Chapter 2

Surprise Visitor

Ruthie and Peter drove off down the street towards the high school. Martin stood there already missing her. He couldn't believe that he had a chance to have her in his life and now it was gone. But, he didn't want to hurt her ever again. Not after the whole mess with Sandy. He took a deep breath and finished putting some letters in the mailbox and walked back towards the house.

He walked inside and started bringing his bag of clothes to the laundry room. His dad stopped him and said, "Martin, you just got home late last night. You don't have to do that right now. Come sit down, have some breakfast."

"That's okay, I'm not hungry" Martin said.

"What's up with you? I thought that you would be thrilled to be home after being gone for so long on the road", his dad said.

"Nothing", Martin mumbled.

"Alright, if you say so. Well, I'm going out for a few hours. I'll see you around 1:00 unless you are already gone to the high school by then", his dad said as he walked out towards the garage shaking his head. He knew his son better than that. Something was definitely up.

Martin couldn't believe that Ruthie and Peter still were going out. He was hoping that it wasn't something that serious. He now wished that he hadn't come home for such a long stay. He was in town for a few weeks. Then, he was going back out on the road to travel with his baseball team. He unfortunately was there to check out some baseball hopefuls at the high school. He had jumped at the opportunity when his coaches were talking about scouting out Glen Oak. He was there with an actual scout, but, thought that he could get some inside scoop with the high school coaches.

Ruthie and Peter walked hand in hand down the isle towards her locker. They stopped and she got her books out of the locker and still was beaming. Peter was so glad that she was so happy. They walked towards Ruthie's homeroom and turned the corner and saw Lucy. Ruthie walked up to her and said, "Hey Luce!"

"Hey guys. I'm here to talk with some students. How are you two doing? I heard of the news of prom?" Lucy said with a smile.

"Gosh, news travels fast in your family." Peter said laughing.

"You talk to mom already?" Ruthie said knowing the answer.

"Yeah, she called me to tell me, uh. To tell me about the prom thing." Lucy said.

"Peter, I'll talk to you later, I need to talk to Luce for a minute. Okay?" Ruthie said.

"Alright. See you at lunch." Peter said.

"Okay, now tell me what's going on. You were about to say something, but you hesitated." Ruthie said with her arms crossed.

"It's nothing. It's not a big deal." Lucy said really hoping that she wasn't the one to bring this up to Ruthie. She didn't know how she was going to react to the news of Martin coming back into town and especially to her high school.

"What's not a big deal, if it's not a big deal, then you can tell me." Ruthie said.

"Okay, but, don't get upset." Lucy said.

"Okay?" Ruthie assured her almost convincingly.

"Martin's in - -", Lucy started.

"Mrs. Kinkirk, so glad that you could make it on such short notice, please, come on in." the high school counselor, Ms. Granger, said.

Lucy smiled back at Ruthie and whispered, "I'll find you later. Talk to you then." Lucy walked into the office and turned back to see a very confused girl.

Ruthie sat there for what seemed like an eternity pondering what it was that Lucy was going to say about Martin. What about Martin? What would she say? This was definitely going to bother Ruthie til she knew. It was like someone opened this hidden door in the back of her head and all of these thoughts were flooding her mind. She walked down the hall in almost a daze. Friends of hers past her by and she didn't even notice them waving hi. She walked into her homeroom and sat down still in deep thought.

Meredith smiled at Ruthie and noticed her pink rose and said, "So, who's the rose from?" knowing it was from Peter.

"Ruthie" Meredith said.

Ruthie turned to her and said, "Oh, the rose. It's from Peter."

"Well, is it a special date?" Meredith asked.

"No, he just asked me to prom", Ruthie said.

"Don't act too excited." Meredith said jokingly.

"No, it's not that. I am thrilled. I am very excited. It's just that I was thinking of something." Ruthie said. She didn't want to bring up the subject of Martin up with Meredith. She didn't know how Meredith would react to that seeing as Martin and she were very close and dated.

Meredith not wanting to pry said, "So, what are you going to wear?"

"I have no idea." Ruthie said with a smile, happy to be thinking of something else for the time being.

The two friends talked about prom and Meredith talked about who she would like to go with. She was single and not seeing anyone.

Meanwhile, Martin arrived to the school and immediately felt all of the memories come back to him. He really enjoyed going to this school and made some really good friends here. He walked down the hall towards the baseball coach's office. He glanced into the rooms as he would walk past. He didn't know if he was searching for her or just looking out of curiosity.

He came to the coach's office and knocked on the door. The coach opened the door and greeted Martin and asked him to come on it.

Martin was a little surprised to see who was already there. It was Peter.

"Martin, this is one of my senior varsity players for the team, Peter Petrowski. Peter, this is Martin Brewer. I'm sure that you remember him on the team a couple of years ago", said Coach Potter.

"Yes, I remember. Hi Martin. How are you?" Peter said surprised as well to see him. His first thought was of Ruthie and how she was going to react to seeing him. He then started having some self doubt in their relationship, but, knew that Ruthie would never do anything. She was happy.

"Hi Peter. I'm doing okay." Martin said sitting down in the empty seat next to Peter. Martin could not believe his luck. The coach asked Peter to go back to his homeroom and began in talking to Martin about the team.

Peter walked down the hall towards Ruthie's homeroom. He wanted to talk to her first. He almost got there when he saw Lucy. Lucy walked towards him and said, "Hi. Do you know where Ruthie's homeroom is?"

"Yeah, I'm actually going there now. I need to talk to her." Peter said.

"Everything okay? You seem a little bit stressed." Lucy said.

"Yeah, everything's just great. Just wonderful. Here I am with a great girlfriend and we are happy as can be and then he has to show up." Peter vented.

"So, I see that Martin's already here today." Lucy said.

"So, you knew he was coming here. Why didn't you tell me, Luce?" Peter asked.

"Well, I didn't think that you would care, honestly." Lucy said.

"I don't. Why would I? I mean, she's over him," Peter said and then added, "Right?"

"Of course she is. She's with you, isn't she?" Lucy said trying to reassure Peter trying to make him feel better. Peter was a nice guy and really cared about Ruthie.

"I think that you should go to your homeroom. You have nothing to worry about." Lucy said.

"You really think so?" Peter asked.

"Yes, positive", Lucy said hoping that she was right.

Peter slowly walked away to his homeroom. Lucy turned and realized that Peter forgot to show her where Ruthie's homeroom was. She decided that she would just talk to her later. Besides, Ms. Granger would be wondering why it took so long for Lucy to go to the bathroom.

Stay tuned…