Bobbo's face lowered.
"Can you take Simpson out for a walk?" Old Lady Vandacourt asked.
"Simpson?" Bobbo looked over and saw a dog lying on the couch. "Your dog?"
"Yes. He doesn't get out much except the backyard to do his business. He needs a good walk. The leash is by the door."
"Sure, I guess."
"I'll have the ten dollars ready for you when you get back."
Bobbo hooked the leash onto Simpson's collar and the two left the house. They made it halfway down the block when Brooke came around the corner. "Hi, Brooke," Bobbo stammered.
"Hi, Bobbo. Who is this cutie-patootie?" she kneeled down and rubbed Simpson's head.
"This is Simpson. He's Old Lady Vandacourt's dog. I need to get some extra money so I'm doing some chores for her."
"Oh, that's nice. Why do you need the money?"
"There's something at the mall I want to buy," Bobbo said. "What are you doing?"
"I'm heading to the mall actually."
"I'm headed back there when I'm done with this. Maybe I'll see you there."
"Maybe. I'll see you later."
"See you," Bobbo waved and they went their separate ways. Bobbo continued walking Simpson down the sidewalk. Suddenly, Bobbo tripped, fell down, and let go of the leash. As if on cue, Simpson began bolting away. "Simpson!" Bobbo hollered and quickly stood up and ran after the loose dog. Bobbo chased Simpson down the street. The dog turned suddenly and ran into a yard. He began digging in a bed of tulips. "No, Simpson, stop."
"Bobbo!" Mr. Popadopolis yelled.
Bobbo clutched Simpson with both arms around the chest and carried him away from the other bed of tulips. "Sorry, Mr. Popadopolis." Bobbo put Simpson down and the two bolted from the yard. Bobbo returned to Old Lady Vandacourt. "We're back, Ms. Vandacourt."
"Oh, good. Did Simpson have a good time?"
"He seemed to," Bobbo said.
"I don't have any cash on me but here are ten one dollar coupons for that frozen yogurt place in the mall," she handed Bobbo the coupons. "You can use them all at once and they don't expire so you can get ten dollars worth of yogurt."
Bobbo reluctantly took the coupons. "Thanks, Ms. Vandacourt."
Bobbo trekked back to the mall. Near the food court, where the frozen yogurt place was, he ran into Brooke. "Hello again, did you get your money?"
"Kind of," Bobbo shrugged. He then perked up. "Do you want to get some frozen yogurt?" he pointed to the frozen yogurt shop.
"Sure, I'll take some."
"Great. Get whatever you want. My treat."
⌬ ⌬ ⌬
Bobbo sat in his desk during world geography class but he was turned toward the class with his back to the window. His arm and hand resting on the desk behind him. Michelle Plass was using a ballpoint pen to draw on his hand and wrist. "Are you going to the fall dance tonight?" she asked him as she continued drawing.
"No, I don't have a date," Bobbo answered.
"You can come with me," Michelle said. "I'm going alone so we could be each others dates."
"Sure, I'll go. It'll be fun," Bobbo said.
Michelle continued drawing on Bobbo's hand until the bell rang for class to be over. "I'll see you at the dance. We'll wait outside for each other to arrive."
"Sure, see you tonight," Bobbo stood up and grabbed his stuff. He looked at his hand. "Why'd you draw a penis on me?" he asked after seeing the elongated mushroom shapes.
Bobbo walked through the hallways and Brooke came up to him. "Bobbo, are you going to dance tonight?" she asked him.
"That question is really going around," Bobbo said. "Yeah, why?"
"Would you want to go with me? Trent said he was going to but then he flaked out on me," Brooke complained. "Do you want to be my date?"
"Yeah, I'd love to. I'll just meet you inside the cafeteria," Bobbo said. "See you tonight." Bobbo continued down the hall and joined up with Max. "Hey, Max, are you going to the dance tonight?"
"You're not my type," Max said.
"Are you going or not?"
"Yeah, there's going to be free food," Max answered.
"I will be going to the dance with both Brooke and Michelle," Bobbo revealed.
"And they are both cool with that?"
"Well, they don't know. Michelle asked me first in world geography and Brooke asked me just now. I plan on keeping them apart. Keeping them on opposite ends of the cafeteria, you know," Bobbo smiled.
"That's a good plan. That always works out. Always," Max said. "Why do you have penises drawn on your hand?"
"Michelle drew them on me," Bobbo looked at his hand.
"She's a weird girl," Max said.
At the dance, Bobbo started out with Michelle. They walked in together but made sure they avoided Mr. Dillon, the art teacher who was taking pictures of the kids coming in. The went to the corner of the cafeteria where the food and Max was. "Hey, Bobbo. Hi, Michelle," Max greeted.
"Hi, Max," Michelle responded.
Bobbo whispered to Max. "Have you seen Brooke?"
"She's over there," Max pointed to the other side of the cafeteria. "You're really going to do this, aren't you?"
"I'll take her some food," Bobbo grabbed a plate and began loading it up with food. "I'm gonna go say hi to some friends."
"I'll go with you. We both know the same people."
"No, that's okay. Keep Max company," Bobbo said and walked away into the crowd of kids.
Michelle raised an eyebrow.
"Mry huh hupcays," Max said, an entire cupcake in his mouth.
"Hello, milady, I brought you some food," Bobbo said as he arrived at Brooke. "I didn't see you when I came in so I grabbed us both something to eat."
"Thanks, Bobbo," Brooke took the plate from him and took a couple of Cheez-Its. "How did you do on Mr. Hart's pop quiz?" she asked.
"Terrible. I got a high D. I wasn't really thinking clearly when I was taking it. How'd you do?"
"One hundred percent. The only one in his class," Brooke smiled.
"That's great," Bobbo tried to look out over the crowd. "I'm gonna go grab more food."
"But there's plenty here on the plate," Brooke said.
"I want more," Bobbo said and ran off back to the other side of the cafeteria. "I'm back. Everyone says 'Hey,'" Bobbo breathed.
"Where's your plate?" Michelle asked.
"Oh," Bobbo slapped his forehead. "I left it over there. Oh, well, I'll just get a new one."
"That's a waste of food. I'll go grab it. Where'd you leave it?" Michelle said.
"No! Please don't!" Bobbo shouted.
"You are excellent at this," Max chuckled, shoving a cookie into his mouth.
"What's wrong?" Michelle asked.
"Nothing, I just..." Bobbo didn't know what to say. "There's plenty of food here and I'm sure someone over there will eat it."
"So bad," Max shook his head.
"Hi, Michelle. Hi, Max," Brooke suddenly appeared through the crowd of people with the plate full of food. "Bobbo, help me eat this. You don't need to get another plate."
"You gave your plate to Brooke?" Michelle asked.
"You should start backing away toward the door," Max bent down and said in Bobbo's ear.
"What's going on?" Michelle asked. "Did you ask Brooke to the dance but still agreed to go with me?"
"No, no, no. Of course not," Bobbo defended.
"I asked him to go with me," Brooke said. "Did he ask you?"
"No, I asked him."
"When'd you ask him?"
"World geography, sixth hour."
"I asked between sixth and seventh."
"Run," Max whispered.
"So you asked him first," Brooke said. "I'm sorry. I never would've asked Bobbo if I had known."
"Yeah, that's probably something Bobbo should have mentioned," Michelle crossed her arms and both she and Brooke turned to look at Bobbo.
"We were just going as friends," Bobbo said.
"So you won't mind if we hang out with other boys?" Michelle shrugged.
"No, of course not. Go. Have a ball," Bobbo said.
"Come on, Brooke. I know this boy who doesn't have a bone in the top part of his pointer finger," Michelle took Brooke's arm and began pulling her away.
Bobbo took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "That went better than expected."
"What a weird girl," Max said.
