Chapter 13

Arriving to school the next day, I wondered what the fallout would be.

As I walked to the cafeteria to wait for the homeroom bell, I was stopped by the assistant principal, Mr. Martin. Seemed he had a few choice words for me.

“Badzinski, what are you doing here?”

“Well sir. I didn’t want to be late for school.”

“You got into a fight, you should be suspended. So again, what are you doing here?”

“I defended myself from a student who just a moment earlier was bullying another student. I didn’t receive any notice that I was suspended, so I’m here for class.”

“Well, I’m going to have to check on this. You know if your parents raised you better, yesterday would never have happened.”

Oh shit. This guy was burying himself, I didn’t understand him going there. I couldn’t let this stand. Mom was going have a stroke when she heard about this.

“Sir, I appreciate you letting me in on my lack of quality of parenting. I’ll be sure to give my mother your advice that she get some sort of help with my parenting.”

As I turned to go into the cafeteria, I could hear him sputtering.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Going in I sat down and checked if I’d forgotten any homework. Kids kept coming up to me wanting to talk about what happened. I told them all the same thing, I wasn’t talking about it. Even still they kept coming. I was glad when it was time to go to homeroom.

The morning went by uneventfully, though I kept getting questions. It was amazing how the story took on a life of its own. Typical high school rumor mill. Though it was a surprise when it morphed into my killing the kid, and I was just biding time till I went to jail. I tried to keep my attention on class, but some of the stuff being said was funny.

Leaving English class, I wondered what the mood of my table mates would be. Sitting down at the table, I heard some squealing.

“OH MY GOD, YOU’RE MY HERO BARNIM!!!!”

I recognized Beth by the voice. As I felt her hand on my shoulder, I turned my head to look at her. There was then a really awkward moment. As she was attempting to give me a kiss on the cheek, my movement turned it into something else. Our lips meet, and I was able watch her eyes get big as saucers. It was a very short kiss and caused Beth to stumble back a bit. She was stuttering and stammering.

“I ... uh ... that ... wasn’t ... sorry.”

I cut her off. She probably would have kept going.

“Sorry Beth. I didn’t know what you were doing. Though it was a nice kiss.”

Beth finally sat down, blushing a bright red. The rest of the table was laughing except Frank. She just sat there stunned for a couple of minutes. Everybody else started eating, Earl looked at me.

“Thanks, Barnim. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t showed up. I didn’t have the money Kenneth was demanding from me. I told the principal and the cops everything that has been going on. You aren’t going to get in trouble, are you?”

“I don’t think so. I’m not worried about it, and you shouldn’t be either. No need to dwell on what might have happened or is going to.”

I did notice that Frank didn’t say a word to me during lunch. I didn’t know what his issue was. Could be he wasn’t getting treated like King of the Nerds, maybe it was because he wasn’t right for once, as far as the outcome was concerned.

There was also something else, just under the surface. I could kind of sense something that was going to boil over. It took me to the middle NJROTC to figure it out.

I was actually able to spot Frank on my way to World History. “Hey Frank, come here for a minute.”

“What do YOU want?”

“Look, stop being an ass. I don’t like Beth. The kiss at lunch was an accident. If you like her, get off your ass and tell her. Ask her out on a date. You’ll regret it if you don’t, plus you got no right to be mad at anybody but yourself if they beat you to it.”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond to me, as I turned and walked off to class.

World History was OK, though we now had a five-page paper to write on the reasons that WWI started.

As I walked out to the truck, I lamented the fact that the internet was only in its infancy. I mean ten years from now, I could do all the research online and never leave my room. As it sat, I need to set up a plan for doing the research at the school library and public library. Also not having a PC and printer was going to suck. I mean we had a Commodore 128, but that was crap. I mean the printer used the paper that had the perforated paper at the edges that went on the wheel. I’d have to see if I could use the typing lab either early or late to type up my report.

Getting home, I sat down and got my homework done. Meanwhile, I got an idea of how to tackle my report.

I went downstairs to get the vacuuming done. Good thing it was only the front room that was carpeted. I guess it was the noise that drew Randy out of his dungeon.

“So, it’s the vicious brawler doing women’s work.”

“Nice to see you’re actually allowed out of your dungeon during the day.”

“Don’t you talk back to me. I’m not some high school punk you can intimidate. Keep up the attitude and I’ll knock you down a couple of pegs.”

I stopped wrapping up the power cord. I got off of a knee and stood up, looking right at him.

“Why wait, the front yard is waiting. We can test this theory of yours out.”

“I’m not going to waste my time on you.”

“That’s what I thought. Why don’t you slink back to your dungeon and have another beer?”

He didn’t say another word as he went back downstairs. I knew he would bitch about it to mom, but the look on his face was worth it. I found the W book of our encyclopedia set and spent a little time reading about the beginning of WWI in the vaunted Encyclopedia Britannica. While reading, I decided if I was going to get in trouble because of Randy, I needed to temper whatever punishment I would get.

I went into the kitchen and started to make dinner. Looking in the fridge, my inspiration came to me. I had the makings for some pierogi. Farmers cheese, mushrooms, potatoes and sauerkraut. I made the dough, and while letting it rest, I chopped some dill. Mixing it with sour cream, I placed it in the fridge and got to work chopping everything else up. Saving the juice from the sauerkraut, I cut some kielbasa put them together in a pan and got it warming. Rolling out the dough, I got the pierogi formed and filled. I had just got all the pierogi boiled when mom walked in the kitchen. She looked at me and what I was doing.

“So, what did you do now? It has to be serious if you are making pierogi.”

“Well, I figured that with all that’s gone on in the past I’d help out.”

“Barnim, that’s a wonderful load of crap. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. I’m going to go get changed, then I’ll come help.”

She walked out of the kitchen as I started separating the pierogi. There was one thing I had learned about using the recipe Grandfather taught me. It made a ton of them, so I froze half of them for later. I was putting the onions on to sauté when mom came back in.

“So, I hear you had an interesting conversation with Randy this afternoon. Care to give me your side of the story.”

“Well, he made some comments I didn’t appreciate. I made some comments back and an offer he didn’t take me up on. Then he went back into his dungeon.”

She just looked at me and shook her head. What else could she do. In my mind both of us were wrong, though I think Randy took more of the blame as the adult. Saying and doing stupid things were kind of in the teenager job description.

“Can you take care of the onions while I take care of the pierogi?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, my assistant principal had some comments to make about your parenting skills today.”

“What? So, what was said?”

“Well, he was wondering why I was at school after the altercation. He then made the comment that if I’d been raised better, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“Seems like I’ll have to make a stop at the school tomorrow.”

There wasn’t much conversation the rest of the time we were cooking. When everything was ready, mom went to call my younger siblings to dinner. I got everything on platters to be put on the table. The little monsters came in and sat down.

It surprised me that mom didn’t call Randy up for dinner that I could hear. When I put the platters on the table, I noticed my little sister was bouncing up and down in her chair. We said grace and mom dished out food to the little monsters. My sister’s enthusiasm wasn’t to be deterred, she was talking a mile a minute.

“Pierogi, pierogi. I love pierogi. Pierogi, pierogi.”

She paused only long enough to stuff some food into her mouth. She looked at mom.

“Mom, these are the best pierogi you’ve ever made. They’re almost as good as Grandfather’s.”

I piped up before she could say anything.

“These are great Mom. Thanks for making dinner.”

“You welcome Barnim. They are almost as good as your Grandfather’s pierogi.”

“I’ll take that.”

We finished dinner, and I was putting my dishes in the sink when mom spoke up.

“Barnim, seeing as I made dinner you can do the dishes.”

Well, no good deed goes unpunished. Though if this was my punishment, I could take it. Finished, I went back upstairs to watch some TV before going to bed.

The weekend was quiet. I had the usual chores to do, I was glad it had started to cool down. It wasn’t the Midwest fall that I loved, but it would do.

I had gotten the framework of how to do my paper worked out, so I showed up early for school on Monday to go to the library to get some research done. Setting out my supplies, I went to find some books. Hopefully not all of the ones I needed would be in the reference section and I would be able to check the out. If not, I’d have to get up extra early to do all the research at the library, something I didn’t want to do.

I’d gotten all the info I could from the reference section, and with about 15 minutes before homeroom, I went to find a couple of the books I could check out.

It seemed all the books I was looking for were on the bottom shelf. Kneeling down to look for what I need, I felt something hit my ankle. Then there was a screech and a thud. Getting up I looked around the corner of the shelf and saw a girl lying face down on the floor.

Not thinking, I went over and grabbed her to pick her up off the floor. Just going on instinct, it wasn’t until her feet hit the floor that I realized I had picked her up by the tits.

“Uh, sorry. I didn’t know that anybody else was here. My name’s Barnim.”

I took a quick glance at her, those tits looked as big as they felt. She was cute looking, about 5’6, blonde hair, I ‘d guess about 125lbs. Twenty of those pounds were in her tits. She picked up her backpack.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jennifer Collier, though my friends call me Jenn.”

I decided to swing for the fences.

“So, would you allow me to take you out this weekend to apologize for tripping you?”

Jenn had a pensive look. Either she already had a boyfriend, or I just wasn’t her type. She reached into her bag and wrote something on a piece of paper then held it out to me.

“Here’s my number. Call me at 7pm and we’ll talk about it. It was nice to run into you.”

With a laugh, she turned and walked off. I went back to find the books I was originally looking for. Finally getting that done, I headed off to homeroom.

The day was going by slowly, as they seem to do when you have something to look forward to. Sitting at the lunch table, it seemed that I wasn’t the only one with nice things happening.

“Barnim, I wanted to thank you.”

“For what Frank? I thought you were pissed at me for everything.”

“Well, I’m sorry for the way I acted. You gave me a push, now Beth and I are going out this weekend.”

I started eating my lunch and could only hope that the rest of my day would go as good as Frank’s.

The lunch table had gained a few more students. We had more of the nerds/geeks arrive after the showdown. I still pretty much kept to myself most of the time. Though they did occasionally drag me in as the deciding vote on some of their discussions. Usually it was something about this superhero or that movie. I did notice while looking around that Jenn had the same lunch period that I did. I kept to myself, not wanting to seem over anxious.

The rest of the day went by as slowly as the morning. Getting home, I realized that I needed to occupy myself with something, so I decided to do my homework and finally start work on my paper.

It was about 5:30 when my mind started to wander, and I figured that making dinner would occupy it. Though it would be simple dinner, spaghetti with meat sauce and cheesy garlic bread it would be. I started water boiling and got the ground beef browning. Mom came home, stopping in the middle of the kitchen, eyeing me suspiciously.

“So, dinner twice in a week? So, who did you kill or knock up?”

“Very funny Mother.”

“Well, we’ll talk about it when I get back.”

I kept making dinner. I didn’t hear her come back in and scared the crap out of me when she spoke.

“So Barnim. Should I expect the cops or an angry father with a shotgun showing up at my door?”

“Well, mom, which would you prefer?”

“I don’t want the first to ever happen. As far as the second, it better be a long time before I have to have that conversation again.”

“Well, I need to make a call at 7, and I’d appreciate if it wasn’t interrupted.”

“OK. So, who’s this girl you’re going to be calling?”

“It’s a girl I met at the library this morning. I kinda accidentally tripped her.”

“I’m not even going to ask about that. Alright, you’ll have about an hour.”

Luckily, there was a phone in the common room upstairs, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the little monsters bothering me. I sat there for the half hour going over what I should say. I realized I was overthinking it.

For all the years life experience I had, I was pretty light on dating experience. I figured I’d wait a few extra minutes before I called. So, at about 8 after 7, I dialed the phone.

“Collier residence.”

“Yes sir. I’d like to speak to Jennifer please.”

“Well son, who am I speaking to?”

“Sorry sir. My name is Barnim Badzinski. I was inquiring as to be able to speak to Jennifer.”

“Let me see if she is available.”

I could hear the click of the phone being placed on the table. Well I was off to a start that predicted a dumpster fire. It was a moment before I heard anything.

“Hey Barnim. I was hoping that you would call. So how was your day after you tripped me?”

“I’m really sorry about that. Though there was a silver lining to it. I got to meet and talk to you.”

“You’re so cheesy. So isn’t there something that you wanted to ask me.”

“Jennifer, would you like to go get something to eat and the football game with me on Friday?”

There was a short pause that seemed like an eternity.

“I would love it. It sounds like an excellent first date. Just so you know I love Chick-fil-A.”

“You know since we moved here, I’ve never had Chick-fil-A. Everybody says it really good though.”

“That’s unbelievable you never been there. Chick-fil-A is an Atlanta institution, just like The Varsity. We are definitely going there Friday.”

“Chick-fil-A’s fine with me. So, what’s The Varsity?”

We spent about another half hour talking about our plans for Friday and about The Varsity, which turns out to be a burger joint. I did learn Jennifer was a sophomore, about a year and four months younger than me. She was happy to find out I had my own truck and drove to school which would make it easier for our date. I told her that not riding the bus and not having classes together, I was sort of glad she had tripped over me so I could get to know her. I did need to show up early so that I could meet her parents, which really meant meet her dad.

Finishing the call, I went to my room and sat down at the desk to go over some of the stuff we were doing in math class. If there was one thing I needed to stay on top of, it was math class.

I was reading about an equation formula when something grabbed me. I shot out of my chair. Good thing I didn’t scream like a girl.

“You OK Barnim? I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Yes mom, I’m OK. I was just concentrating on what I was reading. Didn’t even hear you come in.”

“Sooo. How did your phone call go?”

“Really Mother? Do we really need to discuss this?”

“Yes, we do. That is if you ever want to drive on a date without adult supervision.”

“Well seeing as those are the terms you are offering. She agreed to go out with me to the football game on Friday night. Before the game she is going to introduce me to the culinary delight that is Chick-fil-A. I’m to pick her up at 6:30 to go out, though I need to be there fifteen minutes early to meet her parents and be interrogated.”

“Well, I expect you to be on your best behavior meeting her parents and on the date. Oh, and it would be nice to know the girls name?”

“Her name is Jennifer Collier.”

“Now that wasn’t so hard. We’ll discuss this more on Thursday night. Now go to sleep. I’m sure you were told to meet her when her bus shows up at school. Love you.”

With that, she gave me a kiss on the forehead and was gone. Though there hadn’t been mention of meeting her at the bus, I thought it would look good for me. Jumping in the shower, I decided to have a little self-love time. Imagining the feel of those billowing tits again, I wondered if she was a natural blonde and if I would be able to find out on Friday.

I tried not to get to school too early, though I still ended up waiting about twenty-five minutes for Jennifer’s bus to show up. I can only imagine what my face looked as she walked up, grabbed my hand and pulled me along after her. We walked into the cafeteria and sat down.

“I’m so glad you called last night. I was worried that you wouldn’t call.”

“Well Jennifer, I’d have been an idiot not to. So, are you looking forward to Friday?”

“I’m very much looking forward to Friday. We’re dating now, so no calling me Jennifer, use Jenn. How about you, looking forward to Friday?”

“I am, not so much about meeting your dad though.”

“It’ll be okay Barnim. I think he’ll like you, I know I do.”

It was time to go to homeroom, she took my hand as we walked there. We both had homeroom in the same hall, so it worked out well. The rest of our schedules other than lunch were on opposite ends of the school. I wouldn’t be walking her to class all that much.

Showing up for lunch Jenn was waiting for me. “Come on let’s go. You’re going to sit at my table. You can meet everyone.”

Getting lunch, I went and sat down. I wasn’t sure I could sit at this table every day as I was the only male at the table. Now I had no major problem conversing with females, but this was ridiculous. It was like listening to a regurgitation of every magazine for teenage girls and women. The novelty of me sitting there wore off quickly. It was talk of clothes, which celebrities looked hot, makeup and hairstyles. I stayed out of it and kept quiet. It was 30 minutes of my life I’d never get back, and I’d have to keep doing it.

I was so relieved when lunch was over. The rest of the day went OK. I met Jenn outside her last class and walked her out to the bus line. As we walked up to the bus, Jenn grabbed me by the front of the shirt pulling me down. She gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“So, are you going to call me tonight?”

“No, I can’t tonight. I have kickboxing and then I need to get my homework done. It’s the same on Thursday night as well.”

“Oh, OK. Well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I need to get on the bus.”

She got on the bus and I could sense that she wasn’t happy. Well, such is life. I walked to the truck as I had kickboxing class to get to. Driving, I stopped at Krystal’s, a local hamburger drive-thru, to get something to eat. Not quite White Castles, but it would do. Pulling into the parking lot, I grabbed my gym bag and went inside. Master Boripat looked at me as I entered.

“Nice of you to grace us with your presence.”

“I’m sorry about that Master Boripat. It won’t happen again.”

He was a little bit more sympathetic when I explained what happened. I was given what I now referred to as the Stosh treatment. My stomach felt like I’d been repeatedly hit with a bat. Driving home was horrible, a hot shower only helped a bit. I sat with ice packs the whole time I was doing my homework. Getting to sleep was difficult.

Waking up, it was apparent that I was going to be aching all day. I tried another hot shower, stretching, nothing was helping all that much. Making breakfast I took some aspirin. I was adding milk to my cereal when I felt a stabbing pain shoot through my stomach.

“I want cereal too.”

Seemed my little sister wanted some breakfast and poking me in the stomach was the best way to accomplish that. I gave her my cereal as I sure as hell didn’t want her poking me again.

I made the decision that toast with butter and strawberry jam was a better option at that point.

I was better with my timing this morning as I only had to wait about 5 minutes for Jenn’s bus to show up. I didn’t see her and she caught me by surprise. I let out a groan when she wrapped her arms around me.

“Barnim, are you hurt?”

She took her arms from around me. I turned to face her and could see a look of concern on her face. She pulled at the hem of my shirt.

“Holy crap Barnim! Your stomach is black and blue. What happened?”

“It was from kickboxing class last night. It’s still really tender.” Feeling her cool hand rubbing along my stomach felt good. I could also feel a reaction of another part of my anatomy.

Reaching down, I pulled her hand off my stomach, letting my shirt fall. Leaning down, I whispered in her ear. “If you don’t stop that, we’re going to get in trouble and I’m going to have to go home and change my pants.”

It took her a second to realize what I had said. She blushed something fierce as she looked at my crotch. I heard a giggle as Jenn looked up at me.

“We can’t have that, now can we?”

“Nope.”

She grabbed my hand, pulling me into school. The morning went by and it was lunch time. I felt so out of place sitting with Jenn’s friends at lunch. I just wasn’t interested in talking about fashion or gossiping about what was going on in school. Their incessant cackling was even distracting me from going over the school work I was looking at. I needed to go back to sitting at my usual table. Sitting here for any stretch of time was going to rob me of my sanity.

The rest of the day was quiet compared to lunch. In the World History class, we were reminded of our paper that was coming due. I needed to talk to Ms. Turner to see if I could come in early or stay late and type up my paper.

Walking over to accompany Jenn to her bus, I was hoping none of her friends joined us. I was lucky. When it was just her and me it was good, this was something I could get used to.

Her bus was already there when we got outside. She wrapped her arms around me while being careful of my stomach, molding herself to me. I could feel her body heat and then she looked up at me. Damn she was cute, and I could feel those big tits mashed against me. It was wonderful. I could feel the stirrings below the belt occurring.

“Lean down so I can kiss you.”

Leaning down with Jenn molded against me wasn’t the easiest thing as I could feel all the muscles in my stomach groaning. I positioned my head so she could give me a kiss on the cheek.

“Turn your head.”

I did as I was told and felt her lips against mine. They were full lips but had a touch of softness to them. I let her take the lead. It was over in a flash. She moved her lips to kiss my ear.