Jim set his sights on a group of girls who looked to be about the same age as he was now, 15. There were four of them and they were all very pretty. Their names were Emily, Hannah, Ally, and Jenna.
The girls had come to go shopping for a while, and the bags at their feet were full of clothes. Now they were eating their favorite food at the mall: the pretzels from the nearby pretzel stand.
"These really are the best pretzels around," Jenna said with her mouth slightly full.
"Yeah, they're Jack's favorite too," said Emily, referring to her boyfriend. He was a kind of geeky guy, and her friends never really understood what she was doing with him, but it didn't matter. They were in love.
"I don't know why, but Dylan doesn't seem to like them very much," said Hannah. Dylan was her boyfriend, and he was a quarterback on the school football team. He was a year ahead of them in school and widely considered a hunk. Hannah felt lucky to have gotten him.
Ally and Jenna still didn't have boyfriends, so they didn't join in on the talk. But suddenly Ally looked up and gasped. It was the hottest boy she'd ever seen, who was standing a little distance away holding a balloon in his fingers. Suddenly he smiled and started toward their table.
"Um, girls? There's this really hot guy coming over here right now," Ally whispered.
"He looks about our age," Jenna whispered back.
Jim finally reached their table and he turned on the charm.
"Hey," he said smoothly in his new deeper voice. "Mind if I pull up a chair?"
One of the girls said, "Of course!" So he did.
Ally was staring hard. The boy was tall, and very muscular for his age. His thick pecs were visible through his tight shirt, and his biceps were fighting with his short sleeves. She thought she could see a 6-pack under his shirt. He was also handsome, blond with chiseled features.
Jim noticed one girl staring at him and smiled, subtly flexing for her. She seemed to melt almost.
"So," he said, "my name is..." He almost said Jim, but he figured he'd better make sure no one knew who he was. "My name is...