Chapter 7 – A New Plan
Once Bruno had left the scene of the crime, Faedra and Chandler busied themselves with un-taping me from the volley ball pole. When I was finally free of the tape, I pulled the paper off that Bruno had attached to my shirt. It read, ‘My name is Dylan, and I suck.” Not very creative, but at least he’d spelled my name right. I had a sneaky suspicion that I would be seeing the video he had taken very soon.
Thankfully, we made it out of the gym before the principal arrived. Chandler and I practically ran to his truck, with Faedra trailing us.
“Hey,” she called after us, “why are you running off? The principal will be here soon. You need to tell him about what Bruno did.”
Chandler and I looked at each other. “Faedra, I basically challenged Bruno to a fight. If I tell the principal about what happened, we’ll both be suspended. And then Bruno will really have a good reason to pound my face into next week.” I was hoping she would leave it at that.
“Well, what do you think is going to happen once the principal calls me back? I called the front office on my cell phone and told them Bruno was taping you up!”
“That does put a wrinkle in my plan to escape suspension.” Inside, I was secretly fuming that Faedra hadn’t just used her powers to stop Bruno, but I tried not to let it show. I guessed that stopping your best friend from being duct-taped to a pole wasn’t exactly enough justification for revealing your superpowers to the world. Why was she hiding her powers anyway? I had to find out.
“Just get in the truck so we can get out of here, we can talk about this on the way home,” Chandler prodded.
Chandler and I piled into the truck, but Faedra wasn’t moving.
“Come on, Faedra, we need to move,” I said.
“Okay, I guess so,” she responded, finally climbing into the cab.
“You didn’t leave your name when you called the office, did you?” Chandler asked as he started up the truck and began driving.
“Well... I don’t exactly remember,” Faedra replied.
“I don’t think you did. I don’t recall hearing you mention your name,” he continued. “Since they won’t find anyone in the gym, they may drop the whole thing.”
“Why did you challenge him anyway, Dylan?” Faedra asked. She looked mad.
“What’s the big deal? I’m okay. He didn’t exactly try to punch me or anything.”
“Well, he could have, and then what would you have done?”
I stole a look at Chandler, but he was keeping his eyes on the road. His cheeks were turning red like they did whenever he was in a situation where he felt uncomfortable. Come to think of it, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable myself. I wasn’t used to Faedra being mad at me like this. What was up with that?
“I... guess I would have run away,” I finally responded.
“Well, stop provoking him,” she said, and then she turned back around and looked out the front windshield before adding, “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
After that, none of us said anything else the rest of the way home.
* * * * *
The next morning, it became abundantly clear that the wrath of Bruno had been released upon me. No less than five people texted me the link to the video of myself being taped to a pole with that stupid sign stuck to my chest before I even got to school. Just what I needed – more public humiliation, as if being a super-not wasn’t bad enough.
There were giggles and snorts and awkward stares as I made my way to my first class. That, unfortunately, wasn’t all I was going to endure as a result of my failed attempt to expose Faedra’s superpowers. Right after the teacher finished taking attendance, he called me up to his desk and handed me a hall pass.
“You’re expected in the principal’s office in five minutes, Mr. Jones.”
My heart sank. If Faedra’s phone call hadn’t outed us, then the victorious video post by Bruno had. I imagined a hundred ways the situation could get worse on the way to the office. By the time I arrived and sat down in the row of chairs just outside the principal’s office, Bruno was already there. He scowled at me as I took the seat farthest away from him and awaited my fate.
We waited in the hallway a good ten minutes before Coach Delaware came lumbering down the hallway towards the office. Bruno’s face blanched when he saw the coach coming. There were probably three or four people in the entire school who could strike fear into Bruno Walkowski’s heart, and Coach Delaware was one of them. The coach was about six feet and one-hundred inches tall, with shoulders as wide as the hallway, and biceps the size of my entire body. He was the strongest super any of us knew. He’d been in the World’s Strongest Super competition about ten years before, and made it to the semi-finals – a fact memorialized by a laminated news article posted on the door to his office in the gym.
When he was within twenty feet of us, it was obvious that he was not happy. He lumbered up to the seat where Bruno was now trying to disappear and looked down at him with a frown on his face.
“What’s this I hear about you duct-taping some super-not to a volley ball post in the gym?”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned his massive neck in my direction.
“Was that you?”
“Yes, sir,” I squeaked. He turned back to Bruno.
“I’ve been called away from my planning period to deal with this, and I’m not happy about it. I’m going to ask you once and once only. Did you do it?”
“Uhh... yes, sir, I did,” Bruno finally managed to say.
“Hmmh!” Coach Delaware snorted. “Wait here.”
With that, he turned around and marched into the principal’s office. After about five minutes, he came back out.
“Okay, boys,” he said, smiling at us. “Principal Needlemeier has agreed to let me deal with this situation.” He turned and looked at me, the smile fading away from his face. “Mr. Jones, did you do anything to provoke this incident?”
My mind raced as I tried to think of how I was going to answer him. I couldn’t tell the coach about doing homework for Bruno or Bruno would be in more trouble with the school, and I’d be in more trouble than I already was with Bruno. I decided to lie.
“I told him I was tired of him calling me a super-not, and asked him to come to the gym after school to settle it.”
Bruno looked in my direction. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised, relieved, or both, but he didn’t say anything.
“Mr. Jones, let me give you a piece of advice. You don’t pick a fight with a super-strong when you aren’t. It’s just not a good idea. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
He stuck out a piece of paper in my direction.
“Here’s your get-out-of-jail-free card. Now, go back to class.”
I took the piece of paper from his hand and gratefully began walking back down the hallway towards my class. I inwardly cringed when I heard him talking to Bruno as I retreated.
“And you, Mr. Walkowski. You should have had the presence of mind to ignore Mr. Jones’ invitation. Since you did not, you are going to have the opportunity to run extra laps after practice every day this week.”
Suddenly my plan to expose Faedra’s superpowers seemed short-sighted and dangerous. I wondered if I had crossed that boundary between doing something to provoke Bruno into a one-time confrontation and entering the land of ‘he may never forgive me as long as I live’. At this rate, I might need to hire a bodyguard to watch my back until I graduated... from college.