Chapter 5: School days and all that Bull!

Monday was the quietest morning you were likely to find in Mrs. Schultz's 1st hour art class. Usually it was full of tired kids suffering from their weekend fun. Today was only marginally different; being less then three weeks from the end of the school year was always good for a little boost to the chaos level. Even with the added incentive we couldn't even obtain chaos but had to settle for unruly at best. It was quite depressing, actually, and seeing Mrs. Schultz having such a good morning was just adding insult to injury.

After art we stopped at my locker grabbing our math books and walked to class together. There was no need to hurry, we had 4 minutes to walk about 50 feet.

We ran into Tom Lange, one of the many we talked to at the party Saturday.

"Damn you guys missed one hell of a fight." He said excitedly.

"A bunch of those older guys that showed up real late were from Waterford. Man, it was one hell of a rumble. You should see Curtis, he got himself one hell of a shiner. We run 'em off though, Kicked all their sorry asses. Oh shit! Hey man gotta run. See you guys later."

As Tom was running down the hall trying to make his class, Jodi mumbled, "Not if we see you first."

I laughed, "I don't think Tom kicked anybodies ass. There ain't a scratch on him and his hands look like the only beating they've given is his meat.

We sat down in front of Mr. Kemik's desk just as the bell rang. We had learned a little secret in Jr. High that we brought to High School with us. If you sit right in front of the teacher and quietly help each other do your school work it's not usually an issue. As long as they see us both actively working on it and don't see carbon copy test results, we've never had a problem.

Mr. Kemik was no exception. After everyone was seated he took a quick head count, satisfied himself that there were enough students in his class and started handing back test papers from Friday. This test was important as it would count for 20% of our grade for the marking period.

As he called out names, the students would call out so he could find those who didn't sit in the same place every day. "Koller" he muttered to himself. Handing her a paper with a big fat 90% on top.

"Yes" she exclaimed bouncing in her seat.

Mr. Kemik laughed "What happened to you, McCauley" he asked handing me my paper. Looking at the top I was a little miffed but not devastated by the 84% mark.

"She got you this time son, I'd sure like to know where your mind was Friday." He joked, giving me a little good natured ribbing

"Believe it or not Sir, it was plowing her daddy's fields."

He guffawed at that, Mr. Kemik was a farmer himself. "That, Bill, I can and will believe, because I was thinking of my own fields at the very same time."

The rest of the day seemed to drag on and on. Five minutes before the end of last hour we were called to the office. When we got there, Kate was waiting for us.

"What's wrong" Jodi asked with concern in her voice.

"Oh, nothing at all dear I happened to be in town so I thought you might like a ride home, unless you like the bus..."

"NO, NO," We both chorused

"Good then" Kate smiled. I have already signed you out, so let's go.

We rode along chatting about the day, telling Kate about our test papers and Mr. Kemik's class. We told her that we figured we should get an A in our Small engine repair class, being that our project was almost done.

We had spent the semester refurbishing a Wheel Horse Raider 10. All that was left to do was to paint and reattach the mower deck.

Riding with Kate was a lot better then ridding the bus. We were home over a half hour early.

We had a quick sandwich then went up to change our clothes. Changed and ready to go to work, I walked across to Jodi's room. She was rubbing some sort of lotion into her breasts. I had no doubt, what I would be thinking about while I was out disking fields. "What are you doing" I asked

Looking at me with a big smile on her face she said "cocoa butter "

"Killing two birds. My breasts are really hurting today and massaging them helps. So I thought I might as well hit them with the cocoa butter at the same time."

It looks like fun, I wish I could stay and help, but I gotta get on it." After giving her a kiss I was gone.

After checking fluids in the Case, I hooked up the disk and headed toward Duggin's. Getting on the field, I started at about what I thought would be the mid range level for speed. Within 15 minutes I had everything working at optimum performance and making decent time.

Trolling around the field once I had everything working, good gave me a lot of time to think. I contemplated Jo's boob massage. I wondered why they were hurting. That, I didn't have enough info on to form an opinion. My thoughts moved to Steph, I really looked up to my brother. I just couldn't stand his sister.

It was almost 9:00 when I finished. Instead of pulling up by the shop, I parked the tractor in the field across the road from the house. As I walk into the kitchen, Kate was setting a plate on the table for me. She poured me a glass of milk setting it down by my plate. Kate and Jodi joined me while I ate.

"Ron still out" I asked

Yes, he's out feeding dry cows and heifers. He should be in soon. I had just finished eating when Ron came in. He smiled, "How did it go Bill?"

"Not bad at all. As long as nothing breaks and we don't get too much rain, we're good" I reassured him.

"You done up by Duggin's?"

"Yep, all set, I figure the south 40 tomorrow"

Ron nodded his head. "Sounds good, Bill. The only reason I ask is so it feels like I'm still running MY farm." He said laughing

I laughed along with him. "Oh, I think you'll still be holding the reigns for a while yet."

"I hate to interrupt man talk, but do you have any home work William?" Kate inquired

"No Ka..." I started.

"What about your English paper William?" Jodi interrupted

I shot her the eye of withering death, while she smiled and batted her eye lashes.

"Sorry Kate, it appears I must have forgot about that, but I don't have my book." I said dryly

"You're in luck William I just happen to have mine right here." more smiles and eyelash batting.

Now I could just kill her, the little sweetheart was really enjoying this, But I had one last card to play, an ace in the hole.

"Gosh Jo, I sure appreciate the offer, but what I have done so far is in my English book. Thanks anyway!"

Keeping a straight face I felt so smug having out foxed, the fox.

Jodi made a big production out of setting a book on the table and opening it to the front cover. Putting finger tips to her pouting lips then giving me the sweetest grin she could muster. Oops! My mistake William, this is your book! I must have grabbed it by mistake."

Ron laughed so hard he had to leave the room I wasn't sure if it was the whole production or the look on my face when I realized I was trapped.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons that night. If Kate ever asks about home work, she already knows the answer, and a pair of ladies beats a lone ace every time!

I spent the next hour and a half braced by the dynamic duo, working on an English paper that Kate deemed worthy of my efforts. In short, Kate, Jodi and I did a paper that I could get a good grade on without stretching it too far.

As we finished Jodi gave me the pout and asked "William will you forgive me?"

"Already did, and where are you learning all this girlie behavior?"

"I don't know, I think I'm just coming by it naturally she said with an innocent smile.

Kate ordered us upstairs to get cleaned up and into bed. After hugs we were marching upstairs Kate calling behind us. "Jodi dear, please remember to put salve on "William's lip."

By the time we finally got to bed it was after 11:30. We were beat, after a healthy kiss goodnight we cuddled up and went to sleep.

I woke with a jolt. I could hear the pumps in the barn. "Shit! It's 5:30. I jumped out of bed hitting the light, jumping into my clothes, and ran downstairs not waiting for Jodi. I pulled on my boots and ran for the barn.

When I ran through the milk house door I almost knocked Kate over. I grabbed her arm to keep her from falling down. "Sorry Kate"

"It's alright William I'm not hurt, but what are you doing up. I was trying to let you sleep in."

"Pumps woke me up." While Kate milked, I grabbed a silage fork and started helping Ron feed the milkers, then moved on to the dries, heifers and young stock.

By 6:30 Jodi and I were headed to the house to get cleaned up and ready for school. At 7:00 we were running for the door as Kate pushed lunch sacks at us mentioning something about an extra banana for breakfast.

We took a pseudo nap all the way to school. The bus wasn't the best place to catch up on your sleep, but a lot of kids did it.

Chaos reigned in Art class. I felt a little better knowing that Mrs. Schultz wasn't having near as good a morning as she did yesterday.

"You know, we have almost 3 weeks left in this class and all of our projects are done. We have an A for the semester, but we need to do something." Jodi said looking at me for an idea of what that something might be.

I sat there staring at her and suddenly it hit me. "We have 3 weeks, let's spend it drawing our house."

I could tell at first that she was thinking I was talking about her folks' house, but then I seen the light come on. "Oh yeah! That's a great idea, William"

We spent the rest of the hour excitedly talking about what our house might look like. The bell rang and it was off to see Mr. Kemik.

Second hour was a breeze. Mr. Kemik lectured from the book, then we did problems on the board and took a quiz, we switched papers then corrected them. Mr, Kemik walked through collecting papers. "Nice job, Miss Koller"

Then with chuckle, "maybe a little vindication for you, hey Mr. McCauley?"

"Maybe just a little", I said thinking 10 of 10 was a lot of vindication until I glanced at the papers and seen Jodi's was a 9 of 10.

When the bell rang we went our separate ways. Jodi to Science and me to Gym.

Meeting back up for lunch we ate and talked with our friends. After lunch she went to Gym and I went to Science, meeting back up for English at 5th hour.

English was a rough class for me. I must confess I always struggled in this area. Math I enjoyed, I understood the rules and they never changed. Science was cool because you could bend the rules, that's what made it Science. History, though I didn't have it this Semester, was one of my favorites. In order to see where you are going, you have to know where you've been. History repeats itself unless you learn from the mistakes made by previous generations. Gym and Art were Ok. Small Engines was a great class. Jodi and I got to work together as a team and it never hurts to learn how to fix things.

But English was a rough class for me. I didn't understand the rules. There were too many, and they seemed to contradict one another. I found it confusing and therefore not very interesting. Instead of challenging my brain, it turned it to mush.

Mrs. Lawson took roll and had everyone hand in their Assignments. She was going to work on grading the papers while we worked on a new assignment.

"Now class, this assignment is quiet simple. I want you to write ten sentences using any words you'd like" she spoke in her nasally monotone.

There were some murmurs of how easy and such, then she dropped the bomb.

"Each sentence must have words made up of ten letters or more, equal to it's number. Meaning the first sentence must contain one, the second two, the third three, etc. Also each sentence may only contain ten words. Not nine not eleven, but ten.

Pointing toward the back of the room she said "I am sure by now you are all aware of who Mr. Webster was, the tome he compiled and its uses. I have enough copies to go around. Please feel free to help yourself. You may begin."

This was one of those things Jodi and I would not be able to openly work on together, but I'm sure Mrs. Lawson expected us all to get some help trying to get past sentence 5 or 6.

"This fucking sucks, Jo" I whispered to my left.

She looked at me and smiled, "it's not that bad."

We sat working on our assignment to the noise of turning pages and frequent groans of displeasure. I was working on my 5th sentence when Mrs. Lawson called my name.

"William McCauley"

I looked up from my work. "Ma'm"

"Could you come here please, William"

I walked up next to her looking over her shoulder.

"William, I have some questions about this paper."

Looking in my eyes she asked "Did you write this paper? Before you answer, Yes I recognize your penmanship, but that is not what I am asking."

"Yes Ma'm I did, but I had help."

She looked at Jodi, "I am going to assume Miss Koller is the one that helped you."

"Yes Mam and Mrs. Koller, we were up late working on this paper."

She said OK which was meant as a dismissal. Instead of going back to my seat I stood there.

When she looked back at me I said. "Ma'm I have a hard time with this class. By the time I leave that door, most days I will have forgotten most of what you have taught me. If I even grasped what you were trying to teach. English has too many rules, most of which are confusing."

"You were going to get a half done crappy paper. Jodi brought my book home yesterday. After evening chores and dinner her and Mrs. Koller had me up till after 11:00 working on this paper. Now to most people, staying up that late means nothing, but when you are up before 5:00 every day 7 days a week, it's a sacrifice."

"Yes I had a lot of coaching and I know it isn't even close to an A, but I wrote that paper."

She smile and put a big C+ on the top. "Thank you for your honesty William"

I went back to my seat just in time for the bell to ring.

As Jodi and I walked down the hallway, headed for the auto shop where our small engines class was, she asked "What was all that about? Your paper?"

"Yep! She asked if I wrote the paper. I told her I had, with lots of help I explained a bit and she ended Up giving me a C+" I said happily.

" That was a better paper then that, but since you did have a lot of help a C+ is fair." She had a smile on her face.

"This is one class I'm going to blow you away in William" She said in her most cocky tone.

Once in the shop, we started getting ready to paint the mower deck and spindles. The deck was all prepped and ready. Jodi already had wires hooked to the spindles so we could hang them in the paint boot. She had also put the can of paint into the shaker yesterday so all it needed was a quick shake to be ready.

After attendance was taken, we suited up and went into the booth. When I handed the paint gun to Jodi she looked at me like I was trying to hand her a snake. Well a regular girl, a snake anyway.

"William I'm not painting it, you are. You're a much better painter then I am."

True, but just like with English papers, we need to do those things we aren't good at. That's how we learn. Now batter up."

She took the gun with an Oh alright attitude.

"You've painted before Jo. The biggest problem you have is you go too slow, causing runs. Let your arm make a nice even stroke through the air going a little faster then normal"

"OK William, but if this gets messed up it's your fault."

"You'll do fine, start on the underside of the deck to get a feel for the gun. It will be good practice for the top."

Mr. Webber, our mechanical shop teacher was standing by the door looking through the Plexiglas window. I gave him the thumbs up. We put on our respirators and Jodi started painting.

After she did a coat on the bottom and top, we waited for it to tack up. Then I hit the top again and hit all the spindles. We had just come out of the booth when Mr. Webber said "Nice to see you both did some of the painting."

"But now you have to hustle, the bell is about to ring. Put everything else away I'll clean the gun" he said.

"Thanks, Mr. Webber" we said in unison.

On the bus ride home we just sat and talked about everything and nothing.

"William do you realize we start driver's training in three weeks?"

"Yep it is going to be a very busy summer with haying, driver's training, putting the new fence up, and things.

"Yes indeed, things!" she giggled, snuggling up to me.

When we got off the bus, we could see Ron out disking the field across the road. "Hhmm, I wonder why your dad is disking the field."

"Don't know, let's go ask the boss" she said with a wicked little grin and headed for the house.

When we walked in the back door, Kate was in the kitchen cutting up vegetables for dinner. "How was your day?"

"Pretty good" Jodi replied

"Why is Ron out disking the field" I asked trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

Kate gave me a warm loving smile. She rubbed my upper arm and gave it a squeeze. "It's supposed to rain tomorrow and that's what Ron will tell you, but even you need a break William. He would have disked today whether it was going to rain or not. After last night He realized that you also need time to do school work."

Going from loving mother, to the other kind, she said, " If you have school work lets get it going."

Jodi and I sat down at the dinning room table, with a couple dictionaries. Kate came in with a small plate of cookies and two glasses of milk, setting them on the table for us. We explained the assignment to her. After looking at our sentences, she chuckled in her melodious manner and said that it looked like a fun assignment.