CHAPTER EIGHT: THINGS ARE GONNA HAPPEN, NATURALLY

After school, Trixie was in her room, her stereo full-blast. A Linkin Park had just got

done playing and Jessica Simpson's "With You" came on and she started singing along

into her ink pen, making crazy moves as she did so.

Trent tried knocking on his sister's door, but it as useless to try and be heard over her

stereo, so he opened her door. Spinner had come over and asked him if he wanted to

shoot hoops with him and Jimmy and he'd agreed, but he had to let Trixie know first so

she wouldn't "go postal" as he put it.

So for a moment, the two boys observed her antics.

After a moment more, Trixie looked in her mirror and was horrified to see her brother

and Spinner watching. She tried to hurry over to her stereo to turn it down, but she

slipped on the pen that she had dropped and fell on her ass.

She blushed, getting up and turning her stereo down, "Uh, yes?..."

Both Trent and Spinner were trying to keep from laughing, "I'm gonna go shoot hoops

with Jimmy and Spin, 'kay?"

"Sure..." Trixie mumbled, trying to avoid their faces.

Luckily they cleared out, then she paused her CD and went downstairs to get some

water; as she was going back up to her room, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Trixie? It's JT."

"Hey, JT; what's up?" she asked, sitting on the stairs.

"Not much... you?"

"Just sitting here; my brother went out to play basketball with Jimmy and Spin, so I'm

bored and now alone," she laughed.

"Alone? An attractive girl like you ALL ALONE?" JT asked in a "mock shocked" way.

Trixie laughed, "Whatever; alone, you got that right, anyway."

"Do I sense modesty?"

"No, you sense reality."

JT raised an eyebrow at her comment, but decided not to press it, he didn't want to

make her mad, "So, other than being alone, what's new?"

Trixie shook her head, "Nooot much... but I'm glad ya called, I was getting bored fast."

"Any time," JT chuckled, "Toby's on the phone with Kendra. I swear, him and her get to

me sometimes..."

"Don't you have a girlfriend, JT?" Trixie was genuinely curious.

"No," JT replied, "but I've had my eye on one."

"Oh really? What's she like?"

Was she kidding? Or did she really not seem to think that he liked her?...

"Well, thing is I don't know her that well, so I really can't say... only that she's pretty,

seems really smart, and is cool to be around, when one gets the chance."

Trixie hissed, "Ugh, I hate it when that happens... how can you not be around her?"

"There are always other people, and they don't seem to know how to leave me alone

about it," JT replied with genuine frustration.

With a frown, Trixie asked, "Do they know you like her?"

"They're assuming, but if I know them, they'd try and hook me and her up if they knew I

did."

"But isn't that what you want?"

"No; I wanna ask her myself."

"Then why don't you?"

'I want to, but you're so unreachable I'm almost afraid to,' JT thought to himself, but

replied.

"'Cause I want it to be right - I wanna make sure she might kinda like me first."

"You're a likeable guy," Trixie laughed, "that shouldn't be too hard."

"Really now?" JT said, then asked in a joking voice, "Ya think I'm sexy?"

Trixie laughed, "Oh yes, JT, you're one sexy dude."

Both teens sat there for a couple of minutes laughing.

"Hey, you wanna go to the park for a little while? You know, to hang out?" JT asked.

Trixie shrugged, "Sure, it sounds good to me."

"Cool; I'll meet you there in abouuut... ten minutes?"

"Cool; talk to ya then, bye."

"Bye."

JT smiled to himself; he was looking forward to this!

Trent and Jimmy were going head to head in basketball, Trent having beat Spinner on their

round, so he played Jimmy after that.

Trent had the ball for a little while, but then Jimmy came along and knocked it out of his

grasp, going down to the other end of the court with it.

"Ooooh, go Jimmy, go!" Spinner said, then his cell phone rang, "Hello?"

"Hey Honeybee."

"Hello Cinnamon Roll."

Trent heard this and was about to say something to Spinner about it when Jimmy got the

ball from him again.

"Hey, no fair, Brooks!"

Jimmy made his shot, then came up to Trent with a joking smirk, "Life's not fair, Miller."

They stopped playing to observe Spinner.

"Yeah.... yeah, okay, I can do that; talk to you in a bit... Love you too, bye."

He hung up his phone to see his friends standing there staring at him with amused looks.

"What?"

""Cinnamon Roll"? Spin, you make me gag..." Jimmy replied, handing Trent the ball, which

he dribbled while he stood there.

"Dude.... nevermind, anyway, I've gotta go pick up the girls from the mall," Spinner said.

"Taking them home?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah."

"Can we all fit in there?" Jimmy asked, "I mean, it would be you, Paige, me, Hazel, Terri,

AND Trent..."

"She told me to bring the minivan and she'd take me home," Spinner replied.

"Her parents'll let you do that?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, she's the one that gave me the spare key," Spinner winked, the guys all heading

over to the Michaelchuck residence.

In the meantime, Trixie was on her way over to the park; she'd left a note just in case Trent

or her mom got back before she did. Trent, she didn't doubt, but her mom, she did.

She tugged a little on the long sleeves of her blue and black striped top. It was getting a

little chilly and she hadn't thought to bring a jacket.

After a short walk, she was at the park; the leaves crunched under her feet as she made

her way over to the swing set. It was still an hour yet before the sun set, so Trixie sat in one

of the swings and pushed off. She wasn't going very high when suddenly, someone

grabbed her swing chains and stopped her so fast that she nearly fell out. Instead, she

jerked violently forward, but then the swing started to shake. Now she was REALLY

paranoid.

She shot out of the swing only to find JT standing there.

Placing a hand to her heart, she said, "Geez louise, JT, you scared me!"

JT grinned, "Hello, Trixie!"

Trixie replied, "I'll just warn you, people behind me paranoys me - I don't know why, it

just really freaks me out, so please warn me next time?"

"Oh, I'm sorry..." JT said sheepishly, "I promise, no more attacks from behind."

"I'm not sure about your attacks from any direction!" Trixie said with a laugh.

JT grinned, "Oh come on, you know you want my body...."

Trixie almost fell over laughing, "Sure, JT..."

He came over to her side and they walked around.

"So, what all do you like to do?" he asked.

"Uhh... play basketball, just to shoot hoops, draw, write - "

"Stories and stuff?" JT asked with interest.

"Yeah - and poetry, too," Trixie replied.

"That's pretty cool, I've never really met anyone that writes stories," JT said, "I wanna read

one sometime."

"You mean that?..."

"Well, yeah, of course, why wouldn't I?"

"I write romances and stuff."

"I have NO problem with that; just, don't tell anyone, ya get me?"

Trixie giggled, "I won't tell a soul."

"Good! 'Cause if you did...." JT made a slit-throat motion.

"Oh you would NOT!" Trixie said haughtily.

JT considered this a moment, "Nah, probably not."

He thought about what he was going to say next, then decided.

"So hey.... uh, you know that girl I was talking about?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I wanna ask you a few things 'cause I think they might help me," he said, "okay?"

"Sure, what?"

"Well... if a guy were interested in you, what would it take for you to notice him?"

"Hmmm.... he'd have to be able to make me laugh..."

'One down...' he thought.

"I have a thing for guys who write poetry or play an instrument..."

'Hmmm...'

"But most of all? He'd have to be unafraid to be himself. If I can't like a guy for who he

is, I never will."

"Whoa... you don't seem hard to please," JT commented.

Trixie shrugged, "Nah."

After a moment of silence, JT saw a patch of leaves and suddenly shoved Trixie; she

slipped and landed right into the leaves, looking up to see JT laughing.

"JT Yorke! Your ass is grass when I catch you!"

JT yelped and took off running as Trixie got up and chased him around the park.

Toby and Kendra were walking home from the movies when they passed by the park.

"Isn't that JT?" Kendra asked, pointing to a figure in the distance.

Toby squinted a bit, "Yeah... and it looks like he has someone with him..." he concluded in

a sing-song voice.

"Oh my gosh, it's Trixie! How cute is THAT?" Kendra asked.

Toby grinned, "Oh man..."

"Should we say hi?"

"Nah, we'll see him tomorrow..." Toby grinned evilly as they continued homeward.

Meanwhile, Spinner had picked the girls up and all the couples got together, one in the

front and one in the very back, so Trent and Terri took the middle.

"Enjoy shopping?" Trent asked her in a friendly way.

"Oh yeah..." she replied, blushing just a bit, but silently scolding herself for it.

"Ah hey, I was wanting to ask you, since we had a pretty good conversation at school

today, would you care if I called you sometime?" he wondered.

She was about to say no, but for some reason she couldn't; he was way too sweet and

they had a lot in common, so she ripped a piece of her brown paper bag off and wrote

down her number,

"Sure, there you go."

"Thanks," Trent said sincerely, placing the number in his pocket.

While they talked, Jimmy and Hazel quietly observed as they held eachother.

"You think they'll ever go out?" Hazel asked Jimmy quietly.

"Maybe someday, if Terri starts trusting men romantically again..." Jimmy replied.

Hazel nodded, "I know, I think he would be good for her."

"You're not the only one..." Jimmy mumbled.

Spinner and Paige were talking about the same thing up front.

"They really would make a cute couple, don't you think, Honeybee?" Paige asked.

Spinner nodded, "They would."

"Yeah... Ashley kinda likes him," she said.

"She does? Dude, I guess his interest in Ter's kinda bumming her out then, huh?"

"Well, only a little as far as I can tell; she doesn't seem too bothered about it, she thinks

Terri deserves a good man and he is one, you can just tell."

"Yeah, we all know HE'S not psycho."

"Speaking of which..." Paige dropped her voice to a whisper, "you know that he's still in

the neighborhood? He might be in private school and all that, but he's still around!"

This made Spinner angry, "He comes near her, his ass is dead."

Paige smiled a little bit, "I think Trent would get on that before you would... no offense,

Honeybee."

"None taken, Sugarmuffin, I know what you mean."

Spinner dropped Hazel and Jimmy off first, then Terri, then Trent.

"Hon," Paige said before he got out, "just to let you know, if she doesn't go out with you

the first time, don't give up on her, okay?"

He smiled back, "I don't plan on it." Then he waved as he got out of the minivan, heading

into his house.

When he got inside, he discovered Trixie's note. Out with JT, huh?

He grabbed the phone and went to call Terri...

Meanwhile, JT was walking Trixie home just as the sun was setting, washing everything in a

shade of golden orange. Her hair was even more radiant in this light than it was in regular

everyday lighting.

"Well JT, I've really had fun with you," she said, "we should do this more often!"

"Hey, any time, I don't mind," JT replied, surprising her by leaning forward and giving her a

hug... but surprising her even more when there was no prank to it. "I'll see you at school

tomorrow."

"Okay.... bye, JT!" she waved as he walked away.

With a sigh, she went into the house to find her brother watching music videos on mute and

talking on the phone, so she quietly went to the kitchen to make something quick for

dinner.

"Yeah... oh yeah, I understand... Yeah.... oh... okay... bye..." Trent sounded disappointed

as he hung up the phone.

He went into the kitchen to see what his sister was making.

She looked curious as to who he'd been talking to, but said not a word.

"I asked Terri out on a date and she said no," Trent said sadly.

"Aww, I'm sorry..." Trixie replied, hugging her brother sympathetically.

"I'm not giving up, though... I can't," he added, going back to the living room to watch

music videos.

Meanwhile Trixie continued to cook, reflecting over her evening...