Chapter 29

After completing my morning rituals, I was off for the bus. A funny thought hit me as I climbed the steps to board the bus. Because of my new friendship with Tim Walton, I would never hear Mr. Smithers send him to the back of the bus. I got over my nostalgia really quickly when Jake Turner opened his big, fat mouth.

“I hear you’re picking on seventh-graders.”

Leave it to Jake to get what happened yesterday so completely wrong. He was one of those kids that was more annoying than a dripping faucet. In that way, he was like walking water torture. I decided to sic my new friend and minion on him. If anything, it would be interesting to see what would happen.

“Tim?”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“Could you please tell Jake that as long as he’s saying stupid things I won’t answer him?”

Tim turned to Jake. “Jake as long as you’re saying stupid shit then Tommy ain’t gonna talk to you.”

Bingo!

“Walton?”

“What, Mr. Smithers?”

“Back of the bus.”

“Aw!” moaned Tim.

And there it was. I grinned, but then got a better idea. I put my hand on Tim shoulder to stop him. “Mr Smithers?”

“Yes, Tommy?”

“It really wasn’t Tim’s fault that he swore.”

“Really? Then whose fault is it?” asked the bus driver.

“It was Jacob’s fault, Sir.”

“Hey!” complained Jake.

“Yeah. He was being so annoying that Tim couldn’t help himself. I never swear and almost did because Jake was being such an annoying jerk.”

“Okay. You can stay, Walton. Turner?”

“What?”

“Back of the bus.”

“Aw... “ complained Jake as he moved to the back of the bus as he was ordered.

I loved seeing the smirk on Tim and David’s face. I grinned back at them realizing that I finally didn’t have to listen to Jake’s obnoxious crap for the rest of the morning.

I’ll say this about Vinnie Cappelli. He doesn’t give up and he moved a lot quieter this time. It may have been because the hallways were full of students, but I suddenly found myself slammed up against the wall and my shoulder hurting. I managed to spin and swept his leg and he went down like a ton of bricks. He seemed to be a little dazed, as my countermove had caught him off-guard. As he tried to get up, I hauled him to his feet with my right hand and ‘accidentally-on-purpose’ slammed him into the wall, feeling my left shoulder throbbing.

I had his arm pinned behind his back in an arm bar to immobilize him, while pushing his face into the wall. I leaned against him as I whispered in his ear. “I was going to let this whole thing drop, you punk, but I’m probably going to have to miss my baseball game tonight, so I’m pissed off!” I pushed harder with my good arm and all of my weight and leverage for impact to my next words and he whimpered in pain. “I’m coming for you, Cappelli. You won’t know when or how or even who in your family,” I added to really scare him, “but you are going to pay for this somehow, I promise you that!” I spat.

I looked around and didn’t see any teachers, so I then spun him around and he staggered off down the hall. I rubbed my sore upper arm and shoulder. I wasn’t sure if it was muscular or my tendons, but either way, I needed to get some ice on it. I quickly ran to the nurse and told her that I was jostled into the wall by some students. She did a cursory check.

“No separation and I don’t think anything is broken, but it looks like you’re going to get a serious bruise,” she said as the homeroom bell rang.

She pulled an ice pack out of the freezer. “Here put this on under your shirt and here’s a late pass.

I stuck the pack under my shirt and thanked Mrs. Berry, the nurse. I then wandered awkwardly down the hall, carrying my backpack in my right hand, while trying to keep the ice pack where it would do the most good.

I was a few minutes late for homeroom, so I handed Mrs. Golden my pass and she marked me present. When the bell rang, I headed to first period English. I saw J Squared and my other friends and smiled, but I guess I couldn’t hide my wince as I set my book bag on the floor next to my desk.

“You okay?” asked Karl.

“Yeah ... just had a little run in with Cappelli.”

Janie must have had good hearing because she came right over followed by Jen, Laura and Angie.

“What’s wrong, honey?” asked Janie.

“Just bruised my upper arm and shoulder. I’ll be okay.” I said with a smile.

Jennifer wasn’t buying it. “Who did this?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Jen, sweetheart, I’ll be okay. I’ve taken care of the matter,” I said, taking her hand with my good one and caressing it.

The bell rang and Mrs. Douglas gave us a look that told us that everybody should return to their seats, so my friends reluctantly did. Then we spent the class discussing how times had changed from being a teen now and when Sallinger created the character Holden Caulfield. Despite the whole sexual revolution of the sixties and the general selfishness and self-indulgences of the seventies, there was still a lot of teen angst. My sore shoulder was proof of how flaky and motivated by sex some teenagers are. I had to adjust, remove and put back the ice pack a few times, which was rather awkward, but needed to be done.

Mrs. Douglas pulled me aside after class to see if I was okay. I assured her I was and she sighed. “Tommy, talk to Mr. Seiling. He’s on your side.”

I nodded. “I know, but I can’t bring every trouble I have to him. Some things you just have to settle for yourself.”

I struggled through Mr. Crane’s second period History class and went back to the nurse’s office.

“I know I’m not supposed to do this, but take a couple of Tylenols,” she said, handing me the pills. She also re-filled my ice pack. “If it is still bothering you after lunch, we’ll have to call your parents and they can take you to the ER for an X-Ray.”

She then wrote me a pass and then it was off the Math.

It was still fairly sore at lunch time. I decided I needed to talk to Mr. Seiling in case somebody reported what happened in the hallway this morning.

Mr. Seiling frowned. “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

“I’m not surprised. It was pretty discreet. It probably just looked like I had stumbled and Vinnie tripped over me and I helped him up.”

“You know you are taking a chance reporting this to me.”

I sighed. “I know, but you told me I could. I wanted to show you how seriously this is escalating. At least Joseph Caputo wasn’t involved. The problem is that I don’t want to see any potential innocent bystanders get hurt if this continues.”

“I did, but now I have to talk to Mr. Cappelli again and no doubt, he’ll deny it.”

I then had an idea. “How about setting up a cooling off period. Is there any way that both of us can be forced to go directly to homeroom from our buses? This would make it impossible for us to cross paths before school”

“I’m not sure how that could be enforced.”

“Hey, you’re the interim principal. That’s why they pay you the big bucks,” I smirked.

Mr. Seiling’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but then he cracked a smile. “You really are a smart ass. It’s a good thing I like you.”

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist. Why don’t you call him to the office now and see what he says?”

He nodded. “Not a bad idea.”

About five minutes later, Mrs. Davis escorted Vincent Cappelli to the office. “What’s he doing here?” sneered Cappelli.

“Apparently, you had a run-in with Mr. Matthews today.”

“What did that lying tattletale tell you?”

“You can’t be a liar and a tattletale,” I smirked.

I saw Mr. Seiling suppress a smile, but nodded. “He raises a good point and I’m going to take that as a confession.”

Cappelli’s eyes grew wide. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Be that as it may, I am requiring both you and Mr. Matthews to report to the office every morning immediately after you get off the bus. Failure to do this will result in a detention, with the second infraction resulting in a week’s detention. Am I clear?”

“I’m okay with it,” I said.

“Why should I have to do that just because Matthews is a pussy?”

Mr. Seiling must have seen the fire in my eyes and I could tell that he had another plan.

“I can tell that Mr. Matthews isn’t going to let that last comment stand and I don’t blame him. As an alternative, I will let you come to my dojo and you can fight it out tomorrow night. For this to happen, you both need to be willing to have your parents sign a consent form and to wear protective equipment,” he said handing us both a sheet of paper.

“No problem. I’m sick of him trying ambush me because he doesn’t have the guts to fight me in a fair fight,” I said taking the paper.

Vinnie did not act as confident at first but then out came the bravado. “I’ll be happy to kick the shit out of this little pussy.”

“Shut your foul mouth!” barked Mr. Seiling. “You get that paper signed after you get home from serving a detention after school!”

“But I... “ he started.

“You show me some respect, Mr. Cappelli, or so help me, you’ll have a problem with me, and you don’t want to have a problem with me! Am I making myself clear?” he yelled.

Cappelli shrunk. “Yes, Mr. Seiling.”

“Now, get out of my office!”

Vinnie scrambled out of his seat and made for the door.

“Don’t run! Walk!” yelled the interim principal.

When Vinnie had cleared the office, Mr. Seiling looked at me. “You can take him, with your arm the way it is?”

I nodded. “It’s just a little sore. It should be better tomorrow.”

“Good. Now you get out of here too.”

“Yes, Mr. Seiling,” I smiled as a left the office.

By the time school was over, I was feeling better, but my upper arm and shoulder were still stiff and sore. My mom checked me out and said I probably just bruised my arm and shoulder. If it the pain got worse after the game, then she would take it to the hospital for an x-ray. She slapped an ice pack on my shoulder and upper arm and wrapped it with an ace bandage.

“You probably shouldn’t play tonight.”

I nodded and then I showed her the disclaimer Mr. Seiling gave me. “Definitely not!” she yelled, after reading it.

“Mom, I have to fight this kid. If I don’t, he’s just going to keep attacking me and some innocent kid is going to get hurt.”

“If you fight him, you could get hurt.”

“I know, but we’ll both be wearing protective gear. I’m better trained than this kid and quicker and more agile. I’ll be okay.”

“We’ll talk to your father about this.”

I smiled. I knew my old man would back me here. I would need to work the kinks out of my shoulder and keep the ice on for now, but I should be able to take this kid and my dad knew that I needed to if this whole thing would end.

Well, it was a good thing-bad thing situation. My mom and dad had my dad on speaker.

“And his arm is basically okay?”

“It seems okay,” my mom admitted, “just bruised.”

“And Jeff Seiling will be supervising the fight?”

“Yes, Dad.”

I heard my dad sigh. “Frieda, you know that this kid isn’t going to let this go until Tommy shows him he should stop.”

Now it was my mom’s turn to sigh. “I know, but it seems that it’s always violence with you two.”

I saw my mom try to hide a smile. I think deep down she liked the gladiator nature of Matthews and Johansson. She continued, “Well, since Mr. Seiling is supervising the fight it should be okay.”

“Tommy?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“You can go support your team, but no baseball tonight.”

Crap! I had thought.

“Can’t I at least pinch hit. If my team needs me?” I asked.

“How swollen is your arm?”

“A little. I took some Tylenol and I have iced it well. It’s a little stiff, but not too bad.”

“Honey?”

“It seems okay. He could probably play if he needed to, but he probably will have limited range of motion with his left arm.”

“Tommy, your swing probably won’t be so hot anyway. Make sure you’re honest with Coach Daniels. He may decide that you’re his best option, but you aren’t going to be able to play like you have so far this season.”

“I know, Dad,” I groaned, knowing he was right.

Our opponent today was the Danvers Plumbing Pirates. Because of their team nickname, everybody hated this team. Jealousy? You bet! This year, these ‘Pirates’ were not serving their nickname well, as they had a losing record. In a way, I was glad that I likely wasn’t playing because I was a big fan of the team in Pittsburgh and had no desire to beat up on anything ‘pirate’ related.

Apparently, Dad must have called ahead. When I got to the field, I went into the dugout and Coach smiled at me. “I was considering sitting you for this game anyway, as the team we are playing is one and three. Because of the holiday weekend, there will be no practice or game until next Tuesday, so you can rest your arm for almost a week after your big fight,” he smirked.