David limped out to the bus stop with a bad taste in his mouth. Even though his dad had allowed him to rinse, the taste of his "Ivory Liquid toothpaste" still lingered. While he was no longer weeping, it was obvious to all that he had been crying. His eyes were red and his face wes tearstained.
He stunk of Ben Gay. Ben Gay that had been spread all over his butt and on to his _c_o_c_k_ and balls, causing him to have a painful errection. While he had reached the age where his prick often seemed to get a mind of its own, his usual attire normally hid his embarrasment about it. Not so today; it was clearly visible through the too tight tennis shorts his dad had made hime wear.
He knew that if there were a picture in the dictionary next to the word "Dork" it would be a portrait of him the way he was dressed today. Nobody wore a shirt and tie to school, especially not with shorts. Black leather shoes were onething if you were dressed up to go to church or something, but with tennis shorts on...going to school, how uncool could you get? The back of his legs looked like he had been out sunbathing for hours, and he had used SPF 30 sunscreen everywhere but there. The only difference being that a sunburn would not also contain a series of horizontal deep red lines across the back of the thighs.
The recation of the other kids at the bus stop ranged from snickering at him behind his back, to bad attempts at "good natured ribbing", to what where clearly exaggerated and false expressions on sympathy. David did his best to say nothing and ignore them all. This took every last bit of self control he had. He wanted to tell them all to _f_u_c_k_ off and go to hell. He wanted them to leave him alone. None of them could take the hint. The bumppy bus ride itself was tourtue and once again brought tears to his eyes, but he said nothing. He had to do everyting he could to stay out of trouble today. Dad had given him a gilmer of hope by reducing the number of lines he had to write that day. He had also made it very clear that every act that was, or could be construed, as any sort of misbehavior, would make his punishments worse.
David had never been through any punishment even as remotely severe as what he had been through in the last 18 hours. He had almost a week to go of punishment that promised to be just as awful... and that is if he behaved himself this week. He couldn't imagine how it could get any worse, but he knew that his dad would find a way if he wanted to.
The taunting continued through the school day. Undressing for gym class was particularly awful. Not only was he dressed as a dork on the outside, here he was at 12 years old, still wearing Spiderman underpants. Thank god dad couldn't find any Barney underwear in toomy's drawer. The taunts of the other boys about being a baby only became worse as he started to tear up. Not only was he a baby, he was a crybaby to boot. Worse, he felt that they were right. In his other classes his teachers yelled at him a few times for not paying attention, and for not sitting still. He just couldn't concentrate. Its hard to pay attention in history class when you are wollowing in self pity. Its hard to sit still on hard wooden seats when you have welts on your butt. Mrs. Morgan in english class embarrased him when she told him to stop playing with himself. It wasn't like he was jacking himself off, but the Ben Gay was still burning even in 4th period. There was nothing he could say about it, and everybody in the class just thought he was horny and totally lacking in self control. The giggles from the girls in the class were unbearable. Worst of all, through out the day, the baked bean breakfast was doing its job. He was constantly farting, and everybody knew it was him.
Still he managed to remain out of serious trouble...until 7th period, the end of the day...math class. God he had forgotten all about it, the test. Usually he put off studying until the night before. Last night, there was no way he could study. The test counted 25% of the semeseter final grade. He stared at the paper. He pulled a blank. He stared at the paper some more. He grew desperate. He looked at the clock. He looked at Mr. Anderson reading his paper at the front of the room. He looked at Susan's paper next to him. He did it again.
"DAVID, bring your paper up here, I will talk to you after class." Mr. Anderson said sternly.
Oh God, I busted, though David. He went up to hand in his test. His hands were trembling. All eyes were on him. He silently walked back to his seat to sit and wait for the bell to ring. He broke into a cold sweat. Finally the bell rang and the rest of the class left, he remained in his seat.
"David, I clearly saw you cheating. You are usually a pretty good student in this class, do you want to tell me why you were looking at her paper."
"Well...Um... well you you see...Um..I couldn't study last night...Ugh and Um.."
"So you thought you would take the easy way out and cheat?"
"Um yeah, I guess so, I'm sorry, but I know that if I don't do well in this class I know my dad will kill me"
"The answer to that, David, is to study more. Not to cheat. It is not fair to your classmates who did study, and it will not do you any favors in the long run."
"But Sir, you don't understand"
"Oh, I think I do. Now, since I know you are already in trouble at school, and since I like you, I will go easy on you. I will not report this to the principal. Coming on top of your upcoming suspension, it would probably result in you being suspended for at least a week, if not two."
"Thank you sir"
"On the other hand, I can not let you get off scott free. For starters, you just got a Zero on this test. That means that you will have to get 100% on the final, just to pass this class. If you do not, you will have to be in summer school all summer long. As such, I suggest that you spend a lot of time at the books between now and then. Just one mistake, and your summer is gone. Am I clear?"
"Yes Sir, I will do my very best, and thank you again for not sending me to the principal. If that happened, my Dad would have a fit."
"I just said that I would not get the administration involved, not that your parents wouln't know. If you were suspended for two weeks, you wouldn't learn. Your education is too important, in the long run much more important than your grades. This incident was all about you tring to show better grades than your education warranted. As such your grades will suffer, but you will still allowed to get an education. Hopefully, it wil help your education in more things than math."
"Yes Sir, but please, don't tell my Dad. You don't know how much trouble I will be in."
"You should have thought about that before you decided to look at another students test. Your parents have a right to know about this. Quite frankly, I would expect that they would be very disapointed in you. I know that I am. You deserve whatever you get coming to you. Now I want this letter signed by both of your parents and brought back to me on Monday. I know what your Mom's signature looks like, so don't even think about forging it. If it is not back to me Monday, I will have no choice but to refer this matter to the principal. In that case, I assure you that your parents will find aout about it anyways."
David took the letter, and rushed out to try to make the bus, he just missed it. God, he hoped he could make it home before his mom. He knew he had to be up in his room, with his shorts down, writting his lines, by the time she got there. He ran as fast as his black penny loafers would carry him. He was terrified...now on top of everything else, he was a cheat. He knew how much his dad hated cheaters. Even cheaters at little stuff like games. Now he was caught cheating on something big and important. On top of everything else. No hope of winning back even the most basic of privilges. Worse, no hope of ever gaining back his Dad's respect. His dad would hate him. How much worse could his dad make it for him. Would he extend the punishment week? How long, another week, two weeks...forever? Summer school, whould he be punished by his dad all summer long? What could he do? He ran and ran, his feet hurt, but still he ran. His side ached and he was out of breath, but still he ran. He felt worthless, not only unloved, but not worthy of being loved. He looked at his future, all he could see was pain and humiliation. Never again would he get to do anything fun. Why should anyone love him. He was a cheat and a liar. He wanted his dad to love him, to respect him. He wanted his dad to be proud of him. There was no chance of that now. He had tried all day to be good. He had put up with the taunts and cruelty of his friends. He had put up with the embarrasment and never said a word. He knew his dad would be disapointed in him if he failed in math. He made a mistake, a big one. No matter how hard he tried he always screwed up. Maybe that was just the point he thought, I am a worthless screwup.
Panting and out of breath, David covered the three miles home and made it just before his mom got home. Tommy was outside playing across the street at the Wilsons and saw David rush into the house.
To be continued: