“Greg seems to enjoy you torturing him, so I’d say you should continue doing that,” I said and changed the topic. “I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me. Without your help, I would never have improved as much.”
“Honestly, you surprised me. I thought several times you were going to push back on what I was doing with you because it was either unconventional or, at times, too much. I’ve never had anyone with your determination and acceptance of what I was doing before,” she said.
“Before I go, I just wanted to make sure that you’re not interested in all this. I can take my shirt off if that helps,” I teased.
“No, thanks. But I bet if you made that same offer to either Jill or Becky, they’d go for it,” Joey said to throw her fellow trainers to the wolves.
I waggled my eyebrows.
“Why don’t all three of you meet me Saturday, and we’ll all get sweaty?”
By the way she rolled her eyes, it was clear I had no shot. I must be losing my touch. Oh, well, if I couldn’t have her, then I wanted Greg to. I would bet she could get him into the best shape of his life. He might someday be able to have the hashtag #HotDad on social media.
◊◊◊
Ms. Lowden handed out our test results in Calculus. When Dare got his, he showed Gina and me that he’d gotten all the answers right. Once we got ours back, we didn’t turn our tests over to check how we scored. With Suzanne tutoring us, we knew we’d done well. Besides, we wanted to torture him a bit.
“What did you get?” Dare blurted out.
“Darius Rossetti, do you want to get detention the last full day of school? I’ve never done that before, but I’d be willing to make you my first,” Ms. Lowden announced.
“No, ma’am.”
Then she turned to Gina and me.
“Show him before he has a meltdown,” Ms. Lowden said as she saw through what we were up to. When we hesitated, she added, “If I have to give him detention, the two of you will join him.”
That took the fun out of it. Both Gina and I turned ours over to give him the bad news. He hadn’t caught us. I watched as he looked disappointed but finally accepted it.
“Look at it this way: we all got ‘A’s, so it’s like we tied,” Gina said.
That had to be some sort of girl logic, even though I’d basically thought the same because we’d won. Or so the middle-schooler in me thought.
Ms. Lowden let us use her period to study for the remainder of our finals. Next up was AP English Lit.
◊◊◊
After school, Destiny and I signed yearbooks again. This time, it only took forty-five minutes.
It had been announced that tomorrow, we would go to our homerooms for first period and turn in our textbooks. If we handed them in, we got our grades. After that, there was a school assembly planned to honor the baseball team, and then we were free for the summer.
◊◊◊
After school, Phil came home with me so I could ditch Manaia and take my brother to get checked. Melanie had oatmeal and walnut cookies that needed to be tested, so Manaia didn’t put up much of a fight.
When we got into the car, Phil looked decidedly unhappy.
“Do I really have to do this?” he asked.
I pulled to the side of the road, stopped, and opened my phone. I did a search on diseased-dick pics and showed it to him. He just nodded, and I drove on.
“It’s like sometimes you have to use your tears for lube as life bends you over and has its way with you,” Phil grouched.
That certainly drew a weird picture.
“I just hope the doctor doesn’t decide they need to stick a metal rod up your urethra to get a sample,” I said with a straight face.
“What?!”
It just wasn’t fair sometimes. Greg at least would’ve caught on that I’d just punked him. Phil was too innocent; it almost made this no fun. Note I said almost.
“They take this ten-inch rod—well, in your case, it might be five—and jam it into the end of your dick. It’s supposed to feel like when a woman gives birth, in terms of pain level.”
“They don’t do anything to numb it?” Phil asked.
“Do you want them to stick your dick with a needle?” I asked as I raised both eyebrows.
I saw him cringe.
“Turn the car around. I’m not going,” Phil decided.
When we got there, I had to grab his thumb and drag him in. The receptionist sent us right on back because we had an appointment.
When the nurse came in, she saw me having to hold on to Phil.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“He’s nervous about what you plan to do to him. He probably needs an anal probe just to be safe,” I suggested.
“I take it you two are brothers,” the nurse said.
I nodded. She turned to Phil.
“Honey, I promise to be gentle.”
I busted out laughing, and Phil finally figured it out and called me a bad name.
“I have siblings too, and they’re a pain in the butt. All I’m going to do is take your vitals, have you pee in a cup, and take a blood sample,” she explained.
“That’s it?” Phil asked.
“Unless you want the anal probe thing.”
I liked her.
“Only if you’re gentle,” Phil said as he got into the spirit of the day.
◊◊◊
Chapter 32 – It’s Official Friday May 12
When I got to school, I found Vice Principal Palm waiting for me with Gina at his side.
“Morning, David,” he said in greeting and extended his hand for me to shake.
I glanced over at Gina, and she looked as clueless as I was about why he’d waylaid us like this.
“Good morning, sir.”
“I wish more young men and women were like you. You’ve always been polite,” Vice Principal Palm said.
“My mother taught me to talk respectfully to older people,” I said without thinking.
He winced at the ‘older’ comment but quickly pasted a fake smile on his face.
“I need you both to come with me,” he said, then turned and headed to the office, confident we would obediently follow him.
I stepped over to Gina and leaned down so I could whisper.
“Do you think they finally caught us?”
She gave me a shove and called me a ‘stupid boy’ before she followed our vice principal.
When we got to the office, the secretary looked up and winked at me. It might have been okay if she weren’t my grandmother’s age. We stepped into Mr. Palm’s office and took a seat.
“I want to congratulate you both. You are this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian.”
I turned to Gina and gave her a huge smile.
“Congratulations. If you don’t have your speech ready, I wrote one just in case, and Vice Principal Palm has approved it,” I said. That was to get even for so many snarky comments Gina had made that I’d lost count.
If I didn’t like her, I might have thought she was a bit of a bitch. All I know was Wolf was a better man than I. I would have had to tan her backside at some point if we ever dated.
“Actually, you’re valedictorian, David,” he said to ruin my fun.
Gina visibly relaxed.
“If you wanted to say a few words …” I offered Gina.
“No!” she blurted and then said quietly, “I’m good.”
“After the assembly today, we’ll be handing out caps and gowns to the seniors. I want to give you your sashes that indicate your achievements,” he said as he handed them to us.
They were orange with a blue ‘V’ on mine and an ‘S’ on Gina’s. In my head, I chuckled because Gina had called me a slut too many times. Now she had a scarlet letter giving her the title. Okay, a blue letter, but it still counted.
I laughed when I realized what my ‘V’ might stand for: virgin.
We had time to make it to our lockers, drop off our sashes, and collect all our books for first period, where we had to turn them all in. The hall was full of everyone lugging books to their first-period class. I spotted one of the bullies getting ready to trip Dare.