Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 00:10:33 -0500 From: Jeff Wilson Subject: W.A.R. Part 2, Chapter 1 Ever feel like nothing in your life is going the way it should? Like you are running in circles and not getting anywhere? Welcome to my life when it came to writing Part Two of W.A.R.. I just couldn't get the right feeling back that I had for Part One. I knew where I wanted this part to go. I knew how I wanted to get there. But then to sit down and write it... Yikes!! So I wrote two drafts. The first I wrote back in September. Right after I finished Part One. That one's deleted. The second, I sent to someone who has become a good friend. He was quite honest with what was wrong with it and how to fix it. So I followed his advice and this story is the result. Sometimes a swift kick in the ass is all it takes to get inspired again! Remember: The standard warnings still apply. Dirty language, frontal nudity, and the possibility of being offended are all very likely! But if you hate it, remember, you can read Black Summer again and pretend that the story is over. Also, you don't have to have read Black Summer to enjoy Cold Winter. Hopefully each part will both add to what you already read, and also be able to stand alone. W.A.R. Part Two: Cold Winter Chapter One -- Catching Up by Jeff Wilson The world seems a little different when you open your eyes on your birthday. The sky is a little brighter. The birds are a little happier. The grass is a little greener. And you are a whole year older! All in one day! You go to bed thirteen, you wake up fourteen. And then there are the birthday perks. Everyone who knows you greets you with "Happy Birthday" instead of "Get the fuck out of my way, loser." Your relatives send you birthday cards which hopefully contain little green slips of paper with presidents on them. Your friends join you for gatherings held just because your mom went through hours and hours of pure hell. And when it's all done, you get a cake. Then there's me. My birthday is just close enough to Christmas that my relatives will send me a card for one or the other. And Santa doesn't seem too thrilled about visiting me when mom and dad already took care of me for my birthday. I hate Santa, what a jerk! It's like my parents and him are in cahoots or something... Yes that was a joke. I know Santa's not real. Now elves, oh yeah... They're real. And they aren't making little toys either! Anyway, this year, I'd have two less cards at the end of the year. My grandma always used to send me money for both days. But now she's... Well... She won't be sending a card this year, and don't ask me to tell you why! I don't like to talk about it. I do like to celebrate my birthday, though. I don't know why some people don't. Like my mom. Every year she gets really upset when that date comes. And don't even think about asking her how old she is. I don't know why she doesn't like to tell people how old she is. I tell everybody how old I am. I'm now only two years away from my license! My dad likes to celebrate his birthday in weird ways. This year, he decided to take me camping up at Bedford County. We spent four days up in the mountains, just the two of us. We went fishing, and hiking, and rock climbing, and I saw my first rattlesnake. I also threw up in my dad's truck on the way up to the cabin, twice. Then I made the mistake of using poison ivy for toilet paper. I got a rash in places I didn't know I had. It was awesome! My mom had to take care of me for three days when we got home. I love camping! I got out of bed and went to the bathroom for my morning shower. While I was washing, I remembered that I only had a half day of school today. Then I would have two weeks off from school. YES!!! Don't get me wrong, I like school. I just don't want to go, that's all. There were too many other fun things to do. Tomorrow, I would be going bowling. I'd get to make a fool of myself with my friends. I'm an awful bowler. But I'd be going with Brett, Dustin, and Joey so it would be fun! It was amazing how much Brett had changed since the summer. He went from being one of the shortest boys in class to almost catching up to me. I'm five feet, seven inches. He's five feet, five inches. He hit a growth spurt in August and never looked back. The thing is, he just keeps looking better and better. Every day, I catch myself staring at him at least two or three times a day. I can't help it. There's just something about him. I don't really stare at girls, they're so uninteresting. But Brett, I could look at him all day and never get bored. His voice is changing, too. You can tell it's him when he talks to you on the phone now. I used to get him confused with his mom, which he hated! I could go on and on about him. I would have, too... But then my mom knocked on the bathroom door and told me I was going to be late for the bus. I got out of the shower and dried off. Heh heh. I was in my birthday suit on my birthday! I made poses in front of the mirror. "What'cha gonna do? When Billy Roberts runs wild on you?!" I dried myself off. Hey, I was getting bigger down there! As much as I exercise it, it better be growing! As my hair was drying it was changing back to partly blond, partly brown. When it's wet it's all brown. Hey, maybe I should keep it wet all day! Then I would have hair that was all the same color for a change! I started to brush my teeth. Well at least I brushed the braces that were covering my teeth. "Hurry up, Billy! You're going to miss your bus!" "I'm going! Geez!" I said and ended up making a mess when toothpaste went everywhere. I wrapped a towel around my waist and opened the door. My mom told me to get going. I went back to my room to put on my school clothes. I grabbed my winter coat, but I wouldn't need it. It's just too hot outside. I don't ask for much, I want my summers warm and my winters cold. Instead, I baked all summer long and now the winter was unusually warm. I want snow, doggone it! I want to make snow forts and snow men and pelt people with snowballs! It must be fifty degrees out there today! I stood outside my house and waited for the bus. The yellow monster made its way toward me and swallowed me up. I was on my way to another exciting day at school. All of the classes would be shortened for the half day. I could see it: My algebra teacher would torture us with vacation homework. My history teacher would give us a free period. Gym class would be free, too. Science class would be movie day. We stopped at Brett's house. He got on the bus and sat next to me. "How's it going, bud?" I asked. "This is so stupid. Why are we going to school for a half day? They could have at least given us the whole day." "Well good morning to you, too." "What? Oh yeah... Hi. Happy birthday." "Thanks... I think. Are you okay?" "Why do you always ask me that? Every time I see you, you ask me that. I'm fine." "Well you haven't been yourself since school started." "You know what? Maybe this is the person I am now and you're just going to have to live with it." I didn't know how to answer that, so I just stared out the window and watched the world go by. When we got to the school, we went our own ways. I went to the gym to hang out with Dustin and Joey while Brett went to the cafeteria. I found my friends from my ball team in the gym, right where they were supposed to be. Joey greeted me. "Well if it isn't the Warrior! How you doing, loser?" "Now, Joseph." Dustin scolded, "Is that any way to treat a man on his birthday?" "Yeah, you piece of crap! You're gonna hurt my feelings!" "Sorry! I wouldn't want you to start crying on your birthday!" Joey laughed. We sat there talking about things. Mostly we just pestered Mr. Edwards, the gym teacher to let us play basketball. When the bell rang Joey went to his homeroom, which is the same as Brett's, lucky dog! Dustin and I went to our homeroom. I sat in my desk and got my stuff ready for the day. Then I sat there bored while all of the morning business got taken care of. I looked around at my classmates. Up in the front row was Sarah Taylor. It was her destiny to be our valedictorian. She was the daughter of the school board president and was probably the worst bitch in the school. But she was very smart. Just not as smart as me. Next to her sat Emily Barnhart. She would probably be head cheerleader in a few years. She had brown eyes and blond hair. She was pretty, I guess. At least that's what Joey says. I know who the pretty girls are because Joey tells me who they are. Mostly by telling me he'd like to bang them. She wasn't the stereotypical cheerleader type. She was very nice to everybody. We had worked on a project together in history last semester and she came to my house to work on it. She looked my direction and smiled at me. I gave a little wave and smiled back. I saw Jerry Fremont sitting in his usual spot in the corner of the room. Jerry had longish brown hair that hid his nice brown eyes. He was my friend in elementary school. But now, I don't know if he has any friends at all. Everybody thinks he's a druggie. He gets in trouble a lot now, too. Bobby Rush had his hand in his pocket again. He always seemed to have his hand in his pocket. He was a really nice guy, though. He just couldn't help himself. It's like some kind of nervous condition. He played football and always tried to get me to join. I'd tell him there's a reason I play left field. I can hit homeruns. That seems to be the extent of my athletic skills. I don't know how he can have his hair in a buzz cut in the middle of winter. Brrr!! Dustin sat three rows ahead of me diagonally. I watched him as he searched through his desk for something. He was the easiest kid to recognize in our room because of his red hair. He spikes it for some reason. It looks good on him though. He pulled a paper out of his desk, looked at it with his blue eyes, then threw it back in and kept looking. He looked too big for the desk he was in. He's two inches taller than me, but his desk was smaller than mine. I don't think the teacher liked him. He continued his search while the announcements were read over the loud speaker. I looked at the back of his neck while his search got more frantic. I've often found myself staring at the back of his neck. I can't help it. I never used to do that. But since school started, I've caught myself staring at him more and more. Dustin had now emptied most of the contents of his desk. He had the attention of most of the class now, including the teacher. "Mr. Smith, what do you think you're doing?" "I'm looking for my essay for English class! Somebody stole it!" Nothing is ever lost in eighth grade. When something is missing, somebody stole it. That's the only explanation. There's no way it was misplaced. Somebody stole it. I say it was the elves. "Well Mr. Smith, I'd suggest you find it before the bell rings. You can't come back after the bell rings." "That's why I'm trying to find it!" We didn't get lockers in eighth grade this year. Our school was being renovated, so our lockers were laying in a pile near the football field now. I never leave anything in my desk that I'd miss if it was stolen. The bell rang and Dustin hadn't found his paper. So he would spend the rest of the morning trying to rewrite it at a frantic pace. I had my paper done and turned it in three days ago. See, I was going to give Sarah some competition for valedictorian. Only I didn't have to have daddy to help me. I was going to do it on my own. Dustin got his paper done before English. Mrs. Maple just shook her head when she saw it. Dustin probably wasn't going to be happy when he got his grade on it. She gave me back paper, A+ with bonus for using a bibliography. Take that Sarah! After class, she asked me what I got. I told her and she said she got an A+ too. Bitch. I went to my last class of the day, science. Miss Winston was the teacher. She taught me last year, too. She was one of the only teachers to visit me last summer when my grandma... well, you know. But boy is she smart! She's the only teacher in the whole state who is certified to teach science, physics, chemistry, and biology. She could have been like a doctor or something, but she wanted to teach. She's probably the smartest person in Pennsylvania. She's even smarter than me! As I thought, we watched a movie instead of doing work. We work hard for her during regular class time, so she doesn't mind rewarding us every now and then. When the bell rang to go home, Miss Winston asked to see me before I left. "Billy, you were the scorekeeper on your baseball team last summer weren't you?" "Yeah, after I broke my eye socket. Why?" "Well," she brushed back her short brown hair, "you know I coach the girls' volleyball team. Well, I'm always looking for boys who I think are dependable enough to be managers for me. You know, set up the nets, help with practices and things like that. It would be a lot of work, but you'd still have time for baseball and other things. Interested?" "Wow... I'd have to ask my parents and stuff, but it sounds kind of fun. I'll get back to you, okay?" "Okay. You better hurry or you'll miss your bus." I had to move quickly to get to the bus on time. Brett let me sit by the window. He was just staring off into space, not paying any attention to anything. I just looked out the window. I wish I could figure out what was wrong with him. Why didn't he want to talk about it? We went around a sharp curve and the next thing I knew Brett wasn't sitting next to me anymore. He was sitting in the aisle on his backside. "OW!! What the fuck?!?" The bus driver looked back in her mirror and glared at Brett. She was not happy to see him in the aisle. "Sit down back there Brett!! And watch your mouth!" "Well why don't you learn to drive you stupid bitch!" Whoa! That was a big mistake. Brett must have known he was going to get it when he said that. He got it alright. The bus driver actually pulled the bus over. If you've ever been on a bus when the driver pulls over to yell at someone, you know the fear that went through everyone there. Brett pulled himself up into the seat but he had nowhere to hide. He turned to me but I just shrugged my shoulders. He could only think of one thing to say... "Oh shit." "What did you say?" She was standing next to our seat looking down at Brett, who was looking down at the floor. She was a large, blue-eyed woman with curly red hair. And very hard to ignore when she was mad. "Nothing..." "What did you say!?!?" She bent down closer. Brett had no choice but to look up at her. "I'm sorry..." "No, that's not what you said. I want to hear exactly what you said." "I was mad, I'm sorry!" He was slowly backing up in the seat moving toward me. "I told you to tell me what you said!" "I said, "Why don't you learn to drive." "What else did you say?" She was right in his face now. He couldn't get away. "I didn't mean it..." "Tell me what you said right now, Brett!" He spoke quickly in a low voice. "I said, "Why don't you learn to drive you stupid bitch." But I didn't mean it." "You didn't mean it? Well then why the hell did you say it?" "I told you, I was mad. I'm sorry, okay?!?" "Listen to me very carefully." She was talking softer now, only Brett and I and a few people around us could hear. "I know you very well Brett. I know your mother and I know she didn't raise you to act like a jack ass. But let me make this clear: You haven't seen me being a bitch yet, understand? Now sit down, shut up, and quit acting like a bastard." She stood up and walked back to the front of the bus. It was amazing. You could hear a pin drop on a bus full of teenagers. Brett was trying desperately not to cry. He had already been bawled out in front of everybody, he didn't want to compound it. He slouched down and rested his chin on his hands, which were balled in tight fists. Every now and then he'd quickly wipe his eyes with one of his hands. I've seen him like this a few times before in the last few months. There was a time back in October when I went to his house and he got into an argument with his mom. He wanted to go to Joey's with me but he had to clean his room first. Well he started yelling about that not being fair and before he knew it instead of going with me he was grounded. He yelled at his mom and said that he hated her. Then he ran up to his room and slammed the door. I sat there looking at his mom. She said she was sorry I had to see that. I asked her why he was acting so weird. She said it was just a phase he was going through. Well now it's been going on for four months. Brett had never been this way before. Sure he'd get upset about things, but now... He was angry all the time. He'd say things that he knew would get him in trouble. Then when he got in trouble, he'd pout. That was something I would do, not him. He had always been in a good mood before. The bus was getting closer to his house. I had to try to talk to him before he left. I had to figure out what was wrong with him. "Are you alright?" "Do I look like I'm alright? She called me a bastard, Billy." "No she didn't, she said you were acting like one." "It's the same thing." He wiped one last tear away from his eye. It was amazing how angry those blue eyes had become. "Well why did you go and try to piss her off like that?" "I didn't mean to! It just slipped out. I was mad, alright! Leave me alone." "Hey, don't get mad at me!" "Get off my back and I won't!" "Sorry!" Bret was about to say something but then he stopped. He thought for a minute. "I'm sorry too, okay? Don't be mad at me. Here's my house. See you tomorrow. I'll call you, okay?" "Okay." The driver handed Brett a piece of paper on the way out the door. I watched as he walked toward his house. He was reading the note as he walked. We pulled toward my house as one of the girls behind me tapped me on the shoulder. "What got in to him?" "I don't know... He's been kinda weird lately." "He used to be so happy all the time. What happened?" "Hell if I know. Here's my house. See you later." I walked toward the front and the bus driver handed me a note as well. She smiled at me and said "Merry Christmas, Billy. Happy birthday too!" "Thanks Mrs. Smith. I'm sorry about Brett. Tell Dustin we'll pick him up around 6:00 tomorrow to go to the bowling alley." I walked off the bus toward my house. I opened my envelope as I walked. It was a Christmas card. I bet that's what she gave Brett too. Boy, he probably feels miserable. I'd have to call him later to see if he's alright. But for now, I'll just wait for my parents to come home and take me out for my birthday dinner! That's it for Chapter One. Chapter Two, Misunderstanding, is next. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that it was worth the wait! Let me know what you thought, or just say hello at: vicioussquirrel@hotmail.com Okay? Good!