Chapter 14

Wednesday morning started with the usual shower. Then he stepped out into the hall to find Terri and Traci waiting to use the bathroom. Only instead of rushing past Don they instead gasped at the sight of Don's scrapes and bruises. They shouted for their parents while Dan tried to get them to stop. It was too late. Henry and Gwen came out from their own room to see what the twins were so upset about. And at the same time they were joined by Susie and Jan, clad only in their panties and bras.

It turned out he had a large bruise and scrape on his right knee where he'd drove into that bastard's midsection and run his bare skin over a buckle. And his shoulders and back were scraped from carrying the bastard over in the flip. And there were other scrapes on his legs and body from where the bastard had hit him. Dan just stood there and submitted to the scrutiny of the other members of Don's family. Only Jan didn't appear to be alarmed. But then, she knew about Dan and his experiences.

Still, he had to undergo a grilling from Henry and Gwen. And he explained that he'd given up working with the football team. There wouldn't be any more 'accidents' at practice. That had mollified the two adults. The girls had been more interested to hear about what he'd done to the big bastard. The twins had giggled at hearing he'd barfed when Don had kneed him. Susie and Henry had simply smiled. Gwen had seemed to be still upset. Jan had barely grinned.

Eventually they'd all gotten away from the house. Susie had joked about seeing her 'big' brother turned out in only his briefs. Dan had turned that around and commented on how interesting she'd looked standing in only her sheer underwear. He suddenly realized that his comment just might backfire on him as Susie had just smiled. He noticed Jan just shaking her head.

Oops! That was dumb. I don't need to be encouraging Susie.

Classes progressed along through that third day of school. At lunch he'd sat with Donna, Cindy, Susie, and Vince. They were joined by Leroy and Tasha, along with the geeky looking guy that she often sat with in their several classes they had together. She introduced him as Abe Rosen, and he was described as her favorite computer expert. Dan's interest momentarily focused on the kid. While there wasn't a pocket protector, there were several pens and markers clipped to his shirt - red, green, blue, and black pens and then at least three fluorescent highlighters. There was also some sort of memory card or wand sticking up out of his shirt pocket. Definitely a nerd and geek. And he was paying close attention to what was being said. Undoubtedly sharp. Probably a guy with advanced computer skills. And he's a friend of Tasha. This was going to be a guy he'd make sure he got to know. Computer skills were always useful.

At the next table Jan sat with Janet, Todd, Christine, Jim, and several more of Jan's friends. And as they sat there the discussion crossed back and forth between the two tables. In the middle of their lunch Susie just had to make a comment about Don's various scrapes and bruises that she'd seen that morning. She'd mentioned how well toned her brother seemed to be even with all of his injuries. All of the girls had seemed to express some interest in that, except for Jan. She just looked at Dan and quirked up an eyebrow, as if asking what he was going to do about Susie.

He decided on a direct attack. "Susie, I'm really surprised that you noticed all of those little scrapes and bruises while you were checking me out this morning. I believe you said something about seeing your 'big brother' in only his briefs. Since I'm the only guy who meets any sorta definition of being you brother, then I guess you must have been checking out my 'big' package - don't yuh think?" He'd glanced around their table and noticed that Abe the apparent geek had an appraising look on his face. Dan smiled ever so slightly and winked at the guy. Abe smiled back and nodded. He seemed to be enjoying what was happening.

What was happening was that four Sophomore girls were spewing food and drink onto their trays and the table as Leroy and Vince started laughing hard and pounding the tabletop. And then while Tasha, Cindy, and Donna were gasping for breaths and trying to clean up the messes they'd made of their meals - Susie was turning a intensely beet red in embarrassment.

Hopefully, that'll teach the little girl not to play games with me. Well, that is - unless she really is trying to get into Don's pants.

As the lunch period finished up he was joined by the other guys from the two tables. They all thought his comeback to Susie was priceless. Abe had mentioned that the way he'd drawn it out was even better, giving Susie a few moments to appreciate the buildup to the horror of his comment. Dan thought that was a great way to express what he'd done. The other four had looked at Abe like he was an oracle or something. The geek knew how to appreciate a carefully crafted comeback. It helped all of them to better appreciate what had been done to squash Susie's attempt to embarrass Don. The several guys laughed and then the three Seniors with younger sisters just continued on to their next classes while laughing about how Don had gotten his stepsister.

In gym class he noticed Janet looking at him with a grin every time they saw each other across the court. He had to figure that she must have enjoyed Susie's comeuppance.

At the end of PE one of the guys in the shower had asked him how he'd gotten all scraped up. One of the football players was in the shower with them and he told the whole tale - including the spewing of puke by the bastard. Guys around him had howled in laughter when they'd heard how Don had turned the tables on the vicious bastard.

He got out of the gym and made his way to his last period study course. He sat down with a couple of girls who seemed to be good friends. He got into a discussion with them about the study course objectives. He learned that their names were Crystal and Janine. They were Freshmen and had been close friends for better than a year. He did wonder about that description of 'close friends'. The two exchanged a lot of glances and touches. He'd had students in his recent college teaching experience who'd been lesbians and he was thinking these two girls just might be younger versions of those young women he'd known.

But that wasn't anything too important. They were bright and he needed someone to work with. Given his present circumstances, then having two project partners who'd be uninterested in him seemed like a windfall. It was a win / win prospect, as far as he could determine. And if Donna or Cindy remained interested in him and got worried about these two girls, then he could simply say that he thought that they were gay and completely uninterested in any guy. A perfect solution to any possible outcome, given his present situation.

They'd talked and tried to discover a research project that they might share a common interest in. After awhile that discussion had wound down and the two girls had mentioned that they'd seen him during their last class. It turned out they both had PE in that same period as he had it. He noted that the only other girl he knew in their class was Janet. They'd smiled and said they knew her. They thought she was nice.

The school day had then ended and he'd gone home. Susie was back to not speaking to him. After getting home he'd gotten calls from Donna, Cindy, and Tasha telling him how bad, awful, and funny he'd been at lunch. They'd not been amused at how his remarks had taken them by surprise. None of them had enjoyed losing parts of their lunches to their outbursts. However, they'd all finally admitted that Susie deserved what he'd done to her. Still, they'd thought he'd been especially cruel to her. He simply stated that it had Susie's second attempt to embarrass him and he'd felt a need to end it. Each girl had finally agreed with him.

Jan had asked if he'd enjoyed putting her little sister back in her place. Dan had simply said that he'd only done it to get Susie to shut up. Jan had accepted that as an understandable thing given how Susie had done it to him twice.

He and Jan had gone out and jogged again. Without focusing too much on his real identity as Dan, they'd discussed trying to reel in Susie's apparent interest in him. He'd also expressed his further worry about Tasha. He wondered if her interest in him might could be shifted over to her friend Abe. Jan had just smiled at him and shook her head. She told him that he probably could never escape from Tasha's sights. He'd sighed in resignation and recognition that Jan was undoubtedly correct in regards to Tasha.

They returned home and had their dinner. All throughout it the twins had talked with him and asked him about his two fights they'd not seen. Susie had gotten very still and quiet as he'd yet again described his encounter with Susie's erstwhile father and his encounter with an overly aggressive defensive lineman during football practice.

Eventually he'd got them to stop the questioning. Henry and Gwen had let it run its course and they too seemed to be relieved when the whole thing wound down. Henry had then reminded him that he had a late afternoon court appearance along with Susie involving a certain 'Drew Waters. Susie had looked even more downcast and Dan actually felt bad for her at that reminder of what her biological father had likely tried to do to her.

He'd been relieved to retreat to his room and do some work on Don's new computer. Once it got towards being late he'd given up on his research and decided to hit the sack. He again stripped down to his briefs and threw back the covers so that he wouldn't be bothered too badly by anything rubbing against his scrapes.

During the night he experienced an immensely erotic dream involving many of the teenaged girls he'd recently met. Janine and Crystal had exchanged positions with Cindy and Donna. Tasha and Susie had swept through on wings of erotic desire. Then Janet and Janice had taken him places he'd not thought of, previously. He'd awakened at that point to discover that he had about half of a hardon. That in and of itself had been a bit of a revelation. He'd not had anything like a hardon since he'd been switched over to his second blood pressure medication. The dream sequence occurring while he'd been asleep had seemingly at least partially overcome his drug-induced disability. He rolled over and groaned into his pillow. How could it be so difficult for a guy with fifty years of life experience to live the life of a fifteen year old? He'd let that question slide away into the oblivion of sleep.

Getting up on that Thursday morning seemed like nothing too unusual. He got up and beat all of the girls into the bathroom. He dressed and ate breakfast and then joined Jan and Susie in the ride to school. Susie was still mostly quiet. She'd looked at him, but she hadn't spoken other than to say a mumbled "mornin'".

It seemed to him that the day should be a quiet one. If Susie didn't keep pulling stunts with him, then he didn't quite see how anything could happen that'd be too surprising. Well, so he hoped. He'd still have to appear in court that afternoon. And he remembered his last courtroom appearance. It had been a near fiasco.

Through his classes he'd talked with Donna, Cindy, and Tasha. They'd smiled and Tasha had even laughed at some of their conversations. Susie had mostly sat beside them and kept quiet. She'd only smiled at some of the neutrally funny things that were said.

And so the day had proceeded until he'd had to return to his locker to switch out some of his books. He closed up the locker and turned around to find Abe Rosen walking by. He stepped alongside him and they'd started talking while heading from one building to the next. Dan had been enjoying the conversation when he heard some guy curse. There was a nearby L-shaped cul-de-sac between wings of the main building near the door they were exiting to head over to a separate expansion to the school. That's where the curse had originated from. Dan noticed as a couple of kids ran over to the open front of the cul-de-sac and looked into it. Both the boy and the girl then gasped!

That's when he heard the voice. It was familiar and in agony. It was Jan's voice! "Nnoooo! Stop! Get off me! You're hurting me! Pleeease stop! Help! Someone help me, please!" Dan had a moment to realize that Abe seemed to be shocked. He must have recognized Jan's voice, too. That was his fleeting thought as he rushed into the cul-de-sac.

"I said SHUT UP BITCH!" That came from a guy pressing Jan against a blank wall of brick where no window overlooked the space. Her lip was split and bleeding. She was looking at the two kids who'd entered the cul-de-sac with a look of pleading desperation. Then she saw Dan charging in. Her eyes started widening out in a combination of surprise, expectation, and the pain she was experiencing. The guy must have thought for a moment or two that she'd suddenly acquiesced to his assault. But then, he must have realized that she was looking over his shoulder at someone else. For that reason he'd started to turn around.

And that's when Dan recognized the guy. It was that big, vicious bastard who'd tried to wreck him on Tuesday afternoon.

MOTHERFUCK!!!

Dan simply went apeshit crazy for a few seconds. That's all it took. He took the bastard's right arm and tore it away from where its hand had been mauling at Jan's left breast. He wrenched it back and down and then twisted it up behind the bastard's back. The bastard had screamed as his ligaments, tendons, and muscles were strained and his sockets were stressed almost beyond their limits. But that stressful event only lasted a fraction of a second. That was because Dan immediately began his next move. He used his left hand to grab the bastard's hair to pull back his head before he drove it forward into the brick wall. The scream had been cut off with the crunch of the bastard's face into that brick surface. It was replaced by a moan and gurgling sound. Dan now pulled the bastard away from Jan and brought him around to slam his body into the adjacent, perpendicular wall. There were gasps being sounded from behind him and beyond his reach. This only slightly impacted upon his mindset as he watched the bastard's body slump down and bonelessly fall over onto the thin grass of the little cul-de-sac. Two different brick walls now had bright red splotches of blood on them.

Dan shuddered and turned away from the body of the bastard. As he rotated back to help Jan he saw that Abe Rosen had rushed forward and was helping Jan stay on her feet. People were yelling and more bodies were rushing into the little cul-de-sac. He looked out to a small sea of shocked faces. He looked at the two kids who'd witnessed things before he'd charged past them. He tried to get himself under control. He spoke to them while he still shivered. "Hey. I think we'll need you two to come along with us to the office, yuh know. Otherwise, no one's goin' to believe why this happened." With that he jerked his head toward the heap of ruin that had been the bastard who'd attacked Jan.

Both of the kids must have known him. They nodded. The girl spoke first. "Sure, Don. I'll go to the office with you."

The boy followed up. "Yeah, Don. Whatever you need. That guy had it coming to 'im!"

At that point several more individuals came pushing though the crowd. Leading the second wave charge was Leroy Thomas. He was cursing and yelling and apologizing as he separated the crowd of students so that he could get to his cousin Jan. Right behind him were his little sister Tasha and Janice's best friend Janet. Coming right up behind them was one of the running backs from the football team. Dan had gotten to know Billy Jenkins fairly well. He seemed like a pure redneck of the true, old South when first seen and heard. But, after a while one learned that he was far more thoughtful about things than mere appearances might suggest. No, definitely not a simple redneck. He had a good enough GPA to get into many universities without an academic scholarship. With his skill as a running back he'd probably get a full academic scholarship at some college or university.