A New Day, A New Us part 1

Welcome back fans. This is the third series with Guy and company.

It’s the second week of October, and school year started and has progress nicely for me and the girls. My family finally took our vacation that was meant for the early summer and while I had a good time my Dad and I aren’t talking much. Mom tries to keep us both communicating but with Dad wanting complete control of my life and me just wanting to have some say in the matter it’s getting rough. In August the school districts changed the district boundaries for the high schools, it was good and bad because Lajita had to move to another school but Mathilda got transferred in which caused some celebration among the crew.
Katy and Jun got her caught up on credits and for the past two months I’ve been dealing with people who are trying to sit close to our table in the lunch room in case I decide to recruit anymore people. I think the balance is fine but Katy doesn’t, I’m letting some of Jun’s friends sit at the table since they’re all part of the same tutoring group but honestly not one of them has impressed me. Kori has been looking as well and Natsuko has been following me around like a secretary in case I make some decision. The patch on my jacket has people calling us ‘Pariahs’ when they think we can’t hear them. I’m not sure if that’s what I’d want to call this motley crew but I am more concerned with my studies.

It’s Monday and everyone but Mathilda and Tracy have 2nd lunch with me and we’re all piled around the table talking, everyone except me thanks to boredom with the whole recruitment nagging I’m getting from Katy.

“Guy you need to seriously think about getting yourself some back up here,” Katy nags on,” Jun is willing to fight but he’s not exactly and force to be reckoned with.”

“Fuck you Katy, I’m sitting right here,” Jun says offended.

“Well I think we could start bringing people around and see who Guy likes for himself,” Natsuko says trying to be diplomatic about it.

“What you’re all missing is that I really am not interested in making a big deal out of this,” I tell them finally joining the conversation,” So we all wear hoods and aside from being some kind of non-dork looking tutoring we don’t do shit.”

My observation gets everyone to quiet down about the recruiting and we all finally finish lunch and head off to fourth period. My day is quicker than most and it’s only in my homeroom class that I start to feel a little out of place as I enter the room and see twenty kids all dress damn near the same. A sea of with button up shirts and blouses with either black slacks or khakis for the boys or long skirts and black dress pants for the girls. All eyes turn to me as I enter and it’s my new advisor who is the one to address me.

“Mr. Donnelly, we’re currently having a club meeting so here’s your pass unless you are wanting to join,” Mrs. Kelley tells me.

I see some of the students size me up and a few start whispering to themselves. I take the pass and am almost out of the room when nearly run into Heather in the door way. She warms up as she sees me but it’s the pretty boy behind her who has more of my attention as he stares at me. He’s white kid, blonde hair and I’m guessing on a decent build. This guy is all style too, done nice hair and shined shoes with his name brand button up shirt and dress slacks.

“Oh Guy I’m so glad to see you here,” Heather say happily,” I was wondering if I could talk to you about joining up with our club.”

“No thanks Heather,” I tell her pushing through the two of them,” I don’t wanna join the Mormon religion.”

“This isn’t a church group,” the pretty boy ‘informs’ me,” This is a school activities group with a purpose.”

“Great, so go use your purpose to find some individuality,” I tell him before heading off to the gym.

I can hear pretty boy stop Heather from coming after me and I’d almost thank his smug ass for the favor. I get half way across campus when I see a few of the jocks chasing a guy out of the locker room laughing. I’m not sure how but the kid is covered in a white powder and carrying most of his clothes in his arms and his backpack is hooked around his leg. I see the jocks head back inside but the guy’s not stopping and I let him pass me before getting a good look at him. He’s large, not so much fat but big as hell and standing about six foot three. I let him get passed me and catch that he’s crying a little before shaking my head and finally getting into the gym where girls’ basketball practice is going on. Tracy is running the new girls through drills and my presence isn’t noticed by anyone until Mathilda takes a water break and waves a little to me.

I watch the girls and finish my homework on the bleachers as school finally lets out. I grab my gear and head out to the parking lot to see who is riding with me on my bike today. Jun and some of the Asian geek brigade are watching a video as they walk up.

“Hey did you see the big guy go running through the school covered in baking soda,” Jun asks showing me the guy I saw earlier.

I nod and they banter on about how funny it looked with the exception of Lilly who doesn’t find the guy’s situation amusing. I see Kori and Liz come bounding up with Liz’s boyfriend Greg and I get a kiss from Kori while Liz tries to get a kiss goodbye from Greg. He finally gives her one on the cheek before heading off to his own car.

“Seriously I think he’s gay Liz,” I tell my sister getting a death glare.

“He’s not gay he’s a traditional Christian,” Liz ‘informs’ me,” He doesn’t believe in sex unless you can prove that you are truly in love.”

I stand there with the best ‘wow that’s idiotic’ look on my face and get punch to the shoulder from Liz for my mockery. I agree to take Kori home and let the girls take the family care that Katy gets to drive since she caught up on her credits this summer; Mom was really rooting for her on that one. Kori and I are down the road and home fast thanks to my near intimate knowledge of the route to her place.

Her Mom is still at work as I park the bike and notice Carl is working his magic in the kitchen. I say my hello and follow Kori upstairs where apparently she’s not done with the lunch time discussion as she starts in.

“We need to get some more people baby,” Kori tells me sitting me down on her bed,” there are just too many girls in the group.”

“Babe I’ve been over this with everyone, I don’t really want the group to be honest,” I tell her getting a look of unpleasant woman in front of me.

“Okay, Guy, let me explain,” Kori says sitting down in her computer chair,” You had this great thing last year and you did nothing with it, then you went away for the summer and got really out of touch with things. You’re back home now; you don’t have to be someone else anymore you can be you again.”

“Kori, I got betrayed, I got mad, I got my ass handed to me and then I got revenge,” I explain to her plainly,” honestly I’m more interested in just getting all of us through the school year and then just getting out of school next year with a possible vacation at some point.”

We sit in silence for a few minutes when Kori finally stands up and gives me a kiss on the forehead before getting out her homework. We spend an hour getting her work finished but she’s not in a mood to play girlfriend right now. I barely get Kori to hug me before I grab my bag and head back home on my bike. Katy’s on her phone at the table when I get in the door, I can tell she’s talking to Jun about her class work and even Liz is looking over the work trying to help.

I drop my bag in my room and pull up my usual pages on my computer, mildly skimming through facebook and making a comment on Mathilda’s page about her awesome practice. I catch a notice on the school site of the big guy getting bullied in the locker room. I ping a message to Jun asking if he posted it and he tells me his friends are clean. I shake it off as I get a knock on my door.

“Son I’m coming in,” my Dad says before entering.

I don’t move from my spot and keep flipping through the pages as he steps inside and watches me for a second before starting a conversation I don’t want to have with him.

“So I was thinking about you and me going camping thanksgiving weekend on black Friday so the girls can shop and we can have some guy time,” Dad tells me laying out his idea.

“Do I have a choice in the matter because I’d personally rather stay home and enjoy the weekend indoors,” I tell him without looking away from my screen.

“You can stay home. I just thought it’d be good if you and I had some bonding time since you’ve started working out on your own,” Dad replies a little disheartened by my dismissal of his plan.

I’ve been distant with him since I got back from the summer down in Texas. I really tried to forgive him for not telling me about the court case and the visitation hearings. Ever since I got back I feel like everyone has this plan for what they think I should be doing. It’s annoying to say the least but I turn my attention to my father who is still waiting for some sort of hopeful response to his camping trip.

“I really don’t care what we do after Thanksgiving Day,” I tell him plainly,” You tell me to camp I’ll go camp, you tell me to stay home and do nothing I’ll do that too. Doesn’t really matter much to me either way.”

I see him nod a little and mention dinner at seven as usual before exiting my room and closing the door. I don’t have much to do really once homework and my computer is a temporary distraction. I head back into the rest of the house and see Katy has her homework almost done and is off the phone. I move past it and head straight into the gym/garage and taking off my shirt and taping my hands start in on the speed bag. I’m keeping a good pace and I know that someone just entered the room but I don’t really care until I lose my rhythm and finally turn to see Katy standing in a pair of green trunks and black sports bra with her hands padded up.

“Okay so you decided to go all MMA this evening,” I say starting to move to the heavy bag.

“Nope I’m gonna kick your ass,” Katy tells me smiling.

“Yeah, I don’t fight girls and you know that. You win,” I tell her starting in with a few jabs to the bag.

“Well you need to talk to someone and either I kick your ass then you talk or you talk then you show me what Dad hasn’t yet,” Katy says bobbing around like a boxer.

Well that explains what Dad has been doing since he and I stopped working out together. The two of them have been showing Katy the finer points of self defense. I put on some punching pads and get a groan of disappointment from Katy but she puts her fists up and starts tagging my target hands while talking.

“Kori called Liz who told me that you’re giving up on us,” Katy says almost swinging at my head.

“No I’m just not interested in this whole organization you seem so keen on me running,” I reply ducking.

“Maybe this ‘organization’ is what keeps these three girls of yours around,” Katy says tagging my right hand hard,” Maybe it shows people that you can’t fuck with the little guy and get away with it.”

“Yeah, I’m some sort of anti-bullying role model. You don’t believe that and I know it,” I tell her keeping the hand pads up as Katy continues her strikes.

“Fine, you don’t want to be a role model, well what about your Dad,” Katy asks dropping her hands a moment,” He is trying hard to figure out what happened between you two and honestly aside from him actually trying to a good parent I don’t know what he did.”

I back up and take the hand pads off, it’s becoming aggravating that every conversation I have is ending up with everyone questioning why I’m doing things my way and not doing what they think I should do. Katy wants to talk but I’m done as I exit the garage and decide to head out on my bike even though dinner is almost ready. I grab my coat and I can hear my Dad trying to call to me as I start up my bike but it does little to slow me down as I head out into the evening.

I must have been driving for about an hour and for some reason I’m outside a Circle K gas station, THE Circle K station that I first came to when I got left for dead by Derek and the same one that I called him out to and he died at. I cruise my bike on the trail till I get to the rock field before parking my bike and sitting down to look at the stars. It’s a cold night and I can feel it in the ground under me.

I don’t know how long I’m sitting there but I can hear someone walking up to me, I don’t turn to see who. I figure if they found me here they must have something important to say. I listen as the mystery guest sits down next to me.

“Wow, something really changed you back into a little shit didn’t it,” I hear the guy next to me say.

“Well first off you don’t know me and second I’m who I choose to be,” I say turning to see that Derek is sitting next to me.

I don’t know why but I’m not running as much as I should be considering my former best friend, who has been dead for a year now, is talking to me in the moonlight. I can see the bullet holes in his chest, the blood pooled on his shirt, his face is a little pale but generally it looks like he’s not too upset considering he’s dead.

“What the fuck is this,” I ask wanting to move.

“Well maybe you died out here with me? Or maybe you’re dreaming and your subconscious is trying to tell you something? Or maybe I’m a zombie and I’m gonna eat you,” Derek says jokingly cryptic.

“Well since you’re here what’s being dead like,” I asks trying to turn the subject off of me.

“Nope, no answers about the dead,” Derek says wagging finger at me,” Besides I think I’m here about you.”

“Well nothing is wrong with me,” I say standing up.

“Bullshit, I’m fucking here cause you need to fucking do something instead of just trying to make the shit better,” Derek says getting in front of me,” You fucking killed my ass cause I didn’t kill you first. You destroy Kamran and his friend’s lives just to prove a point. Then what did you do NOTHING. You sat around and kinda enjoyed shit and when a big situation came around for you to stand the fuck up for yourself you decided to make a deal like everyone else instead of just owning the whole fucking situation and making everyone know that you are the fucking man of your own damn life.”

“Fuck you Derek,” I yell in his face,” I didn’t make a deal, I got me some good shit for my time down there and maybe some decent people.”

“Fuck yourself Guy,” Derek retorts calmly,” You took the easy way and not the right way and then you decided to become someone’s personal bitch and handle all their problems for them. Used to be you saw something wrong you figured out how to fuck it up then you fucked its ass up.”

“And I do what, just start walking around till I find someone I trust to betray me then I just make their life hell,” I more yell than ask.

“Maybe you let someone make themselves into an ass. Maybe you try standing up for something and you die so I can talk to someone I know,” Derek says backing away in the dark,” Or maybe you just had your one great moment and now you get to fade away.”

The buzzing in my coat startles the shit out of me as I jolt up from my seat on the ground. I must have fallen asleep but I’m wide awake now and I check my phone, it’s dark but I’ve got a few messages and a couple missed calls from the girls and my folks. The only one who didn’t message me is the one I need to see the most, Kori. I get my bike out of the field and as soon as I hit asphalt I am a black dart in the night.

It’s about one in the morning as I pull in front of Kori’s house, I kill the engine on my bike and park it out front before shooting her a text asking her if she’s home. It sounds goofy but if I’m dreaming of dead former friends goofy is right about where I should be right now. No response so I text her again, and keep repeating it for about ten minutes when my phone goes off with Kori calling me.

“Baby what the hell is going on, you woke me up,” Kori says quietly into the phone.

“I’m out front, where is my girl,” I ask her moving to the front door.

It takes a few minutes but sure enough Kori answers the door in her bathrobe, even tired with her hair messed up she looks damn good.

“Guy it’s one in the morning, what happened,” Kori says stepping out of the house and closing the door.

“I’m guessing my folks called,” I ask quietly.

“Everyone has been wondering where the hell you were,” Kori says leaning against the door jam.

“Everyone except you.