A Second Chance, Part IV -- A New Beginning
By: Radio Rancher
(©  2007 by the author and creator, Tickie)
 
The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...
  

Chapter 10

The three boys had returned to school after spring break, and had spent a great deal of time preparing for what they knew would be the last tests they would be taking for high school.  All three of them were exceptionally bright, and they all had the ability to retain, almost perfectly, anything they learned.

None of the three of them had ever missed more than one or two questions on a quiz or a test, all through their school years.  This was, in part, because they actually took the time to read their assigned study material, but it was also because, once they learned something, the fact or opinion would remain with them permanently.  The only problem that any of them ever had was when two or more textbooks or other written material gave different or conflicting information concerning the same subject.

 After one such situation, the previous year, when Johnny got a test back with his answer marked incorrect,  he raised his hand and asked his teacher, Mr. Simpson, "Sir, I am sure that, from what I read in my history class, from what the information that was given on page 351, halfway through the second paragraph said, that what I wrote on the test has to be the right answer."

Mr. Simpson excused himself, and went to the library to retrieve the book that Johnny had mentioned.  He opened the book to page 351, and sure enough, in the second paragraph, the statement clearly agreed with Johnny's answer.  He soon returned carrying the history book.

"It would seem that the author of this history book and the author of our social studies book disagree completely on this topic. Under normal circumstances, I would simply go by the book which we have been studying in this class, however, the other opinion certainly does have merit, and since you did site your source for your answer, and I must admit you did so very precisely, I will give you full credit for it. I will also give credit to the other two students who gave me similar answers, today. 

This does present me with somewhat of a problem, however, since I have given basically this same test for several years, and this question has, in fact, been answered several times, the way you have just answered it, and sadly, you are the first student to bother to back up your claim as to its correctness. I am going to place a notice in the school paper and on the bulletin boards around the campus, for anyone who has taken this class and has had his or her grade reduced because of getting this question wrong,  They will need to come to me and defend their answer.  I will amend their grade to reflect getting this answer correctly, if they can simply show me the source of their answer. I will not require them to site the page number, but they will have to tell me where they got the information. Please remember, all of you, that tests are given for the express purpose of finding out what you have learned from reading the material I assign you to read and also by what you learn from my lectures, and not just for the sake of the grades you might receive.  Therefore, I will consider that all of you are honour bound by your word, that you will not pass the substantiating information about the second answer to anyone else who is not currently sitting in this classroom. Do I make myself clear?"  Everyone nodded.

Johnny was daydreaming. It was almost time for him to go see his guidance councilor, Peter Jones.

Peter had been hired by the school on the recommendation of the Andersens, shortly after he had graduated from college.   Since he and the boys knew each other very well, from all the time that Peter had spent on the ranch over the intervening years, It was only natural that he would be assigned to council the boys and Grace.  Johnny was remembering something from the first Saturday after he had come to the Lazy L...

******Saturday of The weekend after Johnny was brought home to the Lazy L******

Johnny and the twins were sitting in the living room talking when the doorbell rang. It was almost time for lunch and the boys, of course, were quite hungry. What a surprise that was. Colt came through the living room and answered the door. "Come in Peter, It's good to see you, will you join us for lunch? It is almost ready."

"Thank you very much, I would love to, especially if it isn't Pizza."

"The boys are in the living room; why don't you go on in and join them while I tell Julie that we have another hungry mouth to feed," Cole chuckled as he headed toward the kitchen.

Peter entered the living room and looked around. "This place is beautiful, Guys," he managed to get out, before he was practically thrown down on the nearest couch by the three giggling Munchkins. "I guess you're not too disappointed to have me show up here, huh?"

"Don't be silly, Peter, We're really glad you came over," Mark enthused, "Did you bring us Pizza?" they chorused.

"Not this time," Peter explained,  "I didn't even think of doing that. Today is my day off, and I just wanted to get over here so we could visit. Oh by the way,  Colt said that lunch was almost ready, so you guys should probably go wash up. He asked me to stay for lunch too." They all headed toward the nearest bathroom, and washed up for lunch. As they were entering the living room again, Julie came in from the dining room. "Lunch is ready, are your hands clean?"

"Yes, Grandma Julie, they all chorused,

along with Peter saying, "Yes Ma'am."

"Okay, then, lunch is ready in the dining room, so hurry in there." Julie chuckled as she quickly sidestepped the stampeding mob of boys and men who seemed to magically appear at the mention of food. There was, as usual, a huge mountain of food prepared. There were the makings of deli style sandwiches; everything from corn beef to tuna salad, plus all the toppings anyone could want. There was a huge salad with all the different sprinkles imaginable to cover it with. There was Macaroni salad and two kinds of potato salad along with cottage cheese and various fruit slices to top it with. There was also a huge cheese cake sitting there to be served for dessert.

Everyone ate till they were almost full to bursting. 

"How are things going with you, Peter?" Colt asked.

"Well, I aced two tests this week, and I only missed one question on another one. The only reason I got that one wrong was that I used two different sources to look up the information in, and they had given two different explanations for the same event, Well, wouldn't you know it, I picked the wrong one. It's weird because one text was my history book and the other one was a social studies book. Right now, I can't remember which one I used, but I guess Murphy was in full control of things, 'cause I sure enough picked the wrong one." 

******Johnny comes back from his daydream******

"Johnny! Come on; we gotta get to the counselor's office. Peter is waiting for us." Mark startled Johnny out of his musings.

Johnny looked up to see Mark, Luke and Grace standing in the doorway, grinning at him. He got up and walked over to the others, and they all joined in a huge group hug. They left the room, closed the door behind them, 

When they got to Peter's office he was waiting for them. "Hi, Folks, I would have said Hi guys but now that we have Grace as part of the group, that just wouldn't be fair, would it?  Have you been thinking about what you are going to do after you graduate?"

"We are all going to take a few courses at the local community college, so we can start working on the ranch and still get more education." Grace said, smiling. "We want to make sure that we will have all the tools we'll need to do what ever is necessary when we have to deal with the world at large."

"You Know, I am very proud of all of you, for thinking ahead and making decisions that will impact the rest of your lives." 

To Be Continued...

Feedback always welcome:     

Author's note:

I'm sorry this is such a short chapter, but the next one will be longer. I was asked by several people what happened to Peter?  Well, I thought it would be a good idea to bring out that information. It was my fault, because I brought him into the story for a reason, and then I got distracted by other events, and somehow left him sitting around with nothing to do.  I read the chapter where he first came into the story, and for the life of me, I can't remember what he originally was going to do, but since we met him, and he said he was going to be around, I figured I needed to make sure he had a place to be. I hope this little episode will help set the scene for some more stuff later. I am getting really close to ending book four and once we finish it, Tickie is going to bring us book five, and you really want to be here for that, I also have some plans for a few stand alone stories involving some of the people in this story, so you won't be left wondering what happened to so and so. There will be one or two chapters yet to come in book four which I should have for you in a couple of weeks. I hope you have enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. And I hope you will follow along with book five when Tickie writes it as well. The people in this story are very important to both Tickie and me and they have become part of the family. We really do care about them. Let us know what you think.

See you next time.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher 

Tickie's note:

Darryl – another fine chapter here, and I see we are in for some real fun.

Thanks again for all your wonderful words in Part IV.  I hope when I continue Part V, it will be as well received as the first part of the story.

Posted: 03/14/08