by Bob Blanton
“Then why bother? There are plenty of good-looking babes at school.”
“She’s …… just special.” Matthew was at a loss for words to describe how he felt about Emily. “I didn’t pick her, it just happened. I can’t get her out of my head.”
“I can relate to that; I have the same problem with women in general.”
“I’m sure you don’t have any problems,” Matthew rolled his eyes at the thought. Jason wasn’t much taller than Matthew, but he had good looks and a breezy air of self-confidence around him that made everyone like him.
“Women can be tough, but I usually do just fine. But, when you set your heart on a particular woman, you’re really taking a risk.”
“Tell me about it,” Matthew threw his suitcase on the bed by the door. “We’d better get unpacked.”
“Okay,” Jason tossed his suitcase onto the other bed.
Matthew opened his suitcase, “You know I’m hoping she’ll get to know me a little before the end of summer.”
“You’d think so. There are only sixteen of us on this trip. I suspect she’ll know your name before it’s over.”
“I hope so. I should have a growth spurt this summer, so by fall, I should be taller than she is. That’s when I’ll make my move.”
“What move?”
“I don’t know,” Matthew said. “But I hacked into the school computers and set it up, so we have the same classes next year.”
“That’s a good start. Hey, can you access whatever files you want?” Jason wiggled his eyebrows.
“Sure, but I’m not changing any grades.”
“Just thinking. Which classes?”
“Almost all of them: European History II, Political Science, Advanced Novels, French III, and Chemistry. With all those, there should be some times where we need to share assignments or do homework together. That way we’ll get to know each other.”
“Nice plan,” Jason sat down on the bed, not bothering to put his clothes away.
“I wanted to take tennis lessons, but we can’t afford it, so that’s out.”
“Oh right, she’s on the tennis team.”
“Yeah, she was the JV team captain last year.” Matthew continued to unpack, and noticing that Jason wasn’t bothering with his suitcase, he asked, “Aren’t you going to unpack?”
Jason pulled his shaving kit out of his open suitcase. Then he simply took the suitcase over to the closet and set it down on the bench still opened.
“Nah, why bother. I packed easy wearing stuff. I’ll just pull out what I need.”
“Whatever,” Matthew continued to hang his clothes up in the closet.
“Hey Matt, you can come over to my house. I’ll get my mom to teach you.”
“What?” Matthew looked at Jason, confused.
“Tennis, I’ll get my mom to teach you how to play.”
“No thanks,” Matthew didn’t want to offend Jason after such a generous offer. “I really want to learn from a pro, so I get the details correct from the start.”
“Perfect, my mom’s a pro. She played on the pro circuit for four years before she married my dad. She was even ranked 50th in the world one year.”
“Wow, that’s neat. Did she win any big tournaments?”
“She won several tournaments but no Grand Slams. She did make it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon one year. Anyway, she taught my sister and me to play and she can beat most men.”
“That sounds great, but why would she want to teach me?”
“Because I’ll ask her. She’s always on my case about practicing. She’ll view it as an investment in getting me to exercise more and work on my game.”
“Thanks, but only if she really wants to,” Matthew hoped it would work out. It’d give him another thing in common with Emily, and he needed all the help he could get.
“Hey, why didn’t you put yourself in the same Math class as Emily? Since you’re such a whiz, you could help her out. I hear she’s big on keeping her GPA up.”
“I know. We’re the only two in our class with perfect GPAs, but I can’t, I’m taking Calculus next year.”
“Oh, that’s right. You were in Pre-Calculus this year already. How’d that happen?”
“When they had me skip the fourth grade, they put me into fifth grade math.”
“That must have been cool.”
“Not really, they were just pushing me ahead of my friends.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Jason furrowed his brow. “That would really bite.”
“Yeah, so I quit acing all the tests. I don’t know if I could’ve skipped ahead any further, but I did know that I didn’t want to.”
“But wouldn’t it be cool to be in college? Think of all the women and the parties,” Jason started doing a little dance step.
“Right,” Matthew scoffed, “It’s already hard enough being in classes with kids a couple of years older than me,” Matthew groaned. “What chance would I have in college at my age?”
“I guess that makes sense. But man, you’ve got some huevos going for Emily Stevenson,” Jason let out a low whistle.
“Enough about me,” Matthew threw a pillow at Jason. “What about you? Who do you have your eye on?”
“Nobody in particular, I only started at Pacific Coast in January,” Jason said.
“Yeah, I remember when you showed up. Why’d you guys move?”
“Well, we were living on Long Island when my dad got this great offer to run a venture capital firm out here. With all the new gene research going on in San Diego, there are a lot of startups. So he and Mom pulled us out of school between semesters and moved us here.”
“Well, San Diego has to be lots nicer than New York. You must freeze all winter in New York.”
“It’s not that bad, and that’s where all my friends are,” Jason punched the pillow that Matthew had thrown at him. Then he threw it back at Matthew. “And my dad’s family is all on the East Coast, too.”
“Yeah, my dad’s family is from Connecticut and my mom’s family is from Seattle, long distance either way. It’s tough being so far away from them.”
“Yes it is. My mom’s folks live in Italy; Mom and Brea left to visit them right after school let out. We only see them in the summer. I’m going to miss going this year since I’m on this trip. We haven’t seen my dad’s folks since we moved to San Diego. We used to go visit them at least once a month.”
“Can’t they come out and visit you?”
“They’re pretty old and don’t like to travel.”
“What about vacations?”
“Oh, we’ll go home for Christmas, and stop by on our way to Italy in the summer. But that still leaves us out of touch.”
“You could always Skype.”
“We do, but it’s not the same as being there. Too much pressure to think of something to say.”
“What about a girlfriend?”
“I wasn’t dating anyone in particular, but I never had to look for someone to go out with.”
“That must have been nice.”
“Sure was,” Jason said. “Hey, my sister was asking about you when she heard you were coming on the trip. She says her friends think you’re pretty hot.”
“I don’t think I know your sister. Her name’s Brea?”
“Brianna, she’ll be a freshman this year.”
“I’m not really looking to date a freshman,” Matthew finished unpacking and started getting ready for bed.
“What’s wrong with a freshman, even some seniors date freshmen?”
“I know, but they’re too silly for me. I can only handle so much giggling before I start crawling up the walls.”
“Picky, picky.”
“Enough chit chat, let’s get to sleep. I’ve got to get up early and run tomorrow.”
“It’s not even 11:00 yet and back home it’s only 3:00 in the afternoon,” Jason rolled his eyes. “We’re on vacation. Are you crazy? Why run?”
“It’ll help me adjust to the time zone.
My body is used to working out in the morning. Besides, I’ve got to keep in shape. I want to test for my black sash before the end of summer.”
“Okay, Grasshopper,” Jason said, giving Matthew a little bow. “Just for you I’ll try to get to sleep before midnight, but don’t go expecting it every night.”
Revenge
Matthew was looking for his running shoes in the dim light of the morning when he bumped into the Jason’s suitcase, almost knocking it over. Jason woke up mumbling, “Matt, what the heck are you doing clanking around?”
“I’m going for my run. Now shut up and go back to sleep.” Matthew had left the lights off in the hopes that he wouldn’t wake Jason. As he left the room, he could hear Jason breathing heavily. “Didn’t take him long,” he whispered as he closed the door.
He stopped at the front desk and asked the bell captain if he knew a good route to run. It was a good chance to try out his French in a real situation. He didn’t have any problem getting the directions so he could chalk that one up. Out the front door, to the street, turn right, go to the first path, and then just follow it to the right. It circles the estate and the adjacent vineyard, about fifteen kilometers.
“A perfect distance to loosen up after the long day yesterday,” thought Matthew. He headed out at a slow trot to warm up. After the first mile he picked up the pace, “On flat ground eight-minute miles should be good for today,” he thought. Switching his running to autopilot he turned his mind to the more pressing issue, what to do about Tyler. That jerk had pushed him around and ransacked his lunch more times than Matthew could count. Tyler assumed that because he was bigger than Matthew and a big shot at the school, he could get away with it, but Matthew was just tired of it.
“Let’s see, we could do something to his shoes so when we’re on the barge he slips and falls down. That’d make him look like the ass he is. But he might get hurt, and if they figure out I was behind it, there goes my scholarship.”
“We could get some grease or something on his pants so it looks like he messed himself. No that’d be hard to get away with. Besides, he’d just put his shirt over it or something.”
Matthew kept mulling over the different possibilities as he ran. Savoring the images of Tyler making a fool of himself, he visualized each scenario. “There has got to be a perfect way to fix him up,” he thought. “What’d be great would be something to make the other kids laugh at him, then he’d see how it feels.”
Finally, Matthew rounded the last corner to the hotel. He slowed down to an easy trot to cool off from the run. By the time he reached the hotel steps he had slowed to a walk. He collected the room key from the front desk and started up the stairs. He almost ran into Emily as they both rounded the corner to the first landing.
“Sorry, Emily,” Matthew said, “I didn’t see you.”
“No problem, Matt. Out running this morning, I see.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to keep in shape while we’re over here eating all this French food.”
“Was there an easy path to follow? I’ve got to keep in shape for tennis.”
“Sure, it’s easy, just turn right at the road, then keep turning right as you come to each path and you can go about eight miles or about half that if you cut back before the lake.” Matthew was enjoying just talking with Emily. “Want to run with me tomorrow?”
“No thanks, I’ve seen you run. I wouldn’t be able to keep up. See you later,” Emily continued down the stairs to breakfast.
“Yeah, later,” Matthew turned and continued up the stairs. He was floating on air as he thought, “She knew my name and she’s seen me run.”
When Matthew entered their room, the air was steamy from Jason’s shower. Matthew pounded on the bathroom door, “Hey in there, save some hot water for the rest of us.”
“Keep your shirt on, I’m almost done,” Jason shouted as he turned the shower off. “How was the run, any cute French runners out there?”
“No French babes,” Matthew shouted as he pulled off his damp running shirt. He did some stretching while he waited for Jason to get out of the bathroom.
“Too bad,” Jason came out in a plush white bathrobe, still drying his hair. “But at least I’ve come up with a great way to get even with Tyler.”
“How?” Matthew stared at Jason’s robe. “Did you pack that robe all the way from home?”
“No, you jerk, the hotel provides them. Didn’t you see them hanging behind the door?”
“No I didn’t. Now get out of my way. I’ve got to hurry if I’m going to make breakfast.”
“Okay, but when will I tell you about my evil plan?”
“Just tell me the gist of it now. We can discuss details at breakfast.” Matthew pulled his running shoes off and went into the bathroom.
“It’s easy. We spike his food with something to make him smell bad. That’ll make everyone avoid him. After a while, it’ll mess with his head.”
“What do we spike his food with?” Matthew asked closing the door.
“I don’t know, some vitamin or something. That’s your department. You’re the genius,” Jason said as he shouted through the door. “I’ll take it from there.”
“Great, I thought you were going to help me,” Matthew hollered back as he turned the shower on.
“I am. Just think of something to put in his food,” Jason slapped his hand on the door. “See you at breakfast.”
While Matthew shampooed his hair, he wondered what they could use to spike Tyler’s food. He thought it was a good idea, but what can they use? His mind ran through all kinds of possibilities, from the obvious like garlic to the not so obvious like vitamins. Finally he remembered an article he’d read about B vitamins and body odor. As the idea jelled in his mind, Matthew started smiling.
As he got out of the shower, Matthew stopped to admire his physique in the mirror. His brown hair was cut short and laid down on his head. He usually gelled the front into an upturned spike. He was only five eight, but he’d checked out the growth tables on the web. Based on his bone structure, he knew he’d grow to be around six-two like his father, and should be close to six feet by his next birthday. He had well-defined muscles, but no bulk on his tanned body. He knew it was hard to have any bulk at fourteen and a half years old. But he did regular weight training as well as stretching and endurance workouts to keep in shape for Kung Fu.
He’d never been in a fight at school, but he had the confidence to not back down and let others push him around. It generally worked, but Tyler was another story. The guy was almost eighteen, even though he had just finished his junior year. It had helped as far as the sports went, but it didn’t seem to help when it came to maturity. As far as Matthew was concerned, Tyler wasn’t as mature as the average freshman. For some reason, Tyler had decided to make Matthew his pet project. He was always pushing him around and calling him runt.
“Usually I can avoid him, but why did he have to go on this trip?” Matthew asked himself. Tyler’s junior year as the starting quarterback had been nearly perfect. The school had made it to the state championship game, losing on a late field goal. This year Tyler was guaranteed to start again, and the team was favored to take the state championship. “No problems for Tyler,” Matthew thought. He let out a long sigh as he finished dressing. Buttoning his shirt as he headed out of the room, he went downstairs to breakfast.
“Hey, Matt,” Jason hollered, standing up and waving at him. “Over here.”
Mrs. Jefferies glared at Jason for displaying such poor manners. Jason shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, “Sorry.” Sitting down, he continued to wave Matthew over. “Well, any ideas on what we can use?”
“Yeah, it’s called choline. It’s a B vitamin. It makes you smell like dead fish.”
“Great,” Jason rubbed his hands together with glee. “Where can we get some?”
“It’s a vitamin, so we should be able to get it in any pharmacy.”
“Good, we should get some today,” Jason polished off his last croissant.
“Fine,” Matthew used his knife to whack the top off of his boiled egg. “Too bad that’s not Tyler’s head.”
“Now don’t get all worked up. We’ll start spiking his food tonight.”
“We can put it in his drink. That should be easier.”
“Perfect, we’ll have Mr. GQ smelling like the rat he is,” Jason gave a little chuckle at his own joke and rubbed his hands together again, his mouth forming a devilish grin. “That’ll help his popularity.”
“Yeah,” Matthew said, taking a big bite out of a croissant. “He’s been hitting on Donna Williams since the plane ride. I’ll bet this will put some distance between them.”
“He leaves that sports drink around all the time. It should be easy to spike it.”
“Jason, I’m glad you’re on my side. You’ve got a twisted mind.”
“How much will it take? We need to make sure we get enough.”
“We’ll figure that out in the pharmacy. I read it takes about four times the recommended dose to make you really stink.”
“How do you know about this stuff?”
“I read it on the web while I was researching sports nutrition last year,” Matthew said as he finished up his orange juice.
“How can you remember something you read last year?”
“I’ve got an eidetic memory. I pretty much remember everything I read.”
“Eidetic, doesn’t that mean photographic?”
“Not really, just means I have exceptional recall. But I don’t necessarily remember everything I see, just what I want to.”
“That’s got to come in handy.”
“It can. Hey we’d better get on the bus.”
The two boys got up and followed the rest of the class to the bus. The tour of Musée des Augustins went without incident. They were able to avoid Tyler completely.
It took another day before they were able to get away long enough to buy some choline without anyone noticing. They didn’t have any trouble sneaking it into Tyler’s drink. A couple of days into the barge tour, Tyler was starting to develop a distinctive aroma.
