My Friend and Protector - 7. Post Suspension Antics - Will They Never Learn?

None of us were happy about being suspended. The kids whose parents both worked served them in school (ISS), others with a stay-at-home parent, served them at home (OSS). Dad was a physician, a general practitioner, and mom was a pharmacist, so I was in school. Not that I needed a baby sitter, but rules are rules, no matter how ridiculous they were. Brandon’s mom didn’t work, so he had to do a million things around the house for her.

So, I spent four long, boring days in the library. There’s only so much homework and extra credit assignments one could do. Non-fiction books were allowed, but mostly useless. I did read a couple books on airline disasters. I had thought I wanted to be a pilot, but they dissuaded me. I spent most of my time reading books about having a career in the legal profession. A lot of school, but a lot safer than spending your days 30,000 feet in the air.

A week, Friday

Brandon had befriended Lance after finding out their fathers worked together. They shared a class in the morning, so Brandon invited him to eat lunch with him Wednesday. The ISS kids weren’t allowed to socialize during their suspension. We had to brown bag it and eat alone in separate, empty classrooms. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were OK once in a while. For every day it needed a little variety. At least we had three varieties of jelly or jam at home, so there was at least a slight difference day-to/day. Apple, grape, strawberry, and apple was my sequence. Dad was around all the time, so the old adage ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ was proven false.

I returned to classes, and therefore lunch, that following Friday. Brandon had to put up with a lot of repetition with me finding out stuff about Lance. Put him in a red and white, striped sweatshirt, a matching ski cap, and blue pants and we could hide him in a crowd and play ‘Where’s Waldo.’ It’s weird how someone could look like a cartoon, but Lance did.

Tuesday

After everybody’s suspensions were served, Mr. Abernathy brought us all together. Except Travis, of course, but Lance was given written instructions to pass on, although verbal should have been enough; Abernathy wanted no misunderstandings. It was a short meeting, but we all got called out of our last class 15 minutes early. We got a lecture about bullying and proper behavior in and out of school. The kicker was a a note that we and our parents were to sign, acknowledging we all understood another fight would result in expulsion.

A week, Tuesday

While the idiot bunch left us all alone physically, rarely did a day go by where one of us didn’t find something in our locker. Usually it was a crudely drawn picture of one type of gay act or another. How they got that crusty sock into my locker is beyond me. I knew how it got crusty, so I left it in my locker so I could dispose of it the following day with rubber gloves and a small plastic bag. We figured turnabout was fair play, so the three of us that were gay met at Brandon’s house after school one day. Brandon opened the discussion.

“OK, the way I see it, there’s really only one way to get even with those jerks. We give them a taste of their own medicine. It would be better if we all take part so no-one could be singled out if there’s any fallout, but if anybody doesn’t want to do this, nobody should get mad.”

Lance asked “What do you have in mind?”

Brandon had already filled me in on his idea, so Lance asked a lot of questions.

“We get better dick pictures and merge them with real photos of them. They each get two in their lockers, one of the other’s and their own picture.”

“Like Joe with a dick goes in Mike’s locker?”

“Exactly.”

“Um, you’re not thinking our dicks, are you?”

“Hell, no. We could get into bigger trouble if one of them is smart enough to realize reporting it would be worse for us. But I’m sure none of them would want anybody to see the pictures.”

“I can’t get into more trouble over this.”

“We’ll be careful. I know what you mean, though. Both our dads are lawyers.”

“How do we get their pictures?”

“Already taken care of. I have a tiny spy camera that I used to get a video of each of them. All we have to do is find a frame that will work the best, and match it up with a dick from the internet that fits. Merge them together, and print them out.”

The three of us picked six screenshots from the video and surfed the internet for dicks that would somewhat fit the pose. Once we were satisfied with the pictures, they were saved and printed. We considered putting a caption on each saying ‘Now we’re even,’ but we figured openly admitting it was us wouldn’t be smart. The idiots would know who did it. They came out looking pretty realistic. You could almost believe they were real pictures, not fabricated, if you didn’t know for sure. Brandon’s not in art with Lance and me, but he’d have a future in computer aided design if he wanted.

Each of the idiots would get pictures of one of their friends with a dick in or next to his mouth. They get their own picture too. Brandon volunteered to stay after school the next day and put an envelope in each of their lockers. Unfortunately, we had no idea how to get something that wasn’t flat in there, so the cum-filled sock would have to be skipped.

Wednesday - Eavesdropping during lunch at the idiot table.

As usual, Mike took the lead.

“Did you guys get a surprise in your lockers this morning?”

They all say they did.

“They upped the ante, so we need to figure something out we can do. First, though, everybody gets their own pictures back, OK? I don’t need one of you getting mad at me for something and spreading it around.”

Again, they expressed complete agreement. They brainstormed during lunch after Ken said he wanted no part of it and left the table to eat alone at the next table over. He still limped, but the crutches were gone. They all pretty much recovered by now. Jim’s tongue would never be whole again, but a speech therapist was helping him not sound like he was making baby-talk.

Most of the ideas they came up with were either too lame or would get them into too much trouble. They settled on embellishing the truth as they believed it, and telling people the three were faggots. That wasn’t enough for them, so they came up with a scenario that didn’t make them sound like perverts. They would say they were at the park and happened to hear something in the trees, took a closer look and saw the three of them, naked together on a blanket. They would start with telling some kids that were sort of friends, and let it spread from there.

Meanwhile, Ken was at the adjacent table and overheard their plan. He jumped the gun and started telling people he wasn’t hanging with Mike’s gang anymore because they wanted to spread rumors about Carlo, Brandon, and Lance. But it was he, Ken, who caught the five of them having a mini-orgy in the old abandoned house. He said don’t believe what Mike and his friends say. He was supposed to meet them somewhere else, but they ditched him. So, he went looking at their ‘secret hangout.’ Ken was somewhat amazed when people actually believed him.

That story got to Karl, so one day walking home with Carlo and Brandon, he said he loved their latest piece of revenge. Carlo and Brandon had no idea what Karl was talking about. Karl told them what he heard. The three of them had a big laugh the rest of the way home. Carlo and Brandon shared it with Lance the next day, and they had another laugh about it.

As Mark Twain said, ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth puts on its shoes.’ This was definitely true in this case. Steve Lancer’s father worked as a janitor in the school and heard the story. Steve couldn’t make his dad believe the truth. Mr. Lancer called the rest of the idiots’ fathers and shared what their sons supposedly had done. Not to mention forbidding Steve from hanging around with them any more, at the penalty of a major grounding. Mr. Lancer was already pissed off that his son was a fruit, he wasn’t about to suffer that embarrassment alone.

The rest of Mike’s gang was pissed because somehow their plan backfired on them. They were too dumb to figure out it had to be Ken who turned the tables on them. Mike was so mad, he forgot the expulsion threat and started an argument with the other four. The argument turned into a fight and they weren’t seen in school for the rest of the year.

That could have been a problem for the three, but since none of the idiots were allowed, or for that matter, wanted, to associate with any of the others, another plan for revenge could never be formulated. Jim and John Phillips’ parents couldn’t take the embarrassment, put their house up for sale and moved to another town as soon as Jim got his diploma. They were all allowed to do the work, Mike, Jim, and Tony Rose would get their diplomas, but could not take part in the graduation ceremony. Steve Lancer’s dad couldn’t take hearing the laughing behind his back. He quit and got another Janitor’s job at another school.

The rest of the school year passed with no more big issues. Some people still believed Mike’s story and thus still teased the three of us, almost always from a crowd or a hiding place. Nothing physical happened though. No more bruises for our version of the three musketeers.

One day at lunch, Ken came up to us and asked if he could talk to us for a little. Since he didn’t get expelled with the rest of Mike’s gang, we all agreed to listen to what he had to say.

“First, I want to apologize for being part of the attempt to beat you guys up. I didn’t want to be a part of it from the start, but they all called me names and I was afraid of losing my friends.”

I tried not be be snarky, but didn’t quite succeed.

“Seems that happened anyway.”

“Yeah. Maybe I’m better off without them. There was one other thing I wanted to tell you, and one to ask you.”

“Go ahead,” I said.

“I overheard them planning to spread a rumor that they saw you in the woods, naked on a blanket. They were too stupid to realize there aren’t enough woods to hide in around here. I figured the pissing contest went far enough. I made up the story about seeing them in the abandoned house doing it. I guess because I had already broken away, people believed me. It just snowballed from there.”

“Well, I guess we ought to thank you. It was dope. We wondered who started it. You were about the last one we could have thought of. So, you guys agree?”

Brandon and Lance said thank you, then I apologized for ruining his knee.

“I really didn’t mean to practically break your leg, so I’m sorry for being a little too aggressive.”

“It’s OK. I started it, so I deserved whatever I got.”

“Cool. You said you wanted to ask something too?”

“Yeah, I was wondering if we could bury the hatchet and maybe you all just give me a chance of being a friend?”

“Can we take a minute to discuss it amongst ourselves?”

“Sure. I’ll go sit a couple tables away. Just wave when the verdict is in.”

It didn’t take us too long. After just about two minutes of pros vs. cons, I waved him back over.

“Like you asked, we’ll give you a chance. You did kind of watch our backs and apologized without any prompting from us. There’s no reason to hold a grudge. Sit back down for the last few minutes.”

Ken started eating lunch with us regularly after that. He really wasn’t an asshole like his last group of friends were.

Brandon tried out for track with me. He was actually better at the shorter distances than anybody already on the team. Between me winning many of the longer races and Brandon dominating the shortest ones, we were quite a formidable team. We made it to the state championships and came in third. One of the other guys was a NASCAR fan and called us Bristol and Dega. Brandon being Bristol, the shortest track, Talladega being the longest, so I was Dega. At least as far as the track team was concerned.

Summer was a slightly different story. Brandon and I were often accompanied by Karl, Ken, Lance and Travis in Brandon’s pool. Carson, Brandon’s little brother, swam with us as well. He just finished 8th grade, like Travis, but they didn’t really run in the same circles. Being a little closer in age, playing together in the pool, they bridged that gap and started to hang together away from the pool. Having a new friend, not to mention a strong one, Carson refused to skip 9th grade. Carson liked having a strong, tough friend, and Travis liked having a really smart one. The first time they were both together, we were afraid Travis would make fun of the way Carson spoke. We needn’t have been afraid. Travis thought the way Carson spoke was cool and tried to emulate him. Carson enjoyed helping Travis speak better. They aren’t gay, but if they were, it would have been a match made in heaven, as the saying goes.

Pool time was just one of the highlights of the summer. Lance appreciated having two friends that were also gay, but didn’t get involved in any three-ways with us. He bided his time, hoping he’d find someone who could possibly turn into a boyfriend. He found him shortly after school started, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Even though Lance didn’t join us, Brandon and I moved our relationship past video sex. Not very far past that, we were both hesitant to do too much. We’ve jerked off together and each other quite a few times. As the summer started, we traded blowjobs for the first time. That was something we vowed to do more of.

It wasn’t all roses. A new thorn moved into the neighborhood, Mark Gravison. Karl and I tried to make friends with him, but he wasn’t friendly to us. Brandon was with us the second time we made an effort. He claimed he didn’t like the vibe between Brandon and me. That wouldn’t take very long to bubble into trouble. We ran across him a little later in the summer. Brandon and I stunk at it, but we liked to spend the time with Karl, so we played basketball at the park with him. Even when we played two-on-one, he kicked our butts. Like I said, we stunk.

One afternoon we were playing. It was hot so we were playing without shirts. Mark came by hoping to join a game. It was just the three of us there, and I guess Mark was lonely being the new kid and shunning the only others who lived close enough to get to be friends with until school started wasn’t working for him.

“You guys mind if I join you?”

All being friendly, we all said he could play. We just shot around for a while and I guess Brandon and I were being a little too touchy, congratulating each other a little too lovingly after one of us made a shot. We got used to it because Karl didn’t mind, he actually thought it was ‘cute.’

“Can you two tone down the faggy stuff?”

Karl tried to give him a chance, being new in town, he didn’t know the dynamic between the three of us.

“You don’t want to go there.”

“Hey, it’s OK if they’re fags. I just don’t want to have to watch it.”

Karl was moving closer to Mark.

“That’s strike two.”

“Geez. Are all three of you fags?”

Next up - "The Answer and a New, Shocking Relationship”