Chapter 9

Sarah was awoken at what she called 'stupid o'clock' by Jason throwing gravel at her window. "What the fuck Jase?" she hissed.

"I'm on my rounds," he held up his large bag of papers, "we need to talk about yesterday; before we see Mitch."

Sarah wiped the sleep from her eyes, "Ok I'll be down in a mo'."

She knew he was right. Tuesday night Sarah thought she was living in a dream. A loving, understanding boyfriend, who was letting her explore her feelings for the new friend she'd made in Mitch.

Wednesday had turned out to be a day of highs and lows. The recruiting for 'Sarah's army' as Jason insisted on calling it (much to Sarah's dismay) was going well. There was a quiet buzz amongst the Geeks, Stoners, Goths and other non 'Jock' groups. So far the word hadn't spread to the sports clique but this was only because Sarah was very careful about who knew the whole story. All most of the people knew was that there was going to be a meeting for the new academic athletes support club, and that it was going to be very interesting, or so they were told.

Mitch however was acting strangely. On Tuesday night Sarah, Mitch and Jase had sat around and discussed the way forward for their relationships. Mitch and Sarah both agreed to keep their relationship between the three of them, the problems of 'coming out' would just complicate things with parents, teachers and other people. Inversely Sarah and Jase were already a new couple in everyone's eyes, and 'breaking up' would just raise questions from all and sundry. On Tuesday night this had seemed the best course of action, but on Wednesday Mitch was distant and stayed away when Sarah and Jason were together. When Jason wasn't around though she was overly familiar. Then when they'd gone to the loo together after the last lesson and found themselves alone Mitch had tried to, as Sarah put it 'fish out my lunch with her tongue'. She'd been taken aback when Sarah told her to back off and tried to hold her hand instead.

Sarah came down the back steps of the house dressed in a sweater, jeans and trainers. "Hi love, big day today," Jase said greeting her with a big hug.

"Operation School Spirit, T minus ten hours and counting- mark," she joked checking an imaginary watch.

"Operation School Spirit?"

"Well I was thinking last night, this whole thing started with Skinner trying to install some school spirit and now if we succeed we will too."

"True. Do you want to walk with me for a bit?" Jason invited.

"Sure, as long as I get back to change for school."

As they set off Jason opened, "So, did you talk to Mitch last night? After I went home."

"Yeah, didn't she ring you?"

"No, should she have?"

"She said she would. We talked for a long time, it was bloody awful, I so wanted to see her face to face, give her a hug..."

"Kiss her?"

"That too," Sarah blushed in the morning light. She continued, "she sat up all Tuesday night, thinking, and we all know where that got me..." Sarah paused. "She had a serious case of the paranoids, thinking we were going to try to disown her, embarrass her or out her in front of the whole school."

"Whoa," Jase looked at Sarah, "I thought we were all ok about everything?"

"We are, all of us, it's just ... I think under what she calls 'the front' she's quite insecure. She's never had a boyfriend or girlfriend because she's been confused. She's only been on a few dates, I think I was the her first real kiss, and now ... Now she's hiding her first real relationship, and she's afraid it's because I don't want to be seen with her. I was ready to steal Mike's car to go and give her a hug..."

"And since you talked with her last night?" Jason queried.

"She's better, not great but I think I got through to her that we aren't about to humiliate her."

"Good, I've got a plan for how you can reassure her this morning before home room..."

When the bus pulled up to the curb outside Levant High School, Mitch was waiting, an anxious look on her face.

"Hi Mitch," Jason beamed as he stepped off the bus.

"Where is she?" Mitch demanded, her eyes darting round as if Sarah would suddenly materialise out of fresh air.

"Who?"

"Sarah!" Mitch raised her voice, almost shouting. A few people gave her funny looks as they passed.

"Oh, her," Jase replied unconcerned. "Don't worry about her, come with me." He nodded toward the school door.

"Where is she then?" Mitch repeated allowing herself to be herded towards the door.

"What did I just say?"

"Don't worry?" replied a bewildered Mitch.

"Precisely," a confident Jason finished.

Mitch was led like a zombie through the doors and along a roundabout route to an emergency exit. Jason pushed her through the door first.

Mitch complained, "where are we go..."

Sarah smiled at her, ran into her arms, cooing, "hey, babe."

Mitch cut her off with a passionate kiss that soon developed with gentle caresses and contented murmurs.

"Hey there," Jason interrupted. "Time's up. The bell will go in a minute."

With their arms still wrapped around each other they both looked over at Jason. "Shut up and keep watch," commanded Sarah, turning back to Mitch.

Another shorter kiss later Sarah unwound herself from the embrace. "About last night, please don't ever talk like that again, I've been imagining that you meant it all. All I want is the best for you."

"I know. I know. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm sorry."

"Like I told you last night, just because we can't do this in school, your house, my house or anywhere we might be seen, that doesn't mean I don't want to. I was really worried this morning when I found you hadn't called Jase."

"Sorry Jase. Sorry I didn't call you. My mom cut my phone off 'cos I talked to Sarah 'till eleven o'clock and sorry for yesterday. I was being silly, like Sarah told me. I was over-thinking."

"Over-thinking eh?" Jason offered looking at Sarah who just shrugged and smiled at Jase.

"How did you two sort this morning out?" Mitch enquired.

"Jase planned it all out this morning on his paper round after he woke me at some god-awful hour this morning," Sarah told her. "I just waited on the bus till Jase had you inside and then ran around the side of the building here."

"Paper round?" Mitch asked.

"I think she means paper route," Jase clarified.

"Oh. Well. I'm glad your plan worked Jase," Mitch beamed, and catching even herself by surprise she found herself giving Jason a peck on the lips.

"Ooohh!" Jason jumped. "So am I now," he beamed giving Mitch a gentle hug.

The ringing of the late bell broke their little get together and the three of them ran their separate ways to their respective homerooms.

Sarah walked in to her last class before lunch to be greeted by a mass of people all wearing blue Ford branded overalls. "Hi boss." "Morning boss." "Hello boss." They called as she stood there gobsmacked.

"Boss?" Sarah questioned as Judd handed her a set of overalls.

"Well," he answered, "you found us a truck to work on and promised us a race car too. We kind'a decided that that put you at the top of the class." Judd smiled as he turned and picked up a dirty worn out Case IH brand baseball cap. "This," he waved the cap, "is how I deal with the long hair problem," he said and bowing he let his shoulder length hair fall forwards. He caught it in his hat and collected it as he put the hat on his head. "There," he grinned.

"Great," Sarah replied. "All I need now is a hat."

"Here," he responded, handing her a paper bag. "I had some change left over from the overalls, no-one complained when I said I'd bought you a hat with it."

Sarah reached into the bag and pulled out a plain blue cap. She thought at first it had the Ford oval on it, closer inspection though the word 'Ford' actually read 'Boss'. "Smartass," she commented quietly, putting the cap on in the same manner. A round of laughs and good-natured ribbing followed as the others saw the joke.

Sol straightened up from where he'd been leaning un-noticed against a wall near the pick up. "Right!" he clapped his hands loudly. "Come on settle down, let's start learning about this truck. We're going to start by looking at the engine bay and comparing the processes required for it to run with this poster on the wall. Gather round."

The students moved to the front of the truck and started learning. Sarah found the lesson gave her nothing new technically but was still interested by the American names for various items, transmission for gearbox, lug nut for wheel nut and the like. They followed the air and the fuel through the engine as far as the cylinders, removing the components for inspection as they went. Then Sol explained the principal of the four strokes of an engine, induction, compression, expansion and exhaust.

Most had trouble remembering the correct order they came in until Sarah offered, "Just think of a knee trembler, 'suck, squeeze, bang, and blow'."

Everyone turned to her; Sarah felt her face heating up. "What in the name of all that's holy is a knee trembler?" Sol asked for everyone.

"A knee trembler?" Sarah said looking round at everyone looking back. "Well it's like a quickie," she looked again still seeing blank looks she elaborated. "Fast, hard, sex, usually up against a wall or standing up. Think of it like this, first there's some sucking," she quickly mimed a blow job and got a few laughs. "Then there's some squeezing," again she mimed squeezing a bum and a boob, more laughs. "Then there's usually a bang," some raised eyebrows and expectant eyes looked at her. "I'm not acting that!!" she protested. "And then, hopefully, one of them usually blows their load."

Laugher exploded round the classroom, people leaning on desks, walls and the truck itself. Someone fell over, still laughing as they hit the ground. Half a minute later an angry looking teacher dusted in sawdust opened a connecting door from another classroom.