Chapter 7

Early Wednesday morning Roger walked out on the pool deck and assembled with the rest of the team.

Coach Jerter came out of the office area and greeted them.

“‘Morning, all. You look half-dead, team. Didn’t you get any sleep? We need to get you all into shape so I want each of you to get at least an hour of hard practice in every day through our season. We have a really good chance to repeat the state championship this year, even though we’ve lost our top freestyler to graduation last spring. I need everyone to pick up the slack; let’s all try to improve our times—your first goal is five seconds off your season-end times by next week. Okay, suit up now and let’s get wet! Roger, hold on, I need to talk for a sec.”

“Okay, coach. Sorry I missed those early practices—that crazy Program stuff...”

“Yeah, and it’s still happening. Mr Cirota told me yesterday that he wants you pulled off the team. If you compete, he says he’ll have the school forfeit the match.”

“Can he do that? I don’t see how he can.”

“Neither did I, so I checked with the CHSAA, you know, California’s school athletic association regulates our high school sports competitions and they set all of the eligibility and swim meet rules. I found out that their rules don’t allow for forfeits unless an association rule is broken. So they wouldn’t comply with Cirota’s forfeit order. I told Mr Davis that we would have a zero chance of even making Regionals if you didn’t compete and intimated that you could swim for one of the community teams that we compete against—you know, like Valley Area Athletics. You could join them, you know, and compete in our league against us.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t do that...”

“But if the school barred you from our team?”

“Well, yeah, I suppose. I’ve got that swimming scholarship so I need to keep my edge.”

“Anyway, Davis said he wouldn’t act directly against you, like revoking your eligibility. He’ll be telling Cirota that there’s no school rule that permits him to do that. But I just wanted to tell you what’s been happening. Now suit up quick and let’s go,” he finished.

After practice, Roger arrived in home room ten minutes into the period with a note explaining that he’d be late each day during the swimming season.

Roger took Ayame’s hand and squeezed it. “‘Morning, sweetie.”

She raised his hand to her lips and kissed it.

He turned to Cynthia. “Any announcements? Everything okay?” he whispered.

“It’s cool,” she responded. “The kids are still doing the human shield drill and not getting hassled about it, either.”

“Sweet. Let’s hope it stays like that.”

It did stay like that; the class change for the second period was relatively sedate. Roger noticed that the knots of kids surrounding the Program students was a little looser; even so, no one was bothering them with Requests. Roger and Cynthia joined one group of screeners as they walked along and asked one of them if they had any difficulties.

“Not really,” she answered. “Cirota was outside this morning trying to get us to disperse, but the kids he was yelling at were calling back to him that they wanted to make a Reasonable Request and he was interfering! Too funny! He was soooo red-faced. Maybe he’ll get a heart attack.”

“Was Davis there too?”

“No, haven’t seen him, except he stands outside the main office and watches sometimes. I pass by there a few times a day for class changes. Oh, here’s my class, see ya!”

They were approaching their own classroom and as they peeled away from the escorts, several other kids saw them leave and joined the group.

Cynthia grinned. “Rog, look at how that’s working now. Just like a rehearsed dance routine, right?”

Roger gave her a thumbs up. “Great teamwork.”

Ayame was looking at the passing groups. “Look, did you notice? Only half of them seem like Marine kids—they wearing that logo—so other kids are helping—isn’t that nice?”

This was their anatomy class, so the twins sat, holding their breath for any Program challenge from their teacher, but he ignored them and started the lesson with no reference to their participation. Both siblings exhaled in relief.

However, at the class change after the period ended, they got an unwelcome surprise. When the bell rang and they left the classroom, they saw standing in the hallway five men wearing rent-a-cop outfits. Then when a group of kids passed them escorting a Program kid, two of the men waded into the nearest group, trying to reach the naked student. One of them grabbed her and she screamed.

Suddenly there were blasts of whistles that sounded from every direction. Hearing the whistles, the uniformed men froze for a second and found themselves tackled by some very angry students. Cynthia and Roger had reacted too; Cynthia grappled with the man who had grabbed the girl and Roger took down the other one. Both twins put the men into judo choke holds.

“Okay, now, explain,” Cynthia growled at her captive as she bore down on him. “Tell us why you assaulted that student. Speak!”

“Uh, let go, you’re choking me! We were told to make sure that the naked kids were pulled away from those gangs they were walking with so that they could be easily seen. Let go!”

“And who told you to do this?”

“The agency. I was sent here by my security guard agency.”

Suddenly there was a commotion at the other end of the hallway and a group of Marines appeared.

A Marine MP strode up to Cynthia and then she noticed that a few Marines were handcuffing the other uniformed men to their loud objections.

“What’s up, ma’am?” he asked.

“He grabbed that girl—the naked one over there,” Cynthia said, nodding at the trembling girl who was being comforted by several girls.

“Okay, hombre, up,” the MP said to the guy Cynthia was holding. “You’re under arrest for assault.”

“What? I was told to get those kids away from the groups they were with!”

“And you grabbed a kid to do that. That’s assault and battery. They weren’t breaking any laws or school rules, from what I heard. We’re arresting the whole bunch of you. Let’s go.”

He snapped cuffs around the guy’s wrists and led him away as Cirota came running into the hall.

“Stop! You can’t do that!” he called.

One of the MPs, a sergeant, as the twins noticed, walked up to Cirota.

“What is it we can’t do, sir?”

“Take the guards away. They’re on official business and providing security for the school.”

“Exactly what kind of security does assault and battery on a student provide, sir?”

“They didn’t assault anyone. They were enforcing a Program rule.”

“Without admitting that they have any right to enforce a rule, exactly what rule were those students suspected of violating?”

“They have to make themselves available to be seen and touched by other students.”

Meanwhile, a group of students were watching, attracted by the conversation.

At Cirota’s last comment, one girl called out, “I had no problem seeing or touching anyone!”

Another called out, “I didn’t either. I was walking right next to Susan and could see and touch her with no problems. Then one of those guys busted between us, grabbed her, and scared the hell out of her!”

The sergeant looked at Cirota. “Sir, did you arrange for these men to be here?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Did you give them instructions that included using physical restraint of any kind?”

“My instructions to the agency were that the guards were to remove any Program participants who were being shielded by students from those groups and make them available for display and touching.”

“Okay, sir, you are under arrest for incitement to assault. Put your hands behind your back.”

“What? No, I won’t! I’m a federal official and I have the authority in the school over all Program matters.”

“You have no authority to break the criminal laws of this state. Cooperate or I’ll add resisting arrest to the charges.”

The cuffs were snapped on Cirota’s wrists and he was led off. The MPs began taking statements from a number of student witnesses, and Roger and Cynthia were also asked to provide an account of what they had seen.

The halls were buzzing with excited conversations; the bell for the period start had rung some time earlier but no one seemed particularly interested in class just then.

The PA system came to life.

“Students, those in the hallways in wings A and B, please return to your classes now. You must go to class. Thank you.”

Ayame pulled on Roger’s arm. “Going to class. Your American schools are so exciting, like a manga story! Hentai, nudity too!” she giggled and ran off.

Cynthia hugged Roger. “Wow, that was intense. Thanks for the teamwork, bro. This is an angle we didn’t figure, him using rent-a-cops to try to break up the resistance.”

“Yeah, but the Marines stormed the beaches and routed the foe,” Roger grinned.

“I don’t know about that—those kids did a real good job nailing most of those goons, don’t you think?” she retorted.

“That’s true. Hell, everyone’s so wired about this! There might be a real revolt here next week if anyone in the school tries forcing someone in the next group.”

After their economics class, the hallways were packed with wary kids and the mood was fairly ugly and unnaturally quiet. The earlier easy joking and lighthearted banter were missing as the students slunk along to their next classes, peering carefully around corners and into dark classrooms.

Roger went to the pool to do some practice laps while Cynthia met Ayame at the study hall room. A few of the other Marine kids stopped at their table to talk about the morning’s excitement. They had been in the adjacent wing when what by then had been termed “The Great Attack” had begun. Roger and Cynthia knew Don; he was a junior and lived in their housing area.

“Yeah, one of those rent-a-cop guys just flew into my group. He was shoving and pushing people and even punched a girl in the shoulder—she screamed and fell, and then he tripped over her. Hell, about six of us jumped him and did a number on him. When the MPs got to him he could barely stand. His nose was bleeding and he was holding his side,” Don told them.

The girl with him said, “I was coming over to meet Don when one of those guys grabbed me and pushed me aside, just shoved me into the lockers. He was trying to get into a group of kids around a Program girl. Nobody messes with this kid. My dad always told me to protect myself, and when I saw that the goon was trying to get to the Program girl, I nailed him on his head with my backpack and when he went down I kicked him in his fat gut. Then some other guys grabbed him and were going to mess him up but then the MPs got there. Too bad.”