Chapter Eighteen
"Hey… I'm a little embarrassed. You know me, but I'm not sure of your name." Chelsea said cheerfully, meeting Rusty at a table in the back. She seemed surprisingly easy and comfortable, despite not knowing Rusty.
"I-I'm Rusty Spokes." Rusty stammered nervously.
"Would-would you… Would you like t-to go… Go on a date w-with me?" Rusty asked nervously. Suddenly, a loud burp came out of his mouth.
There was a long silence between them. Chelsea laughed, snorting loudly as she did. Rusty chuckled nervously. This was it. There was no way someone as classy and beautiful as Chelsea would go on a date with someone who had just burped in her face.
"Sure. Where would you like to meet?" Chelsea asked.
"Um… I-ice cream? We could go to Stewball's. They have great floats and shakes." Rusty said.
"I'd like that." She said. She could tell Rusty was a bit younger than her. But he seemed sweet.
And that was what mattered. He didn't seem that much younger than her and she was willing to see how it worked.
"So, what school do you go to?" Chelsea asked.
"Royal Woods High. We just took our SATs today." Rusty said. Chelsea nodded.
"That's cool. I didn't do so great on mine. I was never much of a school person." Chelsea said.
"Tell me a bit about you." Rusty said.
"Oh, well… I'm actually originally from Massachusetts. My mothers came here for work when I was 12." Chelsea said. She still missed her friends from Massachusetts and hoped to go back, assuming her friends were even still there. They would all have been about the same age as her now, so they might all be away in college.
"Well… What do you do other than school?" Rusty asked.
"I guess I like sports. I'm not great, but I play Soccer and Lacrosse." Chelsea said.
"Lincoln's sister is really into sports. She was in the 2020 Olympics for Triathlon." Rusty said.
"Wait… Was he one of the guys you were with?" Chelsea asked.
"Yeah. The white haired guy." Rusty said.
"His sister is Lynn Loud." Rusty said.
"Whoa… The boss told us about his kids. He has a picture of all the kids in the kitchen. But I had trouble believing that they had a real Olympic athlete in the family." Chelsea said. Rusty chuckled. He remembered hanging out with Lynn a bit. They weren't exactly friends. But Lynn was pretty cool to him. She was loud and aggressive and competitive, but she was a pretty cool person.
"I often see you with another person at the restaurant.
"He's got red hair like you, but a bowl cut. He's shorter than Lincoln." Chelsea said.
"Ah… That's Liam. He's taking the next SATs. He didn't take it today. He says he still needs some time to study. That's fine. He has a lot of work that he does around the farm." Rusty said.
"What about your friends?" Rusty asked.
"Ah… Well… I don't have a lot of close friends. Maybe two or three. I like going on hikes in the woods and just spending time alone outside looking at the clouds." Chelsea said.
"That's pretty cool. Lincoln's sister, Lana is really into nature. At least I assume she is. She's usually covered in dirt and sometimes mud and she talks about going swimming with the Fishmans." Rusty said.
"The Fishmans? Friends of the Louds?" Chelsea asked.
"I-sort of. I think it's just a name she gave to the family of fish that live in a pond in the park. You remember a few years ago when there was that pond monster scare?" Rusty asked.
"Oh! That's them? The Fishmans. That's cute. You seem to be talking more about the Louds than about yourself though. But how about we learn more about each other on our next date? Are you free next Saturday? Say 1 pm?" Chelsea asked.
"S-sure! Sounds good." Rusty said.
"Good." She said, putting the date into her phone and watching as Rusty did the same. He leaned over to kiss her. She chuckled, kissing his cheek lightly.
"Maybe just one on the cheek for now." She said. Rusty blushed. She was cute. She knew how to keep him going. He loved how she was playing it. He loved how she teased him a little bit. But he was relieved that she wasn't being mean about it. Just playful.
"I-I'll see you n-next week!" He said.
"You can come and see me at the restaurant. I won't refuse to talk to you." She said. Maybe we can chat on my break or something." She said.
"S-sure!" He said, rushing home to tell the group how it had gone.
-0-
"Hey, guys! Guess what!" Rusty said, louder than he really needed to be.
"She said yes! We're meeting again next Saturday to get ice cream!" Rusty said eagerly.
"Hey, great job! I knew you could do it." Lincoln said.
"Congrats, buddy." Clyde said.
"We're happy for you. See? We told you you could do it." Stella said.
"Yeah. You did know I could do it. I'm nervous about the date. But I chatted with her a bit today and I ended up talking more about Lincoln's family than myself." Rusty said. The group all laughed.
"How did my family end up coming up?"
"She said she liked playing soccer and lacrosse and I said that your sister, Lynn was really athletic. She said she liked hiking and the outdoors and I said that I assumed Lana liked being outdoors since she always had dirt and sometimes mud on her." Rusty said.
"I got nervous!" He said. Lincoln chuckled.
"Well… Listen, I have ten sisters. One of them is bound to be into almost anything someone could like. My sisters' talents are very diverse." Lincoln said.
"Not as diverse as yours though." Clyde said to Lincoln. Lincoln chuckled.
"Well… I… Have been able to learn most of what my sisters can do. But I'm not as good at it as they are. I got good at athletics, but I'm not going to be in the Olympics.
"I can play guitar a bit, but I can't play like Luna. You guys get the point. I'm a dilettante." Lincoln joked chuckled.
"What? You're really good!" Rusty said.
"And you're great at video games and drawing and writing comics." Zach said. Lincoln smiled.
"Well… That's true. Lincoln had his special ability that was better than anyone else in the family. He played video games in competitions and frequently came in first place.
But what he really loved doing was drawing and writing comics. Now that he'd seen what his Full House Gang comics had gotten in terms of attention, he was working on his dystopian future comic. Bionics had caused those who could afford them to become superhumans while those who couldn't afford them were being left behind and turned into a 'lesser species' in a sense. Bionic Humans lived longer while non-Bionic Humans were weaker, more dependent on sleep, food, water. They tired more easily and as a result, they'd been reduced to a near slave race.
The world was on the verge of war between the haves and the have nots. Lincoln was proud of what he had so far. He'd gotten his friends to read it and while not all of them liked dystopian science-fiction, they all agreed that he'd done a good job.
"Well, I better get going." Rusty said. The group all hung up and went about their days. Lincoln sighed as there was a knock on his door. He didn't really want any disturbances. But he answered.
"Come in." He said.
"Elder Brother. If I may have you in my laboratory for a bit? I would like to perform an exam after your SAT test." Lisa said. Lincoln raised an eyebrow. Lisa didn't always make sense to the layperson. But this made even less sense. He hadn't stressed out his body in the SATs. It was just sitting and taking a test. There wasn't even a physical exam. But he didn't question it.
He went to her room, where Lisa had him sit on the bed and she typed in the code for his eyes and something began downloading.
"I'm downloading all the data from your SATs. I can see exactly what you saw in the exam. I can't grade your test exactly. But I can give you a probable grade within an hour, maybe two." Lisa said.
"Really? Wow." Lincoln said. Lisa nodded, finishing downloading the data from that morning.
"You can go." Lisa said. Lincoln went to Lynn's and Lucy's room, finding Lucy trying to talk to Lynn and Lynn not seeming to want to listen.
"I don't really care what you want to do. If you want to date Lincoln, that's fine. But don't expect me to like it. It's gross." Lynn said, glaring at Lincoln as he walked in.
"Please don't talk about it so loud. I understand why you think it's gross. But I don't want this getting out." Lincoln said. Lynn snorted, storming out of the room, going for a run.