For greatest understanding of this story you should read the entire series.
Hurricane - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1B Summer Camp - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1C First Love part 1 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1D First Love part 2 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1E First Love part 3 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1F First Love part 4 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1G First Love pt 5 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1H
By KenJ <ken.janney@kjanney.com>
This version is rated PG-13
This has not been beta’d
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros., except those I created. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
/ denotes telepathic communications./
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Saturday, September 3, 2039
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was Saturday and the Labor Day weekend was upon them. Everyone in the Kent clan packed up their families. All of the women were bringing dishes to share with the rest of the family. Clark had the Bar-B-Que pit fired up and was getting a head start on the grilling since this would be a rather large gathering. The back yard of the Wisteria Lane house had been decorated. In one section some pools of various depths had been put up for the children along with some lawn games. A number of tables had been set up for serving and eating.
All except for Lara and Mike all of the families started arriving at around noon. Since Lara and Mike lived in LA they used the same trick that Lois and Clark had used when their children had been small. After the younger children were asleep they moved them by super express to Metropolis. The children woke up in their rooms in the Wisteria Lane home and thought nothing of it.
Cold dishes were placed into the refrigerator until it was time to start eating. The grandchildren all mobbed Grandpa Clark and Grandma Lois as soon as they arrived to say hi, before going over to the play area.
As families arrived groups would gather and start talking.
It always amazed Clark that even though he could recognize everyone’s heartbeat, he could still pick Lois’ heartbeat out of the crowd and know exactly where she was and her emotional state. Today he could tell that she was immensely happy. She really enjoyed having the kids and the grandkids around. Pretty soon they might even have the next generation showing up. Lara and Mike’s eldest daughter, Louise, was going to be fourteen soon. It just seemed like the years were flying by.
Shortly after Jessica, with baby Linda went off to join her husband, Rich, Jimmy arrived with his wife. He walked over and greeted Clark while Peg went to say hello to Lois.
As Jimmy was walking up to Clark he said, “Hey, Pop, What’cha got that’s good?”
Clark chuckled and said, “Oh, the usual. For a crowd this size you have to make a wide variety in order to please everyone.” He lifted the lid of the grill and enumerated the contents, “We have some steaks, chops, burgers, dogs, Grandma Kent’s famous recipe fried chicken and Grandpa Kents special recipe Bar-B-Que ribs.”
“Wow, Pop, you sure do put out a spread at these picnics.”
“I try to make sure everyone has what they prefer. How’s the business going?”
Smiling Jimmy said, “It’s going great guns. I’m going to be able to pay back your seed money in no time. I’m having to increase my staffing! Computer Forensics is the business to be in I can tell you.”
With a silly grin Clark said, “Don’t forget that that was at twenty percent interest compounded monthly.”
Jimmy replied, “Ha, ha, ha, very funny. All things considered I might be able to give you some interest on the loan.”
“No, I will not accept that. If you can pay us back the front money, that’s fine. If you weren’t able to that would be fine too. You know starting a business is a lot like starting a family. You have to make sure that you have the right partner and a clear path to follow.”
This statement caused Jimmy to think back, years back, to when he first started college.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Monday, September 8, 2031
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a big day for Jimmy Kent. Today he was enrolling in MetU. Okay, so he was only going to be a freshman, but, so what, he was going to be starting college. Finally, he was going to be able to pursue his dream. He couldn’t wait to get past all of the grunt courses like, English Lit and World History and get to the good stuff, advanced Calculus and *programming*, YES, that was where it was at - Computer Science.
After being processed through registration he went to schedule his classes. The inevitable (Yuk) English Lit as well as all of the other basic requirements all freshmen went through, but, he was able to sneak an elective, Basic Computer Science. That should be an easy 'A' with his background. He had been playing with and then building his own computers for years now. Okay, admittedly, now a days it was a no brainer. You got a Mother Board from this store a CPU from the same or another store, memory and all of the other accessories. Slapped it together and started surfing the PubNet, but he was still looking forward to it.
Just so that he could get the full experience he moved into the dorm and met his new roommate, Stan. They hit it off right away. Stan was a Sophomore History major, but Jimmy didn’t hold that against him. They found that they had similar tastes in music as well as some extracurricular activities.
One thing worried Jimmy; he had recently turned eighteen and was starting to float occasionally in his sleep. To combat this he had devised a plan. He had rigged up a strap that would be concealed under his sheets that he would attach to his wrist when he went to bed. This tether would not hold him down but he had built an ultrasonic tone generator that if he started to float the tether would pull on a switch and turn on the tone which his roommate wouldn’t hear but which would be loud and annoying and wake him up. He had tried it out at home and both of his parents and all of his siblings that were still at home complained when it woke them up as well.
After moving all of his ‘stuff’ into his room he went to the bookstore to get his textbooks, most of which were in digital format, but, copy protected so that they couldn’t be ‘acquired’ on the ‘black market’. As soon as he was back in his room, the first book he started looking at was his Basic Computer Science text. The others he would read to complete his assignments, but, this he would relish.
That evening he and Stan went to the cafeteria for dinner. After they got their trays they moved into the table area and Stan spotted his ‘little sister’. Stan’s ‘little sister’ was named Margaret Dennis and she wasn’t really his little sister. This was a program where a sophomore was teamed up with a freshman so that they could show them the ropes. Jimmy looked around for his ‘big brother’, Mike, but he didn’t see him so he sat with Stan and Margaret. They had a pleasant time chatting even though Jimmy’s mind was really on the classes he would have the next day. Because of that he missed some significant points in the conversation. After dinner Jimmy and Stan went back to the dorm. They shared some music by transferring some between their players.
After a while they got ready for bed and Jimmy made sure to hook up his device. It was a good thing that he did because it woke him up three times in the night.
The next day was the first day of classes. He had three scheduled, English 101, World History 101 and Basic Computer Science 101. He struggled to stay awake in English but when he got to History he woke up. After he sat down and brought out his pad and started setting it up for class. He brought up the text and shared the screen with his word processor for notes. While he was doing this someone sat down right next to him, even though there were plenty of open seats. When he looked up to see just who it was, he recognized Margaret, Stan’s ‘little sister’.
He said, “Hi, you here for History?”
She replied, “Yeah, I was happy to see a familiar face in the crowd. Mind if I sit here?”
He replied, “Nah, no problem. It’s nice to have someone I know in the class. Maybe we could study together. It would make the study time go quicker.”
She flashed him a smile and said, “I’d like that. Your name’s Jimmy, right?”
“Yeah, Jimmy Kent.”
She started thinking and said, “Kent, Kent, uh, that name’s familiar.” She snapped her fingers and asked, “Are you related to Clark Kent at the Daily Planet?”
With a surprised expression he asked, “Yeah, how’d you guess? How do you know about my dad?”
“Who doesn’t read the Planet? If there’s anyone out there that reads the Planet that doesn’t recognize the Lane and Kent byline they would be really dumb.”
Jimmy started laughing and said, “There ARE some people that don’t know that Lois Lane is actually married to Clark Kent.”
Shocked she asked, “Lois Lane is your mother?? Wow, what did you say your major is?”
Jimmy replied, “I’m a Computer Science major.”
“With Lane and Kent as your parents why aren’t you Journalism major?”
“That’s their thing. Mine is computers. I love computers and even if I do say so myself, I can practically make then sit up and beg.”
As he was speaking she was starting to smile. As he finished it was strongly reminiscent of Mona Lisa. She said, “Sounds interesting. If I have any problems can I come to you for help?”
He replied, “Sure, no prob.”
Just then their conversation was cut off by the professor entering the room.
Jimmy noted how she handled her pad and the way she took notes and was impressed with how she handled her equipment.
When class finished as they were packing up he said, “Well, will I be seeing you at dinner? We could plan when we get together to study.”
“Sure, I’ll look for you and Stan.”
“Okay, see you later.” He walked out of the room after her. He had an hour to kill before Comp Sci so he went to the snack bar and got a soda.
He was anxious to start the next class and arrived ten minutes early and started setting up.
At three minutes till class was supposed to start an individual sat down next to him. He thought, <This is getting monotonous. There are plenty of open seats. Why does the seat next to me always have to be occupied?> He looked up and his jaw dropped open. It was Margaret again. He stuttered, “Wha, what are you doing here? Are you sure you’re in the right room?”
With a deadpan expression she said, “If this is Basic Computer Science, then I’m in the right room.”
“But, I thought you said you might need help with your computer.”
“I was playing with you. You must not have been listening last night at dinner. I said I was a Computer Science major.”
Jimmy blurted out, “But, but, you’re a girl!”
She put on an offended tone, “Are you trying to say that girls can’t be any good with computers?”
Realizing he had made a big mistake, Jimmy tried to back track. “Uh, no, of course not. Girls can be every bit as good with computers as guys.” Then he mumbled under his breath, “I just haven’t met any.”
She must have excellent hearing because she heard him and retorted, “Oh you haven’t huh? Well, I’ll have you know I’m probably every bit as good with computers as you are, so there.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll just see about that. I bet you that my grade will be higher than yours for this class and any other class we have together.”
She retorted, “You’re on, buster. May the better person win.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
That started a friendly rivalry that lasted through all four years. Sometimes Jimmy would top Margaret, he had started calling her Peg or Peggy, and sometimes it would be the other way around.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There was the time in their sophomore year that they had a team project.
They were together in a programming class and had to write a fairly complicated script to perform a number of functions in an Artificial Intelligence environment to enable certain tasks to be performed by attached servo mechanisms.
They had each written section of the code and then brought it together.
Jimmy looked over the finished product and said, “It won’t work, Peg.”
She shot back, “What do you mean, it won’t work. You think, maybe, you could do better? It’ll work just fine. Let’s run it and find out.”
He grabbed her hand and stopped her just as she was about to hit commit. He said, “Let me put a line of code in, before you start it.”
“What do you want to add?”
He scrolled through the code until he found the spot he was after and then inserted his code.
She was watching over his shoulder and asked, “Why did you put that in there? That’s a *kill* command!”
“Yeah, run it and you’ll see why I put that in there.”
“I’m not sure I like someone editing my code.”
“Trust me, you’ll be thanking me. Go ahead and run it.”
She had a distrustful look on her face as she hit ‘run’.
The routine started and began as expected until it hit the routine she had written. When it got there it started going through the motions over and over again.
She looked on in exasperation and started hitting the keyboard shouting, “Stop it. Stop it! *Stop it*!”
Jimmy grabbed her hands to keep her from demolishing the keyboard and said, “Just wait.”
When it had gone through one hundred iterations it suddenly shut down.
When it did he said, “I saw that you had set up an endless loop. That line I put in made it stop after looping one hundred times.”
Crestfallen she said, “I guess you win. If you hadn’t seen that I would have failed the project.”
He chucked her under the chin and said, “Hey, what are friends for? Besides, we’re in this together. It’s *our* project, not just yours or mine. Come on partner, let’s go over this code and see where it needs to be changed.”
An hour later they were finished and Jimmy said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. Let’s go get something to eat. My treat.”
She looked at her watch and said, “It’s kinda late. Where could we go at this hour?”
He had a sly smile on his face as he said, “I know a little place that might just be able to feed us.”
He sent a thought, /Mom?/
/Hi Jimmy. What’s up?/
/Mom, I’d like to bring someone over. We just finished working on a project and we need something to eat./
With a mental chuckle, Lois replied, /Oh, what’s her name?/
/Oh, Mom! Oh, all right, her name is Peggy, uh, Margaret. Can we come over, I’d like you to meet her./
/Come on ahead Sweetie. Dad and I were just finishing up on a snack. I’m sure we can find enough to feed both of you./
/Thanks Mom. We’ll be there shortly./
As this communication had been happening they had been cleaning up. When they got outside, Jimmy led the way to his car.
When they drove up in front of the Wisteria Lane house Peggy let out a whistle and asked, “Who lives here?”
Jimmy replied matter of factly, “I do. Come on, I want you to meet ‘The Hottest Team in Town’.”
Shocked she blurted out, “Lane and Kent! I don’t know. Look at me! I’m not really dressed to be meeting them.” She was wearing jeans and a sweater.
He reassured her, “Don’t worry. They’ve seen me and my brothers and sisters in worse. Don’t sweat it.”
With some trepidation she followed him to the door.
Even before he would have reached for the knob the door swung open. Standing there in the doorway stood a smiling Lois. She said, “Welcome to our humble abode. Jimmy, why don’t you introduce us?”
“Uh, Mom, this is Margaret Dennis. Margaret, Lois Lane, my Mom.”
Just then Clark came up behind Lois and said, “Don’t stand out there on the stoop, come on in.”
As she entered, Lois reached out and took her hand and shook it.
Peg stammered, “Wow, this, uh, this is quite an honor. Lois Lane and Clark Kent *the* star reporting team at the Daily Planet. I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything. We’re happy to meet you, finally. Jimmy has told us a lot about you. We’re just sorry he didn’t bring you around sooner. Whenever he is home all he talks about is his classes and you. Not necessarily in that order.”
She looked over at Jimmy and asked, “Really?”
He looked down and flushed with embarrassment as he said, “I guess I do talk about you and us a lot.”
Lois said, “You kids must be hungry. Come on in to the kitchen and Clark will get you something to eat.” Lois put an arm around Peg pulling her aside and said, “I’ve never been much of a cook. Clark takes care of most of those chores. I’m sure you’ll like whatever he prepares.”
Lois and Clark’s easygoing manner soon put Peg at ease and they began trading anecdotes about Jimmy, some of which caused Jimmy to blush in embarrassment.
A good time was had by all.
Before Jimmy and Peg left, Lois had elicited a promise that Peg would be a regular visitor.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The rest of the four years they were inseparable.
Over the course of the four years there were many, many study session either in the snack bar, or the common room or one or the other’s dorms. Eventually they wound up in the same dorm, just down the hall from one another. Many nights one or the other could be found in the other’s room studying. Sometimes, they weren’t studying. They were sharing music and sometimes playing either against each other as opponents in First Person Shooter games but more often as teammates taking on all comers. As a team they were almost unbeatable.
Possibly because of the rivalry they were both on the Dean’s list throughout their four years.
They were nearing graduation and Jimmy had been acting somewhat strangely.
One evening they were having dinner together and Jimmy said, “We’ll be out of here pretty soon. What are your plans?”
“Like I’ve said, I want to get a position with an IT firm. You’ve been talking about starting your own business. Maybe you’d hire me?”
Jimmy started to pick up his tray and said, “Let’s get outta here.”
She gave him a quizzical look and shrugging started clearing up. She joined him as they deposited their trays in the receptacle and then he took her hand as he led her out and onto the quad.
In the center of the quad there was a fountain with a statue of the school’s mascot over it. Jimmy led Peg over to the fountain and indicated that she should sit. He sat down next to her. After a few minutes of sitting there looking at his folded hands he finally spoke up. “Peg, we’ve been together now for four years. I don’t know about you, but, I feel that we’ve gotten pretty close, if fact, I can’t image getting this close to anyone else. Now, we’re going to be graduating and going our separate ways.”
“Jimmy, I said I’d be happy to work for you.”
Jimmy blurted out, “You don’t understand, Peg, that’s not what I want. I don’t want you to work *for* me. I want you to be my partner.”
“Wow, Jimmy, I’m honored. Your partner. What do you want to name the company, Jim & Peg Computing?”
He let out a choked laugh. He said, “Peg, you don’t understand. I want you for my *partner*. But, not in my business.”
She replied, “This should be a fairly simple algorithm to solve, but, I’m having a problem. If partner equals yes then work together also equals yes. If partner equals no then we don’t work together and we go our separate ways. I say partners yes, so we work together. Simple enough.”
Jimmy said, “Okay, let’s add another line of code. If partners equals yes then work together yes, else work together equals no.”
She was puzzled, “Wait a minute, that doesn’t compute. Where did that else statement come from? How could we not work together if we’re partners?”
Jim slipped off of the side of the fountain and knelt before he continued, “It all depends on how you define partners. Peg, I want you be my partner, but, not necessarily in a business. Peg I want you to marry me. Will you?”
With a serious expression, Peg said, “Now, that is a simple enough algorithm. Given: that you, Peg, want to stay with him, Jimmy, then if he asks you to marry him answer equals yes. Yes, Jimmy, I’ll marry you. I’ve wanted you to ask that question for a while.”
“Let’s take a walk. I want to take you to a jeweler to get a ring. Then we need to have a long talk. There are some things you need to know. I just hope that you won’t change your mind about me afterwards.”
“There’s nothing you could tell me that would change my mind, Jimmy Kent. Once I have that ring on, nothing and nobody is going to make me remove it.”
“I just hope you mean that.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
James Perry Kent and Margaret Ann Dennis were married on Saturday September 8, 2035, almost four years to the day from when they first met.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Just as Jimmy was coming out of his reverie Peg walked up and put an arm around his waist. He put one around her and pulled her in close.
Just then, Lois came out of the house carrying a cake and everyone shouted, “Surprise!”
The cake read, “Happy Anniversary Jim and Peg, 4 Whole Years”
There were some shouts of, “Speech, speech!”
Laughing, Jimmy said, “Thanks, everyone. This is a surprise! Our anniversary isn’t until Thursday!” Looking at Peg, he said, “We couldn’t be happier. You all know how it is when you find your first love.”
Peg added, “First and *only* love.”
Jimmy agreed, “Yeah, first and only. It’s special. I guess I’m preaching to the choir on that one though.”
Jessie said, “Just wait,” she started caressing Linda’s head as she continued, “There will come a day when it won’t be *only* anymore. You’re going to have to learn to share.”
Jimmy and Peg both blushed and Jimmy said, “Funny you should mention that Jess, Peg needs and appointment.”
As if there hadn’t been enough excitement already, pandemonium broke out and all the girls mobbed Peg and took her away.
comments go here The End
A/N: For thos of you that might not have read the previous stories, Jessica is an OB/GYN.
First Love part 6 - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1I
