The Only One

"Hello?" Heidi picked up the phone in a cheerful voice. She'd been waiting all morning for her new boyfriend Dale to call. Don't ask me what'd happened to Chris, but I could only guess that he'd ended up in the same spot as Lloyd after being dumped by my sister. If she wasn't careful, all her ex's might start up a support group. It certainly wouldn't have a shortage of members, that's for sure.

"Is Lindsey there?" A male voice asked hesitantly.

"Nope. Sorry Zac."

"How did you know it was me?" He asked.

"You're the only guy who calls her." Heidi replied with a smirk. "Trust me."

"Well, do you know where she is?" She thought for a moment, trying to remember where it was I'd told her I'd be today in the car. I'd accidentally overslept and Heidi had graciously, out of character I'll add, given me a ride to school this morning.

"Umm.. work? I don't know."

"She got a job?" Zac asked in surprise. What else don't I know about her?

"Yep. Oh, that's right." Heidi's memory clicked. "She's got training today before hockey practice."

"What time is her practice?"

"I have no idea. I don't have that little of a social life that I follow my baby sister's." Heidi snorted.

"Oh.. ok. Well, thanks." He replied slowly.

"I'll tell her you called, Zac."

"... No, that's ok."

"You sure?"

".. Yeah. Don't worry about it." He hung up the phone with a sigh. Suddenly, he started to feel incredibly angry. The ignoring, avoiding both in and out of school, glances in the other direction, and overall lack of connection between us was getting really stupid in his mind.

Goes to show how important I am to her as a friend.. Fine, two can play her game.

"Hey Jamie," I panted out my greeting as I burst through the glass doors of Pizza Palace, completely out of breathe. My heart was pounding loudly and the muscles in my calves pulsed slightly after all the mad pedaling I'd done on my bike to get over here from school. Despite the fact I'd gone as fast my body would permit, and had nearly gotten run over on the way here, I was still fifteen minutes late. I could only hope that my boss would forgive me.

"No problem. Just try to get here earlier when you actually work. Go on back to the crew room, I'll be there in a few seconds."

"Thank you." I put my backpack in the crew room and slipped my apron around my waist. After a quick glance in the mirror near the door, I frowned at the stray red frizzies that were sticking out of my head in odd directions. With a frustrated sigh, I yanked out my ponytail, tucked the strands of hair under my hat, and retied my bun. Good enough.

"Now, did you read your manual last night, Lindsey?" Jamie guestured for me to sit down at one of the tables in the room.

"Umm.. yeah." I lied. Truth was, I really had meant to read the chapters, but I hadn't even caught up with those two hundred, correction, three hundred by now, pages of history reading last week. Every time my eyes focused on a page of full text, my mind shut off. I could only hope this exhaustion would soon pass.

"Great. Today should be a breeze for you then. We'll skip the intro videos and get right down to the nitty gritty, ok?"

"Sounds great." I tried awfully hard to sound enthusiastic.

"Then let's go!" He pushed his chair back and stood up. I followed suit as he led me into the kitchen. We stopped at a sink next to a large grey machine.

"This is where your time card is. You're.. let's see." His fingers grazed over the plastic cards stacked vertically in the machine.

"Here you are. Number sixty-nine." He snatched the card and handed it to me.

"Sixty-nine?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, for some reason people never want that number." Jamie just shrugged his shoulders. That made it even harder to contain my giggles from escaping, but I managed to hold them.

After all this is work, I reminded myself. Try to be a little mature for once in your life.

"Just stick the checked end of the card into this slot." Jamie continued. "When your number comes up, just hit 'in' when you start and 'out' when you're done. If it's a good day, the machine will work and your time will go down in the computer."

"If it's a good day?" I asked, sticking my card in and waiting for my number to come up. It didn't.

"Guess it's not a good day." Jamie frowned at the machine. My eyes widened as he banged the side of his fist against it loudly. After a few seconds of us staring at it, my number finally lit up on the machine.

"Damn thing is older than I am." He muttered at me. "But fortunately, not as stubborn."

"I see." Was all I could think of for a reply.

"Wash your hands and we'll get started, Linds. We have a lot to go through today."

"Sure thing." I replied, returning Jamie's smile. At least I would be working for a nice person. Even though I could already tell, even from not reading my manual, it was degrading work. Minimum wage at it's highest peak.

But hey, it's not like I don't have anything else to do with my time. I thought with a sigh.

Car, car, car.. my mind reminded me, and I instantly smiled.

This won't be so bad.

"Hello?" Samanth reached over and picked up her telephone as it rang loudly at her.

"Samantha?" Zac asked.

"Seeing as it's my own personal line, speaking." She giggled. "Who is this?"

"Zac Hanson." She nearly dropped the phone.

"Hi!" She squealed loudly, a huge smile spreading across her face. "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks. I'm calling about.." He paused, thinking for a moment. ".. ballet lessons again."

"Oh.." Her face fell. She'd been hoping he'd finally gotten around to asking her out.

"What about them?"

"I don't want to be in a class."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Hello?" He said with a sarcastic laugh. "It's embarrassing. You're a girl, you wouldn't understand."

"So why are you telling me all this?" She asked, feeling a little miffed at his last remark.

"Do.. Do you give private lessons?" He couldn't believe he was asking this, but he figured that not only would it save him some embarrassment, it'd also get my attention.

Anything to get a reaction from her, not to mention save me some embarrassment.

"Absolutely!" She lied.

Actually, w're not allowed to give private lessons, but like anyone'll find out. Besides, her father had contributed quite a bit of money to build the rec. center, so Samantha pretty much did was she wanted around there.

"Great." Zac mumbled.

"When do you want to start?" She asked.

"Unfortunately, as soon as possible."

"What's this 'unfortunately' stuff?"

"I'm not looking forward to this."

"Obviously not. But I'll make it fun, I promise." She said in a low, seductive voice.

"I just want to get through it as fast as possible, that's all." He admitted.

"Ok, well how about we start tomorrow?" Samantha asked. Zac was relieved to hear it go back to its normal pitch. He didn't like it when she flirted with him, which was unfortunately quite a bit of the time they spent together.

Like it or not, at least I can try to use it to my advantage against Lindsey.

"Great. I've gotta go now too, my brother needs to use the phone." As they said their good-byes, he hung up the phone and sighed. The empty hallway around him verrified his lie about needing to end the conversation, but the more time he spent with Samantha, even just in conversation, the more depressed he felt. All that seemed important to her was looking good, with her pretty face and endless amount of spending money.

"God, I wish I knew what was up with Linds." He thought outloud. Glancing at his watch, he got an idea. Throwing on his shoes, he prayed that he was right about where I was.

"You'll get better with practice." Jamie gave me a meek smile as I slipped off my apron, now smeared with tomato sauce and nearly every topping that Pizza Palace had to offer.

"Thanks." I said in a deflated voice. Truth was, I felt terrible: Even after an hour of training, I still kept messing up on all the different temperatures to set the oven at for cooking pizza and breadsticks. Poor Jamie had to abandon his manager tasks for today to help me out. The hour had actually flown by incredibly fast, we'd found ourselves running around like headless chickens. I wondered if it'd be that way every time I worked.

Hey, if it passes the time, it passes the time. No harm in getting paid for it too.

"Don't worry about it kiddo." He punched me lightly in the shoulder. "We all make mistakes."

"But do we all serve half our pizza raw, and the other have burned to a charcoal crisp?" I laughed at my mistakes today. Several pizzas of ours had to be remade, making not only the customers a little cranky but the waitresses who had to deal with them irritated.

"We're a team here, we all do our part." Jamie surprised me with his words. "When you get the hang of it, everything will run as smooth as clockwork. Trust me."

"All right," I said, although doubt was in my voice. Referring to my next shift, I asked:

"I'll see you on Saturday?"

"See you then." He waved and dissappeared back into the kitchen. I pushed my way through the doors, backpack over my right shoulder, and picked up my bicycle where I'd left it on the sidewalk a few hours ago. After swinging my left leg over the seat, I glanced at my watch and groaned at the time.

"Shit!" I yelled to myself. I had hockey practice in twenty minutes, and a few more miles to go. Hopping onto my bike seat, I started pedaling in the second mad fury for today. Also again, I found myself out of breath and with sore leg muscles by the time I'd reached the rec. center.

That wasn't the only thing I found when I got there. As I set my bike into the rack by the sidewalk, I heard a familiar voice call out to me:

"Hi Lindsey." I glanced over at my shoulder and winced.

How could you have missed him standing right there next to the bike rack? I scolded myself.

"Zac."