“Tommy! You put your gym shorts on backwards” howled Billy while pointing it out to everybody else in the class.
“He did!” hooted Jason.
Josh was laughing so hard he could hardly talk, as was the rest of the class.
Tommy’s face turned beet red as he ran to the locker room. Moments later he emerged with them on correctly. Sheepishly he approached the boys.
“Wait til we tell Molly,” teased Billy.
“You better not!” threatened Tommy, “I’ll get you if you do!”
Molly was Tommy’s girlfriend. Well, in theory, she was. He liked her but it was doubtful that she liked him. In fact, she probably didn’t even know who he was.
His buddies knew something was going on when they caught him watching her in the hallway.
“Whatcha doin’, Tommy?, they had teased him, “gotta girlfriend?”
“Her? Are you kiddin’ me?” he nervously replied.
But it was too late. The boys knew that Tommy liked her. The fun would now begin.
“Go talk to her.”
“Yeah! She won’t bite. She wears braces. She probably can’t bite you,” teased Jason.
“Leave me alone,” pleaded Tommy.
“What’s the matter? Are you chicken?” asked Billy.
They began circling him, flapping their arms like imaginary wings and crowing like roosters.
Molly heard the commotion and looked their way.
Tommy made a hasty retreat with his buddies following him. Finding safety in another hallway, they stopped and stared at Tommy.
“I think you’re afraid of her,” teased Jason.
“Am not!” Tommy replied defiantly.
“Want me to talk to her for you?” asked Billy with a grin on his face.
Tommy looked at Billy with sheer terror. He knew that Billy would do it. He wouldn’t hesitate to do it. The more he thought about it the scareder he got!
“No way! You better not!” he ordered.
“We’re just trying to help you,” said Josh.
“Don’t need your help!” came the answer.
That night Josh, Jason, and Billy met at Billy’s house and came up with a plan to help Tommy’s love life.
“Are you sure it will work?” asked Jason.
“Sure it will,” answered Billy, “I guarantee it.”
“Is this another of your crazy ideas?” asked Josh.
Billy just glared at them, “Trust me, it will work.”
“Where have we heard that before?” laughed Jason.
“Do you want to help Tommy or not?” glad Billy.
“Ok, what do we do?”
“Here’s the plan.”
Josh and Jason couldn’t believe what they were being asked to do but agreed to do it anyway. It would go into action at school the next day.
Tommy was getting books out of his locker and had no clue that something was going on until Molly walked up to him.
“Are you Tommy Tomboli?” she asked while surveying him from head to toe. He nodded yes, wondering what was going on.
“I got your note.”
Panic hit him big time. He hadn’t sent her a note. He was too shy. What was she talking about? Then it dawned on him. His buddies had set him up. He quickly looked for an escape route but there was none. Molly’s girlfriends were standing behind her, blocking any flight path he might choose. Tommy immediately broke into a fear induced sweat.
“What note?” he asked.
“The note I found taped to my locker door,” she replied.
“I didn’t put it there. Besides that, we don’t even know each other. We’ve never spoke to each other before. What does the note say?” he cautiously asked.
Molly retrieved it from her backpack and began to read.
“Molly, this is Tommy Tomboli. I like you. I have ever since I first saw you. Will you be my girlfriend?”
Tommy was ready to crawl into a hole and hide. But not before getting even with his buddies, especially Billy.
“I didn’t write that but I know who did,” he offered.
“Who!” Molly demanded.
“Billy Bixley, Jason Jackson, and Josh Jacobs, they are my best friends,” he answered.
“And why would they do this?” she again demanded.
“Because I made the mistake of letting them know that I do like you. I think you’re pretty,” he shyly answered.
Molly didn’t know what to say at first. Her friends started talking and giggling among themselves. She turned around and gave them a nasty look. They shut up immediately.
“Do you want to get even?” she smiled with a gleam in her eye.
“Oh boy, do I,” he answered.
She went to her girlfriends and began a heated discussion. They began protesting immediately but Molly finally won them over.
“Come on. Let’s find your so-called friends,” she ordered.
This wasn’t very hard to do. They had been watching the proceedings from an empty
classroom. Molly got a glimpse of the boys and turned to Tommy.
“Is that them?” she asked.
He nodded yes and off they went.
The boys saw them coming and tried to lock the door but it was too late. They couldn’t stop thirteen determined girls from barging into the room. The boys backed themselves into a corner, not knowing what to expect.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” offered Molly. She then told them what was going to happen next.
“No way!” shouted Billy.
“Let’s go, girls,” commanded Molly.
In no time they had the boys subdued. Each of the girls gave each boy a kiss right on the lips. They screamed, threatened, and struggled but it didn’t do them any good. Spitting and sputtering, they tried to rub their mouths clean. The girls laughed at them hysterically.
“Tommy, come here,” coaxed Molly.
He did so and was thrilled with what happened.
Molly took him by the hand and said, “This is for you,” and gave him a big kiss.
Word got around the school about what had happened. The three boys never lived it down. Tommy couldn’t care less. Molly had kissed him. That was all that mattered.
June 24, 2023