Chapter 9

Thursday was back to normal at school. A few people welcomed me back, but I wasn’t able to see Christa yesterday with all the commotion so when I got home I grabbed a bite to eat and rode my bike to the Jewish federation building about a mile north of the house, stopping by Christas on the way. As soon as I knocked on the door I could hear Christa running down the stairs inside then she threw the door open and tackled me, hugging me fiercely all the way to the ground.

“Hey babe, happy to see me?” I asked while hugging her back.

“You big moron! I was so scared when I found out you got suspended. I know you didn’t start it but I was worried. I heard that knife he had was really scary looking.”

Getting up after she finally let go of me I said, “Well it was pretty big, but I wasn’t worried about it. All he was doing was waving it back and forth. If he’d tried to stab me then I’d have been worried. That blade was made to stab, not slash.”

“Where you headed? I thought you had some kind of gym class you went to on Thursdays?”

“I’m done there. Now I’m headed up to the Jewish Federation building to meet a new trainer.”

“You aren’t Jewish, why there?”

“Sensei wants me to learn another style and that’s where the teacher is, beautiful.”

Call a young woman, or any woman for that matter, beautiful and what do you get? Well, I got a megawatt smile.

“Well, have fun. We gonna do anything this weekend? It’s been a couple week’s since we went out ya know...”

Actually, I did know, and was hoping to fix that. “How about a movie Saturday?”

“Well, we could do that, but I thought we might go up to the park and take a walk. You know, see what kind of trouble we can find together,” she said with a mischievous smile.

Hmm. “Sounds great babe. I’ll bring a blanket and some food and we’ll have a picnic.”

She looked at me with a look that just screamed ‘stupid boy’ and said, “How bout you bring the blanket and I’ll bring the food. I’d worry about anything you put together.”

“I should be offended, but since I was gonna get mom to make us something I’ll just let her be instead.”

The look I got told me exactly what she thought about that.

To avoid further harm to my body I stole a quick kiss and hopped on my bike and said, “Gotta go babe! See you on the bus,” and off I went.

I made it to the federation building a few minutes before Sensei did so I was sitting on the steps when he got there. We walked into the building and headed straight back towards some double doors. As we entered I realized that this was a huge gym. Across the floor was a tall man with hair in a military style cut wearing fatigue pants, combat boots and a t-shirt.

As we got close Sensei said, “Dan, how are you? Thanks for taking on a new student for me.”

Now that I knew who this was, I introduced myself and Dan said, “Nice to meet you David. I understand we’re going to training together.” Not a question, a fact.

“I hope so sir. Sensei says it’s good to learn different way of doing things so...”

“Well, lets step outside and we’ll see what I have to work with,” he said while turning towards the door next to him.

After having me stretch for a few minutes he came and stood in front of me and suddenly threw a punch straight at my face. At that point muscle memory took over and I used a high block to push it above my head but I didn’t counter punch. He stepped back and asked, “Why didn’t you counter?”

“I figured you were testing my reflexes. I didn’t think you wanted me to hit back.”

He looked at Sensei and asked, “Why’d you bring me a kid that don’t want to fight?”

He laughed for a minute then Sensei said, “David’s one of those rare peaceful souls. He tried to avoid confrontation.”

Dan looked at me and said, “David, that’s all well and good but here, we fight. If someone attacks you, you instantly defend and attack. Now, let’s try that again.”

He came at me again and instead of a punch tried to grab me. Since he said to attack as well as defend I grabbed his wrist, pulling it with me as I turned away from him, then reversed course and threw a punch aimed for the solar plexus. I continued my turn and brought my fist up in a curve to back fist him in the face. He was able to step back enough to miss the punch and pivoted on his right foot to turn away and so was gone when the backfist would have made contact. I swept my left leg forward and to the left taking his right leg out from under him but since I still had a hold of his wrist he was able to remain standing and not fall. Instead of attacking again he stepped back so I released his hand and stepped back as well.

With a new look of respect in his eyes he said, “Very good, very good. He seems to have a good grounding. I think instead of teaching him what we would normal civilians I’ll teach him the military variant. The big difference David is that the civilian version teaches how to escape from various holds and to attack enough to get away but they don’t learn any of the truly effective and deadly attacks. We’ll teach you some of the same things though; defending against guns and other weapons, how to break various choke holds and things like that.”

After explaining what we would be learning he then asked, “How long and how often do I have him?”

Sensei said, “Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from five to nine and Saturday from noon to five.”

Dan thought for a minute and said, “We should have him through his orange belt by the end of school depending on how fast he learns.”

“I think you’ll be shocked how fast this young man picks up things. I’ve had him for almost 10 years and he’s one of the best I’ve ever taught.”

Wow, I didn’t know that.

“Well, now that you’ve got his head big enough to float away we’ll have to try and pop that bubble,” Dan said laughing.

With that Sensei left and Dan and I started. For the next three hours I learned as much as I could. When we were done for the day Dan said, “You did good today. If you continue like that I think you’ll be ready well before schools out.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.”

“Enough with the sir stuff David. I’m Dan.”

“Ok Dan. Hey, thanks for taking the time to do this.”

“Oh, it aint free kid. Sensei sends me a check every month for taking on his students. It comes out of what you pay him.”

Well, alrighty then. We shook hands and I headed home.

Friday was, in a word, insane. I’d never seen a school so hyper about anything, but I’m surprised the teachers accomplished anything today. These people take football VERY serious. We had a pep rally first thing in the morning. Everyone was crammed into the gym and the teams were all standing on the stage behind the coaches and teachers. After everyone settled down the cheerleaders came out and did a floor routine, then the principal stood up and said a few words. He talked about a few changes in the schedule for this afternoon then moved aside for the coach.

Coach Hastings came up to the microphone and everyone started screaming and waving banners. After a couple minutes he waved for everyone to calm down and then named the team captains. We’d been practicing for over a month now but none of us knew who would be named captain. We knew it wouldn’t be a freshman though. For some reason, only sophomores and up were ever considered. Once that was done the captains came up and said a few words then the cheerleaders did another routine. After that we went to second period class.

In math class Mrs. Witherspoon had us get out some paper and a pencil and gave us a pop quiz. Like most teachers she usually gave tests out on Monday, but she was well known for doing pop quizzes on Friday. In truth it gave us a chance to see where we stood and what we needed to study before the test. For many it was a god send.

After handing out the quizzes she sat down and watched as the class went through and did the work. I took my time and while I wasn’t first I was sure that I’d gotten them all right. After she graded and handed them back out we reviewed the quiz and then goofed off the rest of class. That’s pretty much how the rest of the day went, minus a pop quiz or two.

With Today being Friday I had stage after lunch. We had been told we were going to do two plays a year and that after three weeks the teacher would hold tryouts and we’d be given our parts the following Monday. In the meantime, we practiced facial expressions, as well as acting. Christa said I would be a natural at this since I’m such a ham with her and she was right. I had a blast. I was always making people laugh and was one of the few people who could cry on demand. At one point a few of the guys were asked to take our shirts off and pose, acting like we were models or actors. Since this was one of the few classes that had students from all grades in it we had a wide range of heights and body types. A few of the guys just took their shirts off and a few absolutely refused. I was kind of in the middle. I knew I wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t exactly confident in my body. I was the last one to take his shirt off and just as I had it over my shoulders the room suddenly got real quiet, except for the gasp or two I heard from a couple girls. I started to pull it back down when it seemed like every girl in the auditorium yelled, “NO!”

I looked around and saw most of the girls staring at me like I was a steak. Even a few seniors and a teacher! Can you say AWKARD? Anyway, I went ahead and pulled my shirt all the way off and began posing like some of the men did on the ads I’d seen in magazines. One of the junior girls, Corrine came up to me and draped herself on my side. I saw a few flashes and thought CRAP, Christas gonna see that and kill me!

“Hey Corrine, Uh, what are you doing?” I asked nervously.

She looked up at me and said, “just making you a star Davie! That woman with the camera is my agent. Bet you didn’t know I modeled, did you.”

Wow, she looked hot enough to be a model alright. At five-two she had beautiful blonde hair that almost touched her butt and blue eyes that you could willingly drown in. I’d guess she was at least a C-cup too. As we stood there she grabbed my arm and drew it down to her amazing butt and I naturally cupped a cheek in the palm of my hand.

With her flawlessly smooth almond colored stomach showing in the midriff bearing shirt she was wearing this girl was absolutely stunning.

‘Hey, David,” she said turning up to look me in the eyes, “You feel amazing, but I think you better let go of my ass before the teachers get mad.”

Oh shit! I totally forgot about that and yanked my hand away so fast it almost knocked her down. She gave a little giggle and kissed me on the cheek and said, “Thanks for the compliment. Too bad you too young for me. I’d steal you away from Christa in a heartbeat,” and walked away.

Oh man am I in trouble...

When the bell rang I hurried to catch Christa before gym, but it appeared Corrine beat me to her. They were talking real quiet, so I couldn’t hear what they said. After a minute Corrine waved to me and turned away, walking to her next class.

“So, David.” She said with a perfectly Straight face.

Oh, shit I’m dead. “Yes, my beautiful seductress,” I asked, hoping to get out of the worst parts.

“I guess I’m gonna have to let you feel my ass so you can compare it to Corrine’s huh?”

OH god.

All of a sudden, she started giggling, getting louder as she went. “It’s ok David. Corrine’s one of my friends. She told me what happened. God you’re so easy.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, “Get to class. I’ll be at the game tonight, so will Corrine,” with a mischievous smirk. “You better win!”

“YES MA’AM, I said, coming to attention and saluting.

“Good boy, now go!” And off I went.

After gym class we were all told to be back here by six since the game started at seven. Glenn and I were waiting on his mom to come get us when he asked, “Hey dude, why don’t I ever see you out anymore. Seems like you’re always busy.”

“Yeah, I am pretty busy Glenn. With all the training I do sometimes it’s hard to find any free time.”

“You need to slow down man. Live a little; Go to a party once in a while. Hell, take a minute and kiss your girlfriend. I’m telling you dude, if you don’t start paying her some attention she’s gonna leave you man.”

“You think she would?”

“Well, girls like to know they’re wanted buddy. If they don’t feel appreciated they won’t stay long.”

Now this is not what I wanted to hear before a game. Now I was worried about Christa...

As soon as I got home I ran in the house and asked if I could go to Christa’s house for a minute. Since we still had an hour before dinner mom said go ahead and out the door I went.

When I got to Christas house I was invited inside and asked if I could talk with her for a minute.

We went out back and sat in the swing and I took her hand and said, “Hey Christa, am I giving you enough attention?”

She looked across the yard for a second and said, “Well, I would like some more time with you David. We’re supposed to be dating but I’m lucky if I see you once every couple weeks. It would be nice if we went out more.”

SHIT. SHIT. SHIT.

I sat there holding her hand and thought for a minute. How could I spend more time with her and still keep things on schedule?

Then I had a thought.

“Hey, think your parents would let you stay after school and watch practice? Then we could ride home together and maybe eat at each other’s house once in a while.”

“Hmm, maybe. I’ll have to ask but then I would be able to see you every day.”

“Yeah, I may have another idea too, but I need to talk to a few people first.”

We walked inside, and she asked her mom about staying after school.

Her mom looked at us both for a second and said, “What about your homework? If I agree to this, you need keep your grades up. If they start to slip I’ll have to put a stop to it.” Then she looked at me and asked, “David, have you cleared this with your parents yet?”

“No ma’am, but I’m sure they won’t mind. We can drop her off on my way to class as well. I’d also like to talk to you and Mr. Rodriguez alone about an idea I have, but I need to line up a few things first before I say anything.”

She kept looking at me then picked up the phone and made a call. “Katherine? Hi It’s Cameron. The kids want to know if Christa can stay after school and ride home together. Maybe eat dinner together a couple times a week. What do you think? Yes. Oh, really? That’s interesting. Ok, I think that will work. Talk to you later dearie, bye.”

After hanging up the phone she looked at us and said, “David, you’re eating here tonight. As you heard I spoke with your mother. We’ll agree to this as long as your grades don’t slip. You can do your homework as soon as you both get home. Don’t make us regret this, please.”

Christa was jumping up and down while holding onto my neck, nearly twisting my head off.