A new kid named Neil Daniels had moved in this summer. He was a tall gangly kid who didn’t talk to us much. He would kind of grunt once in a while but when we tried to see if he wanted to play he would just walk off.
We all thought he was a strange bird and wondered if he had something wrong in the head. He always wore black clothes. No matter how hot it was outside he would have on long black pants and a black shirt with some weird saying on it.
“What do you think about that guy?” Tommy asked one day.
“Definitely a weird-o,” Eric replied.
“Total looser,” I added.
“I think he has a screw lose,” Tommy threw in.
We went on having our usual summer fun until it was just about time for school to start up. Tommy, Eric and I were just goofing around and Susie was in her front yard doing something dorky with Tammy when a dog came running out of Neil’s yard and headed straight for Susie and Tammy.
We all jumped up and started yelling but it was too late. The dog lunged at Susie and grabbed her by the arm and started shaking his jaws. She was screaming and crying but the dog would not let go.
Tommy and I took off and ran across the street and started hitting the dog to try to get it to let her loose, but it held on tight. Finally in desperation I kicked the dog in the rear as hard as I could. It yelped and let go. It started toward me but Tommy hit it in the nose with his fist and the dog took off back across the street.
We looked over and saw that Neil was just standing there watching the whole thing. He had never once tried to get the dog off Susie. Susie was crying and holding her arm. Blood was running down it and I could see a deep gash in the upper part of her arm.
Tommy ran and banged on the door of her house until her Mother finally came out. She was wrapped in a robe. Evidently she had been in the shower when all of this was going on. She just about freaked out and she grabbed Susie and rushed her in the house.
“Man, that was crazy,” Eric said.
“More than crazy. Insane,” Tommy added.
“Scared me to death,” I confessed.
“You really nailed him when you kicked him. That’s what made him let go,” Tommy told me.
“Yeah but you saved me when he started after me by punching him in the nose.”
“Poor Susie. Man he really took a chunk out of her,” Eric told us.
“What was that all about? Where did that dog come from?”
“Neil’s yard? I didn’t even know they had a dog,” Tommy said.
“Me either,” I replied.
“Obviously he does. So how did it get out and why didn’t he try to stop it from attacking Susie? I mean he just stood there with a stupid grin on his face,” Eric told us.
“A grin?” Tommy asked.
“I swear. He was grinning until Warren kicked the dog in the rear.”
“Man, that is one sick dude,” Tommy said, shaking his head.
A few minutes later we saw Susie’s mom back the car out and take off down the street.
“Probably taking her to the Emergency Room,” Eric said.
**
So there we stood waiting for the school bus to come. This time there were all kinds of kids ranging from sixth to eight grade waiting to crowd on the bus. When the doors opened the big kids just shoved us out of the way and piled on. They sprawled out all over the bus and we had to take whatever was left over. To them we didn’t exist except as a minor inconvenience. They couldn’t seem to talk. They had to shout everything they said. I honestly don’t know how the bus driver could concentrate with all the noise.
I looked back once and Neil was just staring at me. Now what? I decided just to ignore him. He could look all he wanted to as far as I was concerned. When we got to the school it was just like when we got on. The bigger kids just ran over us getting off the bus. I was actually kind of glad when we got to our homeroom.
Ms. Carrington had seat assignments ready for us and naturally Susie sat right behind me.
“Your arm okay?” I asked as I sat down.
“I had to get stitches. Thank you for getting him off me,” she said softly.
“Hey, no big deal,” I replied, secretly glad that she knew I was the one who got him to let go.
“Well thanks anyway,” She said.
Ms. Carrington called attendance and I answered to Warren. The rest of the day was pretty much routine. A strange Math teacher allowed me to answer to War. It didn’t seem to bother him. We had a Science teacher who had probably gone without sufficient oxygen to his brain for too long at one time. Talk about weird. And a English teacher that I was sure was going to turn out to be a Grammar Nazi. Maybe Ms. Carrington wasn’t so bad after all.
Lunch turned out to be pizza today. I guess it was pizza. It looked like it but whatever they put on top was like tomato soup and the meat was some kind of rubber. I swear you could bounce it. What a yucky meal.
When the day was over we all filed out to the busses. We were allowed to board five minutes before the big kids so we actually got to sit where we wanted. All of a sudden a bunch of screaming zombies came rushing onboard, shoving and pushing. They were talking as loudly as they could. I saw Neil walk by then stop.
He leaned over and said, “When we get off the bus I am going to pound you into the ground,” and walked on back a few seats and sat down.
That’s just great. I was never going to live out the first full day of school. Well at least I didn’t have any homework yet so I guess I should be thankful for that.
It was the longest ride of my life. Finally we turned the corner to our street. The bus had no more than stopped when I bolted for the front; I shoved on the door, jumped out, and took off as fast as my legs would carry me. I never looked back even though I could hear Neil yelling about how he was going to tear me limb from limb. I made it to the house and just stood on the porch as he finally walked on by.
He shook his finger at me and yelled, “Tomorrow you die.”
**
This went on every school day for the first two weeks. I finally made sure I sat in the front seat and that Tommy and Eric were right behind me so they could hold him up long enough for me to get a good start.
After two weeks I was getting pretty good at running with my backpack loaded down. The door would open, I would swing out, land on my feet and take off while Tommy and Eric would step into the isle and hold him up for a bit.
It was okay on the weekends because he never came out of his house. I don’t know what he did all day but it was probably something like eating the heads off of dead rats or something equally disgusting.
And then came that fateful third week. I didn’t realize it but somehow he had managed to get just across from Eric and Tommy. When the bus stopped he shoved them back in the seat and came out right after me. I had taken no more than ten steps when I felt his hand grab my backpack and start to yank me back. I tried to slip it off and keep on running but my arm was caught and he swung me around and threw me to the ground.
Before I could even get my hands up he started hitting me. It didn’t really hurt all that much but I was scared and trying to fight him off. I tried to roll out from under him but he was stronger and was sitting on my chest. I bucked up as hard as I could and to my surprise, suddenly he just disappeared off of me. I sat up and saw that Tommy was standing over him glaring at him.
“If you want to fight War that’s fine but you are going to do it fair. None of this throwing him down and jumping on him. It will be a fair fight or you are going to have to whip all three of us.
By now a crowd had gathered and were starting to yell, ‘Fight, fight, fight’.
Neil stood up and looked at Tommy. He was a good head taller and had longer arms but something about the look in Tommy’s eyes stopped him.
“I don’t need to fight no stupid sixth grader,” he said and walked off.
Tommy helped me to my feet, got my backpack, and helped me put it on.
“You’ve got a bloody nose an
d I think you are going to have a black eye,” he said.
“Yikes Tommy, I can’t believe you did that.”
“Look War, you can’t let someone bully you like that. Either you stand up to them or go tell someone about it. You should have told your parents or your teacher and had them put a stop to it. You can’t always outrun a bully. That’s what keeps them going. The best thing anyone can do is tell an adult when something like this happens. Your parents are going to want to know what happened. Tell them the truth. Let them know what’s been going on. They will know the best way to handle it.”
“You think he will try this again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe not, but who knows? The guy is a nutcase as far as I am concerned.”
“Yeah I guess you are right. I doubt my mom will just let it go. Not my mom.”
“Just be glad she won’t,” he replied.
EIGHT
Light speed
Even though Neil glared at me every time he got the chance he was no longer chasing me. I think it was a combination of things. My dad having a conversation with his dad, Tommy standing up to him, and who knows what else. All I know is I didn’t have to fear for my life every afternoon.
One thing I did continue to do was run home as fast as I could as soon as I got off the bus. I started timing myself to see if I could break my own record. By the sixth week I was getting pretty good at sprinting the three hundred or so yards from the bus stop to the house. My times came tumbling down each day.
It was about that time that I found out they were going to have track tryouts at the school. Our middle school didn’t have a track or football field but we were right next to the high school so we could use theirs at scheduled times.
“You going to try out?” Tommy asked.
“I don’t know. I might.”
“Hey, what can you lose? You try out and if you don’t make it, big deal.”
“I just don’t want to look like a dork.”
“You already look like a dork so you might as well try out,” Tommy assured me.
“Gee thanks.”
“Always glad to help,” he said smiling.
“Are you going to try out?”
“Doing what? I don’t like to run. I sure can’t high jump so what could I really do?”
“Watch the cheerleaders?”
“You dweeb, they don’t have cheerleaders at track meets. So are you going to do it or not?”
“I guess so. I have until tomorrow to decide,” I told him.
“Now don’t chicken out. Come on, I’ll go with you and you can sign up. Waiting isn’t going to do anything but give you a chance to ‘forget’,” he said using his fingers as quotation marks.
“Okay. I guess,” I said.
We walked down to the gym and there were a bunch of guys signing in at a table. I realized right away they were all definitely older than me. Most were seventh and eighth graders. They seemed pretty sure of themselves.
“What are you here for twerp. You looking for the cheerleader tryouts?” a big kid asked me.
“Track team. So I can whip guys like you,” I said.
“Ha. I love it. A runt like you? You think you can beat me? Man I got to say one thing, you have spunk. I could probably beat you running backwards.”
“I guess we will just have to see,” I said and the next thing you know I was signing up.
“What are you going to put down?” Tommy whispered.
“I guess the hundred and two-twenty yard dash. I don’t know what the other stuff is.”
“Don’t get too carried away. Just put down those two.”
I checked the boxes for the one hundred and two-twenty yard dash. Once I was done we were directed to go sit on the bleachers and wait for the coach. Finally Tommy had to go. I asked him to stop by and let my mom know where I was so she wouldn’t worry. I was all alone and the only one that didn’t know a single other person.
Finally one kid came and sat down by me.
“You’re new.”
“Yeah. This is my first time to sign up for anything.”
“That’s cool. What do you want to do?”
“One hundred and two-twenty.”
“Man those are super competitive. I run the longer distances because no one else wants to run them. They all want to go out and get it over with quickly. I will probably have only two others trying out. You on the other hand will have a dozen or more. Especially the hundred. Everyone wants to run that one.”
“Oh, I’m War,” I said.
“War? That’s kind of an unusual name,” he said looking at me.
“Well it’s what I go by. I don’t like my real name so much,” I told him.
“I understand. I’m Toby Jenkins. I just go by TJ,” he told me.
“Okay TJ. What happens next?”
“The coach will come out and get everyone organized. We will be given running shoes and shorts and then head out to the track. He usually makes us run a few laps and do some stretching exercises then he will have everyone in each event in groups and they will do race offs. He usually keeps the fastest five guys in the shorter events and two or three in the longer events. If you make the cut, you get a locker, new track shoes and a complete set of running gear, including warm up clothes.”
“Wow. That is so cool.”
“Don’t get too excited, you have to make the cut first,” he warned me.
“Got it.”
**
The coach was a no-nonsense type of guy. I never saw him smile once when he was talking to us. We were handed a pair of track shoes and shorts and then taken out to the track.
It sure looked a lot further to the end than when I was just walking past it.
“Okay, no horsing around. We have a lot of work to do. My assistant will take the infield guys and get started with them. I want the sprinters to take three laps around the track and report back here.
Like a fool I took off immediately and when I looked back I saw everyone else just jogging. What a blockhead. They were conserving energy and I was burning it up. I slowed down and jogged the three laps like everyone else.
“Okay. The first group. When I call your name go to the starting blocks, adjust them, and get ready. Don’t take all day.”
Fortunately I wasn’t in the first group so I had a chance to watch what they were doing. There seemed to put a lot of effort into getting the blocks just right but I didn’t see what difference it really made.
Pretty soon they were all ready to go. The coach held up his starting gun and ‘BANG’, they were off. Man they were really moving. What was I doing? Was I crazy? Those guys would eat me alive.
“Lane four War,” he stopped and looked around, “War? Is that your name?” he said as I started up.
“Yes sir.”
“War? That is some name. Well okay, lane four,” he said shaking his head.
I walked over to the starting blocks and put my feet in them. It felt really weird.
The coach came over and said, “Do you know how to use them?”
“Not really sir but it doesn’t matter all that much.”
“Okay then. Do the best you can.”
Soon we were all lined up and ready to go.
“Runners take your mark. BANG.”
The others exploded out of the blocks and I could see them all go by. I took off after them and was soon catching up. I kept telling myself, ‘Neil is behind you, Neil is behind you. Run for it.’
I couldn’t believe it. I was actually the first to cross the finish line. I wasn’t even tired but I was nervous. What would all these big guys think? Would I now have to outrun them going home too?”
Pretty soon the coach came up to me.
“War what the heck did you do?”
“Sir?”
“Do you know who was in that group?”
“No sir.”
“Jonny Johnson. He was our fastest runner last year. I can’t believe you beat him after starting off the way you did. You
lost a ton of time. I need to work with you on using those blocks to your advantage.”
“Really? You mean I did okay?”
“Son, you set the fastest time of the day.”
Talk about shocked. The fastest time. I stood there with my mouth open and several guys came by and patted me on the back.
“Way to go kid.”
“Nice job War.”
“What grade are you in?”
“You have some serious speed,” TJ said coming up to me.
“Thanks TJ. It sure shocked me.”
“I’m sure the coach told you. You need to learn how to use the blocks. They left you in the dust. Good thing you have a rocket booster or you would never have caught them.
I wasn’t quite as fast in the two-twenty dash. I did manage to come in second but the guy who beat me had these long legs and seemed to take one step for every two of mine.
NINE
FLASH
I seemed to get better and better at track. I won the first three meets in the hundred and was first once and second twice in the two-twenty. Man I was feeling pretty cool. The seventh and eighth graders didn’t seem to mind being around me and actually spoke to me. Some that weren’t even on the track team, especially other jocks, would talk to me. I was like a celebrity or something.
They all just called me War except for the guys on the track team. They called me Flash most of the time. It was all pretty cool until the coach told me he wanted me to run on one of the relay teams.
Man, I had watched those guys and was amazed at how they could pass the baton and never miss a stride. I didn’t know if I was up to such a thing. I mean, it’s one thing if I lost because of something I did or wasn’t fast enough but to let a whole team down was totally different.
“Coach I don’t know about that. I have never done anything like that.”
“Nothing to it. I’m going to have the guys in the four by one hundred work with you today. They will get you all straightened out in no time. All you have to do is take it in your hand and get going.”
The three others that were going to make up the team had worked together for two years and now this dumb sixth grader was suddenly going to be thrust upon them. I had a bad feeling about this.
Trouble On Exeter Street Page 3
