As a little bonus, Tessa gave Richie her car for the day so he could drive to his first day back at school. After thinking about what Tessa had said about Natalie liking him and that's why she wouldn't tell him who she had her crush on, Richie decided to bite the bullet and ask Natalie out for that Friday night. He had told Tessa of his plans and she was excited for him all day. She just knew Natalie would say yes. That's why when Richie sulked into the loft that afternoon and immediately went to his homework, she was confused.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he sighed not looking up from his book.

"Homework already?"

"Yup."

"Don't you want to take a little break first? Maybe have a snack?"

"No, thanks."

"You look like you could use some ice cream," she tempted him.

"No, thanks."

"Oh, what are you on a diet now?" she teased.

"Yup," he answered.

Tessa stopped mid breath. "But why? You're not fat."

"I know; that's the problem."

"You want to be fat." Tessa tried to figure it all out.

"No, I need to bulk up, get some muscle. Ice cream would just slow me down."

"Why the sudden change? What's wrong with the way you look?"

"I'm too old to be this skinny, I look scrawny," he explained. "Nobody my age is this scrawny."

"You're not scrawny."

"Look at this!" He held up his arm and let his wrist hang limply. "This is scrawny. I got, like, no muscle."

"Some boys aren't meant to be body builders, Richie." Tessa was confused, Richie had many insecurities but his looks were usually not one of them. "You're perfect the way you are."

"Then how come Natalie doesn't want to go out with me?" he asked.

"This is what brought on the change? A girl?"

"Not just any girl, Tess. The girl. I swear she's the one."

Tessa tried not to laugh. "Richie, you're seventeen. I don't doubt that you like her a lot, but the chances of her being your one true love is very slim."

"Even so, if she doesn't like me. why would any other girl?"

"Because you happen to be very cute."

"That's another problem."

"It's not good to be cute?" Tessa didn't remember high school like this at all.

"No, girls don't like cute; they like handsome, rugged, manly. I'm not handsome, rugged or manly. I'm cute," he finished in disgust.

"Who's the boy she abandoned you for?" Tessa asked knowingly.

"Brad Gordon," Richie answered.

"And this Brad is a handsome, rugged, and manly seventeen year old?"

Richie made a face. "Yeah. He's like super smart, and all the guys think he's sooo funny and all the girls think he's sooo cute and everyone thinks he's sooo perfect. And the worst part is; he is! He's like this genius who looks like he's straight from the pages of a surfer magazine. He's really tan. it's January, where did he get a tan in January? And he has this perfect blonde hair, and these perfect white teeth, and he's perfect at everything, and he shouldn't be allowed in high school. None of us other guys stand a chance with him around!"

"So you want to be more like Brad Gordon?"

"What other choice do I got?"

"You can be Richie Ryan. There's nothing wrong with the way you look."

"Then it must be my personality or maybe I'm not smart enough." Richie began thinking of anything that could be repelling his potential dates.

"Richie, there's nothing wrong with you."

"Then how come all the girls are fawning over Brad and no one even looks at me?"

"Somebody is looking at you," Tessa assured him. "Maybe you're not looking at her."

"Look, what you're trying to do is nice and all, but nobody's looking at me, Tessa. Everybody is looking at Brad Gordon." Richie sighed and rested his head on his fist. "I just wanna be alone."

"Alright." Tessa left Richie to his fretting.

"What's wrong?" Duncan asked when Tessa entered the office.

"She said no, and now he's convinced there's something wrong with him. Because he's not like Brad Gordon."

"Who's that?"

"The most perfect boy in the world that Richie will never be able to compete with, apparently."

"The boy Natalie likes?"

"Exactly."

"So now he's upstairs tearing himself down because of a girl," Duncan muttered. "We'll just have to point out his strong suites and be careful what we say around him for a while."

That night Tessa recruited Richie to help her with dinner. Everything would have gotten done a lot faster if she had done it herself, but it gave her a chance to open him up to the idea new untapped talents.

"I'm telling you, you're a natural," she told him proudly and she placed the bubbling casserole on the table. "Are you sure you've never cooked before?"

"I've made, like, frozen pizzas and macaroni and cheese," he said. "But I've never made anything that you've had to add more than milk and water to."

"What smells so good?" Duncan asked as he entered the kitchen. Tessa had told him her plan and he was more than happy to play along.

"Mexican casserole," Tessa told him. "Richie helped me make it."

Duncan looked from Richie to the table and back. "What did he not make?"

"He helped with everything."

"Then I think I might just go for a drive." Duncan turned to leave the kitchen.

"No fair," Richie told him grabbing his arm. "If I have to eat what I ruined, you do too."

"I was just teasing, Rich. I'm sure it's great."

"It's getting cold," Tessa warned sitting down and scooping some onto everyone's plate.

Duncan sat down and immediately took a bite. "Rich, you made this?"

"I helped."

"You two work well together, this is great!"

Richie looked skeptical. "Really?" He picked up his fork and ate a little. "That's really not that bad," he smiled. "As far as casseroles go."

"Maybe you should help me more often," Tessa suggested. "If you're up for it."

"Yeah, sure."

. . . . . .

Richie helped Tessa nearly every night for the rest of the year. His confidence was still a little shaky when it came to girls, but he did end up with a date for the end of the year school dance. He finished his sophomore year with nearly all Bs and only two Cs and didn't put up much of a fuss when it came to enrolling for the next year. All summer he worked at the store and did extra chores and errands for money. He began following Duncan's work out routine and diet. By the end of the summer he had developed a nice tan and built up just enough muscle to where they had to get him a new school uniform. His new body gave him a bit of a confidence boost but what really seemed to help him was when he discovered he had more than enough money in his bank account to get his motorcycle.

"I got it!" he exclaimed happily waving his bank statement in the air. "I can get it!"

"What are you yelling about?" Duncan asked, looking up from the stack of bills that had arrived in the mail that day as well.

"Look!" Richie thrust the paper under his nose. "I can get my bike!"

"Are you sure?" Tessa asked.

"He's got more than enough," Duncan agreed. "We made a deal, as long as you know what you want. and you did the research, we'll go bike shopping this weekend."

"Can't we go now?" Richie begged.

"Richie, you can wait two days for your bike," Duncan told him. "I want to make sure you have all you bases covered."

"I do, Dad, I swear."

Duncan smiled. Richie's friends from school had been hanging around so much over the summer that Mom and Dad had become a regular addition to Richie's vocabulary. While he still mostly called them Tessa and Mac, Mom or Dad were used even when it was just the three of them out of habit.

"We'll just see about that."

"Mac," he whined.

That night Duncan and Tessa were going over Richie's research in the kitchen after he had gone to bed.

"He sure got his money fast," Duncan commented. Tessa just smiled and went back to looking at the motorcycle magazines. Duncan picked up the bank statement. "How many of these deposits are yours?" he asked.

"I may have given him a couple hundred dollars extra," Tessa admitted.

"Totaling to?"

"Around a thousand. or two."

"So your extra two thousand combined with my extra fifteen hundred is what put him over the top. I thought he had to earn half the money."

"My extra is for helping with dinner," Tessa decided. "He does good work."

"And my extra is for. something." Duncan laughed. "We are spoiling him."

"But he doesn't know. He thinks he got it all on his own," she pointed out.

That weekend Duncan took Richie out to get his bike and the boy ended up riding it all over town for the next three days. Finally the first day of school rolled around and Richie couldn't have been more excited. He couldn't wait to pull into the parking lot on his new bike.

"Let's just see Natalie say no to you now," Tessa encouraged. "She probably won't even recognize you." Natalie had been traveling with her family all summer and the two hadn't seen each other since exams.

"I don't like her anymore. I mean I like her, but don't like her like her. We're just friends," Richie told her at breakfast.

"Oh, so you do you have your sights set on now?"

"Nobody yet. But Aaron told me every year there's a whole mess of transfer students. so who knows."

"Just remember you have to keep your grades up," Duncan warned. "I don't want to have to drive you to school because you've lost your bike."

"I know. That shouldn't be a problem this year. Aaron's brother's friend says I got a lot easy teachers this year. And, added bonus, my math teacher's a newbie. The new teachers are always easy."

"That's good. The easier the teacher the higher the grades," Duncan smiled.

"You always know how to ruin a good thing don't you?" Richie mumbled finishing off his juice. "Well, I gotta go, a bunch of us are going to help the freshman find their classes." He jumped up from the table, grabbed his bag, jacket, and helmet, and ran down the stairs.

"That's nice, he's going to help the freshman," Duncan smiled.

"He's going to tell them that they have to take the elevator to the fourth floor," Tessa laughed shaking her head.

"St. Matt's doesn't have a fourth floor or an elevator."

"Exactly."

. . . . . .

Richie roared around the corner and into the school parking lot where Aaron and Natalie were waiting for him.

"Mac, that thing gets sweeter every time I see it," Aaron said as Richie dismounted.

"Joel?" Natalie asked in disbelief looking him up and down. "What happened to you?"

"What?" he asked.

"You look great," she told him.

"Oh? Just nature taking its course I guess."

"Dude," Aaron whispered as they began walking into the school. "Brad Gordon is going to have some serious competition this year."

Richie smirked at Geoff Conway as they passed in the hall. "I so dare him to try and mess with me," he boasted. "I'd kill him."

"You talking about me, MacLeod?" Geoff asked.

Richie turned to face him. "Quite possibly, is that going to be a problem?" he asked.

Geoff grabbed the helmet out of Richie's hand. "So that's your lame-o bike out there."

"That happens to be a top of the line Yamaha street bike."

"Mommy and Daddy get it for your birthday?"

"I got it myself," Richie told him. "And for the record, my birthday's not for another three weeks." Richie took his helmet back.

"Do we have a problem here, boys?" Farther Parker asked approaching them.

"No, sir," Geoff answered.

"Of course not," Richie added. "Geoff was just telling me how jealous he is of my new wheels; that's all."

"I don't want any shenanigans from you two this year, do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir. No shenanigans from us, sir," Richie smiled.

"Mind the attitude, Mr. MacLeod," Farther Parker warned walking away.

Richie, Aaron, and Natalie starting laughing as soon as he turned the corner.

"Mind the attitude, Mr. MacLeod," Aaron imitated.

"I don't want any shenanigans from you two this year," Natalie added.

"What the hell is a shenanigan?" Richie asked. "I've never heard that before."

"Watch your back, MacLeod," Geoff sneered as he turned to leave.

"I'll take you for a ride sometime!" Richie called after him. "What is his deal?" Richie asked. "What does he have against me?"

"Maybe he has a shenanigan up his butt," Natalie chortled making them all laugh again. The warning bell rang and Richie quickly went to his locker to stow his riding jacket and helmet before running across the school to homeroom. He and Aaron slid into the last empty desks just before the tardy bell rang.

"Welcome back," Sister Patricia greeted. "I'm going to start off by getting you all arranged properly. So everybody up!" The class mumbled and gathered their stuff as they were arranged in proper alphabetical order. Because of the way the junior class was divided into homerooms A-G, H-L, M-Tr, Ts-Z, Richie and Aaron had the same room assignment, but Richie was first chair and Aaron was back left corner. Once Sister Patricia had finished that she began handing everyone a new schedule. "Due to faculty changes everyone's schedule merited rearranging, so what you were given after registration is to be disregarded."

Richie twisted in his chair to look at Aaron; they had chosen their schedules based on getting the easiest teacher possible. Richie didn't recognize any of the names on the paper in his hands. "This sucks," he mouthed.

"Pass it over," Aaron mouthed back. Richie's schedule made it half way across the room before Sister Patricia got a hold of it. She plucked it out of Mary Peters' hand and continued her task. On her way back to the front of the room she passed Richie and put the schedule on his desk.

"There will be plenty of time to compare classes at lunch, I'm sure," she told him. "Now I run a tight ship. There will be no note passing, no talking, no gum chewing, no last minute breakfasts. I expect you all to be in your seats when the bell rings. That is when I take attendance. If you should be late for any reason other than pure idiocy I want a signed, hand written note from your parents. And just so you don't carry an all purpose forgery, I will call your parents to check the validity of the excuse." Richie shot a look over his shoulder at Aaron who sat up straight and saluted the nun's turned back as she began writing the daily schedule on the blackboard. Richie stifled a laughe and turned back around. "Every morning we will begin with attendance followed by the morning's prayer. Yes, Mr. MacLeod."

"I can't pray," he told her. "I'm not Catholic. So does that mean I have to be here for that?"

"You must be present and silent," she told him. "After that we will have announcements and any remaining time will be used for a study period. During that time you will be allowed to turn into me any excuses for absences for the previous day in any class. If you have something to say or a question to ask, raise your hand, wait to be called on and when I do, stand up before speaking. Are there any questions?"

Richie stood up. "Were you ever in the army?" he asked. A few kids giggled.

"No, Mr. MacLeod, sit down. And raise your hand and wait to be called on." Richie raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. MacLeod?"

He stood up again. "Any armed services at all? 'Cause my dad was and you're just as strict as he is." A few more kids giggled.

"Never. Now sit down," she told him. "What is it, Mr. MacLeod?"

Richie put his hand down and grinned as he stood back up. "I think you'd make a great general, ma'am."

"Thank you, now be quiet."

"I just have one more question."

"What?"

Richie turned around. "Aaron, what's your new schedule?"