Chapter 9
Third period had gone relatively easy after the morning with the Principal. Derek reminded me of why exactly I'd liked him so much in the first lifetime with his antics whenever Mr. Taysom, the World History teacher, turned his back to us. Between the facial expressions, and the cartoon drawings he made in his notebook, I was hard-pressed to not bust out laughing. Besides being the class-clown, Derek was also the brightest of my classmates, and I knew he'd be getting an 'A' in this course even though he barely listened to the lecture on what we'd be doing throughout the year.
Fourth period, my P.E. class with the high school students was another story altogether. I got frowns from Mr. Crutchley as I entered the small locker room on the far side of the gym. His office was just to the left as I came in, and had two large windows that let him observe the main locker area. About forty lockers were arranged in a u-shape starting with the right-side wall, and there were two columns of lockers forming rows in the middle area. To the far right, on the opposite end from the entrance was a room with the toilets and urinals. Directly in front of me at the far end were the showers, and just after the office on the left was a small room with a whirlpool for sports injuries. It was exactly as I remembered it, right down to the musty smell of teenage sweat, just as was Mr. Crutchley's scowl as he came out of his office and loomed over me.
"What are you doing here?" The large, bearish man demanded. He was tall, over six feet, built like a large-bore cannon with a square face, steely gray hair, and extremely broad shoulders. He had a slight gut that seemed harder than any well-toned six-pack abdomen. He was wearing a Maroon light-weather jacket, and a brown sweater and frowned at me very sternly.
"Principal Bitner scheduled me for P.E. this period." I said firmlystated, meeting his gaze firmly, but without defiance or anger. He took the schedule slip and looked at it with a deep as his frown deepened.
"This is a high school class." Crutchley stated matter-of-factly. "A kid like you is likely to get hurt when we play dodge ball."
"We'll have to see, won't we, Mr. Crutchley?" I asked and he stared at me before breaking out in laughter.
"Okay, go take locker forty-three." He ordered. "You bring some workout clothes and a lock?"
"Yes, I did, Mr. Crutchley." I answered, being careful not to say 'sir'. He was an enlisted man in Vietnam and didn't like being called 'sir'. Like many in that war he had bad memories of stupid young hero-seekers who were wore the gold bars of junior officers on their shoulders.
"Then get moving!" Crutchley barked and I scooted down to find the locker he'd assigned. I was surprised to find Scott Raines, who I'd met on my first day in this area, getting dressed next to the locker. On the other side of me was a kid I barely recognized from my first life timelifetime as Henry Walker. Both boys were equally geeky in that they were tall and extremely skinny, although Scott had the added curse of thick glasses.
"Hey." Scott said in recognition as I opened up the locker and my backpack. I'd gotten my sweats out of the hall locker before coming here. They weren't the same pair I'd run in that morning. Those were still on the base, but these were a pair of green sweatpants and a gold sweatshirt, the school colors. I also took out my jock and a clean pair of socks as well as the gym shoes before stuffing the bag in the locker. I couldn't very well keep it with me during gym, but the remote call device was quickly stowed in the front pocket of my hooded sweat shirt. Despite the head start Scott enjoyed, I was dressed and heading outside before he was, mostly because he was dragging his feet with dread of the class. Sure, I'd already worked out once today, but this second workout would not be as intense, and it would help build up my stamina and overall fitness.
"Okay boys and girls, today we're going to do physical assessments." Crutchley ordered after we'd lined up in two rows. With the girls and boys, the class totaled eighteen, and was by far and away, the largest class size of the school. Most classes had between eight and twelve students. "Let's start with some warm-ups. Fifty jumping jacks, on my mark…go."
Crutchley took us through a basic, and comprehensive warm-up routine before starting us on push-ups. There were ten guys in the class, and the push-ups quickly became a contest between the athletically-built seniors, of which there were four. Scott and Henry both quit after a mere twenty. Another two of the larger juniors or seniors quit after fifty. Jared Darnell, Mike Anthony, and Tony Connors were all seniors on the basketball team, and the 'school jocks'. I'd never met them in my last lifetime, but their legend had lived on and I was able to identify who they must be from comments some of the other students were making as they gave up on push-ups. The three thought they were still in the contest with just themselves, and so called out enthusiastically to the others. Tony gave up after eighty-three, Mike continued on to ninety-one, and Jared, the ringleader, continued on to a hundred before stopping. He was breathing heavily, but had a pleased grin on his face until Crutchley just nodded at him and moved to stand in front of me. The girl who'd been counting for me, a sophomore named Jenna was staring at me with wide eyes as she continued to count.
"One hundred and four, one hundred and five…" She continued counting as I pushed out the one hundred and tenth push-up before collapsing.
"Not bad, Mr. Jones." Crutchley commented and I could see Jared Darnell's face going red with fury.
"Sorry, Coach, but I've already worked out once this morning or I'd be able to get another thirty or forty." I said with a shrug, doing my best not to look smugly at Jared Darnell. I remembered horror stories from Scott Raines in the last lifetime of how much of a bully the guy was.
"He must be cheating!" Darnell roared.
"Okay, sit-ups!" Crutchley ordered, totally ignoring the outburst by his star basketball player.
I counted for Jenna until she stopped at forty and then it was my turn. I noticed that Darnell didn't start his until I was going, and he was carefully matching me one for one on each sit-up. His light-brown curly hair bobbed every time he came up, and he glared at me with barely controlled fury. I knew I shouldn't rise to the challenge, but I did, and kept on going long after my gut started to ache.
"One hundred and eighty." Jenna said in a squeaky voice as I collapsed onto the gym floor and hugged my aching gut. Darnell had collapsed at one hundred and seventy-five, and I'd completed the last five just to rub it in that a twelve-year old was kicking his ass again.
"Okay, start running laps!" Crutchley roared at the top of his lungs, and I struggled to my feet. After taking a few deep breaths, I joined the rest of the class, carefully staying behind Jared Darnell and his cronies. I knew better than to get close to them and let them try to push me or trip me. The look on his face, the set of his shoulders, all told me that he had planned something like that. When he slowed down, I slowed down, when he sped up, I sped up, and he grew more and more frustrated as we continued our laps. Finally he gave up, and took off at a near sprint. I matched his pace, although my guts were threatening to heave with from all the sit-ups, and my arms still quivered slightly from the push-ups. Twenty minutes later, Crutchley called a halt to the running and told us to hit the showers. The lunch bell would be ringing in ten minutes, so time to shower and change was limited.
"Shit, how'd you do all that?" Scott asked me in a near whisper as we entered the locker room just in front of Jared Darnell and his gang.
"Lots of practice, Scott." I answered the older, geeky boy. "I work out every day, and that's how I can do that."
"Oh." Scott said weakly while his friend Henry just smiled at me. I reached my locker, opened the combination lock and pulled out my towel before stripping down. I'd just thrown the sweatshirt in the locker when I felt someone looming behind me. Carefully I turned around and had to look up into Jared Darnell's blue eyes. They were glaring at me intently.
"Think you're smart, do you?" He demanded in a harsh, angry voice.
"I am smart, and I'm in shape." I taunted him, even though I shouldn't. "It's not my fault you're not as smart or in shape."
"What did you say, shrimp?" Darnell demanded as he loomed a little more.
"Go ahead, try something." I said with a quirky smile. I wasn't thinking rationally, just reacting, and didn't care about any consequences. The fact that I hated bullies wasn't something I ever tried to hide, and this guy had it coming.
"Coach." One of Darnell's buddies hissed in warning and Darnell moved away. I turned back to my locker and started changing, somewhat upset that the fight had been spoiled.
"Jones, a word with you." Coach Crutchley said as I walked by with my towel and shower gear in hand. The rest of my stuff was locked back in my locker.
"Yes, Coach?" I queried with a tilt to my head.
"You play any sports?" He asked me with a frown, and a hopeful gleam in his eye.
"Football, baseball, and some track are sports I've played in the past." I said carefully, and his frown grew.
"What about basketball?" Crutchley demanded and I saw where he was going.
"Coach, if you can teach me to dribble the damn ball I'll play basketball too." I answered and he nodded gruffly.
"I've got two years before you're eligible to play on the high school team." Crutchley explained carefully, sealing an agreement between us. I'd be one of 'his' boys, on his team, so long as he taught me to dribble a damn basketball. In two lifetimes, I'd barely managed to dribble and not trip on my feet, so maybe the third would be the charm in that department. As the Coach moved back to his office, I jumped into the shower and turned on a shower head quickly. There was less than five minutes till lunch now, and I was definitely hungry. I had barely a second warning as the air pressure changed behind me with someone coming up.
"Oomph!" Jared Darnell moaned as his push body hit nothing but the wall. That second of warning was all I needed to step to my right, moving out of the way. He'd planned to slam me into the wall, and instead hit it head-first himself. Not letting him get his bearings, I kicked the back of his knees and sent him to the ground.
"It's not nice to attack someone from behind." I said in a light voice as he lay on his back, staring up at me through squinting eyes. With that, I put my foot against his side and pushed him across the room over towards his buddies. Everyone in the shower was staring as he got back to his feet.
"That's not fair!" Jared Darnell shouted and I actually laughed aloud while rinsing off.
"Yeah, you shouldn't attack a guy from behind his back." I agreed with him and actually smiled as his bare feet slapped against the ground when he charged me again. This time I grabbed his wrist as he swung, spun around and into him and then threw him over my shoulder. He hit the ground with a sickening crack, and there was a slight trickle of red flowing from the back of his head and into the drain. "You should know I'm quite good at martial arts."
"What the fuck's going on here?" Crutchley demanded from the entryway. I ignored him for a second while I leaned over and checked the back of Darnell's head. He had a shallow cut, but nothing serious. I hid my grin when he flinched as my hand had gone to the back of his head.
"Darnell slipped on the soap." I said loudly in answer to the question. Crutchley stared at me for a moment and I just smiled back at him.
"Well, after all the times other people have slipped on the soap it's about damn time." Crutchley mumbled loudly, and everyone's eyes went wide as the man turned on his heels and left the room. I stood up, washed my hands off, turned off the spray, and left to dry off on the mat just outside the showers.
"Holy fuck." Henry, Scott's friend, whispered while I dried off and Darnell's two friends helped him to his feet. "Where'd you learn that?"
"I don't like bullies." I stated as an answer and the two older boys just exchanged looks over my head. Suddenly With that, I was dry enough and went to my locker, unlocked it, and got my regular clothes out. Three minutes later I was meeting up with Derek, Julie, Tammy, Erica, Bill, Tom, and Jhanica in the eating area. They all had excited smiles on their faces when I approached them, still scowling slightly.
"Is it true?" Bill Oliver demanded with an excited look.
"Is what true?" I shot back sharply. Maybe I was too sharp because he suddenly looked slightly afraid.
"Did you really kick Jared's ass in push-ups and sit-ups, and then throw him to the ground in the showers?" Derek demanded in a rush.
"How did you hear about that?" I demanded in horror. "It only happened a few minutes ago."
"Tom Bailes came running out about two minutes ago and was telling everyone." Tammy said with a smile while Derek and Bill slapped each other's hands in a high-five.
"That is so cool." Julie said with a smile and shudder. "He's an asshole."
"Dad is going to be so pissed." Tom Killmer said softly and I stared at him for a moment before realizing that it was his father who had driven me to school that morning.
"Don't worry, he'll kick my ass later this week when we spar." I told him and he smiled.
"He's always trying to get me to learn from him but I hate that stuff." Tom said softly and now he was the object of stares from our classmates.
"What does your dad do?" Derek asked cautiously.
"He's in Special Operations." Tom said in a very small voice.
"What's that?" Bill asked with a frown.
"It's kind of like Army Rangers." I said with a shrug. "So, what are we doing for lunch?"
"You fight with Army Rangers?" Tammy said in a surprised voice.
"No, he spars and works out with Air Force Special Ops." Tom said in a proud voice and I had to smile at him. "I brought my lunch from home, what about you guys?"
"Let's dump the bag lunch and go to the Eureka Café." I said, referring to one of the restaurants down in town.
"I don't have any money." Julie said with a frown.
"It's on me today." I said firmly, deciding I wanted to get off the school grounds. "We've got forty-five minutes left so we better hurry."
"If you're buying, sure." Bill said with a shrug and we took off as a group down the hill. It Like much of the town, it was a steep climb down the hill, like much of the town, and we made it there in ten minutes. Except for a few older men in some of the booths, the place was pretty much deserted. Harry Han, a Chinese-American whose family had run the restaurant for fifty years quickly came to us with a smile and seated us at the largest table in the place. Aware of the time we had, we all ordered quickly and he scurried off to get the kitchen going. His wife was working back there today, and he joined her in preparing the hamburgers and fries most of us ordered. I'd ordered some garlic chicken and chow mein. With the sole exception of a restaurant in Modesto, he had the absolute best garlic chicken in the world.
Most of the kids who ate out for lunch went to the Owl Club, across Main Street from the Eureka Café. I preferred eating here, though, and hoped I'd be able to hook my fellow classmates on it as well. While we were slightly rushed in eating, it was a fun afternoon astime. I fielded questions on where I'd learned to fight like I had, and I made up a story about studying it in California.
After eating the food that Mr. Han served in as rapid a manner as possible, I paid the bill and we left at an almost-run up the hill. I did have to make a bathroom stop before we left, and used that opportunity to call Major Kowalski and tell him to wait a half-hour before picking me up. The first bell ending lunch had just sounded as we entered the building, and we were all breathless from the run. The road leading up to the school had a six-percent grade and was not easy to run up. Only Tom and Jhanica had any real problems though, mostly because they weren't use to the altitude yet.
"Jones, get in my office now!" Principal Bitner's voice rang through the hall and I could feel the eyes of my year mates on me. I just shrugged and headed into the man's office, where he sat behind his desk and glared at me before finally speaking. "What happened in the shower room?"
"Darnell slipped and fell." I said with a shrug of my shoulders, and the man's bald head was turning a bright red.
"You're just lucky no one else will tell me anything different." Bitner growled. "I even called Darnell in here and he just said that he slipped. I know better, even if no one will tell me the truth. You just be careful because I'm not going to hesitate to throw you out if I find you've been fighting."
"Anything else, sir?" I asked, ignoring his speech. "I don't want to be late for Mr. Luce's math class."
"Get out of my office." Bitner growled and I hid the smile I felt until I was out of his office. When I entered Mr. Luce's classroom though, he wasn't smiling. He was sitting at his desk, looking at papers that resembled my test from earlier today. As I entered, he looked up, frowned, and then pointed to a desk right across from his own.
"Davey, what level of math do you think you're capable of doing?" Mr. Luce asked me with a deep frown and I had to debate exactly how to handle this situation. If Bitner hadn't really pissed me off this morning, my plan was to show algebra ability, but no more.
"Calculus." I answered after a minute of thought. It was true, really, and I ignored the look of surprise on Mr. Luce's face. I'd passed Calculus in the last lifetime, and gone on past that, but that had been years ago from my perspective, and a Calculus review now would be helpful. Mr. Luce nodded after a moment, rummaged around in a desk drawer until he pulled out a Calculus book. Then he got up and came over to put it on my desk.
"Open it to the first chapter and let's go over the material." Mr. Luce said firmly. I did as he requested, and by the time the period was up we'd covered the first two chapters and he'd given me about forty problems as homework.
After my one-on-one math session, it was time for Home Economics. Mrs. Grayson was a matronly woman in her early fifties, and quite warm in her teaching style. There were ten students in the class, all women except for the twins David and Sam. The twins were eighth graders, tall for their age, and slender in build. I remembered them from that verythe first lifetime as well, mostly because I'd jacked off a lot while thinking about them. They were sports fanatics, and I was surprised to see them in the class. As luck would have it, I got seated right between them.
"Hey, you're the new preacher's kid, aren't you?" David, the twin on my left asked. They were hard to tell apart, especially since they both wore braces and had the same hairstyle, but David's chin was slightly narrower than his twin's, and I remembered that he smiled a lot more.
"Yeah." I whispered back to him while Mrs. Grayson was writing the semester's goals and projects on the board. We were supposed to be copying them down, and I was, but there were plenty of other kids whispering as well.
"That was so cool what you did to Darnell in the showers." Sam, the one on my right whispered with one of his rarer smiles. That smile warned me that my body was just entering puberty, because I was instantly hard as a rock.
"He just slipped and fell." I repeated what was going to be a refrain, but the smiles on their faces told me they knew otherwise. When they smiled like that, there was almost no telling them apart.
"Crutchley said you were going to play basketball but needed some help." David whispered next. "We're pretty good, so we'll help out if you can find time after school. Do you ride the bus?"
"No, I get a ride." I answered honestly. My brain switched off at that moment and I had no control over my next words. "I'll make sure I find time to practice with y'all."
"Sounds good." Sam stated with a smaller smile this time, just as Mrs. Grayson turned around and started talking again. This was another example to me of the differences between this small-town school and bigger city schools. Most of us had been whispering to each other while her back was turned, but as soon as she started talking, the room was silent. It was a politeness, a respect, for the teacher that was far too uncommon even in the 1980's from bigger schools.
The last class of the day was Natural Sciences, with Mrs. Luce. It was a watered-down version of chemistry and every student in my grade-year was in the class. The room was horse-shoe shaped with 'work' stations that could hold four people. Everyone else was already there, but Derek has had saved me a seat at the table with him, Julie, and Tammy. He had a bright smile on his face as I took the proffered seat and looked around the room. It seemed the east valley kids decided the new Air Force kids were a better risk than the Duckwater kids and had sat with them. Bill and Erica had taken seats with one of the Duckwater students, and the last two took a table of their own.
Mrs. Luce started the class as soon as the bell rang. She was a thin woman, with brown hair, an aquiline face, and a constant smile. Her attire reminded me of a slightly hippy style, something very out of sync with the rest of the community. A vague memory told me that she and her husband had chosen to not have children because of over-population, and had picked a small school in rural Nevada because they felt they could be more effective at teaching when they had fewer students.
While Julie and Tammy hung on nearly every word the woman said, Derek and I managed to pass notes back and forth. He started with a question about what happened in the Principal's office, and then moved on to my class with Mr. Luce and Home Ec. When I mentioned what Sam and David had said about the after school after-school tutoring in basketball, he frowned and wrote back that he'd be there too. For a moment, I thought he might be jealous but put it out of my mind quickly.
He was only twelve, for God's sake.
After the class was over, and we'd put away the new science books in our locker, the four of us went across the hall to Mr. Luce's classroom. He had a bunch of forms for us to take home about our new positions and our responsibilities. We were supposed to read them over, have our parent sign them, and bring them back by the end of the week. Poor Derek would have to go to the student council meetings as our class representative. If he couldn't make it, Tammy would have to go in his place. I had to meet with Mrs. Hampton to set up our grade-year account and any financial deposits would always go through her. I would also have to set up an account book that she'd give me, and keep track of it throughout the year, making monthly reports to our class.
"Do any of you have any thoughts about our first fund-raiser?" Mr. Luce asked. "The sooner we get started the sooner we'll be able to relax. The first class to announce their plans for fundraisers has priority. None of the other classes can copy them without their permission."
"How about a bake sale?" Julie asked, starting with the predictable.
"Too predictable." Derek countered, and added a smile when Julie frowned.
"I wonder how many people here own VCRs." I stated under my breath as an idea began to form. When everyone looked at me, I realized they'd heard the comment.
"We do." Julie said quickly and Derek nodded his head in agreement.
"A lot of people do." Tammy said with a sigh. "Television reception sucks. Everyone in town's always trading tapes whenever someone comes back from Elko or Ely with new ones."
"What about if we buy a whole bunch and rent them out?" I asked with a broader smile and I could see the wheels turning in their heads.
"It'd be expensive to get the tapes to start out with." Mr. Luce said cautiously. "There was talk in town last spring of opening a store, but no one had the capital to put up for renting a storefront or buying all the tapes that would be needed. Plus, there are only a few hundred people in town or in the valleys with tape machines. Then, there is the fact that while most people have the VCR, but some do have the Betamax."
"We don't need a storefront." I countered first. "We can rotate through the class on sitting in the dining area during lunch to rent out tapes and take them back. Maybe charge four bucks a tape for um, three days, and charge a late fee of maybe two bucks a day if they're not back on time. We can rent to the parents through the kids."
"We'd still have to spend a couple thousand dollars on tapes to get some in supply, and we'd have to be careful on what we picked." Mr. Luce stated.
"I can probably arrange a no-interest loan for the initial purchase." I said calmly. My 'spending' money wasn't nearly as plentiful as it had been before the move here, but I could still pull out four or five grand for this. It would have to be the last major purchase I made, though. "We'd have to make monthly payments to return the money, but we can tie it to the profits, say twenty percent of our proceeds. If we make a hundred bucks, we'd pay back twenty."
"That would take forever to pay off." Derek said with a frown.
"Well, I imagine we'd make more than that, especially as the costs go down for the machines each year." I countered. "With the latest trends in the pricing, they'll be half the cost in two years."
"I'd like to talk to whoever would be putting up the money for this." Mr. Luce said carefully, but he was nodding. "I think it would be a good idea, though. We'll have to limit rentals to students and staff though, and get signed commitments that if they lost a tape they'd be responsible for paying the full cost. Those things are expensive, around sixty or seventy bucks a tape."
"We should also keep notes on requests for new titles." Tammy spoke up excitedly. "If we do that, we will know what movies to order when the current selection gets old. At seventy bucks a tape, we have to rent each one at least fifteen times to break even. Can we do that?"
"I think we can." I said with a smile. "We'll order a few copies of each of the popular movies, and then fewer copies of the less popular movies. Then we can track what goes out, and how often. If we keep careful track of the tape rental trends, we can make more than enough to pay back the initial loan, and make a lot of money. With a lot of workreal commitment to this, we could even skip all the crap fundraisers, just do this, and end up with enough money to send all of us to Australia for our Senior Trip."
"Okay, so is this what we want to do? " Mr. Luce asked and everyone nodded. I leaned back with a satisfied smile. "Okay, y'all can go, except I want to talk to Davey briefly."
"So, what do you want, Mr. Luce?" I asked when the other kids had left. Mr. Luce was running his hand through his thick, dark hair and frowning at me.
"Who is going to be putting up the money for this?" He asked me directly and I decided not to lie.
"I will." I said with a shrug. "I've got a good-sized savings account. I don't want them to know that though. If they enquire, I'd like them to think it was my parents or something like that."
"Are you sure you can afford this?" Mr. Luce asked me and I just grinned. "Okay, any ideas on how we get the movies?"
"I'll find a distributor from Reno or somewhere and go from there." I answered. "You will need to do the actual negotiations with them, but I'll do the preliminary work, if that's okay with you."
"Run everything by me before you get too involved." Mr. Luce directed and I nodded at his words. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Have a good day." I told him before leaving the classroom. My first stop was my locker, where I got some books and put them in my ever-present book bag before heading towards the front of the school. Derek and the others were walking out the front doors as I left the classroom area, and Major Kowalski was waiting in the dining area with a sour look on his face.
"You ready to go?" He asked curtly and I nodded before following out to the Air Force sedan he had waiting. I got in the front seat as he got behind the wheel and headed out of town. He was quiet until we passed the rodeo grounds on the hill just west of town along Highway 50. "I hear you had an interesting first day."
"Yeah, well, you know about Bitner and his dislike of me already." I stated flatly, hoping that was it, but his sharp glance at me told me he was also referring to the incident in the shower room. "Darnell's a school bully who thought he could get away with picking on me. He didn't."
"You have to be careful about that." Kowalski informed me sternly, and that matter was dropped with the single rebuke. "Washington is asking for more information on this AIDS epidemic. A plane delivered a packet with questions for you to answer. I delivered it to your father and he's put it in your home office."
"I'll get to it right away." I said softly. "There's one good thing about that. This time around I'm a lot more prepared for that. I can even give them the chemical structures of the drugs that help with it, as well as details on how to detect it in blood samples."
"That's more than I need to know." Kowalski's voice held a trace of disgust and I gave him a sharp look before letting it slide. "There's also a packet from the Navy on point-defense technologies that they need as soon as possible. They'll send a plane to pick it up as soon as you're done, that's how important it is."
"Okay, I'll work on that too." I told him and he nodded. There wasn't much more discussion as we continued on towards home. He didn't even get out after we'd pulled up to the house, just nodded farewell and pulled out as soon as I was out of the car. No one was home when I entered (the door was unlocked, as most houses were in this area), so I headed downstairs after getting a glass of water. My office had a cipher lock that I punched my access code into before the door opened. The packets Kowalski had mentioned were already on my desk, and I read through them while the computer booted up, synced up with the satellite connection, and connected to the military network. More information began to download and I let out a sigh as more inquiries came in on different military systems.
Luckily I remembered my promise to Mr. Luce before getting too far into the work, and went back upstairs to make some phone calls. Information gave me the number to a distributorship in Reno and I spent thirty minutes talking to them. After giving them the school's address, and Mr. Luce's name as a contact, for them to send a packet to, I called up my bank in Elko and arranged for a cashier's check to be sent down. Then it was back downstairs for more government work.
I stopped for dinner, when Mom yelled out into the basement that it was time to come up. She'd cooked spaghetti, and the main dinner conversation was the 'fight' that everyone in town was talking about. Dad and her Mom both looked at me sternly as I explained he was trying to bully me, and I got off with nothing but a stern warning before going back downstairs. Jenny had just snickered at me throughout dinner.
Luckily, the first day of school didn't result in a lot of homework. In fact, the only homework I had was from Mr. Luce on Calculus, and I did it when I got tired of answering questions about the problems associated with the lack of jamming equipment on frigates, destroyers, and many cruisers. By nine that night, I was extremely exhausted, and pushed on with the government work for another hour before going to bed.
The alarm went off at five in the morning, and I began the morning routine that would carry me through the school year. A quick breakfast was consumed mostly on my feet as I took a shower, got dressed in sweats, packed up the information packets I'd already completed for Major Kowalski, and my homework, and several changes of clothes. It was a good thing that I did my own laundry, because I was going through several changes of clothes each day this way. At 0600, the Air Force Spec Ops people were coming up on to the house. Dad didn't join us today, mostly because he'd decided to drop down to a three-day a week workout. Still, I was warmed up and ready by the time they got there, and it was an hour run down to the end of Seventh Street, and back to the base. At 0720, I had handed the completed packets over to Major Kowalski, discussed today's schedule with him, and gotten into the car, this time with Sergeant Baker, another member of the squad, for the drive to school. We got there fifteen minutes before school started, and I went to Homeroom and found Mr. Luce already waiting. I discussed the phone calls from last night with him and he seemed pleased that I'd made the calls already, as well as with the information I'd gotten for him.
Darnell tried to give me some trouble during P.E., but Crutchley intervened each time. Other than some smarmy comments, and glares, from him and his cronies, they tried nothing more than tripping me. At the end of the day, Derek and Tammy joined David and Sam in trying to teach me to dribble the basketball. They actually spent more time laughing at me than helping me.
It was during homeroom of the third day that Mr. Luce discussed our 'fundraising' plan for the year. Most of the class had already heard about it from us during class, and was very enthusiastic about the idea. They were slightly less enthusiastic about the no discount rule for our class members. If we were going to make a profit, we needed all the revenue we could get.
The third day of school brought another conflict with Jared Darnell, this time at the instigation of Mr. Crutchley. We were doing wrestling for P.E., and the teacher picked me to wrestle with Darnell. The older kid had about five inches, and fifty pounds advantage on me, and saw this as his chance to get his revenge for the first day of school shower incident.
Brian and I had wrestled a lot over our lifetime together, not just during junior high. It was something we enjoyed, and the body contact often was foreplay for us. With Darnell, there was no foreplay aspect, just a struggle to use my smaller size and quickness to counteract his advantages. By the end of the third round, he'd won on points, but had not managed to pin me. He smirked at the victory, and was cheered by his cronies, but when he looked at me there was a grudging respect there.
That was more than enough for me.
On Friday, there was a student council meeting where we presented our fundraising plans. The upper classmen immediately objected, wanting to do it themselves once they heard the idea, but Dr. Bitner showed that he did have some integrity when he enforced the school rule that the first class to bring up an idea got dibs on that idea.
As time passed by, I grew more and more comfortable with my new life. I missed Brian a lot, especially at night, but I knew that his younger self was out there, and would almost certainly be there in a few years. Over and over again I explored my reasons for not trying to claim him as my boyfriend, and over and over again I reasoned that I'd made the right choice.
The last time around, we'd met, become friends, and boyfriends, through no overt intentions on my part. Brian had initiated our relationship, not me. By the time the government became aware of me, and through me of my relationship with him, it was an established fact. I knew that many people had been uncomfortable with my 'adult' self in a young body having a lover who was still a child. However, breaking us up would have caused more problems than it would have solved because of our commitment to each other.
This time, the government knew about me before a relationship with Brian had existed. I could have tried to start one, to push it, but Brian did not go to the same grammar school or do anything that would have easily put us together. In order to get together with him, I'd have had to wait to begin the call to the government, and then later had to explain why I waited or lie in official meetings or correspondence, something I was not inclined to do for my own gratification. By waiting until he was a little older, fifteen at least, the older age would make things a little easier to deal with as far as the government was concerned.
I had no doubt that once we got to know each other again, he'd fall in love with me. We were meant to be together, as proven by our strong relationship in the last lifetime. The first life where we'd been separatedgrown up separate had been tough on both of us, and we were less well off than we'd been in the second lifetime.
Life without him wasn't awful, or absolutely lonely. Derek, Julie, and Tammy were proving to be friends as strong as Brandon, Trevor, and Sean had been in my last lifetime. I was also developing other friends as well beyond that small group. Tom Killmer from my year group was a smart kid, often challenging Derek and I on grades, but far less athletic. Still, the three of us made a good team combination on the debate team challenges. David and Sam, the twins from my Home Economics class and Eighth graders were also proving to be good friends as they tried their best to improve my basketball skills.
If they hadn't been so cute, or my body entering the first throes of puberty, it might have been easier. Even sSeeing them in their shorts and tank tops often sent the hormones raging, and the showers after our afternoon workouts made it even worse. Luckily, I didn't quite bone up every time, but that was mostly thanks to the fact that I kept the shower on the cold side.
The military/government side of my life stayed mostly separate from my daily life as well. I filled out so many questionnaires, answered so many questions over the phone, and even met people face to face over the weekends at the base, or at the Fallon NAS that I quickly grew bored. The lack of progress in finding the Chinese time traveler was growing more and more frustrating, and I ranted at the CIA a few times for their lack of progress in getting more photos of their secretive leadership.
All in all, though, life in Eureka Nevada was proving to be pretty damn good.
As with all my stories, E provides immeasurable input, grammar checking, and all those other lovely editing thingies that make the story so much better!
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