The Offices of M. Coopersmith

Chapter Two

It's going to be a great night, thought Christopher Gerald Taylor as the final bell rang and the curtain fell on yet another monotonous day of school. He stuffed his Algebra book and all the papers that went with it into his backpack, then zipped it up and headed for the door.

It would be a great night because at long last his wish would be fulfilled. Not his wish to meet the mysterious M. Coopersmith; about this, he cared nothing at all. As a lifelong resident of Summerville, he was well aware of M. Coopersmith’s penchant for secrecy. It just wasn’t a burning desire of his, the way it seemed to be with the town gossips, to know how the man earned a living. No, what fired Chris' red-hot teenaged heart was the idea of going to the Offices of M. Coopersmith with Samantha Gibbons, the lovely junior who also happened to be his direct superior on the Summerville High School Yearbook Committee. For so very long he had dreamed of spending some quality alone-time with Samantha. And now, finally, he was on the verge of getting it. Chris had first seen Samantha in the hallway when he was a freshman and she was a sophomore. From that moment, he was smitten. Who was this beautiful girl with the long shiny auburn hair and the deep blue eyes? While there were a number of girls in his own grade who caught his attention, it was Samantha Gibbons to whom his thoughts returned most often, even though she hadn't known him at all until a few weeks ago. But Chris knew her, all right. Since that initial glimpse sixteen months ago, he had been collecting snippets of information on this alluring older woman: he had pored over his freshman yearbook and found her name; then he had looked in the section for club and team photographs and found her extracurricular activities. When he saw that she was on the Yearbook Committee, he hit upon, or at least thought he'd hit upon, a marvelous way of getting better acquainted with Samantha while at the same time padding his college application.

How did Chris rate his chances with her? Well, he wasn't unrealistic. Much to his chagrin, Samantha had a boyfriend, a handsome football player in his senior year, and Chris understood that the odds of him winning her over, at least initially, were pretty steep. Chris was tall and very thin, almost skeletal by his own reckoning, with shaggy brown hair and large dark eyes, and he bore a special burden of self-consciousness over what he considered an Adam's Apple that was much too big for his neck. He played no sports and was a solid but unexceptional student. So Chris had a pretty good handle on his shortcomings, real and imagined. But he had to try, didn't he? And there were other ways he felt he could compete with her football stud. For one thing, he thought he was a pretty funny guy. Other kids, or at least other sophomores, seemed to agree. He prided himself on being conversational. He treated people with kindness. Maybe, just maybe, if Samantha saw what a good person he was, and overlooked the insignificant difference in age, he would have a chance with her...slight, yes, but a chance.

Here was the challenge: Chris would have to find an opportunity to show her just what a charmer he could be.

And here, finally, was the solution: the Committee's faculty advisor, Mrs. Huggins, had suggested that the more experienced hands on the Committee, like Samantha, pair up with newer members, like Chris, to jointly solicit ads. Then, as if by magic, Chris and Samantha had been made into a team.

Yes, magic was the only explanation.

Chris had joined the Yearbook Committee a mere three weeks ago, and the Committee's meeting yesterday afternoon had been the first he attended. Never saying a word, Chris had taken a seat at the table around which sat the eleven members of the Committee. There had been one seat left open when the meeting convened: the seat next to him. Samantha had been late arriving; Chris feared for a moment that she had quit. But then she glided into the room, and, saying nothing to the boy, took the chair beside him.

Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Huggins made her proposal, which was accepted by the Committee (as if they had a choice) and then she simply went around the table, pairing compatible students together. She got to Chris and Samantha last.