Chapter 9:

THE NEXT DAY school went decently, except for one thing... Homework! Amy and I had first period together, and Mr. Krantz decided that this was the week to do two things. One, we had a paper due Friday based off a lab we did that day dissecting a frog. The second was a major test on Friday that was supposed to be a 'practice final exam.' We still had two months till the end of the year, why were we taking a 'practice final?'

Amy and I complained about both of those things to each other over lunch. Nikki sat down at our table and said, "Hey you guys have the same shirt on!" I blushed a bit.

"I'm surprised no one said anything before now." Amy commented. "Brandon went with my family up to go skiing this weekend."

"It was a lot of fun," I added.

"That's cool. We got back from Denver last night..." She continued on, and it was clear that it wasn't a big deal to her that we were wearing the same shirt. I was somewhat relieved; it was a unisex shirt, but still... Anyway I got through the rest of the day without being picked on at all. I was a little surprised by that, and the absence of trouble made me a bit nervous. However, as they say, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth.'

After school I met up with Amy and rode her bus to her house. I showed a note to the driver when I got on and she let me on without a problem. I sat next to Amy and we chatted all the way to her house. "So you guys have your band competition soon?" She asked me.

"Yeah it's in about three weeks. Mrs. Remar is completely going psycho about it. Just today a kid didn't know his part so she told him to put up his stuff. I mean, it was just one note... I just hope I don't screw up in front of her these next few weeks. I don't want to lose my first chair."

"Are you doing soccer this season?" She asked me.

"No, my good coach is leaving and the new guy is the old assistant. In a word he's a jerk. I went to two practices before deciding it wasn't worth it. How about you? Are you doing anything this year?" We pulled up to her bus stop and started walking towards her house.

"I'm thinking about trying out for the cheerleading squad this month. I've always wanted to be a cheerleader – I just hope I'm good enough to make it." She said.

"I'm sure you'll make it Amy, out of any of the girls you're the most likely to. You've done so many things like gymnastics and dance I can't see you not getting onto the squad!" Amy had done both of those activities since she was two. Her gymnastics coach had been trying to get her to go to some of the Olympic trials, but she said 'no' to that. She liked doing it, but didn't want to compete at that level – she just wanted to have fun doing it.

"I hope you're right Brandon, it would be so much fun I think." We reached her house and went inside.

"Well, shall we start on this stupid assignment that Mr. Krantz gave us?" She asked.

"Yeah... I guess. I can't believe he wants us to do all of this the week after spring break, why couldn't he have given us at least a day without homework?!"

"I agree, but I don't think we could get anywhere arguing with him. Here, let's go work in my playroom. I have a table in there we can work around." She said as we topped her stairs and went into a room I hadn't seen before.

"Okay." I replied as we entered into one of the most girly rooms I had ever been in. The room was painted in pink and purple, and I guessed must have been her nursery when she was a baby? There were Barbie dolls, baby dolls, stuffed animals, and basically every toy that a girl her age could have wanted from age five to twelve. "You weren't kidding when you said you had a lot of toys." I said to her.

"Nope, I'm definitely a spoiled brat," she replied with a giggle. "Here, help me get this table out," she pointed to a fold up card table against the wall. We got it set up and grabbed a couple chairs from against the wall.

"Okay, he wants us to write a 'narrative' about the dissection first." She said and we began working on it. We both worked hard on the project and within about two hours we had most of it done.

Her parents had come home by that point and invited me to dinner, but I had to turn them down tonight. "We're having dinner with some family friends tonight. I'd love to take you guys up on your offer another time though." I said as I gathered up my stuff.

"Brandon, why don't you come over tomorrow and we'll finish up this project and work on studying for the test?" Amy asked.

"Okay, that sounds good." I said as I went out the door to where my mom was parked on the road. She waved at Amy and her parents and we went off to dinner with our friends. I had a good time at dinner that night and we had a great meal.

That night I made sure that I practiced so I could avoid the wrath of Mrs. Remar. By the time I went to bed I was definitely ready. That night, all I could think about when I tried to go to sleep was Amy's wonderful room, and how great it would be to be able to play with her and her toys.

BY THE END of the week I had been over at Amy's house a couple of more times, and we both made it through Mr. Krantz's test and assignment with better than a one-hundred percent. He kind of gave us both a funny look when he handed them back the following week. "Amy, Brandon, can you two stay for a moment please." He said as everyone filed out of the room.

"Sure," Amy and I said.

When everyone had left the room he asked, "Did you two copy the assignment from each other?"

"No, we worked at the same time at my house, but we didn't cheat or anything if that's what you're suggesting." Amy asserted. I wasn't so sure it was a good idea to be that in his face though.

"That's fine, I don't mind that you two worked together on it at all. If anything I was going to say you two should do that kind of thing more often. I think it helped out on your tests as well. You were the only two that got A's on both the assignment and the test. Anyway let me write a pass out for each of you so you're not late to your next class."

He wrote it out and we both looked at each other trying to figure out what that was about. As we left I said, "I thought he was going to accuse us of cheating or something."

"I did too, but my parents would have been all over him in a heartbeat. That's why I said something to him first; I figured he must know my parents wouldn't put up with that crap. I don't think either of us will have any problems from him though. I think he genuinely likes both of us more than any of the other students." She giggled for a second.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how people give us a hard time about being 'teacher's pets' sometimes. The truth of the matter is that we end up getting way more help from them than they do because of it. I don't know, it's kind of funny." She laughed some more as we split up and went to our separate classes.

That day we had a playing test in band to see if we would be allowed to go on the trip that was coming up. If anyone scored less than an 80% they wouldn't be allowed to go. I was really nervous about it, but when I asked her my grade afterwards she told me I had received a perfect score. That was reassuring.

In choir we just goofed around that day since Mrs. Schultz was gone. Amy and I talked pretty much non-stop during that class period since we didn't really want to watch the movie that was put on. The sub looked at us like she was annoyed, but held back from saying something for one reason or another.

Towards the end of class Amy asked, "Hey Brandon, do you want to go see a movie this weekend?"

"What movie?"

"Nikki and I were thinking A Goofy Movie. It's probably going to be really dumb, but it seems like something to do. If nothing else it's something to do."

"Who else is going to go?"

"Maybe Ashley, other than that I don't think anyone else. So what do you think?"

I thought for a second, "It sounds like fun, let me double check with my parents and I'll call you later?" I wasn't going over to her house today because she had gymnastics practice.

"Okay, I'll be home around seven, call me then."

"Okay." I told her.

By the time I got through the end of the day I was glad to be going home. When I got there I looked on the internet for stuff and just kind of chilled for the rest of the night.

I did ask my parents for permission to go see the movie this weekend and they agreed. I called Amy and let her know that I could go. She told me it looked like it was going to just be Nikki, her, and I since Ashley couldn't go. I said that was fine, and we made plans on Friday during school on when we were meeting at the movie theater.

Saturday at 11:00am Mom dropped me off at the movie theater where Amy and Nikki were already waiting.

"Hey," I said as I walked up to them. They both said 'hi' back and we walked to the ticket line.

"What movie, Miss?" The guy asked me.

I just shrugged the mistaken identity off with a smile (it did make me happy,) and said, "One for A Goofy Movie."

Amy and Nikki bought their tickets behind me and came up to me giggling a minute later. "Brandon, I can't believe how often that's been happening to you recently!" Amy said.

"Often?" Nikki asked.

"When we were skiing a couple weeks ago everyone seemed to say that," I told her. I was blushing pretty heavily.

"Don't worry about it Brandon," Amy said.

"And definitely don't cut your hair," Nikki said.

"I agree," Amy said.

"Umm... thanks." I replied as we got into the snack bar line.

"So Brandon, how much money do you have left?" Amy asked.

"Umm... I have four dollars left. It looks like just enough to get a coke, but not much else."

"Not necessarily, Nikki how much do you have?" Amy asked.

"I've got five, you?"

"I've got six-fifty left. If we pitch in the extra beyond the three dollars for a drink we'd have just enough to get a large bag of popcorn and nachos that we could split. Wanna do that?" She asked.

"Sure," I said, Nikki nodded too.

We got up to the counter and the guy asked, "What can I get for you ladies?"

I caught a smirk on Nikki's face and wanted to strangle her, but just answered, "Three Cokes, a large popcorn, and a thing of nachos please." I wondered if he would figure out I was a boy at this point.

"Sure thing Miss." He replied and began getting our order together.

As we stood there I heard a voice that I had thankfully not heard for a long while at this point. It was Matt. I quickly looked around and saw that he was in line, two lines over. I had heard his parents had sent him out of town to go live at a relative's house in Arizona, what was he doing back? If he saw me what would he do? I looked again and didn't recognize any of the other guys with him. They all looked like thugs just like him though.

I whispered to Amy, "Amy... Matt's back there, what should I do? I can't imagine he would be too happy to see me."

"Relax, the guy is bringing our popcorn back right now and we'll go in the movie theater. I'm sure he's not going to see the same movie as us. He'll probably go see Bad Boys, he's 'too cool' to go see a kids movie."

Our stuff came over and we booked it to the theater and took our seats. Nikki looked over at me and said, "Brandon, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I kind of have," I replied and explained about Matt.

"Don't worry about him. He wouldn't dare do anything in a public place like this. The cops would be called and he'll go to prison for certain this time." Nikki said.

I hoped they were right. I honestly had a sinking suspicion that I was not going to get as lucky as Amy and Nikki thought. Thankfully the movie previews started a short while later and I began to enjoy myself as we munched on the nachos and popcorn. About half-way through the movie I really needed to go to the bathroom. I was kind of scared to go out there by myself though.

What if Matt was in the bathroom too? I decided I couldn't wait till the end of the movie though and got up to go. Amy whispered to me, "Wait a second, I'll come with you."

I felt a little bit better instantly and we went over to the restrooms. I went in really quick, went, and got back out. Amy got out a second later and we headed back to the theater. I thought, 'good, we're home free!'

"Hey Amy! Where's your little sissy friend Brandon?" I knew in a second it was Matt's voice again, and cursed my decision to think the positive thoughts I had just been thinking. I had totally doomed myself!

Amy motioned to me to keep walking. It was worth a try and I hoped it would work until I saw a hand reach out for Amy's shoulder. I tried to warn her but she apparently didn't need it. The next thing I knew was that she had ducked under the grasp and we were still somehow walking forward.

"Amy I just want to talk to you and your friend here." Matt said as he ran ahead of us suddenly. "Maybe if you won't go out with me she will." I just about dropped dead at that moment. Matt thought I was a girl and didn't recognize me?

We both turned back around and started heading for the main area. "Matt we don't want to talk to you." Amy said fairly angrily. We had reached the area where a ticket taker was taking tickets from several people when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Why don't we let her tell me that?" He said rudely.

He spun me around to look at him. I angrily yelled at him, "Get lost already!"

"No, not until you both learn your places, which is to go out with me."

"Look, it's not going to happen." Amy said. "If you don't stop bothering us we're going to go call the cops."

"You think the cops scare me Amy? I'm going to get you one way or another. If I have to, I'll wait for you after the movie when you go outside." Matt sneered.

"Matt you're a real dumb-ass you know it?" I said, surprising myself – my language hadn't reached anywhere near that 'extreme' recently. "Leave us alone." I said and we started to head off again toward the main lobby where we thought we'd have a better chance of being safe.

"Wait a second, Brandon?!?!" Matt bellowed. My outburst had been enough for him to finally recognize me. "Come here, so I can teach you the lesson you deserve for getting me kicked out of school!"

Amy and I tried to move faster but I felt the hand shove me on my back too soon. I managed to roll when I fell and got back on my feet a second later. I looked up just in time to see Matt sending a fist my way, tried to duck while flinching, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't in pain. I looked up to see a guy gripping Matt's hand firmly in his palm.

"Sir, you need to calm down. I'm a police officer and you need to leave this establishment right now."

"You're going to stand up for those two?" Matt said incredulously and began struggling to get loose from his grip. I suddenly thought my earlier sworn comment couldn't have been any truer. Not only was he a jerk, but he was dumb to boot! Sure enough in about the blink of an eye he was on the ground with the officer holding him down.

"Ladies, I'm terribly sorry this gentleman lacks any real manners. He'll get a chance to learn some here in a bit though I think. Go ahead and go see the rest of your movie. I shouldn't need a statement from either of you since I witnessed his attempted assault." He said.

"Umm... officer thanks, we appreciate it." Amy replied. And we began heading back to the theater. The movie was most of the way over now, but that was okay Amy and I agreed later, it wasn't that good of a movie.

We left after the film and told Nikki what had happened as we headed out to the parking lot to wait for our parents. My mom was waiting outside and came over to talk to us. "So how was it?"

I debated about not telling her about the incident but decided that I was better off telling her. I relayed all that had happened and she decided to call the police department and let them know that there had been a restraining order in place. They had just been getting ready to release him at that point but decided to hold him now that they knew he violated a restraining order.

After determining that was a violation of his probation they ended up sentencing him back to six months in the state's juvenile facility. Of course I didn't know all of this till the hearing in May, but I'm happy to say this was to be the last incident with Matt I would ever deal with.

I did spend a decent amount of time thinking that night about how he hadn't recognized me immediately. Who would have thought I could come that close to fooling someone who had known who I was by looks that well? I kept wondering if it was possible for me to really be a girl. I mean I knew that I didn't have the right parts, but it was possible to get them to be like the right parts right? I didn't sleep for a long time that night...

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