Time(1): David and Becky Talk Teen Love Talk. (Sentient Adults Should Skip This Chapter.)
Who knows what draws a pair of teenagers to each other? Your author. It's two things. It's one thing for the boy and another for the girl and those are never the same thing.
For the boy, it's sex. Not sex in the narrow sense of "let's fuck," but sex in the wider sense of "let's do it night and day to the exclusion of all else until the day we die."
For the girl, it's anything but sex, so long as that thing is coated, infused, steeped, and basted in looking sexy. Not sexy in the narrow sense of is my hair okay, but sexy in wider sense of I've calculated my every move, look, and word to DRIVE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!
To completely understand the boy's perspective, you must be a girl. And vice versa...for it is endemic to this process that each deny his or her own attitude while seeing clearly that the other has it in spades.
It is part of the process, also, that the girl's mother must hate the boy and accuse him of "being like all men...they only want one thing," while the boy's mother must agree that "all men are pigs...except my boy, and he is being corrupted by that little slut." It is part of the process for the fathers not to talk about it at all until their wives tell them "it's too late now -- while you had your head in the sand, the little shit got your daughter pregnant, so what are you going to do to him?"
Because this is David Bell's first time in love (where the girl actually seems like maybe she is thinking about loving him back), he is content, for the moment, to "hang out" with her while he anticipates the sexual pleasures to come. Right now, he thinks she's about the most perfect specimen of femaleness ever conceived. In a week, he'll be anxious and horny, and think she's a niggardly bitch who hates men, and he'll love her more than ever.
Becky, of course, has inside knowledge about their destinies. That makes her calmer than David. (All girls think they have inside information about destiny, but Becky, as we know, really does.) Becky's inside knowledge is that she knows she has come on this cattle drive with her big cowboy friend to close a moderately significant cosmic circle involving a lot of Beckys, a Jonathan, an H^aGn'tl, an Anna, a computer, a couple of Harvey's, and a very good-looking David. Because of certain deficiencies (per Becky, anyway) in her previous existence, she figures that God owes her, and thus, that things are going to turn out her way. She has no qualms about repeatedly pointing this out to God, who, in her opinion, lacks a certain...focus. The thing about Becky's inside knowledge (and high-handed behavior with the Creator) that makes it palatable is that, when she's with David Bell, she forgets all the cosmic stuff and becomes a pretty young girl who's ga-ga over her new boyfriend and is working hard to drive him to the verge of madness with her nubile charms. How sweet.
"So, what d'ya wanna do?" David Bell asks Becky.
"I dunno. What d'you wanna do?'
"Wanna Coke?"
"I guess..."
"Where d'ya wanna go? The Hangout?"
". . .anywhere's okay..."
"...yeah, me, too..."
And later, at the Hangout:
"So, what'cha takin'?" David asks.
"English 'n a bunch of other stuff, I guess."
"...yeah, I'm takin' English, too."
"You have to take it. It's required."
"Yeah...it's stupid."
"Yeah...."
Then, as he walks her home:
"So, English. Is it hard?"
"It's boring. Sentence structure is boring. Hammerman is boring."
"You have ol' Hammerhead?! Gol, that's too bad. He's a dork."
"Yeah. Who've you got?"
David hangs his head. "Sauerkraut."
"Oh, you poor guy," Becky laments. "Has he outlined you, yet?"
David's head snaps up proudly. "Yeah! I was almost the first one!" he says. They are referring to a method of punishment whereby the punishee must stand against the blackboard while his/her outline is traced in chalk. Then, Mr. Mueller (Sauerkraut) letters in the offense: "Talker" "Whisperer" "Malingerer" "Disrespecter of Teacher" "Breaker of Book Bindings." Everyone is supposed to recognize the offending student and be appalled at them. In fact, all the boys look the same and all the girls look the same and to everyone, it is a point of pride.
"Was it neat?"
"It was okay...."
"Yeah, I know what you mean...."
Yeah kids, we know what you mean. But, we can't stand to read anymore of your courtship drivel.