Chapter Fourteen:
………she and John took care of the bill and walked out……..
"Where to now?" John asked as they started off in the car.
"Well", Evangeline said. "I don’t know if I ever told you this before, but I mentor 4 inner city high school girls to help prepare them for college. For the last 2 months when we met, I helped them prepare to take their SATs. They took them yesterday and I let them talk me into taking them bowling today to celebrate the test being over. They said I was a real slave driver about the test."
John smiled and said, "So you’re determined in every area of your life, not just your job, huh?"
"Of course", she replied. "You know how my father instilled the importance of an education into me. I feel it’s my civic duty to pass that along to others that may have to be just as strong to make it in this world."
John reached over and touched Evangeline’s leg as she drove and smiled admiringly at her.
"What’s that for?" Evangeline asked. "Am I on my soap box again?"
"No, no", John said. "I just admire how you help so many people. That’s all."
They were pulling into the bowling alley parking lot as Evangeline said, "Thanks."
As they were walking into the bowing alley, Evangeline warned John, "These girls are pretty defensive around people they’ve never met because they’ve had to protect themselves and their families to make it. They may start off a little weary of you at the beginning and they’ll have a lot of questions. Can you handle that?"
John squeezed her hand and said, "You bet I can."
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John and Evangeline had gotten their lanes and balls while they were waiting for the girls to show up. John laughed at Evangeline when she came back with a pink bowling ball.
"What are you laughing about?" Evangeline inquired of John.
"A pink ball, Evangeline?" John replied. "This is bowling you know, not a girly powder puff thing."
"Really", she said. "Well, I’ll wait and see how you feel when I beat you with this pink ball."
He gave her a sly look and said, "Now there’s the competitive Evangeline that I know. I’m going to have to put my game face on. First though, come here." He pulled her to him and gave her a kiss.
That caught her off guard and when their lips parted, she said, "Don’t try to distract me, Lieutenant. That kiss won’t make me take it any easier on you."
They both stood their just smiling and looking into each other’s eyes.
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Tamika, Aisha, Theresa, and Lien came walking in to the bowling alley just as John was kissing Evangeline. Tamika said, "Who’s that pushing up on Evangeline?"
Theresa replied, "I don’t know, but she doesn’t look like she minds." The four of them laughed as they walked toward John and Evangeline.
Evangeline heard them laughing and turned to face them. "Hey girls", she said. "You don’t look all worn out or anything. I guess the test wasn’t as bad as you thought, huh?"
"Are you kidding?" Lien replied. "I’ve never seen so many long vocabulary words in my life. I finally realized why you made us play scrabble so much. The ones I didn’t recognize right away, I was able to kind of figure them out by their syllables. Thanks for the help. Lucky for me, I want to be an accountant. All I really have to remember the meaning of is ‘in the red’ and ‘in the black’."
"What about the rest of you?" Evangeline said. "How was the test for you guys?"
Aisha said, "It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. You really prepared us well. Thanks."
The others chimed in as well, "Yeah, thanks."
Evangeline said, "You’re all very welcome. Look, there’s someone I’d like you guys to meet. John, this is Tamika, future doctor, Aisha, future web designer, Lien, future accountant and Theresa, future attorney. Girls, this is John McBain."
John reached out and shook each of their hands. "Very impressive", he said. "It’s very nice to meet all of you."
They all shook his hand and replied, "Nice to meet you too sir", but he could tell they were holding back a little, reserving their opinions for later.
Evangeline took them up to get shoes and help them all pick out balls while John set up the score card. He put himself last so that he would always know how many pins he needed to try to keep ahead of Evangeline. He remembered her saying what her average was once and he knew she’d be hard to beat.
As they all bowled, the girls were having fun, even though they weren’t doing that well. However, what they got the biggest kick out of was the competition between Evangeline and John. The lead between those two went back and forth and the girls noticed the look of determination on Evangeline’s face. Aisha mentioned to Theresa, "I don’t think I’ve ever seen Diva E act this way before. She’s really into him. He seems okay, but he better not hurt her."
"Yeah", Theresa replied. "He better treat her like the Queen that she is. But you know, he seems really into her too."
At the end of the game, it turned out that Evangeline beat John by 12 points. John said, "I can’t believe you beat me with that pink ball. I’ll never be able to live this down." He held his head down and slumped his shoulders like he was all depressed.
Evangeline walked up next to him and put her arms around him and said, "I’m sorry. I just couldn’t let you talk about my pink ball that way. Pink Rules!!! Am I right girls?"
The four girls chimed in, "You know what time it is. Preach it Sista."
John just smiled.
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Evangeline said, "Who wants pizza?"
All the girls said they did and Evangeline had them go turn in their shoes and order the pizza. She told them that she and John would meet them at a table in a few minutes.
John said, "I’m still full from the Jambalaya. I can’t eat anymore."
"I’m not eating either", Evangeline replied. "I just don’t like to send them home without feeding them. They are growing girls. We can just have a beer or soda."
Evangeline and John put the balls back and Evangeline paid for the games. John tried to pay, but Evangeline insisted. She said, "No, no, no, Lieutenant. This is my date. I pay."
John reluctantly agreed.
Tamika overheard Evangeline call John Lieutenant and when they reached the table to sit down, she said to John, "You’re 5-0?"
"Um, yeah", John replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I heard her call you Lieutenant and I was just surprised. You don’t act like 5-0, at least the ones in my area of town."
John didn’t know what to say and just kinda stared. Evangeline chimed in, "Well actually, John use to be with the FBI, but now he’s head of detectives for the Llanview Police Department."
"Hmmmm", Tamika replied.
John thought he should try to find something that they had in common, so he asked, "Did Evangeline say earlier that you’re going to be a doctor one day?"
Tamika said, "Yeah, that’s what I want to be, if it’s possible."
John said, "Why wouldn’t it be possible? I’m sure you can do anything you put your mind to. My little brother, Michael, is a Resident at Llanview Hospital right now."
"Really", Tamika interestingly asked. "What is his specialty going to be?"
"He’s really been into investigating mysteries lately, so I think he’s going to specialize in Forensic medicine. Do you ever come to visit Evangeline in Llanview?"
"We come over some time", Tamika replied.
"Well, maybe the next time you come over, I could take you to the hospital to meet my brother and he could show you around. I know when he was in high school and really becoming serious about being a doctor, any thing medical he could learn about, he wanted to."
"Wow that would be great", Tamika said as she took a bite of her piece of pizza.
Evangeline just kind of took in the whole conversation, in between her conversation with Theresa and marveled at how John had gotten Tamika to warm up to him. "He does have that way about him", she thought.
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After the girls finished their pizza, John asked them if they’d like to play some of the video games he noticed in the game room. They all said they would like to. Evangeline excused herself to the Ladies Room and said she’d be right back.
John was clearing off the table and about to go buy some tokens for them when Aisha blurted out, "You know Mr. McBain, you seem cool enough, but if you don’t step correct to Diva E, the 4 of us will be all over you."
John was in shock and didn’t know which part of the statement to address first. He thought about it for 2 seconds and then he said, "Who’s Diva E?"
Theresa said, "That’s our name for Evangeline."
"Why do you call her that?" he inquired.
"Well", Lien started. "She’s taught us how to respect our elders, so we can’t call her Evangeline. It wouldn’t be right. But, she didn’t like us calling her Ms. Williamson all the time either. So, we came up with Diva E. It fits her."
John was smiling as he said, "You’re right. It does fit her. So, what would you guys like to call me? I’m guessing you won’t call me John, but Mr. McBain was my dad."
Tamika thought about it for a minute and said, "How about we call you McB. Can you handle that?"
"McB it is", he said. "Now, explain to me what, um, step correct means?"
All 4 girls laughed and finally Aisha said, "It means if you don’t treat Diva E right, like the prize she really is, we’ll be all over you. Got it?"
"Oh, I understand", John said. "Don’t worry. I’m doing my best to treat her exactly how she deserves to be treated. Now that I know you’re watching, I’ll be even more careful. Geesh!!! Have you treated all her other male friends this way?"
Theresa replied, "You’re the first male friend of hers that we’ve met."
At this time, Evangeline came walking back and said, "What are y’all talking about?"
The girls just stared at her and John finally said, "Nothing really. We were just trying to figure out which game to play first." In his mind though, he saved the interesting tidbit that Evangeline hadn’t ever introduced them to any other male friends. He liked the fact that she must feel close enough to him to let him into a part of her life that she didn’t share with every one.
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All 6 of them went into the arcade and kind of dispersed. Evangeline and Aisha went over to the vintage games and started to play Ms. Pac Man. Theresa went over to the basketball shot clock game. While they were doing that, John, Tamika, and Lien went over to the Daytona 500 driving game and raced against each other. They were all having a good time.
John went over to the gumball machine and when he put in his token, instead of getting a big gumball, he got a big pacifier sucker on a plastic purple ring. He yelled over to Evangeline, "Diva E, I have something for you."
Evangeline turned around with a stunned look on her face and said, "What did you call me?"
John laughed and said, "Your name, Diva E."
Evangeline pursed her lips together and looked at the 4 girls. They just laughed and said, "McB’s right. That is your name."
Evangeline looked confused and said, "McB?"
"That’s their name for me", John said as he was walking toward her. As he put the pacifier ring on her finger, he said, "They have to call me something, don’t they?"
Evangeline just smiled.
They finished up using the rest of the tokens and John and Evangeline told the girls goodbye and headed back to Llanview.
