Chapter 14: Hammer and Nails
The weekend after my birthday was our annual Mystery Destination: HalloWeekend at Cedar Point. Now, it really wasn’t a Mystery Destination if we went every year, but it took the place of our Mystery Destination trip in September. Cedar Point had some of the most outrageous roller coasters in the world and was only two hours away. And you could go in the fall when it was the perfect temperature, and you barely had to wait in line. Plus, you got chased around by ghosts and ghouls—what’s not to love? My dad usually borrowed a RV from a buddy, and we drove down really early and got back really late. This year 12 of my fellow lunch table crowd had elected to come. Unfortunately, the general norm for lunch table consisted of someone gossiping about you two seats from you, and someone gossiping about them two seats from them. Other than Jazz, Key, Thrace and Rafe, the rest of the table I would not call my true friends or plane friends. I don’t know if I was more sad or thankful that Rafe was not attending the weekend. He opted out with a vague statement that “roller coasters were not a good enough reason to cross State lines.”
My volunteer group was in full swing this week because on Thursday we would announce the winners of the Sport/Spa Giveaway. Right now, we had 500 tickets sold, and we had made about $5,000 dollars. I could not believe that with just my birthday and this fundraiser we were to our goal of buying the Grande Ballroom. Right now my juniors were seriously smokin the seniors in the class competition. However, cafeteria gossip hinted strongly that the seniors were holding back some of their money for a final push on Thursday. Tensions were high because we all wanted the free skip day at the end of the year.
The only real darkness on the horizon was the fact that teenagers in Detroit were still going missing or coming home all beat up with no recollection of events. There were now about 20 documented cases over the past two years, and the Mayor’s taskforce was still getting nowhere. Frankly, I was surprised that my parents were even letting me out of the house. The Fight Club theory was still going around. Some of the public was blaming the teens, and some were blaming the City. The media just seemed to want to scare the flock out of everybody. The school had been proactive in sending home basic ‘common sense’ tips to help calm down parents. I could summarize the full page of tips in two basic premises: know everyone your teenager was hanging out with and know everything your teenager was doing. After that newsletter went out, my parents got eight phone calls from parents of children going on the trip. Apparently, four of the kids had parents that didn’t read the newsletter.
On Wednesday, I told Dr. A how well the Sports/Spa Giveaway fundraiser was going. Sadie joined us, briefly, and Dr. A and I started formalizing the next fundraiser. We had just outlined all the details when I looked out Dr. A’s window and saw Rafe and Delian talking to a total hottie that looked familiar with two buff dudes. The conversation wasn’t a pleasant one by the look on Rafe and Delian’s faces. However, hottie guy looked amused. He had pitch, black hair and projected an arrogant and powerful attitude. Ahhhhhhh. He was the mystery man from the Back to School Dance who was standing in the balcony with Delian. I pointed them out to Dr. A. He immediately stepped back from the window. He looked upset but tried to hide it.
“Dr. A, are those DUA members that I haven’t met?”
Dr. A still looked upset and replied, “Most certainly not. I believe those are fraternity brothers of Delian’s come to express their disapproval of his time management skills. They don’t approval of Delian’s association with us.”
The phone rang, which made Dr. A jump. As he picked it up, he asked me to step outside and shut the door, but under no circumstances leave the building. I complied but gave him a weird look. I was planning on eavesdropping, so I wasn’t really offended.
Flock, he was practically whispering. It also didn’t help that the door was really heavy. I decide that I was going to have no luck with listening at the door, so I went to find another window to watch what was going on. Rafe and Delian were standing side by side. They both seemed to have their hands clenched in fists at their sides. Brother Hottie looked rather annoyed and was pointing at Delian. The two buff dudes had his back. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could imagine that Delian was shooting his death ray look at Brother Hottie. It must have worked because the fraternity brothers jumped in their Escalade and took off.
Dr. A came out of his office to catch me spying on Delian and Rafe. He still looked really shaken. He remarked loudly, “Spying is really not becoming of you, Calliope.”
I laughed and announced, “Neither is eavesdropping, but spying was the only outlet available to me. Delian’s fraternity brother seemed sort of intense.”
Dr. A struggled for a response. “Well, it was his fraternity President, and he doesn’t like it when Delian does not follow his guidance. From the little Delian speaks of him, he sounds downright predatory. He is also known as a cad with women, so I didn’t want you to go out there and gain his notice.
“Ah, method to your madness. You really looked upset, Dr. A. Are you sure there isn’t more to the story?”
“I believe Delian’s President is the type of individual that abuses any person he views as weaker. And he believes all people are weaker. There is a saying for his kind by Abraham Maslow. ‘If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail.’ Delian is a nail to him. ”
“Have you tried to get him out of it? Rafe can’t be involved, right? He’s only in high school?”
Dr. A explained, “There is not much Delian’s fraternity brother can do to him. He’s a legacy, so he just gets put down every once in awhile. Don’t worry, Calliope. Both Delian and Rafe know how to handle themselves. You have fought Rafe, and Delian is even better.”
That got my attention, “Really? I will have to ask him to spar with me when I can actually carry on a simple conversation with him without blurting out every thought that pops into my head.”
Dr. A smiled, “Ahhh. That was the issue. You often left Delian’s company in a hurry. I always wondered.”
I snarked, “Yeah. I don’t want to talk about that.”
Dr. A turned serious again, “Calli, you might not want to mention what you saw to Rafe or Delian. It would only embarrass them.”
“Don’t worry, Dr. A. My mouth was made to keep secrets.”
Rafe knocked on the door just then and asked if I was ready to go. Rafe quizzed me about our HalloWeekend Plans for the whole ride home. I remarked, “If you are this curious, you should come with us. Are afraid of roller coasters? Admit it.”
“I think everyone will be more comfortable without me on this trip. I will be more comfortable not having to fend off Jazz and Siena,” Rafe winked at me.
“Are you ever gonna be interested in any of your adoring female classmates? I think some of them have started a fan club,” I snarked.
“Ahhhh. My very own fan club--how I have missed those days. I use to have my very own cult. A fan club might be a step down. For the record, I prefer snarky to adoring.”
I laughed, “You are a glutton for punishment, my friend.”
“Don’t I know it. Door-to-door service, Siren. I will see you in school tomorrow. Miss me until then,” he smarmed back at me.
When I got home, Thrace was actually sitting in the den with our moms eating dinner. He followed me to the kitchen as I got my dinner, and I asked him where dad was.
“He went to one of those teenage Fight Club Task Force meetings. Waste of time if you ask me. If there was a Fight Club, we would know about it. Flock, I would be the reigning king of it.” Thrace continued to have little interest in the growing threat to our city. He threatened to give me Step #8 which he laughingly called first base. I told him that he literally had no chance at first or any other base during the rest of the week, due to the level of chaos tomorrow and supervision of the weekend. He said not to worry since he had the patience of a saint.
I laughed and snarked back at him, “That must be Saint Jude of des
perate cases and lost causes.”
Thrace just picked me up and hugged me, “Calli, just because you are a desperate case don’t think that means you’re a lost cause. I have hope for you.”
I threw a punch, which he blocked then tried to get close enough to tickle me. Our moms broke up the fight and called for us to come in the den to coordinate the weekend activities.
On Thursday, the sneaky seniors pulled through and added an extra 200 tickets to their total. We ended up selling $10,000 worth of tickets, and Dr. A pulled the lucky names. The seniors could now take their end of year skip day without the harsh penalty that the school usually imposed. Thrace was excited—mostly because he managed to keep the senior strategy a secret from me. As usual, karate class flew by with minimum fuss now that Thrace and Rafe had a truce. As we were leaving karate, I even heard Thrace call out to Rafe, “You don’t know what you’re missing, man. We always have a blast!”
“Well, maybe next year. My dad does not like letting me out of the state after dark,” he laughed back.
Thrace nodded and said, “Call us if you change your dad’s mind.”
“Will do. See you tomorrow.”
I smiled at Thrace and said, “Once again, down right friendly. I am impressed, Grasshopper.”
Thrace kissed me and replied, “Hey, he only drives me crazy about half the time, now. I feel like it’s an improvement.”
Date night on Friday consisted of cleaning out the RV, so 12 of our friends could hang out with the minimum level of destruction. Thrace was bored with the whole ‘cleaning process’ and kept stepping outside. When he came back, he was determined to move on to Step #8 in the RV in my parent’s driveway while they were in the house. Whereas I was determined to take a whiff of his soda can that he was holding onto like a lifeline. Long story short, he got pushy, and I got pissy, which resulted in him accidently getting his soda dumped on him and me having to clean up the mess when he stormed out.
The whole ride down to Cedar Point the next day was tense because Thrace and I were barely on speaking terms. Everyone, including my parents, were trying to figure out what was up. Once we got to the park Key, Jazz, Tre, and I had to take off on our own because the others pretty much shunned us as a show of support for Thrace. I told them the shortened version of the story. Jazz and Key were not surprised, whereas Tre tried not to sympathize with Thrace too much—which was acceptable. Luckily, the four of us had a blast going on almost every roller coaster they had: Dragster, The Millennium Force, The Wicked Twister, The Raptor, The Gemini, The Mean Streak, and The Magnum while being chased around by ghouls, ghosts, and vampires. By the time we met up with the rest of the group, we were exhausted, but Thrace’s group was either loud and obnoxious or very pale with a slight green tint. It was clear they managed to sneak booze into the park. Let me tell you, roller coasters and liquor did not go well for some of them. If my parents found out, Thrace would be sooooo voted off the island.
I managed to grab Thrace and warn him that my parents were not stupid and his crowd needed to settle down. I started to walk away, but he grabbed my arm and yanked me back. He started in with his usual ‘I need to relax,’ but then he saw my parents heading our way. He quickly let me go and apologized. He turned to warn his friends to settle down before my parents got there. As my dad approached us, he headed straight for Thrace and went face-to-face with him as my mom ushered everyone toward the exit asking, “Did everyone have a good time?”
My dad and Thrace were at the back of the group and I was just in front of them as I heard my dad whisper with a threatening tone, “If you ever manhandle Calli like that again, son, that will be the last time you touch my daughter. Do you understand, Thrace?”
I heard Thrace mumble, “Yes, sir. I did apologize. I didn’t mean to yank her. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength. I really am sorry.”
Thrace, dad, and I were well behind the group now, but dad didn’t care. He looked at me and stated, “Those balloons in your room—he didn’t hurt you before did he?”
I looked dad straight in the eye and promised, “Of course not! Dad, I appreciate your support on this, but I have a black belt in karate. I can defend myself. Thrace and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything, but he would never hurt me. You know that. So let me fight my own battles, padre. I mean it. Now, can I talk to Thrace alone for a minute?”
Dad threw a stern look Thrace’s way before he stormed off. I took a pack of gum out of my purse and told Thrace to take it and give it to every one of his crew that had been drinking, so my parents wouldn’t catch on. Then I walked away. Thrace tried to put his arm around me or hold my hand, but I was way too pissed to deal with his attempts to make up. The tension in the RV was still pretty high, but soon calmed down because most of us went to sleep as my parents drove us back. When we got home, the girls headed to my house to crash. As my dad escorted the boys over to Thrace’s house, he made sure the guys gave up their car keys just in case any of them thought about driving. It was clear to them that he realized they had been drinking, despite the gum. He told Honey to lock up her liquor before she headed to bed and gave her the boys’ car keys.
The resentment between Thrace and I continued through next week. He felt that I had busted him to my parents, and I was just sick of his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine. Nothing had changed since he had been on ‘probation.’ We barely spoke even when we were sitting right next to each other at lunch or when he picked me up for school. I wondered if our problems were worse because I finally developed a backbone with him. Because Rafe did not go to Cedar Point, Thrace almost shunned him. It was like he believed that by not going he was automatically on my side. Somehow in his mind, he created Team Calli and Team Thrace within our group of friends (I had a very small Team Calli). There was gonna be no date night this week. Key had found out where the rave was on Friday, and we were definitely doing a “Girls Night Out,” instead of a date night. Thrace swung back and forth between pretending like he didn’t care and acting like a possessive caveman. I just needed to escape for one night of dancing my eyas off with the girls. Despite all my dad’s warnings about the Fight Club issue and the media’s scare tactics, I believed that nothing bad could happen when Key, Jazz, and I had each other’s backs.