Time for School Ch. 09

And, with that, the doors closed. Of course, she could have easily had arranged to meet up with me sometime. After all, we did live in the same building. Perhaps she was just shy. Regardless of the reason, I headed on home with thoughts of my day–and of homework–circling through my mind.




Later that night, I checked the clock on my computer—eight o'clock. I figured it was time to get ready to go meet Oleg and his 'friends.' I still had an inkling of suspicion about it, brought about once again by that weird feeling in my head. I wondered if, in the midst of my growing number of powers, I had somehow developed some sort of sixth sense for danger. Of course, I had 'sensed' something as laughably perilous as Jordan embarrassing me with that pen switch. I hummed curiously to myself as I pondered over it. I then rubbed my head briefly before putting my shoes on.


The walk there wasn't too terrible, but it could certainly be considered exercise. I headed to the little strip mall that indeed contained the budding, new flower shop. It amazes me how clever I am.


I headed around the back, looking at the cars illuminated by the orange lights hanging off the walls. I didn't see anyone at first, but as I went further, I found strands of rising grey smoke. From its source was a fairly numerous group of guys. Several of them were smoking cigarettes, which didn't really impress me too much. I humphed and put my hands in my pockets as I approached them.


There seemed to be about a dozen of them which, at first glance, was kind of intimidating. I didn't know really any of them and suddenly they wanted me to be part of their group? I'd never introduced myself to so many people at once. Add to that the fact that they were all teenagers, they were expectedly going to be pretty critical of me.




"Hey!" Oleg exclaimed as he looked at me. "There he is!"


"Hey guys," I replied as casually as I could as they all turned to look at me. I tried not to lose my nerve with so many eyes on me. "What's going on?" I asked. Oleg walked up to me with a big grin, the two of us giving each other a quick little hand slap.


He then answered, "Nothin', nothin'–just chillin'."


"Hey man," a pretty large guy walked up to me. "Name's Steve." He was inexplicably wearing sunglasses at night, which, surprisingly, did not look cool or smart.


I nodded to him. "Hey. I'm Anthony."


"Cool. Welcome, Anthony. Want a smoke?"


I looked over at the other guys, most of which were still looking at me. I then cocked a smirk at him.


"Nah, I'm good. I smoked about five on the way here. I think I've got my fill of nicotine for a while."


My remark seemed to visibly confuse Oleg. He'd never been very bright.


"It's cool," Steve replied, nodding in understanding.




Oleg went back to hang with the others while Steve stayed with me. It seemed neither of us had any of what to say to each other as he continued to puff on his cigarette. He looked over his shoulder a few times, almost like he was worried someone might catch them. I decided to speak up to break the silence.


"Well, uh... why did you guys want me anyway?"


"Just to hang," he replied.


"... Oh," I replied with a hint of confusion. "Okay then."


He then waved for me to follow him, and led me to the group of guys. I greeted some of them with a quick tip of my chin, getting a greeting back of the same. It instantly became pretty hard for me to feel like I was fitting in. I knew of these guys, none of them looked like me, all of them smoked and they all carried the same air of self-importance around with them.


I had no idea what Steve's idea of hanging was, but so far it was really dull. From behind his sunglasses, it seemed like he wasn't even looking at me. With such a level of disinterest, I couldn't figure why this guy would want me around. Something just seemed really off, and my buzzing head alerted me of that.




After a few moments of silence between us, Steve finally spoke again.


"So," he said while letting smoke vent out of his nose. "Heard you fucked up some guy at school. What was his name?"


"Jason," I replied.


"Yeah, Jason!" he exclaimed, pointing his cigarette-clasped fingers at me. "I know him."


I was genuinely surprised by the remark. I'd never given pause to how popular Jason was or wasn't.


"Oh yeah? How do you know him?"


"Well," he said. "if you really want to know..." he trailed off, leaving me confused as he nodded to the other guys. He then tilted his glasses down so I could see his eyes. "He's the one that wanted you to meet us."


It was then that I realized the other guys had formed something of a semi-circle around me. I was frozen in shock. I couldn't believe it—I actually got set up. Me, a nobody from school who happened to make a handful of new female friends and knocked down some bully in the cafeteria. I wasn't the prom king, the school quarterback or even the spelling champ... I was just a guy. And yet, here I was, in the middle of a trap.




The first place I focused on was Oleg's eyes.


"Seriously?" I asked him. He shook his head and shrugged.


"Hey man, I had no idea. I was just passing off a message."


It figures. Part of me wanted to yell at Oleg as I didn't exactly believe he had no idea of what was happening. The other part of me wasn't surprised at Oleg being used as a message boy. I sighed heavily while turning my attention back to Steve.


"So then," I said. "What do you have in store for me?"


Steve shook his head before stamping out his cigarette.


"Not me, man. He's on his way right now."




It wasn't long after that I heard the crunching of gravel from footsteps nearby. Jason had arrived.


"There you are, you little punk-bitch!" he shouted, announcing his arrival.


His his hand, he held a hockey stick, like that was supposed to intimidate me. Furthering the threatening display, he was flanked by his two goons just as he was last time. The same ones that did a whole nothing and even laughed at him as he got knocked down. Jason laughed as he took a good look at the scene that had already been unfolded before him. Seemed he had me cornered. Yet, at the same time, I stood there with my arms folded across my chest. I had a rather unimpressed look on my face.


"You ready now, little boy?" he said as he neared me. "I'm gonna beat your ass down, bitch."


"I really wouldn't try," I replied with a shake of my head, smirking confidently. "I dropped you once already."


"You just got lucky, you little shit!" he angrily shouted, posturing as though to intimidate me. "I'll make you sorry for putting your hands on my property."


I narrowed my eyes. I absolutely hated that he insisted on calling Nora that.


"She's not your 'property,' you idiot!" I shot back. "Leave her out of this. And, leave me alone, unless you want to get hurt again."


"You shut your fucking mouth, faggot!"


My spite for him swirled up all over again. He was all bark and no bite. He loved to run his mouth and somehow thought that made him tough. The only thing it made him was easy to counter.


I then asked, "Nora wasn't calling me a 'faggot' when she was making out with me, now was she?"


That was enough to send him over the edge. He came charging at me with an angry yell, his eyes bloodshot with rage.


My head was buzzing wildly, all of my senses sent into overdrive. I found myself moving quickly and reacting out of sheer instinct. I didn't need to freeze time again to fight him—all I needed was the well-timed, sharp kick that I sent straight between his legs.




And, just like that, the 'fight' was over. Jason dropped his hockey stick as he doubled over with his hands stuffed between his thighs. He groaned, sounding like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. I kept my unblinking eyes on him, studying his painful writhing carefully. I'd been there before–it hurts. That's exactly why I did it to him.


"I told you you were gonna get hurt," I replied as I stood over him. The adrenaline in me began to fade, my senses returning to normal again.


He shot a large wad of spit from his mouth as he shouted, "F-Fuck you!"


"Well," I replied as I kicked his hockey stick over to him, "at least your other little stick is still intact."


There was nothing else that needed to be said or done. I frowned as I turned away and began to walk off with my hands in my pockets, leaving Jason fondling his bruised jewels on the ground behind me. The shocked circle of guys parted out of my way, allowing me to leave as they all stared incredulously at me.


"Holy shit," one of them said.


"That kid's a fucking badass," another remarked.


"Who is he?" a third asked.


"I don't remember seeing him like this...," Oleg chimed in. I then turned the corner and left their sight.




Back home, I sighed heavily as I collapsed on my bed. I peered over at the table clock, seeing that it was a little before ten. I then blankly stared at my popcorn ceiling and just thought. I had plenty of time to think on the way home, but I was too agitated during the walk to bother with thinking. Being back home, in my bed, I was more at peace. I placed a hand on my chest, my fingers rhythmically tapping on my ribs.


I really didn't feel good or bad about what had transpired—I was just indifferent. On the one hand, I had finally made it pretty clear that I wasn't someone that Jason was able to mess with anymore. I didn't feel cocky about it either, since there was no point. I beat him in a fight - so what? Who cares? The whole point was to defend myself and get him off my back. The only thing I really cared about was getting him away from Nora next. She didn't deserve a complete asshole like him for a boyfriend and, hopefully, I had become one step closer to ridding him from her life.


On the other hand, I felt a little sorry for him as well. Leaving him there on the ground, emasculated, in front of his friends must have been pretty awful. I mean, I don't know what happened to him in the past to make him such an unrepentant dick, but I can only imagine it was pretty bad. Still, his life really wasn't my concern. If there was some kind of problem in his life he needed to work out, he'd need to deal with it himself.


I yawned and stretched my arms high over my head. I felt pretty tired and so, considering I was right there in bed already, I figured I would call it a night early.




The next morning, I woke up nice and late. It always felt great to get to sleep in. I treated myself to my own breakfast and even got to eat it without having to stop time, too. Aren't the weekends great?


I headed into the bathroom, stopping for a moment to gaze in the mirror once again. My muscles had somehow become even more cut than the previous day. I was truly amazed at how toned my muscles were getting. I found myself flexing like a bodybuilder would as I admired my new look. If this was puberty, it was hitting me like a freight train. I just hoped they didn't start inflating like an air mattress or something. I didn't want to look like some juiced-up gorilla.


Once done there, I went to get dressed. As I did, I remembered the fact that Natalie said she was going to be gracing the beach with her presence. It put a smile upon my face. I wondered how good my confidence, as well as my ability and faith in myself to talk to the opposite was. Could I actually just head to the beach and charm her with my awesome power and my cool, manly physique? Well, there was always only one way to find out.


With the mere thought of her stunning body in a bikini in my head, I quickly hopped into a pair of swim trunks and sandals. However, I still had a couple of hours before Natalie and her friend were going to show. So, I decided to kill some time by playing some video games and chatting with my friends on the computer. All the while, I thought who I was sitting around in my room in a bathingsuit.


Oleg actually messaged me at one point. He reiterated the fact that he had no idea that I was being set up and also congratulated me on the "kick ass job" I did dealing with Jason. I suppose I couldn't stay bitter at him over something I couldn't really prove. I accepted the fact that he was just being the messenger and thanked him for the praise. He then kept going on and on about it, to the point where he was almost sucking up to me. It was pretty eye-rolling and so I told him I was going to head off just to end that conversation.


I disconnected and then made myself some lunch. The sun was a blazing ball of white in the sky. The wintertime along the beach wasn't typically 'winter' most of the time. There were plenty of times where the temperature rose high enough to feel like summer. As I stepped onto my balcony to get a good look outside, it certainly felt nearly that hot. But that was okay, I had always loved my home. Rolling with the daily change in the weather was just a part of life—and life was certainly something I wasn't able to get enough of.




A short time later, I put on some sunscreen to protect my fair skin. I was prone to burning pretty easily. I snagged a towel and threw it over my shoulder. Then, looking like a true beach bum, I headed downstairs and outside. I was greeted by the picturesque blue sky and the heat of the bright sun. I walked off the property, onto the sidewalk where a smattering of other people were also enjoying the early afternoon. I made my way across the street, always being safe and looking both ways before I crossed, to the outskirts of the new park just outside the beach.


I smiled as I walked past families and friends resting on the grass, enjoying their lunch, playing Frisbee and having a good time all to the sound of children's laughter in the background. The park was a new introduction, but already a very popular one. The flocks of tourists and residents alike all loved the idea of having a grassy little 'oasis' from the beach right there within walking distance from the sand.


Soon, I was on the very edge of the sprawling beach's sandy walkway. There were a lot of people out. It really didn't surprise me in the least, being that it was the middle of a Saturday. The sea breeze was as pungent as it was going to get as my feet casually strode upon the soft sand. Living on the beach, the shifting earth beneath me was like second nature at that point. I could never tire of it.


I made my way north, keeping my eyes peeled amongst the masses for any bodacious bodies. And, while there were quite a few, none were quite as bodacious as the young lady whom I was searching for.


After a few minutes, I began to wonder if it was even going to be possible to find her. There was so much area to comb and so many people lining every square foot of sandy rental space.


"Holy crap!" a voice exclaimed from nearby. I was surprised I heard it over the noise of countless people talking, the wind and the ocean waves. I turned my head and there Natalie was, right there, like she'd just been in front of my nose the whole time. "You're the guy from my Biology class!" she added.


My mouth spread into a huge grin. Looked like she was the one ended up finding me.