Jarod and Christine walked slowly across the parking lot towards the stadium, weaving through the cars in the parking lot.  Jarod tugged at the bill of his ball cap, sneaking a glance at Christine as he did.  He couldn’t believe she had actually agreed to come to the baseball game with him.  She smiled at him and he grinned nervously at her.

 

“Hey Jarod, some of the guys are going to sneak out and go eat at JayJay’s, wanna go?”

 

“Across the highway?  I don’t think so.  ‘Sides, I promised your dad we wouldn’t go anywhere but the ballpark.”

 

“Don’t tell me you’re scared of my dad,” she half-teased, stopping to stare at him.

 

“Well, yeah, I guess I am,” he reluctantly admitted.  “Anyways, I really want to see the game – the Coyotes are making a run for the play-offs.”

 

Christine stopped, hands on her hips, and glared at him.  “Humph, sounds boring to me.  What happened to the Jarod who spray painted the school?”

 

Jarod’s face flushed red, heat crawling up his face.  “What are you talking about?”

 

Christine’s eyes narrowed as she pushed her hair behind her ears.  “Come on Jarod, everyone knows it was you that did it.  What are you getting so worked up about?”

 

He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.  Without a word he began walking towards the stadium, head down, staring at the ground.  He didn’t even wait to see if Christine would follow him.

 

She thought I was a ‘bad boy’, that’s the only reason she agreed to come to the game with me.  How did she know about the spray-painting?  All those hours of sitting in that metal chair, that security guard looking at me like I had killed someone and then Mom . . . that look she had, she was so disappointed – she’s never looked at me like that before . . .

 

“Earth to Jarod, you in there somewhere?”

 

Jarod smiled weakly at Christine, surprised to see her still there.

 

“Sorry, I’m here.”

 

Jarod’s steps picked up a little, and then he saw his dream car – a silver convertible Spyder with the top down.  He whistled appreciatively, circling the car.  Christine waited for him, her lips curling up in amusement.  He ignored her for the moment, having eyes only for the car.  Then he noticed something by the back tire – a wallet!

 

He reached down and grabbed it, instinctively looking around to see if anyone was near.  Christine moved beside him, a glint in her eye.

 

“Is there any money?”

 

“I don’t know, I need to see if there’s a driver’s license though.”

 

Jarod opened the wallet – it was full of money!  He sucked in his breath, fingering through the bills quickly.

 

“There must be a $1,000 in here!”

 

Christine shouldered in next to him and blinked down at the money.

 

“I can’t believe it!  You’re so lucky – hey, you could buy everyone dinner at JayJay’s, everybody would be so excited . . . and impressed.”  She eyed Jarod coyly, her tongue darting out to lick at her lips.

 

“This isn’t my money and I’m not keeping it – I’m turning it in with the wallet.”

 

Christine exploded, her eyes narrowing in anger.  “Are you insane? Nobody turns in wallets, especially not ones with over a thousand dollars in them!  Think of all you could do with that money.  Look at this car – this guy will never miss that money.  You’re being stupid,” she spit out the last, her face wrinkled in disgust.

 

His face set stubbornly, Jarod turned to face the angry girl.

 

“I don’t care what you think; I’m not keeping this wallet.  I’m turning it in to Security in the park.”

 

“I’ve had it!  I’m going to JayJay’s – I don’t care what YOU do.”  With that Christine turned and stormed off.

 

Jarod stood there dumbfounded, unable to believe this perfect day had gone so bad so fast.  Sighing he turned and headed for the gate.

 

“Excuse me, can you tell me where Security is?”

 

The gate attendant pulled him to the side and mumbled something into his radio.  Jarod hoped it was a call for Security but he hadn’t been able to understand a single word.  Within minutes a large man in a bright yellow shirt with “Security” emblazoned on it in black strode towards him.

 

“Can I help you, son?”

 

“Yes sir, I found this wallet out in the parking lot and wanted to know where to turn it in at.”

 

The man blinked at Jarod in surprise before his face erupted in a smile.  He clapped Jarod on the shoulder and led him to the security office.  While they were walking the man talked into his radio and then listened intently to the answer.  Whatever he heard seemed to satisfy him and he turned his attention back to Jarod.

 

“I’m Randy, what’s your name?”

 

“Err; my name is Jarod, Jarod Jones.”

 

“Well, Jarod Jones, it is a real pleasure to meet you.  There’s someone coming who is going to be even MORE pleased to meet you.”

 

Before Jarod could question Randy the door to the office flew open and a guy only a few years older than Jarod came barreling in with a cell phone pressed to his ear.

 

“I don’t know, sir, I just now got into the office.  Hold on for just a second.”

 

He pressed the phone to his chest and jogged over to Randy.  His blonde hair was standing on end and his entire face was burgundy.  The state of his hair seemed to be from the boy’s nervous habit of running his hand through it as if to pull it out by the roots.  He did this twice before he reached Randy.

 

“Please tell me it’s all there Randy,” he burst out, pleading with the officer to lie to him if necessary.

 

“It’s all there Shawn, every last penny.”  Randy’s face was stretched into a large grin, showing nearly all his teeth.

 

“I don’t believe it!  How?  Who?  When?”

 

“Your savior is young Jarod here – he found it in the parking lot and brought it straight to us.”  Randy winked at Jarod, who was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable – rather like a large fish in a very small bowl.

 

Shawn turned to Jarod, relief flooding his face.  He was so flustered all he could do was stutter gibberish until he finally took a deep breath.

 

“Thank you so much.  I just got this job running errands for the owner of the baseball team; it’s only my second day.  I can’t believe I lost his wallet.”

 

Randy cleared his throat, and when Shawn looked at him he nodded towards Shawn’s cell phone.  Shawn jumped as if he was holding a snake and pressed the phone to his ear.

 

“It’s all here, Mr. Owens.  I’m so sorry, sir.  It will never happen again . . . Err, a kid named Jarod.  He brought it to Security and . . . oh, yes sir, I’d be happy to sir.  Oh, good idea, he’ll like that . . . okay, I’ll wait for your call.”

 

Shawn hung up the phone and opened the wallet. He pulled out two hundred dollar bills and handed them out to Jarod.

 

Jarod stared at his hand, hanging in midair with the bills in it, not sure what was going on.

 

“Go on, Jarod.  Mr. Owens said to give you a reward, and you’ve earned it.”

 

“I didn’t do anything,” protested Jarod.

 

“Yes you did,” countered Shawn.  “A lot of people wouldn’t even have bothered to turn the wallet in – and to turn it in with all the money still there?  Anyway, Mr. Owens said to give you this.  Take it and I’ll walk out with you, okay?”

 

Jarod tentatively reached out and took the two hundred dollars, a ghost of a smile crossing his face.

 

“Thank you, Shawn.  And please thank Mr. Owens for me too.”

 

“You can thank him yourself.  He’s invited you up to his skybox to watch the game.  You’ll have it all to yourself because he’s out of town.  Well, almost to yourself.  You’ll have to share with me and my baby sister, Shayla.  But Mr. Owens listens to the game on his computer, and he’ll call in several times during the game.”

 

“No way,” breathed Jarod, “the skybox?  Oh man, that is unbelievable.”

 

Shawn laughed and slapped Jarod on the back.

 

“Come on; let’s get going before the game starts.”

 

They both called goodbye to Randy, who was chuckling and shaking his head.  The next thing Jarod knew he was on an elevator and when the doors opened he was in a large room with couches, tables, and one whole wall of windows.  He raced over and looked down, to a perfect view of the baseball field.  Laughing with pleasure he headed for a couch, then almost jumped out of his skin to realize there was already someone sitting there.  A gorgeous someone.  A gorgeous someone just his age with long red hair and deep green eyes.

 

Shawn grabbed some sodas from the icebox, while Jarod stared at the floor in embarrassment.

 

“Jarod, this is my baby sister, Shayla.  Shayla, this is Jarod – he’s going to watch the game with us.”

 

With that Shawn plopped down in a chair and stared down at the field, forgetting either of them was there.

 

“Hello Jarod, it’s nice to meet you.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you too, Shayla.  Hope you don’t mind me barging in on you and your brother for the game.”

 

“Not at all, it will be nice to have someone to actually talk to.  He’s so into baseball that we won’t hear a word from him until the last pitch.”

 

Jarod settled back onto the couch, talking to Shayla as if they’d known each other forever.

 

It turned out to be the perfect day after all he thought.