The longest bus ride to Point West High School is the 17 route from Hidden Cove. I live with my mother at Hidden Cove and I ride the bus each school day. It is a long boring ride along the coast, with too many twists and turns to allow for reading.
I board the bus along with Aubrey and Melissa each school morning. If I get a βhello Gary' from either girl it is an unusual day. This is not good, as both girls are really hot babes and I would like to know either or both of them better. However, the rumor around school is that they like each other, not boys.
We would ride the bus for a while and then the bus would stop and pick up Dean at Wilson's Hollow. Dean is an ass hole and causes nothing but trouble. He has harassed Aubrey and Melissa for quite some time until the School Board threatened to kick him off the bus. Now he just goes and thrusts himself at each girl with a big grin on his face until the bus driver makes him sit in his seat.
Dean tries the grin in the face thing with me once. I just ask politely if he wants me to remove all those teeth for him? I am a second degree black belt. Dean doesn't want me to do any unlicensed dental work.
With a couple of weeks left in school something happens between Aubrey and Melissa. I didn't know what happened, but they had always sat together and now they make a point of sitting apart.
Aubrey starts saying hello to me each morning. I say hello back, but then she makes a point of walking away from me. I do not press the issue as I had not been invited to Aubrey's 18th birthday party and I do not feel that she has any real interest in me. I had also not been invited to Melissa's 18th birthday party, but then I knew Melissa doesn't like me.
The situation comes to a boil on Wednesday, the day after my 18th birthday. Dean decides to make a play for Aubrey. She tells Dean to go away and he gets loud and nasty with her. By the time we get to school, Dean has threatened Aubrey and I walk her off the bus, just in case.
Dean's brothers Tom and Wesley are waiting as we all get off the bus. It is an ambush and there is no way out without violence. I tell Dean, Tom and Wesley that Aubrey and I are just going to go to class and they can just leave us alone.
Tom says that he is going to beat the crap out of me and then deal with the βuppity bitch.'
It is short, but not sweet. I use the momentum of Tom's charge to throw him against the side of the bus. Wesley charges at my back and gets my elbow in his face. Dean comes at me with a knife and I break his arm, twice. Tom gets back up off the ground and tries to bite me on the foot. Actually, my foot is moving quite rapidly at that point and Tom loses teeth. Ok, he loses several teeth, but he still has quite a few left.
I get a ride home with the police. It would have been a lot worse, except that all of the rest of the kids who ride the bus told the school that the three brothers had started the whole thing and that the same three had threatened everyone on the bus at one time or another.
That night, Aubrey comes to see me and to thank me for βputting myself in danger.' I hadn't realized that I was in danger from three punks, but it is a good point and I will use it at my hearing. However, I do use the opening to have the first real talk I have ever had with Aubrey. Things go well and we seem attracted to each other.
Aubrey and I go for a walk on the beach that night and the talk we had previously has begun to grow into perhaps a relationship.
She tells me that she is going through a difficult time and that she has no idea what she is going to do. She and Melissa had a big fight and Aubrey does not want to talk about it.
We talk about other things but I never really find out what was bothering her. I do make a date for Friday night after graduation.