At the roller skating court were Lucy, John Ross and Christopher skating around the room with ease. Margaret on the other hand was having a hard time to keep her balance on the skates and was moving around the room slowly. Rebecca was keeping her company.
“This was no fun!” Margaret complained, after falling over for the seventh time.
“Sure it is, if you know how to roller blade,” Rebecca said. “I’ve been practicing for a year now and look how well I’m doing.” But she shouldn’t have said that because in the next moment Rebecca lost her balance and fell too.
“Oh yeah I can really see how well you are doing,” Margaret said sarcastically. “You’re no good either!”
“Sure I am,” Rebecca said.
“Am not.”
“Am too,” the girls started to bicker.
Lucy, who saw that her younger cousin’s had taken a fall on their asses, came skating up to them. “Hey are you two okay?”
“Yes ma’am, but this is boring,” Margaret complained.
“Yeah we’d like to do something else now,” Rebecca agreed.
“Okay how about if we’d go and buy you girls some ice-cream then?”
“Yes! We’ll get ice-cream!” Rebecca and Margaret’s sour facial expression quickly brightened. The girls hurried to get up and Lucy took them by the hand as they started making their way towards the exit. They were almost there when John Ross and Chris skated up to them.
“Hey where are you going?” Chris asked.
“To buy ice-cream,” Lucy pointed towards the ice-cream parlor across the room.
John Ross looked over at the ice-cream parlor and that’s when he spotted her. The teenage girl had brown longish hair, a heart shaped face, nice figure and a cute smile. To the rest of the world she looked like your average teenage girl but in John Ross eyes she was the prettiest girl he’d laid eyes on in a long time. He barely heard Lucy’s question at first. “Do you want some too?”
“Sure,” Chris smiled, as Lucy, Rebecca and Margaret got off the court and Lucy started helping the kids with taking off their roller blades.
“What about you John Ross?” Lucy asked. But she didn’t get an answer as John Ross couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful girl working in the ice-cream parlor. “John Ross, do you want something?” Lucy repeated the question.
“Sure I want her,” John Ross accidentally spoke of what was on his mind.
Lucy and Chris laughed as they understood what was going on, “Oh boy does he have the hots for her or what?” Chris grinned and John Ross blushed.
“Ah I think it’s cute,” Lucy smiled before she said, “Tell you what, why don’t you go buy some ice-cream instead John Ross?”
“Okay but I really don’t know what to say to her,” John Ross said as he got off the roller blade court and started taking off his roller blades too.
“Oh just start by saying hello and I’m sure you’ll do fine from there. I mean I talked to Mitch and see how well that worked out,” Lucy smiled.
“But I thought you were drunk when you met Mitch,” John Ross said.
Lucy laughed, “Oh who’s told you that honey?”
“I think you did, a long time ago.”
“You’ve got a great memory,” Lucy smiled. “I guess I was. But that was a long time ago.”
“True but I’m sure it helped,” John Ross said.
Lucy frowned as it occurred to her that her younger cousin seemed to have taken up drinking while living in England. “Still you don’t need booze to talk to her. I mean you’ve got your adorable little cousins.”
“I do?” John Ross looked horrified at the prospect at bringing his kid cousins with him.
“Sure you do, girls love guys who are good with kids,” Lucy said reassuringly. “Here you go, take this and go buy us all some ice-cream.” Lucy handed John Ross a fifty dollar bill.
“Okay, let’s go kids,” John Ross smiled as he took Rebecca and Margaret hands. They walked over towards the ice-cream parlor while Chris and Lucy sat down at a bench nearby, where they had a great view over the ice-cream parlor. John Ross could feel his heart start to beat faster as they awaited their turn in the queue. When they finally made it to the front of the line he realized that the girl had the most gorgeous blue eyes.
“Hi, what can I help you with?” The girl asked politely.
“Hi, I um…” John Ross started to say before his tongue got tied. It was silly. It wasn’t like he’d never had a girl before. Still it was something about this girl that made it hard for him to speak. Luckily for him his younger cousins didn’t share his problem at all but were all too happy to chitchat some.
“Hello, I’m Rebecca, what’s your name?”
“Melissa, my name tag says so sweetie,” The girl replied in a friendly voice.
“I’m Margaret and I’m from Washington D.C. where are you from?”
“San Francisco,” Melissa replied.
“Cool. I’m also from California. So how old are you?” Rebecca asked.
“I’m 15.”
“Wow! You’re old,” Rebecca replied.
“Well I’m not that old,” Melissa replied in a still polite but rather annoyed tone.
“But you must be in High School, right?” Margaret asked.
“Sure am. I’m going to start my junior year at Braddock High this fall.”
John Ross grinned, as he realized that was the school he’d be attending too. Knowing that the girl might actually be within his reach he finally regained his ability to speak. “What a coincidence so am I,” John Ross smiled, as he let on his charm. “I’m John Ross and I’m 16 years old.”
“Really nice to meet you,” Melissa said and gave him an interested glance. “So what’s the school like?”
“Oh I don’t know I’ve just moved here from England,” John Ross replied.
“But you don’t sound British.”
“I’m not, I’ve just lived there for four years. Anyway I just moved back to Texas and I don’t really know that many people here anymore. So it sure would be nice if I could get to know you some before school starts,” John Ross flirted.
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
“Yeah, is it working?”
“Yes,” Melissa smiled. “Maybe we can catch a movie or something?”
“Sure I’d love to, how about tomorrow?” John Ross suggested.
“I’m sorry but I am working tomorrow. But I have time off next weekend?”
“So the next weekend it is,” John Ross smiled. “How about if I…”
“John Ross aren’t you forgetting something?” Rebecca interrupted.
“What?” John Ross asked annoyed. “Can’t you see I’m talking?”
“Yes but I just wanted to remind you that you can’t go to the movies, because you’re grounded,” Rebecca smiled.
“Damn! I totally forgot about that,” John Ross cursed.
“Oh that sucks,” Melissa said disappointed. “So I guess that means our date is off?”
“Well maybe not. I mean it’s not the same, but how about it if you’ll come out to us at Southfork instead?”
“Southfork?”
“Yes, that’s where I live.”
“But I thought that was the Ewing residence,” Melissa replied.
“It is. I am John Ross Ewing.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were a Ewing,” Melissa said.
In the past John Ross would have been proud to say that he was. However remembering how his mother’s movie had ruined their reputation as of lately John Ross sighed, “It’s not a problem now is it?”
“No, I’ll still go out with you even if you’re rich,” Melissa said.
“Well good, so how about going swimming in our pool on Saturday?”
“I’d love to, so see ya at four?”
“Great, then it’s a date,” John Ross said delighted.
“Well good now when that’s decided can we have our ice-creams now?” Rebecca asked.
“Sure you can have your ice-creams, so what do you want?”
“A banana split,” Rebecca beamed.
“Oh can I have one too, please?” Margaret asked.
“Make that two banana splits,” John Ross said.
“Okay and for you?” Melissa asked as she started putting the ice-cream plates together.
“Oh I don’t know what would you recommend?”
“Well the raspberry soft ice-cream with chocolate topping is a personal favorite,” Melissa smiled.
“Okay, then I’ll have four of those.”
“Four?”
“Yeah one for me, one for you and two for my cousins,” John Ross said and pointed at the table where Chris and Lucy are waiting for them.
“Oh John Ross, but you really don’t have to buy me an ice-cream…”
“I know but I want to, if you don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind, but I’m not really supposed to eat while I work,” Melissa said as she put up the two banana split ice-creams on the counter.
“So eat it while you’re on your break then,” John Ross said.
“Okay I can do that,” Melissa smiled, as she started fixing the soft ice-creams.
“So have you worked here long?” John Ross asked.
“Nah, just since June,” Melissa replied.
“Could have fooled me, you look like a pro putting the ice-creams together.”
“Thanks,” Melissa smiled. “I’m glad I’m finally getting it right. The first week was a disaster. I kept mixing up people’s orders.”
John Ross laughed, “So why do you work here if you don’t like it?”
“Oh I needed a summer job to save up some money for my driver’s license.”
“I see. I haven’t gotten my license yet either.”
“But surely the cost can’t be a problem for you?”
“It’s not. It’s just that in England people don’t get their license until they are 17.”
“I see,” Melissa said. “Anyway here are your ice-creams,” Melissa said, as she put up the ice-creams on the counter.
“Thanks, so how much do I owe you?”
“Well for two banana splits and four soft ice-creams, that’ll be 40 dollars.”
“Here’s a fifty, you’ll keep the change,” John Ross said, as he handed over the fifty dollar bill to Melissa.
“Thanks, you know you’re cute,” Melissa smiled.
“So are you,” John Ross replied, as he handed Rebecca and Margaret the tray with their ice-creams. “Oh and don’t forget about our date.”
“I won’t, I’ll see you next Saturday at 4.”
“At my place, can you find it?” John Ross asked, as he took the other three ice-creams from the counter.
“Sure I’ll be there,” Melissa smiled.
You wrote JR so well ... 
I can just picture him sitting in his chair, getting increasingly frustrated with Mr. Tom Parker from "Parker Shipping"! :cooler: Could it be a matter of shipping crude oil? 
And it's been way over a month now! 
But there's still a little part of me that thinks that he's also curious about the Nelsons himself! 
:tv: I might have to start making a list of all the various storylines that is currently "on hold"! 
... ... No offence meant at all, 
I think that your description of a 16 year old John Ross was very accurate for a teenager! At that age, boys are generally controlled by their hormones (and not so much their brain), so the fact that John Ross takes a liking to a pretty girl is quite normal!