Lorelei and Me Pt. 01

When I looked around there were about 20 people looking at me with admiring eyes while shooting video of the whole thing. Several walked over to the truck and filmed Chad and Mike curled up in the fetal position gasping for air while holding their faces. At about this time my physics teacher came running up and asked what was going on.

As I tried to explain, a younger girl said, "Mr. Bosworth, I think this will explain everything." She then handed him her phone. When the video was finished a quick smile flashed across his face and then he grabbed his own phone and called the principal. Our principal was a very nice-looking woman who would abide no nonsense from anyone. When she arrived, Mr. Bosworth handed her the girl's phone. She watched the video patiently, handed it back to the girl after she sent a copy to herself.

She then turned to me and asked, "Mr. Lawrence, would you like to press charges against these two? From my observation you could charge them with attempted assault."

"No, Miss Kline, I don't want to press charges. I think they got everything they deserved."

"Very well, I want you to go to my office and wait for me while I deal with these two."

I headed towards her office and waited. When she arrived, she spoke with her secretary and then gave me the 'come hither' motion with her index finger, so I followed her into her office. "Please close the door and take a seat." I did as she asked and waited. Finally, she said, "We've never spoken together, but I know all about you. For your information, class valedictorian is between you and Lorelei Jones this year. Both of you have perfect 4.0 GPA's which impresses me a lot. What impresses me about you is that you do it while working in your family shop. I've seen you there when I've bought stuff for my garden.

"So, despite telling those two cretins that you didn't want to fight, you took care of them pretty well. Was that your intent?"

I chuckled and said, "No, my Dad doesn't like me to fight, so I try to avoid those situations. I had never spoken to any of those guys until yesterday. Lorelei Jones is Chad's girlfriend, she had a car accident on Friday and I happened to be behind her, so I took her to the hospital. When I visited her there yesterday he was there with his henchmen and as I left he made a threat with the directive that I stay away from Lorelei. Well, I think I pissed him off because I laughed at him. Anyway, I think his actions today were out of jealousy."

Miss Kline smiled, shook her head and said, "Well, Chad Emery is an arrogant prick and needed to be taken down a few pegs, excuse my French. I suspended him for two weeks which I'm afraid will throw his college football career out with the dishwater. Okay, I'm done with you. We'll make our announcement of valedictorian during prom. Good luck to you."

"May I ask two favors of you?" She nodded, so I continued, "Could you please forward a copy of the fight video to me so I can show it to my father. He'll be very angry with me for fighting, so I need to prove to him that I didn't instigate anything."

"I'll do you one better and will come talk to him myself. What's the other thing?"

"Could you make sure that Lorelei gets valedictorian? She's very active in all sorts of extra-curricular school things where I'm not at all. It would mean a lot more to her than it would to me."

Miss Kline smiled at me and said, "That's a very nice thing to do. I'll take your request under consideration. So, shall we go?"

As I drove to the store, I had to laugh at our principal. I had never had any interaction with her before today, but I discovered I really liked her. She was no nonsense, but was compassionate at the same time. When I pulled into my parking place, she pulled in next to me a moment later. The two of us walked into the shop and I saw my Dad right away. He looked at me curiously as he approached us. "Dad, this is Miss Kline the principal of my school. Miss Kline, this is my Dad, Joe Lawrence."

My Dad looked at me and asked, "Are you in trouble?"

"No, but there was a bit of trouble at school today. I tried to avoid it, but I ended up getting into a fight with a couple of guys. I'm sorry, sir."

"Are you hurt?"

"No sir. The two guys got the worst end of things."

"So, why is your principal here?"

Miss Kline smiled and said, "Ben was afraid that despite the fact that he tried to avoid fighting, that you may wish to punish him, so I came to convince you that he did, in fact, try to avoid the fight. I have video proof if you'd like to see it?"

"Yeah, I'd like to see it. Ben, why don't you get to work. The Hobson's need 10 bags of oats and three bales of hay."

I thanked Miss Kline for her help and went to work.

Later that evening after we had finished dinner, I was working on my homework when my phone rang. I saw that it was Lorelei, so I answered;

"Hello."

"Hi Ben, it's Lorelei. I understand that you had an interesting afternoon."

"Yeah, I kinda got into a fight with your boyfriend. I think I broke his nose, sorry."

Lorelei laughed and said, "That's okay, from what I saw he deserved everything he got. By the way, he's no longer my boyfriend. He was acting like he owned me and I was getting tired of it. After what he said to you in the hospital and what he said to you today made me realize he and I had no future. So, I called him and told him I was done with him."

"Wow, okay. So, how are you feeling? Have your headaches gone away?"

She laughed and said, "You will be a fantastic doctor one day. Yes, I haven't had a headache all day and have been able to walk around the house without getting dizzy, so I'm feeling much better. The doctor said I can go to school tomorrow. About that, I was wondering if you could give me a ride to school?"

I was stunned and stuttered, "Well, uh, yeah, I could do that. I, uh, drive my work truck, so don't wear anything too nice because the truck's a little dirty. What time should I pick you up?"

"How about 7:50."

"Okay. Oh, what's your address?"

She chuckled and said, "42 Euclid. I'll see you tomorrow, bye"

"Bye, have a good night."

"You too."

With that she hung up. I sat there stunned for a few minutes thinking about Lorelei. I was pleased that we were becoming friends and looked forward to spending more time with her.

The next morning, I showered, dressed and ate my breakfast. My Dad was watching me and finally said, "Are you alright? You seem a little nervous."

I laughed and said, "You could say that. Lorelei called me last night and asked me to give her a ride to school. On top of that she broke up with her boyfriend."

My Dad smiled and said, "Wasn't her boyfriend one of the clowns you beat up?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"Oh, Anna...er, uh Miss Kline told me. Are you going to give her ride home as well? If so, let me know so I'll know you'll be a little late."

"Okay, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I better get going."

The houses on Euclid were all very big and fancy. I had driven through here once or twice to deliver some feed to a house out on the end. I found 42 and pulled into the driveway. I was a bit nervous as I rang the bell and waited. Mrs. Jones answered the door, smiled and said, "Good morning, Ben."

"Good morning, ma'am. I'm here to give Lorelei a ride to school."

"Yes, she told us. Come in. She'll be ready in a couple of minutes. So, how have you been?"

"I've been well, thank you and you?"

"I've been well, too. I heard you had some problems at school yesterday. Frankly, I was never very happy about Lori and Chad dating. I'm happy she finally dumped him. Oh, here comes Lori. Have a good day at school, Ben."

"Thank you, ma'am." I turned to Lorelei and asked, "Are you ready?" She nodded, so I led the way out to my truck. I opened the door for her which caused her to smile as she climbed in.

As we drove off, she turned towards me and said, "You made it sound as though this truck was filthy, but it's perfectly clean. I hope it wasn't too difficult to clean up my vomit from the other day."

"There wasn't too much on the car. So, how are you? Happy to be going back to school? Before I forget, I copied my notes from Physics and Western Civ. for you from yesterday. I didn't want you to fall behind." I handed her the notes I made for her.

She looked them over and said, "Wow, you take really good notes. Thanks for thinking of me. So, Ben, I have a problem that I hope you can help me with."

"If you need rides to school, that's no problem. I can give you a ride home as well before I go to work."

"Oh, yeah, thank you that would be nice, but that wasn't what I was going to ask you about. Are you taking anyone to prom?"

I had never been to a school dance before and hadn't even thought about prom. "No, I hadn't intended on going, why?"

"Well, since I broke up with Chad, I need a date now and I was wondering if you'd consider taking me?"

I was stunned! The cutest girl in school was asking me to ask her to prom! "Well, I'd love to if you want to go with me. I have to warn you that I've never taken anyone out on a date before, so other than what I've seen on TV, I don't really know what I'm doing."

Lorelei laughed and said, "There's nothing to it. For prom, we get dressed up nicely. You come to my house with a corsage, I'd prefer a wrist corsage with white flowers, and then my parents take a bunch of pictures. After that we go out to dinner to a nice place and then we go to the country club where the dance is being held. We dance a lot and then you bring me home. All in all, it's pretty simple. Unfortunately for you it will cost money to rent a tux, buy a corsage and take me to dinner, but I think you'll have fun."

"Okay, I can do all of that. I'll have to find a decent car, because I don't think you'll want to be taken out in this truck."

She smiled brightly and said, "Actually, I'd love to be taken to prom in this truck."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. I like this truck. I don't need a pretentious car or limo. This truck will be fine. So, after school, can you take me to work with you and then take me home when you get off? I'm curious about what you do at your store."

"Yeah sure, if you want. I hope you don't get too bored."

We had just pulled into the school parking lot, so I parked. We both got out and walked up towards the school together. "By the way, my parents would like you to come to dinner tomorrow night. They asked me to ask you what a good time would be for you since you work?"

"I get done around 6, so I can be at your place by 7 or 7:30."

"That will be perfect. So, where should I meet you after school, at your truck?"

"Yeah that will be fine. I'll see you then."

We went our separate ways towards our first classes. I just floated through the day as I processed everything that had happened on the short drive to school. I couldn't believe that I was taking Lorelei to prom of all things. What a way to have a first date! Additionally, I was going to her house for dinner tomorrow and tonight she was going to hang out with me at work. I was sure seeing a lot of her since her accident and she seemed to be making it happen. I could understand being grateful for being helped out in a rough situation, but this seemed different. Oh well, I'll just see how things work out, in the mean time I'll enjoy my good fortune because I liked being with her.

After school, Lorelei was waiting for me beside my truck and she had a big smile for me as I approached. I smiled back and asked, "How was your day?"

"It was pretty good. I did get tired of answering everybody's questions about the accident, about breaking up with Chad and about you."

"Why would people ask you about me?"

She laughed and replied, "Because everyone knows you rescued me at the accident and drove me to the hospital and because they all saw me ride to school with you."

"Oh, um, are you alright with that? I hope it wasn't embarrassing for you."

We were driving towards the store, when Lorelei said, "Pull over right now!" She sounded pretty mad, so I pulled over immediately. She removed her seat belt, turned her whole body to face me and said, "Benjamin Lawrence! Listen to me and listen to me good, I think you are one of the nicest, no strike that, I think you are the nicest person I have ever met. You are polite, helpful, industrious, hardworking, smarter than anyone else I know and pretty damn handsome. There is no way that I would ever be embarrassed being in your company, so get that notion out of your head! The only one in this truck that should be embarrassed is you for being seen with me. You've known me for how many years, but I didn't bother to know you? I feel really bad for being such a snob and I hope you will forgive me some day."

I just sat there stunned as I took in everything that Lorelei said. I could see that tears were forming in her eyes, so I said, "I'm sorry I said what I said. You'll learn that my social skills are probably wanting. All I meant was that having people pester you about someone you barely know can be awkward. Also, you have no reason to feel embarrassed about not knowing me. I told you before that I wasn't around for all of the normal stuff after school, so I think there are probably only a handful of people who actually know my name. Besides, I really like you."

Lorelei beamed at that and said, "I really like you too. By the way, call me Lori, all of my friends do. Lorelei is such a mouthful."

"Okay, but I like your name. I trust you know that you're named after a rock on the Rhine River in Germany. Legend is that there's a temptress on the rock that would lure the sailors into it to their destruction. But, I just like the sound of your name, but I'll call you Lori if you prefer."

"Wow, I never heard that about a temptress. I hope you don't think of me that way."

"You're pretty enough to be a temptress, but no, I just think of you as a smart, wonderful person."

"Wow, you are so sweet. In all of the time I dated that idiot Chad, he never said nice things like you do. So, shouldn't we be going? You don't want to be late and I don't want to be the cause."

When we got to work, I introduced her to my Dad who was very nice to her. I told him she wanted to watch me at work to see what I did, so he said that was fine, just not let her get hurt. I had a big load of 20 bags of oats to load and deliver to a farm outside of town. I loaded them into the bed of the truck and told Lori to climb in and we headed west to a horse farm about 10 miles away.

As I drove she was looking at me and said, "You moved those bags like they were nothing. I saw they weighed 50 pounds each. I don't think I could lift one and put it into the truck, but you did 20 like it was easy."

I laughed and said, "If you had been doing this stuff since you were 10 years old, you could do it too. I'm just used to it and in pretty good shape."

"So, what is the most you've lifted at one time?"

"Hmmm, I don't know. I don't usually pay much attention to be honest. If I had to guess, maybe 300 pounds give or take 10 pounds."

"I saw the video of you lifting Mike and throwing him in the back of that truck and I think he weighs around 250."

"Well, I was a little angry, so the adrenaline was pumping." I wanted to get the attention off of me, so I asked, "So, tell me what are you most proud of?"

"Oh, wow, I don't know. I guess my GPA. Actually, I've had straight A's since the third grade."

"Really! That is impressive. I probably could have matched that, but when I was in the 7^th grade my Mom got sick and died. My Dad and I had a hard time getting through that and my grades suffered because we spent so much time with her in the hospital."

"I'm sorry about your Mom. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my Mom."

"Yeah, it's pretty rough. Apparently, your Dad liked my Mom way back when. Your Dad and mine used to be best friends and then they both fell in love with my Mom. She chose my Dad over yours and after that your Dad quit being friends with mine. I find that to be pretty sad."

"That is sad. My Dad can be pretty proud and stubborn sometimes. Generally, he gets over it and apologizes for being an idiot. I'm guessing that after so long, he doesn't know how to make up with your Dad. Maybe we can get them together and be friends again. We'll have to be really clever though."

"We'll see, but right now we're here."

I pulled the truck around to the barn and was greeted by Mrs. Haydn. "Hey Ben! How are you doing? And who's this?"

Lori walked around the truck and before I could say anything, she walked up to Mrs. Haydn and said, "I'm Lorelei Jones, Ben's girlfriend."

I was glad I wasn't drinking anything, because it would have shot out of my nose if I had. I'm sure my face got red, so I tried to ignore it and asked, "Do you want the oats in the usual place?" I was told that that was good, so I began unloading the truck. Both women were watching as I worked and talking.

When I was done, Mrs. Haydn handed me a check. "Thanks Mrs. Haydn. Same thing next week?"

She laughed and said, "Yes Ben and how many times do I have to tell you to call me Bea?"

"I'm sorry, Bea. Give us a call if you need anything else. I'll see you next week."

Lori and I climbed back into the truck and headed back to town. Lori just sat there watching the road go by while I drove. She looked deep in thought, so I let her alone. Finally, she turned and looked at me with a smile. I decided this was as good as any time to ask, "So you're my girlfriend now?"

She laughed and said, "You caught that, huh?"

"Yeah it wasn't hard to miss. So, when did that happen?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"When you walked into my hospital room with a Teddy Bear and then laughed at that idiot Chad when he tried to threaten you."

I was stunned yet again. It dawned on me that this girl kept stunning and surprising me. I was trying to come up with a response when she said, "Is there a problem with my being your girlfriend?"

I couldn't help it and just started laughing. Lori watched me the whole time without saying anything or getting mad. So, when I stopped laughing, I said, "There's no problem at all. I had always pictured myself asking a girl to be my girlfriend instead of being told that she was my girlfriend. But either way the result is the same, so yeah, no problem."

Lori then asked if I could pull off to the side of the road, so I found a safe spot and pulled off. She asked me to turn off the motor, so I did. She then undid her seat belt, slid across the bench seat next to me, turned my face to her and kissed me! Oh my god, I didn't want this moment to stop! I pulled her into my arms and began kissing her back in equal measure. I felt her tongue on my lips, so I opened my mouth and met her tongue with my own.

After about 5 minutes, Lori pulled away from me and said, "That was the best kiss I have ever had!"

I laughed and said, "That was the first kiss I have ever had and the best!"

She laughed and said, "Well, I think that makes it official. I'm your girlfriend and you're my boyfriend. We should probably get back before your Dad sends out the sheriff looking for us."

As I drove, Lori took my right hand and held it in her left. I couldn't help it, but I had a big smile on my face. When we got back to the store, it was nearly closing time, so my Dad said, "Why don't you take Lorelei home and I'll see you later."

She grabbed her book bag that she had left in Dad's office and then we drove to her house. I walked her up to her door and before she opened it, she kissed me again. My stomach was doing loop the loops for a few seconds and then she broke the kiss. "Thanks for being my boyfriend. I think people at school are going to be surprised. So, I'll see you in the morning at the same time?"