User blog:WayfinderOwl/BTM: Free Wedgie Included 2

To Detention and Beyond
Focused on the basket ball hoop, I held the round orange ball between my hands. “Come on, Pete, focus,” I said.

For the last hour, I tried to teach Pete how to play basketball. Dribbling was out of the question. First, second and third time he tried, he nearly knocked himself out. Throwing it to the ground with enough force for it to bounce too high.

Outside the gym, I was determined to get him to get that ball through the hoop at least once. Some Jocks gathered to watch, finding the whole ordeal quite amusing. They can laugh all they want.

Pete threw the orange ball with all the strength he could muster. Barely missing the hoop by a couple of feet. “I’m hopeless. I might as well let Burton fail me.”

“Not going to happen. Pete, you suck at basketball.”

“Real nice pep talk,” Pete said, sarcastically.

“It is true. Pete, you do suck. I’m awesome at basketball. I’ll teach you what I know. It will give Burton one less excuse to single you out.” I fetched the ball up from the ground. “Problem is, you’re too in your head. Forget about everything. Forget about who might be watching. Forget about me. All that matters is getting this ball through that hoop.” I handed the ball to Pete.

Another throw sent the ball flying through the air, swishing through the bottom of the net, hit the wall, bounced along the ground. I raised my foot. Brought it down on the ball, to stop it from rolling away.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I suck!” Pete exclaimed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“If you keep on talking like that, you will suck. Alright, new tactic. Pretend that hoop is Gary’s mouth. He’s calling you Femme-Boy again. Laughing at you because of how pathetic you are. This ball is the only way to shut him up.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Once more, I handed him the orange rock solid rubber ball. Pete glared at his target. I could see it. The cogs in his brain whirring away. Perhaps reciting every mean word Gary had ever said. Every horrible thing Gary had ever done to him. He flung the ball with all his strength once more. It soared threw the air. Closer and closer to the hoop. Ripped the air on its journey through the hoop.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Arms in the air, Pete let out a triumphant laugh. “I did it! Josh, you saw. I really did it!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“You did,” I said, proudly. “Now do it again. Same as last time.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I don’t think I can. What if it was a fluke?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Then you keep practicing until it isn’t a fluke anymore. No one gets awesome overnight.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“How did you get so good?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“My parents lived in Northwood for a while. I used to hang out at the basketball courts. Never made any friends, but I learned how to play. Probably the only honest dollar I ever earned in my life.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“You got money off basketball?” Pete asked, doubtfully.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Yeah. We would play one on one. Best of five. Who ever lost had to pay the winner five bucks. Most of the kids who went there, their parents were dealers or gangsters. They had plenty of money to burn.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“If I get good, do you think we could play best of five?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Sure. Without the money prize. You focus, and I’ll go get us a soda.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I headed over to the vending machine. Inserted two quarters. The cans clanged out of the bottom. I learned from experience to wait before retrieving it. A tall blue blazer wearing prefect walked towards me. Swinging his arms proudly. Tall and intimidating with a light brown buzzcut.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Joshua Hyde,” he said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I nodded. “That is me.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I know you are. You got detention. You and that girly-boy over there.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“What for?” I demanded.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Take a wild guess.” He stomped off giving me no more answers.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">To be fair, I hadn’t exactly been law abiding since I got here. What had Pete done? Besides be the target of Gary’s cruelty, and hang around with me, nothing. Me getting detention was to be expected.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I returned to Pete with two cans of the heavy caffeine and sugar drinks I had become more or less addicted to. This time the can didn’t explode in my hands. I chugged back the cool cola drink. Tossed the can into the garbage can.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“We got detention. The ape in the blazer told me,” I said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Both of us?” asked Pete, taking a more sipping approach to his beverage.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I nodded.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I’m not surprised,” Pete muttered.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Why would you get detention?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Last night, one of the prefects saw my underpants before I could pull them down off the wall. Turns out Gary had written some limericks in them about each of the teachers and barnyard animals. He had forged my handwriting pretty well.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Gary is such a jerk. He is probably the one who told on me. No prefects saw us. We go away clean. I doubt any of the Nerds would have risked telling anyone.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Probably. We should just ignore him.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“And he’ll get bored and give up. Yeah, I know the whole speech.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“No. What I was going to say is; Gary will go back to doing small stuff. He never gives up. Well, whatever. Gary is Gary. He will never change. Detention is always at four. What do you want to do until then?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I’d like to do something, Pete, but I got some money to make. Russell is planning something big for Halloween. We all have to earn twenty bucks by tomorrow morning. I got nothing, since I gave you all my earnings.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“You don’t have to do what he says, you know.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I do. Pete, you don’t get what it’s like. I might actually fit in here. As long as I do what Russell says, he thinks I’m cool. As long as I’m cool, I’m part of the gang.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I’m not so sure you do fit in with them. None of the Bullies would help me the way you’ve done, or hang around with someone like me.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Pete, you’re my buddy. I’ll always have your back. No matter what Russell says. I gotta split. Got money to make. Keep practicing, okay?” I gave him a fist bump, and left him to his solo basket ball game.

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">^^^^

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I’d made some good money. More than my target. The locker room under the gym was the best place. Teachers never went down there, neither did prefects. I waited near the door. Asked one of the Nerds or non-clique kids for two bucks exit fee. Most paid up. The ones that didn’t, I either stuffed them in the shower with their clothes on, or dumped them in the trash can. Not an approach I normally would have took, but it got me the cash I needed, and a dash extra.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The way I saw it, if they were giving the money to me, then none of the more violence hungry Bullies would beat it out of them. In a way, it went full circle. These kids excluded Pete, because of what Gary had made him. I took money from them. Saved what was going spare. I would probably spend it somewhere hanging out with Pete.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The kid from yesterday refused to pay up. Who declared a bunch of nonsense about curses, and dropped his dice.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I shall not pay your toll, foul troll. Your tax be too steep. Someone shall slay you, fiend. Perhaps it shall be I.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A gangly kid with ginger hair and braces cut in. “Just pay him, Melvin. You don’t want to get hurt.” He deposited two dollars into my open hand.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“This shall not be forgotten,” Melvin insisted. He paid me the money. I allowed them to pass.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I left the locker room thirty bucks richer than when I had entered. A girl with an auburn bob in the corridor shook her head at me disapprovingly. She reminded me of my mom. Heavy makeup, tight clothes, animal print. Had a whole cheap and easy look about her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“The way you treat them is disgusting,” she stated.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“If it isn’t me, someone else will,” I told her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Fine. Sell your soul. Trust me, it is an empty life.” There was a teasing edge to her voice. Urging me to spend more time with her, or keep the conversation going. “You’re wasting your life with Russell’s gang.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Who are you, anyway?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Lola Lombardi. Johnny Vincent’s girl—at least, for now.” The way she looked at me implied that I might just be her next target. The last thing I wanted was for a girl just like my mom to get her manicured talons into me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Josh.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Joshua Hyde. I know. Everyone is talking about you. Not that many boys get Russell’s attention on their first day. See you around, Josh.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">She sauntered into the girl’s locker room. Probably expecting me to watch her ass as she left me. No chance.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Realizing I had forgotten my uniform, I headed back into the locker room to retrieve them from the tiny locker.

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">^^^^

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Detention sucked. Stuck in a classroom, listening to some pompous windbag tell us the error of our ways, while the big ape prefect marched back and forth at the back of the classroom. Pete and I were not the only kids in detention. Ethan, Trent and Davis had claimed seats at the back row. Each one of them had something to do with me. Biggest surprise for me, was Gary at the seat behind me, glaring at the back of my head.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Somehow I could feel his glare like fire. Gary who had manipulated so many people was in detention. If I knew him less, I would have shrugged it off as coincidence. A lesson I was starting to learn, Gary and coincidences never went together.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The windbag told us to really think about our wrongdoings, before dramatically leaving with the prefect in toe. Davis, Trent and Ethan moved seats to the row in front of me. Trent cast a suspicious eye at Pete. Naturally they didn’t trust him. He wasn’t one of them. Or maybe it was the shock of seeing him wearing a white shirt instead of pink.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Go away, Girly Boy,” Trent told Pete.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Pete went to move. I reached over, placed my hand on his shoulder and pushed him back into his seat.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Leave him alone,” I said. “Pete is with me. He is cool.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A short dry laugh came from behind me, the moment the word “cool” left my lips.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“How much cash did you make?” asked Davis. “I cleaned up with the little kids. Some idiot named Sheldon gave me all his money, because I told him we were friends. Twenty bucks right there.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Thirty. Getting money out of the Nerds is easy in the locker room. They just want to get in and out with no drama. Some got a bit cocky, but I soon put them in their place. I would have stayed longer but this girl named Lola started talking to me.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Damn, that girl is hot,” Ethan said. “Tell me you are going to hit that.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Hell no,” I replied. “She is a younger clone of my mom.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Is your mom hot?” asked Trent.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Depends. Is a cheap soulless walking makeup counter, who will do just about anything for the right price, considered hot?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Damn right that is hot,” Trent informed me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">An eraser bounced off the back of my head. “Hey!” I yelled. I swiveled around in my seat, resting my arms on the back of the chair. My own hazel eyes staring right into Gary’s brown ones.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Spread out across the table was a single piece of paper. Every inch of it covered in pencil lines. At first glance it seemed like he had just scribbled all over the page. My unbroken gaze revealed more. The picture was just like those ones that seem like nothing, but the longer you look the more you see. It had boys running up spiral stairs, that looped up and down across the page, with disembodied limbs scattered around.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“What is your problem?” I asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Paranoid much?” Gary countered.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I’m far from paranoid.” I snatched the eraser up from the ground. “And I’m keeping this.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Gary let out another laugh. He leaned across the table, and spoke in a whisper. “I see right through this little act of yours.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“I’m not acting anything. You think this stalker act can get to me, then you’re mistaken. Whatever you throw at me, I know how to deal with it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“You’re not exactly unique yourself. This…” He pointed a finger from himself, making a circle in the air, including Pete with myself in the loop. “Is more than just for fun. Maybe I might just win this time.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“What is that supposed to mean?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Figure it out, moron.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I looked to Pete, who just shrugged it off.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Gary meant nothing to me. He could mess with me all he liked. As long as his cruelty was focused on me, Pete would be safe. He come across as the type of bully to latch onto one person. Enjoy breaking them. Only when he had won, would he focus on someone else.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I returned my attentions to something more important. The conversation we were having before Gary interrupted. No one really knew for sure what Russell was planning—or even if there was a plan to begin with. The way the guys talked, it seemed like they usually stocked up on eggs, toilet paper and fire crackers, and let the chaos ensue. Whatever the plan was, I knew Halloween would be a night to remember, despite the fact it was about two months away.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The windbag Hattrick came into the classroom, to find us all silent and back in the seats we were sat in when he left. His lecture went on for another ten minutes. Reminiscent to the speech he gave before. Pretty much word for word. Only when he was done cherishing the sound of his own voice we were allowed to leave.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Outside the classroom, Pete said, “There is supposed to be something good on TV in the rec room. Wanna go watch?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Sure, man,” I replied. On the way down the stairs, I asked, “How did practice go, after I left?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Alright. I almost made a couple baskets. The ball brushed the net.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Well, keep at it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“How long did it take you to get good?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“About a week and a half, but I’m different. I never wanted to go home. I practically lived on that court. With all the dealers around there, I had to make it look like I was trying to play a game, or they would have tried to sell me drugs.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“How good are you at other sports?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Like what?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Baseball. Or anything really. I want to go to the carnival. There are loads of games, and most of them involve throwing a ball.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“And you want to collect tickets?” I assumed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Pete nodded. “I’m thinking of going as a clown for Halloween. That just gives me two months to save up enough tickets for a clown wig.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“We can totally go. How about I tell Russell. We can get the whole gang to go. More tickets to earn then. You can get a whole load more of prizes.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 14.2pt; text-autospace: ; text-justify: inter-ideograph; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Yeah, cool,” said Pete, his enthusiasm dwindling.