Biker Class (11 page)

"No, not completely," his leader responded, sounding
nonchalant. "I'm not gonna make you put on a dorky sweater vest or
anything like that. Chill."

"Good," Jake snarled, "
because
I'm not changing into Urkle!"

"Act like those... those weird butt-kissers over at SDA."

"
What?
No, I am
not
–"

"Do you wanna be one of us or not?" Lawson growled, cutting
him off in a final tone.

Jake crinkled his nose in disgust. "But they're so..." he
searched for a word to describe them, "
decent.
"

"Well, don't you think she'll like that?" he suggested.

"Do I have to act like those nerds over at the private school? Can't
I just settle for not making hot jokes every five seconds? And I'll try not to
eye her. Isn't that good enough?"

"Fine," Lawson sighed. "But at least try to be as
good
,
as smart, as
clean
, as
decent
as those Preppies to her,
a'ight?"

Jake snorted, and his friend did on the other side of line as well.

"Yeah, right."

"I know it won't be easy, dude. But either try to get on her good
side, or you'll have to
make
her like you," he said quietly, a
little suspiciously. But Jake didn't allow it to
phase
him. He wasn't going down that road.

"Gotcha, man."

***

"
What
?" Rachel sputtered out in disbelief.

"Jake took me home on his motorcycle," Melanie repeated,
still trying to believe it herself.

"
Jake
...took you
home
...on his
motorcycle
?"

Melanie was beginning to feel more and more stupid. Maybe it
wasn't
the best choice.

Melanie took a deep breath, staring at her reflection in the elaborate
mirror in the front foyer of her home. It was Wednesday.
Wednesday
. It
was odd how the meaning of that word had changed so much within a simple
conversation that took place a week before. She stared at her wavy hair, her
black cocktail dress, her makeup, and the uneasiness in her own brown eyes.
Thinking about it, she really wasn't sure whether or not she was happy about
her mother's cocktail party being on the same night as her first…
meeting
with Jake.

On the bright side: there were witnesses. Everywhere.
A house-full of women wearing sharp stiletto heels that could
easily be used for self-defense if necessary.
But he wouldn't try
anything with all of these people around, would he? The party hadn't even
started yet and she was starting to doubt herself and the ones that were going
to be around her. Bringing her to…

The dark side: Would her mother be too busy? Would
everyone
be
too preoccupied to even function as a witness? They'd all be caught up their
own business, not constantly watching their new coworker's daughter and her
tall and dark tutoree that were hovering around. They could care less, Melanie
was sure. They wouldn't pay her an inkling bit of attention.

Even the bright side ended up being clouded.

Yay.

She looked over the way the satin dress shaped her body, hugging her
curves but not showing any inappropriate amount of skin anywhere. The inch-long
straps flowed over both of her shoulders, the neck showing only the smallest
part of her chest possible. Melanie picked out the dress herself. She didn't
want to look like a nun, but she certainly wasn't going all out. A subtle
rhinestone necklace, shaped like the bottom half of a star, cascaded around her
collarbone. Her eyes were smoky, with a light color on her lips. Melanie wore
heels, but nothing of deadly height.

To be honest, even though this dress didn't show anything it shouldn't,
she still didn't feel comfortable wearing it in front of him. In fact, anything
with sleeves shorter than quarter length and bottoms above the knee she didn't
feel comfortable wearing in front of Jake. Thinking of the perverted smile
pulling up on the side of his lips was enough to make her want to go upstairs
and cover herself in fifty huge, unflattering bathrobes.

But life wasn't that easy, was it?

Almost making her jump, Ms. Hart came up behind Melanie and gave her a
hug, looking at her in the mirror. She smiled nervously.

"You look beautiful, sweetie," she smiled, patting her
daughter's shoulder. "Are you ready to meet all of my friends?"

"Uh huh," Melanie grinned half-heartedly.

"Isn't your little rebel tutoree coming over, too?" she
asked, frowning slightly. Melanie tried to prevent her face from contorting to
terror.

"Uh huh."

"Well then, I guess we'll both be meeting new people tonight,
huh?" Ms. Hart asked, resting her chin on Melanie's shoulder.

"Uh huh." Her smile was still forced. Suddenly, her mother's
eyes widened and she scowled. She gasped loudly, leaving Melanie's side in a
flash. "Whoa, Mom, what's wrong?"

Ms. Hart ran to the kitchen as fast as she could in her shoes,
muttering to herself unhappily. Melanie followed suit, feeling panicky as well.

"I forgot some of the horderves!" she squealed, fanning her
face as she shot around the kitchen, opening cabinets at an inhuman pace and
slamming them closed, throwing things on the counter and whipping out silverware.
Melanie felt disoriented just watching.

"Mom… Mom!" she called to her incoherent mother. Ms. Hart
continued to dart around, not seeming to hear anything. "
Mom
!"

"W-what?" she managed to get out, focused completely on
dicing tomatoes.

"Do you
have
to have those? It'll be okay if you–"

"No, it's not okay, Melanie! All of my coworkers are coming over
and what will it look like if I run out of food? Especially in front of Leanne!
Oh, God…"

"Wait, what? Who's Leanne?"

"That's– that's not important," she ordered suddenly,
tossing open the fridge door and digging through it. "Just–"

"Can I help with anything?"

"I don't–"

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, causing all of the noise in the house to
quiet. Both Ms. Hart and Melanie were frozen where they were, not daring to
breathe. Both of their hearts pounded, but it was for completely different
reasons. Her mother came back to her senses first.

"Who–"

"Melanie,
get the door
!" she ordered in a frantic
whisper, shooing her towards the foyer with her hand. "Oh no, I'm not
ready! Oh no, oh no… what will I do? I have to work faster!" Her hands
seemed to speed up even more (somehow) and she was a blur as she flashed around
the room at impossible speed. Melanie still wasn't within a sane mindset, so
Ms. Hart had to practically scream at her to get any response out of her.
"SONNY!"

"What? What?" Melanie jumped, her eyes focusing again.

"
The door
! Get it!"

"What?"

"Someone is at
the door
! Get the freakin' door, Melanie!"

"
Oh
!"

Melanie backed out of the room as fast as she could, stumbling while
exiting. Ms. Hart was watching exasperatedly, making Melanie giggle
embarrassedly as she rushed to the front door. She could see a silhouette
through the glass, but it was blurred by the cut glass. It was black, and quite
large. Too large to be a woman, she was sure. And that's when her heart decided
to start painfully pounding, constricting her throat. She had a bad feeling.

"I– I don't think it's a coworker," Melanie called to
her mother, her palms sweating. She could have sworn she heard her mother's
sigh of relief from across the hall.

"Oh, well, let them in! Don't be rude!"

For the first time in her life, Melanie
wanted
to be rude. Rude
people didn't let others into their houses. Well, she wanted to be
incorrigible.
Because incorrigible people locked others out
of their homes.
And that's what she wanted to do.
So
badly
.

Reaching to the shining brass knob, Melanie gulped. Last minute, she
released it and rushed back to the mirror, fluffing her hair and pulling up the
chest of her dress for good measure. She ran back to the door, taking a deep
breath and pasting a smile on her face, slowly pulling open the door.

There
Jake stood, in his
regular jeans and t-shirt with long-sleeved leather jacket covering. His hands
were in his pockets coolly, his eyes unexpecting and quite bored looking. He
looked up from the ground where he had been previously staring, exasperated at
the hold up. But on the way up, his blue eyes widened with every inch he took in.
The first
thing to grab his attention were
the strap
heels. Then he saw the tan, smooth legs. His view was covered by the bottom of
a black dress about two inches above her knee, then showed her curves all the
way up. Hips, stomach, chest,
then
a smiling face.

Jake's instant interpretation was that she was trying to torture him.
He knew she knew nothing about what he had to do, but the way she was dressed
with that smile taunted him. This wasn't going to be easy, was it? When his
eyes finally left her body, they landed on her face again. The smile was gone
and replaced by a grimace, surrounded by a furious blush. Realizing what he was
doing (he usually wouldn't care, but he
has
to now), he tried to offer
an innocent smile, but he was pretty sure it wasn't too convincing.

"Hi," he finally said, one side of his mouth twisting up
involuntarily. Melanie's hand gripped the knob tightly, the smooth metal
feeling slippery under her sweaty palms. "You, uh… your… um… was I
supposed to wear something different?" Jake finally spoke, quietly, trying
to sound gentle and non-suggestive. He motioned to his ensemble. Or lack of
one, really.

"Oh, no," Melanie shook her head, smiling nervously.
"My mom is, um, having people over from her office… so, I have to look
nice to meet them." She actually felt proud that she managed to say a
sentence without stuttering. Melanie hoped she didn't jinx it.

"Ah," he said simply, his hands still in his pockets. He
shifted his weight uncomfortably, looking around everywhere except at her. Jake
made sure he looked everywhere
but
where he
wanted
to look. He
couldn't look… he couldn't look… he
could not
look
…

Melanie opened the door wider and stepped back, motioning with a
sweeping gesture. "You can, uh, come in if you want."

Suddenly, they both jumped at rapid, angry-sounding barks. Lucky came
bounding in from the living room, baring his jaws and growling madly. Low and
dangerous rumbles erupted from deep in his chest as he stared at Jake
challengingly, daring him to come in. Melanie swooped down and scooped him up,
whispering comforts in his ear and struggling to hold his shaking figure. Jake
was staring at the dog with obvious dislike, his face as challenging as
Lucky's.

"You kept
it
?" he spat, looking at the creature like
it was something he found on the bottom of his heavy shoe.

"Yes!" Melanie said without a second thought, hugging the
animal to her chest and kissing his head. Lucky calmed slightly, but
only
slightly. Jake scowled disdainfully.

"Does that vermin not get in the way?"

Melanie pursed her lips and simply decided not to reply, turning on
her heel and walking to the back of the house to let the angry dog outside. She
needed to be the bigger person, because if this reflected how the rest of the
session was going to go, than she needed to cut the problem in the bud. Melanie
returned and sighed, deciding to forget this incident.

"Do you, uh, want to come in
now
?" she questioned
shyly, tucking hair behind her ear.

"Oh. All right." Jake stepped in, looking around. It was a
nice place. Nothing like he was used to having, though. He kept it to himself,
however. But as she led him towards the kitchen, he couldn't resist. Her back
was turned and she would have no idea.

He looked at her butt.

And it made all of this seem that much more worth it.

He was jolted from his thoughts when they stopped in a doorway and he
heard multiple clangs and other loud noises. He watched as a woman with short,
dark hair scurried around the kitchen, rushing around so much that he felt
tired just watching her.

"Mom?" Melanie asked. The woman continued like no one was
there. "Mom? Ma… Mom!
Mom
!" The woman finally stopped when Melanie's
shout rang through the air. Her hair was slightly disheveled when her head
snapped up, looking first at Melanie then her eyes slowly drifting to Jake. She
gradually stood up straighter, her face expressionless but a curious glint in
her eye.

"Oh, so… are you…?"

"Jake," he answered, feeling a little odd under her stare.
She walked closer, looking him over. After a moment of thought, she stuck out
her hand. Jake took it and shook it once, smiling in a very small way. He
didn't trust himself to try a full-fledged one. It would surely look too
fake
. If he wanted to spend time with Melanie, he had to get
permission from the parental.

"I'm Connie," she said, quietly for some reason. She was
still watching him, the look in her eyes unreadable. "Melanie's mother.
It's nice to meet you."

"Same," he replied. They released hands, Ms. Hart stepping
back and standing to her full height again. She was watching them, but mostly Jake.

"Uh, Mom?" Melanie cut in. "Are you almost done?"

With a clash of plates, Ms. Hart was back to flashing around the
kitchen, out of breath. "Oh, gosh, no I'm not! Ugh, I have to get this
done!"

"Do you need me to help?"

"No, no, Melanie, I'll be fine."

"I think you could use some–"

"
No
, I'm fine, sweetie," she insisted, opening a bag
of nearby crackers. Crumbs went everywhere and she groaned. "I've got it,
but I just need to get some things done."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive, honey. I'm actually just going to need you to…
stay out of the way if you don't mind," her mother sighed. She finally
stopped what she was doing and turned around, leaning on the counter and
running a hand through her hair. Ms. Hart sighed again. "I'll call you
down before the party's over so I can introduce you, but until then I don't
want to interrupt you two." Melanie offered an uneasy smile. "Why
don't you two just go up to your room, Melanie?"

Jake's heart pounded in pleasure, but Melanie was glowering.

"Uh, can we not– can we not just stay down here?" Melanie
begged.

"The house will be packed enough as it is," her mother
answered apologetically, biting her lip while sprinkling salt on her horderves.
She followed suit with pepper. "I'm just trying to keep it as clear in
here as possible. Just go up to your room for now. I'll call you down when I
want to introduce you to my friends."