he first one to step up to the line was a teenage boy around my age, and man was he gorgeous, he was tall, and God had blessed him with a head full of long, silky smooth jet black hair that reached down to the collar of his shirt. He was also tanned and one could see nothing but lean muscles. Just looking at him made me shiver. I soon found myself starting to blush. And much to my embarrassment their was no way I could hide my blush.
“Hey.” He said smiling as he flashed me a smile that made my heart beat. “You looking a little hot up there. Mind if I cool you off.” His smile became a smirk. I then noticed he was starting to check me out. His eyes, baby blue traveled from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.
“Sure.” I said feeling myself becoming tongue tied. Despite all I'd been through that summer, I still had the social grace of a Dodo bird. And by that I mean, I was often clueless about what to do or say around people beside hang around the back and nod my head and mind me drink. I often became tongue tied when somebody tried to talk to me. I was totally socially inept when it came to causal flirting. Though according to my mom the boys often loved to flirt with me. And that I often flirted back.
“Think you can hit that target?” I said deciding to look him dead in the eye. “Got what it takes to send me down into the icy cold water?” I said smiling sweetly as I stuck out my tongue and ran it along the edge of my teeth.
The boy flashed me a smile and drew his arms back and a few seconds later he tossed the ball toward the target. A moment later the ball smacked into heavy canvas tarp that hung behind the target. I felt my heart jump into my throat the moment the echo from the ball reached my ears. For a minute their I thought I was going to drop down into the water.
“Missed.” I said smiling.
“Don't worry, I still have a little two more balls.” He said smiling sweetly as he took careful aim and tossed his second ball, I watched the ball travel through the air and it came very close to hitting the metal trigger, I mean it came within a inch of hitting the target. But the ball missed and bounced off the heavy canvas tarp and rolled on the ground.
“Darn,” He sounded a bit crestfallen that he had failed to hit the target a second time. “I thought I'll hit the target that time!” He moaned.
I wanted to make a taunting comment. But instead I just flashed him a little smile and gave him a little wink. “Hey I'll tell you what. If you don't hit the target on your next throw, why don't you just go ahead and push the target. But, in return you gotta take me on a date this afternoon. So do we have a deal?” I'm going to be real with you guys. I was taken back by that. I mean I could not believe the words that just had came out of my mouth. If somebody had been there to record them, say with a tape player and then replayed those that to me, I would have sworn to you that somebody else said that.
“Sure. I'll be around to pick you after your shift.” He paused. “So when does your turn in the dunking booth end?” He asked as he looked around. Was he blushing? Had I embarrassed him asking him out on a date? Or was he stunned. I only know his ears were glowing red.
“Sure, So I'll be around to pick you up at say two?” He asked smiling sweetly.
“Sure sounds good to me.” I said and with that he took his third and final shot. A moment later I felt the seat I was seating under give way and a moment later I was dropping like a stone into the pool of water below me, the water was freezing cold and at first it took my breath away from me. Then I felt my bottom touch the floor of the tank. Through the water I could gaze out and peer through the clear viewing window. The crowd that surrounded the tank were cheering and hooting and the handsome boy was just standing there, blushing. It was cute.
Feeling a little flirty I blew him a kiss before starting toward the surface. I soon broke the surface of the water and smiled. I turned around and peered toward the crowed and winked. A few seconds later I was pushing the seat of the tank back up. Once I heard the clicking sound that meant the seat was back in place I lifted myself out of the water and climbed up the steel ladder and once more inched my bottom toward the edge of the drop seat.
“So.” I said taking a deep breath, the sudden plunge had really taken my breath away. “I hope to see you in a hour or two?” I asked hopefully.
“Its a date.” The boy said smirking. “Oh the name is Clay, Clay Bridges.” He paused. “And what would your name be?”
“Lauren..” I said without thinking. “Lauren Huntington.” Then as an after thought I added. “But my friends call me Luna. Mostly because I study astrology and Luna is the Latin word for 'Moon' and its also the personification of the moon as a goddess.” said blushing a little.
“Cool.” He paused a bit then. “You know, you kind of remind of this girl I meet this summer down at the beach. She said her name was Luna. And like she and I took part in some kind of game. It was fun.” He said blushing. “Anyway I'll let you go, see you in a bit.. Luna.” And with that he vanished into the crowds.
Clay was the first one to dunk me. And for a while he reminded the only one too. Others tried, but most of them missed. One poor fellow spent a good twenty dollars, he spent that twenty dollars five dollars at a time and he missed every shot. I felt bad for him and kind of wanted the girl running the booth to let him just go up and press the button and dunk me. And in the end he walked away twenty dollars poorer and I was starting to dry a little.
Then from the crowd I spotted a strawberry blonde girl. The first thing I noticed about the girl was her outfit, she was dressed in a cheerleading outfit, a red and white shell top, red and white pleated skirt and red and white sneakers. Her pale blue eyes seemed to twinkle in the strong afternoon sunshine as she bounced toward the booth.
“Hey Lily!” The girl cried. “Rebecca wants you to know she'll be taking the forth shift and I'll be taking the third shift. No news about the other girl. I tried to text her or something, but so far.. she not returned my text. I even tried to call. Still no answer.” She called out.
“Figured. Thought about trying to get Madeline to volunteer. She always seems to be doing these kind of things. I don't think Jamie wants to volunteer. She might though, Cerridwen might.. I doubt it.. she has something of a cold, and her mom wants to keep her warm.. I swear the girl stays sick.” Lily mused as she shook her head from one side to the other.
“Anyway, who the girl in the tank?” The Strawberry blonde girl said as she pointed toward me.
“Oh that Lauren.” I heard Lily say. “She volunteered to take the first and I guess second shift. Her dad and my dad are Elk brothers or something. I've seen her before at a few Lodge socials.” Lily said once more shrugging her shoulders. “So, want to take a shot and try to give the little lady a bath?”
Taylor shrugged her shoulders as she took a closer look at me.
“Oh you mean Luna? For a minute their you had me confused when you mentioned a girl named 'Lauren' I mean sure I'll take a shot. But just one game okay. I mean we have that charity cheer in like thirty or so minutes and rounding up the other cheerleaders is like rounding up a group of lazy ass cats.” Taylor blinked.
I blinked and started to sweat drop a little. The biggest thing I was afraid of one thing when I decided to volunteer for this little fund-raiser and that was getting recognized by somebody I know while I sat in the dunking booth. That included the small circle of friends. I mean the thought of being recognized by one of my few friends in the dunking booth made my toes curl with embarrassment.
“So.” Taylor said as she picked up the first ball. “I'm not sure if I'd should doing this. Since I'm going to be in the dunking booth soon. So you could get a little payback.” She said in a teasing voice. “But what kind of friend would I mean. I mean you are my best friend friend and your almost my sister.” She said as she tossed the ball up in the air before she caught it. “If I did not try to dunk you.”
I pouted a little and peered toward Taylor who just giggled as she drew her arm back and tossed the ball toward the target. A moment later I heard the ball bounce off the background.
“You missed.” I said as I watched the ball roll on the hot tarmac.
“Just getting warmed up.” Taylor retorted as she drew back and tossed her second ball. I watched the ball sail through the air and a moment later I heard the sound of the ball smashing into the metal target. I then felt the seat giving away and then I felt myself dropping into the freezing water below. Once more I felt myself bouncing off the bottom of the dunking booth and once more I found myself swimming toward the viewing glass, to give Taylor the pleasure of watching me swim around the bottom of the tank. I felt like a human goldfish. After a moment I once more broke the surface of the water and peered toward Taylor who just stood there wearing a proud smirk.
“Man.” Taylor said smirking a little. “Can't believe I got you on the first throw. And I still have two throws to go.” She was still smirking as I pushed the seat back up and once more I climbed up and took the seat. But a moment later I was dropping once more into the freezing water. This time I wasted no time in swimming around the bottom like a fish, and instead I shot right up like a cork.
“Two out three.” Taylor said smiling as she watched me climb back up. “Pretty good, I'm going to spare you the last toss, because I gotta dash. Rebecca is about to freak as is.” She added. “I mean I can understand the pressure of being the new co-captain is starting to get to her. But she needs to chill.”
I blinked and blinked again. I had no idea who Taylor was talking about. But I don't think it mattered as I watched her vanish into the crowd. And the crowd around the dunking booth started to grow, it was growing thicker than flees on the back of a old hound dog. And Lily, well Lily was having a hard time keeping up wit the demand. It seemed everybody wanted to dunk the new girl, most of them were boys, hot blooded teenage males that wanted to see a cute girl like me get soaking wet for their personal enjoyment. I'm going to be honest, that thought kind of made me blush and gave me this tingling kind of feeling.
Fifteen more minutes passed with dozens of people trying their best to hit the target. A few did and I went down into the water a few more times. And at this point I was soaked the bone. A bank of clouds had decided to move in and block out the sun and from the East a gentle breeze started to blow. The breeze a welcome relief to many caused me to shiver as I was soaking wet.
But then I noticed somebody I knew and I felt my cheeks starting to blush again. Picking through the crowd was a girl around my age. Slowly she walked up to the counter and without saying a world to Lily she placed five dollars down upon the counter and looked up at me and smiled a fearsome smile.
“Hello, sister.” She said as she tossed the ball back and forth.
I felt a chill run down my spice, standing there on the throwing line was my closet friend. She had jet black hair, sparkling blue eyes and a petite figure.
“Hello Cerridwen.” I said smiling sweetly. “I thought you were volunteering for this booth too.” I said peering toward my sister, okay were not really sisters in the sense that we share the same mother. But more sisters in the sense that were tied together by faith. See Cerridwen and I are both witches, were both part of the growing pagan community that calls Benton home. Cerridwen is the one that gave me my craft name of “Luna” when she learned I loved astrology. Her mother Pandora had gone a step further and taught me how to read charts and stuff. And mom and dad they accepted it. I mean I knew mom would accept it, cause she always been a bit into New Age stuff. Dad though I though being a hard boiled Episcopalian he'll frown on it. But it turns out he knew more about this stuff than Mom and I did. I sometimes wondered about dad. It seemed like at times he walked between both worlds if you get my drift.
Anyway I'm rambling.
“I was, but mom decided they needed somebody to staff to 'Fortune Reading' booth and since I can mom taught me palm reading and tarot card reading. The people who put on this event decided I was better suited to do that. Hence the get-up.” She blushing. “So embarrassing to be seen in public like this.”
I then noticed the outfit she was wearing, a forest green skirt that reached down to the ground, brown, leather slippers and a lace up white blouse that was tucked into the waistline of the skirt. A shawl that was a matching green hung down around her shoulders. On her this wrist hung big bracelets of gold. All in all she looked like stepped straight from the pages of some Disney inspired animated movie. That or the closet of the local Goodwill.
“You look cute.” I said smiling a little. My smile only last a moment before I heard the ding of the soft ball being bashed into metal target and a moment later I was falling through the air and soon I was bouncing off the bottom of the tank! I did the swim in front of the viewing glass and then quickly broke the surface of the water.
But as soon as I broke the surface of the water. And my shift went on.
End of Chapter II
