Chapter 6

The Armstrongs decided to celebrate their success, and since it now was the late afternoon, they decided to pick up Tom and Lynette and go to dinner.

On the way to the hotel where Tom and Lynette were waiting, they discussed restaurants.

“Angie? We need to see if Andrew can come, too.” Duncan said.

“He’s at soccer—no, it’s called football practice. I’ll try him.”

The call went to voice mail so Angela left a message for him to call back; telling him where to meet the family for a restaurant dinner. After parking in the hotel’s parking ramp, they went to the kids’ room and knocked.

“Lynette? Tom? It’s Mom and Dad,” Angela called.

Tom threw the door open and hugged her. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you guys,” he breathed, then hugged his father. “Am I going to jail?”

Lynette had come over and taken Tom’s hand, looking at her father with concern.

“No, kids, everything is good. Really good, in fact,” he said grinning at them. “But first, we have our civic duty.”

The kids looked puzzled as Duncan pulled out the card the officer had given him.

“I need to call and let the police know you’re with us now.”

He made the call and identified himself. “I have Thomas Armstrong with me now.”

“...”

“They did? Okay, thanks for the news.” He disconnected and looked at Angela. “The school dropped the complaint. So they don’t need to talk to Tom.”

Angela clapped her hands. “Excellent. Our celebration is in order.”

The youngsters looked at their parents, puzzled.

“Okay, guys, here’s what happened after Mom sent Lynette off in the Uber car...”

After he finished describing the day’s events and summarized what happened at the conference at the school, he told them about the signed agreement.

“This is what the agreement says, and it’s absolutely essential that you don’t breathe a word of it to anyone or even mention what Tom did to the office. The school’s keeping it quiet too, as if nothing ever happened,” Duncan went on.

“Yeah, Dad, I won’t say anything.”—”I promise to keep it a secret.” they said, speaking together.

“The school officials agreed to several things. Tom, you won’t be held responsible for trashing the office and they won’t ask our family to pay any of the costs to clean it up.”

A big smile of relief flashed over Tom’s face.

“Now here’s the fun part. We asked that you, Tom, be isolated from that nudity circus, as in doing a sort of in-school independent study, so you won’t be faced with those distractions. They’re gonna come up with a specific plan, but for tomorrow, Tom, you need to go to home room and then for the first period to the end of the day, you’ll go to the library. Someone will make sure you’re kept up to date with the work and your teachers will drop by to answer any questions. Meanwhile, the school will figure out how to keep that study program going. Sound good?”

Tom had a broad smile. “Awesome, Dad! But ... um ... most classes ... in my classes, part of the grade is for participation...”

Duncan turned to Angela. “See, honey, Tom’s back with us! He immediately saw the major problem.” He turned back to Tom. “Yes, we actually discussed that issue and Dr Taylor is working on it. Grade-wise, anyway, it won’t count against you.”

“Cool, Dad. The classes go so slow, anyway. Maybe working by myself, I can go faster and learn more.”

“That’s the spirit, sport! Show ‘em what an Armstrong can do!” Duncan grinned.

Then he turned to Lynette. “The final part of the school’s agreement concerns you, honey.”

“Me?” she squeaked.

“Yeah, Mom can tell you about that one.”

Angela smiled. “Lynette, you won’t have to worry about ever being chosen for the Program. As part of our deal with the school, they’ve agreed to take your name off the list of pupils to be selected.”

“SQUEAL! Ohmygod, Mom!” she rejoiced, hugging her mother. “How ... what ... how did that happen?”

She released her hug and looked at Duncan.

“Our lawyer used a bit of blackmail on them is how, sweetie,” Angela said. “You don’t need to know the details, and you-can’t-tell-a-soul-about-this or all bets are off! You hear? They were really reluctant to exempt you but Mr Morrison gave them no choice.”

“Oh, I’d never take the chance that the head teacher would change his mind, Mom,” Lynette exclaimed as she threw her arms around and hugged her mom again and then her dad.

Duncan grinned. “So do you think that celebrating this news is in order, kids?”

“YES!” they both shouted.

With a fair amount of trepidation, on Tuesday morning, Tom rode to school with his sister.

Like Monday, both were deep in thought and didn’t say much. But when they arrived, the activity around the school appeared normal, if one considers that it’s normal having a bunch of rowdy kids watching a small number of embarrassed kids stripping naked in front of the school building.

But Tom paid no attention to that crowd; he concentrated on keeping his eyes averted while the two rode to the bike rack at the building’s rear near the staff parking.

Lynette was also deep in thought. “It’s starting to get chilly; wonder where the kids will strip when it’s really cold outdoors?” she muttered, but Tom heard her anyway.

Tom snorted. “Right. Glad that won’t be our problem.”

“So true. Oh, I remember, they’ll use the commons. That’s not such a great idea either—there’s not enough room for the crowd I’ve seen around the Program kids in the morning strip show. I guess they can’t use the gym either because of early team practices. Well, you’ll need to remember to stay away from the commons. Okay, let’s go in. No Program kids in home room this week.”

“Yeah,” Tom agreed. “Wonder if the Head will call for me today.”

On the way to their classroom, Audrey, one of their classmates, hailed Lynette.

“Hey Lynette; oh, hi, Tom—haven’t seen you in classes all that much, Tom—say, weren’t you sent to the office yesterday morning right after the new flock of Program kids was hatched? We all heard that somehow the entire office got trashed right after that. There’re sheets covering the windows. Broken window outside too. No one can figure out what happened. I figure you must have been there just before it happened. Do you know about that?”

Tom shrugged. “I heard about that too. Can’t say anything about it, myself.”

“Oh. Okay...” Audrey chatted with Lynette for a minute and then ran off to put some books in her locker.

Lynette looked at Tom and smirked. “Way to go. Just like a lawyer—a literally true but totally misleading answer for Audrey.”

“Well, I try to keep you entertained,” Tom grinned, and they joined a bunch of kids entering their home room classroom.

When home room period was over, Tom hurried to the library so he’d get out of the halls quickly; he had noticed that the Program kids delayed leaving their classrooms for as long as possible to minimize the time they had to be in the halls and be subject to doing those “reasonable requests.” He went into the library and the librarian called to him.

“Are you Tom Armstrong?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, I was told you’d be coming in here today. I expected you earlier.”

“Well, I thought I was to go to my home room first this week. I believe that was the arrangement.”

She nodded, “That’s all right. The custodian brought that screen in here a few minutes ago,” she said, pointing at it; “the head teacher said you were to use it to screen off your study area. I wasn’t sure where you wanted to sit, so I had him leave it till you got here. I’m thinking about that carrel in the far corner; is that okay for your study station?”

Tom looked at where she indicated. “That looks fine. Wherever you want me to be is good.”

“Certainly. The Head didn’t tell me what this was all about, just that you were trying some independent learning. As well, I have some work for you that your teachers sent.”

Tom took the materials and helped the librarian position the screen so that his station was somewhat visually isolated from the rest of the room. He saw that he’d have plenty of work to keep him occupied for the remainder of the day. But when the time for lunch came, Tom realized that his plan had a major shortcoming. He had forgotten all about what he’d do for lunch and now his stomach was growling.

Shit. There are always naked kids in the caf, he thought, as he looked at his watch when the bell for his lunch period rang. Oh well, starving for a day won’t kill me.

He went back to reading an assigned chapter, taking notes as he read. About fifteen minutes later, he heard a familiar voice asking, “Is that Tom Armstrong’s hideout?”

He peeked around the screen and there was Lynette, with a big grin, carrying a tray with several sacks on it.

“My smart brother forgot all about lunch,” she grinned. “I asked the lunch lady if I could get a care package and explained that you were assigned to a special program in the library. She called the office and they said it was legit, so I got a bag lunch for me too—and so here we are, me and the lunches!”

“Oh thanks, Lynnie, you’re a life-saver! You take such good care of me...” He grabbed her and kissed her on the cheek but she turned her head suddenly and his kiss landed on her lips. He tried to pull back but Lynette held his face while she kissed him back.

“Mmmm...” she sighed and then pushed him away. “Let’s cool it; even with the stupid Program running I’m not sure about the PDA rules, and you don’t want to mess up our great deal, right?” she whispered.

“Sure. Let’s party now, sweetie,” Tom proclaimed, sweeping his arm at the tray with its two lunch bags.

Lynette giggled and began unpacking some styrofoam containers and plastic utensils.

While they were eating, Tom asked Lynette, “Say, have you made any friends from your classmates yet? Obviously I haven’t,” he grinned. “No mates in here, you see. But you know that I’m more of a loner, I guess; I never really had a lot of friends. You’re my friend and you’re all I need.”