Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2019 13:54:37 +0000 From: Reickard Masters Subject: Caleb 25 This work is copyright protected © 2018. You may not copy or reproduce it in anyway whatsoever without the express permission of the owner. Caleb Chapter 25 "Miss Cobb, are you alright?" Mr. Newton asked, noticing immediately that she was upset and being comforted by Jasmine. "Yes, thank you sir." Carol responded and sat down. As she sat down Natasha said in a whisper, loud enough for several to hear, to one of her friends, "Crying over her lost tits." She had not realised that Mr. Newton had approached Carol's desk to assess for himself that she really was alright and he overheard Natasha's comment. "Miss Everett, still being your usual nasty self? Have you no respect for others?" "Respect has to be earned." Natasha said in response. "Indeed that is true. But to earn respect you first have to show respect. Remarks like the one you have just uttered lose more respect than can be built with ten nice comments. You might do well to bear that in mind as you go through your life." Mr. Newton told her. Natasha did at least have the decency to blush while the rest of the class all quietly snickered behind their hands. Even her so-called friends couldn't contain their smiles. After all they were only her cronies to keep her from picking on them. With Mr. Newton present and controlling the class Carol had the chance to recover from her upset and gain some strength from knowing that several people had come to her defence. Clearly the change they had seen in her over the last couple of weeks had encouraged them to side with her rather than with the class bitch. Of course, having been on the receiving end of some of the class bitch's venomous attacks had helped several to decide which side to take. But the battle was not yet over. When they left the classroom to move to their next subject lesson, Caleb, Jasmine, Graeme and few others all formed a guard around Carol and when Natasha's raised voice was heard Caleb just said, "Don't bother to listen to her or to respond. No one listens to her anyway. No one that counts, that is." Later at their mid-morning break time, they were sitting with the seniors when Natasha and a few of her cronies came past. "Now she thinks she can get older people to fight her battles too." Natasha said, almost as an aside to her cronies but loud enough for the group to hear. Simon stood up and stepped in front of Natasha. "Listen up you nasty piece of rubbish. There are already some other people in this school who are having an uncomfortable time because they thought that they were more important than their class mates and treated them disrespectfully. If you want to end up the same way, then carry on the way you are. But don't be surprised when you turn around and find that you have no real friends to comfort you when the shit hits the fan. Now fuck off and grow up!" Natasha stood with her mouth opening and closing as Simon told her off and then she just turned away and left without saying anything more. Her cronies, because they were not really friends, followed behind her also in silence. They secretly didn't like the way Natasha was behaving, but also didn't want to become her victims. The small group of girls had wandered around the grounds for over five minutes when Natasha turned on them and said, "Thanks for the help back there. Is he right? It looked like it when none of you came to my assistance to back me up." "Those guys are seniors and you know that Matthews has been friends with them for a while. Do you think we also wanted to have them say horrible things about us?" one of the girls asked. "Oh, so that's how it is. Let me take it all and you think you can get off scot free. I'll say one for that Cobb, at least her friends stood by her. Sorry I can't say as much for mine. Not a backbone amongst the lot of you." Natasha literally spat the words out with drips of spittle flying from her lips as she looked on her so-called friends with hatred in her eyes. "Please yourself. We don't need to stick with you if you can't accept that we are the only ones who haven't turned against you. Is that what you want? Do you want us to turn against you too?" One of the girls asked. "Do what you want. It doesn't seem that it will make much difference anyway." Natasha replied harshly. "I don't need this or you." One of the girls said and began to walk away. The rest of the girls didn't say anything but also quietly turned and walked off with the girl who had spoken. At the lunch break as they were walking to meet up with the seniors, Graeme and Caleb noticed Natasha was sitting by herself and looked like she was crying. "Looks like even her friends have deserted her now." Caleb commented "Yeah, I'm not surprised." Graeme added as they walked on. They had been chatting with the others for about ten minutes when Graeme left them and walked over towards where Natasha was still sitting on her own. The group watched as Graeme sat down beside Natasha. They couldn't hear anything of what was being said, but they could see that Graeme was doing most of the talking. "I wonder what he's got to say to her." Ronnie asked. "I think he's trying to get her to think about how others feel when she picks on them. He told me he had to rethink how he felt about others after the girls gave me some grief the other week." Caleb said. "He actually cares about everyone now. Some more than others, of course, but he looks to see how he can help everyone." Graeme really was doing most of the talking. He had approached Natasha and said a simple, "Hi." "Come to gloat, have you?" Natasha shot back. "No! There's nothing to gloat over. I really came to share something that I've recently learnt." Graeme began as he sat down beside Natasha. A couple of weeks back someone was being picked on and when asked why he didn't have something his response was `if you really cared, you'd already know.' Those few words shook me up. Because I realised that although I wasn't a friend, I did like the guy and yet I didn't know the answer to that question. That got me thinking about my approach to people and I realised that I was no better than those who were being mean to the guy. Okay I wasn't saying nasty things to him, but I hadn't cared enough to know why he was different. But I decided to change that and began to ask him questions to learn some more about him and I learnt that his family is very poor. His father was killed in a crash and because he was breaking the law at the time the insurance didn't pay out for anything. There were huge expenses and the mum now has to work odd hours and the only job that allows that doesn't pay that much. Yet they are a wonderful family. So I learnt that what you see can be deceiving and you shouldn't just accept or pick on what you see. Today when Simon told you off, I thought that I was being just as bad towards you as I had been towards most other people in my class. So I've come to say I'm sorry. I'm sure there is some good reason why you've been the way you have. Look at Cobb, she's changed these last few weeks. Changed enough to stop living a lie; and brave enough to chance the attacks of those who haven't stopped to think it through first. She's done that because like me she's started to look at other people with a caring eye rather than a fighting eye. She wasn't a very nice person to have around, but now she's building strong friendships. I didn't fight with people the way she did, but I didn't have any real friends either because I didn't care enough to get to know anyone. Now I'm building some good friendships. And it's only been a few weeks since we changed. But what is more is that I feel so much better inside me too." Graeme paused for a bit, but Natasha remained silent. He didn't know if she had heard a single word or not but at least he knew he had tried to help. "Anyway, that's what I had to share. Now I think I need to go back to my friends. I'll see you later, `kay?" Still Natasha stayed quiet. Graeme got up and took a couple of steps. "Thanks." Natasha said softly. "It's okay. Catch you later." Graeme said and walked away feeling that good feeling inside himself, once again. When he got back to the group they all looked at him with a question in their expressions. "What? I just had something to share with her. Maybe it'll help, maybe not. But she needed someone to show her that not everyone hated her." Graeme said. "You know, every time I see something more in you, I like you more. You're a good person Graeme st John. I'm glad we can be friends." Jerry told him. "I'm glad too. I like having friends like you guys." Graeme said. "Well, I'm not so sure about having her as a friend." Carol said. "She needs somebody to care for her too." Graeme said. "We all need that, and maybe there's something we don't know that would help us to understand why she is like she is. Maybe there's something that we could do to help her." "I think I'll keep my distance for a while longer still." Carol said. "I can understand that." Caleb agreed, "But one thing she did do was to get several others to take your side; which has meant that you've been picked on a lot less than you might have been." "And that's the same answer Sheils would have given too. You two are so much more world wise than we are." Jerry said. "Maybe that's because we've had to learn a lot to make it through what we have." Caleb said. "Yeah, maybe that's one benefit from all the shit you guys have had to endure." Simon agreed. "Or maybe it's just because I'm that sort of guy." Caleb said, smiling. "Come on; let's start heading back it must be nearly time for break to end." The group stood up and all started heading back towards their different classrooms; splitting off when they needed to. Once they were finished for the day and heading home, Carol and Jasmine walked with them for a bit before they needed to go a different way to get to Jasmine's house and Carol confirmed to the older boys that while there were still some sarcastic remarks made by some girls as they passed her, for the most part, no-one had really picked on her after they had seen what happened to Natasha. The next day at school was even better with Natasha keeping to herself. Graeme approached her again at one of the break times and this time she allowed him to sit and chat with her without saying anything nasty to him at all. In fact towards the end of his talk she had started to respond which showed she had listened to him. Again she thanked him as he got up to go and join with his new friends. "Maybe if you said you were sorry to some of those people you might have hurt, they'll be your friends again." Graeme suggested. "Maybe, but I don't think they really were my friends. They just stuck with me so I wouldn't pick on them." Natasha said. "Well maybe if you tried talking to them they could become friends." Graeme said and left her to ponder that suggestion. When Graeme joined the group Ronnie said, "You're a good guy Graeme. I like that." "I think she's hurting more than she shows and is beginning to come round to realising just how awful she's been." Graeme said. "If she does, and it makes her change, it will be thanks to you." Ronnie told him. Graeme made a point of talking to Natasha every day that week and by Friday she had started to look happier. At lunch time the group was sitting under the oak tree as usual when she slowly approached them. Simon stood up, but Graeme reached out and touched him to ask him to give Natasha a chance. "Carol, I'm sorry I was so mean to you. I was wrong to be that way. And you two, I'm sorry I said you were gay. I had no right to do that. I hope someday that you'll be able to forgive me. I'm going to do my best to be nicer to people. Graeme, thank you for being so kind to me. I didn't deserve it." Natasha started to turn to walk away when Carol stood up and pulled her into a hug. "That took some courage to come to us like that and say sorry in front of everyone. I forgive you already." Carol said, and then released Natasha from her hug. Natasha looked at Carol with shock written all over her face. Carol just smiled at her and then the tears started to seep out of the corners of Natasha's eyes. A few moments later Carol had joined her with tears running down her cheeks. Caleb and Graeme stood up and pulled the two girls into a group hug. "We forgive you too." Caleb said. On their walk home together that Friday, Mark began with making some plans. "Jerry, are you planning on visiting Sheila tomorrow?" He asked. "Can a duck swim?" Jerry replied. "Would you like to come round mine while Jerry is with Sheila?" Mark asked Caleb. "I'll have to check with mum and Sheils first. We have a meeting with Jerry's aunt on Sunday so we might have too much to do tomorrow. I'll give you a call once I've checked." "Or I can wait at your house when we get there today while you ask them." Mark suggested. "What about Graeme, can he come too?" Caleb asked. "Uh, sorry I can't. I have to go into town with mum and Ronnie has asked to meet up with me in town because he will also be there." Graeme said. "I would hazard a guess that Ronnie is only going to be in town because you will be." Jerry said. "What do you mean?" Graeme asked. "I'll let you try and work that out and tell me on Monday if I was right." Jerry said smiling. "Also he's probably going to be wandering around with that box we found trying to open it." "I thought it was going to Simon next. He's older than Ronnie." Caleb asked. "Actually Simon is younger than Ronnie by a couple of months. But he has also said he doesn't have the patience to fiddle with it and is scared he might lose it and break it, so he's passed on having a go." Jerry told him. "That's great because it means that you will have it next week Mark and then I get it because I'm older than both Graeme and Carol." Caleb said. "No, you'll get it next week because I'm useless at that sort of thing and I'll pass too." Mark told Caleb. "Are you sure? We could try working on it together for two weeks." Caleb offered. "No. That would be breaking the agreement we had and it really would be just you working on it for the two weeks. That wouldn't be fair for the others." Mark said. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry guys, I was working out a way to cheat you without even realising it." Caleb apologised. "It's okay; we know you didn't mean it. Besides I wouldn't have minded anyway." Jerry said. "I would've; because that would be an extra week before I get a go at it." Graeme said but his expression showed he clearly was only teasing. Both Judy and Sheila didn't hesitate. Judy said Caleb deserved a day off and if Jerry was not there to help Sheila, then she would be. Sheila said that she wanted Caleb to go and have some fun. She also added that it would help her and Jerry not to feel bad if they went off together. Mark made sure that Caleb could stay most of the day and would have his midday meal with Mark. Mark then set off on his own to go home as Jerry was staying on for a while to visit with Sheila. Judy took off to her job and Caleb made himself scarce in his room doing his homework. He had got a fair bit done when he needed to ask Jerry if he could mail him some pages to print off. Caleb left his room and headed to the lounge. He found the two having a good snog, and Jerry's school trousers were tented such that there was no doubt he wanted to take things to another level. "Ahem," Caleb began, with an artificial cough, interrupting the two. "Two things. One, can I send some stuff to you for printing please, Jerry? And two, I'm nearly finished and would like to come and watch some tele. So unless you can do whatever it is you're going to do quietly would you mind taking it somewhere else to do?" Both Jerry and Sheila had stopped when Caleb had coughed, but when he finished his second item they both laughed. Jerry gave his permission for Caleb to send off the printing and then he looked back at Sheila and asked, "Can you be quiet?" the two older teens laughed again. Caleb left the room shaking his head in mock despair. He sent off what he needed printed and spent another half hour finishing his homework. He then spent a short time pondering about what he and Mark were likely to do the next day and he wondered if Mark wanted to be tied up again or if he would be the one whom Mark tied up. Both scenarios appealed to Caleb and when he went back into the lounge the shorts he had changed into after he got home were bulging out the front a bit. Jerry and Sheila were noticeable in their absence. Caleb assumed, correctly, that they were both naked and having a bit of fun in Sheila's room. That evening, most of them went to bed feeling happy. Both Mark and Caleb were a little excited for their meeting the next day. Graeme and Ronnie were also looking forward to getting together in town. Jerry and Sheila were in love and had helped satisfy each other's needs leaving them happy. Carol, had been apologised to by Natasha and was really pleased with herself for the way she had responded. Only Natasha went to bed, tears in her eyes and she curled up into a foetal ball and cried herself to sleep, once again.