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As often happened, Alan found himself walking with Christine between first-period and second-period classes. He was trying to be in the moment, but it was a struggle because he couldn\'t stop reflecting on what had happened at home that morning, before school.

Christine said to him, "I can\'t believe I\'m actually speaking to you in the flesh. You\'ve been so hard to reach lately. Are we still friends? Did what happened to us a while back ruin everything?"

"No. No, it didn\'t."

"Did our practice date ruin things then? You haven\'t spoken to me much since then, aside from a couple of times. I was just trying to reestablish our friendship, I hope I didn\'t mess things up even more."

"No, the date was great. No problem at all. We had a good time hanging out after school on Thursday, right? Remember that? And today\'s only Monday."

Christine nodded. "Yeah, that\'s true. It\'s just that... Well, that was pretty much the only time."

"Hold on. We had lunch together on Wednesday too, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

In truth, in the last week or so she\'d been deliberately giving him more social time outside class than ever before, but her interest in him had been growing steadily, so now she wanted even more. That led her to complain: "But other than a couple times here and there, you haven\'t said much more to me than the usual \'Hey, what\'s up?\' kind of talk. And all the weird stuff I pointed out then is still happening. It seems you\'re always spaced out, ridiculously happy, and you disappear as soon as class is over."

Trying to dodge the issue, he chuckled, "\'Ridiculously happy?\' Is that a bad thing?"

"No, but... You have to admit, it does kind of make a girl wonder."

He nodded, then replied vaguely, "It\'s not just you. I\'m not trying to avoid you at all. I like spending time with you. But you may have noticed that I\'ve been hard to reach for everyone lately."

She arched an eyebrow. "That\'s an understatement! You\'ve become the mystery man. No one even sees you during lunch anymore. People are starting to talk. What\'s going on?"

"I\'m just really, really busy. Lots of things happening at home..." He thought, That is technically true. If she only knew what kinds of things.

They were getting near their next classroom, so she slowed her pace considerably so that they could keep talking without people overhearing. "Is it because of what you told me on Thursday, that you\'re going out on real dates?"

"Well, that\'s a big part of it. Especially the \'ridiculously happy\' part. But as far as disappearing all the time and not spending more time with you, that\'s just my lameness. I\'d love to spend a lot more time with you. In fact, I\'d like for us to go on a second non-date date, if you know what I mean. Would you be into that?"

"Definitely!" She belatedly realized that she was looking and sounding too eager. "Um, I mean, that would be cool."

"Cool. I\'ll give you a call to work out the details. But as a general plan, how about some time this weekend? Like maybe Friday or Saturday night?"

"Yeah, okay. Let\'s do it!" She chided herself for sounding too eager again, but she wasn\'t good at hiding her emotions. Then she added uncertainly, "That is, I wouldn\'t be interrupting your real dates with a mere practice date, would I?"

He replied, "No, don\'t worry. I can juggle things around, I\'m sure. It\'s like what I told you on Thursday: I\'ll always have time for you. Even though we\'ve pretty much only hung out in school until lately, I consider you one of my best friends."

She was glad to hear that. Still, she was dying to find out just who his other date or dates were. Then she remembered that she\'d promised on Thursday not to be nosy about that. She said, "Yeah, but Friday or Saturday night, that\'s the time for real dates." She hoped he might reveal more about his other dates by responding to that probe.

He said, "And it\'s the time for practice dates too. After all, they\'re pretty much real except for the romance part. Don\'t worry; like I said, I can juggle my other dates, no problemo."

"Cool." By this time, they\'d reached the door of their next classroom, then stood there until they\'d finished their conversation. Christine smiled as they walked to their seats together.

She\'d tried to sound enthusiastic, but actually she was disappointed. Their "non-romantic" date had gone so well that she was starting to warm up to the idea of going on a real romantic date. However, he seemed very firm on not getting involved with her. What bothered her more was his mention of going out on "real dates" with other girls. He even mentioned that he could juggle his "other dates," which implied more than one. She was surprised at just how much that disturbed her.

Still, she looked forward to their weekend plans and hoped to further test his feelings and see if she could progress their relationship further.

As he sat in his chair and waited for class to begin, he pondered the notion of getting something sexual going with her after all. But he dismissed the idea almost as soon as he thought of it.

He thought, No way am I going to go through that agony again, just to be shot down and probably see our friendship destroyed for good. Plus, I\'ve got so many women on my mind and in my life, I just can\'t deal with another. Christine is a Nordic blonde goddess and I really love her... well, I love her personality at the very least. And I could really love her body. She still turns me on in a big way, but she\'s so sexually inexperienced. She\'s still the "Ice Queen"; as far as I know, she hasn\'t even kissed a guy yet.

I\'m so totally spoiled these days that when I hang out with a beautiful woman, I expect a handjob the way other guys expect a hello. It would be unfair of me to drag such an innocent girl down into my den of iniquity. She\'d be better off without me. She needs to find some pure, innocent guy just like her. I can\'t give the women I\'m already with the time or love they deserve; adding another one would be selfish of me and unfair to them all.

Alan and Christine shared nearly all their classes so, now that their friendship was back on solid ground, it felt natural when they walked together between their second and third-period classes. As they did, Christine asked him, "By the way, I\'ve been wondering... Have you had a meeting with the college counselor yet?"

"No," he replied. "How \'bout you?"

"Oh, sure. I asked to be one of the ones to go first, so I could get it out of the way."

"Well...?"

"Well what?"

"If I\'m not being too nosy, what colleges are you planning to apply to?" He was genuinely curious.

She looked around suspiciously. "I suppose I can tell you. But don\'t spread this around, okay? I have enough trouble with people thinking I\'m elitist."

"My lips are sealed."

She smiled as she pondered her bright college future. "My first choice is Stanford. It\'s one of the best of the best, and it\'s here in California. But, failing that, I\'m thinking Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. I have some back-up schools too."

Alan whistled. "Phew! No wonder you want to keep that on the down-low. Some people are gonna be envious when they hear about your choices. Especially since it\'s obvious that you\'re going to get accepted to them all."

"Really? You think?" She looked surprisingly worried.

"Are you kidding me?! You could get in on your academic accomplishments alone. But when you add in your athletic and extra-curricular stuff, you might as well buy your Stanford sweater now, if that\'s your top choice. And that\'s not to mention overcoming your big disability."

She raised a curious eyebrow, indicating he needed to explain.

He deadpanned, "I refer to your blonde hair, of course. As I recall, it\'s been decades since any blonde has gotten into Stanford, male or female."

She raised a book and acted like she was going to hit him over the head with it. "You! Argh!" Knowing they didn\'t have much time to talk before class started, she asked, "What about you? Where are you applying, Mr. Brown Hair?"

He thought, Oh, shit! I haven\'t been thinking about that AT ALL. And with the way I\'ve been neglecting my homework in favor of sex, my options are narrowing. But he had thought about it from time to time for months, so at least he had a ready answer. "I\'d love to go to Stanford too. That would probably be my first choice as well, but I have to be realistic. My chances of getting in would be a longshot at best. Heck, that\'s true for all of your top choices. But I think I\'d have a really good chance of getting into UC Berkeley. If not that, maybe UCLA. I figure that if I\'m not going to luck into some top Ivy League college, I might as well stay in sunny California."

She nodded. She knew his chances of getting into Stanford were quite small, so she didn\'t want to give him unrealistic expectations. Instead, as they walked into class and sat down, she said, "You know what? If I get into Stanford and you get into Berkeley, we\'ll only be about an hour apart."

He smiled. "That\'s true. That would be cool. It would be a lot better than being on the other side of the country from each other. It would be nice to stay in touch."

"Yeah." She returned his smile. "I\'d like that."

He felt all warm and tingly inside from looking at her and hearing her say that.