Nuclear War Club: Seven high school students are in detention when Nuclear War explodes.Game on, they are on their own. (6 page)

Credit was given by Doron to the student, with a close up web camera shot of the student’s school yearbook photo.

“Today’s homework hero is..” To be on one of Doron’s homework videos, or one of the live test prep Skype casts, was heady rock star status for the geek set, especially for their parents who downloaded the videos, burned them on Dvds, and proudly sent them to relatives. Teachers began to realize the power of the website when students gave a standing ovation to a surprised homework rock star during lunch one week.

“I will give you one month’s blog, then we will evaluate where we stand. But I
require
eight passwords for me
to distribute, and two homework hero videos, one for me and one for Angela,” Becky said.

Everyone looked at Doron. He paused, weighing his response.

“Whatever. Agreed,” he said, handing her eight password cards.

“Email me your blog, and use spellcheck,” he said, as they left.

Angela took David’s photo from Becky and pressed it to her chest.

They immediately turned and fled back to their table, where the other seventh grade girls were giggling. Angela had never said a word, he could hear Becky explain, “See, they are just like my brothers, with boys you have to
tell
them exactly what to do.”

“Mind if I look?” asked Karen looking at the photos.

“Sure,” said David.

Zeke and Doron moved around the table to look also.

There were 48 photos, and 37 shots were of David. David on the bench, David taking off his helmet, David running to the huddle, David throwing the ball. All David, all the time.

As far as these seventh grade girls were concerned, the entire football game was just background to photograph David, Doron thought.

“Circle these two,” Zeke demanded, pointing to two shots showing him with David. David immediately eliminated the ones with him in a clean uniform.

Ashley Kensington chose that precise moment to make her entrance. Doron saw she was wearing a cheerleader uniform which somehow seemed to lift, project, emphasize, and exaggerate her firm and bountiful breasts. The carefully styled blond hair, deep blue eyes, long legs, and revealing cheerleading uniform made a stunning combination. Doron saw her grin briefly when some ninth grade boys said she was
ripe
.

Doron noted Ashley’s eyes quickly swept all the tables, then walked over to their table. After all, Doron thought, David, Zeke, and yours truly were all on the A prime list, worthy of her, where else would she go?

Matt Dimon saw her, waved, and came over. Ashley bumped him with her hip, and they sat down next to Zeke. Ashley draped her knee possessively over Matt’s leg. He laid his hand on her thigh underneath the edge of her skirt hem under the table, but visible to Doron and the lecherous ninth grade boys in the table behind, as she smiled. One of the boys watched with wide eyes and mouthed “Yes, Yes!” to his friend silently.

People at other tables turned to watch. Ashley had her audience, Doron thought, as he glanced at Karen. But Karen concealed any facial reaction.

Doron noticed that neither Matt nor Ashley introduced themselves to Karen. Karen said nothing, and her face remained impassive, as the bell rang. It was as if Karen did not even exist in Ashley world.

“Who was that next to Zeke, holding court with the A list?” Doron overheard Ashley whisper to her friend as they left the lunchroom.

“Her name is Karen Wilson. She transferred over this year when the district school zones changed. Her Dad is a hired ranch hand, and they live in a trailer at the Sierra Madre Ranch,” her friend replied.

“Trailer trash,” Doron heard Ashley reply, rolling her eyes.

Doron looked at Karen, who was walking next to him. He knew Karen had heard Ashley also, but she didn’t seem angry, or even concerned. It was as if Ashley was irrelevant.

10.

“Watch out for Dimon,” Zeke warned David quietly when the bell rang.

“Word is you are heading for a beat down by his posse,” Zeke said.

“He didn’t seem angry,” David replied.

“Not the place, not the time. Boy knows he needs backup. Watch your back, he won’t fight fair,” Zeke said, pointing both fingers to his eyes, then to David, as he walked off. David nodded thanks for the heads up.

Zeke saw that both Doron and David walked Karen to her locker. On the Geiger counter of school popularity among the insecure and shallow, the girl was now radioactive, he thought.

Zeke rushed over when Ashley and Matt Dimon walked by Karen’s locker. He saw Matt glance both ways, to be sure the social studies teacher was not in the hall watching, then turned and slammed his hand on the locker next to Karen. Matt turned to David and said, “Coach says you will be taking some snaps today on first team.”

“He’s the Coach,” David said evenly, moving between Matt and Karen. Zeke sensed the fight was going down, so he prepared to block any of Matt’s friends from the offensive line standing nearby.

“If you are smart, you will stay on defense,” Matt glared, “less likely to get injured on defense.”

“Maybe you can help me learn all the plays. Coach gave me
your
wrist band with the plays.” David said, emphasizing the word “your” lifting up his long sleeve to show the play summary covered by a plastic covering, and stepping closer to Dimon.

What Zeke saw happen next was recorded better than many NFL plays--by two hall surveillance cameras, and three student phones who loaded it instantaneously on the internet
site Periscope. Zeke learned it was watched repeatedly in slow motion by every student in school, all day, for the rest of the day.

Matt swiftly swung his right arm to punch David in the face. But the camera angle hid Matt’s first move as he was shielded from view by both Karen and Doron.

When Matt pivoted, he shoved Karen, to get her out of the way so he could hit David. But he seemed surprised when, Karen, who had seen many brawls between ranch hands, quickly shoved Matt, knocking him slightly off balance.

Ashley screamed what she later claimed was, “You Witch” at Karen, clearly audible on the video. Zeke and everyone knew what she really said.

Zeke was impressed when David quickly slammed Dimon’s face into the locker and pinned his left arm behind him, twisting up. He realized Karen would get really messed up if she got a misdirected punch to her face from either David or Matt, and quickly snatched her out of the way, running into Doron.

Security officers blew whistles, rushed over, and broke it up. The security officers took Zeke and everyone to the Discipline Dean’s office.

“What did you see,” the Dean asked the security officers.

“The blond haired kid slammed Matt Dimon against the locker, and the black haired girl helped him slam Matt Dimon. We broke it up,” the overweight officer summarized, breathing heavily.

“Did Matt Dimon hit anyone first?” she asked.

“Not that we could see, but there should be video,” the officer replied.

Zeke remembered that under the absurd no tolerance rules, fighting, could result in immediate suspension and possibly expulsion.

“Why did you bring in Zeke Brown and Doron Cohen?” she asked.

“Zeke Brown was guarding Matt Dimon’s friends and kept them out, he may have been in on this. Zeke physically grabbed the black haired girl and we could not see if Doron also hit Matt,” he replied.

Zeke started to respond, but she motioned for him to shut up, with a finger over her lips.

“Anything else?” she asked.

“Yes, Ashley Kensington called the black haired girl a name, she said it was Witch,” he concluded.

“I will watch the video,” the Dean said, “Please wait outside and put everyone in a separate room.”

11.

The Dean watched Matt slam the locker twice.

“Karen’s actions could be self-defense,” the Dean said.

The Dean’s desk phone beeped.

“Yes,” the Dean responded.

“Coach Durant on line 4, he says it’s urgent.”

“I understand you have both my quarterbacks in for a small dust up,” Coach said.

Coach got the word literally before she did. With texting, parents and teachers frequently knew before she interviewed the students.

“No Coach, we have a serious matter, not a dust up,” she replied heatedly

“Now hold on, Dean, I am sure it was just a misunderstanding. They are just butting heads for the starting position next Friday night, it’s to be expected,” Coach explained.

The Dean suddenly understood, he was terrified that she would suspend both quarterbacks and Coach would be naked for next Friday’s division game.

“I warned you before, they better keep the physical contact on the football field!” she replied.

“Let me come down, I am sure we can straighten this out,” Coach urged.

“No!” she replied. “I will let you know what happens,” she said as she hung up.

The Intercom buzzed again.

“What!” she snapped.

“Dr. Dimon, Matt Dimon’s father on line three.”

“Take a message,” she replied.

“He says Matt has an attorney for this brutal attack, and will not be giving you any statements,” the harried secretary blurted out.

“Brutal attack?” the Dean thought. From a kid who has thirty pounds on the alleged attacker, and is angry he cannot be the starting QB on the football field. Lawyered up in less than seven minutes, she thought. She reached over and called the School Board’s legal counsel emergency hotline.

She hated to admit it, Doron Cohen was so wearisome , but he had convincingly argued Matt Dimon started the fight. He had even diagramed the camera angle and why Matt’s actions and first move did not appear on video. Then she found out Doron sent a blanket email alert to everyone using
geek. peek
asking for video of the fight. Doron edited these in slow Motion and showed them to her.

After the attorney and the Dean talked to all the students but Matt, the attorney suggested one day of after school detention as their sole punishment.

“If the students refuse the one day detention, they could have a formal hearing with the risk of suspension. Matt Dimon would not be offered the deal, he demanded a suspension hearing, he would get one,” the school board lawyer explained.

She agreed. Dr. Dimon wanted to lawyer up, how about some payback.

All the students, David, Karen, Zeke, Doron and even Ashley, accepted the plea deal of one day after school detention that afternoon. It was a good deal, only available because Matt had lawyered up. Doron was very reluctant, and wanted to fight the charge. But Doron’s Mother, who had been texted by another student, screamed in her Skype video call to Doron that he could not risk his acceptance to college over a disciplinary action.

“Suck it up, it’s one afternoon detention, with no grade impact or discipline record. I don’t care if you are innocent!” Doron’s Mom shouted. Everyone could hear Doron’s Mom scream through the wall in the Dean’s office.

Doron came back into her office.

“I decided to take the detention,” Doron calmly told her.

12.

David thought you could learn a great deal about students from observing what they brought to detention, since no smart phones, laptops, or other electronic devices were allowed. He had brought the football play book Coach had given him.

He watched Doron bring twelve printed pages from the electronic text in Physics, and Calculus III. It was all the pages he could print with his cash card. Doron had to stay busy, detention was an hour long.

Karen Wilson brought reading assignments from World Literature. Ashley Kensington brought the expensive SAT prep course flash cards she was supposed to study, and the current editions of
Cosmopolitan
and
Seventeen
she would actually read. Zeke Brown brought three
Sports Illustrated
magazines from the library, because he could not finish his Algebra until he could access
geek-peek
.

“Listen,” the instructor demanded, pausing until she had their eyes.

“You are here as punishment. It’s
supposed
to be distasteful. If you disobey any of the following rules, you will be ejected and subject to more penalties,” the instructor explained.

“No sleeping or shutting your eyes, no talking, no eating, chewing or drinking, and absolutely no electronic devices of any type are permitted. If you forgot an electronic device put it on my desk now,” she warned. Ashley, Zeke and Doron trudged up to the front and dropped off their smart phones on her desk.

“Detention is for one hour. You will sign this roll I am passing around, and print your name and student number. At the end you will present your student ID and I will confirm your attendance and provide your certificate of compliance.”

David looked around, wondering why Detention was held in the basement, under the cafeteria. It really was like a prison cell, he thought. The basement room was stark, with no windows, bare cement walls, and absolutely no furniture except for the instructor’s desk, and their student desks, arranged in four rows, five deep.

Seven students were paying their debt to society this afternoon. David Phelps, Karen Wilson, Ashley Kensington, Zeke Brown, Doron Cohen, Jorge Rodriguez, and Liu Nguyen, a quiet, studious, female student who excelled at school. David didn’t know Jorge, and he wondered what Liu could have possibly done to get detention. He had noticed that Asian American students generally held teachers in incredibly high esteem and never, ever, got in trouble. And Liu was even more straight laced than most.

David carefully signed the roll and then passed it to Ashley. Detention started when the bell rang at 3:15pm. He would normally be on the football field right now. There was a large clock with a red sweeping second hand hanging behind the instructor’s desk. David watched the second hand slowly tick until one minute’s debt was paid, and remembered the clock in the old movie
High Noon
.

Zeke looked like he might fall asleep as soon as the room became dead quiet as he looked at each page of his
Sports Illustrated
.

David just stared at Karen. He
really
liked looking at her, until she menacingly challenged his glance.