Chapter 6

I’m already in Zen, when the bullet leaves the pistol. Dad taught me how to catch spears, but not bullets. I concentrate on the bullet as it leaves the pistol. It almost seems like it is going in slow motion. With my right hand, I snatch the bullet out of the air surprising mom, the guy and myself. Before the guy can react, I run towards him with lightning speed, launch myself in the air, and plant my foot in his face, sending the gun out of his hand and putting the guy out for the count.

Before I realize what I did, Mom runs to him and checks his pulse. “He’s still alive. Let’s get out of here.”

“Mom we should call the cops,” I say looking at her concerned.

“And tell them what? That a guy tried to kill us.” I look at her nodding my head. Thinking, yes he did try to kill us. “And my fifteen year old son snatched a bullet out of mid-air and flew like an eagle to plant his foot into his face putting him down.” Well, she does have a point. I show her my hand with the bullet burnt into my palm. “We need to get out of here. I’m sure he doesn’t want to tell whoever he is working for that a fifteen year old boy caught a bullet and kicked his ass.”

“Good point mom,” I say as we get in the car and head home.

Mom parks the car in the garage as I immediately close the garage door. Mom tells me to bring the groceries in as she runs into the house. What the fuck. Do I have to do everything around here, I ask myself. Well it’s either me, Cindy or Wayne. No wonder mom counts on me to get shit done around here,

I walk by mom’s den as I carry the groceries in. I can hear mom talking hysterically and crying. “He saved my life.” I’m guessing that she is talking to dad.

I’m putting the groceries away as Cindy comes in looking for something to eat.

“What took you guys so long,” she asks with her annoying ‘Queen Shit’ voice as I ignore her and continue putting the groceries away. Wow, she is a spoiled brat. She wouldn’t last one day in a foster home. She lives the life of a person that has everything given to her. Without having to work for it.

Dad enters the kitchen followed by mom. He gets some fresh herbs out of the refrigerator, and then chops them up and grabs some gauze from the first aid kit. He points at me then at the door to the basement. He points at the rest of the groceries then to Cindy.

“Why do I have to do everything around here,” Cindy asks with anger in her voice as I start howling in laughter. Wow, the princess witch has to do some work. Poor baby. “Joe was putting the groceries away just fine.”

Dad is trying to stifle a laugh from Cindy’s comment of ‘being over worked’. Dad follows me to the basement door as I hear mom tell him that she will called Candice, who is also working the Cordova case to ensure she is okay and to stay in her house. And after that, she is going to call her boss and let him know the situation.

Dad follows me downstairs and we sit in the corner. Dad smiles at me with pride on his face and says, “Show me.” I open my hand with the bullet still burnt into my palm. “You have the gift that my greatest grandfather had.” I look at him confused. “Speed of a lightning strike. Something that is not taught, but already given to you by higher.” I look at dad, who is smiling at me. “This gift is not given to just anyone. It is given to the most sincere and deserved.”

Dad crushes the herbs into a bowl and we both get into Zen. After we are relaxed, dad takes the bullet out of the palm of my hand. He rubs the herbs into the palm of my hand and wraps it in gauze. “I will teach you the healing of herbs later after I teach you how they work.” I nod as tears are coming out of dad’s eyes. “You are my son that was given to me from above. You saved my wife, your mother from being killed. YOU are my son and I love you.” Nothing else is said as I feel warmth that I have only felt from Eve. And that is LOVE.

We get upstairs and mom calls dad and I to her home office. I walk in and realize that I have never been in her home office. There is a large desk with a couch and lounge chair on the other end of the room, with a coffee table. The whole side of one wall has a large floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with books. Mom closes the door and sits in the lounge chair as dad and I sit on the couch.

Mom begins to tell us that she spoke with her boss and told him that she and I were followed into an alley and threatened by a guy concerning the Cordova case that she and Candice are working on.

“Mr. Cordova is being held without bail for attempted murder of a state congressman who is being investigated for racketeering and money laundering,” mom informs us.

“I left out the dirty details,” mom continues looking at me as I give her the sweet innocent look. “I think we need to leave those out,” she says as she smirks at dad and he gives her an innocent look. “He is going to have police patrol Candice’s house and ours until we can find out more about Mr. Cordova. There is nothing on his history, since his childhood. We believe he has ties to the Mafia, but no crucial evidence.” Dad nods his head and looks at me as mom continues. “Joe, there is only three and a half weeks of school left and you can’t tell anyone about this, not even Cindy or Wayne. We need to act as if nothing happened.” She stares at me for a minute before bursting into tears.

I rush to her, sit beside her, and hold her in my arms. I am guessing that the stress of what happened finally got to her. “It’s okay mom, I will never let anything happen to you or our family,” I sooth. Dad sits on the other side of mom and hugs her.

“Joe, you saved my life,” mom says as I am holding her tight. Then she looks at dad. “I don’t know what you’re teaching him in the basement and I really don’t want to know.” Mom pauses. “Is he a warrior like your ancestors?” Dad smiles and nods.

Monday morning and Wayne is driving us to school. Cindy’s mouth is going ninety miles a minute as usual, when she suddenly stops talking, which is always a good thing.

“That cop car has been following us from our house,” she says. I know why they are following us, but decide to have some fun with little Miss Witch.

“You know what,” I say, pausing for effect. “I remember seeing a cop car following the car that dropped you and your friends off early Sunday morning. Which I recognized as one of Tommy’s gang members cars.” I am taking a wild guess, knowing that Courtney came to my room at 4am. And I assumed that they went to a party with Tommy’s ex-gang, which pisses me off, because one of them was the one that threw a rock at me. I wait to hear her object, but I hear nothing from her. It seems I was right. “They probably suspect you of being a drug dealer like Tommy’s gang.” I’m trying not to laugh as Wayne pulls into the parking lot as the cop car pulls away and Cindy gets out of the car and runs into the school. That should stop the Witch from hanging around those guys.

I stop by my locker, grab what I need and head to class. I still have fifteen minutes, so I sit on the stairs and stare down the hallway deep in thought.

I’m looking down the hall at everyone getting their stuff out of their lockers and see Meagan. She opens her locker and lays her book bag down in front of it. She is so beautiful.

“Hey, Joe,” Johnny and Fred say, sitting beside me.

“What are you doing,” Fred asks knowing that I am always early and am waiting for class to start.

“Waiting for class to start,” I say with a high level of sarcasm as I’m still staring at Meagan. Fred and Johnny start talking as I tune them out.

Meagan grabs a stack of books from her locker, looks at her book bag on the floor and decides that isn’t going to work. She puts the books back in her locker, kneels down, and opens her book bag, deciding to put the books in one at a time. Her hair falls on her face as she brushes it behind her ear. She gets her book bag loaded, closes her locker and picks up her book bag to head to class. I get up and leave Johnny and Fred, who are arguing about something and walk to Meagan.

I snatch the book bag from her hand as she jumps. “Hey sexy, can I walk you to your class,” I say as I look at her as she smiles and stares at me through her thick horned rimmed glasses.

“Sure, babe,” she says grabbing my hand. As we are walking hand in hand to class, I see Courtney giving Meagan the death glare. That can’t be good, I think to myself. I hope she doesn’t think we are a couple after she snuck into my room Sunday morning. There was no emotion in what we did. I turned her over, popped her anal cherry, and made her squirt.

After my last morning class, I head to lunch. The morning went without incident. After first period, Emily blew me a kiss and smiled at me, which made a tent in my jeans. What is it about her? She is scary crazy, but turns me on. I saw Andrew after first period with his friends and girlfriend and he gave me a dirty look, which I ignored. The track and field finals are going to be held in the state university grounds on Friday and Saturday. The track teams will be out of school Friday, since it’s an all day event and the team will be bused there every day.

I meet Fred and George as we get in line. Meagan and Sheila are ahead of us in line and, of course, Johnny and Shawna are at the geek table eating their sack lunch. Shawna and Johnny has officially become a couple. They really enjoy each other and are joined at the hip. Sheila and George seem to be hitting it off and have been on a couple dates. Now that’s an odd couple. George is 6’5”, skinny and shy around girls. Sheila is short with curves in all the right places and doesn’t hesitate to give you an honest opinion. I had hopes for Fred and Karen, but there just doesn’t seem to be any sparks there.

“Joe, I’ll eat your grilled cheese sandwich if you don’t want it,” Johnny says as I sit down to eat. Johnny’s mom has him on a strict diet and he is always trying to beg for food. Johnny is short and about 100, something pounds overweight. His mom on several occasions has told myself, Fred and George to not give him food outside of his diet or she will chop our arms off. That’s enough to convince me. I pick up my grilled cheese and take a big bite out of it as everyone at the table snickers as Johnny gives me a dirty look. “Meagan, are you going to eat your fries?” Meagan answers by picking one up and feeding it to me. “Fuck you guys. I’m tired of eating rabbit food.”

“So, there are three weeks of school left,” Sheila says trying to stop Johnny from begging for food. “What’s everyone going to do?”

“I have a job,” Meagan says as I look at her in surprise. “I’m going to be a part-time waitress at a restaurant. And when I’m not working, I plan to spend time with Joe.” I look into her eyes covered in thick glasses. “If he wants me.” I touch her lips to mine as the girls giggle.

“Hey, we need to promise that the geek squad will spend time together this summer,” Karen says. The shy girl has really warmed up to us. We all consider us best friends and are happy to be together. Karen stands up and raises her milk carton as everyone at the table follows. “To best friends and the geek squad.”

“Shut the fuck up, you geeks,” someone shouts from the jock table as we laugh and finish our lunch.

As we are eating I whisper to Meagan, “Courtney snuck into my room Sunday morning. And...”

“You fucked her,” she grins cutting me off. Wow, I expected her to be pissed. “Joe, you are mine. I want you to fuck other girls. Please tell me you fucked the bitch.”

“Not in the pussy, I admit as Meagan howls in laughter.

“Shut the fuck up, you geeks.”

After school, I am on my way out of the back door past the shop class, when I hear my name called as chills run up my spine. I turn and see Coach Marcos.

“I need to talk to you,” Coach Marcos says pointing to his classroom. I hesitate, not trusting him and with good reason. He sees it. “No games, I want to talk, and that is all.” I walk into the class room and he shuts the door. He motions me to sit down and he sits in front of me.

“I’m in a bind, for the August tournaments,” he says. I stare at him, wondering what that has to do with me. “One of my champions is going to college and won’t be in my dojo anymore.” Ok, I’m thinking to myself and knowing where this conversation is going. “I saw you fight my son, who is a regional champion, and you made him look like a white belt.” I look at him confused. “Well, I’ll explain later. I want you to join my dojo. With your fighting ability, we can win state and regionals. Hell maybe even nationals. What do you say?”

“No,” I say without hesitation as he frowns. “I am not trained to compete. I am trained to protect. I don’t know how to fight without taking out the enemy. Take a look at your son. I dislocated his shoulder. In a real threat situation, his arm would have been snapped in two.” He frowns at me. Probably remembers me taking his son down. “I am not trained to compete. I am trained to take down the enemy, with whatever it takes. I am sorry, but the answer is no.”

He looks at me with a disgusted look on his face and says, “get the fuck out of here.” I obey, stand up and leave a very mad Coach Marcos.

After practice I decide not to shower and head through the hallways to the front door and I bump into Courtney. Now what a coincidence. No students in the school and I just so happen to run into Courtney.

“Hey Joe, I didn’t know you were still at school,” she says as I know better and wondering what her motive is. “Where are you going? Need a ride?” I slide past her and head for the front door, which is in sight. “I know you want me Joe, so don’t walk away from me.” Just what I need, another crazy girl like Emily. “I’ll tell Meagan what we did Sunday morning,” she threatens, as I walk out the front door and get into moms car as she drives away.

I get home and head to the basement to work out. I didn’t notice if dad’s car was in the garage, I don’t know if he is home. I take off my shoes and flick the light switch and no lights come on. I immediately get into Zen. The basement is dark as I walk onto the mat. I am focused, just like dad taught me. I hear nothing, but I feel heat coming from the far corner of the basement. Then I feel it. Something coming towards me. I can’t see it, but I can picture the shape, speed and size. It is long with a sharp point, and it is coming fast towards my head. I hear another one coming behind it as I snatch the first one out of the air and drop to the ground as the other flies over me. I disappear by rolling quickly and quietly on the mat, and end up in the corner.