Thanks for returning. All of the usual first chapter stuff applies. But, I always like to remind you to donate to Nifty, because that is special and important. Be safe—always.
In this chapter, Rodney learns lessons about integrity. He also learns that just because he does the right thing doesn't mean he'll be believed or listened to.
CHAPTER 22 A MATTER OF INTEGRITY
<Friday, February 13, Mayfield High School>
The team bus stopped in front of the school and unloaded its passengers. The Mayfield girls had played their last game of the season with the JV team losing 39-25 and the varsity winning 50-38 at Clark Pass High School. Coach Gardner and Coach Reynolds supervised the team managers as they put the equipment away while some of the girls stuffed things into their lockers, took things out, or did both.
After everybody was finished, the coaches turned off the lights and walked out to the parking lot behind the gym. Coach Reynolds smiled at Coach Gardner. "Thanks for a good season, Gary, I know with your new baseball job coaching the girls had to be a bit of an imposition."
"I enjoyed it, Felicia, but as we discussed before, I hope you can find a replacement for next season. I want to devote all of my time to building my baseball program."
"You'll do a great job with baseball, Gary; the program is in great hands." Felicia Reynolds felt absolutely no guilt at all in massaging Coach Gardner's ego. She thought he was a lazy fool and couldn't understand how the school board hired him over Coach Sanders, for whom she had a great deal of respect. The one good thing about Gary Gardner getting the head baseball job was that she might now be able to get an assistant coach who actually pulled his weight and treated his players with respect. "I'm sure I'll be able to find a replacement." She told him she'd see him on Monday and walked over to her car.
Coach Gardner waited for her car to leave the parking lot, then drove his car to the back of the gymnasium. A figure came out of the shadows of the building and into the light of the parking lot, quickly entering the back door of the coach's car.
"Hi, Gary." Sara climbed into the car with a smile on her face and a hop to her step. Coach Gardner had her sit down low in the back seat. He told her that the tinted windows and her slouching down would obscure her presence.
"Sara, make sure you stay behind those back windows."
"I'm not stupid," she said with a slight pout (That's debatable, the coach thought), "you tell me that all the time."
There is no doubt I need to dump her now that I've gotten what I need from her, Coach Gardner thought. And I think I have the perfect plan for doing that, too. But I wouldn't mind one more roll in the hay with her; she's beyond wild in bed.
"Where are we going to do it?" Sara asked. "And if it's, like, in the backseat of this car you can take me home. I'm tired of doing it in the backseat. I mean if Rodney can, like, fuck me in bed, you should be able to do it, too."
Coach Gardner wished she would just shut up as he turned onto a residential street. "Good news. My wife is visiting her sister for the weekend, so I'm sneaking you into the house."
"Oh, cool. It's been so long since we've, like, done it in a real bed."
The coach satisfied his needs twice after they got naked in his bedroom. Sara had three orgasms of her own. She loved making love to the athletic teacher, especially when he took the time to get her off, which wasn't always the case. She loved his hairy chest and his big cock. There was so much more to him than to Rodney, or any of the high school boys she'd had sex with. Rodney was nice, but he had a smooth torso and his cock wasn't nearly as big. There's a big difference between a freshman boy and a man, she thought.
"What time do you have to be home?" the coach asked Sara.
"I don't. I texted my mom that I was spending the night at Debby's house. Debby's backing me up."
A shiver of fright shot right through the coach. "Does Debby know where you are?"
"No. She thinks I'm sleeping with Rodney since he's been fucking me. I said his parents went away for the weekend. I thought that, like, made sense."
As much as he wanted to be rid of her, the idea of sleeping with the lithe sophomore appealed to Coach Gardner. His little talk could wait until the morning.
But the talk had to wait even longer as they fucked one more time upon awakening. After having sex they ate breakfast naked. As they ate, the coach admired the smooth young body and developing breasts of the fifteen year old girl, and she admired the manly body of the coach and his seven inch love pole. They showered together, then lay on the queen bed in the coach's bedroom.
"I wish I could have your baby, Gary, that would, like, be so incredibly cool," Sara said dreamily.
"You what?"
Sara shrank away and backpedaled. "I was just saying. You, like, use rubbers and everything, but having your baby would be so cool." She rolled over and wrapped her left arm around his hard body. "I love you so much. I wish that after high school we can maybe get married and have kids and be in love forever."
Coach Gardner decided now was the time to talk; it was time to end this affair before it got out of hand, if it hadn't already. What turned out to be part of his scheme to sink the boys who threatened his authority and who had his friend fired was turning into much more than his just fucking a girl. His previous affair had been as simple as this one was complicated. "Look, Sara, I really don't know how to put this, but it might be best if we ended this."
The coach tried to ignore the look of shock that came across the girl's face. "What? What are you talking about? Why?"
"Because it can only end badly. I'm trying to make things right at home with my wife, and you need to get a boyfriend your own age."
"I don't want a boy my own age...I want you!" The girl started crying, and then ramped it up to a loud wailing, her tears wetting the hairs on the coach's chest. And so it went for a half-hour until Sara finally realized that she really wasn't wanted by Gary Gardner.
She got out of the bed and dressed, crying and screaming. "You could have told me last night, but, no, you wanted to fuck me first." The coach was sitting on the bed now and she surprised him by slapping him hard across the face. "I hate you! I hate you!" she screamed. She pulled a card out of her purse and threw it on the floor. "Happy Valentine's Day, asshole," she yelled as she walked out of the room and out of the house. Gary Gardner hoped that none of the neighbors saw her walking out.
He wasn't worried about her turning him in. They had talked about her keeping quiet more than once, and she'd assured him nothing would ever make her do it. Plus, he knew she was afraid her parents would shift all of the blame for the affair on her. Nevertheless, he knew he would have to do some fence mending after the weekend.
<Tuesday, February 17, Mayfield High School>
"What's up with Sara Bennett?" Vince asked Rodney at lunch. "She looks like her dog died or something."
"I dunno. She wouldn't even say hi to me this morning."
"Well, you've fucked her a few times. She should be willing to talk to you."
"That's not how it works, Vince," Rodney said sagely.
"I know, but that's how it should work."
"I'll go sit next to her and say hi again. I mean, she's not even sitting with her girlfriends." Rodney put his tray away and walked over to the table where Sara was sitting alone.
"Go away," she said, "I don't want to talk to nobody."
Rodney turned on his considerable charm. "But I'm not nobody, I'm Rodney. Of course you want to talk to me." He slid his arm around her waist as he talked, tightening it gently around her.
"I hate him," she said.
"Hate who?"
"Him." As much as Sara was angry at Coach Gardner, she wasn't going to snitch on him. Over the weekend she had fantasies of the two of them making up and going on with their affair. But she was also hurt and angry, as she rode the fence between keeping quiet and ruining the coach's life. The biggest deciding factor was that she didn't want to go through the hassle with her parents and with the school administration that she knew would arise if she revealed that she'd been sleeping with the teacher. She knew they would find some way of blaming her for everything.
"Just him..." she said.
"Right, just him."
"Won't be anybody home at my house after school. How about coming over and telling me about it. And I promise, this isn't about sex. But you look terrible and I can be a good friend."
"You're a boy and you know you want sex. That's all you boys want is sex. If I wanted to tell a friend, I'd tell Debby."
Rodney had his suspicion regarding who "he" was, and he wanted to get Sara to tell him. "He" was the reason she turned on Marty for no reason, and "he" probably used her to tell "him" about everything he'd been telling Sara in bed regarding the Go to State Team.
"Well, I'll be out front after school if you don't mind being seen with a freshman." He got up and left after giving her another quick squeeze.
After school, Rodney didn't see Sara. He waited for fifteen minutes and then set off for home. He'd told Vince about his plan to talk to Sara, and Vince said the same thing Sara had said: "It won't happen."
After he got home, Rodney decided that since nobody was home, getting naked and jerking off on the living room couch sounded like a naughty idea. Like most fourteen year old boys, Rodney enjoyed being naughty. He tossed his clothes on the floor, took some of the petroleum jelly he'd grabbed from his room, lubed up his cock, and set to work. He closed his eyes and brought up an image of Sara Bennett naked. He'd barely gotten started when the doorbell rang. He decided to ignore it, but it kept ringing, a sense of urgency rising with each ring.
"Aw, fuck," he said as he pulled on his jeans. He left the rest of his clothes on the floor. If the person at the door was an adult he wouldn't let the person in, and if it was a buddy, Rodney didn't care if the visitor knew he'd been jerking off. It ended up being neither choice as he opened the door and saw Sara standing in front of him, tears streaming down her pale face.
"Sara, this is a surprise."
"You invited me," she said. Then she took a couple of steps, hugged Rodney, and started sobbing. Rodney led her into the living room where Sara couldn't help but notice Rodney's clothes strewn on the floor, including his underwear. It was then that she saw he was wearing nothing but his jeans. Rodney pointed to the couch and the sophomore girl sat down.
"Want a Coke or something?" he asked.
"I'd rather get drunk," Sara said, even though she'd only been drunk a few times in her life.
"I can't help you there."
"Coke is fine." She sobbed, then hiccupped, and slouched on the couch. Rodney came back with two soft drinks and sat next to her.
"Still upset about the `him' guy?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Are you going to tell me who he is?"
"No."
"Are you going to tell Debby?"
"No."
"If he's such a jerk, you should tell somebody. He didn't hit you or something, did he?"
Sara gave a hint of a smile for the first time all day. "No, I slapped him."
"I suppose he deserved it."
"Yep."
Rodney put his arm around the girl who was still fighting sobs at the same time she was fighting her smile.
"So, if you don't want to tell me about him, why did you come?"
Sara didn't answer the question. "How come your clothes are on the floor and you only have your pants on?"
"Oh, that? Well, if you really want to know, I was jerking off when you came. I wasn't going to answer the door, but you kept ringing the doorbell."
She gave him a quick, shy smile. "I wish you'd been naked at the door."
"I can be naked now if you want."
"I don't care. I'm cool with it."
"First, you gotta tell me why you came here."
The emotions welled up in her again, and she wrapped her arms around Rodney's bare torso and sobbed out, "Because I wanted you to fuck me."
Since he was ten, Rodney's cock would have leaped at hearing a girl say those words, especially when he was wearing only a pair of jeans and she was leaning against him, but on this occasion it only created a slight stirring. Fortunately for both of the young teens, Rodney had enough maturity and integrity to realize this was a serious situation that was not going to be helped by his jumping her bones.
"I will if you answer some questions from me," Rodney said.
"You said you'd get naked if I answered your first question. You're not naked yet."
Rodney opened the button on his jeans, pulled the zipper about a quarter down, and then stopped. "I'll do it all the way if you answer my questions."
Sara put on the pouty face that Coach Gardner disliked so much. "You guys are all alike; you always want to get your own way and..."
Rodney pulled her tightly against him and lightly rubbed her shoulder. "It's okay. I'll do you, but not yet. I wanna know about `him'."
"Are you, like, jealous or something?"
"Please, Sara."
She leaned her head on his shoulder. "Okay, I'll tell, but only if you, like, totally promise to fuck me. And you totally, totally promise not to tell anybody who he is."
"I promise to fuck you and to keep my mouth shut. I promise, totally."
"So, ask."
"Is `he' the guy who told you to lie about Marty drinking with you and fucking you."
"I didn't lie, I went to his house and I..."
"Sara, Marty is one of my best friends. He told me it never happened, and I believe him." Rodney didn't bother to add that Marty wasn't even living at his house.
Sara sobbed again and dripped tears on Rodney's shoulder. This was the third time she'd cried on a male in the last three days; the second time on Rodney.
"He...he...he told me...he loved me. He told me and I said I loved him and I said I'd, like, do anything for him."
"Marty told you that or `he' told you that?"
"'He' did."
"Did you tell him the things I told you about when we had sex; about all the things my baseball group was doing?"
"Don't hate me. Please don't hate me."
"I don't hate you, Sara. I just need to know."
"He had sex with me. I sucked his dick and he fucked me and I did everything he told me to because I thought he loved me, but now I don't think he does, but I don't want to get him in trouble and my parents will kill me if they know." Sara blasted everything out in one sentence and started sobbing yet again. Rodney held her closer to him as her tears fell down his chest.
The next question he wanted to ask scared the shit out of him. He was afraid of what Sara would think if he was wrong, but he had to ask it because he was sure he was right. "Is he Coach Gardner?"
Sara was so distraught she didn't even think—she couldn't think. All she could do was wail, "Yessssssssssssssssssssssssss," as she unloaded tears over Rodney another time.
"You've gotta turn him in, Sara, you've gotta."
"But I love him," she sobbed.
"He used you Sara. He used you to fuck up our group and to mess up Marty. Don't you see? He dumped you as soon as he got what he wanted."
"No, he loves me."
"He wanted to screw our group because we got Coach Collins fired and he wanted to have sex with you because he's a perv."
"Nooooo."
"I thought he was just an asshole, but he's, like, a really, really bad dude. He's evil Sara. He screwed you and I don't mean in bed."
"I want his baby. He'll let me have his baby."
Rodney looked at Sara in shock. "You're pregnant?"
"No, but he said I could have his baby."
"Are you sure he said that?" Rodney knew that Coach Gardner was stupid, but he didn't think that the teacher was that stupid. But everybody had said he didn't think the coach was stupid enough to be fucking Sara Bennett and they had been wrong about that.
"No, but I know he was going to let me have his baby if his wife didn't make him break up with me."
Rodney held the confused girl tightly to him. Even with his pants part way open and with a girl in his arms, he wasn't hard or turned on. He knew he had to do something about the situation, but he wasn't sure what.
Sara slid her hand inside of Rodney's open jeans and fondled his cock. Sara was surprised that Rodney was still flaccid and even more surprised when her ministrations failed to excite him. "Aren't you going to fuck me now?" she asked.
This girl is a nut case, Rodney thought. Even though he heard what he'd expected to hear, what he'd heard from the sophomore girl upset him a great deal. And as upset as she seemed to be, she still acted like she wanted sex. Rodney removed her hand from his pants, and stood up, his jeans sliding down his hips, exposing his pubic hairs and the base of his penis in front and his ass crack in back. He didn't care; she'd seen him naked before.
"Not today. My mom's due home soon," he lied.
"But you promised," she said, returning to her well-practiced pout.
"I did promise, and I'll fuck you just like I promised, just not today; there's not enough time."
"But you'll, like, do it, right?"
"Right, I'll do it," Rodney said, even though he was certain he never would have sex with her again. He could tell she was bewildered and maybe even a touch crazy.
"Just let me see you naked,"
Rodney wanted her to go, but he sighed and dropped his pants, his cut penis draped over his balls.
"How come you don't have a boner? You always have a boner when you're naked with me."
"I just don't. Look, you better go before my mom gets here. I'll be in trouble if you get caught here." That was another lie, since he'd been caught with a girl in his bed more than once. The result was his mom making sure he had a good supply of condoms
"You won't tell anybody what I told you, about Gary, will you?"
"Gary? You mean Coach Gardner."
"I don't want to get us in trouble."
"I thought you hated him."
"I love him."
Rodney shook his head in confusion and led Sara to the door. "Don't worry," he said, "I'm cool."
Sara stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. "You are cool. I can't wait until we fuck again."
He closed the door, picked his clothes off the floor and went up to his room. He got on his bed, lay naked on his back, and looked back on maybe the most confusing hour of his young life. Rodney was fairly certain about what he was going to do, but first he needed to talk it over with his peers. Rodney was not the type of boy to make waves (unless seducing the daughters of the citizens of Mayfield could be considered making waves). If he was going to make waves, he wanted to make sure his friends and teammates had his back.
<Wednesday, February 18, Mayfield High School>
Rodney met with Vince, Rich, Connor, Jerome, and Marty at lunch. He told them about his meeting with Sara the day before and what she had told him about her relationship with Coach Gardner.
"She sounds like one weird bitch," Connor said in his usual direct fashion.
"Yeah, she sure was yesterday," Rodney said. "All upset about Coach and at the same time wanting to jump into bed with me."
"And you turned her down?" Vince asked. "That is so unlike you. This is twice now."
"It was way too weird for me. I couldn't even get a boner when she was groping me."
"That proves it," Jerome said. "There is no doubt that she is one weird bitch if she can't get Rodney turned on."
They discussed what they should do with their new found knowledge and finally agreed that Rodney should go to Mr. Wilson, the principal.
"This is some really serious shit," Vince said.
"But you're going to have to be careful," Marty said.
"Careful? How? We got his lying ass nailed. He's toast," Rodney said.
"Careful because it's going to be your word against his. Careful because I think that weird bitch is weird enough to back him up and hang your ass out to dry."
"I hadn't thought about it that way, Marty, but I think you're right. She just might do that. She was all uptight about getting in trouble with her parents. But I still have to try, I think."
"It's your funeral," Connor said. "I agree with Marty. She's gonna kick you right in the balls. She's gonna use the fact that you've fucked her against you, too. She's going to say you're making this up because she won't let you go to bed with her any more. You're only gonna end up looking bad,"
"We gotta get rid of that asshole," Rodney said. "This could be our only chance. I'm gonna do it."
"There's not much we can do to help you," Vince said. "But we'll be here to help you. We got your back."
"Which is more than you did for me," Marty muttered, referring to their deciding to play for Coach Gardner after he all but got kicked out of the baseball program.
"What did you say?" Connor asked.
"Nothing important," Marty said. The lack of unity in the group had become even more apparent to Marty. He was once again feeling like he was on the outside looking in, with only a quick squeeze of Rich's hand keeping him from total despair.
Rodney used his considerable charm to get an appointment with Mr. Wilson, the principal, during the last period of the day. He realized real quickly that his teammates had been right; Mr. Wilson took everything he had to say with a grain of salt.
"Frankly, I'm very disappointed in you Rodney."
"In me? Why, I didn't do anything, Coach Gardner did."
"Rodney, I know all about the issues you freshmen have with Coach Gardner, but I didn't perceive you as being one of the ringleaders of the revolt. It would not have surprised me to see Marty, Vince, or Connor here, but not you. Especially Marty, who apparently is the mastermind in whatever scheme you boys have to smear the name of a good teacher and a good coach. Now that Marty has been suspended this coming year, he has good reason to tell me this tale."
"But it's all true."
"If I were to call Sara Bennett into this office right now, would she corroborate your story?"
Rodney felt his spirits sink when he said, "Probably not. Like I told you, she doesn't want to get anybody into trouble."
"But you do. You haven't played a game yet at this high school and yet here you are giving me stories about the coach because you didn't like the choice the school board made. Turnouts are less than two weeks away and I would suggest you and your buddies start putting your energy into being positive members of not only the baseball program but of this student body. That will be all."
When Rodney related his experience to his friends he got a chorus of "I told you so," coming back at him. But what he didn't know was that his chat with Mr. Wilson had set forces into motion that would change the entire course of the baseball program at Mayfield High School.
At the end of the school day, Mr. Wilson called Mr. Fitzgerald, who was the athletic director as well as the head football coach, into his office. He told him about his chat with Rodney. They both agreed they should talk to Coach Gardner immediately. They knew about the difficulties he was having with the ninth graders, who apparently had to have their own summer program rather than the one prescribed by the coach. Coach Gardner described the group as rebellious and difficult to deal with. Mr. Wilson had just received a taste of how far the boys were willing to go to undermine the new baseball coach before he had even started his job. The fact that the rebellion involved just the freshman indicated to the principal that the problem lay with the freshman boys, not with the coach, or the program as a whole.
As the principal and the athletic director chatted, Sara Bennett quietly entered Coach Gardner's classroom. The coach was sitting at his desk correcting papers. She came up to his desk and startled him by placing a kiss on his cheek. "Are you still mad at me, Gary?" she asked.
The coach knew he had to placate the girl. He couldn't afford to have her feelings turn totally against him. The fact that she was here asking that question after screaming how much she hated him told the coach that she still had positive feelings for him.
"Sara, I was never mad at you. All I said was we may have to let things cool off for a bit because of how my wife is on my case."
"Did you have fun with me?"
"Yes, I had fun with you. I had a great night with you."
"Will we ever do it again?"
"Some day, for sure."
"Like, some day soon?"
"Sure," the coach said insincerely, "we'll do it some day soon. But do me a favor—no more pecks on the cheek at school, okay? And no more talk about babies."
"Sure. But don't you, like, think it would be fun to do it at school? That would be the coolest thing ever."
"Okay, sure, we'll even do it some day at school," he said, knowing that would never happen.
Sara pulled up a chair and sat next to the coach. Because he kept his desk in the back of his classroom, he wasn't worried about anybody looking through the window of the door and seeing the sophomore girl alone in his classroom. She sat as close as she could and let her hand drop on his crotch, causing his already hardening member to spring into a raging hard-on.
"How about closing the door and check that it's locked and closing the shade." He handed her his keys. His roiling sexual urges were getting the better of him yet one more time.
"You mean we're going to do it now?" she asked.
"No, of course not. I just shouldn't be seen alone with a girl in the room is all."
"What about the janitor?"
"He doesn't clean this hall until after I leave."
Sara grinned and closed the door, turning the key in the lock to secure it from surprise intruders. She knew she'd gotten the coach horny, and the thought of doing something in his room had the fifteen year old incredibly turned on. Before sitting down, she closed the drapes, and then returned to the coach's desk.
As much as he wanted to be rid of this pest of a girl, he couldn't help but be turned on by her athletic teen body and her adolescent sexuality. He figured a quick bit of touchy-feely would help keep her on his side. But prudence started to take precedence over testosterone. "We should do this someplace else," the coach said without conviction.
Sara ignored him. She was totally turned on by the thought of having sex with a teacher in the school. To her this act would be Coach Gardner's re-declaration of love for her. She pushed the teacher's wheeled chair away from his desk and sat on his lap. She could feel his male hardness through his chinos as she leaned in to kiss him.
Coach Gardner accepted her tongue as he reached under her blouse and worked on removing her bra. Testosterone took the lead over prudence.
The bra fell off of her and slipped down to her waist as he kneaded her developing breasts. Sara reached down to take off her blouse, but he stopped her, telling her that they needed to be able to recover quickly should somebody knock on the door. She ignored him and removed it, her hard, perky nipples poking out of her breasts. He kissed each one as she unzipped his pants, sliding her hand inside and wrapping it around his seven inch man tool.
The two of them exchanged deep passionate kisses as the coach rubbed the sophomore's breasts. The room was filled with the sounds of their fervent breathing. "Suck me, suck my cock," the coach pleaded. Sara got off of his lap and he pulled his pants and boxers down to his ankles, his mouth wrapped around her right breast. That was their position as they failed to hear the door knob turn. That was their position as the school principal used his master key to unlock the door and enter the classroom. He and the athletic director stood stunned at the sight of the half naked teacher and half naked sophomore girl engaged in a sexual act at the teacher's desk.
<Thursday, February 19. Mayfield High School>
Rodney wasn't surprised when he was summoned to the school office about halfway into first period. He knew he was in trouble, and he knew it had to do with his conversation with Mr. Wilson, the principal, the day before. He was certain Coach Gardner had raked him and the rest of the freshman on the Go to State Team over the coals. If I'm going to be expelled, he thought, I might as well walk out of the school now and save everybody the trouble of kicking me out.
He'd been angry with himself all of last night, unable to sleep as he tossed and turned thinking of how he had fucked up by sticking his nose where it didn't belong. In spite of his desire to walk out of the school he continued on to the office to meet his doom.
"I got called to come here," Rodney said to Mrs. Griffin, the secretary behind the counter. He ignored the senior girl who was a student helper, going directly to the closest adult.
"Yes, Rodney. Sit down for a moment. Mr. Wilson would like to talk to you," the secretary said kindly. She liked Rodney, whom she saw as a polite boy and not at all a trouble maker.
Oh great, he thought, it was Mr. Wilson who called me. I was hoping it might be somebody else. I am so fucked. He only had to sit for a couple of minutes when Mr. Wilson came out of his office and called Rodney in. Rodney's heart was thumping 100 miles an hour, especially when he saw Mr. Fitzgerald in the office. Oh shit, he thought, I will never play sports here for the rest of my life, even if I don't get expelled.
Even though Rodney was a lothario when it came to girls and would bed down and fuck any girl he could, he was also a good kid: an honor roll student, a star three-sport athlete, a student government leader, and a boy respected by his teachers and peers alike. All of that had done him no good at all yesterday, and he was sure it would do him even less good now.
"Please, sit down, Rodney," Mr. Wilson said, pointing to the chair in front of his desk. "First of all, I want to assure you that you are not in any kind of trouble, so please relax."
"I'm not in trouble?" Rodney asked as if he couldn't believe it.
"No, you're not; In fact I want to apologize to you for how I treated you yesterday."
"You do?" Rodney couldn't help but being a little skeptical since he felt he had been treated like shit by the principal.
"Yes, and for two reasons. First, I didn't take into account the kind of student and person you are, including the fine grades you maintain as well as your being in the school senate. I saw you only as a member of what appeared to be a trouble making gang, and I apologize for that. I also plan on apologizing to your friends whom I disparaged."
What the fuck is going on here? Rodney wondered, not without reason.
"The second reason is that it turns out we were able to verify that everything you told me was true."
"You were?" Rodney felt stupid as the only things he seemed to be able to utter were inane questions.
"This will become public knowledge soon, but Coach Gardner was suspended this morning pending investigation of the charges."
"He is?" Damn it, Rodney thought, either keep your mouth shut or say something intelligent.
"I cannot go into the details, but I felt it was fair that I talk to you before the announcement is made. I would appreciate if you would keep this under wraps until the end of the day. Can you do that?"
"Yes, sir, I can."
"Good, I appreciate that. I will be making a public announcement at the end of the school day. I can only say so much publically, and I can't say much more to you."
"What about baseball?" Rodney asked. "We start practice next week."
"That should be settled by the end of the day as well."
"Is Coach Sanders going to coach us?"
"At the moment nothing has been decided," Mr. Wilson said, even though he and Coach Fitzgerald had made their decision the night before, just one of the many things they had to start dealing with after finding Coach Gardner and Sara Bennett in a sexual situation.
"I have one more thing to say to you before you go," Mr. Wilson said.
This is it, Rodney thought, I knew I had to be in trouble for something. Maybe it's for me fucking Sara just like Coach Gardner did. Rodney said nothing as he waited for Mr. Wilson to finish.
"What you did yesterday took a great deal of courage as well as a great amount of integrity. I received a major reminder about the importance of knowing my students and of listening to my students. I let my own biases prevent me from giving you the attention you deserved. And once again, for that I apologize."
"Um...thank you, sir."
"Don't let yesterday's experience ever keep you from doing the right thing in the future. For you it was a matter of integrity and for me it became a matter of not recognizing that and my not doing my job properly. So thank you for trying to do the right thing." Mr. Wilson knew he should have called Sara in and followed up on Rodney's complaint, something he was required to do.
Rodney was starting to feel as uncomfortable with all the praise as he had been yesterday when the principal pushed his disclosure aside. The bell rang to end first period as he sat there wondering what to say next.
"Get to class, and thanks again. Remember what you promised me."
"Yes, sir, I will. You can trust me."
Rodney left the office and walked down the hall to class, noticing for the first time the substitute in Coach Gardner's classroom. He fulfilled his promise and said nothing of what he had learned. It was difficult for him to do, as he was bursting at the seams to reveal his new knowledge. But when the official word got out that Coach Gardner would be on "indefinite leave," all bets were off. He and his friends spent two hours after school in Vince's basement speculating on what had caused Mr. Wilson to change his stance.
And that is how the Mayfield Mustang baseball players found themselves in a classroom after school the next day, meeting with the interim head coach of the Mustang baseball program.
Next: Fathers and Sons