Chapter 11

This was the first student strike at Central High School, and nobody in authority could imagine how to deal with it. An emergency meeting of the school board was called, and all but one member was able to get to the meeting. That missing person was in Europe on vacation with her family and could not get back for the meeting if she had wanted to. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, she was the original instigator of the zero-tolerance for fighting rule. Mrs. Heartly was an elderly woman who foolishly believed that violence never solved anything, and she thought that the "children" in high school had to be protected from bad influences. She was an avowed pacifist and never read a newspaper or watched TV because of all of the violence on exhibit there.

She was also a consummate nag, and that was how she had got her resolution against fighting passed. It simply was the only way for the rest of the members to shut her up. She'd had a classical education, and she took a leaf from Cicero's oratory before the Roman senate. No matter what the subject of the debate, Cicero had always opened his speeches with "Carthage must be destroyed!" Mrs. Heartly ignored the irony of her source and always opened her speeches at the school board meetings with "There must be zero-tolerance for fighting in our schools." Well, she finally got her way, just as Cicero had with the Punic Wars.

Anyway, Joe Anderson, the chairman of the board called the emergency meeting to order and outlined the problem. Mr. Anderson had the good sense to ask the Wilders to attend the meeting, so, after an hour of meaningless jabber about whether or not the subject could even be brought up in an emergency meeting and whether the school board was going to allow the high school students to tell them how the school should be run, Mr. Anderson regained control of the meeting and asked Billy to explain what happened to the board.

Billy stood up and said, "I have no idea why I was singled out for an attack from a bully, but that's what it was. He told me that, since I was a freshman and he was a senior, that I had to do what he ordered me to do. I told him that I was late for lunch and hungry, so I was operating with a short fuse. I told him to back off, and he refused. I warned him that he was in serious danger if he attacked me, and that apparently was enough for him to aim a punch at my face. Had the punch landed, I would be the one in the hospital with a smashed nose, since I was outweighed by 60-80 pounds and shorter than him by about six inches.

"I am on the football team, as some of you may know (that caused a laugh among some members of the board and among the spectators), and I have been working out with weights and other bodybuilding equipment. Also, I am trained in several martial arts. Anyway, I saw the punch coming. I figured that the only way to stop the punch was to grab the bully's closed fist and squeeze. I have developed a very strong grip, and, I admit, I had no idea of just how strong that grip was. I squeezed his fist hard enough to break some bones and rupture some blood vessels, so I was afraid to turn him loose until the EMTs arrived. I was concerned that the bully might bleed to death before he got expert medical aid, and that view was confirmed by Mrs. Ziegler, the school nurse.

"When the EMTs arrived, I released my grip on Mr. Lawson's crushed fist and went with Mr. Bancroft to the office. That's where I was told that I was banished from the school for a week and not allowed to play in the upcoming football game. This was all because of the arbitrary conditions set by the zero-tolerance for fighting rule. Am I bitter about this foolish rule that penalizes self defense? Yes! Am I bitter about being forced to miss a football game, thereby letting down my teammates? Yes! Am I bitter about not being able to do anything about this foolish rule? Yes! If I had my choice, I would move to someplace that did not have such a foolish rule.

"Thank you for listening to me."

Billy sat down to dead silence. A few seconds later, applause started among the spectators and was picked up by the members of the school board. Mr. Anderson let the applause run for some time before he banged his gavel to regain control of the meeting. When the meeting room quieted down, he said, "I am ready to entertain a motion to scrap the zero-tolerance for fighting rule and to restore Mr. Wilder to all of the privileges due to a student of Central High School."

Every member of the board raised his or her hand to be recognized. Mr. Anderson chose the member with the most seniority, and Mrs. Jones proposed the motion. It was seconded by acclamation and passed the same way. Mr. Anderson closed the meeting and Billy was swamped by people who wanted to congratulate him on winning his point. Such an important meeting was covered by the local TV and radio stations and the newspaper, so the word went out immediately about the change in Billy's status. Mr. Bancroft made a point of telling Billy that he would be welcome back at school tomorrow and his record would be expunged of the disciplinary action taken against him.

Billy was gracious in his acceptance of Mr. Bancroft's apology on behalf of the school. Billy then sought out Coach Holsmer to verify that he still had a place on the team. Coach Holsmer assured Billy that he was welcome to return to the team. He also admitted that he was going to stop by his office to tear up the letter he had written announcing that he was going to forfeit Friday's game. He also gave Billy the video tapes he had showing the games played this season by their opponent, Columbia. He said that he just happened to be carrying these tapes in his pocket in case Billy was reinstated.

That night, after the "required" fuck with Ann, he went down to the family room to watch the tapes. This was the first time he had made use of Genie's ability to conquer Billy's sleep reflex. He watched the three tapes and was sure that he had found several useful holes in Columbia's pass defense and two holes in their run defense. He hoped to discuss these discoveries with Coach Holsmer during his study hall period. Billy's idea was to spend the practice day they had left with trying out some plays to take advantage of the holes in the defense.

This was an away game, but it was only a 70-minute bus ride. The weather was not cooperating for this game. It was pouring rain, and projected to get even worse as the evening wore on. The two teams were restricted to a minimum of warm up time because of the damage that could be done to the wet playing field. Most of the pregame time was spent in the locker room with card games and video games.

Billy, the assistant coaches, and Coach Holsmer went over the strategy for the game in light of the lousy weather. They planned to spend most of their offensive time with passes, since they were less likely to have bad consequences as compared to runs in rainy weather. This was contrary to conventional wisdom, so they hoped to gain a slight edge from that. Billy didn't say much on the subject, but he planned to use the quarterback-draw if it became necessary to do much running. Billy knew that he could outrun most of the other players, thanks to Genie. Furthermore, he could not be hurt by tackles, again, thanks to Genie. A tackler could bring Billy down if he was lucky, but Genie could harden Billy's body so that no tackle could do him more than superficial damage, mostly cosmetic.

Central won the toss and decided to take the ball. Columbia took the wind advantage, such as it was, so they were ready for the kickoff. The wet ball squibbed off the kicker's foot and went only about 30 yards before it died in a mud wallow. The splashing mud and water was amusing to see if you didn't have to be a part of it. The first few players to reach the ball made the mistake of trying to pick it up instead of falling on it. A careful examination of the game film was going to be necessary to tell how many players from both sides touched the ball before it finally slid out of bounds on the Central 39 yard line. It didn't make any real difference since a Central player "had possession" as the ball went out of play.