Fools Rush In - 1. Rough Beginnings

Rough Beginnings

“Beginnings always were messy.”

-John Galsworthy

CHAD

I had stood in front of the coach’s office plenty of times before, but this time was different. I was almost completely certain he hadn’t demanded I meet him in his office after class so he could shower me with well deserved praises. The multiple letter F’s on my report card made a much better explanation.

In a moment of extreme courage or sheer stupidity, I did the exact opposite of what I wanted to do and I knocked confidently on the coach’s door. I opened the door slowly after a voice yelled for me to enter and walked in as quietly as possible. Coach hadn’t looked up from some papers he was reading, so I stood by the door awkwardly.

“Sit down,” he commanded,

”Yes Sir,” I replied politely.

“Do you know why I asked you to come into my office today?” he asked as he finally met my eyes. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or disappointed, but it was hardly a look I appreciated.

“I’ll do better coach, I promise. I just have been so busy lately and all,” I answered in response.

“Cut the crap Johnson. You fed me that exact same lie at mid-terms, do you know what academic probation is son?”

“Of course I do, sir.”

“Did you realize that you only had to fail one class to be put on academic probation?”

“That seems fair.”

“I know it’s fair. I always say that whatever you do, you should always do it to its fullest extent, but I didn’t realize you would use that advice so negatively. You haven’t just failed one of your classes; you’ve failed four of them. I must say I am surprised by your lack of success outside of the swimming pool.”

“I don’t really know what to say, Sir.”

“Do you realize that there are only four weeks until the end of the semester? Do you know what happens if you have a single grade below a C at the end of the quarter? Well I’ll tell you Johnson, you get kicked off the team. Depending on how bad your grades are at the end of the term, you might not even be allowed to stay in this class.”

“What am I going to do, Sir?”

I’ll tell you exactly what you are going to do; you are going to get better grades.”

He stopped talking at this point and starred at me waiting for a reply. I could tell he was doing his best to keep his cool, but he really was quite upset. I started to get antsy as he continued to wait for my reply.

“I’m hardly a model student. Half the time I don’t even understand what the teachers are saying.”

“I understand your problem, kid. Now that I’ve sweated you a little bit, I’m going to offer you some help. You are one of the schools best athletes across the board. You’re an excellent Water Polo player and even the principal wants you to stay on the team. We obviously can’t break the rules for you so that is why the school is hiring one of your peers as a private tutor for you.”

“A tutor?” I asked.

I was curious but I was also a little offended. I had a reputation to keep and being in tutoring was hardly going to help my rep.

“Yes, a tutor,” he replied. “He is actually a real genius according to all of his teachers. I think you could easily learn a thing or two from this kid.”

“You said he was one of my peers? Maybe I know this kid. What is his name?”

He picked up a paper off his desk and squinted as he read out a name.

“He’s a senior named… Thaddeus Wilmot,” he read.

“You want me to be tutored by the PRUDE!?!” I exclaimed in disgust.

“Who is the Prude?” asked Coach in confusion.

“Sorry, you want me to be tutored by Thaddeus Wilmot? That kid is the biggest prude in the school. I do have a reputation to keep and being friends with him will hardly help me keep it,” I replied.

“Look Chad, you either get tutored by this Thaddeus kid or you are off the team. It’s your choice.”

The look in his eyes told me he wasn’t lying one bit. It was my choice, but he already knew which one I was going to choose. I practically lived in the pool when I wasn’t at home.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” I said as I sulked down in my chair.

“I knew you’d make the right decision. I’m sure you’ll be an A student in no time. I just need you to go and talk to Thaddeus to set up a schedule before school ends today. The school is paying for three hours of tutoring a week. On that note, I also need you to know that the school doesn’t want anyone to know that they are paying for your tutoring. This is a very unique situation. We all want you to stay on the team, Johnson. You are one hell of a player.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Of course. Now get to class.”

He returned to a pile of homework he was grading from one of his other class, so I quietly slipped out of the room. The bell was about to ring for first period but I continued to walk. I didn’t even hurry up when the bell actually did ring. Mr. Coon, my first period teacher, was a total pushover, so all he did was give a disapproving shake of the head when I waltzed in slowly and sat down.

“Now that we have everyone here, we are going to begin today’s lesson on economics. Can anyone tell me…” started Mr. Coon but I drowned his annoying lecturing out of my mind almost immediately.

I was so angry at Coach. Tutoring was a real slap in the face. Only stupid people had tutors and I didn’t think I was too stupid. Sure I wasn’t in any honors classes, but I felt like I could hold my own. I was mostly angry though about my tutor being the Prude.

Thaddeus had been called the Prude ever since Junior High School. He was perfectly normal in Elementary and we had even been in some of the same classes. As everyone got older, we started making dirty jokes, talking about sex, and swearing. The Prude however would have nothing of it. He actually would act offended when we talked about normal guy stuff. When we all started to keep in style with the latest hairstyles and clothes, he kept his hair in a simple part and he wore a neatly pressed button down shirt and pair of khakis. The kid had a stick stuck up his butt so far that none of were sure a gynecologist couldn’t get it dislodged. None of us knew who gave The Prude his nickname but it just stuck.

Lunch period came faster than it usually did. I tried to put it off as long as I could by walking very slowly on my way to the Cafeteria but it didn’t last as long as I had hoped. I wasn’t looking forward to talking with the Prude, but I decided I had to man up and take the bandage approach. The sooner and faster I got it over with the better.

Despite the cafeteria being crowded like it always was, I found Thaddeus and his two friends almost instantly. They sat at the only table that wasn’t completely full. His two friends were other weirdos but they weren’t quite like the Prude. They didn’t act superior to everyone else. IThaddeus must have noticed me because he gave me a glare that spoke his hatred for me.

I started to make my way over to his table, but he wouldn’t have any of that, so he stood up and started walking towards me. We ended up meeting about halfway across the Cafeteria, and he started speaking to me at a completely normal sound level.

“Am I correct in believing that I have been hired to tutor you, Chad?” he asked in a polite but cold manner.

“Do you want the whole damn school to know? Keep it down will yah!” I hissed.

The noise level in the cafeteria fortunately was too loud for any of the other students to hear what he said but it was still not a chance I wanted to take.

“I must apologize, but I would ask that you refrain from using such expletives. It’s unbecoming of any young man,” he said as he gave me a disapproving look.

“Sure, whatever you say. Anyways, when are we going to get this tutoring thing done and over with?” I asked as I already felt my blood boiling. What kind of kid calls out other teenagers on their swearing?

“You will come to my house every Tuesday and Thursday from 4:00 till 5:30. Remember not to be late.” he said.

He had already turned around and was starting to walk away, when I grabbed his arm to stop him.

“I don’t know where you live, num nuts.” I replied as I yanked him back.

“Of course, I’m sorry I forgot. Here is the address and the directions to my home. I hope that makes enough sense.” he said as he pulled a perfectly folded piece of paper from his front pocket.

I grabbed the paper from his hands. I was in the process of unfolding the directions when a voice from behind startled me.

“Chad, we were trying to get your attention earlier. Why are you wasting your time with The Prude.” said my friend Jerry.

I quickly shoved the paper in my pocket to hide it from Jerry’s view.

I was still looking at Thaddeus and he seemed to be quite annoyed by the use of his nickname. It was at this point that I realized he had been clenching his fists during our entire conversation. Now though, he was squeezing his fists so hard his knuckles had turned white. He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off.

“The Prude was bothering me about that damn school paper again. Apparently they want to feature me again.” I said to Jerry.

Jerry seemed to believe my quick lie, but The Prude was about to blow a gasket. I guess I had crossed a line with him when I insulted the school paper.

“You just don’t like the paper because you can’t read it. I bet you--“ he stopped himself and took a big breath. “I’m sorry for bothering you. Good day.”

Just like that, he walked away leaving Jerry and me laughing underneath our breathe.

“The Prude is so sensitive. I mean really, who gets upset over the school paper?” laughed Jerry as we walked back to our table.

“There’s a reason we call him the Prude, yah know,” I replied.

“He’s a weirdo for sure,” he continued.

We took our normal seats among our friends. The conversation was normal teenager stuff, nothing of importance. I sat contently listening and adding in comments when I felt it necessary. My life wasn’t so horrible. I guess I could give up three hours of my life to the Prude.

THADDEUS

I returned back to my seat at my table with Nate and Slosh.

“What the deal with you and Cool Kid McGee?” asked Nathan.

“It would seem that I’ve been assigned to be his tutor by the school. He is, of course, being his normal stupid self.” I replied as I slumped down into one of the Cafeteria’s uncomfortable chairs.

“Well, that sucks the big one,” said Slosh.

“Yah, toats ma goats, dude.” agreed Nate.

“I’ll make do though. I already have a plan to get back at him. I think it is going to be one of my best payback schemes yet.” I stated with a large grin.

“Better than the time you hid in that closet for three hours, to scare your sister?” asked Slosh.

Nate decided he was going to help out in this situation by putting it on a scale.

“On a scale with the garden hose incident being a one and the great Halloween Christmas debacle of 2012 being a ten, where does it land?”

“I’d have to say at least a seven,” I replied.

“That sounds pretty good,” Nate and Slosh both agreed.

“I sure hope so. Either way though, I’m pretty sure that Chad is going to crap a brick load once I’m done.” I replied.

They both nodded in agreement and then returned to a conversation about some new video game they both were thinking about buying. I tuned them out, mostly because I had little interest in most video games, but also because I liked to take time to think quite a bit.

Most of the time, I liked to think about possible explanations for why things occur. My brain at that moment was thinking about why I always tried to act so superior whenever I was around the stereotypical jock.

The answer was quite simple really. I didn’t like people that belittled others. There isn’t a doubt that I am lacking in the bronze department, but I have more than adequate amounts of brain. I tried to make them all feel as stupid as possible by using superfluous language. It really didn’t seem to affect them, and in the end it seemed to give them another person to ridicule more, but I was going to stick to my guns.

A better question then would be why do I hate Chad Johnson so much? He wasn’t worse than any of the other quintessential jocks but I just felt a lot of built up hatred towards him. I felt contempt for him whenever I saw him. So that then begs the question, why did I accept the job offer from the school? It wasn’t like I was required to help him. I knew I hadn’t done it for the money, so why did I do it? I was really starting to confuse myself, when I was brought back to reality.

“Slosh, I think he’s blacked out. I don’t hear any breathing any noises. Do you know mouth to mouth?” asked Nate jokingly.

Slosh’s finger flew up to his nose faster than a bullet and he yelled out “Nose goes!”

I chuckled and shook my head as I watched a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors play out because Nate was adamant I wasn’t worth saving if it meant our lips had to touch.

“Sorry guys. I was just thinking,” I said to interrupt their squabbling.

“That’s dangerous yah know,” Nate replied.

“You’re absolutely right.”