Chapter 8

Tuesday morning after breakfast I dressed in a nice pair of slacks and a button-down shirt for the trip to the lawyer’s office. It was still early but since we were going downtown dad didn’t want to be late We went ahead and left.

When we got there the only thing to tell us we were at the right place was a small bronze wall plaque that said, ‘Law Office of Rebecca Espinoza PLLC.’

As we walked in the door a woman who was about forty-five was sitting at the reception desk. She said, “Hello, how may I help you?”

“Hi, we have a nine o’clock appointment with Ms. Espinoza. My name’s John Smith,” Dad said while shaking her hand.

“Ah yes, that stupid zero tolerance thing,” she said while hitting a button on her phone. “Ms. Espinoza, your nine a.m. is here.”

She was silent for a moment then said, “Well dear, right now I’m not your mother, I’m your receptionist. Anyway, I’ll send them right back.”

“Wow, you work for your daughter Ma’am?” I asked in amazement.

“Yes, now if you gentlemen will walk this way please,” and she walked us down a hallway to a door on the left. Knocking two times she opened the door and we walked in.

I was shocked. I thought lawyers were all old fat guys? Not ours! Ms. Espinoza was about my height with a clearly Spanish descent. Long jet-black hair framed a beautiful smile with dimples and pearly white teeth. Wow...

“How are you Mr. Smith? I understand that David here had to defend himself at school from a known bully and suffered one of life’s oxymorons?”

“Yes. David please tell Ms. Espinoza about this, starting with the first day he harassed you.”

“Please, call me Rebecca. I still look over my shoulder for mom when somebody calls me by my last name.”

“Yes ma’am, Rebecca. Well, it started the first morning of school on the bus...”

After talking for almost forty-five minutes, I ended with, “After the Police finally got him handcuffed to the gurney and in the ambulance the school principle, Mr. Summers came up to me and told me that he had to suspend me because of the zero-tolerance policy the school district had about fighting.”

“I see. I want to make sure of some things before we go any further. You say that at least two teachers have witnessed him bullying you, but only one of them said anything to the other young man?”

“That’s correct. Rhone walked away before Coach Waters could get to the table to say anything though.”

“Ok, and your principle, Mr. Summers also said something to the student?”

“Well Ma’am, when Rhone was yelling at me in the hallway Mr. Summers was coming around the corner and heard him use some foul language, then threaten to break my arms. He took Rhone to the office I guess. I didn’t see him the rest of the week so I think he was suspended.”

“Ok, I think I have all the pertinent details. Now, what do you want to do about this? We can and probably will have to sue them to get your record cleared, as well as ask for damages. Is that what you want?”

I thought for a moment and said, “Well Ma’am, I just want to get back in school and not have to worry about this jerk anymore. Whatever’s the easiest way to do that is what I want.”

She looked at me a moment before looking at dad as if waiting for a response. “I agree with my son. It’s a stupid rule that needs to be gone. Let’s get rid of it and get him cleared and back in school. His first football game ever is this Friday and it would look really bad if he had to miss it because of this.”

“Ok. I figured that was what you’d want so I already looked up the name and number of the school board attorney. Let me give him a call and see what we can do. I’ll call you later this afternoon and let you know what I’ve got.” With that, we all shook hands and we left.

That afternoon since I didn’t have school, I went through and read several chapters ahead in my French book, even going so far as to look on the internet and find several sites that could help me learn what the words were supposed to sound like. I’d learned about accents from my housekeeper’s in the past so I was hoping to get a Parisian accent and not an American accent. It made a difference they said.

I’d just finished that when dad came and knocked on my door. “David, we have a meeting in the morning with the school board. We’ll be leaving at 8:15. Be prepared to go back to school after that just in case.”

I looked up and said, “Yes sir. Hey Dad, what do I do if they won’t let me back in?” I really did enjoy class but noticed that I learned so much more in the last 3 hours of French than I had the whole last week in class.

“Well son, your mom’s already looking at some options. We can transfer to another school or we can try home schooling. We feel you need to be in classes though, so you can be around others your age. We know a few people who home school their kids and there’s a huge difference in how they act around people their own age compared to how you act, even with your advanced level of maturity.”

“Yea, I think I would miss my friends. I already don’t see a lot of them with my busy schedule.”

“Well, let’s cross that bridge if, and when we get there. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble getting back in school this week,” he said confidently.

It was getting close to time for gymnastics, so I went ahead and grabbed my bag and headed down stairs to wait. When I arrived at the gym I was surprised to see Sensei there.

“Konichiwa Sensei,” I said automatically. We always spoke in Japanese in the dojo now, so it was like muscle memory.

“Good afternoon, David. I’ve been speaking with Mr. Evens and we’re going to test you on everything you’ve learned and accomplished tonight. If things go as I suspect, this will be your last scheduled session. I’ve got some ideas that may interest you.”

Nothing like telling someone they’re going to be tested to make them nervous.

After changing and stretching I began where we did when I started. The beam. Over the next four hours I did every trick, tumble, lift and vault I had learned as well as showed my muscle development doing various tricks on the mat, rings and pommel horse.

When I thought I was finished, Sensei said to get on the beam, and then tossed me a Boken. As I mounted he jumped up and landed on the other end, then stepped forward and said, “Defend yourself using everything you know without getting off the beam. If I knock you down, you fail,” and began attacking.

We fought for probably 15 minutes when he stepped back and went into guard position. Seeing this as a sign to stop I did the same. He then motioned to Steve, who brought us both bo staffs and took our practice swords. By this point we had gathered a crowd as all the other students came over to watch. With the added pressure of an audience we bowed to each other and Sensei once again attempted to knock me off my perch. He almost succeeded a couple of times, but I was just able to keep balanced while managing to deflect his attacks and attack in kind. We went back and forth for another fifteen minutes before we stopped, and I suddenly heard the loud applause from the group. I was sweating so hard that when I jumped down I caused a small rain storm, making all the girls scream and step back yelling, “EWWWWW, GROSS!”

We laughed as we were drying off. Seems I even made Sensei sweat a little.

“Well done David. I’ve only had a handful of students that I couldn’t knock off the beam at least once. You should be very proud. I know I am.”

“Thank you, Sensei, and thank you Steve. If you hadn’t made me practice up there so much I’m not sure I would have survived.”

As I shook hands with Steve, he said, “No problem David. You were a great student. You learned everything I had to teach you and even came up with some new tricks I’m going to have to use in the future. I hate to see you leave, but there’s not much more I can teach you. As your Sensei said, this is your last scheduled class but if you want to stop by once-in-a-while to practice you’re more than welcome to. This really is a case where practice makes perfect.”

Having dried off and changed clothes, Sensei pointed to a corner and we sat down. “David, you’ve done exceedingly well in every assignment I’ve given you and I’m very proud of what you’ve accomplished. For an American so young to have accomplished so much is amazing. With the way our society raises children it should have taken you several more years to get to this point, if ever.”

He took a drink of water then continued. “You’ve been at my dojo for almost 10 years now David, and you have learned very quickly, but now I want you to learn another style. You’ll continue to come on Mondays and Wednesdays, but now on Tuesdays and Thursdays I want you to start learning a style called Krav Maga. It’s an Israeli fighting style that’s taught to their intelligence agency called The Mossad. Where we practice stealth and concealment as well as pre-emptive strikes. They have a philosophy emphasizing aggression, and simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers. I have a friend at the Jewish Federation named Dan Levy. He will be waiting for you Thursday and will begin your new training.”

This was another major change for me and I said so. “Sensei, you’ve never steered me wrong. I’ll do my best to make you proud.”

“Oh, I have now doubt about that,” he said with a look that implied something else was behind that statement...

The next morning dad and I were out the door at 8:15 sharp headed to the school district office. When we got there, Rebecca Espinoza was already waiting on us. “Good morning gentlemen, I’m hoping today will be a rewarding one. Are we ready?”

After dad shook her hand, I did and said, “Well Rebecca, as long as it gets me back in school that’s all that matters.”

I held the door for them and Rebecca said, “Why thank you, David.”

Me being me I said, “No problem ma’am. For you it was a pleasure, but I couldn’t let this old decrepit looking soul behind you hurt himself. You know how old folks are.”

“Why you! You just wait punk, remember I know where you sleep,” said Dad to the sing-song laughter of Rebecca.

We made it to the receptionist where we were directed towards a conference room. As we entered I saw not only a few legal-type suits but also Mr. Summers, Coach Waters and Coach Vickers sitting there.