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Tucked Again -*- Copyright 2002 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


Tucked Again


***
21:20 13 Aug

     Amy and Susan had come back, judging by Amy coming into the
basement to see what we were up to.  I looked up, and she hadn't changed
yet and still looked very nice.  "Hey guys," she said.
     "How was dinner?" I asked.
     "Real nice," she smiled.  "We went Greek, the souvlakis were
great!"
     "Wanna help me play?" I asked her with a grin.
     She thought about it, and grinned back.

***
21:40 13 Aug

     "Hey, Tuck, who do you have for Government?" Dan asked after his
turn was finished.
     "I dunno," I told him, and started digging in my pack to find my
preliminary schedule.  When I did, I handed it to him.
     "Taking German again," he commented.
     "No, that's just on there until I test out for ASL; I have to go to
the class the first day, and then if I pass out I drop that one.
There's a letter about that in there..."
     "Tuck," he said after a few seconds, "You have 'A' lunch and a
different homeroom."
     "WHAT?"  I grabbed the paper back and scanned, and sure as shit I
did.  AND I wasn't in AP Physics like I'd demanded either.  "Oh SHIT!"
     "I got mine here," George said as he dug in his own pack.

***
21:41 13 Aug

     Everything was fucked up between the five of us, schedule-wise.
     "Oh crap," Mike and George said at the same time.  Then they looked
at me.  I sighed, thought about it, and nodded.  "Thursday night."
     "What?" Amy asked.
     I thought about telling her, thought it was a bad idea because she
wouldn't be able to help, then realized that she wouldn't talk either.
"We gotta-"
     "Tuck!" George complained.
     "She's quiet!" I insisted.  "Amy, we gotta have the same homeroom
and lunch, so we gotta go fix it."
     "N-  B-  HOW?" she demanded.
     "The usual way," I grinned.  "And I'll give you a hint; it doesn't
involve filling out request forms.  Or daylight, either.  Dad sold them
a good schedule making program along with the other stuff a couple of
years ago."  Which meant, of course, that I'd 'found' a copy, which
naturally also meant that I'd disassembled the program and found out how
to spoof all its security and logging features.
     She nodded, then complained, "Man, I'm gonna miss this too!"
     "We'll send you details if your encryption skills are up to it,"
Mike said.
     "I'll tell you how to do it," I said to Amy.  "But it's going to be
really boring tonight."
     "IF it goes right," Dan sighed.

***
21:56 13 Aug

     I was on the verge of crushing Mike in an Orkish wave attack,
moments before I got crushed myself, when Mike asked in a pathetic
attempt to distract me, "Hey, did anyone get school supplies yet?"
     Dan and Book had, whereas the rest of us had not.
     Mike suggested, "Wanna go tonight, later, like Wal-Mart, when it
empties out some?"
     "No!" Amy protested.  "Not my last night here!"
     Mike nodded.  "We can do it Thursday night, then, if..."  He looked
at me and George.  I shrugged; George thought about it and nodded back.
     "AFTER I leave?" Amy confirmed.
     "Of course, sweetheart," Mike said gently, "it's going to take all
of us to stuff you back into the shipping crate."
     "FUCK you, Mike," Amy snarled with a grin.
     "Hah, no," Mike said.  "Not you; I KNOW where you've been."
     Just then, a pounding on the stairs announced that Brian had
something going on.  "Guys you have GOT to come up and see this!" he
announced before spinning and going back up.  He hadn't even made it all
the way down.
     We looked at each other for a few confused moments, then Mike
shrugged, and we all trudged upstairs.

***
22:01 13 Aug

     "South Park?" Amy asked.
     "Shhh!" Brian insisted.

***
22:55 13 Aug

     "Oh my GOD, they showed THAT on TELEVISION?!" Amy gasped over Mom,
who was still laughing.  "THAT ain't gonna last!"
     "It's on after ten," Dad said, wiping his eyes, "Uh, they might
allow it, since all the good little children are in bed..."
     "AAAAAHAHAHAH!" Susan howled as she banged on the arm of the couch.
     "We HAVE to tape these!" Brian insisted.  Luckily, we already had
the first one taped, by some lucky chance plus habit of taping premiers
of interesting-looking shows.
     "The RATS!" Mom shrieked, which made me fall down again.

***
23:19 13 Aug

     "You guys gonna come to the airport to say goodbye tomorrow?" Amy
asked after giving the last of the goodbye hugs to the guys.  South Park
had exhausted us, apparently, and I had a headache from laughing so
much and so hard.
     "What time do you leave?" Dan asked back.
     "Nine?"
     A short discussion ended with a general 'yes', which I thought was
a good thing.  "Hey," I said to Mike, "and call Jill and people tomorrow
so they can come say goodbye too, okay?  And I'll call Rachel?"
     "That would be cool," Amy said wistfully.

***
23:31 13 Aug

     "Tuck?" Amy asked after I closed the door behind us.  I was already
missing her, and she was still here.  Maybe the boxes reminded me.
     "Yeah?" I asked.
     "I've... I mean...."
     Pause.
     "What?" I asked again.
     "Could you do me a really weird favor?" she asked nervously.
     "Uh.  Maybe.  Ask me, I won't freak out," I half-lied.

***
23:34 13 Aug

     "You look cute in that," Amy said as she wriggled into the covers.
     "You're weird, Amy," I mentioned.
     "Dooon't," she begged, which was totally unexpected.
     "Oh, jeez, I wasn't-  Well, I was, you ARE weird and you know it,"
I pointed out as I smiled for her and sat down on the bed, sweeping the
skirt of the nightgown as I did.  "But this is okay, I guess.  Why...?"
     She shrugged.  "I dunno."
     "No, come on.  Why?"
     She chewed on her lip.  "I guess," she said eventually, "it's like,
I mean... Susan's cool, but it's like she's always been the mother, I
mean like trying to keep everyone good and clean and obeying the rules
and all that, right?"  I'd have said 'prison warden' instead of
'mother', at least before this year, but I had to nod.  She nodded back
and continued, "You're... you're more like me, I guess." She shrugged.
"I mean, it's like, you're the closest thing I have to a brother, right?
But now, I mean like this summer, it's been like you've been a sister
too, right?  At least, I mean, that's how I felt and I don't mean
anything bad or anything by it..."  She looked hopefully at me.
     "Okay," I allowed.  It wasn't exactly news to me at this point.
     She shrugged again.  "So, I mean, I just wanted to spend one night,
the last night, with you like that, so I can sort of say goodbye to the
sister, and then tomorrow say goodbye to the brother."
     "Oh."  That almost made sense, if I was two different people.
     "Damnit," she sighed, and then started to cry.  "I don't want to
go..."
     "Oh, Amy," I sighed, then cuddled her as she cried into my chest.

***
23:52 13 Aug

     "You know what's weird?" Amy asked after we'd calmed down.
     "Which thing?  There's lots."
     "It's... I mean, being here like this," which I guess referred to
the way I was half sitting up and she was pressed into my side with her
neck over my arm, and one of her arms over my stomach, "it's... it's
like when I was little, and Mom used to do this when I'd get upset at
night sometimes.  With the gown and everything."
     "Yeah..."
     "Except your boobies are smaller," she smiled instead of grinned.
"I kind of hope yours stay small."
     "Me too."  They were just fine as they were, if they weren't going
to go away.  Except I wished they wouldn't hurt so much.
     She stroked one through the nightgown, VERY gently like she knew
what she was doing, which I guess she did.  "Do you think mine are too
big?" she asked me after she stopped.
     "Wh-  No, I think they're perfect.  And beautiful."
     "Really?"
     "Yeah..."  I stroked hers on the sides, like she'd done mine, and
she wriggled contentedly.
     "Really?" she confirmed.
     "Really."

***
23:55 13 Aug

     "G'night, Sis?" she sort of half asked.
     "Good night.  Sweet dreams, darling," I said back, and kissed her
forehead.
     "Sweet dreams," she sighed happily, and wriggled closer and braided
our bodies together.

***
06:02 14 Aug

     I'd gotten up at the alarm, rubbed my eyes clear, and almost gotten
the door open to go to the bathroom when I realized I was wearing a
nightgown, which would not be appreciated by anyone except possibly Amy.
     I pulled it off, then saw Amy still sleeping, and so I folded the
gown up and put it next to her, so it would be a reminder of last night
when she woke up.

***
07:10 14 Aug

     "Hello?"
     "Travis?  It's me, Valerie?"
     "Hey!"  He sounded happy, so I squeezed the bear and smiled at it.
     "Is it okay to call this early?"
     "Yeah, it's okay..."
     "Hey, I was wondering, do you want to do something Saturday night
or something?"
     "Why not Friday?"
     "I think I'm going to be tired out," I said.  Actually, I had a
feeling that I'd be busy one way or another.
     "Is Amy coming?"
     "No, she's leaving Thursday night, remember?  Wait, that's TONIGHT
isn't it?" I remembered.  "Aw hell."
     "You're gonna miss her, aren't you?"
     I sighed, "Yeah..."
     "Me too."

***
13:18 14 Aug

     Last call for swimming, I realized, and sighed.  I might be able to
come here after school and swim for a bit, but it wouldn't be the same.
     And I missed Amy.

***
15:20 14 Aug

     And the Phone Guy was coming today, which meant I didn't even get
to swim that much; I'd had to come in and wire the house up.
     I was pretty proud of the job I'd done, stapling wire along the
corners where you could barely see it, and adding a couple more small
boxes in out of the way places, and now I had the cooking and homework
area of the house ready for me to get a laptop and set it up here.  And,
the existing phone kept working, which I kept checking.  That was good.
     Now I just had to wait for the Phone Guy.

***
15:54 14 Aug

     The knock on the door had surprised me, but that's why Stella and I
were hanging around inside instead of swimming.  I checked through the
peephole, and it was indeed the Phone Guy.
     Which, when I opened the door and could see in a normal way instead
of fish-eyed, turned out to be the Phone Babe instead.
     Well, she wasn't a 'babe' especially, being somewhat overweight and
wearing glasses and a not terribly flattering uniform, but she
definitely didn't fit the Guy category.
     "Hi, you called about having a second line installed?" she asked.
     "Yes!" I grinned.

***
16:22 14 Aug

     The boys had been more than casually irritated when I told them
they'd have to dry off and stay quiet if they wanted to watch her work,
but after a while the water spirits' call was too loud for them to
ignore so they went back to swimming.  Besides, it was pretty boring to
watch, if you had no idea what was going on.  She hadn't even drilled
through the wall, just taken the second pair in the existing run and
hooked that up and added a second jack in the kitchen.
     Which, when plugged into my own wiring, worked as well as could be
expected, which is 'apparently perfectly'.  Me and the Phone Babe smiled
at each other as she packed her stuff back up.

***
17:15 14 Aug

     "Guys, you know I'll be here after school and stuff; heck, I'm
picking you up from school," I told Ricky.
     "Yeah, but..."
     "I know, I hate it too," I replied to the unspoken lament.  "But we
get in more trouble if we don't go, than if we do, so we go."  We all
got depressed for a while, until I said, "Hey, how about juggling?"

***
17:40 14 Aug

     I was sort of packing up, getting ready to go home, when my pager
went off.  I pulled it out and looked at it, and all it said was:

     TTTKIDTTT REQUEST YOU COME HOME TONIGHT FOR AMY TSIXT END

     As if I wouldn't.

***
18:06 14 Aug

     Rachel wasn't there, but she'd left a note taped to her closet door
saying she'd be at the airport at eight thirty.  That was cool.
     "Back in black," I said to myself as I basket-ed my dirty
babysitting clothes and pulled out the stuff I'd been careful to put on
that morning before I left.  I didn't know how tonight was going to go,
but Mike had been clear, and I wanted to be prepared this time.
     Besides, I looked good in black.

***
18:37 14 Aug

     The last of the stuff that Amy was taking with her was already in
Mom's car, and then of course I couldn't have missed the half-dozen or
so girls hanging around with the rest of the family when I came in.  It
had turned into a little mini-party or wake or something.
     Luckily, someone had warned someone else, and so we had leaves in
the table and a whole lot of food.

***
18:51 14 Aug

     "To Amy," Dad said, "a safe journey and a warm welcome to you at
journey's end."
     "To Amy," we all said, and clinked glasses and sipped before
sitting back down.
     "You guys are the greatest," Amy sighed, managing somehow to
contain her tears.  I was having trouble myself, but at least I wasn't
the only one.

***
18:54 14 Aug

     "Do you guys turn everything into a ceremony like this?" Amanda
asked me.
     "Nah, just the important stuff," I replied.  "Weddings, funerals,
baseball games..."

***
20:24 14 Aug

     Watching, even from in the middle, as all of us went through the
metal detectors and so on like a horde, was amusing, and then we were
all traipsing along looking for the correct gate.
     Rachel saw us first, though, and started waving.

***
20:33 14 Aug

     I was surprised to feel my pager go off, because I thought everyone
that might be calling me was already here.  I pulled it out...
     "Oh my god," I said after a minute.
     "What?" Mike asked.
     I showed him the message, and Mike read it for a while, and then
sighed.  "Well, show it-"
     "I will!" I insisted.

***
20:46 14 Aug

     "You be REALLY careful," Amy said as she hugged me fiercely.  "And
send me email!"
     "YOU send one when you get home!  Oh, hey..." I said, and pulled
out my pager and showed her the message Travis had sent for her.  I
guess he'd figured out the paging software I'd set up, finally.

     show this to amy!
     Its been fun with you all summer and i hpoe you come back soon
     I miss you alredy and i bet she does too
     BE careful ok?
     hugs, trav

     "Oh, man," Amy sighed, and then cried into my shoulder for a while
longer.
     "I'll keep us in touch," I promised.

***
20:50 14 Aug

     "Man, that sucks," Kim sighed as most of us stared out the window
at Amy's plane.  "She was fun."
     "She was," Rachel nodded.
     I wiped my eyes again and continued watching, in case she was
waving at us and I could catch it.

***
21:04 14 Aug

     "Come on, Eugene," Mom said, putting an arm around my shoulders.
"Let's go home."

***
21:48 14 Aug

     "You know," Kim said, looking around, "you could have a sleepover
here..."
     "A WHAT?" Dan gasped as Amanda and Pam started laughing.
     "Tuck, that would be a BAD idea," Mike told me as he grabbed my
arms.  "THINK about it."
     "No, that'd be cool!" Sabrina insisted.  "Then I could get away
from MY parents, or Lisa's!"
     "And we wouldn't have to try to all cram in someone else's
bedroom," Pam giggled.
     "No, Mike's right, I have to think about this one really seriously,
because..."  I sighed.  There was a lot that could go really wrong.  Not
to mention the fact that Brian would go insane if _I_ had half a dozen
girls over to spend the night, and that wasn't even counting Dad or Mom.
     "That reminds me, does anyone have any classes or teachers or lunch
periods they don't like?" Mike asked.

***
23:49 14 Aug

     Whoever it was that had come up with the idea of shopping for
school supplies at this time of night had been somewhat inspired, but
they were still unreasonably crowded, so we had a bucket brigade going,
starting at the racks of supplies and handing stuff off through the
crowds to load the goods into a variety of carts that were on another
aisle entirely.  I had a feeling that even though we were trying to keep
everyone's separate, that there would be a lot of horse trading going on
in the parking lot, or later.
     Still, it had more fun about it than usual, or more fun than the
other people there doing the same thing seemed to be having.
     Sabrina handed me a stack of loose-leaf paper packages that weighed
about a ton, and I almost dropped them before she could tell me, "One
for Pam me George and Mike, two for Kim!" I staggered over to the carts
and braced the pile on the edge of one as I repeated the instructions to
Kim who started offloading me.

***
00:37 15 Aug

     "And one last stop," Mike said.
     "Miiiiiiike!" I whined.
     "Shut up, Tuck, we have to get this scheduling done tonight."
     I sighed, "Oh, right."
     "Besides, the less you sleep tonight, the less nightmares you'll
have," Mike pointed out.

***
00:41 15 Aug

     "New code," Mike whispered in my ear, and then handed me the slip
of paper, proving that someone had been doing something more interesting
than babysitting over the summer.  I typed in the new code, looking at
it with my red-lensed Mini-Maglite, and it did apparently work, because
the arming light went off and a green one came on.
     George opened the door for us, having picked the lock already, and
we all went into McAllen's gym building.

***
00:56 15 Aug

     They had everything set up for the morning, with printers and
computers or terminals on a bunch of tables at one end, and they'd left
everything running and networked.  Which was almost too easy.
     A careful check had shown, though, that they did have some logging
going on, but a few quick snips got me through one of my favorite holes
and out of view of the logging program.  A little more work got me into
the logging system, which was apparently the local server, and after
editing that and disabling logging for all terminals by catastrophically
crashing the program, I looked for and found the huge file that had to
be the master schedule.
     Their scheduling data had a password on it, apparently to cause
problems with any luser who needed to use it, because it didn't take
more than a few seconds to crack it.  Most commercial programs never had
security that could stand up to a curious twelve year old, and I was way
past twelve.  You had to wonder why anyone bothered.

***
01:58 15 Aug

     I nodded and gave the V-for-Victory sign, or the 'Still got my
shooting fingers you bloody Wogs' sign, depending on how you looked at
it, which meant that I was finally done.
     It had taken me so long because I had to make sure that I didn't
stick anyone with a really horrible teacher for anything, and I also
wanted to see some of the Pack at lunch as well, so I might as well
include all of them.  And I needed eighth period free, so I could change
before picking up Ricky and Stella.  Plus I had to check for class sizes
to make sure I didn't push anyone over the limit there, because they'd
complain.  Luckily, though, the new meta-scheduling they'd come up with
this year had a bit of elegance about it, so it was relatively easy to
shuffle the people around the classes.  Relatively.
     That was the nice thing about computers; it was so much easier to
change and cross-check everything at one time than paper was.
     Once I gave the sign, it was time for us to pack up and leave,
which we started doing immediately.
     Sometimes I thought it might just be easier to find a good place to
hide and sleep here until school started, but that was unnecessarily
risky, and probably wouldn't have been as comfortable as my own bed.
Not that everyone was going back to MY own bed, of course.

***
03:09 15 Aug

     Instead, Susan had gone back to my bed.
     I quietly made my way out of my room, leaving the door ajar, and
went to get ready for the two hours of sleep I was going to get.  I had
planned to stay up and do something instead, but with her here, and not
being belligerent like she hadn't been all summer, I might actually get
some restful sleep, instead of wandering around school without my pants
or getting dissected in Biology lab or something.

***
06:00 15 Aug

     On the one hand, I was really going to have to do something with
the MacinClock soon, because school was starting and I was getting tired
of this alarm.  On the other hand, if I Macin-packed it up and took it
with me to the Parkers', it would give me something to do for a while
whilst I settled on a laptop and waited for it to ship.
     And, on the gripping hand, I needed to get up, because in addition
to school orientation, picking up a revised schedule, and the Big/Little
Brother/Sister thing today, all the 'big' voc-tech classes also had
orientation today, which meant I had to get to school by seven to get
'oriented' into the cosmetology class.
     Not really my idea of great fun, but at least Jill and Kim should
be there.  *Oh God I hope so...*
     "Oh god, already?" Susan groaned at me from where she had buried
herself under the covers, which didn't scare me, which surprised me.

***
06:02 15 Aug

     And, on the plus side, Amy had sent an email from home like she was
supposed to, telling everyone that New York sucked and she wished we
were there or she was here, and that Sparky had missed her but was glad
to have her back, and so on.
     I know I missed her terribly.
     "Is Amy okay?" Susan asked from over my shoulder.
     "Yeah, got in on time, Aunt Trish was waiting at the right gate,
she got home, she hates it and wishes we were all there or she was back
here," I summarized.  "And the dog missed her."

***
06:49 15 Aug

     I drove up, and lo and behold, Jill and Kim were sitting on Kim's
car - well, Jill was, on the trunk - and waved at me as I drove up.
Since the parking lot was almost deserted, I could actually park next to
them today.
     After I parked and got out, the first thing Jill said to me was,
"Hey Tuck, you know where this place is?"  And the first thing Kim said
to me was, "Ugh," as she lifted up a disposable coffee cup to imbibe.
     Not a good way to start the year.

***
06:54 15 Aug

     For reasons discernable only to madmen and school planners, the
cosmetology lab was located in the 'industrial' building, which also
held things like Machine Shop, Auto Repair, Body Repair (Auto, not
Human), and things like that.  So in addition to a few girls traipsing
in the same direction we three were, or so I guessed, there were also a
lot of goons.  Most of them were unhappy goons.
     Luckily, and I hoped it would continue this way, they seemed much
less directed in their general dislike of me, as if it was just having
to be up and in public this early (or late), rather than at home with
family (or girlfriend, or whatever) that caused them to snarl and cuss
as we passed by.  They did seem, most of them, more interested in their
coffee and such than giving me abuse, which I thought was a Really Good
Thing.  I'd had shop class two years ago in the afternoon, and that had
been a totally different experience.
     On the other hand, a large wrench or acetylene torch in hand had
done wonders to improve people's apparent attitudes, I'd found.
     We finally made it to the right room, or at least it had the right
room number.  Jill grabbed my hand before we went in, which amused Kim
so much she snorted and had some more of her coffee before going through
the door ahead of us.
     The place looked a lot like a bio lab, or a chem lab without fume
hoods - I had a feeling I was going to miss the fume hoods - and
contained a lot of weird furniture and plumbing, a fairly large number
of girls, and two other guys.
     One of the guys was Ivan Singley, our local avatar of martial arts.
He actually waved hello at us.
     And the other guy was Victor Kloskowski, AKA 'VK' and reputed to be
someone you didn't want to drop the soap in front of.
     And he waved hello too, with a BIG smile on his face.
     "Erk!" I mentioned.
     "Be cool!" Jill breathed in a really un-cool-herself manner as she
squeezed all the blood out of my hand.  I'd have complained except I
think I was doing the same thing to hers.
     And the girls in there were not the sort I usually hung with,
either.  Except for the two I'd come in with, of course.  The others
were staring back at me as I scanned around, looking for trouble spots.
One of the probable spots was going to be a cheerleader, Shannon
Starts-with-D-something, who had been dogging me for years.
     Kim, meanwhile, was looking for and found three contiguous seats,
which unfortunately were right at the front of the class.  "Noooo," I
whispered, and Jill almost amputated a finger as she clinched, but Kim
impatiently beckoned us on.
     "I want to be up here so I can see everything," Kim mentioned.
     That was, at that point, far less important than not turning my
back on these people.
     But, it looked like Kim was serious, judging by the way she bulled
her way in and plopped down on a stool and stared at her coffee cup.
     "Oh, God, tell me again why I wanted to be in here?" Jill asked me.
     "You were going to be with me for immoral support?" I suggested.
     We sighed, and went to sit next to Kim before the seats were filled
up.  Better to be near her...

***
06:57 15 Aug

     I'd thought that Ivan the Terrible would be taking the class too,
which I thought would be a good thing; after all, why else would someone
be at school in a classroom at seven o'-FUCKING-clock, as Kim called it,
in the morning?
     Well, your mom might be teaching the class, apparently.
     Or he was dating her, I realized, as she kissed him on the cheek
and told him to be good today and he left.  It was a really unlikely
possibility, but I wasn't gonna rule anything out.  Not after this last
year.
     Right after Ivan left, some other guy came in, guy named Chris, who
was also reputedly someone you didn't want to drop the soap around.
     "This is beginning to look like a really stupid idea," I mentioned
discreetly to Jill, as the girls' whispers doubled in volume.
     "Shut the fuck up," she quietly said back.
     Not a good way to start the year at ALL.

***
06:59 15 Aug

     And then Ted Kohler, who was on soccer team and had been in an
English class of mine a while back, came rushing in like he was almost
late, which he was if this was the class he wanted, which I doubted.

***
07:00 15 Aug

     The bells went off, which scared the crap out of me since I didn't
know they worked at this time of day.
     When they finished, the woman said, "Good morning, class, I'm Mrs.
Singley," which sort of blew the girlfriend theory out the window.  I
didn't think he'd have married her.  Though I could be-
     "And this is the Cosmetology classroom," she continued, "so if
you're looking for Auto Body you're in the wrong place."  She smiled,
and there were some polite laughs.  "No one?" she confirmed.  Ted didn't
move or say anything; I looked over my shoulder to make sure.  "Okay,
then, let's take roll."

***
07:02 15 Aug

     "Eugene Tucker?" she asked, which naturally - it happened in every
class I'd ever had in my entire life, so I assumed it was some tiny law
of physics or psychology or something - caused some laughs in the back.
     "Just 'Tucker', please," I asked.  Sometimes it worked, and
sometimes it didn't.  It looked like it would work in here, since she
scribbled a note on the seating chart at the right time to be noting a
nickname, like she'd done with VK.

***
07:09 15 Aug

     "And, those of you that have a single-period lab will be in here
for homeroom.  Those of you with labs first and second periods every
other day," which was me and Kim and Jill, I knew already, "will be
staying here those days instead of going to homeroom for announcements."
     "Aw man!" I complained.  This hadn't been on the schedule!

***
07:16 15 Aug

     I groaned involuntarily as I realized that this was going to take a
whoooole lot of my life, if Mom was going to insist on me cutting her
hair.  *BOTH summers EIGHT hours a day PLUS two periods a day during the
year on average... how fucking hard can this be?  And what the hell was
I THINKING?*
     I couldn't say we weren't warned; it had been right above the
signup sheet.  It had just seemed like a lot less, last year.

***
07:50 15 Aug

     The 'first' bell rang, ending this class and warning us of ten
minutes to get to homeroom, but I was sort of expecting this one, so I
didn't jump this time.  "Wait until they get clear of the door," Kim
suggested, and we did, and it only took thirty seconds until there was a
log jam at the portal, that we weren't in.  "See?"

***
07:52 15 Aug

     "Oh my God," Jill whined as the press at the door cleared and we
got up and started moving.  "Why did I sign up for this?"
     "Why did _I_ sign up for this?" I asked back.
     "Why is it at seven in the morning?" Kim counter-whined.
     "And why do we have to be here instead of homeroom?" Jill added.
     "And why are there only four guys in it?" I contributed.
     They both gave me the Eye.  "Well, duh," Jill said.

***
07:59 15 Aug

     I made it just in time, and found that Mike and Dan and George had
saved me a desk, which was a good thing.  "Where the hell were you this
morning?" George asked.
     "Didn't Mike tell you-" I started, but the boff George got told me
that Mike had indeed already mentioned it at least twice - you only got
boffed the third time or so you forgot.
     Then I saw the homeroom teacher we had, and that was not a good
thing at all, because I didn't like French and I really didn't like one
of the French teachers who was named Mrs. Vangormer and I don't think
she liked me either and she was currently glaring at me from over the
desk at the front where only the homeroom teacher would sit.
     "Well, Mister Tucker, glad you could join us," she said nastily.
     "Oh, it's my pleasure," I smiled back, and sat down.  "Whafuck?" I
asked quietly.
     The schedule had SAID 'Dobson'.
     "It's gonna be just a great year," Mike said deadpan.
     "Oh Christ," Dan mentioned.
     The bell rang.

***
08:04 15 Aug

     The morning announcements were terribly boring, especially since
they were probably going to be repeated on Monday for the seniors and
sophs that weren't here and the freshmeat- I mean, freshmen, that were
piling into the gym at this point.  And it wasn't as if I really gave a
rat's ass who 'my' student council people were, either.
     "Stool pigeons," was Dan's comment.

***
08:15 15 Aug

     Now we got to stand around at the gym while they paired us up,
based on academics, desired post-highschool education and plans, and
general interests and hobbies, into completely unsuitable pairs of
juniors and freshthings.  You could blow it off and not show up, but
they would ALSO print out your revised schedule when your name was
called, and give you the textbook list you'd need shortly to draw books,
so if you didn't go you could have a tremendously unpleasant surprise
Monday morning when all your classes were wrong.
     Not to mention a few detentions.  Bad way to start the year.
     At least, that's what had been explained to me by MY Big Brother,
long ago, and I didn't think he was wrong on this one.
     On the positive side, it was a place and time to socialize a little
with the people you were somewhat friendly with and hadn't seen over the
summer.  I had about three people in that category, but there were
others who had other semi-friends, and then of course there were bits
and pieces of the Pack coming over here and then going back there.  I
wasn't over in with the Pack at the moment because Debbie was, but I had
the usual suspects to hang with, and Dan had smuggled in a twelve-pack
of Dew so we wouldn't have to pay the extortionate vending machines to
keep ourselves awake.  It had been a late night, and those sorts of
nights were always tiring.
     Also on the positive side, the freshthings were trapped in the
bleachers while us juniors roamed the floor freely, which meant it was a
lot easier to socialize, at least until the freshthings got paired off
and wandered the floor too.
     "I can't believe I'm taking that stupid class!" Jill whined.  "What
was I thinking?!"
     "You were thinking how cool it would be to hang with ME!" I said,
and she kind of laughed.
     "Why did you want to know if we had any classes or stuff we hated?"
Kim asked Mike.
     "Oh, we have a little prayer session every year before school
starts," Mike lied with great sincerity, "that's where we went after
getting the school stuff, and so we thought we could add any of you
guys' prayers to ours."
     Kim looked skeptical.
     "No, really!" I said.  "Right guys?"  They all nodded.  "Prayer is
a wonderful thing, you know," I said to Kim.
     Kim glared at me for a while, then movement caught her eye as Dan
gave another Dew to George, and then held out her hand demandingly.
     "Give her one or she'll bite you," I suggested.
     "Woo baby!" George hooted, and laughed.  That got the glare off me.

***
09:40 15 Aug

     Something had gone horribly wrong, or something, because most of
the guys that Mike and them had gotten were almost like us in certain
ways.  And the Pack seemed to be getting along with their girls, too,
from what I could see from here.  It had to be a trick or something, but
I wasn't sure how.
     Finally, one of the cheerleaders called, "Tucker, table eight!"  I
don't know why they got the cheerleaders and so on to do this, but they
did, every year.  Maybe it was to fake the freshthings out their first
day, because they all had their smiling-faces programmed in and locked.
I got a last handshake for luck from Dan and a high five from Mike and
trundled off to the table.
     I really didn't want to go the last fifteen feet, because there
were two cheerleaders there, one of them Shannon again and the other one
whose name I couldn't remember now didn't like me either, and they were
both smiling at me.  "Come on, Tuck, meet your new friend!" Shannon said
as she waved me up.
     I sighed, made sure there was an adult within running/screaming
distance, and came up to the table.  They were being superficially
pleasant as an opening bid, so I called it, smiling back and saying,
"Good morning ladies."  Next card was-
     "Kelly, this is Tucker.  Tucker, Kelly," the one who hadn't spoken
said.  "Here's your schedules and book lists," they each pulled
something out of the printers and handed us each a pile - I did check to
make sure it was my name was on it, as well as to make sure that I had
all the changes on there - "and you guys have a great year!"
     "Andrew Hatcher, Andrew Hatcher, table eight!" Shannon screamed.
     Apparently we were dismissed.

***
09:41 15 Aug

     I took another look at the new kid as we got clear of the area.  He
was a little tall for his age, almost as tall as me, and had dark blond
or light brown hair in an anime over-one-eye haircut, indeterminate eyes
that were kind of dilated, and looking pale and a little freckled.  And
confused as hell.
     "Hey, I'm Tucker," I said as I stopped, and held out my hand.
     "Uh, Kelly, Kelly Bergquist," he said, pushed up the sleeve on his
overshirt, and shook my hand.
     "Welcome to McAllen, the finest McSchool in the McDistrict," I
said, which was an old joke that he hadn't probably heard before, being
a freshthing and all.
     He chuckled a little at that.
     "We've got another, uh," I checked my watch, "thirty minutes before
they let us out of here, so you wanna come meet some of my friends?"
     "Uh, yeah, that'd be okay, I guess," he said nervously, sounding a
little strange.
     "Where you from?" I asked.
     "Alaska," he admitted.
     "Alaska?  What are you doing down here?  Migrating for the winter?"
I grinned.
     "No, my dad, he's, he's a pilot," the kid admitted again, his hands
back in the pockets of his jeans.  "He moved down here, said he wanted
me to go to a real school for high school, an' his girlfriend said she
was tired of the winters, so he transferred out here."
     "That's cool," I said, nodding.  "When did you move?"
     "Uh, we came down a couple of weeks ago," he said, looking around.
     "Wow, so you don't like know anything or anyone at all, do you?"
He shook his head as he looked down.  "Come on," I said, jerking my
head, "we'll find ya something."

***
09:46 15 Aug

     Kelly was still being quiet, but he was answering questions, and
like the other guys, they all seemed strangely right, considering the
selection process.  It was too eerie.
     "Maybe this is just Year of the Nerds, or something," George
mentioned.
     "Nerds?" asked James, who was Mike's Little Brother, and definitely
another nerd himself.  He was even wearing a Star Trek T shirt to school
this 'first day', which was a bad idea if you ever had delusions of
being socially acceptable.
     "Yeah, you know how the cliques were, back in junior high?" Mike
asked.  "It's worse."
     All the freshthings groaned at that.
     "You just come along with us and we'll have a good time," Mike
intoned. "The school's a fun place.  You'll need to have this Babel fish
in your ear."
     Everyone laughed except Kelly, who looked stunned.  "Hitchhikers,
right?" he asked me.  "The Douglas Adams books?"
     "Yeah?"
     "I thought I was the only one who read that stuff!"
     "Welcome," I said, "to the continental United States, which has
enough population to support a wide variety of freaks geeks and
perverts."  And I shook his hand again.  He still looked sort of
stunned.
     "Heh, heheh, heheheheh, you said 'pervert'," George demonstrated
his mastery of Beavis for the crowd.
     "You ARE a pervert, George," Jill said as she came up, her Little
Sister in tow.  "Annie," Jill said, "if you can stand geeks, these guys
are alright."  Annie, who was short and would have been called 'fat' if
she hadn't been so well shaped and top-heavy, kind of laughed, like she
wasn't sure if Jill was kidding or not.
     "You calling us geeks?" I asked menacingly.  Jill slapped my head.
     "Hey, are you guys going to breakfast Sunday?" Mike asked.
     I answered, "Yeah, at Boca's like usual, why?"
     "I thought maybe I could hook up with you guys- Dad wants me to do
some stuff in the morning," he sighed, "but maybe I could get there
later, and catch Jill for a bit, and work on her character and stuff."
     "Yeah, I guess," Jill said, looking at me, so I nodded.

***
10:16 15 Aug

     Surprise surprise, it had taken longer than expected to get done
matching us up, and so we were going to get out late, get the books
late, and then be late leaving.
     And, horribly, Dobson was going to continue the evil tradition of
speechifying to us before he let us go.
     "Good morning," blared the PA system, "and welcome to McAllen High
School."

***
10:31 15 Aug

     "God, what a waste of time," I sighed as we all got up and milled
around for a while, trying to get out.  It hadn't been as long as
Nickerson's, and had been much less filled with authoritarian lies, but
I wasn't sure the nice-nice words were any more believable.

***
10:36 15 Aug

     "Check ALL the numbers on ALL the books you get, and make SURE you
keep your own copy of what book has which number," I told Kelly.  "It
does help if someone steals one, and you're sure which one you started
with.  And that's why you need your own list."
     "Okay," he nodded.  "Man, you know this stuff," he told me.
     "Maybe there is a point to this Big/Little Brother/Sister thing," I
mentioned.  I had thought it stupid before.  "I mean, if you have any
questions, you'll ask, right?"  He nodded, looking a lot less stunned.
     "Thanks," he said, and smiled at me, which made me feel good.

***
11:40 15 Aug

     I hated getting books, but it was over, and I'd done my own 'issued
item' list and was ready to get the hell out of here and find Mike or go
home or something, but I couldn't leave Kelly in here.  So I waited.
     "So I heard Debbie dumped your little queer ass over the summer?"
said a nasty large voice, and I turned around to see it was Cody
Mitchell.  Today was not going to a good day for running into people I
hadn't seen in a long time, because most of the ones that hadn't seen me
in a long time didn't like me.
     "Yeah, and?  I'd stay away from her if I was you, she'd kill you,"
I said.  She would, too.
     He laughed at me.  "All that bitch needs is a REAL man to handle
her."
     And that was WHY she'd kill him.
     *Though, Tom LENICH?*
     "That definitely rules you out, then," I smiled, and ducked the
expected hand flung my way.  "Go away, Cody, before you get in trouble."
     "I'll be looking for you, freak," he said as he walked off.
     I waved a finger at him, and when he was out of earshot, I
commented, "Go fuck your dog, Cody."  Steroids had bad effects on mental
stability and impulse/rage control, I knew, and while I did casually
hate him, I also didn't want to start off the year by running for my
life.  Bad omen, I thought.
     "What was that?" Kelly asked.
     "Bad luck roll on the Wandering Random Asshole Table," I said
casually, not feeling casual.  I HAD felt almost respectable, like I was
important or knowledgable or something, until he'd showed up and the new
guy had caught it.
     "Who's Debbie?"
     I sighed again.  This was not going my way at all.  "Someone I was
dating almost all last year, and we broke up over the summer.  Really
nasty.  Don't ask about it."
     "And everyone knew about it?"
     I gave him the eye.  I mean, it wasn't impossible- hell, even
George had dated before.  "Well, it wasn't like it was a secret or
anything, but we didn't go scribbling 'Tucker plus Debbie' graffiti in
the bathrooms or anything."  Thankfully, George had learned that lesson
for all of us.  Girls do not appreciate being mentioned by name in the
places other men, or boys, go to piss.  "You got all your books?" I
asked, changing the subject.
     "Yeah..."  He was looking stunned again.
     "Wanna go look for your classrooms while we're here?" I suggested.
My 'Big Brother' hadn't done that, which meant that it was a bad first
day when classes really started.  Especially when people lied to you
about where a classroom was.

***
11:42 15 Aug

     "Hey, Tuck, we're taking off," Jill said as she came up to me.  Kim
still did not look too pleased at being awake.  "We'll pick you up
Sunday at nine, right?"  I nodded.  "When's Mike getting there?"
     "He said maybe ten thirty.  You ready to build another character?"
     "You know it!"
     We slapped hands, then she hugged me and then Kim hugged me and
then they left.  Jill called over her shoulder, "See ya!" and Kim just
waved blindly.
     Kelly was staring at them as they walked off, like he couldn't
believe what he'd just seen.

***
11:48 15 Aug

     It was a lot less crowded in the school itself, since no one had to
be here yet, and it was only the smarter freshthings or their benevolent
overlords (like me) that were in here walking around.
     "So, I mean, you like girls?" Kelly finally said out loud.
     I sighed.  *He hasn't even known me two hours and he's already
picking up the meme that 'gay' was anyone that didn't fondle balls for
an extracurricular activity.*
     Which, when I thought about what I'd thought, made me laugh.
     "Uh, yeah," I said through the laughter.  "Yeah, it's okay, I mean,
I'm allowed, you know.  Got my license to date and everything."
     "Oh," he said, looking dazed and confused.
     "And there are a FEW girls that will date someone like me," I said.
"Not a whole bunch, but a few."
     "Really?"
     "Yeah... well, Debbie and a few others did," I shrugged.
     "Wow," he said, nodding.  "That's really cool!"  He sounded WAY
nervous at the concept, which was sort of amusing and sort of disturbing
at the same time.
     I changed the subject with, "So what's your second period class?"

***
12:22 15 Aug

     We'd gotten done complaining over the computer lab- well, I'd been
complaining; Kelly had been going, "Damn!  Computers!" like he didn't
have any at his old school, which he told me he hadn't.
     Which was a scary concept, when I thought about it.
     Anyway, we'd left after that, which was about the last stop, and I
said, "So, that's it, I guess.  See ya on Monday?  At that lunch spot I
showed you, right?"
     "That's it?"
     "What, you want more?  We could go see the stadium or something..."
     "No...  I mean, how do I get home?"
     "Uh, the buses..."  I checked my watch.  "Uh oh."
     "What?"
     "I think they left at twelve."
     "Oh..."  His face fell amazingly far when I said that.
     "Hey, look, I have a car, I can give you a ride home or some- wait,
I didn't have breakfast, you wanna get something to eat for lunch or
something?" I offered.  "No, wait, it's noon, bad time... how about I
show you a bookstore or something, I might know where one is close to
you, and we wait until the lunch rush is done, THEN we get something to
eat, and THEN I take you home.  You have keys to your house, right?"
     "Yeah, uh...  You'd do that?  For me?"
     "Yeah!  I mean, it was sort of my fault you missed the bus home
anyway, wasn't it?  Anyway, come on."

***
12:29 15 Aug

     The parking lot was filling up again, this time with the seniors, I
guess, or maybe the older sophs who had cars, or their parents, or
something.  I didn't care, I wanted to get out of here.  Half a day of
school was better than a full day, and I WAS hungry.  *Guess all that
kid watching, and cooking for 'em, got me used to eating too much.*
     "Why do you have diapers in your car?" he asked after I'd opened
his door.
     I looked, and in the back seat I DID have an empty box.  I vaguely
remembered it from the last time Amy and I...
     *Damn, she's gone,* I realized.  *Shit.*
     "Uh," I said as I unlocked my own door.  "I'm, and don't laugh, I
babysit kids for a job, and one of em's about a year old and still needs
diapers."
     "You babysit?" he asked.
     "Don't give me shit about it either," I said.  "It's good money, at
least where I'm working," I said louder as I got in.
     "How much?"
     "I got a raise, for the school year," I started.

***
12:40 15 Aug

     "That's cool," Kelly mentioned, nodding his head.  "I kinda like
Wilson Phillips."
     "I don't know them... got any tapes or CD's?"
     "Uh, not with me..."
     "No sweat," I waved it off.  "See, look, in here, right?" as I
turned into the little shopping center that had a small but decent used
bookstore.
     "Oh, man," he said happily.  "This is right by my house, I think?"
     "It's pretty close," I estimated.  He'd told me where he lived, but
we hadn't actually gone there yet.
     "Can we go in?"
     "I'm not loaning you money," I warned.
     He kind of gave me a grin.  "My dad said, he gave me some money to
use for a cab, if I had to take one home..."
     "You made me take you home when you could have taken a cab?"
     "You offered?" he said worriedly.
     "I...  Yeah, I did, didn't I?" I said after I thought about it a
minute.  "You wouldn't get in trouble buying books with it instead of
giving it back to him?"  I had an answer in mind I was not-looking for.
     "Nah, not really," he said casually.  "I'll just tell him I spent
it on books and lunch, instead of a cab, and he'll take it out of my
allowance.  That's why I was hoping not to spend it on a cab home..."
     "'Kay," I nodded.  That wasn't the answer I was not-looking for.
Which was a good thing.

***
13:24 15 Aug

     I wasn't sure how much cab rides cost in Alaska, but I had the
feeling that I didn't want to find out, if this was how much 'Dad' had
guessed it would cost for his son to get home.  Or maybe it was for
several cab rides...
     "Man this is COOL!" Kelly enthused as he took both of his sacks and
we headed back out to my car.  "How come you didn't buy much?"
     "Uh, well," I said, "I already have a lot, and I don't have much
time, and I DO want to keep my grades up, AND I'm working..."  This was
depressing, I realized.  "Oh!  And I'm getting a laptop!"  That was not
at all depressing.  "So I need to save my money for that."
     "A laptop?!"
     "Yeah-  I told you the babysitting deal was good, didn't I?" I
chuckled.  "Anyway, um, my folks said they'd go halfsies on it, match
whatever I put in moneywise, since I did a lot of heavy-duty cooking for
them over the summer and stuff, and so I just gotta find out which one I
want, and order it."
     "Man," he said, looking really impressed.
     "Hey, you like Chinese food?" I asked.

***
13:39 15 Aug

     I felt like something less adventurous, myself, but Kelly was
showing every sign of enjoying the Szechuan pork - which I HAD warned
him about - and not screaming or exploding.  In fact, he kept grinning
at me.
     I'd almost forgotten what it was like to have adult company for
lunch.

***
14:30 15 Aug

     "Thanks for the ride!" Kelly said as he held my car door open.
"See ya Monday, right?"
     "Yeah, somewhere in the maelstrom," I agreed.  "Look for us around
lunch, okay?"
     "Yeah, okay, thanks!" he said, sounding really happy, and slammed
the door and waved before he walked off towards the apartment building.
     I felt pretty damned good, I realized.

***

Thanks to the Littles Crew:

Chris, for Karen Stockman, Matt Wilson, and Paul Grant
Chris and Linda, for Cory Garner
Cory, for Sally Shu (Xiu)
Explorer, for Anne Marie Huston
Linda, for Bridgette & Sean Alderson
Lisa, for Gina Schaeffer
Nykki, for Bob Cason
Rose, for James Cooper and Janet Williams
Valerie, for Valerie Faciszewski

and the other Freshthings:
Lisa, for Bill, Chris, Pao, Dmitri, Mike, John, David, and Jeff
Rose for Bernie
and the mysterious 'X', for Jared


Distribution:
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person or group.
Permission is given to redistribute this by electronic means, as long as
the entirety of the work (from the BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE header to
the END PGP SIGNATURE footer) is distributed, and credit is given to the
original author, me.  And no fee may be charged.
Archiving is permitted provided no fee is charged for access.

All rights reserved.


+ ==[--------   Ellen Hayes   @>--,--'---      ellen@barkingduck.net +
PGP DH/DSS keyfing: 33D4 156A AE39 53E2 0313  6714 2878 56A8 61B0 9CDC
+ http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes -=[1990]=- vicki .sig virus 11.4 +


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