75 Torridian   The Trainer 76
#10 - Moonlit Sparks - 08/13/86 WED

Movie Theater — 10:54 p.m.

Bobby and Jacquelyn exit the theater, along with other movie-going couples who are acting cuddly and affectionate. Above their heads, the theater’s marquee sign reads “About Last Night 7:00 9:15”.

Ric’s Pizza — 11:23 p.m.

Jacquelyn and Bobby sit in a booth facing each other. A mostly consumed pizza and pitcher of Royal Crown cola rests on the tabletop between them. Bobby watches a patron pay his tab at the bar and start to walk out, passing the rustic woodwork that encompasses most of the bar area. Back at the till, the cook-turned-bartender-turned-cashier looks at Bobby and then at his wristwatch.
Bobby looks back at Jacquelyn and asks, “So, you like Tom Hanks better than Rob Lowe, hey?”
“Hanks has that adorable cuteness. Besides, he’s a heck of an actor. I think he might win an Academy Award someday.”
“No way,” Bobby scoffs. “He’ll never do a serious drama. I mean his stuff is just goofy — like Bachelor Party, Bosom Buddies, Money Pit, Man with One Red Shoe…”
“I have a sixth sense about the way a person can control their emotion and present a façade that appears genuine. He has potential.”
“Oh really, Dr. Freud?”
“Maybe Freud, maybe also Adler, Stanislavsky, Strasberg, Meisner…”
“Oh great, more psychoanalysis gurus,” Bobby complains as he finishes off his pizza square.
Jacquelyn shakes her head, knowing that the latter four have little to do with psychology, although they are all gurus — but		 in the profession of training actors. Resigned to accepting that Bobby lacks any sense about controlling emotion, let alone interpreting it, Jacquelyn changes the subject. “Hey, did I tell you what I’m registering for at G.L.U.?”
Bobby shakes his head, ‘no’, as he chows another pizza square.
“Russian, psych., poli.-sci., macro-econ., and a three-credit introduction to acting.”
Bobby swallows and takes a slurp of his rc cola.
Jacquelyn continues, “Have you decided between G.L.U. and Carnegie Mellon?”
Bobby desperately avoids eye contact as he scarfs down more pizza and nervously slurps his cola.
Jacquelyn senses Bobby’s unease, but optimistically relegates it to assuming Bobby hasn’t made a decision yet. She continues, “We could be study buddies. Like when we studied for finals together, or the time you helped me prepare for the physics mid-term and you explained transistors to me. You helped me ace that class, but don’t ask me how they work anymore.”
Finally on a more agreeable topic, Bobby chimes in as Jacquelyn takes a bite of pizza. “Jacqie, electricity is like plumbing. Voltage is like the pressure in a hose. Current is like flow. The bigger the pipe, the more flow. A transistor is like a water faucet, only instead of turning the faucet handle, you press on the handle with pressure, water pressure. The more pressure, the more flow.”
Jacquelyn looks up over her plastic glass of RC, smiling as she slurps.
Bobby sees her demeanor and sighs, “Yes. I know. I’m such a geek.”
Jacquelyn stops slurping and smiles an earnest smile at Bobby, with a bit of a twinkle in her eye. “No. You’re endearing. A Tom Hanks kind of cute. I think it’s so great that you can be yourself. You know, guys I tried to date were always so pretentious. Screw dating. I like being friends.”
Bobby crosses his arms and gives out a huff. “I hate that. No girl ever thinks of me as potential dating material. I’m always just her buddy.”
Jacquelyn lights up with the smile of someone who knows a secret. “Did you know one of Melissa’s cute friends has had a crush on you for about the past five moths?”
Bobby is stunned and dumbfounded. The thought of one of Melissa’s friends having a crush on him is mind-boggling. Calculating the infinitesimally small probability, Bobby reasons that he would have a better chance at being the next lottery-winning millionaire than having one of Melissa’s hotty friends hot for him.

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