Wrestling Against Myself (7 page)

“I'll just stand over here,” Tracy said as she made her way next to Tony.

“You find out anything about that girl I pointed out yesterday,” Tony asked the girl as the other two seemed to have a silent argument with each other.

Tracy frowned.  “Something’s up with her, but I don't know exactly what. From what I hear, whatever it is, the freshmen aren’t too happy about her.”

“A little thing like that, what could she have done?”

“I don't know yet. Jury is still out.”

“Think she needs our help?”
“Tiny, you think everyone needs your help. Find out what it is first, something tells me you may not want to get involved.”

Antonio tensed his face as others walked in. “I don't like seeing someone go around so timid. She's afraid of something.”

“Maybe it's retaliation.”

“Maybe. See what else you can find out.”

Tony watched the door, waiting for Courtney to walk through so he could try to get some answers, but she never did. After waiting as long as he could, he began the prayer meeting with fifteen other students in the room.

The prayer meeting followed a certain protocol that it had for years. The students joined hands in a circle, and Tony began to pray, when he was done the person to his right said their prayer and then the next person after that until the loop finally came back around to Tony and he was able to close the prayer out.

“Lord, we just ask that you guide us. Let us be examples of love and mercy, not so that we get the credit, but that people can find their way to you. Amen.”

Other students were already in the hall when Tony opened the door to let the others out. He removed the note he had placed outside the room and put it in his binder for safe keeping. He would make a game out of how long he could hold onto the one note before losing it or forgetting it at home.

After the other prayer participants left, Antonio merged in with the traffic and made his way to his locker. He knew that he would soon abandon his locker and simply store everything he needed in his car. For now he was interested in his neighbor and wanted to get there before she had time to leave.

Though he was greeted by a lot of people with “Hey Tiny,” and “What's up man,” it wasn’t as bad as the first day of school. At least people were getting use to his new physique.

Tiny made his way into building B-2. He looked towards his locker, no one else was around.

The chubby kid who got bulldozed the day before was kneeling by his locker struggling to get his large history text book out from under several other books.

“Hey,” Antonio said as he leaned on the wall next to the locker.

The kid glanced up. “Hi,” he said with uncertainty in his voice.

Tony was amused. Freshmen were in awe when interacting with seniors. “You got a name?”

“Andrew,” he said as he rotated a book in the locker, but was having some difficulty.

“So? Do you go by Andy, or Drew or anything like that?”

Andrew started to pull some of the books from the top of the pile out of the locker and place them on the hallway floor. “No, just Andrew.”

“I see. So, those two guys bother you again from yesterday?”

“Nah,” he said as he finally got the book he wanted out of his locker and proceeded to put the other stuff back in. “They found someone else to pick on.”

Antonio frowned. “Too bad. I mean too bad they're picking on someone, not too bad that their not picking on you.”

The kid gave a faint smile.

“Do you play any sports?”

“Not really. I was thinking about going to the JV football meeting on Friday, that could be cool.”

“It could be. Have you thought about wrestling?” Tony never let an opportunity pass to add to the roster.

“Not really.”

“You should,” Tony knew he was going to have to make a sales pitch. “Much better than football.”

Andrew eyed Tony with suspicion. “How so?”

“In football, if one person messes up then everyone suffers. In wrestling you control your own destiny.”

“I probably wouldn't be any good.”

Tony frowned. “Perhaps not at first, but you would have an advantage over every other freshman heavyweight in the whole state.”

“Really?” the kid perked up. “What advantage?”

“You would have me training you,” Antonio said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. He knew he sounded egotistical and wish he hadn't, but he didn't know any other way to sell someone new onto the sport. “Wrestling practice doesn’t start until October, after JV football is over anyway. At least think about it?”

“Okay,” the kid said.

Even though there was no commitment made, Antonio figured he could sidestep that aspect of life. “Great, can't wait to see you there.”

Tony looked down the hall and saw that Courtney had just entered the crowded, noisy hall. He watched as she shuffled her feet and kept her eyes on the floor. “Catch you later,” he told the kid who had already shut his locker and was about to leave anyway.

Antonio made his way towards his locker, but kept his eye on the small girl. She wasn't wearing a dress like he thought when he saw her across the field that morning. She was wearing a pink cotton jumper with a white tee underneath. The jumper had a skirt, and though he would have classified it as a dress a year ago, Tracy explained the difference.

There was a whirlwind of activity around her, and it made her slow movements more out of place. The fear was evident, but the cause eluded him. He looked through the hall to see if there was someone that might look menacing, but it didn't appear as if any one person was the cause for the girl's terror.

Tony made his way to his locker and made sure he stood off to the side in order to not impede the girl.

That's when he saw it. To an untrained eye, one that might not have been use to the activities of a high school hallway before the starting bell rang, it might have been viewed as an accident.

A boy. A
freshman, who Antonio was not acquainted with, left from a locker on the right side of the hall, went out of his way to cross over to the other side, and purposefully bumped the fragile girl with his shoulder.

“Watch it, freak,” the boy said loudly with the unmistakable sound of disgust in his voice.

Courtney briefly glanced up, mouthed something that Antonio couldn't hear, but looked like an embarrassed apology and then continued to make her way through the corridor.

Antonio was about to intervene, especially when he saw the boy join up with another group of freshmen who were laughing, giving him high fives and patting him on the back. But by the time he would have dealt with the kid, he might have lost the opportunity to talk to Courtney.

The girl finally made it to her locker and looked up in order to work the combination.

“Good morning,” Antonio said as softly and politely as he could.

The girl didn't respond. It was as if she didn't even here him.

Tony tapped the small girl on the shoulder.

Courtney jumped about five feet into the air and twisted toward the larger Antonio.

Antonio held up his hand in surrender. “Sorry,” he said in a tone just loud enough for them to hear. “Didn't mean to scare you. I said 'Good Morning,'”

Courtney nodded but didn't reply right away. Instead she glanced around to see if anyone was paying attention. “Good morning,” she finally said, her mousy voice was barely able to be heard over the cacophony of the hallway. 

At least it was a start, Tony thought. “I thought I saw you yesterday leaving school, cutting through the back of the football field by the weight room?”

“Yeah,” Courtney mumbled. “I saw you by your car.”

Antonio felt more comfortable, at least the girl knew how to communicate. “It's a cool car, don't you think?”

Courtney's eyes shifted from side to side as she watched students walk by. “I guess.”

Tony shrugged. “Guess you're not into cars. That's okay though.”

The girl didn't respond, and tensed whenever the doors from either end of the corridor opened.

“I thought I saw you again this morning,” Antonio tried to shrug it off but felt his concern mounting. “I looked up and saw you, and then it was like you disappeared.”

“Probably,” Courtney said, but didn't offer up any explanation.

“Thought you might have gotten abducted by aliens or something?”

The girl tried her best to smile but failed miserably at it.

Antonio felt like he was a part of an interrogation instead of a conversation and was beginning to feel uneasy about the situation, which was unlike him. “Hey, is everything okay with you?”

Courtney's eyes grew wide with fear. Tony quickly glanced behind him, expecting to see some sort of danger, but there wasn't anything of concern back there. Perhaps she was afraid of him. “I don't bite,” he said, trying to alleviate the girl's fear. 

“I know,” the girl said softly, Antonio didn't actually hear the words, but was able to read her lips.

“Freak!” A lanky junior said as he brushed past Courtney.

Antonio quickly reached out and grabbed the boy by the shoulder.

The kid turned around, and momentarily postured himself as if he was ready for a fight until he saw what he would be up against. Immediately he unclenched his fist.

“What did you just say,” Antonio demanded.

“Oh, hey, Tiny. Didn't know it was you.”

“Did you just call me a freak?”

The kid put up his hands and tried to back away, almost falling over himself in the process. “Oh, no. Not you Tiny. I was just...  I mean it was... Um, sorry, it was an accident.”

Antonio narrowed his eyes at the boy. He was acquainted with him, his name was Roger. He never had problems with him before, and even had a gym class together with him the year before. Though they weren't exactly friends, they usually got along.

Roger decided to turn tail and walk away from the situation.

“Some people,” Antonio said as he turned around to talk to Courtney.

She was no longer there. He looked down the hall, both ways, but didn't see her. It served only to confuse him all the more.

The mystery of why the girl was so scared eluded him yet again, but at least he could do a little something about it. The boy who had run into the girl was still chumming around with his buddies.

Antonio made his way down the hall and stopped in front of the group.

“Hey you,” he said as he pointed to the kid in question.

The boy's friends quickly took a step away, leaving their pal to fend for himself.

“Me,” the kid tried to muster up as much bravado as he could as he pointed at his own chest.

“Yeah, you. Think I didn't notice you running into that little girl a few minutes ago?”

The boy tried to look confused, but didn't pull it off as effectively as he had hoped.

“I saw the whole thing,” Tony said strongly, but without raising his voice so he wouldn't draw any further attention. “What's your name, kid?”