it any more or less boring to watch. Listen, in order to talk with you, I have to kneel in a very awkward position next to the bed. For the next couple of days, can you just instant message me on the computer instead?"
"But you'll only be able to type with one hand."
"So the conversation will be a little slow. At least I won't have a sore neck when I'm finished talking."
"Okay sure. I can't wait 'til your back in school. Everybody misses you."
"Tell everyone I miss them too. I'll be seeing you soon enough."
" Bye."
3:02 pm, The Airport
Mrs. Hammond greeted her husband with a hug and a kiss. They talked as they made their way towards the baggage pick-up.
"So did the quake leave any permanent scars dear?"
"Of course. I had to purchase a whole new set of dishes for both the restaurant and the house. Other than that, the main thing you'll notice when we get home is that grandfather clock, which is still horizontal in the front room."
"I take it it's too heavy for one person to lift?"
"Yup, but actually, for the time being, I don't see any reason to move it. It never worked as a clock, but makes a nice footrest."
"So how's Rita holding up?"
"Remarkably well. That's the other thing you'll immediately notice when we get home. She's got a boyfriend now. He's really been a tremendous help."
"Really? Great. Anybody I know?"
She took a deep breath. "His name is Ian."
Suddenly, the expression on her husband’s face turned inquisitive. "Ian? Where have I heard that name before..."
"Dear..."
He grabbed his suitcase off of the conveyor belt. "Alright. I trust your judgment, and Rita's. Let's get out of here."
4:32 pm, Hammond Residence
Rita looked at the clock on the wall. "My mom and dad should be arriving home in a few minutes."
"Rita, is there anything I should know, before meeting your dad?" Ian put the VCR on pause.
"As a matter of fact, yes there is." Rita's voice was now serious. "I think you should know that he once met your dad at a P.T.A. meeting."
"Uh oh, that's not good, Rita."
"Listen, unlike you, I've haven't come out to my dad as an Atheist. So whatever you do, don't even raise that subject. As you've probably guessed, he's a lot more into the whole religious thing than my mom is. At this point, if he were to find out about it Ian, he'd probably just wind up blaming you for steering me in that direction."
"Well, my dad didn't really know about that until a week ago, so I'm sure your dad doesn't. However, If they ever spoke at length, I'm sure Rita, he must think I'm an idiot."
"Hopefully my mom's been working on him in the car. "
10:12 pm, The Hammond Master Bedroom
"So what do you think of Ian?" asked Mrs. Hammond.
Mr.Hammond just shrugged his shoulders. "He seems harmless enough."
10:01 am, Hasting Schoolyard
"What the hell is that?" asked Ian, upon seeing a bunch of guys, working with hammers, nails and electric saws. They were building some sort of edifice that was taking up a huge chunk of space in the yard.
"That," answered Freddy, "Is going to be one big half-pipe when it's finished...hopefully within a couple of days."
"You got any experience with one of those, Polo?"
"Yeah. There's a huge skateboard park in Hillybush with a big one, I spent a lot of time there over the summer. Ian, if you've got the stomach for it, those things can be a lot of fun." He turned to Ian. "Think you want to take a shot at it?"
"Of course." Ian didn't even hesitate. "I don't want to look cowardly..." He decided not to finish that sentence.
This clued Freddy into what his motives might be. "Ian, by any chance are you doing all this to impress some girl?"
Ian looked at him. "I'm doing all this because it's fun. If it impresses my girl, that's a welcome fringe benefit."
3:08 pm, Doctor's Office
The cast cutter was making a hideous sound. This being the first time Rita had ever been in a cast, she was a little worried.
"Are you sure that thing isn't going to cut through me as well?"
"Just hold still for a minute more, Rita." The doctor had finished cutting down the length of her left arm, and was now working on the right. "I promised your mother and brother that I wouldn't make them wait."
"That's not my brother sir, that's my boyfriend."
"Whatever. Brace yourself, Rita."
The saw finally reached the end of her arm, and the cast was pried loose. Her entire upper body felt slightly numb.
"Rita, easy does it. Try moving your arms up and down," ordered the doctor. "You haven't used these muscles for a week, and you need to get the blood flowing again. I'll go bring in your entourage."
Rita rubbed her arms for about a half minute. Finally, her mother and Ian walked in.
"So how does it feel?" Her mom was pleased to see her regain her independence.
"Like fifty tons were just lifted off of my shoulders mom."
"I'm going to leave you two alone for a couple of minutes while I go out and settle the bill."
As soon as she left the room, Rita motioned Ian to come over. She was now able to do something she had been longing to do for a week. Put both of her hands on either side of his face. She pulled him close, and for the first time, was able to put her arms around him during one of their long kisses.
Ian finally asked her, "So what do you think? When we're both back at school in a few days, and this is made public, am I going to gain a lot of friends, or are you going to lose a lot of them?"
"That remains to be seen," answered Rita. "It's time to discover who my real friends are."
7:45 am
The school day began as usual, with kids arriving on foot, via skateboard, bicycle and parent's cars. Friends greeted friends as everybody made their way to their lockers and homerooms. All who shared a class with her were pleasantly surprised to see Rita among the crowd, apparently healthy, and showing little signs of having a nearly catastrophic accident the previous week.
Ian, as expected, was drawing the exact opposite kind of attention. As he walked past the Principal's office, something caught his eye. He stood at the door, looking inside for a few moments. There was now an array of small television monitors that wasn't there before. Each one of them appeared to show a different section of the school's hallways from a bird's eye view. He looked up, and sure enough, there were now video cameras hanging from the ceiling. A hand tapped him on the shoulder from behind. To his surprise, it was Betty, who pointed towards one of the cameras.
"Rumor has it that you are the main reason they installed those things, Ian." she informed him.
"So what do you think of them?" He asked, rhetorically.
" I don't care one way or the other. See you in sociology," She disappeared down the hall.
Already, this was turning into an interesting day. Apparently surveillance equipment had been installed while he was away, mainly for his benefit, and Betty actually spoke to him without him speaking to her first.
Rita was making her way through the halls, when she ran into Trish.
"Hello Trish."
Trish looked left and right, then held her friend's arms. "Just giving you a heads-up...Betty knows, Phoebe doesn't."
"Thanks. See you in sociology."
With that, the two girls parted in separate directions towards their lockers. As Rita approached hers, she could see Ian heading for his, approaching from the opposite direction. The two of them arrived at their lockers and this time, there was a slight variation from his usual 'Hello Rita.'
"Hello Angel."
Ian was humored. "Suddenly, I feel like I should be wearing a leather jacket and have greasy black hair."
Suddenly, an all too familiar voice came out of nowhere. "Hey Rita," they both spun around to see Felix looking at them suspiciously. Obviously his wounds had healed. "Is this clown bothering you?"
Rita couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that he was wearing the sort of mock leather jacket that Ian was just joking about. Ian noticed that one of the school's newly installed video cameras was just over Felix's shoulder pointing right at all three of them. He decided to take advantage of the situation by making a reference to the incident in phys-ed the previous week.
"No Mr. Felix, I'm just admiring her beauty."
Felix was suddenly enraged. "You little..." He punched Ian in the face hard, smashing him against the locker, actually making a slight dent in it. Ian fell to the ground.
Rita gasped. "Felix are you nuts!?" She knelt down to see if Ian was seriously hurt. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away a drop of blood near the corner of his mouth. "Ian, do you need to go to the nurse's office?"
Still a bit dazed, he looked up and noticed that Felix was now gone. "Rita, do me a favour. Go to the principal's office and ask him to take a look at what that camera just recorded." He nodded towards the camera. "If I do it, it'll make me look like a snitch."
"Are you sure you're alright?"
Ian slowly picked himself up off the ground. "I'll be fine. It's not like this is the first time this has happened. You better get going. I don't know how long that camera retains stuff before it starts recording over itself."
She kissed him, then headed down the hall towards the office. On her way, she thought about the fact that there were other students passing by who surely saw what Felix just did to Ian, and yet, none of them even blinked. Could this possibly have been that common incident? What on earth could be the source of all this hatred towards her new boyfriend?
8:15 am
Principal Raoul' secretary entered Felix's classroom and whispered something in the teacher's ear.
"Felix," he spoke loudly, because Felix was sitting near the back of the room. "Would you please go with Miss Ella. Apparently the Principal needs to see you about something."
Felix rolled his eyes and obeyed. He suspected that Ian had snitched on him, and figured he would just deny the whole thing. This, of course, would be his undoing. They entered the office to find the principal seated behind his desk, looking with disgust at a monitor. Felix sat down on a chair facing the desk, and Mr. Raoul wasted no time.
"Felix, you are expelled. Do you know why you are expelled?"
"No."
"Well it's a combination of assault and vandalism."
"I haven't vandalized anything." He protested.
"When you slammed Ian into that locker, you put a dent in it." The principal shook his head. "I was wondering what was causing all those dents."
"Well he started it," This was a major error.
"Oh did he?" The principal swung the monitor that was on his desk around, so it was now facing Felix. The whole scene of him punching Ian in the face was now replayed right in front of him. "I don't see him hitting you first."
Felix was now scrambling to save face. "He was calling me names."
Suddenly a voice came from behind him. "He never called you anything." It was Rita, who was standing behind the door when it opened, so he hadn't noticed her when he walked in. "All I remember is him saying something I didn't understand about 'my beauty'."
"That is a completely moot point anyway," said the principal. "Even if he did insult you, it doesn't give you the right to physically assault him, or anybody."
"He's also the reason I had to wear a neck brace a week ago!" Felix was digging himself deeper into a hole.
The principal was not impressed. "If I recall correctly, you told us that you accidentally tripped and fell in the restroom."
"But..." Felix was now in a no-win situation. He either had to admit that he was lying the previous week, or lying now. He just slumped his shoulders, and said no more.
"One or both of your parents will be here to pick you up shortly." The principal removed the CD from the computer tray. "I will let them keep this little souvenir as a reminder of why their son will be sitting at home for at least the next two weeks." He turned to Rita. "You are free to go, Miss Hammond. We've informed your teacher of why you are late today."
"Before I do sir, I'd like to ask one question of Felix."
Mr. Raoul nodded.
Rita turned to Felix. "Did you really think that beating the crap out of someone half your size for no reason was going to make a good impression on me?"
Felix didn't answer. He just sat there gnashing his teeth. Rita left the room and returned to her class.
9:30 am
In between first and second periods, Rita and Ian both headed back to their lockers to switch books.
"Are you still bleeding?"
"Nope. I've taken a lot worse than that and lived to tell about it." Ian put his science book in his locker. A sly grin suddenly formed on Rita's face. "You know what?. Let's go for something a little less ambiguous." With that she threw her arms around him and gave him a prolonged kiss. She wanted to make sure that more than just a few students walking by noticed it.
"Rita, don't forget there's a camera pointing at us," Ian managed to say.
"Big deal. We're not destroying any school property." She kissed him once again. "I'll see you in sociology in an hour."
As she disappeared down the hall, Ian grabbed a book out of his locker. As soon as he shut it, he noticed a familiar face staring at him from a nearby doorway. Steven's mouth was wide open in disbelief.
"Hello Steven."
Steven just stood there for a moment, then managed to utter, "By any chance, did you also get the BMW?"
10:30 am
The students filed into Mrs. Pinny's 3rd period class and took their usual seats. Phoebe was not sure whether or not she was hallucinating when Rita and Ian walked in simultaneously, and appeared to be talking to one another. She looked over at Betty with an expression on her face that seemed to ask, 'Did you see what I just saw?' Betty looked back and simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Rita, it's good to have you back," Mrs. Pinny's sentiment seemed genuine. She hardly ever called anybody by their first name. "How are you feeling?"
"My shoulders are still a little numb ma’am, but I'm not in any pain."
"Are you going back to the gym any time soon, Rita?"
"Eventually. For the time being, my doctor says I should just be part of the normal outdoor P.E. class while I'm still healing. There's less chance of irritating the stretched ligament."
"You too, Ian."
"Thank you, ma'am."
With the class all settled it, Mrs. Pinny began in the usual manner. "Steven, would you please turn to page 126 and begin reading at the second paragraph." Strangely, there was no response from Steven, who was looking downward. For some reason, he seemed a bit out of it. "Steven?"
Steven looked up. "Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night. What page was that again?"
"That's alright," said the teacher. "You know, for a change of pace, why doesn't someone else do the reading this morning?" Several hands went up in the air, and she nodded towards Trish. "Go ahead Trish."
As Trish began reading, Ian thought about what had just happened with Steven. It was so completely out of character, that he suspected something might be up. He made a mental note to talk to him at some point after class.
11:30 am
The lunch bell finally rang, and everyone began scurrying either towards their lockers, or the school
cafeteria. Once again, Phoebe noticed Rita and Ian walking together. She and Betty left the room, walking in the opposite direction. Their lockers were located on the opposite side of the school. Trish headed for the cafeteria.
"There's something weird going on here," Phoebe remarked.
"You mean Rita and Ian?" asked Betty.
"Of course! What could they possibly be talking about?"
"I don't know. It doesn't seem all that unusual that they would strike up a friendship, if he's been delivering her homework to her over the last few days."
"But she specifically told me over the phone that she doesn't know who Ian is."
Betty rolled her eyes. "Phoebe, what’s wrong with you?" She had it figured out. "You are repulsed by Ian, because he's essentially the 'anti-alpha male?."
"So you're defending that buffoon?"
"Defending him from what? His presence has no effect on my life whatsoever. Or even yours, Phoebe. Do you realize that the only time this subject matter ever comes up is when you're around?" As the girls grabbed their lunches out of their lockers, Betty tried to change the subject. "Norman's your math teacher, right?"
"Yeah, 5th period. why?"
"He's mine, too. 4th period. Personally, I don't think he's very good. I've been having some trouble keeping up with him. Assuming he's teaching your class what he's teaching mine, do you think I could trouble you to come over some time and give me a hand?..being the algebraic genius that you are."
"No problem." The two girls were now outside heading towards the lunch benches. "As a matter of fact, I can probably make it over..."
Phoebe cut herself off mid-sentence, and stopped dead in her tracks. Not only were Rita and Ian sitting together, but he just took a bite out of her sandwich. Betty saw this as well, looked up and just shook her head. She knew that there would be no way that Phoebe would be talking with her about anything else, any time soon.
11:45 am
While Rita and Ian were sitting at the table eating, at least seven different guys, most of whom Rita didn't even know, walked by and said something to the effect that they were glad to see that Rita had recovered so quickly. This happened within a space of ten minutes.
"I had no idea that my accident was apparently the talk of the school while I was away," Rita observed.
"I doubt it." Ian bit into his sandwich.
"Then how do you explain all these people I don't even know, walking up and mentioning it?"
"Rita, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but all these well-wishers are guys."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Believe me, for the last month, every guy in this school has been looking for an excuse to talk to you. You're accident has given them that excuse, and the fact that I'm sitting here next to you means that you're approachable."
"Ian, why would I not be 'approachable' without you sitting next to me?"
Ian just shook his head. "Rita, I refused to believe you could possibly be that naive. My dear Angel, you must realize that you're the prettiest girl in the school. Up until now, most guys just looked at you and assumed that they were nowhere near your league. By sitting here and