Senior Prank (9781620957295) (11 page)

“No, the agent thing was a joke,” Elvis said. “One of my friends wanted to get Big Bear pumped up for the game Friday and made up this stuff about college payments. We figured the time to do it was then since he would be alone with him. Okay, maybe it was cruel, but it was nothing more than a joke. I give Bear his props. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he can play football.”

“A cruel one,” Winston shot back. “If word gets out, the kid could be suspended and ruled ineligible. We don't need that. I could suspend you for that, but as long as it is kept quiet, we'll let it slide. If it gets out, you're getting some vacation time.

“Now I'm asking you to please tell me if you know anything. It means a lot to all of us that we be named an All American School. Now you are dismissed. Stay out of trouble.”

With that Elvis stood, answered, “I will and I'll let you know if I hear anything.” He pushed in his chair, left the office and went back to class.

Over an hour later, Elvis, Jose and Lamont arrived in Ms. Blossom's class. They came in together, prompting Ms. Blossom to say, “Well look here The Three Musketeers. Sure hope you didn't have anything to do with all that stuff like the rumors are saying.”

“No way we did anything,” said Jose.

“We always get blamed for stuff, but this time we're innocent,” shot back Lamont.

“We're easy targets,” Lamont offered, “but again why would we do such stuff during that important time?”

“It was like those kids that spoke out were under some kind of spell,” said Ms. Blossom, not realizing the truthful irony in her statement.

After sitting, Elvis whispered to the other two, “We'll talk at lunch. We got to make sure nobody can hear us. Remember loose lips sink ships. Keep it quiet.”

At lunch, the trio got their food, then sat in their usual place. Jose started the conversation.

“Wonder what Winston really knows?” asked Jose. “When he talked to me he seemed like he had a suspicion, but couldn't prove anything.”

“Again, say nothing, stick to your story,” cautioned Elvis. “Remember in America you are innocent until proven guilty. They have lots of proving to do in my book. What I'm curious is who did some of that other stuff, like the mice, burning the football field, flooding the toilet and locking the kid in the bathroom?

“I also heard dumping the water on the governor's wife wasn't an accident. I'm told that the kid that did that won a bet for $150. He only made it look like an accident. Same with the football to the limo. Heard that was worth $50.”

“You mean you don't know?” Jose asked. “That's a first. Elvis not knowing who did what at this school. Wow. When you find out you let us know.”

“Yep,” said Elvis. “Now check out Lindsay. She's looking good.” As the pair turned to look, Elvis grabbed a handful of Lamont's French Fries. As Lamont turned around, he said to Elvis, “Next time, ask.”

“Let's talk about something else,” Jose said. “The less we say about all this the better. Lamont, how's track going?”

“Great!” Lamont proudly answered. “I've improved my starts and Potts has recruited me to be on the 4 X 100 meter relay team and to try and run the 100 meter dash.

“He says the more I can do the better my chances for a college scholarship. I'm getting closer to G. He's only beating me by inches now.”

Lamont said to Jose, “What about you and your car?”

“It's running great,” said Jose. “It's cool to be able to go where you want when you want. Last weekend a few friends of my wanted to drink in the car and I told them no way. It almost led to a fight. I told them two reasons – my dad would take away the car if he found out and I will never allow alcohol in my car since my cousin was killed by a drunk driver three years ago.”

“How's the band Elvis? Jose asked Elvis.

“We're getting better,” Elvis said. “We hired a guy named Tom Borker to be our manager. He's going to get us lots of paid gigs. I can use the money. He's got a connection with Moon Records which could lead to a recording deal if we get good enough. I've been learning the keyboards so I can play both them and the guitar.

“I pretty much decided my future's in music so I got to get good at it. We even picked up a new name…the Texas Redneck Rockers. We're now TRR for short. ”

Just then the bell rang, dismissing the lunch period.

Meanwhile, Winston was busy with his detective work. He called three pet stores in the area asking about mice sales. Each told him it would be impossible to determine who bought what since so many people feed mice to their snakes. “I pay my rent just with mice sales,” one owner told him, “and you expect me to remember who bought them. Impossible.” The possible lead was dead.

He also got a call from one of his friends who worked alongside a few of the All American School judges. “Things don't look good,” the friend told Winston. “Apparently some unfavorable stuff happened there that left some negative thoughts with the judges. Just hang in there anything can happen.”

It was on to the football pep rally for tonight's big game with Westside High School. Winston had gained little headway in his quest to find blame for all the misbehavior. So he was looking forward to some uplifting results like a winning a big football game. This would help ease the pain for the entire school.

The game that night was a sellout with over 8,000 attending. The winner of the game had a leg up in the district standings. Westside and Thomas Jefferson had 7-0 records entering the game. The score was tied at halftime, 13-13. Then an incident in the third quarter changed the game.

A few of the Westside players apparently began calling Big Bear derogatory names for a homosexual. They were teasing him about his conversation with the governor, which they probably learned from the YouTube posting. The plan was to provoke Bear to fight in hopes Bear would get tossed out of the game. With every tackle or pile up the Westside players would grab Bear's butt, privates or tease him about his sexuality.

Eventually Bear lost it. He slugged a few of the Westside players. Smartly they backed off, while pointing at the Bear and hollering, “Toss him out ref, he's out of control.” After one play, the referee blew the whistle, threw the penalty flag and announced that Big Bear had been ejected from the game.

“They trapped you, Bear,” Coach Welsh told his star defensive player, now relegated to being a spectator. “You played right into it. You ain't too smart. You just got played like Charlie Daniels plays a fiddle.”

“But coach they were calling me fag, queer, stuff like that,” Bear zapped back.

“Too late now,” coach said disgustingly. “I told you many times, you have to keep your poise.”

With the Bear out, Westside's all star running back Barry Cinders had a field day. He ran up and down the field, gaining 145 yards in the second half. However, TJHS still held a 24-23 lead with two minutes left.

Westside had the ball. Cinders ran the ball five straight times, bowling over tacklers like a man possessed, gaining 60 yards to move the ball to the Thomas Jefferson 15 yard line with six seconds left. A successful field goal gave Westside a 26-24 victory.

The Westside players took their Warrior spear, lit it afire and planted it at midfield on the TJHS field. One side celebrated, the other cried.

It had been a rough week for Thomas Jefferson High School. Now it has been kicked when it was down, both figuratively and literally.

Winston went home that night and plopped himself down on his couch, just in time to watch his favorite television show,
Law and Order
. He often thought what it would be like to have been a detective, his second career choice. He could usually figure out who the guilty party was in the show. Tonight, in keeping with his luck for the week, he fell asleep in the last minutes of the show. He never did learn out who committed the murder.

Saturday morning brought yard work, then an afternoon of peace and quiet watching college football. Many times he would see many of his former students in the game, beaming with a sense of pride like a proud father. He didn't feel like golf and didn't answer his phone all day. Peace and quiet were his only goals.

At church Sunday Winston and his wife appeared to be getting the cold shoulder. Many long time friends simply went the other direction, others avoided the couple. With the disaster of the week and possible firing out in the open it was obvious many church members, most of which had students in the district's schools, were angry with Winston.

After the service, one couple cornered Winston and his wife.

“You ought to be ashamed to show your face,” the wife of one of the church leaders said angrily to Winston. “You had a chance to bring honor and prestige to this area and you let us down. They should fire you.” They then walked away.

“Guess she missed the pastor's message about forgiveness,” Winston's wife said to the beleaguered principal. “Remember you got to let it go. In time, it will all pass.”

A new week brought new hope. It had been five days since the governor's visit, but very few leads were coming forth. There were lots of finger pointing from people who didn't care for one another, most of it fabricated. At the faculty meeting that afternoon, Winston made an offer he hoped could not be refused.

“I will personally give anybody $500 cash if they have information that leads to the confession of any of the perpetrators of last Wednesday's misbehavior,” he said to a room of oohs and aahs. He knew the idea of a reward might raise an eyebrow or two with the school board and hierarchy, but he had to start somewhere.

When word got out about the reward students flocked to Winston's office wanting to confess. Many had no idea to what, they only wanted the $500. Some wanted to be suspended along with their reward since they found school boring. Winston soon realized this was a bad idea and ended the reward.

That day he also suspended coach McCarthy and Major Charles for three days for allowing their students to ‘participate in activities that were against school policy and procedure.' Both pleaded their cases, but Winston knew that by announcing these suspensions they would share in the blame. It would also send a message to his faculty. The announcements, however, didn't make news in any local media outlet.

The good news for Winston was that while the governor's visit might have been a disaster, the behavior of the students improved. There were fewer students sent to his office, less referrals being written and fewer pranks. He often thought it might have been worth the few days of terror for the less chaotic atmosphere he was now enjoying.

For the next few weeks life was good. One afternoon was interrupted by a call from his friend familiar with the upcoming school board agenda. On the docket was the proposal to dismiss or demote Winston. It wasn't common knowledge, but thanks to Sonny Pulston soon everyone in the school seemed to know. The officers of the senior class decided that they would take action to head off any possible action.

The students circulated petitions around the school seeking to ‘Keep Mr. Winston at Thomas Jefferson.' They would get at least 1500 signatures and bring it to the school board meeting next week. They also sought a speaker to present their case. That speaker, as is board procedure, got three minutes to speak.

The officers could not decide who to appoint as their speaker. Arguments went back and forth before the group selected Missy Pulston to represent them. Those who didn't want her warned against her valley girl act and the image that would project.

Missy promised to let the group read her speech beforehand so it would be as powerful and persuasive as possible.

Even Elvis, Jose and Lamont were laying low. They knew their limits. They were also busy with other parts of their life. Jose had worked up enough nerve to ask Missy to the upcoming Brad Paisley concert over the Christmas holidays. He knew she was a big Paisley fan who wouldn't say no. She knew it meant saving $50 for a ticket and figured she could handle the night for that much. Paisley's music wasn't his type, but he figured he had to break the ice somehow.

Jose was also working four days a month on weekends, helping his dad with his masonry jobs. He was making enough to pay his bills and keep his car running.

He kept his grades near the C level, enough to keep him on track for graduation, but chemistry was a problem. He was struggling with the subject. It didn't interest him.

Lamont had run four races in the fall track season. He was now a star of the team on par with G. He also was becoming friends with the Muslim student, who was shunned by many. He was improving his time in the 100 meter dash and entrenched as the anchor on the 4 x 100 relay team. His parents even came out to watch the meets, beaming with pride for their son's efforts. Finally, they thought to each other ‘the kid may amount to something.' But Lamont struggled on the SAT and ACT tests, falling short of what was needed to get into a major university. Only a dominating track season, where a coach might be willing to get him an entry waiver for his athletic and not academic abilities, brought hope for that scholarship to a big school.

“G's a cool dude,” said Lamont of his fellow runner. “His father came to the United States 25 years ago to go to school. Dad went to the University of Houston and became an engineer. He could have went back to Saudi Arabia, but he stayed here, got married and had a family.

“But after the Twin Towers fell, the family has had so much hate they wanted to go back home. They didn't; they decided to stay. Now G wants to become a doctor. It's a shame people treat them wrong sometimes. He jokes he runs so fast to get away from all the suicide bombers. He's off the hook when he runs. I say judge him on his character not the color of his skin or nationality.”

“Tell me about it,” Jose would say. “The Mexicans can give them some lessons in discrimination. You just got to keep hoping someday people will see us an equals. I've always thought we were all Americans and human beings.”