Chapter 16

I awoke to the sound of pounding. I smiled when I realized that it was TreFual trying to get out of the sanctum. He couldn't open the door. I stretched and went over to let him in.

"Good Morning."

"Good morning, yourself."

"Dude, my dad is going to kick my ass when he finds that bottle gone. I'm going to be lucky if I get off with a grounding."

"Nah, he won't even remember he owned it. I fixed his memory. As far as he's concerned he only bought three bottles, not four."

"You messed with my parent's memories?" I didn't like that a bit.

"Settle down kid, it didn't hurt anything. I can't afford to let you get grounded right now, there's too much to do."

"Like what?"

"You'll find out. Now, go get ready for school."

I huffed and started getting ready. I had showered the night before, so I dressed then washed my face. I met mom and dad in the kitchen. We exchanged good mornings and then sat down to eat. Mom had really out done herself, bacon, eggs, toast, and juice. It looked wonderful.

"John, I looked over that estimate and it seems a little high. When you get a chance run by Shelton's and see what they'll do it for."

"OK dad, I'll try to do that after school. I have to pick up Karen's home work and take it over to her."

"No rush, I'm not planning on having it done for a week or two."

"How's she doing?" Mom said.

"She's doing all right, I guess. Her mom said she would be out of school for the week."

"Was she sweet?"

"Mrs. Chang? She gave me a very nice hug."

"I was talking about Karen."

"Mrs.Chang is nicely stacked for an oriental lady. I enjoyed the hug."

"Owwww..." dad had smacked the back of my head.

"Don't be a smart ass."

"Sorry," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "Am I bleeding?" Dad brought his hand up. "Ok, Ok, I'm sorry. Karen is a very nice girl. I brought her a little teddy bear and she loved it."

"See, that wasn't so hard." Mom said, brightly. "Do you like her?"

"No, her name's not Randi."

Mom looked as though she was going to say something but changed her mind. We finished eating in silence.

As I passed her chair to put my plate in the sink, I kissed my mom on the cheek and whispered "You're the best."

She smiled at me. "You're absolutely rotten," She said grabbing me up in a hug. I gave my dad a hug then left.

I picked Marty up and we headed off to school. We had decided that we would take turns driving to school. This week it was my turn.

School was interesting, as soon as I walked in people were asking me about the fight. I just smiled and tried to brush it off. The big suprise was when Principal Wallace walked up to me. He stuck out his hand "Glad to have you back Mr. Henderson."

I shook his hand "Thank you sir. I heard that you took up for me. Thank you."

"You're welcome. You did the right thing. I'm proud of you. Let's see about getting our day back on track." He turned toward the crowd "OK, everybody let's get to class, time's a wasting."

A mob of kids surrounded Marty and me as we walked to class, asking questions and just being a nuisance. Finally, I had to be a little abrupt with them "Hey guys, I appreciate the well wishes but, my lawyer said that I can't talk about it until it's over. So let's get to class. Most of the kids faded. One asshole, Alan Gren, decided to push his luck.

"Henderson here, thinks he's tough because he whipped a girl's ass. I bet he couldn't handle a REAL man." Shit, I wasn't back in school ten minutes and he's trying to get me kicked out.

"I'll tell you what Gren, go find a REAL man for me and I'll see if I can whip him."

Several of the kids laughed "He told you." one of them said.

Gren's face turned red. He was stepping toward me when a voice rang out "GREN, COME HERE!" We all winced when we heard Coach Green. Coach Green is about 6'3. He was a pro ball player until his knee blew out. I've seen him bench 400 pounds for five sets of five. On the best of days, he's angry. I guess coaching high school after losing a twenty million dollar contract could have that effect. Today was most definitely not a good day. We watched in silence as Gren went to meet his fate.

"So, you're a man now are you? Let's see how much of a man you are after doing the 'Blender'."

There was a collective gasp. The 'Blender' was a PT routine coach had dreamed up as punishment for students who had really fucked up. The entire routine is done wearing a thirty pound vest. You do situps, pushups and just about every kind of 'up' that you can imagine until you can't move. You don't walk away, you crawl.

There's a legend at school of one kid who did it a three times in two days. They say that after the third time, he crawled away crying for his momma. A senior who claimed he was freshman when it happened said "after that, the poor unfortunate threw up at the thought of smoking in school." That being the reason that he was in the 'Blender' to begin with. All we know is we don't want any.

We watched as coach led Gren towards the gym. I heard one of the guys, I think it was Terry, say "That poor bastard." The group broke up and I made it to class just as the bell rang.

The rest of the day went smooth. Apparently, everyone had heard about Gren and decided that drawing attention to themselves was bad, very bad.

I made my way to the office during lunch to find out where Karen's classes where. I've read stories online where the school secretary is hot with 34DD's and a see through blouse and a mini skirt. I don't know what universe that dude is from, but our secretary isn't allowed to look at a clock because she's so ugly she could stop time.As ugly as she is she is very nice. We love her because she always has something encouraging to say when you're feeling down.