Hey Stranger, It's me! {Rodney}

Rodney loved that UCLA had lockers for their students. It made him feel like he was in high school all over again. It wasn’t that he missed those days at all. He liked being here at college. But it was nice to remember sometimes what used to be. Rodney had reserved himself a locker in the middle of campus which was closer than his dorm room was to all of his main classes. It was just easier for him to get to his stuff without having to carry around a huge book bag. Not that he couldn’t carry a book bag around. Hell, he could bench press 270. But coach had said with his knee problems, he should probably not put anymore strain on it than necessary, so he wouldn’t have to sit out another game.

Rodney spun the combination being able to open it on the first try. It was nice that he didn’t have to fiddle with it. It irritated him standing at a locker for fifteen minutes trying to get it open. Once the locker was open, he lifted his arms shoving his biology book, biology notebook, and biology folder in. Thank god that class was over for the week. Luckily it was only twice a week for an hour and fifteen minutes each time. If he had to spend another minute in that class, he’d probably want to shoot himself. He dug his psychology book out of the locker along with the notebook and folder to go with it. Now that class was another story. He actually enjoyed going to lecture when it came to psychology. It was such an interesting field. If this physical education that he was going for didn’t work out, at least he’d have a fall back on something else he loved. But as interesting as psychology was, it bothered him that he may have to think about changing majors. If his knee didn’t fix itself, that is what he’d have to start thinking about.

Just as these thoughts entered his head, Rodney heard his name being called from behind him. Very soon after, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He remembered that voice very well. After all, he was a football player and cheerleaders were the main girls that the guys loved to listen to and gawk at. He turned and standing right in front of him was Mandy Donnelly. He smiled. “Hey. Yeah I’m Rodney. And you’re Mandy, right?” It wasn’t really a question. He already knew it as her. She wasn’t a face he could forget. “What can I do for you?”

When Mandy went on to tell him what she came to talk to him about, Rodney was intrigued. He didn’t know this girl very well, and she was asking him to go shopping with her. Rodney chuckled to himself. Just a few days ago Axel was talking to him about how girls seemed to flock to him. Lately he was feeling like maybe he had a point. Unfortunately, none of the girls seemed to want to be anything more than just a friend. It was fine, really. He didn’t need a girlfriend, and if he did, he’d want to make sure she was the right girl for him. But he could never tell with Mandy. Not that he had talked to her at any other time than this one, but he had heard her always talking with a few of the guys on the football team including his arch nemesis, Wesley Hunter. She always seemed so playful and outgoing. As hard as it already was for him to tell if a girl was flirting or not, Mandy was even harder to read.

But when she brought up the 90’s teen comedy scenario, it was fairly certain that that familiar outgoing friendly behavior that he had heard before with a few other guys on the team was happening with him. It was perfectly fine though. Maybe she didn’t even realize that someone might mistake her perky behavior for flirting. Or maybe she did but didn’t care. He really didn’t know her well enough to know for sure what went on in that pretty little head. “Hmm, well, I’m not the typical jock, so I don’t know if it would work for me either,” he commented as he closed his locker once he made sure to have all the things he would need for his psychology class. He was a jock, but not a real jock per say. If someone didn’t know Rodney, they would think he was a brain dead football player who only cared about the game. Boy, were they wrong. Rodney was one of the smartest people at his high school, and those smarts pretty much just transferred over with him when he moved to UCLA. And yeah, he cared about football, but he also cared about his future which didn’t involve just football but teaching, teaching physical education. He disliked when people made accusations about him before even getting to know him. Although he was pretty sure Mandy was just being hypothetical and funny not meaning at all to be mean or stereotypical.

Rodney watched as Mandy batted her eyelashes at him. He laughed. He thought it was funny that she thought he would need much convincing at all. Rodney enjoyed going out and doing things even if it was holding a bunch of shopping bags for a girl. It was nice to get away for a while to somewhere that wasn’t the library to study or the park to clear his head. And it had been quite a while since he’d hung out with anyone other than Merry. Hell, he hadn’t even seen Axel in a few days, and he lived with him. “I’d love to, Mandy. And no practice for me tonight.” He glanced down at his knee. “Sort of screwed up my knee. Coach won’t let me play for a while.” Rodney was really sad about not being able to play. He would constantly have to go to the doctor for sport related issues, and every time, he’d come out not listening to a word he’d say. Now, the doctor got the coach involved which really pissed him off. The only reason he went to the doctor was to have him fix the problem right then and there just so it wouldn’t hurt as bad when he played. Oh well, Rodney figured that whatever they decided to do for him was done to benefit him. At least this way he wouldn’t have major issues later on down the road when it actually mattered. “So, where would you like to meet? I’ll drive if you want.” He gave her a friendly smile.

Rodney grinned when she told him that it had made her day even better that he had told her he would drive. Driving wasn’t a problem at all for him. Any chance he got to show off his yellow 1990 stingray corvette, he would jump at it. But he wasn’t sure if Mandy would even appreciate the looks of his baby. She just didn’t seem like the type to know anything about cars. He knew though. It was possible that she could surprise him. “Well, I’m glad I could…” Rodney began but was stopped mid-sentence when Mandy jumped into his arms. Rodney had no clue how to react to something like this. It wasn’t every day that a peppy blonde girl threw herself at him literally. It was a bit uncomfortable. “Uh, no problem,” he said as he hesitantly patted her back. He was happy when she jumped off though. Mandy was a tiny little thing, but that extra weight did weigh down on his knee tremendously. He glanced at her. “No, no, it’s fine. I don’t think its ever going to feel better regardless of what else happens to it.”

When Mandy began to talk about how happy she was that he accepted her offer to shop with her, he knew she wasn’t lying. When it came to girls, Rodney was a bit clueless, but one thing he did know was that there wasn’t one girl who didn’t enjoy shopping. And Rodney actually liked it too as long has he got something out of it. Even though they would be shopping for Mandy, Mandy would just have to deal with them stopping at a shoe store, so he could buy himself a new pair of tennis shoes and a new football duffle.


Rodney could feel his cheeks flush a bit when she started talking about his muscles. What was it with girls and muscles? He thought it was so funny. Yes, he worked out, but were they that much bigger than other guys on the football team? He knew he wasn’t a twig by any means, but he didn’t realize that he was as buff as everyone made him out to be. “Yeah, I work out enough.” He gave her a smile. “What about you? Any working out for you?” He already thought he’d know the answer to that one. Mandy didn’t look like someone that would work out at all. She probably had her cheerleading and that was that for exercise. That was fine though. What exercise she didn’t get from working out, she definitely got from jumping around being extremely bubbly. “Hey, so when did you want to go? All I have is this psych class and then I’m done for the day.”