Not sure... Maybe Kate has an idea?

"Kate always has good ideas," John chimed in somewhat pathetically, "Maybe she can think of something."

Kate furrowed her brow. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "there might be a way we can raise the money and help the environment at the same time. What if we collected all the recyclable stuff that usually ends up in the school's trash bins and sold it to recycling mills? There must be thousands of dollars wasted that way just because nobody bothers to sort it out properly. We'd easily pay our half of the trip, and we'd be doing our part to make the planet a little greener."

"Wow, that's an awesome idea!" exclaimed Tanya.

Emboldened by their new plan of action, the girls enthusiastically began delegating the various tasks of trash scavenging, transportation, sales, and bookkeeping. As they did, John couldn't help but pause to admire his attractive companions.

Tanya, the team captain, was the classic leggy blonde. Her almost 6 feet of tanned incredibleness harbored not one triglyceride of visible fat, and boasted an unearthly flexibility. Allison, on the other hand, had developed over the past year into a red-headed freak of nature. How her impossibly thin frame managed support breasts of such monumental size was one of the great mysteries of science as far as John was concerned---a mystery that he would have loved to investigate. Ilyana was the exotic beauty of the bunch. He wasn't sure exactly where she was from, but her dark eyes and sensuous curves made her look to him like a starlet who had just stepped out of a very sexy desert harem-themed movie.

And then there was Kate. As his eyes wandered over her for the hundredth time that evening, he suddenly became aware that she was looking in his direction and saying something.

"Does that sound okay, John?" she asked impatiently for what was probably the third or fourth time.

"Uh, sorry, what?" he stammered.

"I said, can you email me a list of recycling mills where we might be able to sell the stuff? Here's my email address." She wrote it out on a scrap of paper and handed it to him.

He held the scrap delicately as if it were a treasure map that might crumble into dust at any moment, taking its promise of riches with it. The fog in his brain thickened as he observed her handwriting, which possessed that slightly bubbly quality so distinctly feminine.

"Um, yeah, sure," he managed.

"Great, thanks," she smiled, and with that the meeting adjourned.

In the back of his mind, a crackling radio voice reminiscent of a NASA moon landing exclaimed, "We have contact! Houston, we have contact!"

==========

Over the following months, John's relationship with the girls warmed somewhat. He was still a little bit of an outsider---female conversations still abruptly halted when he entered the room---but the girls all knew him now, and some even waved hello to him in the halls when they saw him.

The recycling campaign turned out to be a smashing success. They raised enough money to support all the airfare costs, leaving only the hotel expenses for the school to cover. Graduation came and went, and before they knew it, June had finally arrived and the team was assembling at the airport for their long-awaited flight to Hawaii.

"This is going to be SO great! SO great!" Allison chanted for the millionth time as they waited in the group ticketing line. "I'm gonna get a lei, and one of those umbrella drinks, and then I'm gonna go..."

"...to Waikiki beach," finished the others in exasperation.

"Yes, we know, Alli. Just try to remember that we have a meet to attend too!" Tanya admonished, provoking light laughter from the others.

As they all chattered excitedly, John turned to ask Kate about her plans, but stopped when he saw that she was staring intently toward the airport entrance, blushing somewhat furiously. Following her gaze, he espied Mandy still outside "saying goodbye" to her boyfriend Nick, where "saying goodbye" had apparently turned into a pretty intense face-sucking competition with some mild groping. John chuckled to himself and cleared his throat, arresting Kate's attention, but making her blush even more furiously when she realized he'd caught her watching the steamy display.

"Mandy and Nick aren't exactly the classiest couple, are they," quipped John, trying to diffuse her embarrassment.

For a few seconds Kate was silent, and he started to fear he may have offended her somehow. But then she said something that really surprised him.

"Sometimes I wish I could be like that," she said faintly.

"Whataya mean?" he asked.

"You know, like knowing what guys really like and being all sexy and everything."