My Friend and Protector - 6. Ramifications Abound

"Who do we have here?"

"Oh, wow. I didn't even ask his name. Mike Armstrong punched him in the parking lot."

"I'm Travis George."

The nurse looked him up on her computer.

"You're not going to find me. I'm still in middle school. Mike beat up my brother Lance yesterday. I just came to get a little revenge today. I failed. But this guy took care of Mike for me."

"You need to call an ambulance. My friend's out in the parking lot. He doesn't look good."

"OK. One at a time. You're Travis George. Lance's brother. I see Lance goes here. And you are?"

"Carlo Marini, I'm in 9th grade."

"And you?"

"Fuck who I am call a GD ambulance already. Carlo probably killed Mike."

"If you want to help your friend, you'll be a lot more civil young man. Tell me your name and I'll call an ambulance."

"Tony Rose."

"And who is out in the parking lot?"

"Mike Armstrong."

The nurse finally called an ambulance. After that she called the Vice Principal to help clear up what happened. Since Travis was the only one in the room injured, she looked at him.

"Your nose looks OK. I don't think it's broken. We'll just need to stop your nosebleed and call a parent to come get you. Go lie down on the couch."

"Can't I just walk over to the middle school?"

"We'll let Mr. Abernathy decide who goes where."

Another minute and a man walked into the nurse's office.

"What do we have here Mrs. Greenspan?"

"I'm not completely sure. The boy on the couch is a middle schooler, Travis George. He came here to get revenge on someone who beat up his brother yesterday. That didn't work out very well. This one, Carlo Marini brought him in, and according to the last one, Tony Rose, Carlo may have killed another boy, Mike Armstrong, out in the parking lot. But I'm sure he's exaggerating."

"He looked dead to me."

"I called an ambulance. We'll let someone qualified to make that diagnosis do so, shall we?"

"Yes ma'am."

"OK. You boys stay here. It seems like the first thing I need to address is Mr. Armstrong's injuries and await the ambulance. I mean it. Stay here. Detention awaits anyone who leaves."

Mr. Abernathy heads out to the parking lot to check on Mike and wait for the ambulance. The trouble in the nurse's office isn't over yet.

"My nose stopped bleeding. I'm going to my school."

"You heard Mr. Abernathy, you're to stay here."

"Good luck making that happen. I'm not afraid of detention in a school I'm not even a student at."

"You'll stay here."

The nurse grabs at Travis.

"You'll let go of me right now or I'll have you and the school sued for assault."

Mrs. Greenspan then made the biggest mistake of her life. She grabbed Travis harder and forcibly put him back on the couch.

"You're gonna be sorry you did that lady. And unless you handcuff me to this couch, I'm leaving. Touch me again and my dad will have your job AND your house."

"What a snotty little boy. Fine. But I'm calling over to your school so they can deal with you properly."

"That, I can't stop you from doing. I hope you liked working here, because you won't be doing it for long."

Like the saying goes, it's a small world. Lance George Sr. just happened to be second in command with Max Gordon, Brandon's lawyer dad. Lance George Sr. was recruited from another local law firm when the preparations were being made to open the new branch. As another saying goes, Mrs. Greenspan was soon to find herself in deep doo doo.

Out in the parking lot, Abernathy took a quick look at Mike. While the boy was unconscious, Tony's assumption of Carlo killing him was far from the truth. He was breathing fine. Abernathy took his pulse, steady and strong. He had brought a blanket out to cover the boy in case he was in shock. Abernathy called the nurse to get the Armstrong's phone number, his parents obviously needed to know what happened. The ambulance came, evaluated Mike and determined he wasn't in any immediate danger, loaded him into the ambulance and headed to the hospital. Abernathy then headed back to the nurse's office to deal with the rest of the boys.

"Where's the third boy? Travis Gorn, was it?"

"Travis George. He decided we couldn't keep him here and left to go to his school. I called the school so they can deal with him."

"OK. I can't do much about that. Mr. Rose, Mike Armstrong is still very much alive. I spoke with his mother and she's on her way to the hospital. He just came in to report the Armstrong boy's injuries Mrs. Greenspan?"

"That's right."

"Then you can go, Rose. Now, Mr. Marini, it doesn't look like you need any assistance from the nurse, so why don't you follow me to my office, and we'll have a little chat? Thank you, Mrs. Greenspan."

On the way to Abernathy's office, homeroom was just ending. We passed by Karl and Brandon's lockers. They looked at me questioningly. All I could do was shrug. In a few minutes, all I wanted to do was crawl under a rock.

"Take a seat Carlo."

I sat.

"Let's hear what happened."

"I was standing with a couple friends, waiting to come into the school when Travis walked up to Mike. I couldn't hear what they said to each other, but when I saw Mike punch Travis, who I'm sure you noticed is quite a bit smaller, I decided to help out. Because last Wednesday, Mike and a few of his friends tried to attack me and two of my friends. They didn't have a lot of luck there. I'm guessing the same reason they attacked us is why Mike beat up Travis' brother, Lance."

"And why might that be?"

Shit.

"I don't really know. I guess we didn't meet their expectations of normal high school kids."

"Well, the why doesn't matter. And did you injure Mike last week too?"

"No, my friend hit him once and he went down."

"Who would this friend be?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"Karl Marlow."

"The football player?"

"Yes. Basketball and baseball, too."

"And who was your other friend and what did he do to Mike or his friends?"

"Nothing. John Phillips grabbed him and held him down until I knocked him off."

"This other friend's name?"

"Brandon Gordon."

"OK, so Mike and his buddies attacked the three of you, but you got the better of how many boys?"

"Four. Karl also hit Joe Phillips. I hit Ken Birch too."

"How does Tony Rose fit into this?"

"He was going to be part of the attack, but he and Steve Lancer took off when they saw the rest of their friends on the ground."

Abernathy was taking notes. The ten of us all got an invite to Abernathy's conference room after school the next day. Great, what a way to spend a Friday afternoon. Needless to say, all of our parents were invited too. Mike got a pass on this particular invite, being in the hospital still.

But meanwhile, at the hospital, Mrs. Armstrong had arrived and is waiting to hear what's going on with Mike. All she knows so far is what Mr. Abernathy from the school told her; he was unconscious.

"Mrs. Armstrong?"

"Yes."

"Your son took quite a beating. The worst is his legs. Both knees have been severely hyperextended. We'll be running an MRI to gauge the extent of the damage. A torn ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is common with severe hyperextensions. He also sustained an impact to his left ear. It's common after this type of injury to have one's eardrum perforated, which your son does have. However, the hole is small and should heal on its own. The bloody nose and bruise on the side of his head are inconsequential."

"So, no permanent damage?"

"No. Depending on the extent of the ligament damage, surgery may be required, which would require a fairly long recovery, but he should recover completely. If he plays any sports, a torn ligament could recur due to the stress caused by sports."

"That won't be an issue, he's not big on sports. Thank you doctor. When do you think he'll wake up?"

"It could be any time now. With any luck it won't be during the MRI, we'll need his legs still for that."

Mike did remain unconscious during the MRI, but woke soon after. Perhaps because Carlo hit both knees at once, neither got too much damage. Mike would heal on his own, no surgery required. Only a night or two in the hospital would be required. Mike will have a lot of explaining to do to Mr. Armstrong once he gets home from his business trip on Friday. Needless to say, his explanations weren't quite truthful.

Friday

"So, you get to meet with Abernathy after school tonight too, Carlo?"

"Yeah, Brand. Karl will need to be there too. All the other kids that tried to jump us last week, except Mike. Not to mention parents. We'll probably have to meet in the auditorium, it'll be such a big crowd."

"That would suit my dad fine. He's used to being in front of a lot of people. That kid Lance George? When I told my parents what happened, my dad told me his father works for my father. We'll have two lawyers in the room on our side. Those assholes won't stand a chance of getting us in trouble."

"That's cool. Maybe next week, we should invite Lance to eat with us."

"Good idea. Just because they lost a battle, doesn't mean the assholes won't continue the war."

"I almost hope they do. It felt good kicking the shit out of Armstrong. I may end up paying for it, detention or who knows what, but it was worth it if they leave us alone. And if they don't. I'll do it again. Next time I won't just kick whomever in the head softly."

"Well, I hope nothing ever happens again. You could really get into trouble."

"Fuck it. If I'm just protecting myself, it'll be alright. Karl's fine for kicking Mason's ass because Mason had the knife. I'll be fine too."

"Well, I hope so. Just don't do anything stupid. Protect yourself, or like yesterday, another kid, but stop before it gets out of hand."

I considered a snarky reply like 'OK ma,' but figured that wouldn't go over too well, so I just nodded.

After classes ended, it was time for the kids to head to the conference room. It did double-duty as the teacher's dining room. There were already 21 adults there. I guess they were told to get there earlier, in case any had trouble getting there on time. The VP Abernathy was there. The other two men, I assumed were school officials of some sort. They had pushed a bunch of tables up against the wall and set up the chairs in five groups. A group of 3 for the school guys, another for 10 for the assholes' parents, another 8 for our parents and the Georges I suppose and two sets of five for the kids. I had to wonder how the three school bozos planned on keeping control of that many people, especially the 8 parents of injured boys. The only one missing was Mike Armstrong, apparently still hospitalized. One of the school guys opened the meeting by introducing the school officials.

"Thanks for coming everybody. I hope having everybody in one place to discuss the recent ugliness that has occurred both on and off school grounds will get this resolved quickly. I'm Antonio Sabato, the principal here at Rockaway High. Tony will be fine for the adults. To my right is Simon Abernathy, our vice principal. On my left is Arthur Cohen, school legal counsel. If you'll all be so kind as to introduce yourselves, we'll start with the kids to my far right."

That was us. Travis and Lance were sitting with us, the good boys, I suppose. Next came the dirtbag boys. The good boys' parents came next, and finally a set of Mr. and Mrs. Dirtbags.

"Thank you all. I'd like to start us off with a summary of all the altercations, but unfortunately nobody was there for all of them. However, I understand one boy was present for all but one. Carlo Marini, would you like to summarize what you're aware of? Then I'll ask Lance George to discuss his. Please don't interrupt. Everybody will have their chance at a rebuttal, if necessary."

Would I like to? Hell, no. But I suppose I have to. I recounted what happened last Wednesday and then the previous day. Lance then described how he was attacked the day before yesterday.

"Would anybody like to provide a differing view?"

Aside from the dirtbags last week saying they didn't do anything to start the fight, there was really nothing anyone else could say. This week's conflicts were started by Mike, who isn't here. Mr. Gordon took the floor to address the dirtbag rebuttal.

"So, Tony, was it? (He nods) You expect us all to believe that three of those boys tried to start a fight with the five of you plus Mike Armstrong? None of you six acted first?"

"That's right."

"So, we appear to have a stalemate on one of the altercations. Which is to be expected. The other two, no-one is here to disagree. Although I'm quite sure if he was here, Master Armstrong would have a perfectly good explanation why he went on a different bus, to then be attacked by Lance, despite Lance being much smaller. I'm sorry Mr. Sabato, I just can't see it happening that way. What do we do now?"

Mr. Armstrong speaks up, probably saying what he'd already done.

"I think we need to let the police handle it."

This time Mr. George responds.

"And exactly what more would you expect them to do once they heard the two contradicting sides?"

"Take the word of the six over the three."

"So, because more people say it happened one way, that way is the truth?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Cohen, would you like to confirm or deny the hypothesis that because more people say it happened one way, that is automatically assumed as the truth?"

"That could only be the case of impartial witnesses. From the people directly involved, thinking that it could have been 20 against one and the one would be wrong just because he/she were alone in that argument. But nobody would believe one person would take on twenty for any reason other than self-defense."

Armstrong keeps throwing figurative punches.

"So, then what can we do? Just say forget the whole thing happened? Meanwhile my son is in the hospital."

Sabato responds.

"Nobody is saying that. But without clear proof of how these incidents occurred, we can't necessarily lay blame. My thinking is that all the boys serve some sort of punishment. Even though they differ on how the incidents occurred, nobody indicated they did not take part in one or more of them."

"And who pays the hospital bills?"

"That was never something that would have been solved by this forum. Take the boys you claim started things with your son to court if you wish."

"I may just do that."

"Does anybody have any other ideas, aside from flipping a coin to determine who is telling the truth?"

When Mr. Sabato put it that way, nobody could come up with anything else.

"Fine, then. The nine boys who were involved in the first altercation will serve a two-day suspension. The two boys involved with the second also get a two-day suspension. Finally, the three boys involved yesterday also get two-day suspension. Any dissenters? No. Good. Suspensions start Monday."

Apparently, math wasn't Mr. Armstrong's forte. Otherwise, he would have been rip roaring mad that his son would serve six days. I wasn't happy about getting four days, but I felt it was fair. We fought; we pay.

"Mr. George, I will coordinate with the middle school to coordinate your younger son's suspension. It will not start Monday."

"Understandable. I'm not happy about Lance's suspension, because he obviously didn't throw the rock at himself. But it's not a battle worth fighting."

Next up - "Post Suspension Antics - Will They Never Learn?"