TAC Boot Camp

by Richard Pinkerton

CHAPTER 16:

  The Backlash Continues

  Wal was still in a good mood come Friday and arrived at school that morning looking forward to telling all his friends about his extra-curricular activities.

  ‘I wondered what had happened to you guys,’ said Rog Shepherd as a group of them assembled outside E Block, waiting for the morning bell to ring. ‘And Mav and Pete went with you? Maybe they aren’t such the nerds that I thought they were.’

  ‘Ah gee, thanks, Sheep,’ Mav said to their fair headed acquaintance. ‘You don’t know how much it means to have your seal of approval. Pete and I can finally rest easy knowing that Rog Shepherd now sees us as equals.’

  ‘Hey, I never said you were my equal.’ Sheep smirked.

  ‘Well weren’t you suggesting that we were only just slightly less of a nerd than before?’

  Sheep eyed him a puckered brow, but said no more. Wal couldn’t help but snicker. He loved it when guys like Mav put Sheep in his place. Although Sheep was the athletic type like Wal, he was a little too egotistical for Wal’s liking.

  When Vanessa arrived, Wal wanted to promote his day to her as well, in the hope that she might be impressed. ‘Hey, Nessa. You missed out on a great game yesterday. You should have been there.’

  ‘Oh, so you went did, you? Did you enjoy all the sweaty men in tight shorts?’

  ‘They don’t wear tight shorts.’ Wal smirked.

  ‘Oh, you noticed how tight they were, did you? Well tight shirts then. Don’t they wear those really tight ones that stop the other guys from grabbing hold of them? Ah, never mind, I could never see the appeal of two guys making out. Seems kind of gross to me.’

  Wal smiled. ‘Have you ever made out in the middle of an arena full of people?’

  ‘Yeah huh! At a concert with one of my girlfriends. In fact, I think more people were watching us than the actual band.’

  Wal didn’t quite know how to reply to that; his mind was too full of thoughts of Vanessa making out with an equally as hot chick.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ Mav said. ‘Wal stumped for words. You know, Vanessa, you seem to be the first girl in Te Arawa College who can do that to Wal on a regular occasion.’

  ‘I try. Although, I worry that I’m filling Wal’s head with too much erotic imagery.’

  ‘He’s not the only one,’ Pete said. ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to concentrate on my work today because of it.’

  ‘Pete, you are just too damn sweet.’ Vanessa tweaked his cheek, leaving a broad smile on his face. Wal envied that. If only she’d say things like that to him and tweak his cheek. Although it was probably as Mav suggested, just her nice way of saying "you're an idiot". At least she had written him a note though, something Wal very much doubted she’d do for Pete.

  Pete gazed at Vanessa thoughtfully. ‘It’s a true story, right?’

  ‘Yeah huh!’ Vanessa said. ‘Why would you think it wasn’t?’

  Sheep spoke up, ‘Well I sure hope it’s true. Anyway Nessa, where were you yesterday? Both you and Rex disappeared for the rest of the day.’

  ‘We were in town too.’

  ‘What?’ Wal thought back to his meeting with Trent Nord at the arcade. He’d told him then that Rex was nearby, but he never realised his words had turned out to be the truth. ‘Us guys were wandering around town a bit before the game. We never saw you.’

  ‘Probably because they saw you first, Wal,’ joked Mav with a smirk.

  ‘That’ll explain it,’ Sheep said.

  Wal simply cast them both an evil glare.

  ‘We were there for lunch with my Dad,’ Vanessa said. Her smile disappeared and she gazed down at the ground. ‘My mum knows he’s here now, so all hell broke loose when I got home. Now mum is talking about moving to another town.’

  ‘No way!’ a few of them chimed in.

  Wal’s jaw dropped and his good mood quickly vanished. No, he thought to himself. This had to be some kind of sick joke.

  ‘I’m afraid it’s true. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. She’s made up her mind.’

  Wal stood straight. ‘We’ll convince her to stay. We’ll think of something.’

  ‘Well I hope you do,’ Vanessa said. ‘Because I really really don’t want to leave.’ She closed her eyes and shook her head. She opened them and smiled again. ‘Anyway. I don’t want to think about that. Let’s just enjoy the day.’

  Come interval, Wal prepared his gear for the next class of the day when Trent Nord entered his line of sight. ‘Hi, Will.’

  Wal had no time for juniors, unless they were female and cute. Then he liked to play the role of the personable tough guy. ‘What do you want, Nord? And the name’s Wal, not Will.’

  ‘Umm… I wanted to know if you’d help me.’

  ‘Help you?’ snorted Wal. ‘Why would I help you?’

  ‘I heard you’re one of the few that will stand up to Tucker Pyles and his friends.’

  ‘So what?’

  ‘I’m worried about him beating me up.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I’m paying him protection money.’

  Wal raised an eyebrow. ‘What for?’

  Trent hesitated. ‘Well against bullies. So that I don’t get beaten up.’

  Wal stared at him for a few seconds then burst out laughing, tickled pink at the irony. The poor junior could only stare at him in confusion as he chuckled away. He finally stopped laughing and replied, ‘So let me get this straight. A bully is bullying you into paying protection money so that other bullies won’t bully you? Kind of like the business that pays the mafia protection money so that they won’t raid their business? Kind of like God offering you salvation from himself? Yeah, that sounds like a wise investment.’

  Trent flinched. ‘I know, I realise now it was stupid, but if I try to back out of the deal, Tucker will be angry. And he might get his two pals Ash and Hew onto me. Will you help me? I need you to just come with me and explain to Tucker I no longer want his services. I’ll even pay you twenty bucks… well next week I will, because I’ve already paid Tucker twenty bucks this week.’

  ‘You’re paying him twenty bucks a week?’ Wal couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing again, unable to believe how stupid this junior was. ‘HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Oh boy, you are one gullible twit. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!’

  Trent hung his head. ‘Yeah…’

  Wal did feel some compassion for the guy, but he had a reputation to uphold as being cold and intimidating. The last thing he wanted was juniors thinking they could come to him for help. ‘You’re an idiot, Nord and I don’t help idiots. Sorry mate, but you have to deal with this on your own.’ Wal grabbed his gear and left the locker area. He refused to look back because he didn’t want to see the poor junior looking dejected. He worried he might feel too much compassion for the guy.

  He hadn’t gone far when Wayne Clooney stepped up to him, preventing him from going any further. ‘Hey, Ullman!’

  ‘Get out of my way, Clooney, you moron.’

  ‘I got something I want to talk to you about.’

  ‘Why would I want to talk to you?’

  ‘Because ignoring me could get you into a lot of strife.’

  Wal rolled his eyes. ‘Ok, Clooney, what’s all the BS?’

  ‘It’s got to do with you being at the rugby. You realise you’d be in real deep shit if Mr Harris found out about you skipping school to go to that match.’

  ‘Well he hasn’t, otherwise he would have hauled us into the office by now.’

  ‘What if he finds out?’

  ‘Well then, we’ll all be in the poo, won’t we?’

  ‘Not me. Because I wasn’t there.’

  Wal burst out laughing. ‘What? Weren’t there? So, I guess it was just my imagination, me running into you like I did.’

  ‘I guess it must have been. Did Pete and Mav see me there?’

  ‘I told them you were around.’

  ‘But did they see me?’

  ‘No… but
…’

  ‘Well then it’s your word against mine. Besides, my parents called me in sick. As far as they’re aware I was at home all day and their phone call will be good enough for the school.’

  ‘Well you don’t have to worry, Clooney, you know I’m not a nark.’

  ‘Yeah, but I am.’

  Wal reeled and stared at him. ‘What, you’re going to tell Harris we were there? You would be virtually admitting the fact you were there. Besides, like you said, it’s just your word against mine.’

  ‘No, actually, it’s more than that, Ullman.’ Wayne handed him over an envelope. ‘Take a look.’

  Wal opened the envelope and found photographs, printed out onto paper. It showed him with Mav and Pete enjoying the rugby game.

  Wal scowled, he grabbed the photographs and tore them in two. ‘What’s the big idea, Clooney?’

  Wayne smirked. ‘You can rip them up, but I’ve got more on my computer. I’ll just print out more.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘Oh, I just want you to do a few favours for me from time to time.’

  ‘Favours for you? Get real, Clooney!’ Wal clenched his fist, wanting to swat the guy one, but held off, worried about what the guy intended on doing with the pictures.

  ‘If you don’t want copies of these to get into the hands of Mr Harris, you better do exactly what I say.’

  ‘I don’t give a shit if you give these to Harris. Think I’ll worry if I get suspended?’

  Wayne chuckled. ‘Yeah, you might not worry about yourself, but what about your buddies, Mav and Cooks? Don’t you care about them?’

  Wal tensed up as he realised the ramifications of Wayne’s threat. ‘Why are you doing this, Clooney? I know you don’t like me much, but why bring Mav and Pete into this?’

  ‘I just saw an opportunity and decided to take it.’

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ Wal said and gritted his teeth.

  ‘Oh, just a few little jobs. The first thing I want you to do is perform a little hit for me.’

  ‘I don’t do hits!’ Wal shook, trying to withhold his rage.

  ‘Today, you do. Unless of course you want copies of those photographs handed to Mr Harris. So, what will it be?’

  Wal burned inside, but knew he had no choice but to go along with Wayne’s commands for now. ‘Who do you want beaten up?’