Community College

Another slow burn, more story than action,I have tried to better with grammar and spelling, but no editors have responded so its still just me and Grammarly.

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As a family, we had hit a major speed bump on the road of life, Well that was how my father had so eloquently explained it to me in a brief letter that fateful day when everything changed. We as a family had always been fairly well off apparently, me not so much as I was and always had been penniless and I was now suddenly being moved from the Military Academy to a local Community College in a place I'd never lived.

I wasn't so much bothered by the actual leaving of the Military Academy, as it was attending Community College somewhere I had never lived. I had never actually wanted to attend Military Academy no that was my Stepmothers idea, I'd like to think for my educational well-being, but I knew the woman just hated me. Hated me for being a bastard son of her husband which had come to light when my actual mother dumped me with them at the age of five!

Again I'd like to think my mother had done it for my wellbeing, but she had a new man in her life who hated the sight of me and I'd lasted three months until he had given her the ultimatum of him or me. So yes I had abandonment issues, in my case pertinent ones, because although my father took responsibility for his one night, apparently drunken stand with the maid at a hotel he'd stayed in once, My Stepmother did not!

No, she had me shipped off to Military Academy the day the paternity test proved my heritage, leaving me a confused five-year-old boy, whose ass had just been bounced out of two homes marked unwanted. Well, let's just say that opened the door to a few years of torment because when one is stamped with the unwanted marker, he is not left very high on confidence.

Luckily for me a kindly old janitor had taken pity on me and helped me plan out a new and much-needed strategy for survival, he'd also allowed me to hide out in the now unused, old music block. The following years saw me excel in swimming, cycling, and weightlifting. Although the endurance aspects of the first two, ensured while becoming very fit and strong, I didn't become Hercules, we then added in some fighting forms over the years, such as Boxing and Taekwondo anything to stop me from getting beat up quite so much.

This did lead to me becoming more of an all-rounder, capable of surviving the challenges of Military school hell a lot easier than I had been say, at the tender age of five!

Being a geek hadn't made me more popular in the testosterone-filled hallways, but it had made me happier. I loved computer science far more than the strategies of the battlefield, which in my mind would have absolutely no impact on my future self because there was no way in hell I was joining up.

So I spent all my spare time either reading, teaching myself yet more about computers or if I was sure I was alone, writing songs and singing them. It was so therapeutic to my soul, that even the abject terror of my peers finding out, couldn't prevent me from practising it.

The abandoned music department consisted basically of brass army marching bands, but one day I found an old but serviceable guitar in the very dusty forgotten equipment. I was far enough away from the mainstream hiding here to be able to strum away to my heart's content. A quick trip to the library had yielded a teach yourself to play the guitar book and that was indeed just that.

Even in the years that followed, I'd still hideaway in that old abandoned music room and just play the songs I'd heard on the radio. It was hardly groundbreaking but I was a dab hand at rock and roll as well as country classics, Later moving on to a love of rock music.

It was like I had been hit by lightning, the first time I heard Hotel California by the Eagles as well as others like Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival, A Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd to name but a few of my favourites.

Music was a tonic to my tortured, unwanted soul, I couldn't say I did it off the girls because they terrified me, the formal twice-yearly dances were simply just that formal forms of torture. None of them showed any interest in me whatsoever and I couldn't really blame them, as to do so would only invite shame and scorn upon yourself. One poor sweet beautiful girl had tried, the following torment she, well we received was atrocious and never to be repeated. Although I often thought of her sweet, sweet beautiful face and her incredible rack, well in my mind it had grown nicely over the lonely years.

So when I was removed from my classes one fateful day due to my dear father, whom I'd only met that once, being unable to pay the tuition it did come as a bit of a shock.

The family as a whole had removed their selves from society to regroup, retreating to various hideaways, the family home out on the Californian coast, where they had a sizeable mansion waiting to receive them, was to be a last resort. Unfortunately, the downsizing included most of the staff, which happily for me anyway left a few rooms available for the unwanted, unexpected bastard son.

I had been enrolled/dumped into the local community college because it was free, the official daughter of the family was still going to Brown University, and some things could not be sacrificed. Whereas I was well aware that if organ donation/sales were legal I'd have been cut up and sold at the drop of a hat.

I was shown my rooms by the butler, a stiff formal, fellow by the name of Reeves, Damn one letter out from being perfect, it was he who informed me I was being allowed to stay here for free. A breakfast meal along with a small evening meal, would also be graciously provided for as long as I followed the simple rules of the House. They were indeed very simple, do not be seen by my Stepmother or Father, do not cause any problems, and on no account were I to bring anyone else onto the grounds. I would be expected to get a job to provide myself with any essentials I may require.

All in all a pretty simple set-up, keep quiet, keep my mouth shut, do not show myself under any circumstances and I could stay in the basic rooms I was afforded, in the unused West wing. It was pretty musty smelling, making me think, that in the winter no heating would be provided and I would need to sleep in the room with the open fire, as long as I found my own wood!

That was a good few months away, I had one month to look around, find a job and get settled before classes began. That night I sat quietly listening for any sounds, television, music, talking laughter hell at this point I'd take anything. But there was nothing but silence, so I read a fantastic fantasy novel I'd slipped away with me, but not daring to strum the old guitar I was also sure no one would ever notice was missing.

In the morning Reeves informed me the family were away, it was just me, him and the cook living here for the next two months and so no one would notice any reasonable noise coming from my wing, the furthest wing out in fact. He showed me a map of the local area, we were a twenty-minute walk from town but only two minutes to the beach that did connect us all, I was elated, I knew I was going to love the beach. I mean I'd never actually been to one, but I loved the water the only thing my physical education teachers had agreed upon was that I was part fish.

I ate as fast as I could and was on my way down to the beach as fast as my legs would carry me, which after all years of the training I'd had was pretty bloody fast. It was breathtaking, the beach, the Ocean, so vast that I couldn't see an end, I must have stood there transfixed for well I couldn't tell you the length, it could have been anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour. I was stunned, speechless and once again in love, the Ocean had a beauty all of her own, raw, wild, and untamed, she was heavenly and I had to be inside her.

I could wait no longer, I stripped out of my Academy jeans, with my Academy-issued swimming trunks already on underneath, I ran to the water and on out through the shallows before diving into the quite frankly fucking cold seawater. It mattered not as I dove underneath the waves, kicking my legs like a dolphin and driving myself forward at an alarming, thrilling speed. I probably went out much farther from the shore than anyone should on their very first sea swim, but to me this was my new home and I wanted, no need to explore its depths.

I emerged for the sea two whole hours later, absolutely, utterly knackered, swimming against the currents and tides was a lot of lot harder than a pool or lake. I lay on the edge of the water too knackered to move, I was exhausted but grinning from ear to ear like an idiot. I dipped back in the shallows to clean the sand off after about twenty minutes, then I dried myself off with my academy towel, dressed and headed back. I ran to warm up, hung my towel out in the area provided and returned to the beach, where I walked along the sand to the town.

I'd noticed on the map it was the quickest way to town, with the added advantage, that I could stare at my new love.

The small town we were near, was located close to Seaside California home of the State University Monterey Bay, sort of like a run-off town, where the locals lived who travelled to work at the University of Seaside itself. It was a fairly small place, the local community college, an amalgamation of other likewise small seafront towns was neither the best nor the worst. But it was not Berkeley University, a place I'd have loved to have attended but the academy had never provided the teaching I'd have required to reach that level, so it would forever be a dream I guess.

I walked over to the college grounds after finding its location via the maps on the seafront, surprisingly it was open so I walked to the desk to make sure I was registered and I would not have to find fees. The kind old lady running the desk, took to my young eighteen-year-old handsome face, as surely as she'd taken to cake, she found my transcripts and while I was indeed due to attend, my courses were a terrible fit for me, as if chosen by someone with the sole intent of making me suffer.

Old Kaitlyn however had no trouble righting these wrongs, switching my classes to ones I would enjoy attending, Music and Computer science classes ran happily in twined with the swim team, which although a nigh-on impossible task was one she would allow me to try. They didn't have fencing classes, but I wasn't exactly expecting they would have, oh well the Olympics had only been a pipe dream anyway, although my Academy instructor had been devastated when I left.

Kaitlyn had been an absolute treasure trove of information, as soon as she weaselled my cover story out of me, as she couldn't understand why anyone living at the Mansion would attend here, my story however was of an illegitimate son of a maid kindly being allowed to live there by the extremely gracious Lady of the house. I kept the faith as I was under no illusions as to what happened to me if my actual story came out.

On a tip from Kaitlyn, I got a lumber job in a nearby mill, it was extremely hard work, but they paid me well and let me take the scrap wood, even dropping it off for me, I was collected at seven by the gate on the road, given a lift by a local worker who was also kind enough to fill his truck every chance I got and he drove it down to the house. I would then wheel it around to a shed near me and I was excited to be building up such a vast store of seasoned wood, what with winter coming.

Reeves had even had the chimney swept along with the others so I could safely have a fire, he also lent me an axe and a hatchet, the cost for such a loan was to assist around the place when he needed it. I didn't mind helping him out and although he didn't exactly thaw, he did allow me to use an old Honda Civic nobody else wanted but was still road legal and running. It would come in handy getting to and from town in the winter as long as we could keep my using it out of my wicked nemesis sight, I couldn't ever bad mouth her as he was devoted to the family.

Thankfully I'd been nearing the end of the Academy thrice monthly haircuts, adding in the extra few weeks my hair was a shaggy growing out length, hating the compulsory buzz cuts I'd endured, the musician in me tortured by everyone.

I worked seven days a week seven thirty through a ten-hour day for ten dollars an hour cash, one hundred dollars a day, seven hundred dollars a week. It would fall to two days a week soon enough, still two hundred dollars a week pocket money was mighty fine in my book as never having had any before.

I couldn't afford a day off so I would have to attend school in my Academy leisure clothes of blue jeans, black T-shirt, certainly not the most stylish but I'd get away with it. Then I would hit the thrift and secondhand hand store's Kaitlyn had kindly told me about, to get myself some clothes I actually picked myself.

I was getting up at five To complete my circuit training and have time to swim before work, afterwards, it was more of the same, circuits, a run along the beach followed by as long an evening swim as I could fit in. The dinner was invariably cold by the time I reached it, but it always warmed back up well and was some of the best food I'd ever eaten, old Nan as she liked to be called a hell of a cook.

Reeves had found me an old record player out of storage no one ever used along with a stash of records kept up there, I planned to find some records in the shops straight after the clothes.

I attended my first day of normal people college nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof, I needn't have been, it was a laid-back place with very few bullies, who upon seeing me decided there were easier guys to pick on. I still felt like the five-year-old waif no one wanted inside, but outside my physical body was very respectable indeed, I was six feet tall, swim-equipped muscular wide shoulders that tapered into a narrow waist, and in between was a chest packed with dense muscles and a six verging on eight pack. Muscular swimmer's thighs and calves kept in line with endless hours of running, the weights I'd hit had helped condense my muscles down, into holding far more power than their size would lead you to believe.

Endless hours of Academy competition / compulsory training, sparring in both boxing and Taekwondo as well as various other lethal martial arts had lent me a vicious edge, I never sought out fights but I'd learnt through painful experience it was better to finish them. This left me with an almost physical aura of lethality, it was never anything I'd cultivated as my fantasy books would have wanted but it was something that had grown out of a bullied boy who'd turned into someone no one with any brains bullied.

I kept quiet, watching, listening and looking at everything and everyone like a foreign tourist on a field trip, I was sure I was thought to be weird. I caught enough girls staring and giggling at each other as I walked by, but even the haters couldn't stop me from enjoying the laxness of it all, everybody seemed to be happy and it was infectious.

My first class was at ten, and my last finished at three! It was a Damn holiday and as I walked through town to the thrift stores I was amazed at my good fortune. This only increased when I hit the shops my thirty-inch waist, and normal leg length opened me up to an amazing selection of jeans, there were 501s, in my mind the holy grail of jeans. I bought a size up as I was never one for tight-fitting clothes and I bought a lot with student card discounts I bought five pairs of jeans for one hundred dollars total, they were like new! Why would anyone ditch them? These would last me until I grew fat, something I had no plan on ever happening so what an investment they were.

I then added ten T-shirts all Levi plain cotton, five white and five black at five dollars a piece these babies were a bargain, I grabbed two sweaters for fifteen dollars each, all for a total of one hundred eighty dollars. All of this from two stores the last of which snared me into paying fifty bucks for an old black leather jacket, the leather was so soft, so supple, yes maybe a touch faded but hey it wasn't old it was a classic. They also had board shorts for ten dollars so I added two pairs. They sent me to another shop where I bought a pair of generic cross trainers I'd need for the gym, for ten dollars I could also use them running and a pair of leather Chelsea-style Timberland boots as well as a sturdy lace-up pair of the same make, that was fifty dollars for the pair. I had a new wardrobe for three hundred and ten dollars, my current five pairs of white boxer shorts and socks would do me no point wasting my hard-earned money. I had ninety dollars I'd allow myself to spend as I wanted as a present to myself. I hit the record store carrying four overloaded carrier bags, finding myself watched again by a cute attendant as if I was going to steal records! They had music booths you could check the quality of the second-hand records and I abused those, I listened to so many new and different recordings I felt sorry for the girl and her friend she'd called in as backup.

I was lost in a world of Creedence Clearwater revival listening to their greatest hits when a beautiful woman in her early thirties tapped the glass of the booth, shit I knew I was spending too long in there but I'd checked they didn't close till eight.

"Hi," she said brightly, when I opened the door, "watcha listening too so happily? If you don't mind me asking,"

"Er, er," was all I could get out, she was just too beautiful for my brain to compute, so I showed her the album cover.

"Really? A classic, Well at least you have good taste, will you buy something today handsome?" She asked sweetly, to which I just nodded enthusiastically with the look of an idiot on my face,

"Well sorry to have bothered you, you see this is my store and my niece just told me a homeless guy had taken root in a booth, but you're not going to cause me any trouble are you sweetheart?" She asked me kindly.

"N-no Ma'am, I would never cause you any kind of trouble," I answered her honestly, finding my voice rather than scare her, "I'm not homeless ma'am I just moved here to attend the college,"

"You came all the way here for our little community college?" She said her eyes searching mine for lies,

"Yes ma'am, anyway I'm sorry if I've overstayed my welcome, I will leave now as I would like to be welcome again," I said politely, getting ready to buy my choices

"Now hang on, I'm on the evening shift, so you're more than welcome to stay as long as you like, till eight that is," she said smiling warmly, "honestly it's fine"

A little while later she dropped off an anthology of classic rock records, one had Knocking on heaven's Door amongst others, and another had a mix of more modern songs and when I listened to Wanted Dead or Alive I was sold. I repeated that song three times and I immediately sought out the Best Of Bon Jovi. She laughed as she charged me thirty dollars for a stack of classic rock albums, promising I would be welcome anytime now the misunderstanding was cleared up.

I spent the evening listening while strumming along to some seriously amazing songs, unusually for me I stayed up past ten pm, teaching myself Wanted Dead or Alive on the guitar while learning the words and singing along.

It was a shock to see the record lady, at the head of the music class the next morning at ten am, I stared transfixed, as she was talking to someone and I was sat at the back hidden safely away. She wasn't beautiful in a classic definition, she was only short at five three, elfin lithe firm fit body, with a small ass and breasts, although they looked good on such a petite woman. It was her face though framed with long black luxurious straight hair, a small nose, surprisingly large mouth with a dazzling bright white teethed smile that was now staring back at me, Shit!