Chapter 10

Our second competition was awesome. We were at Jackson High. I took second on floor and a fourth on high bar. I took first on vault and so did Melissa! Erica took first on beam but had a fall on the bars. We were sure she would've had first otherwise. Tiffany took first on the floor with Samantha a surprise second. Angela took a third on vault and Sarah had three fourths. Elizabeth stunk as a gymnast but at least she had fun.

Even better was we built some friendships with the Jackson High students as they were as sick of the stuck up snootiness of Monroe High as we were.

The photographer brought Melissa and I over to take a picture in front of the vault. He said the newspaper article headline would say, "King and Queen of the Vault."

"What's your competition secret?" he asked Melissa.

"A relaxation technique," she answered.

My cough causes a delay in taking the picture. I hoped my sudden erection didn't show in the picture.

Melissa had joined the pre-competition sex before this gymnastic meet. She was a "day of the competition" sex girl.

With baseball season started, we lost some of the schools attention even though we did just as good at our third competition.

We regained attention after the newspaper picture of Kim lying on her side on the floor mat and standing behind her were seven girls and one lone guy (that was me!)

The eight of us rarely ate alone at school. All types of new girls sat around me. There were starry-eyed freshmen girls and girls from all grades trying to make a name for herself by association. There were a few genuine girls I wouldn't mind spending more time with in a different reality. There were even some cheerleaders but I was very happy with my girls and there was the secret of Coach Kim also.

I attributed the influx of girls to the increasing hype about the coming high school gymnastics championship at the downtown sports arena which included a newspaper article about me. I thought the article about Erica deserved to be the larger article but the novelty of me as the only guy on our team was the point of interest to reporters.

I tried to handle all the female attention as best I could. I often found "love notes" and phone numbers snuck into my books or even once in my pants pocket. I don't know how a girl did that.

"Hey!" said an angry voice during lunch one day.

I was the center of about twenty girls which included my teammates. I looked up. It was Matt and he was coming toward me in a hurry.

I stood.

"You fucking shit!" he growled. "You think you can have all the girls? You think you can steal my girlfriend again?"

Before I knew it Matt's fist came toward me. I caught it in the palm of my hand.

I caught it!

Talk about surprise. I squeezed my hand around his fist. He tried to pull it away but I held him firm. I twisted his hand back and then...

Oh, shit!

I heard a snap and Matt grabbed his wrist in severe pain. I ran away as fast as I could.

"Jack," said Kim when she found me in the girls' locker room twenty minutes later as I sat on the bench. "Vice Principal Henderson wants to see you."

I sighed. This was the end.

Kim accompanied me to Henderson's office. Coach Johnson was there and he glared at me. Uh-oh! This was going to be bad!

"Have a seat, Jack," Henderson said. "Kim, you don't have to be here. You weren't there."

"I want to hear this," she said. "Coach Johnson wasn't there either."

"Have a seat," he said to her then looked at Johnson. "Go ahead."

Johnson wasted no time. "This thug broke Matt's wrist and he's out for the year. This was his last year to play high school baseball and he ruined it. He may have cost us the championship. This was our year." Johnson took a deep breath and snarled, "He should be expelled for the rest of the year."

"Just a minute..." shouted Kim.

"Hold on," said Henderson to shut her up. "Anything else?"

"No," Coach said. "Let the knowledge that right now Matt's at the hospital in horrid pain be your guide."

"What do you have to say for yourself, Jack?" asked Henderson.

"He attacked me! He thought I was trying to steal his girlfriend!"

"You've done that before," Henderson said.

What? Oh ... Melissa. Now, she was my girlfriend. One of them.

"Isn't Melissa your girlfriend now?" Coach Johnson said.

I gulped and nodded slowly. I was done for.

"I see..." said Henderson.

"Jack has many girlfriends," Kim said.

"What?" said Johnson in surprise.

"Jack is a nice guy," said Kim. "He treats the girls right. He's such a nice guy that girls don't mind sharing him. He's dating Melissa, Tiffany, and Elizabeth from my gymnastic team and the three girls were best friends before they started dating Jack and they remain best friends while each of them date him. It hasn't hurt their friendship one bit."

"That doesn't matter!" said Johnson attempting to interrupt.

"Yes, it does," said Kim. "The word around school is he is a great guy and now he is popular because he's a celebrity like your football and baseball players, Coach Johnson. I know Jack. I know him very well and he wouldn't hurt anyone on purpose."

"Except today Matt has a broken wrist," bellowed Johnson.

"Self-defense," Kim said. "Ever since Jack helped Melissa pick-up her dropped books, Matt has been all on Jack and you've helped by giving Jack such a hard time though I have to thank you for harassing him. If you didn't do that he never would have joined the gymnastic team."