Dead Hunt (3 page)

It was going to be one hell of a fight after
school.

“Ok Michael, what happened?” The principal
demanded as he closed the office door hard and plopped in the chair
behind his desk.

Mr. MacIntyre knew his students, some better
than others, but the students also knew him. If the principal used
your first name in these types of situations, that meant he was
mildly upset or maybe even a little pissed. If he used your last
name, he was really irritated, and if he used your full name, then
you were pretty much toast.

For some reason he always referred to Paul by
his last name. Paul always managed to get under the principal’s
skin regardless of the circumstances.

“I punched Paul,” Michael explained in a
dead-pan voice as if the answer was obvious. “He only swung back in
self-defense. I ducked and he hit Wade by mistake. Wade was only
defending himself. It’s not their fault, sir. It’s mine. I started
it.”

Both teens looked at Michael with stunned
looks on their faces.

“You...punched…Connors?” the principal asked
in slow, steady syllables, equally as stunned.

“Yes, sir,” Michael said rubbing his hand.
“It was like punching a tree.”

The other two boys chuckled. The principal
shot a dirty look their way. Mr. MacIntyre had a weird looking vein
on his forehead that was just below his receding hairline, and
whenever he got mad, the vein seemed to stick out a little further
and grow a little longer. Right now it looked as if the vein was
throbbing.

The boys stopped laughing.

The principal looked from Michael to Paul and
back again. He said nothing for what seemed like an eternity before
turning to Wade.

“What do you have to say, Mr. Adams?” When he
used 'mister' you could tell he was pissed, just not necessarily
pissed at you.

“It’s like my mate said, Mr. MacIntyre,
self-defense.”

The principal was not buying it.

“Care to explain why you hit Connors?” he
asked Michael.

“I don’t like him.”

Paul and Wade tried to hide a smile. It
didn’t work.

“Something funny, gentlemen?”

“No, sir,” they replied in unison.

“Listen, Michael,” the principal took on a
more understanding tone, “just tell me what really happened and he
is out of here. You do not have to be afraid of Connors.”

Michael looked directly into the principal’s
eyes.

“If I was afraid of him, I wouldn’t have hit
him.”

Paul hid a laugh behind a cough; Wade turned
his head to hide his smile. Michael was making it real hard for the
two of them to not burst out laughing. If that vein in MacIntyre’s
head throbbed any more it might explode.

Michael could be cocky when he wanted to be,
and it was obvious he was not the least bit intimidated by the
principal’s cold stare.

MacIntyre leaned back in his chair and stared
at the three boys. He did not care how good a football player
Connors was, he was a bully and he wanted him out of his school. He
finally had his chance to expel him, but Michael was making it
difficult. He did not want to expel a top student like Michael
because he finally had the courage to stand up to a bully, and
there was no way he was going to send Wade back to Australia for
defending himself.

The problem was that, if he left those two
off the hook, he had no choice but to give up his chance to expel
Connors.

“Well, Connors,” he finally announced, “looks
like you got a Get Out of Jail Free card.” He paused as he stared
hard at Paul. “This time.”

He stood up and walked to the front of his
desk, looking at Michael.

“I trust you’ve got that out of your system
and are through punching students?”

“Yes, sir,” Michael replied.

“The three of you report to detention, now!”
MacIntyre ordered. “And Connors, I trust there will be no
retribution on your part.”

“Nope, I’m good.” Paul answered with a
smile.

Everyone doubted that answer.

“What about you?” the principal asked,
looking at Wade.

“No worries, Mate.”

“Good. If I hear that the three of you
decided to resume your little shenanigans, you are all suspended.
Do I make myself clear?”

They nodded.

“Don’t think for a minute that you are
fooling me with this ridiculous story,” MacIntyre told them, “So
all three of you can consider yourselves on probation. That means I
don’t care if it’s on school property or not, if I hear you were
fighting, you are all expelled. Got it?”

All three nodded again as MacIntyre growled,
“Now get out of here.”

They left the office and one of the teachers
who helped break up the fight escorted them to detention. When
MacIntyre was sure they were out of earshot he let out the laugh he
was suppressing.

“Michael punched Connors! I would have paid
to see that!”

Detention hall was empty and all three boys
sat, arms folded, without saying a word. Eventually the teacher
grew bored with the silence and stepped out of the room. They
always did.

“Why?” Paul asked in a flat, monotone
voice.

The other two looked at him.

“I can understand Outback Jack there picking
up for you,” Paul explained, “But why did you take the heat?”

“You may not give a shit about getting
expelled,” Michael answered, “but there is a whole student body,
and a football team, that does care. They want to win the
championship this year, and, as much as I hate to admit it, they
probably can’t do it without you. I did it for them, not you. And I
wasn’t about to let this guy get deported for helping me.”

Paul leaned back and said nothing. A few
minutes later he mumbled, “I can respect that.” Another long pause
later he added, “Thanks.”

“For what?” Michael asked.

Paul ignored his question and turned his
attention to Wade, “You’re one tough, friggin’ Aussie. That punch
would have knocked out a lesser man.”

“I saw bloody stars, Mate.” Wade laughed.
“That would have been bloody humiliating, to stand up to you and
get knocked out with one punch. No worries about deporting me, I
would have swum all the way back to Australia in shame.”

They all laughed.

Paul rubbed his jaw, “You gotta mighty mean
hook yourself.”

“I didn’t think you even felt it,” Wade said
with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, I felt it,” Paul smiled.

“For the record,” Wade told Michael, “hitting
him is like punching a tree. What the hell do you have in your
head?” he asked Paul.

“Just concrete and stuff,” Paul answered with
a grin.

They all laughed again; more awkward silence
followed.

“Everyone probably thinks we are going to
finish this after school,” Paul finally said, and Wade nodded in
agreement.

“I think it’s safe to say,” Paul continued,
rubbing his jaw, “if we go at it again, we’ll both probably land in
the hospital.”

“Bloody oath, Mate.”

“What?” Paul asked.

“True enough.” Wade explained, “So….we
good?”

Paul nodded, “We good.”

And, from that point on, they became good
friends. It wasn’t every day that Paul met someone who not only
stood up to him, but would have actually given him a run for his
money. He wasn’t afraid of Wade, but he knew it would be one a hell
of a fight, and win, lose, or draw, he would have been hurting for
many days. Wade was tough and stood up for someone, and Paul
respected him for that.

He still disliked Michael, but he did respect
the fact that even though Michael knew he didn’t have a prayer
against him, he still stood his ground. And more importantly,
Michael could have easily had him expelled but had been willing to
take the blame for the better of the entire school. He had to
respect someone who put other people first. Michael still got on
his nerves, especially when he caught him staring at his
girlfriend, but he respected what Michael did and decided to leave
him alone.

Wade and Michael also became good friends.
Wade started to attend Paul’s football games and always invited
Michael.

Over time Paul learned to tolerate Michael,
and though he would never admit it, he occasionally enjoyed having
Michael around. They still disliked each other for the most part,
one good deed was not about to undo years of torment and hatred,
but they could at least be civilized to each other.

Paul still made the occasional dig at him,
but it was more in jest than to be mean. Paul learned that Michael
was pretty quick with the come-backs and wasn’t afraid to voice his
opinion.

Paul jokingly challenged Michael to a game of
‘knuckles’, fully expecting Michael to be wincing like a little
girl within a few minutes, and quickly learned that Michael had
more than just a quick mind; he also had reflexes like a cat,
because it was Paul who was getting the sore hands from the game.
Even Wade tried, and Michael beat him at the game too. What Michael
lacked in physical size he more than compensated for with quick wit
and lightening-fast hands.

Paul and Wade started teaching Michael how to
defend himself, not that Michael would ever need protection when he
had those two around, but they both insisted he learn how to defend
himself and start lifting something other than school books. It
took some doing, but they finally managed to get his nose out of
the books and into the gym.

“If he ever decides to put those fast hands
of his in a pair of boxing gloves,” Wade told Paul, “he’d be bloody
dangerous.”

“He already is dangerous,” Paul answered on
one of those rare moments he was actually being serious. “The rest
of his body just doesn’t know it yet.”

Other than that one, brief interlude of
giving Michael a compliment, Paul constantly complained about
Michael to Lucy. He told her that if Wade insisted on dragging that
geek along, he at least had to try to make him less ‘geeky’; he had
his own reputation to protect. Lucy just laughed.

An outsider might have believed those two
were actually becoming friends, but Lucy was not an outsider, and
she fully expected that little house of cards to come crashing
down.

Lucy knew how much Michael irritated Paul,
especially when Paul caught Michael staring at her. She didn’t like
the way he sometimes looked at her either, but she would be the
least of Michael’s worries.

Paul had a nasty jealous streak, and even
Wade would not be able to stop him from stomping Michael into the
ground if Michael did not learn to keep his eyes to himself.

Paul and Michael’s friendship, for the lack
of a better term, was putting extra pressure on her, and she did
not like it one bit. She had to be constantly aware that she did
not say anything to Michael that Paul might misinterpret.

It was all quite exhausting, and even though
she was glad Michael was no longer subject to Paul’s constant
bullying, her life was a hell of a lot simpler when he was.

CHAPTER 2 – Road Trip

“Whose van?” Lucy asked as she threw her
duffel bags into the blue Chevy.

“My sponsor family said I could borrow it so
we could come support our school. Team spirit and all,” Wade
smirked.

Lauren spoke up. “Team spirit hell, you came
here to see tits and ass.”

“Really? I didn’t even notice,” Wade’s smile
broadened. “There were Sheilas there?”

“You didn’t notice?” Emma laughed. “Than why
were you tripping over your own tongues? The three of you looked
like a pack of dogs in heat.”

They all laughed.

“So, why are you driving?” Lucy asked Paul as
he slid behind the wheel.

“He drove up, I’m driving back. Hey, Emma,”
Paul snickered, turning his head to the back seats, “what does a
blonde say after sex?”

“What?” Emma asked, never knowing what lame
blonde joke Paul was going to come up with next.

“You guys all play on the same team?” Paul
laughed.

All three girls groaned and rolled their
eyes.

“Speaking of playing on the same team,”
Lauren announced excitedly, “did you hear the latest about that
slut, Kelly Gets?”

“What’s your beef with her anyway?” Emma
asked. “And why does everyone call her Kelly Gets? Her name is
Kelly Peterson!”

“Oh, my God, Emma, I can’t believe you’re
that naive,” Lauren answered.

“What?” Emma asked.

“Gets, as in every boy ‘gets’ whatever he
wants,” Lucy explained.

“Really?” Emma’s eyes opened wide in shocked
disbelief.

“I heard she took on the whole football
team,” Lauren said with more than a hint of disgust in her voice.
Lucy shot a dirty look to Paul.

“I never touched her,” Paul said defensively.
“I wouldn’t fuck that skank with Mikey’s dick.”

“I wouldn’t let you,” Michael answered.
Everyone laughed.

“Well, most of the team. Same diff,” Lauren
added.

“Why would she do that?” Emma asked. “It’s
not like she’s ugly and couldn’t get a boy to notice her.”

“My dear little Emma,” Lauren laughed, “it
has nothing to do with getting boys to notice her. Kelly Gets is
just a slut, plain and simple. And apparently, it takes a football
team to satisfy her.”

“Wow,” Emma was confused, “if she’s that
easy, why would boys even have anything to do with her? Aren’t they
worried about STDs?”

Lauren placed a hand on Emma’s shoulder and
explained, “Because men are pigs, sweetie. They can only think with
one head at a time, and the little one is the one they usually
think with. They will stick it in anything that opens their legs
for them.”

“Not everyone,” Michael corrected her.

“Bullshit,” Lauren argued. “You’re all alike.
You’d screw a hole in a tree stump if you needed to get your rocks
off.”

“Wait a second,” Paul interrupted, “how did
the conversation turn from Kelly Gets to Male Bashing 101?”

“She didn’t have sex with herself,” Lauren
rolled her eyes. “And, as much as I hate that bitch, the team is
just as pathetic as she is.”