My Story – Brothers, Friends and Lovers

Chapter 9 – Nothing But Frustrations

(Monday, Chaos at School)

By Sasquatch

Copyright 2005 by Sasquatch

See the Introduction for important information regarding copyright and access restrictions

Dad dropped George and Harry off at their entrance and said, "See you guys this afternoon", he drove around to our side of the school and said the same to us.

We had just started walking toward the entrance when the first bell rang; we had to rush to get to our homerooms so we didn't have time to talk.

Homeroom had been extended this morning. Over the weekend we had lost some teachers. Our homeroom teacher explained what had happened.

One teacher took early retirement for health reasons. One had quit to take a job with a school in her home state. Another was in a car wreck and was in the hospital, but was doing well and expected back in 3 or 4 weeks. One lady had been rushed to the hospital Friday night for an emergency delivery of twins, they were 6 weeks early, but were doing well and she was on maternity leave. Another had to rush to help her mother who had fallen and broke her hip, she was going to have hip replacement surgery and the teacher would be gone for at least a month.

The school couldn't find substitutes and replacements on such short notice, especially since there was a teacher shortage in our state. So all the classes had to be reorganized. The teachers we had were taking extra students in their classes and extra classes. New schedules were handed out and we were told to check and be sure we had all of the subjects we were suppose to have.

I looked at my schedule; I had to check it carefully because it had been totally changed. I saw that one of my classes, just before lunch had been cancelled; fortunately it was one that I didn't need to graduate. That was probably the lady that had the twins, as it was obvious that she was pregnant and due any time.

My class after lunch was suspended for the rest of the week and a note said that it might be suspended next week too, until they could find a qualified replacement.

We all knew that Mr. Trent was having health problems so he must have retired. He was a math teacher, and I was taking his trig class. I needed this class to graduate and I was having some problems understanding the formulas. Mr. Trent was a good teacher; he liked teaching and helping his students. He was coaching me during my free period; I hoped they'd find someone soon and that they were as good.

I now had different teachers for most of my subjects or different periods with the same teachers. My whole schedule had been turned upside down; the only thing that stayed the same was gym in the last period of the day. Coach, insisted that all team members have gym scheduled in the last period, so he could start practice early.

I wondered if Bill's schedule had been screwed up, as badly as mine, the only thing I felt sure about was that I would see him in gym.

Our lunch periods had been the same on Tuesdays and Thursdays; perhaps we'd get lucky and have them all the same. I looked and my schedule and saw that I had the third lunch period every day.

"Damn everything is screwed up," I mumbled. Well there's nothing I could do about it, so I'll just had to live with it. I later found out that all of Bill's lunches were in the first lunch period, worse none of his free periods agreed with mine.

I made it through the day only having to rush to a couple of class due to the room changes. All of my teachers told us not to worry about being late this week. The principal had told them not to mark anyone tardy due to the revised schedules. My fifth period teacher told us that during her third period class she had a student in her class that didn't realize he was in the wrong class until it was half over, when he left he was beet red.

When I got to Gym, Bill was already there and dressed, he grinned at me and asked, "Is your schedule as screwed up as mine?"

"Yea, I bet it is" I replied while changing.

Just as I was going to ask Bill if his Dad or Mom had talked with him and Harry this morning, Coach stood in the doorway and yelled, "All right, everybody out, if your not on the floor in 30 seconds, you'll be do`n laps all period.

Bill grabbed my sneakers while I dug my t-shirt out of the locker, closed it and spun the dial. You didn't want coach to ever find an open locker. Everyone was sitting on the bleachers, so Bill and I joined them. I had pulled on my t-shirt and was tying my sneakers when the buzzer went off.

Coach starts the timer when he yells in to the locker room. Just as the buzzer ended, three guys ran into the gym. Coach just looked at them and said, "You know what to do." The gym has a 1/3-mile jogging track up near the roof and they headed for the stairs.

They made the mistake of walking, Coach boomed out "My Great Grandma can move faster than that, 'MOVE IT!' " They moved it.

Coach looked at the rest of us and said, "Everything has been screwed up all day, your progress records haven't been reorganized to you new class periods yet. So today will be a free exercise period, you can play basketball, volleyball, use the exercise equipment, the mats, or join the miscreants on the track, the only thing you can't do is SIT ON YOUR LAZY BUTTS."

"You fortunate's on the wrestling team go get changed and be back out here in 5 minutes. Ok move it!" He walked over to the wall and started the timer.

Bill and I jogged to our lockers, got them open and started undressing. We wouldn't be able to do anything because of the other guys in the locker room, but we sure could look. We both completely undressed before getting out our wresting slings and shoes out of our lockers, then taking our time putting our gym clothes back in. We both got good looks at each other.

We put our jocks back on and pulled the sling up to our waists. Sitting down to put on our shoes. Bill quietly asked, "Did your folks talk to you about vacation time this morning?"

"Yea" I answered, "did yours mention vacation trips?"

Bill was nodding "Yea they did." sitting there meditatively.

I nudged him, "We better hurry, with Coach in the mood he's in we don't want to be late."

We ran out of the locker room and over to the wresting mats where the rest of the team was waiting. We got there and sat down just as the buzzer sounded and two of the team's lightweights crashed through the locker room doors. Coach just smiled.

They slunk over to the mats and headed for the middle of the circles. Coach just kept smiling. Coach turned to the senior on the team, "You take charge" he told him, "Everyone gets a turn on each them, three points." You could hear them groan.

"Wow" I thought Coach was really being tough today; normally it was only one point. Coach handed Jake two whistles and went to check on what else was happening in the Gym.

As he left he shouted up to the miscreants, "how many laps?"

"4" the leader replied.

"Ok, 5 more then you can come down." Coach told them.

Jake handed me one of the whistles and pointed to the other mat where 3 guys were waiting with big grins. He looked at Bill and said, "How about you spell us when it's our turn?"

"Sure" Bill replied grinning.

We got them started and I felt sorry for the two of them, they would really be draggin' ass by the end of practice.

Billy was a heavyweight and didn't like either of these guys; he was always ragging on them. When he had his turn he deliberately made them work hard, then let them win 2 points. Then he would smother them with his bulk and score three in a row. I have to give the guys credit, they knew what he was doing, and instead of just giving up and letting Billy score his points they really tried to beat him.

I saw coach watching from across the gym, he knew what Billy was doing. Coach has a memory like an elephant he never forgets anything. The next time Billy screwed up, and he did regularly, he was really going to catch it.

Gym class ended and Coach chased the rest of the guys into the locker room to shower and leave. When he was sure that everyone was showering, he came back and took over practice.

Coach looked at Billy and in a quiet voice said "I want to see you in my office after practice." Billy looked scared, he knew that he was in it up to his neck. The only thing that I could think of at that point was "Better him than me."

Practice went pretty much as usual, that is until after Coach dismissed the team.

If you like this story and want to read more let me know -- questions and constructive criticism will be acknowledged whenever possible and time permits -- flames will be ignored. Send your comments to sasquatchnas@qwest.net.