Chapter 15

Waking up, I dreaded Mondays like any other person. Going through my routine, I had a thought. With as small as school was, I was eventually going to run into Jenn and her new boyfriend.

I ultimately had no animosity against her or them. Would I have liked to open that sexual amusement park, yeah I would have liked it. That wasn’t to be, so I’d be as cordial with them as the situation demanded. I’d always heard, be the bigger man, so that’s what I’d be in this situation.

The morning at school went by with no problems but going into the lunchroom, I ran into the encounter I hoped wouldn’t happen for a while longer -- running into Jenn and her new boyfriend. Dan Foster was a pretty good-sized guy. My best guess would be 6’2 and probably about 220lbs.

They were standing in front of the double doors I need to use to get into the lunch room. I figured I would just slide around them.

I went to move around Dan who I had never met to this point in my life. Seemed I wasn’t going to be let off easy.

He stepped in front of me. “Isn’t this the loser that you dated before you came to your senses?”

I tried not to take the bait. Avoiding a confrontation in the foyer was just a smart idea.

“Excuse me.” As I went to go around him, I was blocked again.

“I’m not done talking to you.”

Well, so much for taking the high road. The intent had been for me to be nice, but that was out the window now. Guess it was time for my natural asshole to come out. I don’t think either of them was going to enjoy it.

“Look jackass. I’m not interested in having a conversation, so excuse me.”

“I’m not done talking to you. You need to learn to respect your betters.”

“Well, when my betters show up. You go ahead and let me know.”

“Well, I know one area you’ll never measure up to me. Little dick.”

“Oh really? Can I ask where you received that information from?”

I looked at Jenn, she was staring at the floor. I guess she didn’t want to make eye contact with me. Well, I guess if it was going in that direction, we might as well pick up some speed getting there. I just hoped I was able to not take it too far.

“Look here retard. The only reason Jenn didn’t want to have sex with me, was cause she feared the size of my dick was going to hurt too much.”

Looking at Jenn, I asked “Isn’t that right Jenn?”

Going on, I said, “What’s more, the only reason she’s going out with you, is because she figured I couldn’t raise her popularity enough. So, congratulations on being the fall back.”

“You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

“Well, let’s see what Jenn has to say about it. So, Jenn, what’s the reality of the matter?”

She continued staring at the floor. Seemed she wasn’t going to join the conversation, so I guess it was up to me to elevate this conversation to the next level.

“So, if y’all do get to having sex, remember this. She’ll be thinking about the dick she could have had, while you’re using that little nub trying to satisfy her. That and how a second-rate football player was her first.”

“You need to shut the fuck up.”

It seemed we were drawing a crowd. I wasn’t going to start anything. Though I’d learned from Stosh, the best at it, on how to instigate just about anything.

“That was a snappy comeback there slappy.”

“Dan Foster is not a second-rate football player. You little dicked asshole.”

“I could care less what you call me. I know the truth, and so does Jenn. Kind of odd she hasn’t backed you up on that one. What boggles my mind is that you just referred to yourself in the third person.”

“You can’t dispute Dan Foster’s accomplishments on the football field.”

I was shocked. I’d never seen something so narcissistic before. This guy actually believed the crap he was shoveling. I guess they’d be a good fit for each other.

“So, let me get this straight. A mediocre player on a shitty football team is suddenly god’s gift to football. The only stat you have is leading the team and conference in tackles. Considering the defense is on the field for ¾ of the game, that stat seems a lot less impressive.”

“Fuck you.”

“Ah ... did the truth hurt the big bad little-dicked football player?”

“Keep fucking talking and I’ll kick your ass.”

It was at this point that Jenn decided to join the conversation.

“Let’s go Dan. You can’t reason with these kinds of people.”

Well, that settled it. I wasn’t going to be a complete dick but that last remark threw all my intentions out the window. Guess you can’t be the nice guy.

“Well, I don’t know what “kinds of people” you’re referring to, but I’d rather be one of those people than whoring myself out to be more popular. At least a hooker has to earn a living.”

Well, that sure as hell set them both off. Jenn started screaming for him to kick my ass and Dan tried his best to follow through with her threat.

Deciding that two fights in a school year wouldn’t look good for me, I played keep away, using the dodging and slipping moves I’d been learning in kickboxing. I also seemed to have a speed advantage.

I guess my laughing at him didn’t make matters any better and hearing Jenn getting pissed that I was eluding him didn’t help. I started maneuvering towards the main office, I stopped when I got near the door, and started being loud in my protests for Dan to stop.

“I told you I wasn’t going to fight you.”

“Fucking stop moving so I can get ahold of you.”

“Nope.”

Still keeping my attention on Dan chasing me, I heard a loud voice come from the side.

“You two need to stop right now!”

I stopped, Dan not so much. I was caught by a punch to the side of the head. It didn’t catch me square, but it still stunned me. He actually threw another punch that I was barely able to get out of the way of.

“I SAID STOP!!”

Finally, Dan stopped. Mr. Martin was pretty pissed at this point and I could probably guess why. He was witness to a football player assaulting another student. Normally stuff like this was swept under the rug. He looked at me and realized that wasn’t going to be possible this time.

“Both of you in the office now.”

It went as I figured it would. It was the usual attempt to try and whitewash the whole thing for Dan’s benefit.

I was asked what happened. My replay was Dan making some disparaging comments to which I replied with some disparaging comments. That was when Dan decided to try and assault me.

Jenn came in to defend her new man, saying I tried to hit him first. It was all for naught when a bunch of students came in saying Dan started the physical altercation.

I didn’t know where this was going, but everyone loves watching a car wreck. It started to really pick up when the head football coach came in.

“What the hell is going on? I want to know why Dan Foster is in here?”

I could see from his reaction that Mr. Martin didn’t like Coach Townsend. He actually had a smirk on his face when he explained what the situation to him.

“Well coach, Mr. foster assaulted another student. He’s going to be in In School Suspension for the rest of the week, which makes him ineligible for the game on Friday.”

“That’s a bunch of horseshit. Whoever is saying that is lying.”

“First off coach, you need to watch your language. Secondly, no one is lying. I watched it happen right outside the office.”

There was a pause. Mr. Martin then took charge as the coach looked apoplectic.

“Everyone, go back to class. Except for you Mr. Foster, stay in that seat.”

I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by. As I was walking out, I leaned down towards Dan and whispered to him, “Have fun watching from the bleachers on Friday.”

I could hear him screaming and hollering as I walked down the hall. The rest of the day went by, and I was hungry as hell, not eating lunch would do that to you. Looking at the events that occurred, things weren’t quite as bad as they could have been.

Walking into World History, Mr. Guthrie looked at me. “I need to have a conversation with you after class.”

“Not a problem sir.”

Class went by with Mr. Guthrie continually looking over at me. I could feel his anger as he was pretty upset. I finally remembered he was the defensive coach for the football team. Well, I guess I was in for an ass chewing.

The bell rang, and I waited till everyone had left then walked up to the desk.

“You wanted to speak with me sir?”

“What the hell did you do to Dan Foster?”

“Sir, I didn’t touch him, he hit me.”

I explained there were issues over a female. I didn’t care about the situation, but they wouldn’t just allow me to head into the lunch room. Though when they started talking disparagingly, I wasn’t going to let anyone talk shit about me without a response.

He just kind of looked at me. I knew he wasn’t going to enjoy my next declaration.

“I’ll tell you this as well. I held back from putting a beating on him. You’re lucky he’s only going to miss one game. Please inform the other players that if they come after me, I won’t hold back. I’ll do whatever is necessary to defend myself. Have a nice day.”

I turned and walked out to the truck. I decided to head to Bob’s office. Turned out it was a good thing I did. The first thing I did when I got there, was borrow the phone and call mom at work to tell her that I was there.

“Mom, I’m at Bob’s office. I’ll be home when I’m done.”

“What happened Barnim?”

“Nothing major. I didn’t get into any trouble, and I’ll talk to you about it when I get home. Love you, bye.”

I hung up the phone. Bob was shaking his head.

“You know she’s going to kill you when you get home.”

“I’ll be OK. She might complain a bit, but it’ll be fine.”

“So, what happened that your presence is gracing my office?”

I explained what had happened during the day. Bob was shaking his head the whole time. He then explained that he was informed by a friend at the courthouse there was a lawsuit being filed against me. Seemed the mouth breather family was suing me for medical bills, pain and suffering, plus some other bullshit.

I couldn’t believe the gall of these people. I wasn’t going to give them a dime. If I had to use all my money to fight it, I would.

“So Barnim, what do you want to do?”

“Well, I’m not paying them a dime. So pending approval of the boss, do what needs to be done.”

“I can understand that feeling. I’ll work on it and let you know if I need anything from you. Now go be a teenager.”

“Yes sir.”

Going home, I made it just before mom did. I was coming back into the kitchen as she walked in.

“So, what happened today?”

I then told her what happened, avoiding the actual conversation, though she kept pushing to find out. I knew she would blow a gasket if she found out. I kept skirting it until she finally gave up. Then I told her to expect a call from Bob. I was pressed as to why, though I told her I’d let Bob fill her in.

I went up to my room and worked on my homework. The rest of the evening was pretty normal.

The next couple of weeks went by with nothing much happening.

School was going well, and there were no more run ins with Dan and Jenn. They seemed to be avoiding me like the plague. Classes were going well, and the nerd/geek table had grown to 10 people. Every so often another person would just be there.

Eileen kept after me to spend an afternoon with her. I was getting close to not having a reason to tell her no.

Bob was still fighting with the mouth breathers. There was a motion hearing to dismiss the lawsuit. He was confident the actual lawsuit wouldn’t see the light of a courtroom. He did tell me their lawyer was an ambulance chaser from Atlanta.

My hunt for a job hadn’t born any fruit, so I might have to rethink my stance on working fast food. I held out hope though.

Kick boxing was going great. I’d been progressing and was most proud of my head movement. I had drastically reduced the number of shots to the head I was taking during sparring.

Waking up I headed to the bathroom. Standing there looking in the mirror, the starkness of the changes hit me.

I’d never really sat back and thought about it. I would always appreciate what the Agen had done for me, especially Kiskan. I wasn’t sure if at some point, they were going to pop up like a Mafia Don. Demanding that I pay back the favor they did for me. I guess I’d just have to deal with that if it ever came to fruition.

No matter how much I had thought about how I could affect major events, I couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion.

There didn’t seem to be a way of doing things that I could come up with that would block me from the scrutiny that I didn’t need. Then there was the theory that fate would always get its way. You can change one event, which in turn spawns a multitude of events to produce what would have normally happened.

I guess I could only worry about what was directly around me. I’d do what I could to help those directly around me. Prevent big mistakes and improve their lives.

I got my morning routine done. School was moving as usual. There wasn’t much going on in my classes with Thanksgiving coming up. I just cruised through the day.