Bait a Hook Ch. 04

*Author's Note: Thanks so much for sticking with me. I appreciate all of the comments and take them to heart. I know this story isn't fast enough for some of you, but it really starts to heat up in chapter 5.*

I woke up in a decent mood, still trying to figure out how the year would go, but cautiously optimistic.

"What do you think of school so far?" Emily asked as we made the drive.

"Not too bad I guess," was my response as we pulled into the parking lot. "I'll meet you after school."

"Volleyball tryouts are today, I'll catch a ride home with Lindsey."

"Good luck Em!" I smiled at her as we made our way to our separate classes.

I kept getting the feeling someone was staring at me in English, but the few times I dared turning around to glance behind me, no one was looking. Right before the bell rang, I thought I might have seen Rob turn his head, but he was staring at his notebook, seemingly fascinated by the blue lines that ran across the page.

Chicken nuggets were on the lunch menu today and I eagerly grabbed my tray and headed to the same spot as yesterday. I was glad when a couple of Rob's friends just came over and filled in their seats. Rob made his way to the table and was greeted excitedly by the rest of the table. He greeted his friends and added "hey Bobby," to me. "How you getting along? This small town school not overwhelming you is it?"

"It's been pretty good so far." I nodded as he took a chicken nugget and ran it through his mashed potatoes before eating it. He must have seen a funny look on my face as he chuckled before speaking, "sorry about my table manners, I'm starving."

I grinned at him "No worries," I said as I dunked a nugget in my mashed potatoes before eating it. "not bad." I smiled sheepishly at him as he laughed at my mimicry.

"Your house is on the creek isn't it Bobby?" He asked a few minutes later.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Would you mind if I came by and went fishing off your dock sometime?"

"No I wouldn't mind if you did that."

"Awesome" he exclaimed pulling his phone out of his pants, "what's your number so I can let you know and see if it's a good time?" I gave him my number and was surprised when my phone started vibrating in my pocket. "Now you have my number, so you won't be surprised when a random number wakes you up at 5 AM."

I made an exaggerated groan, "if you're coming over that early, please don't wake me up." I said in a sarcastic voice and he chuckled as the bell rang.

I was glad to be in History class sitting behind Rob. Even just staring at the back of his head was awesome. He even smelled good. I was surprised at the end of the class when the teacher, Mr. Brown, asked me for a minute of my time, I saw Rob glance behind him, but he headed out the door with the rest of the class.

"Bobby, I asked your PE coach if he knew of anyone who would be interested in joining the track team. He mentioned you ran pretty well yesterday. I doubt you know, but I'm also the track coach and we have tryouts today after school."

"To be honest sir, I'm a swimmer; I've never run for sport."

"Swimming is a lot like track Bobby, I would be happy if you made it to tryouts this afternoon."

"I'll think about it." I said as he handed me a note so I wouldn't get in trouble for being late to my next class.

I had decided by the time the dismissal bell sounded that I would at least go to tryouts. I liked swim meets, and since there wasn't a swim team here, I'd give track a shot. As I walked through the gym Emily was with a group of girls stretching and getting ready for volleyball tryouts, she waved and I gave her a thumb as I headed to change.

"Glad you could make it Bobby." Mr. Brown nodded as I made it out onto the track. After a couple warm up laps I noticed that the football team was heading to the center of the track to start practice. I glanced around looking for Rob, but it was hard to tell who was under all the helmets. I ran around in a couple of mock races and seemed to fair pretty well. I'm not sure why there were tryouts, as I'm pretty sure everyone who tried out made the team. I did embarrass myself, trying unsuccessfully to clear some hurdles at full speed. I got distracted when I heard a thump from the football guys, as the team hollered a good play, I looked up to see #47 removing his helmet after he flattened the running back. He had a huge grin on his face and I about went head first over the hurdle. Despite my hurdling technique the coach handed me a bag that had several track uniforms in it and waved me on my way.

The locker room was pretty full since multiple teams had tryouts or practice today. I looked up just in time to catch Rob pulling down his tight football pants revealing a glorious, slightly hairy ass, framed nicely by white straps of a jock. I quickly took a mental photograph, sat down and started to untie my shoes so I wouldn't get caught drooling. I decided to wait and shower at home as my heart, brain, and cock were in overdrive.

I was glad at the end of the day Friday for a chance to relax. My feet, not used to all the running, had blisters on the heels. Classes had been going well and coach told me I was a natural runner. I dropped my backpack on my floor and headed for a quick shower. I put on some gym shorts just to relax for the afternoon. My phone started vibrating and I fished it off of my bed. 'Hey Bobby, it's Rob, just wondering if it's cool if I came by to go fishing this afternoon.' I typed out 'Sounds good,' at least I'd get a good view of him fishing as I gazed out my window. I was half asleep half daydreaming when I heard the doorbell ring.

"Good afternoon ma'am, I'm Rob. Bobby and I are going to cast a line off of the dock if that's okay." I set up hearing Rob talking to my mom.

"Oh that's nice dear, a pleasure to meet you, and so polite. I'll see if Bobby is ready."

I expected Rob to come fishing, but I didn't think he wanted me to go with him. I pulled on a t-shirt and put on my flip flops as mom called from down the stairs.

"Bobby your friend is here."

I tried to control my racing heart so I didn't tumble as I plodded down the stairs.

"Hey Bobby, ready to get a line wet?" He smiled as I headed out the door with him.

"Ready as I'll ever be" I nodded as he smiled and grabbed two rods and a small tackle box out of the back of his pickup. We walked to the end of the dock and he handed me one of the rods as I sat down on the edge. He opened his tackle box and pulled out a brown paper bag and set it beside me as he sat down. He removed a familiar Styrofoam container and pulled a bloodworm from the brown moss like substance and grinned, "Careful, they bite," as he deftly attached the worms to the two hooks on his rig. Help yourself he said handing me the little container they were in. "I, uh, I've never handled bloodworms before," I blurted out, slightly embarrassed at the novice fisherman I was.

"Can't even bait a hook," he chuckled shaking his head and quickly attached the worm to my similar rig. After a few minutes of sitting and having a comfortable conversation, his rod started flexing and he brought in not one but two fish. "These are spot" he informed me and I laughed noticing the spot on the side of the fish.

"I wonder how they got their name?" I teased as he unhooked the fish and kept them secured as he refreshed his bait and replaced his line. I caught one next and was pretty damn proud. He showed me the easiest way to get it off the hook. Two hours, six spot, one catfish, and a croaker later we were finished. I was surprised at how quickly the time passed and how comfortable I was with Rob.

"Bobby, go ask your mom if she wants to eat these for supper, I'll stay down here and scale and fillet them." I headed to the house and asked mom if she was in the mood for fish. Rob stayed and ate the delicious freshly caught fish with us. My dad seemed to really like him and talked about fishing and football. I think Emily liked him too as I saw her glancing dazedly at him before mom discretely elbowed her. I chuckled and she glared at me, but I had probably been doing the same and luckily wasn't elbowed for it. Rob helped clear the table, which got a "such a polite young man" from mom. I headed out the door with Rob and thanked him for taking me fishing. He thanked me for letting him come over and shouted "see you later Bobby" from his window as he pulled out of the driveway.

I went up to my room followed shortly by Emily.

"It's him isn't it?" She questioned as she plopped beside me on the bed.

"It's him what?" I responded knowing exactly where she was going.

"You like him." She stated matter-of-factly while making childish sounds and poking me in the ribs.

I sighed, "Yeah I do, he's smart, friendly, out-going, and handsome."

"He is handsome," she admitted as she rolled onto her stomach and put her elbows under her chin kicking her legs behind her. "Is he dating that Becky girl?" She asked, "I always see her hanging on him down the hallway."

"I'm not sure, but I've noticed her doing that too. I guess I need to stop thinking about him like that before I make a fool of myself and he outs me, and the town decides to lynch me.

"Oh don't be so dramatic" she snorted as she rolled off of the bed. "I haven't seen him all over her, I'm not sure if he fancies her advances.

***

Two weeks had passed and Wednesday was my first track meet. Three schools from the district would be here for a long meet Wednesday afternoon. Luckily kids on the track team got out of class after lunch as they needed to start fairly early so the other schools could get home at a reasonable hour. A couple people wished me good luck as I headed to my locker to drop of my books. I was surprised to see Rob at Becky's locker, but she was grinning ear to ear at his presence. "Give 'em hell Bobby" Rob said patting my back, "run your little ass off." I felt the blush creep to my cheeks and said thanks and bye to the two as I headed for the locker room.

'It's just a saying,' I said to myself shaking my head. 'He wasn't really thinking about my ass.' I stripped off my shirt and put on the slinky little sleeveless shirt that was part of my uniform. Most of the track guys must have already changed because there were only a couple of guys on the other side of the lockers. I pulled off my shorts and boxer briefs and quickly slid on my compression shorts, adjusting little Bobby, who was still thinking about Rob's comment, and then quickly slid on my track shorts. I slid my flip flops back on knowing better than to walk across the basketball hardwood in my track cleats.

Coach had signed me up for 3 solo races and one relay. I did pretty well getting a respectable 3rd place in two of them, and even managed a 2nd place finish in the 400m. I had time to relax before the relays started. I sat off to the side eating an orange chatting to some of the guys on the team, congratulating a teammate who placed first in a hurdles race. "Good thing you weren't doing hurdles today" he joked nudging my side. "Asshole" I responded laughing with him.

The dismissal bell had rung and most of the students streamed out to their cars and headed home. A handful of kids came to sit on the bleachers to watch. A few minutes later the football team headed out for practice, they would be on a field next to the track today as the center was used for the field events. I saw #47's cute ass as he ran towards the other end of that field.

"Thompson your relay is in two races, you guys get ready," came one of the assistant coaches' voices. We retied our shoes and headed over to the side of the track. I was going to anchor the relay and was worried about dropping the baton. There wasn't a baton in swimming. I dropped it in practice a couple times and coach made us practice the hand off for an hour yesterday so I wouldn't screw up.

The gun sounded and the lead-off runners took off. Our team and another school were neck and neck as the other schools were a little ways back. After two laps the seconds got onto the track, ready for the handoff from their teammate. We were in second but only just, as our runner took off chasing his prey. The third and forth teams dropped back a little more as our runner seemed to be losing a little ground to the leader as he handed the baton off to the 3rd runner.

By the time it was standing on the track waiting for the baton I was a ball of nerves, bouncing nervously on the balls of my feet as I could tell we were still behind. The front two runners were approaching and the leader got the baton a couple of seconds before I did. Just two laps I thought as I sprinted as fast as I could. I can beat this kid I thought but he was still in the lead. The cries from the crowd were loud, my heart was pumping in my ears, parents and friends of the runners were screaming, I faintly heard "Go Bobby Go!" and tried to find some extra energy in my body. There was a half of a lap left and I was gaining almost neck-and-neck around the final curve I pushed myself passed him and stretched to the finish line .2 seconds ahead of second and throttled down almost jogging another half lap before turning around and walking back to my relay team, my winning relay team, my first 1st place finish as a track athlete.

"Johnson get your ass back over here" I heard bellow and looked as I saw #47 running back to a coach who was berating him. I smiled at the thought that he was watching me and was greeted with high fives and cheers from my teammates and coaches. The team placed second in the meet but only barely beating the 3rd place team. The coaches congratulated us and said we'll win the next one. Exhausted I headed back into the school to grab my backpack out of my locker and headed home.

*The story continues in Chapter 5*