A/N: Sorry about the wait guys, I could have sworn I uploaded this last weekend, but I was so busy with school I guess I forgot. I hope it was worth the wait. I was debating whether to make it a little longer, but I guess that'll be the next chapter. That one might take a while; Final Exams are just around the corner. Well here you go, enjoy!

Eight

It was easy to see that there two things Herb wanted from these boys. He wanted them to work their asses of to be the best they could be. And he wanted them to be a team. He had a few more of the boys introduce themselves at the end of practice.

"Name's Christian," a dark haired guy introduced himself.

"Who do you play for?" Uncle Herb asked.

"University of North Dakota," Dave Christian answered. Herb let the boys go after that. They headed off to their locker room and I made my way back to my office to get a few things ready before my date with Jimmy.

"Hey, Faye," I head Jimmy from the door. "You ready to go?" I nodded. "Did you drive?"

"No, Herb gave me a ride," I explained.

"Great," he told me. "We'll take the bus."

OOOOO

"So how is everybody getting along?" I asked as we started our trek to the bus stop about a block away. Jimmy nodded.

"A lot better," he told me. "But some of the guys are starting to worry about whose getting cut." I nodded morbidly

"Yea, the Olympics are going to be here faster than you think," I said. "But, off the record, I don't think you or Jannie have much to worry about." He smiled.

"Yea, but I'm a little worried about Rizzo," Jimmy admitted. I nodded, knowing that Rizzo was struggling.

"But he tries," I reminded Jimmy. "And I know that'll count for something." The little open air trolley was crowded, but we did manage to find one empty seat. Jimmy let me have it and held onto the bar behind my seat.

"So where are you taking me?" I asked, looking up at him.

"I was talking to Jannie, about where you guys liked to hang out," Jim said. "He said you always liked the park." I smiled excitedly.

"Lake Meade Park?" I questioned excitedly. "Oh my gosh, I haven't been there in forever! There's this farmer's market, and they have the best food ever. There's a playground with swings and monkey bars. And there's this lake with little boats and hybrid catfish—and you can feed them. And there's this bridge with this huge trellis with all these vines and roses. And gardens and these enormous bird cages! Oh, oh, oh, and in the summer they have this fair at twilight, and there's a carousel and a Ferris wheel, and games, and it's so much fun!" I couldn't wait to get there. When the bus finally stopped I made a beeline for the swing set, with Jimmy hurrying to keep up with me.

I grabbed an empty swing, and Jimmy got behind me and pulled the swing way back to get me going.

"I remember Patti used to bring me here when I was little and my mom had to work," I told Jim. "I used to hide up in that little tower in the jungle gym and pretend I was Rapunzel and my Prince had to come and save me."

"Did he ever come?" Jimmy asked as I skidded to a halt.

"One time Herb had to come help me down," I said. "Does that count?" Jimmy laughed.

"No," he said as he gathered my hair at the nape of my neck. "Not long enough for me to climb yet, but it's getting there." I smiled as he grabbed the swing next to me.

"You know," he went on. "These people here with their kids have got to think we're nuts."

"Oh, who cares?" I laughed. "You want to go play in the sand box?" Jimmy shook his head.

"I'm kinda hungry," he admitted. "What's there to eat around here?"

"There's an open air market," I reminded him, pointing down the path. "And they have these pretzel dogs." He looked at me quizzically. "It's a hotdog wrapped in a pretzel, and I like the ones with cheese." He nodded getting up, and we headed over.

We got two pretzel dogs with cheese, and decided to take a walk through some of the gardens. We decided to take a seat on a stone bench on one side of the Virgin Mary in the shade of some tall birch trees.

"Tulips," I said, pointing to the flowerbed near us. "Tulips are my favorite. They stand for perfect love and beautiful eyes and beautiful smiles. And that's everything I want people to see in me." Jimmy smiled, wiping his mouth. "What's your favorite flower?" I asked. He paused, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"I like calla lilies," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"It figures," I teased him as we got up and continued our walk through the gardens. A little further back into the woods were these huge copper bird cages, rusted into a pale green. Inside were these gorgeous owls and doves, and this rescues red-tailed hawk that was blind in one eye.

"Maybe you should take a few steps back," Jimmy warned me nervously as I got really close to the cages. I laughed.

"Not an Alfred Hitchcock fan back there, are we?" I asked him with a wry smile. He shook his head.

"That was a creepy movie," he told me as I backed away from the bird cages.

"Did you know that a dove is just a white pigeon," I told him.

"I actually don't care, just as long as they don't decide to go berserk on the human race when the love birds die," Jimmy told me, as we headed back out of the woods.

"Oh, please," I laughed. "I would make fun of that movie to make you feel better, but it makes fun of itself." We passed a little cart, selling caramel apples.

"Oh, I love caramel apples," I told him.

"You want one?" He asked.

"Oh, that's okay," I said. "You paid for lunch." Jimmy insisted on getting me one anyway, and I took the biggest bite out of it that I could manage.

"You are the best, Jimmy," I told him. He shrugged as if to say 'I know.' I laughed.

"Where to next?" He asked me.

"Let's head over to the lake," I suggested, as we headed over. We followed the path out to the sunshine and then to the bridge across the lake. We passed kids on bikes and people reading newspapers, sitting on park benches. There was a fence bordering the lake, with vending machines full of raw corn and other fish food placed at odd intervals along the path.

"Let's feed the fish," Jimmy told me as we walked up to one of the machines. "Put your hand under," he told me, taking what was left of my caramel apple and turning the crank to dump some fish food into my hands.

I tossed some over to a small group of ducks and watched the swarm of fish mob them. Jimmy and I laughed as they flopped on top of one another as I tossed the rest of the food in.

"It's a forgy," Jim laughed. I gave him a look. "You know a fish-orgy." I laughed.

"Mac used to spit in the water," I told him. "The fish went nuts."

"Eww," Jimmy laughed and took a bite out of my apple. I smacked his arm lightly and he handed it back to me as we headed over the bridge. By now the sun was going down and the lights from the carnival rides and games started to come on.

We made a mad dash for the carousel and jumped onto two horses just as it started to move. I grabbed Jimmy's hand and refused to let go, even as he was going up and I was heading down.

"Were we supposed to pay?" He asked after I nearly pulled him off his horse. I shrugged.

"Who knows?" I answered. I pointed to where there was a little drum and cymbals being hit with small mallets as the gears turned a little music-box crank, filling the night air with the sounds of the Notre Dame Victory March, and other up beat music.

We rode on the Ferris wheel and one of those Hurricane coasters, and shared some cotton candy afterwards. And we made our way over to the section with all the games. We played some ski-ball, because I'm absolutely a ski-ball junky. We passed the dunking booth, where a Bozo was shouting colorful insults at people.

"You want me to win you something?" Jimmy asked. I shook my head. "I actually used to be really good at this," he went on. "Come on, let's give it a try." He paid for three worn baseballs, and gave one to me.

"Try it," he instructed. I threw the baseball and missed terribly. I laughed, as the Bozo called out more playful insults.

"Hey buddy, you might want to tell her the rules," he called over to Jimmy. "And explain the big words: HIT THE TARGET!" I laughed some more, rolling my eyes. Now it was Jimmy's turn. He threw the ball and the Bozo went under mid-insult. I laughed happily.

"Hey lady," the Bozo shouted as he climbed back onto his seat. "I might be wet, but you're ugly. And guess what, tomorrow I'll be dry, and you'll still be ugly." I laughed with everyone else who was watching as Jimmy dunked the man into the slimy water again.

Jim let me pick out his prize so I chose medium sized stuffed pony; it was purple and really soft. I thanked him, smiling as we continued down the path.

"It's getting a little late," I told him. "We should get you home so you can get some sleep." He nodded and we headed back to the trolley stop in the parking lot.

There weren't any empty seats on the bus this time so we stood in the aisle until we got to the stop about a block from my house.

"This is my stop," I told him. He went to get off with me. "You don't have to come with me," I reminded him.

"Typical date procedure," he told me. "I have to see you to your door." I smiled, as we walked down the sidewalk together.

"You know it was really nice for you to take me out like this," I told him.

"You want to do it again sometime?" He asked me. I nodded.

"I'd love to," I said. "But I think it might be better if we kept low key for a while. I wouldn't want to ruin anybody's game by having them worry about me going out with you."

"Yea, that's probably best," he agreed. "At least until the final cut." He paused. "Do you think Herb'll mind?" I looked at him a little confused as I continued up my drive way.

"I mean, it seems like you're practically a daughter to him and he might be scared you'll get hurt," Jimmy explained. I looked up at him and smiled.

"I'm not scared of being hurt by you," I explained. "Thanks again Jimmy, I really had a good time." I stood up on tip-toe and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before ducking inside.