Sing for Their Supper - 20

"Well? We have to let Tuck know one way or the other. So?" Sam looked at Jolie and Mace.

"I'm scared to say yes because I know he'll change his mind about me," Mace replied.

"Bull," Jolie said, smacking his shoulder. "You're just as good as me and Sam."

Sam nodded. "She's right, you know. So we'll tell him yes?"

"You better believe it!" Jolie replied. "Now we just have to wait for him to show up again."

That took another day. They were in the middle of a song when Sam saw Tuck standing at the edge of a small crowd of listeners. He raised his hand to give Tuck a thumbs up. Tuck circled a finger and Sam nodded. Tuck gave a fist pump in reply.

When they finished, Tuck waited until most of the onlookers had left before joining the kids. "Do any of you have a phone?" he asked.

"We all do," Sam told him. "And I've even got a few minutes left on mine."

"Good. What's your number?" Sam told him and Tuck entered it on his phone. "Okay. Just so you know, I've got three other people—Roma, a kid named Ricky, and a girl named Dena."

"Hot damn," Jolie exclaimed.

"I want at least two to four more, to begin with," Tuck said.

"Did you try Champion Park—or around the college?" Sam asked.

Tuck winced. "No. I've been too busy with other things I have to get done. I'll do that this afternoon."

"We could take one of them," Mace said.

"It'll make things go faster," Jolie added. "That way we can, well, you know—"

"Get everything started." Tuck winked. "Eager much?"

"You have no clue."

"I think I do." That gave him an idea, one he'd have to talk over with Brent. "All right. You all take the campus. I'll hit up Champion Park."

*****

"What are you doing here?" Evie asked, coming over to where DJ was sitting, his back against the wall of a bookstore.

"Trying to look starving and pathetic," he said.

She sat down beside him. "You've got the starving thing going. I mean, could you be any thinner?"

He chuckled. "I hope not. But part of that's just me. I never was the biggest guy in school, by a long shot."

She eyed him. "I'm five four, and if I remember from the drop-in place, you weren't much taller than me. That's why you were having a problem finding shirts. Right?"

"Yeah. I'm a strapping five six."

"How old are you?"

A bit surprised at the question, DJ said, "Eighteen. And you?"

"Sixteen, but almost seventeen." Evie thanked a guy who dropped a couple of coins in the cup she was holding. "So, are you having any luck?"

DJ shrugged. "I think I've made enough for a cheap burger and some coffee."

"Coffee? Eww." She wrinkled her nose and he laughed. "Don't do that," she said. "I mean, you look good when you do, but you're supposed to be pathetic."

"Show me, oh great and wise one."