Chapter 10: Finish What You Started

NIS Day 4 –Morning - Medway High School

8:21am, Thursday, November 1, 1979

After our Tuesday and Halloween morning disrobing experiences, all eight of us NIS students had already stripped out of our clothes in a restroom. We all wore some type of bath or evening robe over our naked bodies to this morning’s disrobing session. When a few students semi-complained about us just slinking out of these robes, Mr. Williamson said, “I know this isn’t an official NIS rule, but I think I want you folks to remove your clothes out here from now on, please.”

While the crowd of students gave a few hollers and yells of ‘Yes!’, I watched as Jennifer and Sammy both rolled her eyes at our vice-principal, but still softly said, “Yes, Sir.”

The rest of us all gave that or a similar response to our VP’s NIS edict.

“So, Patrice, how did your first official day in the program go?” Tempe asked the tall, slender tenth grader.

Patrice had a model’s build to go with her youthful looks. She was an inch taller than Lynette at five-ten, and was either a size 0 or a size 2, at most. Her breasts were set high on her chest, and would have had trouble filling an ‘A-cup’ bra. She had the smallest amount of areola-nipple tissue I had ever seen on a girl. The tip of my index finger would have completely obscured one of Patrice’s light brown areola areas if I pressed it against her tiny nipple.

“It was pretty good. It started out with a bunch of touching requests, which was kinda scary but then they died down after...”

“That was the same for all of us,” Jennifer replied.

“Looks like the ‘wolves and wolfettes’ are back for blood,” Paul chuckled as the crowd of students seemed a whole lot more raucous this morning than any of our previous mornings.

“Got to love candy hyped wolves,” I added as I held Tempe’s hand. I then turned to our VP and asked, “Are we done down here, Mr. Williamson?”

“Yes, you can head on out to your home rooms. Make sure you listen to the announcements for the NIS requirements, today. They can be a bit confusing. Ask your homeroom teacher or your classroom teachers about what you can or can’t decline in class.”

“Will do, Mr. Williamson,” Greg replied and then added, “C’mon, Patrice, I’ll walk you to your locker and then to homeroom.”

Homeroom was rather normal for an NIS day. The regular announcements were just that, regular. Sammy, Tempe and I all had a big smile on our faces after we heard that the girls’ basketball teams were being dismissed for the game at Strathroy after the fifth period. That meant that Mrs. Bumstead wasn’t going to be there for our last period PE class.

“Does that mean that you don’t, or that Sammy and I don’t have PE, today?” Tempe asked with a smile on her face.

“Not a clue, B-G, not a clue. I guess I’ll stop down in the main office later to find out during our spare or at lunch,” I replied.

We then heard, “All three NIS students are to report to their ninth period PE class, and if any girls in Mrs. Bumstead’s ninth period wish to dance, Mr. St. Georges will gladly supervise your participation in his and Mrs. Bumstead’s combined class.”

“So much for a ninth period spare, guys!” Sammy chuckled and raised her hands up and let them flop down in an oh-well type action.

Mr. Williamson’s NIS rule and regulations announcements were similar to Wednesday’s with the addition of possible classroom lessons. The key factor was we had a choice in the type of NIS lessons we wished to participate in. I felt it was more of an issue for the girls because it seemed that the main difference was in how their genitals could be touched during these lessons.

“I’m not sure I want a teacher or just anyone poking or probing around or in my vagina,” Tempe said with a touch of anxiety in her voice. “I can handle folks feeling my lips and outer parts, but who or what goes inside me, that’s ... I think that’s pushing it.”

“Be real clear on things, Tempe,” I whispered and put my hand on hers for support.

“When you’re in a class with me, I know I’ll be a whole lot more comfortable with things,” Tempe softly replied.

“I’ll really have to think about letting a teacher or someone get up close and personal between my legs,” Sammy forcibly chuckled, trying to put forth a braver face than she probably was feeling with today’s requirements.

“If nobody has any questions on today’s NIS rules and requirements, you can get an early start on your way to your first period class,” Mr. Ballas said. We didn’t need to be told twice, so everyone snagged their first two or three periods’ books or bags, and moved out into the side hallway.

We walked around the back hallway to the junction with the main second floor hallway. Sammy, me and the other music students wished Tempe a good start to Day Four as she, Elizabeth, Jon Lunby and Josie Snejtians veered down the main hallway to go to their Honors History class with Mr. Connors.

As Sammy and I bounded down the stairs, I immediately sensed that something was bothering my naked friend. I just had a feeling it was something more than the upcoming class lessons or touching requests for the NIS students.

At the bottom of the stairs, two twelfth grade guys wanted to examine Sammy’s breasts and fire-crotch pussy, but I calmly said, “I have a real important issue I need to talk with her about before our first class, so you guys will have to track her down later today or tomorrow.”

“C’mon, Cuda, Sammy, we asked nicely and we aren’t gonna do anything inappropriate here,” Chris Slentz replied.

“Guys, please ... I really do have to talk with her before class,” I said and concentrated real hard on appealing to their sense of decency.

“If you’ll get here quick, tomorrow, we’re good with giving you a pass, Sammy,” Tom Goga replied as he put his hand on his friend’s shoulder and nodded up the stairs.

“I appreciate this. Thanks, guys! We’ll be here, tomorrow,” I replied and put my hand on Sammy’s shoulder and steered her down the back hallway towards the parking area instead of to our music classroom.

“What’s up, Cuda?” Sammy finally asked as she seemed to be in la-la-land since we got to the rear stairs.

“Nothing’s up with me, but there’s obviously something under your skin besides this NIS stuff,” I replied to knock the ball back into Sammy’s court.

“I ... I was, I guess I am feeling a tad ... jealous, I think,” Sammy said as we mulled around the auto shop entrance and the individual music practice rooms.

“Jealous,” I softly whispered and put my hand on her bare shoulders and pressed her back up against a bank of lockers. “Why are you feeling that, Wushu?”

“It’s just like...” Sammy started and then took a good breath of air. The petite redhead then had a major case of verbal diarrhea with her thoughts and feelings as she completely unloaded on me. “You have been wonderful with Tempe this week ... Then, I’m thinking you have Brick, but you also could have Tempe, if you just snapped your fingers. My NIS partner, Jason, well he has Toxic. So ... Then, Tuesday Warren asks Cano out, and last night, Tempe’s beautiful sister shows up at our party and snags that Italian hottie, Anthony. Hell, Wayne and E were all gaga in the pool, too. I just, you know ... I’m wondering what the fuck is wrong with me, Cuda? ... Why aren’t good guys like you or them, falling for me?” Sammy last question was said in near tears.

“Sammy, the right guy is out there for you, baby. You may also have to go hunt him down, if they won’t come to you,” I softly said as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in tight for a hug.

“Sammy, can I please touch your brea...” a tall good-looking tenth grade guy, named Desi, Desmond Kilkenny started to ask Sammy.

“Sorry, Des, we’re having a ... private moment right now, which is...” I interjected with a smile.

“Ah, God. Sorry-sorry for interrupting, you,” Desi softly said to me and Sammy. He then stared at the teary eyed redhead and genuinely asked, “Are you okay, Sammy? This NIS crap hasn’t gotten to you, has it?”

“Yes and no. Tha-thanks for asking, Desi. I, ah, I will gladly allow you to touch me, but ... just later today or tomorrow, please,” Sammy tearfully replied as the six-foot-one-inch redhead reached out and lightly grasped her left hand.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small upward curve at the corner of Sammy’s mouth when Desi softly squeezed her hand. He then surprised the heck out of me, and probably Sammy when he said, “With all this NIS bullshit ... I won’t bother you with any requests, Sam. You’ve probably been pestered or poked by enough guys, I’m guessing.”

“If you ask me, Des, it sure wouldn’t be ... pa-pestering,” Sammy softly replied with a genuine, teary eyed smile for the tall redheaded tenth grader.

“Still, I’m not gonna put you through anymore of this crap, Sammy. See you around, ‘kay? Later, Mike,” Desi said as he dropped Sammy’s hand and headed down the back hallway. After about ten feet, the tall redheaded kid turned, smiled at Sammy, and waved back at both of us.

I simply pulled Sammy’s nude body into my shoulder for a side to side hug. When she looked up at me, she grinned and said through her teary eyes, “Don’t go there, Cuda ... or I’ll kill you, right here!”

“I’m not going anywhere other than to music with my Time and NIS Bandette,” I deadpanned as I gently nudged her into moving back towards our music room.

After we turned into the music room, I gave her a small hip-check to send her towards the down-steps to where her flute was stored.

“Do any of you NIS or volunteers need relief?” Mr. Ballows asked as I carried my trombone case to my backrow seat.

“I’m good, Sir,” Jason replied, and I joined with Sammy in giving our teacher a negative head-shake. With none of us asking for relief, that ended any naked volunteer’s chance at relief. I figured with it being our first period, I didn’t need to bite the bullet for any of my volunteering friends.

“Good, good,” our music teacher said with a smile. He then turned his beady brown eyes upon me and chuckled, “One of my spies told me that you, Mr. Nevins ... wrote a song that just might be appropriate to start a NIS oriented music discussion.”

I immediately pressed my back into my seat and stared down at my music teacher. Both Lynette and Sammy whipped around and glared up at me along with all the other students in our class.

“I ... we’ve written a bunch of songs, Mr. Ballows, so I’m a tad confus...” I replied with honest look of confusion on my face.

“Does... Finish What You Started, ring a bell?” our music teacher laughingly asked.

(Note: This song’s music was written by Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar early one morning in 1988. Hagar then stayed up all night to put his lyrics to Finish What You Started. It was the first acoustic oriented song that Eddie wrote for Van Halen. It was also the third single from OU812, and reached the number two spot on the Billboard Rock charts.)

“No! You can’t be serious?” Sammy bellowed from her front row spot.

“That’s a private song!” Lynette vehemently added from her front row seat.

“Who told you about that song?” I hotly demanded from my back row seat in the music classroom.

If I remembered right, we only half-way fooled with that song one time when we had a few of our friends over at the guest house. We didn’t have the nerve to play the whole thing for our friends, and we certainly didn’t plan on playing it in public, especially in a music class.

“Doesn’t matter who told me, just that I believe it fits real well with the NIS objectives for my music class. Now, would you put your trombone away, and snag the Ibanez guitar on your way up to the front of the room ... please?” Mr. Ballows stated and then ‘respectfully’ asked of me as he was required to do.

“Don’t suppose I can turn that request down, can I?”

“You can but it will cost you another week in the program for refusing a legitimate educational request that doesn’t involve any arousal touching,” Mr. Ballows replied as he got up from his conductor’s chair and walked up the opposite side steps to pull out that topnotch acoustic guitar from its storage slot for me.

When Mr. Ballows handed me the guitar, he whispered in my ear, “I expect you to play this to the best of your ability.”

“I’m just supposed to sing and play that song ... as an NIS request?” I asked knowing full well what the Little Man’s answer would be, as well as knowing he wasn’t going to ask me again.

Mr. Ballows then turned to Lynette and Sammy and said, “If you want play the piano or sing backup with Mike, feel free to join with him.”

“This is a guitar, bass and drums only type song. I also think this will sound better if I simply sing it by myself, Sir,” I hotly replied. I immediately saw a large worrisome weight slip from both of my naked band mates’ shoulders as I basically excused them from helping on this song.

“Class, your job while Mike performs this song is to jot down anything that you believe could be relationship oriented. My understanding is there are also some major sexual innuendos in these lyrics, so try to catch as many of them as you can. Those two things ... relationship items and sexual innuendos will be the focus of our discussion ... And I will be assigning participation points during our discussions, so sitting on the sidelines could come back to haunt you when your fall grades are tallied.”

I strummed on the Ibanez acoustic and adjusted the G string a moose hair tighter and the B string two moose hairs loser to get it sounding like I wanted. When our music teacher moved up to the back row, and sat in my vacated seat, I knew it was time to get this NIS music request under way.

Most of the students were either shocked and/or amused by my singing this future Van Halen song. I almost lost it when I glanced down at Lynette and Sammy. Both of them were more red-faced now, then when I sang this song that late March evening when Paul and Cathy McGregory told the Time Bandits that they would be moving up north to Timmins.

The only part of that song I truly enjoying playing was the thirty-five second guitar solo after the second chorus. Even though I wasn’t happy playing this song in class, I really did like the way this Ibanez guitar sounded. I thought I’d have to check at the local music stores to see if any of them had a top of the line concert quality guitar like this one, or possibly a 12-string model.

Because this song ended with a good number of repeated lyrics from the chorus or verses, I glanced up at Mr. Ballows, and used my eyes to let him know that I had played the meat of this wickedly sexual song.

When the ‘Little Man’ stood up from my normal trombone section seat, I ended this song with a final, “Come on, Baby ... Baby Come On!“ and slapped the body of the guitar as the official end.

I was slightly surprised that almost all my music classmates were either writing furiously in their notebooks or were in serious ‘mini-discussions’ with a neighboring student. The only people who weren’t engaged in some sort of academic activity were Sammy, Lynette, Jason and Kalena. I figured that my bandmates could participate in a class discussion on this song without any preparation. I then remembered that Jason and Kalena were at Sammy’s guest house when I played those couple verses of this song for a few of my friends.

I first looked at Kalena sitting behind Cano and Sammy and saw her lightly shake her head at me, as I used my eyes to inquire about this song. When I saw Jason drop his eyes and head after I peered up at him in the tuba section, I realized that my friend and NIS buddy was the likely source for Mr. Ballows’ knowledge of this song. When he finally looked back at me, I smiled and mouthed, “It’s all good, Jase.”

My thinking there was, ‘If Jase did mention this to Mr. Ballows, he did it without any ill intent or with no clue what the Little Man would do with this song.” I also knew I’d have to get with him after class to let him know I wasn’t going to share this ‘Who told Mr. Ballows’ knowledge with anyone. I easily could tell he was feeling about as low as a snake’s belly by his current actions and body language.

“Alrighty, Class!” Mr. Ballows called as he walked back to the front of the room. When he sat back down on his conductor’s chair, he said, “Let’s start with the first verse. What, if any, relationship type aspects did you identify from Mike’s song?”

Based on the nature of the song and the likely slant of this discussion, nobody felt like volunteering their initial thoughts or findings to our teacher’s question.

“People?” Mr. Ballows lamented and then paused to no avail.

Heidi was in the unfortunate position of being between Sammy and Lynette when our teacher stared at my bandmates and said, “Miss Amstrong, with you being the first on the roll as well as being between two Time Bandettes, what say you about relationships in the first verse?”

“I guess going first has its advantages because the first two lines of that song would be relational, I think. Like, ‘see other guys and lettin’ it slide,’ shows the guy is not a possessive type dude,” Heidi stated as she glanced between her notes and our teacher.

“He may not be possessive but he’s a horn-dog, who wants to get in her pants based on that line, too!” Joanne Gramm replied from the row behind Heidi.

“How so?” Mr. Ballows asked.

“If he’s giving her permission to sleep around, his whole goal in doing that is to sleep or screw her and then get with other girls, too,” Joanne replied.

“Okay, I can see that. Mike, what do you think?” our teacher asked up at me.

“I’d like to keep my thoughts on this to myself. I simply wrote this as a humorous little ditty, and sang it here because you requested it, so y’all figure it out,” I testily replied and leaned back in my seat.

“That you did,” Mr. Ballows added in his snarky tone. “Anything else in that first verse ... on relationships?”

“The next two lines... ‘about being both a lover and a friend‘ could have a relationship slant,” Andrew replied from his seat next to me in the back row.”

“Yes, indeed. That one was as plain as day, I would think. If I collected your notes, how many of you have that one listed or jotted down?” our teacher asked.

All but two people, besides us Bandettes, had put their hands up at the Little-Man’s question.

“Why didn’t you have it, Wayne?”

“You can’t expect us to get them all on one listen! I have a few other relationship points if you’d like to hear them?” my friend and saxophone player replied.

“Give me two, please,” Mr. Ballows asked with a nod.

“Okay... ‘Come on, Baby‘ is a term of endearment, which is often used in relationships. And then ... mentioning about being ‘broken-hearted‘ could also have a relation aspect ... as well as a major sexual innuendo quality.”

“Good, good. If you really focused on this song, I’m guessing you’d view this couple as being highly committed to each other, yes?” Mr. Ballows tossed this devil’s advocate nugget out for discussion.

“On what planet would you consider the folks in this song as being committed to each other?” Louie VandenLoo smartly replied from her back row percussion seat.

“Maybe from the planet, that Cuda visited to write all these cool songs!” Kalena laughingly said as she turned and stared up at me with her piercing blue eyes.

When I was chuckling at Louie’s and Kalena’s humorous and semi-truthful statement, Kalena gave me a wink and then mouthed, “I know everything ... Dad.”

If there wasn’t an arm rest on my seat, I would have fallen into the side stairway at my time-travelling daughter’s surprising admission. When Mr. Ballows asked if I was alright, I said, “Can I run to the restroom? I scraped or cut my elbow on the arm rest, Sir.” I quickly showed him that my skinned arm was starting to bleed, which prompted an immediate wave of his hand to run and take care of it.

I stared down at Kalena as I got up and nodded for her to join me. As I stepped through the door, I heard a topless, but running shorts wearing Kalena ask, “Can I run to the restroom, Sir? I think I’m having a ... female issue.”

“Oh, yes, go-go!” Mr. Ballows hotly replied.

I waited for Kalena beside the music teachers’ offices and I walked in stunned silence with my ‘Water-Baby’ to the girls’ shared change-restroom entrance.

I half-way figured that Kalena didn’t need to use the restroom for a feminine issue, so we both sat on the heat register in the restroom for a moment as I held a few paper towels to my skinned left elbow.

Kalena, without looking at me then softly said, “I felt something more than that static spark between us at the Halloween party last night ... you did too, I’m guessing. Then, after Jason dropped me off at home, a strange mental image hit me when I sat down at the kitchen table ... my mom, and ... her late August of 1962 lover... YOU were waiting for me.”

“Oh, Jesus, Kalena,” I softly said as I put my left hand on her bare right thigh. “I don’t know why that...”

“Sheesh, Mike ... or should I say, ‘Dad,’” Kalena chuckled as she covered my hand with hers. “I’m not upset with you, my mom or anyone. I’m still a little shocked and definitely confused, but heck ... I wouldn’t even be here if that craziness between you and Momma didn’t happen at Wheels in Chatham, and then in my Ukraine.”

“I don’t understand why you had to find all this out, though, Kalena?” I incredulously asked.

“I have a feeling about why I had to know, Mike,” Kalena softly replied. She then carefully turned her butt on the six inch wide register and put her hands on my left thigh, relatively close to my flaccid cock. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before she calmly said, “I was going to ask you to do relief on me, you know ... eat my pussy in English class, today ... And I’m guessing those Energists folks didn’t want you to either create a huge stink in class by turning me down, or cause any undue stress for you if you would have agreed to do that for ... your daughter.”

“So you think that little static charge or energy bolt we shared last night was some type of warning sign that you and me were getting too close ... that ‘your few months older dad’ was going to fool around with his same age-daughter?” I softly asked.

Right then an Energists’ bubble warped around us and Hawking Gamma Educator appeared, sitting on the restroom sink. “Good morning, Dr. Mike and Dr. Kalena. I hope this fourth day of your NIS week is finding you both well.”

“Hawking Gamma, why am I not surprised to see you here ... regarding this bit of enlightening news,” I replied with a smile.

“We told you that we were monitoring this program and if something of importance was going to take place, we’d either stop the program or intervene with it. That future event that Dr. Kalena just mentioned would have qualified as an important but unneeded event ... Therefore we intervened with you, Kalena and her mother.”

“You couldn’t have done that without revealing to Kalena that I’m her biological father?” I disbelievingly asked.

“We could have but we studied the situation and decided that it would be of long term benefit to your people, as well as for us, Energists, for Kalena to have knowledge of that time-traveling situation.”

“Benefit ... to our people, how?” Kalena softly asked the small Energist being.

“Would you like to tell her or should I, Dr. Mike?”

“Will she retain this knowledge?” I asked of Hawking Gamma.

“We can allow her to retain this knowledge, but just not act upon it until the time arrives in your calendar year, 2011 ... with your eight-year-old twins, Dr. Mike,” Hawking Gamma replied with a smile.

Hawking Gamma and I sent the next few minutes telling my time-traveled daughter about her involvement with my future twins, Michael Jr., and Micheline, and my grandchild. Additionally, we shared how my and Kaleigh’s children would interact with Andi Whiting’s child to develop life-saving cancer treatments, as well as create a greenhouse gas elimination system and then a safe, cold fusion system to end our world’s reliance on fossil fuels.

“There’s no way for you to stop that ... pure evil attack on the World Trade Towers to spare Andi’s husband’s life in 2001?” Kalena asked when Hawking Gamma related that part of our future to her.

“I’m sorry, but no ... we can’t do that. That would alter your world’s history in ways our powers could not control or predict any new world events. Additionally, you, Dr. Kalena, would not be here if Andrea Whiting’s future husband survived. The Curry-Whiting child, Madison, would not get with Dr. Mike’s daughter, Micheline.”

“Oh ... wow,” Kalena softly said as she stared into my face.

“I’m sorry, but neither you nor Dr. Mike will retain any knowledge of that major world event, as we cannot allow for any possibility that you could somehow notify the authorities, and prevent those airplane attacks,” Hawking Gamma said as he waited for that piece of World tragedy to be erased from our minds.

“Thank you for sharing my past and what little of the future you’ve allowed me to retain, Hawking Gamma,” Kalena said as she stood up from the heat register and gave the little Energist being a soft hug.

“Do you have any other questions for me, Dr. Mike, Dr. Kalena?”

“No. Thanks for sharing this with me ... and my daughter, Kalena,” I replied as I, too stood up and reached out to shake my little friend’s small three fingered hand.

Before Hawking Gamma vanished, he glanced at my skinned left arm with the slightly bloody paper towels and said, “Don’t worry about that.”

With a wave of his hand, he dematerialized into our atmosphere, and so did the bloody paper towels and the small ‘raspberry’ on my left elbow.

“Whoa! That was ... kinda weird,” Kalena said as she stared at my arm. I knew she was definitely talking about more than my healed appendage, though.

I let Kalena walk into the music room a few seconds before I did and when I entered, Mr. Ballows immediately said, “We have ONE question we’d like you to answer about your song, Mr. Nevins.”

I chuckled and said, “My arm’s good, thanks!” and then replied, “Hit me with your question.”

Andi Whiting then asked, “We were debating whether you purposely changed the lyrics in the chorus, or if you simply did it just for the sake of changing them?”

“Yeah, you initially sang, ‘I need some sympathy‘ which we took as the guy wanting his girl to take care of him,” Katy Forbes stated.

“And then,” Steve Young interjected, “we heard you sing, ‘Ow! Come on and finish me!’ in the second chorus. That’s a clear plea for just pure animal sex, not your earlier tone of possible love.”

“So the biggest debate is whether I purposely changed the chorus, or did I make the two choruses a touch different for the heck of it, huh?” I chortled from my back row seat.

“Yeah! What is it? Most of us think you did it on purpose!” Heidi exclaimed from between Sammy and Lynette.

“Well ... that’s the beauty of music and songs. They can mean different things to different listeners,” I simply stated. I purposefully emphasized those words to let them know I wasn’t going to settle this debate for them.

“Yes, yes they do, Mike,” Mr. Ballows chuckled as he closed up his music notebook at his conductor’s chair and lectern. “You folks did a great job on this assignment and with sharing your thoughts in a very adult-like manner. Well done and have a good Thursday. You’re dismissed ... at the bell.”

As we put our instruments in their storage slots, I hung back and waited on Jason to put his tuba away. When everyone else walked out after the period ending bell, I nodded at my big friend and said, “If you happened to tell Mr. Ballows about that song, I’m not upset with you, Jase.”

“I-ah, I didn’t have any idea he’d ambush you like that, Mike ... when he asked if I had heard you guys playing any risqué or sexually charged songs. I never...” Jason whispered as we walked out into the hall.

“These teachers can be sly devils when they wanna be, Jase. I was just kinda shocked at his knowledge of it and at his request, that’s all. We’re good, my man. We’re good,” I softly said as I gave his left shoulder a light little punch as we walked behind our classmates up the back stairwell.

When we got to Mrs. Pierce’s second period English room, I, as well as most other students, was shocked to see that Mike Locksley was truly ‘volunteering’ to be naked today. We all knew that yesterday was a teacher volunteered situation for the tall, skinny, regular pain-in-the-ass guy.

When Sammy asked him about it, he proudly said, “I just felt that the NIS guys will need a few other supporting guys ... with all these classroom lessons. I figured a few of these girls would keep volunteering, so ... here I am.” He then used his left hand to motion along his naked body from his head to his seated knees.

“Mike, I’m very impressed!” Sammy replied, to which a few other students quickly concurred.