Shy

As he reaches them Jill tries to flee, but Kate being mischievous does not let her. “Morning Tom, seen any good pictures lately?” asks Kate. Jill blushes next to her.

“Why did you have any you want to send me? Good morning Jill” replies Tom as they start walking towards their next class.

“Morning Tom” quietly replies Jill,

Tom can see she is embarrassed about yesterday. Wanting to move on and ease her embarrassment Tom tries to move the conversation on. “I am looking forward to my party on Saturday, I am glad you can come”

“Yeah, it should be fun.” Suddenly Jill stops walking “uh Matt told me about the second bet, so, uh, what, uh, umm” jill trails off.

Kate looks on curiously, “another bet, I only heard about the first. What is this one?” Clearly no one has told Kate that she was part of a bet.

Tom looked at Jill and saw that she was silent and not able to answer “Uh, there was a bet that let the winner choose the wardrobe of some people that are coming to my party”

“Wow, that sounds interesting, so who won and who are the models”

“I won, and Jill is one of the models. You were also selected to be one as well” as Tom informed Kate, he feels the bet energy bubbling. When he mentioned Jill, the energy was strong. However, when he mentioned Kate, the energy felt week, like she could break the bet and back out of it.

Tom suddenly got clarity, Kate was part of Matts stake, and they do not have close ties. She is Jills friend not Matt’s. There must be a degree of ownership to make a bet. The other bets were about family members, or partners and their families. The close connection between people allows for the bet to take place, a random person will not pay off someone’s debt.

Tom watched Kate process and could feel the bet energy nudging her to agree. If she Kate feels strongly against it, the bet will break. “That sounds fun, so how are you deciding what we wear.”

Tom felt the bet latch and bind Kate to it. Tom can feel that he can fully exploit it now like any of the others. Tom feels that with only a day and a half that he will not have the time and opportunity to exploit everyone and he needs to focus and choose.

The next class is English and it is one of the few classes all his friends are in together.

“I got an idea, lets quickly get to English, and I will try and work it out”

They dash to the class, he see’s his guy friends, as well as, Fiona and Mary. Then he looks at Mr Johnson their English teacher and walks to his desk. “Mr Johnson could I have a couple of a library passes for this period”

“What for?”

“I assume we are continuing our creative writing assessment, and I would like to do a little research”

“We are, but I will not let you and your friends spend the session in the library goofing off”

“Sorry sir, I want the passes for me, Jill and Kate. I am sure you can trust Jill to keep us in line”

“That is Jill, Kate and I, Tom. “Replies Mr Johnson he thinks about it and is hesitating.

Tom decides to try and force the issue. He grabs a coin from his pocket and flips it. “How about I bet that it is heads. If it is you give Jill, Kate and I the library pass.” Tom then remembers “oh and Fiona and Mary as well”

Tom felt the Bet energy flowing.

“Ok Tom Heads and you have it”.

Tom lifts his hand to reveal the coin heads up.

“Fiona, Mary get your thinks you have a library pass with these three for the lesson. Class we are working on your creative Writing assignment. Keep your chatter down. You will need four pages of drafts ready by next Friday. If you need any help or want me to look at your drafts so far for review, then write your names on the board”

Dennis Sticks his hand up “Can I have a library pass as well”

“No, you know I can only hand out four for a session and I am bending the rules as it is to allow 5 to go. If you really need to go to the library for research, then let me know and I will organise it for next class”

Tom throws a victory sign at Dennis and heads out the classroom with the girls.