Chapter 02

Thursday

Ernie and Tom are ready for school a bit earlier than the previous days because they’re going a different way today. They’re going through the back fence and walking to school with Melissa and their cousins Nancy, Margaret, and Pearl. Ernie greets Melissa with a two minute long good morning kiss; which stuns Nancy and Pearl because they didn’t believe Margaret when she said their shy, geeky cousin had scored one of the prettiest girls in the school as his girlfriend. They chat about many things while they walk the kilometre to school.

Half way there Ernie asks, “Melissa, my love, what contraceptive protection do you use?”

While the others all gulp air in shock Melissa struggles to say, “None, I’m a virgin and wish my husband to be my first.”

“Stupid move, my love. How do you expect to stay not pregnant if someone rapes you? Get on the pill, a.s.a.p. However, I asked because my sixteenth birthday is in nine days’ time and I do intend to lose my virginity that day. So you need to decide if you’re going to help me with that fun task or allow me to seek assistance from someone else. I promise I’ll stay your steady boyfriend for as long as you want me, which I think will be a long time. I promise nothing else until after we really get a chance to know each other. But I also intend to spend a lot of my time with my dick firmly lodged in some sweet girl’s pussy. I’d prefer that to be yours, but I can accept you don’t want that yet, as long as you approve me finding some one night stands.” The others are very surprised at how forward he’s being with her on such a very personal subject, especially so early in their relationship.

They walk on in total silence for a while. Melissa finally speaks up, “Ernie, I would prefer all your attentions to be on me and only me, but I don’t know you well enough to go that far. I don’t want to lose you, so you’ve my permission to shop around for casual sex partners, as long as it’s me you take out on Friday and Saturday nights and we partner each other to the school dances. I even know where you can find a girl to be your first on your birthday, just make sure to include the PA Club members as there’s three of four who’ll put out for you at no risk.” He smiles at her and squeezes her hand while they walk. His brother and cousins can’t believe what they just heard. Melissa lets go of his hand to call her mother to ask her to make arrangements for her to see the doctor and get on the pill a.s.a.p, she also tells her why.

Confrontation

They arrive at the school to find most of the school rugby team waiting for them. Barry moves toward Melissa and reaches for her. Ernie steps in between and intercepts his hand while Melissa interrupts what Barry is about to say by saying, “Forget it, Barry, it’s over between you and me. I sincerely doubt it was ever going to go as far as you wanted it to, but it’s now over.”

In a harsh voice Barry replies, “Like hell it’s over. No cheerleader slut dumps me, especially not for a geek.”

In a very cold voice Ernie says, “Keep a civil tongue in that stupid mouth of yours, Barry, now walk away while you still can. Save your future football career, don’t throw it all away for a fight you can’t win.”

“Like hell I’ll walk away right now. I’ll beat you to a pulp and fuck her brains out, then I’ll walk away. You can’t beat me, and if you try, my mates will turn you into pulp.”

Ernie looks along the line of rugby players, and he spots a known face near the end. “Chris Roberts, what will Sensei say when he finds out you joined a group to beat up one person?” The boy addressed has a closer look at Ernie, and goes white. While gulping hard he turns and walks away. The others watch him go with shocked expressions, because he’s often first for any physical activity, and he’s usually afraid of nothing. “Barry, if you so much as lay a finger on Melissa I’ll rip it off. Now take your friends and walk away while you can still walk. Melissa, love, please move back a few metres in case he’s foolish enough to start a fight.” The whole group with Melissa moves back a few paces and Ernie backs up a step to give himself some room to move.

The rest of the team are shocked to overhear the discussion between Tom, Margaret, Nancy, and Pearl. Margaret starts it with, “Barry down with two blows from Ernie, five bucks.”

Nancy responds, “I think he’s improved and say one blow, and I’ll take your five bucks.”

Tom chimes in with, “I’m good for ten bucks on one block and one strike to lay Barry in a hospital bed for the rest of the day or more.”

One of the other rugby players turns to them and asks, “What the fuck are you lot doing?”

In a very cheerful voice Tom replies, “Making side bets on how long it takes Ernie to turn Barry into sliced beef.” The rest of the team stares at them, so does Melissa. “Didn’t you notice Chris had the sense to walk away once he realised he was way out classed by Ernie.”

Barry had turned a bit to follow the side conversation, but he’s very fast when he swings back with a right handed hay-maker while saying, “Fuck the psychology crap, he’s a fucking geek.” Ernie steps in to use his left arm to deflect the blow up and away while his right hand comes through from behind him to pass his chest: a straight open hand blow to Barry’s chest with the heel of his palm. Barry comes to a halt and all of the air woofs out of his body while his eyes try to pop out of his head. He’d scream with pain, except he has no air left to scream with. He drops to the ground, taking short gasps of air while his eyes fill with tears.

Ernie says, “Take short slow breaths and you won’t die. Someone go get the school nurse and one of you call for an ambulance.” The rest of the team is staring at Ernie in shock, but one takes out his mobile phone to place the emergency call while another sprints for the school’s main administration building to get the school nurse. “Barry, listen to me, move your eyes up and down if you can understand me, but don’t try to talk, you can’t, yet.” Barry’s eyes go up and down a couple of times before resting on Ernie. “You’ve at least five, maybe a dozen, broken ribs. Don’t move until told to by the paramedics so the broken ribs won’t puncture your lungs. Try to stand or talk and they can puncture your lungs. Take slow shallow breaths to limit the disturbance of the broken bones, understand?” The eyes move up and down a few more times. “I know you’ll never understand how much skill and control it took to make that punch a painful blow but not a killing blow as it’s designed to kill, quick and simply. I had to pull it a lot to not kill you. When you can, describe it to Chris Roberts and ask him about it. He’s had some training, so he knows a fair bit about it. Understand?” Again the eyes move up and down, but, like the rest of the team, his eyes are now more like organ stops. “Listen well to the doctor, and lay off all contact sports until the ribs heal fully, that’s about nine months. If you do, you should be able to play rugby again; if not, you could die in your next tackle.” Ernie stands up and moves over to hold Melissa tight, the fight was short and sharp, but it scared her a lot. Ernie just stands there holding her to him while he whispers words of comfort to her.

When the nurse arrives Ernie tells her what happened and the damage done. She reiterates to Barry the need to keep still and limit movement. A few minutes later the ambulance arrives, and they strap Barry to the stretcher before taking him away for x-rays and treatment. When the ambulance leaves the rest head to the administration building to make a report. The Principal isn’t happy with the incident, but there’s lots of witnesses to show Ernie was defending himself and it happened on the street, so he hands it to the police. Nothing comes of it because Barry was at fault by starting it, and Ernie doesn’t press any charges against Barry.

With the delays caused by the fight and its aftermath they don’t join classes until second period; so Ernie has half a period to calm Melissa down and have her relaxed and ready for the day’s classes. The only other incident during the school day is a sort of non-event.

On the way to lunch Ernie finds two year eleven bullies picking on one of Tom’s year seven friends. The halls are crowded with students, so no one can see much of anything when Ernie passes behind the bullies. He’s fast when he strikes between their legs to punch them both in the balls. Both let out a sort of gurgling sound while they collapse to the floor and hold their sore groins. The boy seizes his chance to run away. Ernie thinks this is a fun game, so he decides to continue it the next time he comes across any bullies picking on the kids. During a free period he stops by the administration office to get approval to check the Departmental and school policies covering interactions between students and staff. He spends a few minutes going through them all.

School finishes and it’s time for the PA Club. All of the cast and crew are fast to make their way to the auditorium. The first run through is brilliant because Ernie has memorized all of his lines overnight. In past rehearsals the majority of delays had been Jason forgetting his lines. They take a break midway through the rehearsal and Ernie calls out, “Hey, people, I’ve a birthday party on Saturday week, starting at ten in the morning. That’s tomorrow week plus one day, and you’re all invited. Put it in your diaries and I’ll have the proper invites to you by then.” They all smile and indicate they’ll come, because a party is a party. “Melissa has allowed that since it’s my sixteenth birthday I’m allowed to seduce anyone who’ll let me.” All of the girls turn to look at Melissa, she blushes and nods yes. “Will volunteers please give Melissa their names so I know who I should hit on?” The whole group laughs. “Missus Miller, both those invitations do include you too. I checked the school policies today, teachers aren’t allowed to fraternize with any of the students they teach. School sponsored clubs like this one aren’t considered a class, and you’re seen as being a specialist private adviser donating your time because you don’t get paid for helping the club. Unlike the rest, I can safely invite you to my party because I’m not doing any classes in your faculty, and thus I’m not one of your students. So make sure you’re there, or I’ll send a kidnap team after you.” She promises to check the rules and be there if it’s OK. Soon afterwards he sits beside Jason and says, “You know the rugby team isn’t happy about losing Barry for the whole season, and they’re looking for the person who encouraged him to pick a fight with me. If you’ve any idea of who it was you best warn them, because they intend to get the information out of Barry as soon as doctors allow him to speak again.” Jason goes pale. A little later Ernie takes the time to tell Margaret of the warning. The team doesn’t really care, but Ernie wants Jason to worry a bit, so he wants the rest of the club members to play it up a little; which they do over the next few days.

Later, when they start to pack up for the day, Maggie Simpson walks over and says, “Ernie, I hear you’re getting a tutor for some extra classes you’re doing. Why’s that?”

“My older sister, Lee, is very interested in biochemistry and we need help. When she started high school she had trouble understanding some of the work so I read the textbook and did some research to help her understand it, because I’m good at understanding things from books. I ended up writing a much more simplified version of the textbook for her. It helped her a lot. I got interested and did the same for the rest of her high-school biochemistry textbooks. That got me hooked, and since I already knew as much as she did, I sat the biochemistry exams last year as well, and passed. So I already have a senior high-school credit for biochemistry and I’m not doing it here.” Several other students had gathered round to talk to him too, and now they’re all staring at him.

All of a sudden one blurts out, “Shit, Ernie Cable is E. Cable as in Cable’s Complete High School Biochemistry Made Simple. Hell, Mister Waters is recommending we get a copy and he’s lobbying hard to have it become the main textbook. Mum got me one, and I find it a lot easier to read and understand than the regular textbooks.”

While smiling at him Ernie says, “You should, it was intended to, and it was written with a reading level of fifth grade to ensure all can understand it. The rest of you, please buy a copy if you’re doing biochemistry as I like the royalties.” A few yes nods and giggles from stunned faces. “My sister is doing biochemistry at university in class, and I’m doing some of the same course as a distance education student. This is a little bit more complex than the high school stuff, so I want a tutor who’s done it to help us make sure we understand the material. I’m paying for it from my royalties. How come you know about it, Maggie?”

“My sister, Lisa, has been asked to be your tutor and we were discussing it, as a family, last night. She thought it was two boys until Dad put her straight on Lee, he works with your father. Lisa always gets in the top five percent of her classes, so she knows her stuff. I warned her about what you did to Melissa, and she doesn’t believe me.” The listeners laugh at that.

Smiling while he nods his understanding Ernie says, “Good, I’ll look forward to her help. Tell her she’s safe on tutoring nights, but she’s fair game any other time and I’ll look forward to seducing her at the birthday party. Make sure she puts it on her calendar.” Maggie laughs and moves away. He spends a few minutes explaining to some of the others where he lives, because they want to organise extra time to go over parts of his acting some scenes with him.

Ernie looks over to see if Melissa is ready to leave, and he can see a large group of girls around her chattering away. So he goes and speaks to Mrs Miller.

She says, “Thanks for the party invite. I think your understanding of the policies is right. So I’ll be there, unless someone proves that wrong when I check tomorrow. Watching the girls’ reactions to your offer to seduce them was fun. But I know you’re not really interested in a mid-forties woman like myself.”

With a wide grin Ernie replies, “Oh, no, you’re wrong there. You have to arrive early so I can seduce you first. I’m a virgin in need of a hot older and experienced woman like yourself to be my first to train me right for the rest. It’s always best to learn something new from someone who knows what they’re doing. Just wear a short skirt to show off your legs, a tight top, and no bra. That’ll help me get you revved up and ready to go upstairs with me when it’s time.”

“Get on with your flirting with the girls. I’ll wear something to encourage you, just to make a point. But you don’t stand a chance unless you can get me so turned on my panties are damp before we leave the party area.” He likes the challenge being offered by her.

Grinning, he nods yes and walks away. Nearing Melissa he decides to thin the crowd a little. Coming up behind Janice, a petite brunette of his height in year twelve, he grabs her and lets her see it’s him. He bends her over his left arm while he leans down to kiss her. She cooperates with the kiss and opens her mouth while her arms go around him. He slides his tongue into her mouth while he slides his right hand under her skirt and into her panties, she stiffens a bit when he does that. She tries to stand up but is off balance and at his mercy. If she moves her feet to get a better position to stand up she’ll only give him a much better access to her groin until she starts to stand. However, she only fights for the first few seconds, then she’s very cooperative when his work on her arouses her. He maintains the lip-lock while he works her over until she has an orgasm. She briefly shudders in his arms. He breaks the kiss and waits for her to get her breath before returning her to an upright position and letting her go. She wobbles a bit when she starts to walk off with a huge smile on her face. Some of the group had seen him start to kiss Janice and told the others, so most of the kiss had been watched by the whole group. But only a few could see his hand under her skirt, and they guess what happened due to her reaction.

Smiling at Melissa he says, “Ready to go, love?” She nods her head yes and walks over to him. They join Margaret at the door and head home. While they walk out he says, “I hope you don’t mind, love, but I acted to break up the crowd around you by kissing Janice. While I was kissing her I slipped a hand in and played with her until she had an orgasm.” Both the girls laugh. “I also made a point of telling Missus Miller to wear a short skirt and be ready for me to seduce her because I want her to teach me how to please a woman. She thinks I’m joking, but she promised to wear something hot, so I may be in luck there.” The girls laugh again while slowly shaking their heads.

Melissa says, “That’s all right, as long as you make sure I know what’s happening before you slip anyone a piece of meat. Otherwise I’ll cut it off! Got me, Mister?”

He nods yes, and says, “Yes, Ma’am.” They talk about school and classes for the rest of the way home. Today they kiss for a moment outside Melissa’s home then they go their separate ways, but only after Ernie takes a good photo of her.

Party Plans

Walking in the back door at home Ernie sees his mother and says, “Mum, I think we’ve got a uni tutor, a girl with high marks called Lisa Simpson. Her sister is in the PA Club so she asked me about the tutoring. She said Lisa was going to accept the job. You best make arrangements to see she gets home safe each night.” Lucy nods agreement at this, then she’s very fast sitting upright in the lounge chair she’s in when he adds, “Oh, the police may be around about an assault later, if they haven’t been already. Melissa’s old boyfriend wanted to make a federal case out of it. He insulted her and attacked me, so I gave him a case of smashed ribs to deal with.” She gives him a careful scrutiny then nods again. While she’s not happy about it she accepts it was needed because she knows he’s not an aggressive person. She starts to relax back into her chair when his next comment makes her stand up and stare at him. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like a birthday party this year. Starting at ten in the morning on Saturday and running until late evening, if possible. Probably have a couple of hundred people after you and Dad invite all of your friends, work colleagues, and the families in the area. I’ll foot the bill to make it a good bash, if need be. The backyard is more than big enough for it, especially if you get Aunt Mary to let us flow over into her pool.”

He’d been passing through the lounge room at a slow walk while he talks, but he halts and turns back when Lucy says, “Freeze, Mister. What’s going on? Who are you, and where’s my son? You haven’t wanted a birthday party since you were ten years old, so why such a big bash with so many people attending?”

“I figure it’s a good way to get to know people at school while you and Dad can use it to start your socialisation with your crowds, so can Lee and Tom. It’ll help us all settle in quicker. And the bigger the crowd the less likely they are to notice if I vanish during the party for a short period to rest or be alone with someone. Since we’ve the space we can make it a big bash to include all of the neighbours and make it a real event. Make like we’re just using my birthday as the pretext for a big party. I’d like it to run all day and into the evening, finishing between eight and ten at night. I’d been planning to have one for me and my friends, but walking home I thought it might be better to make it a mega party and include yours and Dad’s contacts etcetera. Make it a family meeting all the locals thing. If we both put money to it we can make it a major do and have the food catered for, so you and Dad can mingle.”

“OK, that sounds like a very good idea, and I really love the idea of caterers, but it’s going to be costly.”

“You may want to check with the trustee, but I’ve still got about five grand available for this current quarter. So three or four grand from me for the party shouldn’t be an issue. I’m pretty sure I could get more if needed, since I’ve never spent out my allowed level in any quarter, yet.”

With wide eyes and a slack jaw she drops back into the lounge, “You really do mean this to be a mega bash, don’t you? OK, but we have to let Tom and Lee know this is happening and you’re paying for it, plus they can invite up to twenty-five people each, if they want. OK?” He nods his agreement and moves toward the stairs while she reaches for the phone to call Henry.

On the next level he checks, and finds both Lee and Tom in their rooms - Lee is on the phone. He knocks on Tom’s door and stands in the open doorway, a subtle way of indicating Tom has control of this space. When Tom slips his headphones off Ernie asks him to join him for a talk with Lee. They both go to Lee’s room and stand in the open doorway until invited in. She’s on the phone, but facing the door, thus she can see them. She waves them in while she tells her friend she’ll call them back later. After putting the phone handset down she flicks the phone over to the built in answering machine. Ernie motions for them both to sit on the bed while he sits on the chair at her desk.