Wrestling Against Myself (11 page)

The youth pastor looked up from a large book that was written half in ancient Greek and half in English. “Hey Tiny,” he said cheerfully as he put a brass bookmark on the page. “A day early for youth group.”

Tony smiled. “One day you're going to have to teach me to read that stuff,” he said as he motioned toward the book as it was placed on the desk.

“Yep, nothing like reading the Bible in the original language to get what it really means. Is this a social visit, or is something on your mind?”

“A bit of both.” Antonio sat down across from the youth pastor.

Pastor Bob raised his eyebrow. “I thought you gave up on having a social life in order to seek the perfect suplex.”

Tony laughed. “Those are only legal on TV 'play' wrestling, not in the real stuff I do.”

“Only joking. It’s obvious that there is something on your mind, so what is it?”

“I'm that easy to read, huh?”

“You wear your emotions on your sleeve and it's obvious something is bothering you and it's also obvious when you're trying to stall.”

“Sorry. Just a little problem at school that I'm trying to figure out.”

Pastor Bob tilted his head as he studied the teens face. “Find yourself in some trouble?”

“Not me, there's a girl at school.”

“Oh a girl,” Pastor Bob put his elbows on the desk and leaned forward. “We hadn't had one of these discussions since Jennifer Jewel.”

Jennifer Jewel was a girl Tony dated until the end of the school year the past summer. They had been 'an item' for three months, but her father's job transferred him to Paris and the two teenagers broke off their romance.

“It's not like that,” Tony said.

“Is she cute?”

“I guess. I mean, she's a freshman.”

“Oh, and you're worried about if you should date a freshman while you're a senior? Have I told you about my four year rule?”

“No,” Tony said, trying to hold his frustration in.

“My four year rule is that it is okay for students to date each other...”

“I meant, no, I'm not worried if I should date a freshman, it's not a romance problem.”

Pastor Bob frowned. “Oh.”

Tony took a deep breath and regained control over his feelings of frustration. “As I was saying, there is this girl in school and I think she might be in serious trouble.”

“Serious trouble at home or at school?”

“At school.”

“Okay,” Pastor Bob said as he leaned back in his plush leather chair. “Go on.”

“I don't know exactly what everyone's problem is with her, but there is some conspiracy among the freshmen and a few upperclassmen to get her to drop out.”

“I see. Have they done anything physical to her?”

“Nothing serious. I mean, I saw a few people purposefully bump into her. You know that bully game.”

“Unfortunately. What about verbally?”

“Petty name calling, but I didn't hear anything that could be considered a threat.”

Pastor Bob opened his desk drawer and pulled out a group of business cards and flipped through them. “Something tells me this is building up to more.”

“A group of kids tried to chase her down in a pickup after school. They said they only want to scare her, but I think they were planning something more than that.”

“Tiny, this is quite serious.”

“I know, that's why I came to you for advice.”

Pastor Bob pursed his lips. “Because you want to fix it.”

Tony looked away. “Yeah.”

“On your own?”

“Somebody has to.”

“Have you gone to one of the school's vice principals or the S.O. Officer?”

“No. Isn't that something she should do on her own?”

“Tiny, I know you want to fix things on your own. But this might be over your head. The people at the school and the school's sheriff officer are trained to deal with this kind of thing.”

“But all I have is second hand information.”

“I would go to the vice principal, make them aware of the situation and let them deal with it.”

“You're saying not to get involved.”

Bob shook his head. “No, I am telling you to get involved, just not in the way you wanted to. Knowing you, you wanted to find some armor and a white horse.”

Tony laughed. “Okay, I'll let the staff at school know.”

“Good. And I'm sure that's not all you're going to do.”

“Huh?”

“I know you too well, Tiny. You have something planned already.”

Antonio laughed. “Nothing more than being her friend.”

“I don't see anything wrong with that. Just don't take on the whole school by yourself. You may think it, but you're not invincible.”

“I know,” Tony said as he rose. “I figured I could come to you for some good advice and I was right.”

“You're welcome.”

“I better be going.”

“One more thing before you go,” Pastor Bob said as he found the business card he was looking for.

“Yes sir?”

“You might want to give this to her,” he said as he handed Tony the bright red business card with white lettering.

“Bullying helpline?”

“She probably could use a trained ear to turn to. They'll give her some solid advice on how to deal with things and hopefully put a stop to it.”

“Thanks again.” Antonio put the card in his back pocket and made a mental note not to forget about it.

“It also wouldn't hurt if you invited her to youth group tomorrow,” Bob said with a smile. “She could use some positive influences.”

“Will do,” Tony said and then turned to leave.

Tony made his way down to his car. He was hoping for a different kind of advice, advice that gave him a list of things to do to fix the problem and not to pass it off to somebody else.

“He's probably right though,” Tony said as he took the business card out of his back pocket and put it in the small cubbyhole under the dash. “Thinking I can fix everything is more of that pride issue.”

Tony was back at school Wednesday morning. It was only the third day, but he was already into the routine of a brand new school year. It was early, there were hardly any teachers at the school yet and even fewer students. He wouldn't have come so early, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the person he was looking for would show up shortly. He leaned up against his locker and waited while reading over his Bible. It didn't often read his Bible at school, but he left home before his morning devotional.

“So when you give to the needy,” Tony read softly out loud to himself, “do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

Tony closed his eyes and thought on what he read. He heard the door to the north side of the corridor open, but by the time he looked that way it already closed and no one was there.

“It's okay Courtney,” he called out. “I'm not going to do nothing.”

Tony stood still and wondered if his grammar was correct.

It took a little longer than he thought it should, but the door did open and the small girl made her presence known. Tony watched as she shuffled down the hall, looking as if in any moment she might flee from whence she came. He couldn't fathom why people would pick on her, she wasn't much sport. She wore a simple black denim skirt with pink flowers embroidered around the hem, along with a matching pink t-shirt that said 'all-star' in powder blue. She looked anything but an all-star and Tony found that amusing. He would've said something, but was afraid it would be taken the wrong way.

With her head down the whole time, Courtney made her way to her locker. As she passed Antonio she was on the other side of the hallway, but had no choice but to get near him when she dialed in the combination on the lock.

“Good morning,” Antonio said after too much awkward silence.

Courtney stiffened. “Good morning,” she said in a whisper quiet voice that dripped with fear.

“Relax.” Antonio was feeling
uncomfortable; he wasn't use to people fearing him. “Like I said, I'm not going to hurt you.”

Courtney turned her head and looked up at the hulking teenaged man-child. Her eyes rested on his face and couldn't hide how afraid she was. “Then why did you run after me yesterday?'

Antonio drew his lips thin. He figured that a casual observer might view the events of yesterday as him chasing after the girl. He wanted to object, but felt he had to be deliberate in the way he spoke to the small girl or she would be gone before he could utter an apology. “I wasn't chasing after you, I was chasing after the idiots in the pick-up.”

“Oh, them,” Courtney said sourly. “Friends of yours I guess.”

Tony chuckled. “Hardly. I guess we're friendly towards each other, but it’s not like we hang out.”

Courtney eyed the boy suspiciously. “So you weren't chasing me?”

“No, those guys were just being jerks and wanted to scare you.”

“It worked.”

“Do you know why they wanted to scare you? I mean, did you steal their lunch money or something?”

A smile tried to creep across Courtney's face, but she caught it before it could materialize. “I guess they don’t like me.”

“Looks that way.”

Courtney returned her attention to her locker. It was incredibly organized but lacked any of the touches that most girls added to their little piece of real estate.

“Can I ask you a question?”

She pulled out a few text books and a binder before closing her locker. “Sure.”

“Why do you walk that way to and from school? It's just a ditch back there and a wall.”

“There's a gap in the wall that leads near my house and I don't have to walk all the way around to the front of the neighborhood where the gate is and then walk all the way back. It's quicker my way.”

“Oh!” Tony guessed that answer was as good as any, but he didn't recall any one else ever using that short cut. It would be inconvenient if it ever rained and the ditch got muddy.

Courtney turned to leave.

“One more question.”

The small girl froze in her spot, and then turned again to face Antonio.

“Are you okay?”

Courtney didn't respond, but her eyes filled with tears. She slowly nodded her head yes.

Antonio frowned. She wasn't going to tell him what was wrong and he didn't know how to cajole the information out of her.  “I got something for you,” Antonio said as he remembered why he wanted to meet up with the girl. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the business card that Pastor Bob had given to him.  “If you ever need to talk to anyone but don't want to tell them who you are.”