I'm so exhausted from busing at the diner so I head right to my bed and lay down. Mrs. Anderson comes down and sits on the bed. "Are you alright?" 

She asks. "yeah. just tired." I reply."How about coming up to dinner?"

"Nah, I ate the diner's special tonight."

"Probably you've been eating too much diner food and it's killing your energy."

"When I eat there I usually have a doughnut or a couple cookies! Tonight I was helping bus tables!"

"Oh?"

"Uh huh, it was really busy tonight and I thought they could use an extra busboy. Pete offered me a job this summer, I'm not sure about taking it. What if he's trying to fill a minority quota?"

"PRINCE ROGERS NELSON!" Mrs. Anderson scolds," Pete has been nothing but kind to you. He'd never hire you for selfish reasons. I think you should accept his offer. A job is good for helping build maturity and responsibility."

"But like I told him, I'm a musician!"

"It's your decision, I'm just a little concerned about you and Andre having too much free time over the summer. In fact I'm helping him find work this year. Just try it out for a little while-it'd be a good learning experience."

"Ma, do you really think having Loverboy working around Margaret is a good idea?" asks Andre,"Like either of them are going to get their jobs done."

"It'll be fine. Prince, just think it over before saying no"

"Okay, I'm going to bed." I inform her.

"Just brush your teeth first" Mrs. Anderson says.

At school the next day, we are handed the tests we took recently. Margaret scored top in the class, nothing unusual there. I'm pleased for her as always and I've passed with flying colors myself. My average has gone up a whole letter grade since we started dating because she enjoys a good study date. Mr. Charles probably thought her grades would nosedive once we got together. She's doing as well as ever. Colleges will beg for her, I know it.

During lunch we sit with Andre and Carla, a pretty black girl he hangs with sometimes. Carla  asks him," Are you going to the final track meet of the year?"

 "I might," he replies trying to play it cool.

"Well...I'm going, maybe we could ride over together?" 

"Sure". Andre tries not to sound too excited.

"We should go to that! Margaret suggests. She likes to go to school sports events and screaming like an idiot whenever our school is winning. 

"Alright." I reply.

"Don't yell in my ear like you did last time." Andre requests.

"I'm sorry about that." Margaret says.

"You yell better than the cheerleaders." Carla laughs.

"I used to cheer- until this year, but I don't like trying to get guys' attention, which is what it felt like to me. Daddy thought I should be on the squad though."

"Got any photos? Love to see that" I confess.

She blushes. "Haven't you seen the one at the diner? Uncle Pete has a bulletin board regulars hang photos on. He put it on there because he thought it was cute picture. Me on top of a pyramid." Margaret laughs. 

Hmmm...how could I have missed that?

Naturally, I drop by the diner after school to check out Margaret's cheerleading photo. Yes, she looks fantastic on top of the pyramid in her little skirt. "Great shot huh?" Pete chuckles, "I've got something for you." Pete hands me an envelope with some money in it. "That's proper wages for the work you did yesterday."

"No, thank you. I was just doing the right thing." I reply as I hand him the envelope back.

"Prince, never work for free." Pete advices, "If you don't take this, I'm mailing it to your house."

Margaret giggles, "He will to."

"Man of my word" Pete boasts

"Fine." I sigh in defeat and shove the money into my pocket. 

Margaret goes to the restroom to change into her uniform. When she returns, a regular who is old enough to be my grandma smiles and says,"The two of you are such a sweet couple."

Wish everyone felt that way.