Chapter
14
“I’m sorry” Josh panted as he ran up to Lance at
their usual waiting spot. They walked to school together since a little while
now; the Monday after the school dance which was a little over a week ago. They
both enjoyed it, the company and the conversations.
“It’s ok” Lance shrugged.
“Why didn’t you go ahead, we’re gonna be late!”
Josh asked, panicking a little as he looked at his watch with wide eyes,
surprised it was even later than he figured in the first place.
“No biggie” Lance continued nonchalantly. Josh eyed
him.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked confused as he
started walking and pulled Lance along with him.
Lance shrugged, “I’m not really into today” he told
him simply, letting Josh pull him along.
“But…”
“Let’s walk slowly” Lance smiled brightly,
mischievously, acting rebellious like Josh hadn’t seen before and usually he
would have smiled at the idea but not now. Not now.
“We have English first Lance please, I can’t be
late” Josh suddenly pleaded, already seeing the smirk on Mr. Zaggery’s face and
he could already hear the nasty comments. Lance seemed to sober suddenly.
“Right, lets go” he said quickly before he speeded
off, sprinting away leaving Josh to follow and he soon did.
Tuesdays were the worst days, the worst day of the
week because not only did he have English then; it was his first class. First
period, English class with Mr. Zaggery and he always prayed God would just skip
Tuesdays, it would save him one English class. Josh always made it a point to
get up early on Tuesday, not be late, he could not be late on a Tuesday because
sure he would not give Mr. Zaggery a reason to attack him. Of course Mr.
Zaggery would usually find one on his own, Josh just didn’t want to give him a
reason to humiliate him this easily, he didn’t want to help him. He had
succeeded thus far but today had been pretty bad. Henry woke up with a bad
temper, a really bad temper.
A totally dressed Josh stepped in the living room,
totally unaware of his step father’s temper.
“You fucking piece of shit?!” Henry yelled in his
face the minute he caught sight of him. Josh automatically cowered away from
the angry man, pushing himself against his bedroom door.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he continued to
shout along with all kinds of profanities, cursing his step-son under his
breath and basically his whole life as he grabbed Josh and shoved him into the
door. His back bounced against the door painfully but he stifled his moans, it
would only anger Henry further and he needed to get to school. Josh stayed
still as Henry took his rage out on the defenseless teenager, banging him
against the wall and shouting in his face till he wore himself down. He
released Josh abruptly and grabbed the next best thing; the saloon table.
Josh was a
bit dizzy as he slid to the floor but when he heard the loud crash of the table
splintering as it hit the wall he quickly scrambled to his room, opening the
door he was laying against and dragging himself inside, out of Henry’s reach.
He closed the door and sat against it on the inside. He heard crashes for
several more minutes as Henry took out his anger on the furniture and whatever
else was within his reach. Josh was just glad he was not one of those things.
His back hurt a bit but it wasn’t bad, he’d had it worse he thought bitterly as
he waited. He waited and waited, growing more frantic and extremely nervous by
the minute as he thought of his first period English class.
More than fifteen minutes later it was silent again
in the small house. Josh controlled the urge to get right out of his room and
to go to school. He forced himself to wait two more minutes to make sure Henry
really quieted down before he carefully opened the door, poking his head in the
room to see if he could spot Henry. When the coast was clear he tip toed out of
the room, grabbed his jacket and backpack, shoved his feet in his shoes,
leaving them untied as he ran out the front door, away from his bad tempered
step father.
When Lance and Josh ran through the school gates
they knew they were late. Lance wasn’t really concerned, at least not for
himself, he was concerned about Josh and Mr. Zaggery’s reaction. They flew up
the stairs and halted in front of class 305, Mr. Zaggery’s English class. Lance
eyed Josh, hoping to reassure him but Josh had already shut himself down,
preparing himself for the nasty remarks he just knew would be hurled at him.
Lance knocked and immediately opened the door,
going in first hoping to steal away the attention, hoping Josh would go
unnoticed. Mr. Zaggery looked up, seeing Lance he frowned but seeing Josh
behind him he smiled.
“Glad you could join us, Mr. Bass” Mr. Zaggery said
friendly, smirking knowingly.
“Take a seat” he instructed. Lance nodded and went
to his seat, Josh following him in, hoping to avoid Mr. Zaggery’s attention on
him. He was almost at an empty seat when Mr. Zaggery called him back.
“Uh, Mr.
Chasez where are you going?” Josh closed his eyes for a moment, when he
reopened them he turned slowly towards his teacher.
“I… I… was gonna sit” Josh explained, stuttering a
bit.
“No you’re not, what time is it, Mr. Chasez?” Mr.
Zaggery asked knowingly.
“Twelve past nine” Josh answered softly,
reluctantly.
“Exactly, and class starts at nine. You’re late”
Mr. Zaggery told him smirking. Lance watched horrified, he moved to stand up
but Justin pulled him back down, shaking his head.
Josh nodded, “Yes sir” he said softly before
shuffling to the door.
“Report to the principal’s office, Mr. Chasez” Mr.
Zaggery ordered with a smile.
“Yes sir” Josh accepted, it was no use arguing.
Josh saw the look on Lance’s face but he shook his head indicating to let it
go. It was no use, no use at all.
Although they’d come in at the same time, both
late, Lance had been ordered to take a seat and Josh was told to go to the
principal’s office. He knew it was unfair but that was just his life. Josh
shuffled out of the room, vaguely hearing the sniggers and comments of his
classmates, he quickly closed the door blocking them all out and went down the
hall to the principal’s office.
He didn’t know what he’d ever done to deserve a
step father like Henry because he was the cause of all this. He was the cause
of every problem he had. If he’d had a choice he would never have stolen all
those things at school, he knew how stupid and risky it was but Henry didn’t
care back then, he’d only cared about the money and it was always Josh who had
to suffer the consequences. Everyone hated him at school, they all looked at
him suspiciously, teachers had written him off as trouble and some people
thought they had a right to bully him. It was all because of Henry and he hated
him.
***
“Josh!” Lance called the second he spotted Josh.
“Hey Lance” Josh smiled shyly, his lips barely
forming a smile; he didn’t feel like smiling really, not at this point, there
was not a lot to smile about.
“I’m so sorry Josh” Lance told him.
“It’s not your fault” Josh reassured him.
“It is, I should have done something!” Lance argued
frustrated, he’d wanted to rip Mr. Zaggery’s head off when he saw the look on
Josh’s face as he exited the room. He’d been scowling the whole time during
class, in protest and said nothing, not a word but Mr. Zaggery could care less.
He just smirked and went on with his class. That just made Lance even angrier;
asshole.
“Like what?”
“Argh! I don’t know, anything, maybe practice my
karate moves on him or something” Josh smiled.
“I would wanna see that” he teased.
“I’m just… I’m sorry”
“It’s ok”
“No it’s not” Lance went on.
“Lance” Josh sighed, they were going round in
circles here didn’t Lance see that.
“Ok, ok, fine” Lance surrendered, he was thinking
of some way to get Mr. Zaggery back but he couldn’t think of something, the
anger blocking his way to think clearly. Josh smiled a little, happy someone at
least cared, someone at least went to the trouble of apologizing and someone
cared enough about him to want to teach Mr. Zaggery a lesson. It made it all a
little better, just not enough, never enough.
“So what’s the verdict?” Lance asked lightly.
Josh sighed, “He gave me a long lecture”
“And?”
“Detention”
“How long?”
Josh held up three fingers in answer to Lance’s
question.
“Three days?! For being late?” Lance asked
incredulously.
“Told you everyone hates me” Josh shrugged.
“Oh man… I’m sorry”
“It’s ok Lance”
“That’s sucks man”
“Yeah well I’ll live” Josh reassured him as he
started walking towards their next class but Lance stayed behind.
“You coming? Don’t wanna be late for the next class
as well” Josh said teasing.
“No…” Lance said as he followed Josh but his mind
wondered, an idea formulating in his head.
***
“Lance you coming?” Josh asked at the end of the
short break in between second and third period.
“You go ahead, I’ll be right there” Lance said
thoughtful.
“You sure?” Josh asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Yeah man, I’ll be right there” Lance assured him
with a smile.
“K, see you later” Josh smiled before heading to
class. Lance’s plan was into motion.
***
“Lance Bass?” the history teacher went down the
name list to discover she was missing one student.
“He’ll be right here” Josh told her quietly, only
eyeing her. She raised her eyebrows and Josh immediately lowered his eyes as
the rest of the class sniggered.
“He does talk!” Brad exclaimed mockingly. Josh
cringed and slid further in his seat. The class erupted into laughter because
of the effect the comment had on Josh and the scoffing mimicry from Brad but
the teacher interfered before it could go any further.
“Quiet!” she yelled, getting them quiet again but
Josh knew she’d yelled because of the noise not because of the comment. She did
nothing about that. Josh sighed as he wondered where Lance was.
***
A knock on the door startled the history class that
was now in full swing. Josh looked up surprised as he heard a deep familiar
voice. Lance. He eyed him, wanting to know what had happened, why was he so
late?
“Excuse me miss I lost track of time” Lance
apologized as he appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Bass, you are over fifteen minutes late” Mrs.
Rosen sighed.
“I know I’m sorry”
“You know the rules Lance, report to the
principal’s office” she instructed already turning back towards her class.
“Yes ma’am” Lance sighed but Josh didn’t trust it.
What had he been doing?
Was it a coincidence Lance was late today, again?
Did he want to make up for what had happened this
morning with Mr. Zaggery? Lance passed him a small smile before he turned and
left the room, going to the principal’s office.
***
Ten minutes later Lance was sitting in the man’s
office, staring at him while Mr. Henman stared back in the same manor, taking
in the young man that was sitting opposite off him. He’d seen Lance with Josh
several times and he remembered the first time they met. Lance had helped Josh
out and up to this point the man still didn’t know why Lance had done that. He
didn’t really care either but he just thought it was strange.
“Why were you late?” Mr. Henman inquired as he sat
up. Lance shrugged nonchalantly not answering him. The man sighed, he didn’t
see the point in arguing with this boy. It was his first time so he decided to
let him off with a warning.
“Ok Lance, I’ll let you off with a warning this
time” Lance’s eyes grew wide, astonished.
“What?”
“This is your first and only warning no more coming
late” the man elaborated thinking Lance had misunderstood.
“You’re only warning me?” Mr. Henman nodded not
sure why Lance wasn’t happy.
“Then why did you give Josh three day’s of
detention?!” Lance exclaimed. Now he knew why.
“Because that’s a different case. This was your
first time” the man told him calmly.
“So?”
“So, that matters” the principal told him still
calm.
“No it doesn’t” Lance argued, furious Josh was
getting a far worse punishment than he himself was getting. Lance had locked
himself in a stall when Josh went off to class. He’d waited there for 10
minutes till he slowly walked to class, making sure he was really late. They
couldn’t let it slide this time and he’d picked the perfect teacher; Mrs. Rosen
was not known as someone that would let something slide, definitely not being
late. He was curious what he would get and he was now sure of the fact Josh was
being mistreated and he let the principal now how he felt about that.
“Watch it son, I won’t accept you questioning my
authority. I gave Josh three day’s of detention because he deserved it, now I’m
not going into the reasons with you. If Josh doesn’t agree with his punishment
he can come see me but I’m not going to defend nor negotiate my punishments Mr.
Bass is that understood?”
“Perfectly” Lance said through gritted teeth.
“Good now I suggest you don’t pull a stunt like
this again and don’t let Josh stir you up” Lance glared at him.
“You’re excused” the principal ordered with a wave
of his hand, dismissing the boy.
***
Josh eyed his principal suspiciously as he once
again sought him out in the hallway after third period and asked him if he
could have a word. He nodded nevertheless and followed him into his office.
“What is this about sir? I didn’t steal anything so
if that’s what this is about you can save yourself the trouble…” Josh said
trailing of. They’d stepped inside the man’s office but Josh was now about to
get up again assuming it was about another accusation.
“Sit down Josh” Mr. Henman’s commanding voice told
him and he did, he slowly lowered himself back in his seat and stared at the
man in front of him.
“Why are you stirring Lance Bass?”
“Excuse me?”
“What have you been telling him?”
“What are you talking about sir?” Josh asked still
confused.
“He came in here; lecturing me about how I treated
you or I should say mistreated. How I treated you differently than the rest of
my students” Mr. Henman informed him, a little irritated. Josh cursed Lance
under his breath, although he meant well and Josh appreciated Lance standing up
for him, this was not the way to handle it.
“Well?” the man demanded.
“I… I’m sorry. It won’t happen again” Josh
apologized for Lance.
“It sure won’t happen again! You know your case is
different”
“Right” Josh mumbled.
“You have a history and that counts too. Lance
however hasn’t. If he gets your track record he’ll get the same punishment for
being late as you got it’s as simple as that” the principal informed him.
“Right” he still glared.
“Listen Josh I know some kids give you a hard time
because of your reputation but I’m not one of them. I’m objective and if you
feel like you’re being misjudged or mistreated I’d wish you would tell me that
in stead of dragging someone else into this ok?”
“Fine” Josh said sullenly. He was not going to let
his defenses down this easily. Sure he seemed nice now but he’d tributed to his
reputation when he sought him out in the hallway and accused him openly when
everyone knew what it was about.
“Good so now is there anything you would like to
talk to me about?” the man asked, giving Josh room to tell him if he thought he
mistreated him.
“No sir” Josh said. Of course he could not tell the
man Mr. Zaggery had made him report himself while Lance could take a seat even
though they’d both been late. It wasn’t really any use because after he ratted
Lance out the conclusion was still the same; he was late and he got punished
for that so it was no use dragging Lance into this. Not only that, there was
another reason. He just couldn’t tell this man the truth without consequences
so he shut up.
“Good then you’ll finish your detention today and
the next two days and no more stirring other students”
“No sir”
“Good then you’re excused” Josh got out of the
chair, walked out of the office and immediately went in search of Lance.
