Pinochle
by: E Walk

(© 2007 by the Author)
Editor: Will B
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 56
What Wound You Up?

This is Beau.

When Brian came in from running, he announced, “I decided to drop out of school.  I don’t want to go to high school and I don’t want to play football.”

Becca looked at him, “You will go to high school and what you do about football is your business.  Just think, it might provide you some inspirations for your macabre art works.”

Becca turned her attention to Lauren, “I want you to come home as soon as school is over today so you can go get your driver’s license.  Your Dad and I shouldn’t be driving you three people around all the time.  We need some time to relax, especially since your father won’t be able to drive for two more weeks at least.”

Brian looked at his Mother, “Mom, what wound you up?  What did we do wrong?”

I held up my hand, “Your Mother is still upset about what happened at the school board meeting last night.  I agree that Lauren needs to get her driver’s license as soon as possible, now that Ben isn’t going to be available to chauffeur you people anymore.  Your Mother and I will still need to travel and Grandmother Gleason shouldn’t be responsible for carting you around.”

Brian went to get ready for school.  When he came down, I thought to myself, ‘I hope that Lady Victoria appreciates how handsome Brian is.’  I can hardly wait to meet the young lady who has captivated our youngest son’s fancy.  I am so proud of Brian for being able to accept Ben’s sexual preferences.  Grant is such a neat young man.  We lucked out all the way around.’

After breakfast was finished, Brian did the cleanup and we loaded into Becca’s van and drove the children to their schools.  As Brian was crawling out of the van, he announced, “I’ll be home late this afternoon, Chris and I are going to get a birthday present for Chase.  Becca pulled out her debit card, “Here, get something from us too.  You probably have a better idea of what he might like than we do.”

This is Brian.

I looked at my schedule and realized that I didn’t have any study halls.  I guess that was because I had chosen to take both art and graphics design.

They wouldn’t let me take any advanced placement courses, since I was only a freshman.

The first class was English composition and the class was entitled, Creative Writing.  The teacher was a young man who didn’t look as old as Ben and Grant.  He was really quite good looking.  There was something about him.  His name was Mr. Peters.  My mind was thinking overtime.  ’I wonder if he has a friend named Mr. Cox?’

Before class was over, he had assigned us to write a story of 5000 words or more.  He explained, “If you do it on a computer that will be approximately 20 pages.  You can write about anything that you want.  You will be asked to share it with the class.”

The second period was biology.  When I looked around, I hardly knew  anyone.  There was one girl with whom had I had gone to grade school so I went and sat down by her, since the seats were in pairs, so I guessed we would be working as partners.  “Hi Lindsay;  may I sit with you?  I think you and I might be the only two freshman in this class.”

Lindsay looked at me, “I was beginning to feel outnumbered until you came and sat down.”

The instructor was a Mr. Bolton and he explained the course outline and told us that we would be graded on the notebooks and reports that we would keep as a team.  There would be two tests, one at the middle of the term and the second at the end of the term.  I guess that wasn’t going to be too bad.

The next class was Algebra I.  Chris was already seated when I arrived and I went to sit by him.  He was a whiz in math so at least there will be someone I can call for help.

The fourth hour was Modern American Government.  I looked around when I entered the classroom and I didn’t know anybody.  It seemed like most of the class was upper-class persons.  I went and sat down on the front row which was empty.  Another good looking dude came and sat down next, “Hi Benson, I thought you graduated?”

I looked at the guy, “My brother Ben did graduate.  I’m Brian.”  It was funny, people started to move to the seats on either side of us.  The guy stuck out his hand, “Hi Brian, I’m John Waters.  Good to meet you.”

The conversation was interrupted by the teacher, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen.  My name is Henry Cox.  You will be working in pairs to prepare your presentations and papers.  You will be tested over the materials that I lecture on and your papers and presentations.  I’ll give you five minutes to find a partner.”

John turned to me, “Okay partner, now what do we do?”

My mouth must have been open, John looked at me and asked, “Brian, so do you have a problem with being my partner?”

I shook my head no, “John, you do realize that I’m just a freshman.  I know I should know who you are, but I can’t place you.  Why would you want me to be your partner?”

“Look Brian, I’m the quarterback of the football team and the senior class president.  The coach told me to be nice to you, so you would play football.”

“John, I would be pleased to work as your partner in class.”

Mr. Cox was discussing the outline for the class when the bell rang signifying the end of the period.  There was a mad rush to the door.  I gathered my things and went to Mr. Cox’s desk, “Sir, I’m Brian Benson; do you happen to know Mr. Peters in the English department?”

Mr. Cox went white.  He finally looked up, “Mr. Waters, I’d like to speak with Mr. Benson in private.”

I hadn’t realized that John had followed me.  He went and stood by the door.  Mr. Cox looked at me, “Brian, why did you ask that question?  Do you know something you aren’t saying?”

“No sir, I was just asking because I’m going to London over Labor Day weekend to stay with my two Uncles who just happen to have the last name of Cox and Peters.  I have an art show then.  Sir, I could care less if you and Mr. Peters are friends.”

John yelled, “Come on Brian, I’m starved.”

I looked at Mr. Cox, “Sir, I’ll visit with you later.  I could care less what you do in your private life.”

John walked me to the cafeteria and we got our food and he led us to an empty table.  I think he wanted to talk.  That wasn’t going to happen.  We were joined almost immediately by a group of upper-class persons.  One of them challenged John, “Hey, Jock, what are you doing associating with a freshman?”

John shot back, “Look, I’ll sit with whom I please.  Brian and I are going to be working as a team for one of my classes, if you must know.”

Lauren came by, “Hey Bri, I just received a message from Derek.  He said to say hi and to tell you that his stomach was black an blue from the rocket you threw him yesterday.  See you later.”

The rest of our table got very quiet.  One of the young ladies looked at me, “So you’re another Benson?”

Fortunately the bell rang and we took our utensils and trays to the window.  My next class was art.  I had taken lessons from Ms. Kinloch for several years, so I think she was surprised to see me in the class.  “Brian, why are you here?  You could be teaching this class.”

I smiled, “I figured I needed to have at least one fun class.  Besides, I just might be able to learn something from some of the other class members.”

Class started and Ms. Kinloch started her introductory spiel, “We’ll be exploring all media, to include charcoals, pastels, water colors and oils.”

I thought to myself as she was talking, I hate water colors.  She caught my attention though when she said,  “I need someone to volunteer to be a model for tomorrow’s class.  I would like for the person to wear as few clothes as possible so we can capture the full details of a human body.”

I looked around and no one volunteered, so I raised my hand, “Ms. Kinloch.  I’ll do it, but I won’t do it naked.”

She looked at me, “Brian, wear what you feel comfortable with as long as it  isn’t too obscene.”

Class ended and I walked to my next class which was a course in graphics design and nothing strange happened.  I went to my last class of the day which was Spanish I.  Now you have to understand that our Dad had insisted that we learn Spanish almost as soon as we could talk English, so I was rather fluent.

When I walked into the classroom John, Lindsay and Chris were sitting in the room.  We moved so we could sit in a cluster  I guess I should have known that I was in trouble.  The teacher rushed in, “I’m sorry I’m late.  My name is Senora Castellano.  How many people here can speak a little Spanish?  I raised my hand as did two Mexican Americans whom I recognized.

Ms. Castellano started to speak in Castilian Spanish. I had all I could take, “Ma’am, what you are talking may be the formal language of Spain 200 years ago.  I’m sure that if Diego and Maria went home talking like that, their parents would think they were talking Greek or Latin.  I’m sorry ma’am, but I, for one, do not choose to study something that will never do me any good.”

I stood to leave and the lady turned beet red and rushed out of the classroom.  John stood, “I guess we are free to go.”  John took Chris and me to the locker room.  He got us fitted with pads and practice jerseys.  We went to the practice field and were throwing the football to each other waiting for the other team members to arrive.  We were approached by someone I didn’t know,  “Mr. Benson, Mr. Waters and Mr. Jameson, you are wanted in the principal’s office now.”

John yelled, “Coach, we’re wanted in the office.”

The coach yelled back  “Brian and Chris, you need to have sports physicals.”

Chris and I looked at each other and started to laugh, Chris spoke for the two of us, “No problem, Coach, we’ll get Dr. Tommy to give us our physicals and we won’t even have to pay for them.”

We went to Principal Grover’s office dressed in our practice uniforms.  I was surprised to see Lindsay, Diego and Maria sitting there along with several other students who had been in the Spanish class.

Dr. Grover came out of his office with Senora Castellano and directed us into the conference room.  As soon as we were seated, Dr. Grover started, “Mr. Benson, Mrs. Castellano tells me that you were quite obnoxious today in her class.”

“Dr. Grover, if this is about me, then why are all of these other people here?  For you information, Dr. Grover, I may have been a little disrespectful, but I have every right to decide what electives I want to take, and I don’t elect to learn something that would not be beneficial to me.  The language that Mrs. Castellano was speaking today was from one small region in Spain and she wasn’t even doing a good job of talking that.”

“I thought when I signed up for the class, we would be concentrating on learning to read and write in Spanish, rather than only learning to speak one dialect.  I’m rather sure that Diego and Maria might have been looking for the same thing, since they both can speak Spanish fluently also.”

Diego surprised me, “What Brian said is true.  If Maria and I went home talking like Senora Castellano was speaking, our parents would laugh at us.”

John was laughing, “Dr. Grover, I must disagree with Brian, I don’t think he was disrespectful at all.  He simply stood and said, and I quote, ‘I for one do not choose to study anything that will never do me any good.’  It was Mrs. Castellano who left the room, and I suggested that the rest of us leave also.”

The principal looked at me, “Mr. Benson, you’re suspended.  You need to be here in the morning at 7:00 o’clock with your parents and you had better have a letter of apology ready for Mrs. Castellano.  As for the rest of you, you are on probation for leaving the classroom without being dismissed.  You will not be able to participate in any school activities until further notice.  Yes, that includes you Mr. Waters.”

I looked at Dr. Grover, “Sir, this is not meant to be disrespectful, but I think you just made a big, big mistake.”

We stopped by the practice field and told the coach what happened and he left immediately.

As we were walking back to the locker room, I looked at Chris, “Chris, let’s take a quick shower, then we need to go get a birthday gift for Chase, do you suppose your Mother could take us?  My Mother is taking Lauren to get her driver’s license.”

“I’ll call her when we get to the locker room.”

John climbed into the shower with Chris and me which I thought was rather odd.  As we were getting dressed, John said, “I’ll take you to get the gift.  Call whoever was going to pick you up and tell them that a responsible senior will bring you home.”

I looked at John, “Do I know this responsible senior?  Is that like senior citizen or a senior in high school?”

Chris called his Mother and told her that we had a ride. but would be home for dinner.

John drove us to the art supply store and we got what I thought we should get for Chase and then he drove us to the Toy Shoppe and Timmy was there taking care of Poker, John walked in with us.  Timmy met us. “Brian, look, Poker is growing down here.  See how his pants are bulging.”

I diverted everyone’s attention, “Timmy, Chris and I have been invited to a birthday party for a seven year old.  What do you think he would like?”

Timmy looked around the store, “Why don’t you get him a model that isn’t too hard to put together.”  Timmy went and climbed a ladder, “This one should be just right.  He has to be patient, but it’s a beautiful model.  I have one in my bedroom.”

I paid for the model and as we were walking back to the car, John’s cell rang.

He answered, “This is John, what can I do for you?  Okay Reverend Waite, I’ll be there as soon as I can drop my friends off.”

We dropped Chris off and as John dropped me off, he smiled, “Hope to see you tomorrow, Brian.”

I went into the house and no one was there, so I looked to see what mother had put on the menu for dinner.  We were scheduled to have Swiss steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans and a salad.  I was busy fixing the dinner when Lauren came in.

I looked at her and asked, “So, are you legal now or do you need to go back to driver’s education classes?”

Lauren looked at me, “I’m legal now.  I’ll go change and come and help with dinner.”

Morgan came in and announced, “I’m not going to take anymore piano lessons.  It’s not fun anymore.”

I didn’t get a chance to answer her because the phone started to ring.  I answered and recognized Ben’s cell number.  “Hey Ben what’s up? … Oh so J.R. loved the Chicago Art Institute? … What do you mean, you're jealous because Grant got four propositions and you only got three? … What about J.R.? … Oh, he had so many that he lost count. … Oh, nothing much happened today except I’ve been suspended from school.  I had a little run in with the Spanish teacher.  Wait until Dad and Mother find out that we have been ordered to appear before the asshole Dr. Grover tomorrow morning at seven o’clock in the morning. … Hey, enjoy the Cubs game and if one of you needs to go to the bathroom, you all need to go. I’ll tell Dad and Mother that you called.”

I hadn’t heard Dad and Mother come in.  Mother started, “Brian, what do you mean you were suspended.  What did you do that was so bad?”

I looked at my parents,  “Relax, I didn’t actually do anything really bad.  I’ll tell you what happened at dinner, which is going to be in five minutes.  Now get ready.

As I was putting things on the table, I was wondering how my parents would react when I told them what had happened.  I probably will be grounded forever and not even be permitted to go to London.

To be continued...

 Feedback always welcome:     

Will’s comments:  He’s done it again.  Ended the chapter at a point where we will just have to wait for the next one, and … I … do … not … like … Waiting for another chapter in a story as good as this one!  Will B (as in will be anxiously waiting for the next installment!)

Darryl's Notes: Somehow, I have the distinct feeling that Brian won't be in trouble with Beau and Becca.  Brian was simply being pragmatic.  He may not have been particularly polite to the Spanish Teacher, but he was not out of line in telling her that he was not interested in taking that course. It was, after all, an elective course, and people drop out of courses all the time, so his explaining why he was going to drop out was certainly not out of line. He might have been a bit gentler about the way he told her, but I don't see how that should have caused him to be suspended.

Knowing Beau and Becca the way I do, I am sure they will not take this lying down. I think that the principal has bitten off more than he will be able to chew.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 09/26/08