Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning bright and early, sore but refreshed. As was my usual routine I threw on some shorts, a t-shirt and headed to the back yard to stretch and do my forms. I had picked up Tai Chi to help with my stretching and discovered a great way to center myself. At first, I looked like a wounded duck but after four years I was almost graceful and fluid. After forms I did a few basic exercises; push-ups, sit-ups and chin-ups then grabbed my running shoes and went for my usual 1-hour run.

When I got home both of my sisters were up and sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. Being the normal big brother, I am, I had to tease them for a minute and went running up to them, all hot, sweaty and smelly for a hug. I just can’t understand why they went screaming and running away. After a hot shower and a fresh set of clothes I went down stairs and got a baleful gaze from mom. Knowing why she was irritated I sat quietly and thankfully accepted the large breakfast she had made for me. Since I was trying to bulk up for football next year it was full of meat and eggs. God help our food budget when I actually started practice!

Since Glenn and I had planned to meet at noon I had about 3 hours to kill so I sat in front of the boob tube and watched cartoons with the girls. Hey, I am still a kid after all. I managed to make a few brownie points back from this morning and left the midgets around eleven-thirty to head over to Glenn’s. Since he only lived next door it didn’t take long to get there but I knew that I would be required to speak with his mom before we left. To this day I can’t tell you her name. All I’ve ever known her as is momma Philips or Ms. Phillips as his Dad had passed away almost ten years ago. He’d been crossing an intersection when a huge oil truck ran the red light and t-boned his car, killing him instantly. Since the driver was not only driving recklessly but was also drunk and had a suspended license his mom made a killing from the lawsuit. Yeah, I know, he’d rather have had his Dad alive then the money, but at least he didn’t’ let it eat him up.

After greetings and hugs Glenn and I finally headed out to the mall. It was a short bike ride, about forty-five minutes counting all the red lights and stop signs but it felt like only a few minutes since we talked the whole way. Glen always gave me grief about where I went on Saturdays. I never told anyone about my martial arts training and to this point had never had to use it; a fact I was very grateful for.

We arrived at the mall and headed to the arcade which was about midway through the mall. We had started from one end of the mall, so we could girl watch. As both of us were only fourteen we were of course still scared of girls but getting more curious.

We had just left Macy’s when we ran into two girls from our class. I mean, we literally ran into them. Glenn was looking at me talking about some baseball player he liked and smacked right into Erica Pazini. She hit so hard she bounced off him and landed on her butt. Thankfully I was aware of my surroundings and was able to grab onto Valerie when we collided. As you can guess neither were very happy with us, but if looks could kill I swear Glenn would be dead.

“Why don’t you look where you’re going, you big brick wall,” shouted Erica.

“Oh, crap! Sorry, Erica. You ok?” he said as he helped her up.

Fortunately, I guess she was one of those that calmed down fast or I’m sure it would have been worse. In the end we invited the girls to eat lunch with us to help smooth things over. Erica still gave Glenn the stink eye, but Valerie kept looking at him when she thought no one couldn’t see her. Wonder what that was about?

The ladies decided on Chinese, so we headed upstairs and got it line at THE WOK. We ended up getting 4 different things and just eating off each other’s plates. I thought I was going to lose a hand when I reached over to stab a piece of broccoli off Erica’s plate, so I decided to be safe and swipe one from Val’s plate. She looked at me intently for a minute and said, “That’s gonna cost you.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep. Now you owe me ice cream,” she said with bright eyes and a smile.

Oh well, it was a small price to pay for a smile like that, so we got up and headed to DQ. I’m not sure what happened while we were gone, but when we got back Glenn was gone and Erica was almost in tears.

All I could hear in my head was the robot from lost in space DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER! I might only be 13 but even I knew that a crying girl was VERY bad news. I stayed back and let Valerie handle this one, and a good thing I did. Erica was so mad at Glenn I think she just might have killed me if I’d asked what was wrong.

After Valerie got Erica calmed down I discovered that Glenn, in typical stupid boy fashion, had made a disparaging comment about Erica’s butt and she got so mad at him that she stomped on his foot. Having finally caught on that his life may be in danger he took off for the arcade (I found this out later when I finally made it there myself).

Shortly after Valeria was able to calm Erica down we decided to go for a walk around the mall. We were just passing Hot Topic when some guy grabbed Val’s purse and tried to take off. Fortunately for her she had a one-piece purse with denim strap. Unfortunately for her, she had a strong one-piece purse with denim. When the strap failed to break like the guy thought it would it ended up pulling her back and she landed with a thud.

I’ve only known Valerie for about 2 years but let me describe her. At four feet eleven and about eighty-five pounds, with medium length brown hair and hazel eyes, Val was surprisingly strong. She had been in Gymnastics for several years and had built up very impressive upper and lower body muscle, which is why she was able to hold onto her purse. I’ve never asked but I swear there’s some Irish in her family as she usually had a temper that would make a Pitbull cower. Knowing this I was shocked when she just sat there and looked up at me. I figured this guy was chopped liver, but I soon realized that she expected me to defend her. Anyway, as she looked up at me the guy reared his fist back and was about to hit her in the back of the head. Uh-uh, that aint happening. As he pulled back all the way I ran up next to him and hooked his arm with mine and took two steps forward forcing him to back pedal and land on his ass. Now his attention was on me. I quickly got between him and the girls and started telling the guy to just walk away. With all the commotion I was sure Mall security had already been called but figured I’d try and deflate the situation before it got worse. This clown wasn’t having it. He reached back and pulled a wicked looking knife out. Shit, now it was serious! While keeping between him and the girls I was watching everything around me. I kept watching his body language and as he started to jab at me with the knife I started turning to the side and grabbed his hand pulling it towards me to throw off his balance. While he was trying to remain upright I twisted his arm up causing him to land on his back, then flipped him over and put him in an arm lock. Sadly, he kept jerking around once I had him down and, in the process managed to dislocate his shoulder. With a sickening pop and a blood curdling scream his arm went limp. Mall Security eventually arrived as well as the police and jr. was halled away handcuffed to the ambulance gurney. Later, while talking to the police, the girls said that I looked as peaceful as a sleeping kitten, till I moved in a sudden blur. From start to finish it took less than three minutes.

As you can expect, the police called everyone’s parents. Erica and Valerie’s moms came down together as they were just at the other end of the mall shopping together and, while I expected my Dad to show up mom was the one to come down. Great, I immediately got the stink eye. You know what they say, “no good deed goes unpunished.” After talking with the police, and the girls and their moms, I was finally given the opportunity to defend myself. I admit it, I had a great story lined up and ready. Imagine my surprise when all of a sudden, I’m wrapped up by two beautiful girls who are praising my defense of them. Now, imagine my greater surprise when I look at mom and, instead of anger, I see pride. The two things that everyone kept asking is how did I know what to do and how could I stay so calm? While mom knew I took martial arts she honestly thought it was just for exercise. Since neither she nor Dad had ever been to the dojo she had no clue just what I’d been learning. After prying the girls loose, I explained that I had been taking self-defense classes for years. When one of the officers overheard my explanation, she came over and started a whole new round of questions. Seems that I was now the possible owner of assault with a deadly weapon charge since I was trained to beat people up! I finally explained that I was not a black belt, leaving out the test I just took, and that since it was a clear-cut case of self-defense with witnesses and that I had tried to warn the guy off several times, no charge would EVER stick to me. Thank God, we’d had several classes about the law, our actions, and the repercussions at the DOJO.

While the officer was giving me the third-degree mom was on the phone with our attorney. Finally, she told the officer to either charge me or let me go. Man, I love this woman. She wasn’t afraid of anything when it came to protecting her family. Eventually the watch sergeant showed up and after hearing the story told me I was free to go. I think he knew that he was about to have five very upset women mad at him if he didn’t do what was right. See, some guys are smart!

The moms finally left, and I was finally able to get to the arcade. After some ribbing from Glenn about the whole thing we finally got serious and played some games. He proved once again that he spends too much time in front of the TV and beat me soundly at almost every game. Some guys have all the luck!

At supper that evening, mom told everyone what had happened. Remember what I said about no good deed and such? Yep, I caught grief from the girls and Dad all night, but it was all in fun, so I took it.

Monday morning, I got up at five-thirty for my usual drill. Forms, Exercise and run. By seven-forty I was dressed and out the door to meet Glenn and the gang to catch the bus. I was hoping that the events Sunday would blow over. I really didn’t want it to be known.

Everything was quiet till we got off the bus. As soon as I made it in the door Erica and Valerie were immediately at my side, each grabbing an arm. You could have heard a pin drop in the hallway. Everyone, from students to teachers was looking at me. Great! I looked at Valerie and asked,” What’s going on?”

Before she had a chance to speak, Erica pulls us over to the side of the hall and says,” We wanted to thank you again for yesterday. I swear, when the guy pulled that knife I thought you were dead! I’ve never seen anyone move like you did.”

“Well, look. I couldn’t let him hurt you. I couldn’t call myself a man if I did, but it’s over now. Can we go back to normal? I really don’t want all the attention.”

Erica and Valerie looked at each other and I swear they were carrying on a conversation. Finally, Erica looked up at me and spoke quietly. “David, I really like you. After what you did yesterday I wanted to ask if you would go to the spring dance with me next week?”

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I never would have expected Erica to ask me out. No! I’m not ugly. At fourteen I was already five-foot seven and one hundred-twenty pounds. With short blonde hair and light blue eyes, the women in my family always said I ‘d be a heart breaker, so I wasn’t bad looking. But Erica was in a class all by herself. At four-eleven and eighty pounds, with a soccer players body and long brown hair to match her eyes, she was already a force of nature. Over the last three years we had gone to school together I think she might have said five words to me. So why now? All I could think of was a bit of hero worship. Was I above that? Hell no!