Wrestling Against Myself (38 page)

“Cool, she wants to talk to you.”

“Yeah. I get that a lot.”

Courtney scrunched up her face. “You get a lot of moms that want to talk to you?”

“You'd be surprised. Mostly it was a mentoring thing I did through church last year for at risk elementary school boys. It hadn't started up yet this year, but it was a lot of fun. I guess there is a benefit to being a wrestler in this town after all.”

“Yeah. You wear those tight bathing suits,” Courtney said smugly.

“They're called singlets. Now go, don't keep your mommy waiting.”

Courtney stuck her tongue out at the senior and then got out of the car.

“Brat!” Tony yelled out the passenger side window before the girl could disappear into her house.

Tony got back on the road and headed home. He had homework and some thinking to do, but also wanted to head back to the school after six to get in a brisk five mile run. He always ran when things annoyed him and the reaction of his two friends towards Courtney bothered him to know end.

As he drove home, his mind focused less on Shannon and Stephanie and more on the small freshman girl that he befriended at school.

“Even though she told me that the rumors are true,” Tony spoke to himself as the wind whipped past him, “I can't imagine her being anything other than a girl. Maybe if I knew her in the past, when she lived life as Corey, perhaps then I would have a hard time accepting it. Maybe that's why Peter's brother is having issues, he remembers Courtney for who she was and not for who she is. Even so, I can't explain Shannon or Stephanie for the life of me.”

Tony decided he did enough thinking for the time being. He turned up the radio and made his way home singing on the top of his lungs.

The next morning, Antonio was still at a loss on how to handle Shannon and Stephanie. He would remain their friends, and would never deny them a place at the lunch table or any other event he was participating in, but he worried what would happen if they got involved in the school wide conspiracy to make Courtney drop out of school.

The wrestler stood up from bed. His legs were sore from the five miles he ran around the school track before darkness fell. What started out as a light jog to clear his head turned into a heart pounding, muscle jarring run as he fueled himself with the frustration of current events. He was use to psyching himself up before wrestling matches, getting extra energy and strength by feeding off the negatives that were in his world. He never before did it for a workout and was now paying the price as he tried to stretch out in his jockey shorts. He didn't get worked up solely on the fact that Shannon and Stephanie abandoned somebody in need, but that was what started his mind down the path of being worked into a frenzy. It was also the other students going along with the plot against Courtney. It was the song. Every time he thought of the chorus of “Dude Looks Like A Lady” he went into high gear.

“Coach won't be happy,” Tony said as reached out his hands and grabbed the door jamb to the bathroom as he took a giant step forward to stretch out his hamstrings. “I promised him I would cool it on working out and I'm sure someone is going to tell him I was running like my hair was on fire.”

Though Antonio would like to think he was above trying to impress other people or wasn't concerned about what they thought; there were a few people he didn't want to disappoint. His mom was one of them, but she was proud of him and often bragged to her office mates about his accomplishments. The other two people whose opinion mattered were Coach Walker and Pastor Bob. It was odd, because Tony figured he would separate the two men into different arenas, keeping Coach Walker in the athletic realm and Pastor Bob in the spiritual, but when it all boiled down, the teen wanted them both to approve of the way he approached life as a whole.

Tony finished stretching and figured his legs weren't going to feel any better than they did. It would take a day or two to flush the lactic acid out of his muscles and outside of walking stiffly; he was going to be able to manage. He grabbed his keys and a lunch bag from the table and made his way to the door.

“Mom,” he called out. “I'm leaving. I got prayer meeting this morning.”

“Have a good day,” his mother called back.

“I will.” Antonio wondered if he should tell his mom about the happenings at school. He hadn't mentioned any of the drama with Courtney or how the school was reacting and part of him thought he should. He wondered why he hadn't brought it up. It wasn't as if he had one of those types of relationships with his mother where they didn't talk; in fact, they were very close.

“Why haven't I brought up Courtney,” Tony thought as he sat behind the wheel of his car. “Mom would find it interesting. Am I worried about what she would think? I hope not. I don't think Courtney is doing anything wrong, do I? For that matter, I should tell Pastor Bob that I found out the truth about the situation. But at least with Pastor Bob I have an excuse, kind of, I hadn't been around him except at church on Sunday and that wasn't the time or place to say anything. I guess I could have gone to the church and talked to him, but I guess I can see him before youth group on Wednesday. Since this thing with Shannon and Stephanie happened I should bring it up to him. But with mom, I don't have an excuse do I?”

Antonio fired up the car, revved the engine until he was satisfied he wouldn't stall out and then drove to school. Early in the morning, the roads of Dunedin were empty and he had an open road all the way to the school. He was tempted to test the engine the same way he tested his legs the night before, but he had no way of paying for a ticket and the long standing rule in the house was that if he did get a ticket he would lose his driving privileges. He didn't want to be the only senior with a license and a car who pedaled a bike to school. Besides, where would Courtney sit on their trips after school?

As was the case on days when he led prayer meeting, the student parking lot was completely empty. Even though he could have parked close to the main buildings, Antonio pulled into his regular spot; made sure he turned off his headlights and shut the car off. He stayed in his car for a little longer than usual, knowing his legs were going to protest. He knew when he had his roll-around wrestling session after school that Carl was going to have an advantage, luckily they made a pact to not do any live wrestling and keep to practicing technique. Tony figured that today was a perfect day for them to work the top position so his legs wouldn't take any more of a pounding.

The teen lingered in his vehicle long enough. He opened the car door and rolled up the window before tentatively getting to his feet. He walked to the room where the prayer meeting was held, feeling the soreness in his thighs as he went up the incline that separated the parking lot from the school.

The hallway was empty, but the classroom was open as Tony stood outside the door waiting to see the first people who arrived. He didn't want to wait in a classroom by himself and figured he would greet a few people and they could go in together before waiting on others.

“Hey Tiny,” Carl said as he walked through the door. “How's it hanging?”

“Same old, same old,” Antonio said with a smile. “I doubt there is anything new with you.”

“You mean since you last saw me? Let's see, I got married, had three kids and discovered the cure for the common cold, so not much.”

“And then you woke up.” Tony laughed.

“Unfortunately.”

“You're the first one here, I figured we could wait for another two or three people to show up before going into the room.”
“That's cool,” Carl said as he fussed with his Letterman's jacket. “I got a call from Shannon last night.”
 

“Really? I didn't think he had your number.”

“Me either, but he hunted it down. He told me, in not too friendly a manner, that he won't be coming to prayer meeting as long as you're leading it.”

Tony frowned. “So he has an issue with me too?”

“Only as it relates to other issues.”

“I'm not going to leave a person in need to fend for themselves against a pack of wolves and jackals.”

“I'm with you on this one Tiny. Shannon feels it isn't the Christian thing to support Courtney in her sin.”

“In her sin?”

“Those were his words, not mine. He wanted me to convince you that the real Christian thing to do was to get Courtney to live as the man God made him and quit this charade before someone got hurt.”

Antonio let out a heavy breath. “Are you going to convince me?”

“Doubtful.”

“Are you going to try?”

Carl shrugged. “It's not my place to convince you of anything.”

“Let me ask you this,” Tony decided to take a different approach. “Do you agree with Shannon? Do you believe what Courtney is doing is sin? Do you think she should act like a boy?”

“To be honest, I don't know. I'm trying not to judge on this one, but in this case it is hard not to have an opinion. Thing is, I met Courtney when she was in girl mode so a girl is the only way I see her. But I also see Shannon's point.”

“Fence sitting? Really?”

“If you want me to decide right here and now whether or not I think what she is doing is a sin or not, I can't. I don't know and I don't care. The only person Courtney is hurting is herself, and in the end she will answer for the choices she makes in life. It's not for me to tell her how to behave or what she is.”

“At least you're still using the words her and she,” Tony said. “It's not the norm, but I think Shannon is wrong. I can see his point though. He thinks that Courtney living and dressing and acting as a girl is some sort of deception.”

“He's pretty much outright said that, Tiny.”

“And I think that is where he made his mistake. I think the real deception is if she pretended to be a boy.”

“But she is a boy,” Carl said harshly.

“Maybe down there,” Tony said as he glanced at his crotch.

“Where else does it matter?”

“Here,” Tony said as he made a closed fist and thumped Carl on his chest over his heart.

“I rather not think about it. If the rumor didn't go around we would never have questioned whether or not Courtney was a girl.
Shame things turned out this way and that Shannon and Stephanie are behaving like they are.”

“Stephanie isn't coming either?”

“From what I hear, they're joined at the hip and she is going to follow his lead now.”

“A shame. Hard enough to convince one person they are wrong when they're by themselves. A million times harder when they have someone in their ear telling them they're right.”

“That probably applies to us all,” Carl said. 

“Hopefully they’ll figure things out.”

The door to the hallway opened, Barry and James, two people who weren't part of Tony's normal group strolled in, causing him to cut the conversation short.

“Brother Tiny,” James said in his deep baritone.

“Brother James, Brother Barry, our two resident bagpipers. The classroom is already open,” Tony said as he opened the door for the two students. “Carl and I will be in shortly.”

The two members of the Dunedin High School Highland Marching Band made their way past the wrestler and into the classroom.

“Maybe you should ask them what it's like for guys to wear skirts to school,” Carl whispered into Tony's ears once the door was closed.

“Behave. Besides, they'll tell you they're called kilts and aren't the same as skirts.”

“You asked already, didn't you?”

Tony smirked. “My freshman year I made that mistake. I didn't know of the connection Dunedin had with Scotland and it was an innocent question. How was I supposed to know we had a school band that played the bagpipes?”