Jacob Finding His Way

Jacob Finding His Way 86

Written by J.P.G.

{Jacob Finding His Way is partly fictional. As I am writing this story, I am above the age of 21. If you want a story with lots of sex, look elsewhere. This is a love story. Seeing, as it is a love story, sex is in there, but it is in realistic balance in the characters' lives.

Any similarity to any real events, names, or life events is purely accidental. If you are underage, (according to your state laws, a minor), if this literature is offensive to you or to anyone around your viewing area, or it is illegal for you to view such content where you are reading it, stop reading the story.

This story cannot be distributed in any way, shape or form without the author's expressed written consent.}

Story Written by: J.P.G.

Edited By: Daddy Rick

I have a home page for you to see what the characters look like or what the places look like. If you want to walk in their shoes, please go to: http://jacobmillertex.com/

Chapter 86

Dewayne helped Jacob to the room that he was using as his office at the hotel. As soon as Jacob was settled in and didn't need anything else, Dewayne left him alone to get down to business. As he walked out, Jacob picked up the phone book to look up the number to El Paso High School. Once he found it, he dialed it and got connected to the principal's office. When he told the secretary who he was, she immediately connected him to Principal Michaels.

"Good morning sir, I hope I'm not disturbing you." Principal Michaels informed Jacob he wasn't. "The reason I'm calling you is to ask you for a big favor. Friday is the election and we have a debate on Wednesday after school. I was wondering if I could participate in the debate even if I don't go to school on Wednesday."

"Certainly you can Jacob." Principal Michaels was happy to hear Jacob's voice. "Normally I wouldn't allow it, but I'm going to make an exception with you because you are not missing school for a stupid reason. You have no choice other than to miss school, and I don't want you to come back until you are one hundred percent."

"Thank you sir, but I do need to go back soon because of the ninety day rule. I need to save up some of my days I'm allowed to miss in case something else comes up, which I hope nothing will. This house has had its fair share of bad luck lately. In fact it's had too much if you ask me."

Michaels started to laugh. "You certainly are right about you guys having bad luck lately. First your house burned down because the old police chief had something up his butt about you guys and didn't want to let it go. Then, the shooting happened here at the school, and everything else between that and what happened this weekend. You guys truly have had bad luck these last couple of weeks. I really hope it turns around and in time for the election. There is no way I can stand another football player in the position of student council president."

Jacob was surprised to hear that coming from Principal Michaels. He thought that the principal of the school and all the teachers and staff had to stay neutral in matters like this. The reason for that is because they don't want to ever be put into a position that someone says they support them or are on their side in any matter in the day to day running of the school.

"The reason I'm telling you what I'm telling you is because I trust you that you are not going to go around blabbing what I have said to you today or in the past. This school needs an actual leader in that position, not someone that doesn't do anything. I believe you are that leader, and it's not because of your money. You have shown that prior, when you didn't have the money you have today you can get sponsors."

"Yes sir and that is what I plan to do as far as what I promised to get done. The sports teams deserve the same thing we in the ROTC program have right now; solid sponsorship. Let me tell you, having good sponsors means you don't have to worry about where the money is going to come from when you want to do something or go somewhere."

Principal Michaels agreed with Jacob. "Since I have you on the line sir, can I ask you have you given any thought to what I offered you right after my house burned down." Michaels couldn't put his finger on what Jacob was referring to and asked Jacob to refresh his memory. "You know sir, cars for a driver's ED program. When I offered it, you told me you needed to check in with the school board to see if you could start the programming up again. Something about insurance being a problem!" Jacob playfully teased Michaels on the last part.

"Oh yeah now I remember! I did run the idea pass the school board, and they turned it down right off the bat, but I didn't give up. I ran it up the flag pole several more times, and finally the third time they approved it on a trial basis. The only thing is, I have to come up with the expenses for the cars, the gas and the pay to the teacher who is going to teach it. That kind of money isn't in my budget, so there is no way the program will get off the ground."

Jacob quickly ran some numbers before saying another word to Michaels. After he got done running his numbers, he called for Dewayne and asked him a question and got the answer he was hoping for. Once he got over that hurdle, he got back on the phone with Michaels.

"Okay sir here is what I purpose to do so you can have the driver's ED program. As you know as far as the cars, I will take care of those. They won't be brand new, but they will be good, safe and perfect for the program. Additionally I will take care of the maintenance of the vehicles no matter what it is, including body work.

Now as far as the gas and the instructor I can help you out on that as well. The gas will be taken care by my other half and his company. I don't know if you know it, but he partly owns all the Seven Elevens here in El Paso. So whenever the cars need to be filled, just take it to any Seven Eleven and use the card we are going to issue for each car.

The instructor I think you should use Major Moore. You know him and he knows the school. He wants to get back to teaching, but not full time. He loves what he is doing right now, but he does miss the day to day dealings with the students. I will take care of his salary as well, so that is something you don't have to worry about."

"I can't have you doing all this! It's too much Jacob, really it's too much. We can figure out another way to get the driver's ED program going not using you for everything."

"Sir you know as well as I do there is no other way to start the program. And trust me I'm not doing this just to be nice, there is something in it for me as well. I take in way too much money each year! I need to start finding places to start donating and what better place than my school where I have learned so much and I actually love. And also by me doing this, it will be a tax write off at the end of the year. So as you can see, it will helps both of us out."

Michaels thought for a few seconds what Jacob was saying, and it and it made a lot of sense. He gets a program that he has wanted since he could remember, fully funded. At the same time it helps Jacob out as far as paying too much in taxes. It is a win, win for everyone concerned. Plus, he will be the envy of all the schools in the district because he will be the only one with a Driver's Ed program that they all have been fighting to get.

"Okay Jacob as long as none of what you are offering is too much for you, I accept, but under one condition." Jacob asked what the condition was. "If the day ever comes that you can't afford it or just don't want to do it anymore, let me know with enough time so I can find other ways to fund the program or inform the students the program won't be offered any longer. Also, you can't pull the program because something happens to you here or you get mad or something like for example if you don't win come Friday."

"With all due respect sir, you sound as though you don't know me at all! If I was that type of person, I would have pulled the funding to the ROTC programs a long time ago. I'm not a spoiled little brat that when things don't go my way, I take my toys and go. No sir, I know what is school and personal and what is business. What we are talking about here today is business, and I never, ever let my personal life or feelings pull me the wrong direction."

Principal Michaels has never heard Jacob speak in such a mature and serious tone. He knew right there in then that he will never have to worry about Jacob taking the cars and funding back, which in the back of his mind he knew even before this conversation. He has heard what has happened to him in the ROTC program. He doesn't like it, but won't get involved. And after everything has happened he sees that Jacob hasn't pulled the funding.

"Jacob I'm sorry if I offended you in anyway. I just needed to make sure we were both on the same page when it comes down to this great thing you are doing." Principal Michaels still felt he didn't explain himself right yet. "I have never taken anything like this from anyone in the past, much less a student. So you have to understand how hard it is for me to do this now. However, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth or stand in its way. Please do what you can so our school has a Driver's Ed program. So many students can benefit from it."

"I agree sir and it will happen as soon as you are able to get it in your class lines ups. I figure it will be an after school program, am I correct on that?" Principal Michaels agreed. "Okay I will let Major Moore know if that is okay with you." Once again the principal agreed. "Now as far as the cars are concerned, I'm not going to go and pick them up. I don't want what happened to me this last weekend happen again." Playfully Jacob teased.

"No I understand that! Just let me know when they are ready and where to pick them up and I and a couple of my staff will go down and pick them up, alright?"

"That will be fine with me. I will get the paperwork started on those as soon as I can. More than likely I will have the paper work for the cars in order when I walk in to school tomorrow for the debate. It will then be up to you to go and pick them up. Agreed?"

Just as Principal Michaels was agreeing with everything Jacob said, Mr. Olson walked in. Jacob stayed on the line with Principal Michaels for a few more minutes before polity ending the call. While he was finishing up with the call, Mr. Olson was making himself comfortable, pulling out the files he thought they were going to be discussing.

After briefing Jacob on how everything was running he went into the areas he thought were going to become problems in the near future. "I know you are new to the dealership world, but we need to get a handle on the car lots and I mean soon. If we don't watch it, we are going to start losing money on them in the next couple months, which shouldn't happen."

Mr. Olson handed Jacob a file explaining in full detail on what he was about to talk about. "Car dealerships make money by moving cars off their lots. If the cars don't move, they need to be sent to another dealership in another city to try and sell them. The longer they stay on our lots, the more money we have to pay for them each month."

Jacob started to skim read through the papers in the folder that Mr. Olson handed him. He saw what his CEO was saying and understood that if they didn't get the cars that are on their lots right now sold, they are going to start spending a lot more money to keep them. On top of that, each month they stay on the lot, they have to sell them for less, losing more money.

""Mr. Olson I see within the next thirty days we are going to be responsible for paying huge amounts of money to the bank if we want to keep the current inventory." Olson agreed with what Jacob was saying. "Don't the dealership managers know this and should be already making arrangements to get them off of their lots before they have to explain the loss in revenue."

"They do, but I'm thinking this is not too high on their priority list right now. For some reason I'm getting the feeling they are going to try and do whatever they can to make you look bad in hopes that the dealerships get turned over to who they think should have them, the son of the former owner." Jacob looked at Olson as if he was out of his mind. "Don't look at me like that. I have taken several trips to all the dealerships and I have heard them talking."

"Well if that is what they are working towards, they will get a rude awakening. If the dealerships fail, it won't be transferred to Mr. Dick's son. No sir, the dealerships will just go under. In return everyone that works in that part of my company will be out of work. So if they want to be responsible for that, they can continue down the road they are going."

Jacob picked up the phone and dialed the main office number. When the front secretary answered, he asked to speak with his father. Less than a minute later, Andy Sr. was on the line being briefed on what was going on. Little did Jacob know, his father was already on top of what was being discussed and was already getting the inventory switched out.

"I understand everything you two are saying, but I have everything under control. Before you called me, I was on the line with Ford. They are sending a truck down in the next couple of weeks to pick up the cars we are unable to move and giving us new inventory. I got the same response from the other companies that I have already spoken with in the last day or so. By the end of the week, all the lots should have new inventory, giving us another ninety days."

"That sounds really good, da.., Mr. Hernandez. Now the only thing left is what are we going to do with the general managers of each dealership. They should have already been on top of all this and started the paperwork to move the cars out. We can't let this get by without doing something about or they will think they got away with it."

"I thought of that to. So I had my secretary look at each of their contracts to see what we can do. Since they dropped the ball, we can deny them their commission check for the quarter and that is what I'm going to do. I truly believe in order for this not to happen again in the future, we need to hit them where it hurts, sadly it is the wallet."

Mr. Olson loved the idea and told Jacob and Andy Sr. just that. Jacob as well liked the idea, but didn't want to show his enthusiasm on it like Mr. Olson. He told them it was a good start, but wanted to have a plan in place so they won't be doing this once again in ninety days. Andy promised he would get on that and have it done within twenty to forty eight hours since it was his part of the business to run.

With that, Jacob thanked his father and let him go so he could get back to what he was doing. Mr. Olson left that subject and moved on to the other branches of the company. When he got to the parts that Al was running, Jacob was a lost, but didn't let on he was. He tried to follow his CEO, and whenever something came up, he made a note to talk with his grandfather about it.

"Now Jacob there is the matter of the things you are sponsoring. I know many of them were there when you either bought the company or you inherited the companies, but we need to rethink them. A lot of money is going out on programs that could be going into your bank account. So I recommend when the contracts are up, you stop sponsoring everything."

Jacob looked down at the papers that Mr. Olson handed him. He really didn't need to read them since he knew by memory what he was sponsoring. "Mr. Olson do you know what I bring in each year?" Mr. started to flip through his paperwork and when he got to the profit page, he couldn't believe his eyes. He knew the company made a lot of profit but not that much.

"Each of my McDonalds is a million dollar store in profit a year. I own them all here in El Paso, so with them alone, I take in over five hundred million dollars. As far as the other parts of the company, I bring in a lot. I can't remember the numbers, but it is a lot. My grandfather teases me by saying when I graduate high school, I will be a billionaire if things continue going the way they are. I don't see any of it changing, do you?"

Olson nodded his head. "By me making so much money, I'm paying a hell of a lot of taxes at the end of the year. These programs I sponsor help reduce all those taxes. Therefore not only I'm not going to drop any of them when the contracts come up for renewal, I'm going to sponsor a lot more programs in the high schools here in El Paso, starting with all of the ROTC units in the El Paso School District, the Driver's Ed program that is going to get on its feet in the next couple of weeks at El Paso High and whatever else I want to give my money to."

Jacob looked straight into Mr. Olson's eyes. "I was born in a family that was on the bottom of the middle class. We weren't poor, but we weren't able to buy everything we wanted. We had just enough to get what we needed, which I was fine with. However, I will never forget where I came from no matter how rich I get. People who start thinking they are better and refuse to give a helping hand when they can are the ones that end up alone and bitter.

I hope you understand where I am coming from. Whenever I have a chance, I will sponsor a program in the schools so every student in the future will have a chance to get a top rate education; the type of education that you only see in private schools. I don't think that is fair, and I will try my best to even out the playing field wherever and whenever I can."

"I certainly understand and applaud you for what you are doing. I also went to public school and things were being taking away from us towards the end of my high school years. When I graduated, the music department, drama department and every other department except the ones dealing with a sport lost a lot of their funding. Now a days if a student wants to play an instrument, they have to join band, which isn't that good or go to a private school. Once again that isn't good nor is it right, but until now no one cared."

"Well this kid does and will do what he can." Jacob sat up straight in his seat. "If we have to hire someone that all he or she does is keeps track of the things this company is sponsoring, let's get it done. I want to make sure that the ball isn't dropped in the future when it comes to paying out what we promised like it happened this year."

"I think the young lady you have in charge of that now has it all under control. Plus you gave her permission to hire people to help, which she has. There is no need to spend any more time on that. What we do need to spend a little time on here today is this." Mr. Olson held up the files Jacob sent to him of the companies he wants to buy. "I understand why you want to buy these companies, but why do you want to put one of them under Dewayne's name."

"You are misreading that or misunderstanding what I'm asking. I don't want to put one of the companies under Dewayne's name. I want to buy them for him as a gift. Of course it will be under the umbrella of the Angel Corporation for protection, but everything else it will be Dewayne's."

"I understand what you are saying, but let me recommend you do this instead. Buy the company, put both of your names on it, but let it show it is owned completely by the Angel Corporation. I know you believe in Dewayne, but anything can happening and I don't want you to make this kind of investment and in a year or so down the line you lose it all."

"That won't happen. Don't think I am blinded by the love I have for Dewayne. I know he can and will run the company right. If he gets into trouble, as I said he will have the protection of the Angel Corporation. He can fall back on to us if needed. However, I don't see that ever happening, so let's go ahead and get this done."

Reluctantly Mr. Olson agreed. "I will go ahead and get the paperwork started and get the attorneys and accountants involved to make sure we are getting the most for your money. The Auto Zones will go to Dewayne and these other two companies you just want to the main corporation to swallow them up, right?"

"Yes, I want to buy out the franchise licenses to all the Pizza Huts, Kentucky Fried Chickens and Taco Bells here in El Paso, Las Cruces, Alamogordo and Carlsbad. Since all of them are owned by Pepsi and Frito Lay Corp., it should be easy. Also, the franchisees here in El Paso cannot fulfill the deal they made with Pepsi and Frito Corp., and I can. They will see they will get more by selling to me than if they wait until their contracts are up."

"The only concern I have is that I don't want your company to become nothing but fast food restaurants. Mr. Serna's vision on where he wants to take this company is solid and you should stay on that track, don't get off of it. If you invest in these companies now, and they fail, you might not be able to do what Mr. Serna wants you to do with the company."

"There is no way fast food will ever die off. They were here before I was born and they will be here way after I leave this world. It is a great investment that will always bring in money and I know you know that." Jacob didn't go on until Mr. Olson agreed with him. "By having these companies, it will benefit us in so many ways. Can't you see it?"

Jacob raised his hands to the air as if he was looking through a picture frame. "I buy these companies now and they bring in the money we know they will. In return knowing we will always have that money coming in, we can move into to what my grandfather envisions for this company without a worry of money. By the time I graduate from college, we should have every part of this company on its feet and making huge profits."

The more Mr. Olson thought about what Jacob was saying, the more he agreed with him. There is no way fast food restaurants will ever become a thing of the past. They will always be here, making gobs of money as long as they are run right like they are doing with the McDonalds.

"Okay Jacob I will push these through and hopefully by the end of March these companies will be part of the Angel Corporation." Mr. Olson filed the folder back in his brief case that had Jacob's proposals. "The closer we get to seeing these companies are going to be ours, we need to start setting up their offices in our building. We want to make sure once they become yours you get off running, unlike the dealerships. I know you weren't planning on getting them, but we can't afford to stumble around with companies like these."

Jacob agreed with Mr. Olson and promised that when it was a for sure thing they were going to own these companies, he would start hiring people to run those parts of the company. Of course Mr. Olson offered his service, which Jacob accepted. He knew he was going to need to get all the help he could get when the time comes to get the ball rolling with the new companies.

As Jacob was finishing up his meeting with his CEO, Ralph was just getting up. He and the rest of his family had a rough night. After he met up with Jacob and Dewayne at the county jail, he and his mother went to UTEP as instructed by Jacob. When they got there, they thought that Daryl was going to be there waiting for them, but they were wrong. Not only he wasn't, they had to wait for almost three hours for all the paper work to be completed.

Once that happened, everyone was too tired to start a serious conversation. Instead, they drove through the Taco Bell drive thru, picked up dinner and headed home. On their way, they picked up Diane, Ralph's sister. When she got in the car, she was crying. It took the entire car ride home to settle her down, but when they did, she was playful, like normal.

No one really talked during dinner. They just sat there eating what they ordered. The conversations that were started were general, nothing about what had happened earlier that day. Once Ralph was done, he excused himself from the table and headed upstairs, but his mother called him back down to let him know that they needed to sit down in the morning and talk about what had happened and what they could do, as a family, to make sure it didn't happen again.

Not meaning to, Ralph laughed, getting his mother's attention, but she didn't say anything. She knew if they started talking, things would be blown out of proportion like earlier in the morning. That is something she doesn't want. So she ignored Ralph and headed back in to the dining room to clean up the mess and then went up to bed herself.

Ralph felt bad, but thought it was stupid of his mother to say what she said. Everything that happened this morning, in his mind, could have been avoided. However his father made it a lot more than what it was. He felt the talk shouldn't involve him. It should only be between his mother and father and they should figure out how to control his father's temper.

Just like his mother, Ralph didn't want another fight. He put his thoughts to the back of his mind and went back upstairs to turn in for the night. Now that he is awake, the thoughts he didn't want to deal with the night before, are nagging at him. No matter how hard he tried to ignore the thoughts, they wouldn't go away. Finally he gave into them figuring the reason they wouldn't go away is because of the looming talk his mother wanted to have between the three of them.

Pulling himself to his feet, Ralph walked into his bathroom and splashed some water on his face and hair. After combing his hair and brushing his teeth, he headed downstairs, not changing out of his sweatpants or t-shirt that he slept in the night before. When he got downstairs, he found his mother in the kitchen preparing breakfast, or itshould be said, lunch.

"Good morning sleepy head, I was starting to think that you would never get out of bed." Emily turned from the stove and looked at her son. "Sit down and I will get you breakfast. When you are done, meet me and your father in the dining room so we can talk about what happened yesterday. I know you agree with me there is a lot we need to talk about."

Not wanting to argue, Ralph agreed with his mother as he started to dig into the plate of food she put in front of him. After getting him his drink, she left the kitchen, leaving him all alone with his thoughts. After awhile, he decided it was worthless for him to think about something he doesn't know how it might turn out, so he just took his time eating.

It was no surprise to his parents that he joined them almost an hour after he was told that the talk was still going to happen. Ralph slowly walked in and sat down in the furthest chair from his parents. No one said a word right away. They all were trying to get a read of each other so they knew what to say and how to say it.

"Derrick I know what happened yesterday..." Ralph interrupted his father and asked him not to call him by Derrick. He wanted to be called by his birth name. "Okay Ralph, you will have to give your mother and me some time to get used to that. As far as your sister, you need to let her call you Derrick until she gets used to calling you Ralph." Ralph agreed.

"Good, now as I was saying, I know what happened yesterday could have been avoided if I would have stayed here and let the situation correct itself as things many times do. However, you know that yesterday's fight was the biggest one we have ever had with each other. I'm not using that as my excuse, but I couldn't see clearly on anything. All I wanted was to go and get you and bring you back home where I could keep you safe as I have done these last five years.

When you walked out that door, all I could think was your mother and I were losing you. When you become a father, you will understand how much it hurts when you start to think that way and you feel your hands are tied. Yesterday the look I saw in your eyes was that you were washing your hands of us and we were never going to see you again. And you can't think that thought was farfetched with the means Jacob has."

"No, you are right I don't know how you were feeling when I left here since I'm not a father, but that doesn't give you the right to do what you did to Jacob. The problem going on was going on between the members of this family, not anyone else. You went out and blamed another for what you and mom did wrong, then beat him up. That was just wrong! You should have seen that if I saw it.

Now as far as me leaving and never coming back, come on, you guys know me better than that. Yes we were in uncharted waters yesterday, but I would have never left and not come back. And even if I would have thought that and asked Jacob for help, he would have asked me to try and work things out with you guys before just leaving. But I won't lie and say I didn't think about it." Ralph saw that his parents were hanging onto every word he was saying.

"My real mom, a woman I have so many memories of is here, wanting to reconnect with me and my sister. She has every right in the world to do that. But I won't say here and now I'm going to move in with her today, tomorrow, a week or a month from now. It might happen and it might not. It all depends on how things go between me and her as we reconnect."

Daryl didn't like what he was hearing, but knew there was nothing he was going to be able to say at this moment to get things to go the direction he wanted. So instead of going somewhere with the conversation that he knew would result in a fight, he left it alone. He quickly thought of other subjects that he knew they had to cover as far as what is going on with them.

"Okay let's put you moving in with Nancy on the back burner for now. As you said, you don't know what the future holds for you and her, either do we." Daryl pointed back and forth to himself and his wife. "Your mother and I don't want you to feel we want you to go a certain direction, so in that area we are going to keep our own thoughts to ourselves.

Now we do have a lot more than that to discuss. I know you were angry because you felt cheated out of several years of your life. You have always felt that you didn't belong in the grade you were in, but none of us could put a finger on why. Well now we know why you felt out of place like you did; you were two years ahead in school, which you shouldn't have been.

Your mother and I stayed up all night last night discussing this issue and many others and we feel we have come to a fix that we all can be happy with." Ralph leaned forward to hear his father better. "We will have no problem with you going back to High School to redo what's left of this year and your senior year.

However, that all depends on if the principal of the school and the school district will allow this since this has never happened before. They will be dealing with something that they more than likely have dealt with. All of us will have to figure out how this will work since you already completed your junior and senior year in high school. I think the only thing that will work in your favor is that you are in a totally different state and school district than you were when you did graduate high school. I really believe that will work in our favor."

"I agree with your father. Being here, instead of back home, you might be able to redo what you want to redo. On top of that, your friend Jacob is here and he has a lot of pull. If things start to look like they are not going the direction we want them to go, we can turn to him for some help. Now the only question as far as that is concerned is will he help if asked."

"I really don't see why not, but I don't want to go to him unless we have exhausted everything that we can do on our own. Okay?" Daryl and Emily answered at the same time, agreeing with Ralph's proposal. "Do you guys think it will happen? And if so, what about college? You guys have already paid for all my classes this year."

"Well as far as your college we have spoken with them this morning and after explaining what was going on, they will give us a full refund, except the books. So when you do graduate, for the second time, you will need to take the same classes so we don't lose the money on the books." Daryl looked at Emily who was shaking her head in agreement.

"As far as if you going back to high school will happen, I don't know son. Right now we haven't even tried to speak with the principal of El Paso High, which I'm sure that is where you want to go, right?" Ralph nodded his head with a big smile across his face. "So until we have a chance to do that, I can't answer you either way."

That answer took a little wind out of Ralph's sail, but he still was happy and hopeful that his parents were actually willing to let him go back to high school. Just a couple of days ago, they were dead set on him staying in college and nothing changing. However, with the events of the last twenty four hours, they have reconsidered their stance on many of the things they had said no to prior.

"When do you think you will be talking to the principal at El Paso High?" Ralph couldn't wait for his parents to answer, but saw they were giving it a lot of thought. "I know all this is going to take time. Nothing is going to happen overnight, but I think the sooner we talk to the people we need to talk to, the sooner we know and can start planning."

"We agree with you Der... I mean Ralph, on everything you're saying. Still we need to figure out a game plan before just going out there making phone calls." Emily saw the look in her son's face change from happy to disappointment in a split of a second. "What I am trying to say is that your father and I need to go over what we are going to say to the principal. We only have one shot at this and if we screw it up, you are stuck where you are. So the story has to be right on point and the facts will most likely get you what you want."

Ralph didn't know what to think about his mother's answer. It was a little confusing at the end, but he didn't say anything. He sat there and let his parents go over what they were going to say when they called the principal. By the time they agreed on what they were going to say, Ralph had almost fallen back to sleep again on the chair.

"Son wake up, come on son wake up!" Ralph popped up in his seat, rubbing his eyes. "Now we do need to discuss Jacob, Nancy and the hotel. We are not going to tell you that you can't go down there because you will do what you want anyway. However, we can tell you this. You must follow the rules that have been in place since you have lived with us. There are no exceptions."

"Dad I'm not asking for any exceptions, but come on, things have changed. You have to give me a little more time whenever I do go to the hotel because I don't know what is going to happen down there. I want to get to know my birth mom. The memories I have of her are good ones, but I want to see if those are true or if I am just remembering her in the good light and forgetting the bad."

"No son, no exceptions to the rules. You must be in the house by the times we have set for you on the weekend and on the weekdays. If you do get to go back to high school, depending on the rules as far as cars, you might not be able to drive your car. But that doesn't mean you can't drive it after school and on weekends.

As far as getting to know Nancy, we want you to do that. If you find that one night you guys get lost in conversation, call us. We will let you stay a little longer under one condition; Nancy has to speak to us." Ralph didn't like that at all and Daryl knew that by his facial expressions. "I am not saying that you would lie to us. What I'm saying is that we want to make sure you are safe and there is an adult around. You are no longer an adult anymore if you want us to use your actual birthday."

Ralph couldn't say a thing to what his father just said because Daryl had him. He wants to use his original name and date of birth, making him under age again. That means the old rules that were in place when he was seventeen will evidently come back into play. He is hoping not, but before the thought had finished crossing his mind, his parents confirmed his worst nightmare.

"Come on dad..." Ralph looked over at his mother. "Mom, I have shown you already that I'm not a trouble maker or will get in trouble. In fact I really never got close to my curfew in the past, so you really don't have anything to worry about."

"That goes both ways son. The new curfew shouldn't bother you at all since you never got close to the one you have now. I can't remember the last time you went out on the weekend or stayed out late in the evenings. You come straight home from school and on the weekends, you are here with us or in front of the television. So again the new curfew shouldn't hurt you." Daryl didn't flinch once, which told Ralph he meant business.

Ralph tried to change his father's mind, but nothing he said made a dent. When it started to look like they were going to go at it, Emily stepped in and stopped them. She didn't want a repeat of yesterday with her son storming off and her husband following him. The cost of that is way too high financially and emotionally.

"Guys we are not getting anywhere with this. Both of you are unwilling to bend, so I will be the one that will find the middle ground on this. Once I do, neither of you can object. Is that understood?" At the same time Daryl and Ralph answered yes. "Good this is what I propose." Emily looked at Ralph as she moved to the edge of her seat.

"You are right. You have never shown us that we can't trust you. And I believe the reason you never got close to your curfew in the past is because you didn't know anyone here, but that has all changed. So you can keep the curfew you have right now, but the minute you break it will be the minute we take it away and you won't get it back."

That made Ralph happy, but Daryl, well he wasn't happy, but he wasn't really showing it. He held it in, which took a lot of energy out of him. The only one of the two that was able to see that Daryl was not pleased with the compromise was Emily and she reached over and grabbed his hand. Once again she didn't want this conversation to turn into a contest to see who could yell the loudest.

"I believe that is all we have to talk about right now. If anything else comes up, we will sit down and talk again like we are talking now, with calm heads and mutual respect." Emily looked at her husband to see if he had anything to add. When she saw he didn't, she continued.

"Ralph we love you with all of our hearts and we don't want to lose you. With that said, we will back you on whatever you decide, just do us a favor." Ralph agreed. "Before you do what you decide to do, talk to us first. We don't want to walk into your room one day and find the everything packed up and you out the door okay?"

"Mom I will never do that to you." Ralph got up from his seat. He walked over to his mother and pulled her up into his arms. "I love you and dad and because of the love I have for you guys I will never disrespect you guys like that. If the day comes that I do decide to move out and go and live somewhere else, I will sit down and talk with you guys before I do anything. No matter what you think, I still value your opinion and want to hear what you guys think."

The two held the hug for a few minutes. Before breaking it, Ralph whispered to his mother that he loved her and thanked her for everything she has done. Once they broke their hug, Ralph walked to his father and thanked him as well as they hugged, but they didn't hold their hug anywhere near the time that Ralph and his mother did.

Just as Ralph reached the stairs, his father came running out calling him. "Son I almost forgot I need you to take this to Jacob." Daryl handed his son a white bank envelope. "It is what we owe him when he bailed me out yesterday. When you give it to him please tell him that I'm sorry and I am in his debt. He could have been an ass and never talked to me or worse. He could have gotten on the phone and told me to go to hell, which he didn't. For that I'm thankful and I will always be in his debt, among many other reasons."

Ralph took the envelope and promised his father that he will get it to Jacob as soon as he can. Neither of the two said another word to each other, they just looked at each other. It took Emily calling for Daryl for them to finally go their separate directions. Ralph went up to his room to get ready to go to see Jacob, and Daryl went back to speak with his wife.

"Honey I don't..." Emily placed her finger over her husband's lips. "Before you say another word let me answer your concerns. I know you didn't like it when I overruled you on our son's curfew, but it had to be done. The poor guy has been through a lot in the last couple of weeks and we shouldn't add to it. On top of that, it will make it harder for him to move out to Nancy's house if that day ever comes. We must stay strict, but at the same time we must show we are willing to hear him out and change our minds if he presents a good argument. He is our son and I won't lose him."

Daryl knew the look on his wife's face way too well. He wasn't about to argue with her when she has that look on her face. "Okay sweetie, but we can't fold each time he doesn't get his way. He has to know that we are still the ones in charge and if he does wrong, he will get punished."

"Daryl there is no doubt in my mind he knows that and will never try and take advantage of what is going on right now. Let's give him a little room to figure things out. While he is doing that, we will be working on getting him back into high school and making sure everything is going well with him. I want to make sure when it's all said and done that we come out looking good."

Everything Emily said Daryl agreed with. They sat there in the living room talking out what they are going to do in the near future to make sure Ralph will never move out. At least until he moves out when he goes to college or gets married that is. There they don't want to stop him, and hope that he does marry when the times comes.

As Daryl and Emily were working on making Ralph happy, Tom was waking up. Once again he had another horrible night. The only thing that brought him comfort was David who never left his side. Whenever the pain got real strong, David was there for him. He would hold him tight and talk to him, making him forget about the pain.

When the nurse brought in breakfast, David jumped out of the bed and went into the restroom to wash up. Once he was washed up, he came out and tried his best to wash Tom up so he could eat. David didn't want his boyfriend sitting there with dirty hands and crusty eyes trying to eat breakfast. He knows Tom wouldn't want it.

Just as Tom started to dig into his breakfast, his parents walked in with several bags from What-a-Burger. "Hey boys let's eat some real food!" Chad said as he took Tom's tray away. "Your mother and I spoke with Dr. Whitmore this morning when he was making his rounds. We asked him if it was okay of we brought in your food, and he had no problem with that. All that mattered to him is that you are eating three meals a day."

Teresa placed the pancake platter they bought for Tom on his table and then she put the pancake platter for David right next to Tom's. David pulled off the cover and started to cut the pancakes, eggs and sausage. Once they were all cut, he poured the syrup over the pancakes and gave Tom his fork to start eating.

As they ate, they made small talk, staying away from the accident and the pain they all know Tom is in. Just as they finished up, the door of the room opened and several Firemen walked in. At first Teresa thought that there was something wrong, but when she saw they were dressed in their dress blues, she settled down. Her and husband got up and moved out of the way.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you guys while you are eating breakfast." Fred, the fireman that was helping Jacob out on the scene smiled and introduced himself to everyone. "I got to know Jacob while he was in the cab trying to get you free. When he pulled you out, I was glad to see that you were alive and both you and Jacob got out of there alive."

Fred walked over to the right hand side of the bed. "I'm not here to try and talk you out of suing the fire department, the city or whoever else you want to sue. In fact I support and want you to sue the hell out of everyone that you can. That way new procedures will be put into place so if what happened to you happens to another, we are not bound by the stupid rules we had to follow that day you were stuck in your truck, fighting to get free.

No sir, I'm here to actually meet the young man that made it out of that truck alive when so many thought it wouldn't happen." Fred gently patted Tom on the right shoulder. "I wish I could have done the job that I was trained to do, but that doesn't matter anymore. You are out, alive and hopefully getting out of here really soon."

Tom had no idea what to say to Fred. He doesn't even recognize his voice let alone his face. The time he was stuck in the truck, the only voice he can remember hearing was Jacob's. He didn't want to be rude to Fred because the guy actually came down to see how he was doing. So he just smiled and nodded his head as Fred talked.

"I understand you can't walk, is that right?" Tom nodded his head. "I also understand you played football in school. In fact you are a very good football player and if this accident didn't happen you had a real good chance to get a scholarship." Once again Tom nodded his head. "Well I don't want you to worry about college.

No matter what happens in the future, you will have the money to go to college." Fred handed Tom an envelope. "We all pitched in to try and get enough to send you college. The reason I said try is because I didn't know when we started asking for donations that we were going to get the kind of response that we got.

Every firefighter donated, a good percentage of the police officers pitched and then we hit the streets yesterday asking for donations. The out pouring of support stunned us. Once people knew why we were asking for donations, they didn't just give us their loose change. They actually pulled out one's, fives and even some gave tens and twenties. By the end of the day, we gathered enough money to send you to college."

No one in the room believed what they were hearing. They all gathered around Tom's bed and watched as he opened the envelope. When they saw the look on Tom's face, they knew what ever was in that envelope was huge. Then they got their chance to get a peek when they envelope got passed around. When Teresa saw the amount of the check, she almost passed out.

"I don't know what to say, I really don't." Tom mumbled. "I never expected this from anyone. I thought that I lost any chance I had to go to college the minute I heard the news I was going to be stuck in a wheel chair for the rest of my life. Now seeing the out pouring of love from everyone in the city and all of you in the fire department and police department, I'm lost for words. "Tom made eye contact to Fred for the first time since he walked in. "Thank you, thank you and everyone that pitched in to give me another chance to go to college."

"It was the least we could do since we were unable to do our job the other day. Plus we want you to concentrate on one thing and one thing only; getting well. I heard that you are not planning on being stuck in that chair, is that right?" Tom answered yes. "There is no doubt in my mind that you will be walking again and back on the field playing football. Just do me favor?"

"Anything sir, just name it and if I can I will do it."

"When you are walking again and back on that field, give me a call." Fred handed Tom a piece of paper with his address and phone number on it. "I want to be there to cheer you on and I'm pretty sure all the guys at the fire house would want to be there too. So you call me and we will show up and be there cheering you on."

"You got it sir, you will be one of the first one I will call if that day ever comes." Fred stopped Tom there and told him to think positive, the day will come. "Yes I meant to say that. When the day does come, I will call you up and make sure there are tickets waiting for you and everyone else that wants to come and watch me and my team make a run for state."

"That is what I want to hear! If you get back on the field, I promise you every game we will be in the stands watching you make that run. When you get there, this city will finally have something to celebrate because we have never had a high school here make it to state and win the whole enchilada."

Tom started to laugh when he heard Fred say enchilada because he sounded like the white man that he is. They talked a little longer, but Fred had to go. He wanted to stay and talk with Tom, but he was on his lunch break and only had permission for thirty extra minutes. He said his goodbyes and before he left, he made sure Tom was thinking positive.

The rest of the day was a blur for Tom. Most of the time he was asleep, and when he was awake, he really wasn't because of the pain medications he was on. The only thing he could remember was Fred's visit and his parents and David not leaving the room once.

Back at the hotel, Jacob was getting ready for the debate he was going to have the next day after school. He knew it was going to be a waste of time polishing up on the facts because he knew Markus was going to stay away from what he is going to do. Instead, he knows Markus is going to throw mud and a lot of it because that is the only way Markus figures he can win.

When the guys started to get home, Zach and several other kids that Jacob didn't know walked in with them. After the introductions were done, they went to the restaurant because they needed the space to practice. Before they even got to the tables, Zach got right down to business and started to prep Jacob with what he thinks is going to happen in the debate.

"Markus has been playing a lot of dirty ball these last couple of days. So far there has been some there to shut him down whenever he tried to make a speech, but unfortunately his buddies on the football team are a different story. They have been out in force these last couple of days trying to get everyone that is going to vote for you to change their mind and vote for their guy." Jacob asked if it was working.

"So far it looks like we have a lost a few votes, but not enough to hurt us." Zach sat down and pulled out his notebook. "It looks like it is going to come down to the wire. This election for the first time is up in the air and no one really knows who is going to win it. If we lose on Friday, we can still walk away with our heads held high that we got as close as we did on taking this office away from the jocks."

"Who here is thinks we are going to lose come Friday?" Jacob yelled as he looked at the guys that came with Zach. "If any of you think we are going to lose, get out now because I don't want negativity around me here in the home stretch." Jacob looked straight into Zach's eyes. "Come Friday I won't walk away with my head up high coming in second because we got very close to taking them down. We are going to take them down and win this election. So let's get busy and get ready for tomorrows debate and then after that we will talk about the rest of the week."

Zach didn't disagree with Jacob. "That is what I wanted to see coming from you. I wanted to see if you still had that fire in your belly, which you do." Jacob didn't understand what Zach was talking about. "Now that you are fired up, let me tell you what is going to happen tomorrow during the debate with Markus. I know you won't be surprised by anything I have to say, but if you are, please let me finish before you jump in." Jacob nodded his head.

"Markus won't win on the merits and he knows that. There is no way he can match what you bring to the table. Not your money or your business, but what you have done in the past with the ROTC program. Everyone involved in their club, sport or anything else that involves having to raise money wants to have sponsors so they don't have to go door to door selling chocolates. Since you got that done for the ROTC units before you were rich, they know you will be able to do that for them if you are elected.

What I'm trying to say here is that Markus can't hold a candle to your experience. So he is going to try and keep the spot light on you being gay and how gays can't run anything. He is going to drag you through the mud. Talk about how you went from Joey to Dewayne in such a short period and now you are living with your boyfriend."

"Wait a minute there, I don't consider Dewayne my boyfriend anymore." Everyone looked at Jacob expecting to hear something else than what they did. "Even though the law doesn't give us the right to marry yet, I consider Dewayne my husband and he considers me his. So I want him to go there, and I will rip the son-of-a-bitch apart!"

"That is where he wants you to go Jacob. Markus is going to keep going at you about your personal life until he gets that response. He wants you to get angry because then you will look like the guy he has been trying to sell to the students. Don't let him Jacob or for sure you will lose. Stay on higher ground and I promise you that he will lose and you will win."

Jacob not only understood where Zach was coming from, he agreed with him. For the next two hours, they went through everything they could think of that Markus would do during the debates. The couple of times that Jacob did get angry, Zach calmed him down and reminded him that is what Markus wants, and he must make sure he doesn't give the guy the satisfaction.

When they finally left, Jacob was dead on his feet. He could barely think, and on top of that, his legs were hurting him. He tried to stay up with the other guys, but he was in too much pain. No matter how he tried to play it off, Dewayne saw through it. He finally made Jacob get up and go to their room so they could change his bandages and go to bed.

Just like Tom and Thomas, Jacob didn't have a very good night sleep. He woke up several times throughout the night in pain. It got to the point during the night he had to take some more pain medication which took him over the daily allowances. Dewayne was worried when Jacob did that, but when he felt Jacob getting up less than an hour later, he knew the pills didn't do much.

"Jacob, come back to bed please!" Dewayne whispered, trying not to wake up anyone else.

Jacob didn't answer or move when he heard Dewayne. He kept looking out the window, trying to ignore the pain, but he couldn't. It was so bad it brought him to tears. He didn't want Dewayne to know, so he stood up as straight as he could and didn't move his hand down to his legs and start rubbing them even though that is all he wanted to do.

"Please Jacob, come back to bed." Dewayne finally got out and walked up to Jacob. When he got to him, he knew Jacob was in pain. "How bad is it?" Jacob didn't answer. "Jacob how much pain are you in?" Dewayne fell to his knees and started to rub Jacob's legs. "You need to talk to me please! Tell me how much pain you are in. I know it has to be a lot because you are not saying a word and I can see your reflection in the window."

Jacob looked down at Dewayne as he rubbed the tears away. "It hurts a lot, I mean a lot! I have never felt this much pain in my life. Even when I was shot, opened up and went through all those surgeries, I wasn't in as much pain as I'm in right now." Tears started to roll down Jacob's face in a steady stream. "All I want right now is for the pain to go away. If cutting off my legs would do that, I'm up for that just as long as the pain is gone."

Dewayne has never heard Jacob talking about hurting himself before. He was worried, but he also knew that Jacob would never hurt himself no matter how much pain he might be in. He is just not that type of person. So he pushed the worry to the back of his mind and talked Jacob into going back to bed with him.

When they crawled into bed, Dewayne didn't pull the covers over them right away. He sat at the end of the bed and kept massaging Jacob's legs. Little by little Jacob started to doze off, and by three he was fully asleep, with an actual smile on his face. When Dewayne felt Jacob wasn't going to wake up any time soon he crawled gently to his side and pulled the blankets over them. To make sure he'd know if Jacob did get up again, he cuddled up to next him.

Neither of the two boys woke again until they heard a knock on the door. Dewayne was the first to fully wake up. He quickly got out of bed and walked over to the door to tell whoever it is to come back another time, but when he opened the door and found the nurse standing, his plans were shot. Placing his finger over his lips, he motioned the nurse in.

Once she was completely in, Dewayne leaned in and whispered in her ear. "I'm sorry for answering the door so rudely, it's just Jacob had a very hard night. He was up most of it due to the pain. I finally got him to sleep around three and he hasn't woken up since. If it is all possible since he is asleep if this could wait till a little later in the day."

"I'm sorry Dewayne, but it can't. I have several other patients scheduled that take up the rest of my day, so I need to see Jacob now." The nurse looked around Dewayne to see Jacob sound asleep. "If his bandages don't need to be changed, I mean they have to be really clean, I will let you change them once he wakes up, okay?"

Reluctantly Dewayne agreed. They walked over to the bed and slowly moved the covers off of Jacob. When they finally got to his feet, Dewayne was surprised to see that the bandages weren't clean, but were nowhere near as dirty as they were the day before. Therefore, before the nurse said a word, Dewayne walked around to the head of the bed and started to shake Jacob awake. It took a couple of minutes, but Jacob did come back to life.

"Jacob I'm really sorry for waking you, but I need to change your bandages." Jacob looked down at his legs and was surprised to see the covers had been removed off of him. "Dewayne and I removed the covers to see if the bandages needed to be replaced. We didn't want to wake you up and hoped that the bandages were clean, but they aren't."

Jacob looked up at Dewayne, not angry, but not happy either. Dewayne knew exactly what Jacob was thinking. He leaned in and apologized to him for doing what he did and promised not to do it again. With that, Jacob let it go. He sat up in his bed and let the nurse get to work taking off the old bandages, cleaning out the wounds and then putting on new bandages.

"Okay you are set Jacob!" The nurse said in a pleasant voice. "Your bandages looked a lot better than they did yesterday. You boys did a great job, keep it up. The cleaner you keep these wounds, the quicker they will heal. Also Jacob won't be in as much pain as he was in last night as the wounds heal. It is a win, win all away around."

"I'm not going to argue with you what is going to happen down the line, but what I'm going to argue with is right now, Jacob here was in a lot of pain last night. Is there anything you can get him for the pain, or does he have to deal with it until the wounds heal completely up?"

"Sadly he has to deal with it until the wound heal up. I wish I can go to Dr. Whitmore and ask him for stronger pain medicine, but Jacob is on the strongest ones he can on without being admitted back into the hospital. There he can get stronger ones, but they have to be given by a doctor by injection or IV. I know that isn't what you wanted to hear, but that's the facts."

Both Jacob and Dewayne understood and didn't blame her for not able to get him anything stronger. Before she left, she confirmed her appointment for the next day. Once she left, Dewayne sat at the foot of the bed and massaged Jacob's legs until he went back to sleep. However, this time instead of going back to bed like he did the night before, he went downstairs to let Marco know that they were going to have breakfast in their room.

The only time Jacob woke up through the day was to take his medication and eat his meals. Other than that, he slept all the way up until Dewayne woke him to get ready for the debate. With his help, Jacob was dressed and ready to go in less than thirty minutes. Since he couldn't drive, they took Dewayne's car. Dewayne was just fine with that because he wanted to drive it every chance he gets.

The traffic wasn't bad. Just as they were driving up, the last bell of the day was ringing. Neither Jacob nor Dewayne wanted to get out of the car until the foot traffic in the hallways had settled down. But at the same time, they knew if Principal Michaels didn't see Jacob there before he went out on the stage, he night cancel the debate.

So with the help of their security detail, they made their way to the gym. If anyone got close to Jacob, they would polity ask them to be careful and move on. A couple of the students took offense to it, but when they realized why they were being asked to be careful, they understood and let it go. They said what they wanted to say, which was mostly wishing Jacob good luck and they were in his corner.

When they walked in, Principal Michaels was there to meet them. "I was getting a little worried that you might have changed your mind on coming." Michaels reached out and shook everyone's hands. "As you can see by the number of students here, they are interested in what you two have to say. I have never seen this kind of turn out before."

Jacob chuckled as he looked around the gym. "Well they are here to see if I'm going to fall flat on my face I guess." Dewayne lightly nudged him. "I'm sorry, but I'm stunned seeing this turn out. Is there going to be enough room for everyone to sit or are we going to have to do this debate out on the football field?"

"There has to be enough room. Once we run out, those that come in late won't get a seat."

Jacob didn't like that, but understood. He made his way slowly to the stage and stood there on his side as Principal Michaels started his little spiel when the doors to the gym were closed. Several more students wanted to come in, but weren't allowed to because there was just not enough room for them. However, the pounding on the door got so loud, Principal Michaels gave in and let those in the hallway to come in and stand along the wall.

"As I was saying, welcome to this year's student body president debates. Unlike the years before, there are only two candidates, so there is going to be a lot more time to ask them each of them questions. But before we get started, I want to make a couple of things as clear as possible when it comes down to you asking the questions and the candidates answering them." The students started to sigh, but it didn't deter Principal Michaels from going on.

"Each student will get five minutes to do an opening statement and another five minutes to do a closing statement. We will decide who goes first when they all called out on the stage through a coin toss. Once they do their opening statements, you students will have a chance to ask them anything you want. But the questions have to be about the school, nothing else.

If any of you ask a question about the private life of either candidate, the question won't be allowed to be answered and you will be removed from the gym. If either candidate for student council president tries to turn this debate into mudslinging, that student will lose his remainder time he has to answer the question that is being asked. Which that brings me to how long each student has to answer the question and the how much time they have in rebuttal.

The student the question is being asked of has ninety seconds to answer. The other student has sixty seconds in rebuttal. If I find or any of the staff sitting down there finds that the questions are leaning towards one candidate, we will take over the questioning. Try and be equal with who you are asking the questions of.

With that said, I would like to bring out your two remaining candidates for student council president. On my left, please welcome to the stage Markus Fuentes." The gym erupted into applause as Markus made his way to his podium. Principal Michaels let the applause settle down before bring out Jacob. "And on my right, please welcome to the stage Jacob Hernandez."

Jacob slowly made his way up the stairs. When he got to the top and started to make his way to the podium, the gym was dead quiet. No one on Jacob's team knew what to think about what was going on. They didn't expect it and weren't ready for it. Principal Michaels and the teacher staff were worried that this was not a good sign. Then all of a sudden...

TO BE CONTINUED...

WRITER'S CORNER:

{Welcome back one and all t another installment of "Jacob Finding His Way". A lot happened in this chapter and I hope you enjoyed every bit as I did writing it. The time frame in the chapter is starting to speed up and now that all my stories are on the same day or a day off, the time frame in each will cover more than one day so where there is a lot done. But there are going to be times in the story things will slow down due to everything that is going on.

Normally I go from the beginning to the end in my writer's corner, but I'm going to change it a little here today. I will do a little summation to this story, but I also want to take this time to talk a little bit about my other three stories. I don't know how many of you are reading them all, but if there are some out there that aren't, you are missing a lot and I would like you to see.

As far as this chapter, a lot happened. Jacob sat down with Mr. Olson, his CEO and talked about a lot of things that were up in the air. He made it clear that he was going to keep sponsoring all the ROTC programs and a lot more in the future. His reasoning behind it was great and I love how he explained why he planned to continue to sponsor the programs.

He also talked a little bit about the businesses he wants to buy. His plans sound very good and in my mind it will work. The CEO might not be on board all the way, but it is Jacob's company and he makes those decisions. I hope Dewayne does take the business Jacob wants to give him and he runs it as he is running the Seven Elevens he has right now. Who knows, if things go great with the news business, Dewayne might give the Seven Elevens to Tony, but I don't think so.

Jacob talked with Principal Michaels about several items. It should have been no surprise to anyone that Principal Michaels said it was okay for Jacob to attend the debate event though he isn't going to be at school. It also shouldn't have been a surprise when they started talking about the Driver's Ed program that Jacob was willing to foot the bill.

Dewayne really loves Jacob and we saw it once again in this chapter. Not only is he getting to know Jacob really well, but he is getting Jacob to start listening to him. Remember back at the beginning Jacob was not willing to listen to anyone. Now he is listening to Dewayne and allowing Dewayne to take care of him. I hope Jacob doesn't have too many more nights like the one he went through in this chapter. The guy doesn't deserve it.

What about Fred the fireman and what he gave Tom. It was a big surprise and I hope Tom's luck continues going that way. He also has a great partner just like Jacob. Right now these guys need their partners to get through this rough patch in their lives. Whenever a person is in the condition that Jacob, Tom, Alex and Thomas are in, they need all the support they can get.

The ending shouldn't have been a surprise to you. It has been a while since I left you with a cliffhanger, so it is back in this chapter. It isn't a big one, but it gets you thinking. Why didn't the students applaud for Jacob like they did for Markus? Is Jacob down for the count? What I mean is has he already lost the election before the votes have been cast? You and I will have to wait until it is written and posted in chapter eight seven of this saga.

Now let me talk a little bit about the other stories. "Beneath the Mask" has changed a lot in the last couple of chapters. It has its own story lines and they are getting really interesting as the chapters are written. From the individual lives of the main characters in that story to the gangs in prison and outside of prison, things are heating up. It will share plots with the other stories, but nothing near like it has in the past. If you have stopped reading this story, you need to go back and pick it back up. I'm telling you this story has a lot of good plots that you won't read in the other stories and those plots will get you crying, angry, frustrated and at times wanting to throw you computers out the window because you can't believe what is going on.

"Regrets and Heartaches" is back in El Paso and is finally moving on at a steady pace. If you stopped reading that story when they were moving because things were going a little slow, you need to return now because things are getting interesting there as well. From Joey growing not his own, making his company work and things at school to all the other individual characters like Aaron beginning to have feelings for Chris, you must read and see what is going on in their lives. So much, I could write several pages.

Finally one of the exciting stories of my sagas, "Shadow of My Father"! This story has so many phases you guys' heads are always spinning when you are done reading the new installment. The story is moving more into the politics of Daniel Sr. and let me tell you guys you will love what he does to get the gay rights bill passed. We are also seeing Josh getting ready for his tour, which is coming up very soon. Then there is Brandon and his girlfriend, Isaac and Troy and Rich and Albert, three new relationships that are going to be going somewhere really fast. Let's not forget Daniel Jr. and Carlos are there and rocking the boat, as well as Barbara and the twins. There is so much going in this story, just like my other it will take me so much time to write it all out, you guys will never get done reading. Please tune in each chapter and find out what is happening in the lives of each character in each story.

As always I can go on and on about the open plots in the story! If I do that, I can actually write several more chapters. So many plots can take a turn at any time. You might think it is going to go one way, but is ends up going another. Do not miss anything, or you will be kicking yourself for it.

There is a so much to answer in the chapters to come. Stick around and keep reading the future chapters, and enjoy! Please email me and let me know how I am doing at jacobmillertex@aol.com, Thanks!}

"DADDY" RICK'S EDITOR'S CORNER:

Jacob and Principal Michaels have quite a relationship. I sense they both have a challenge keeping it discreet and at arm's length. They do make quite a formidable team.

Jacob's offer to fully sponsor the Driver's Ed program is really incredible. I hope that Jacob has the business savvy to have the whole situation outlined in a contract document. There is too much that could go wrong without a contract. There are also liabilities to be considered. Without a contract, Angel Corporation could have exposure.

The world would be a whole lot better place if people in general had more benevolent attitudes. Jacob isn't so much generous in this instance as he is civic minded. If he was more self centered he could have made a splash going to the school board and presenting a donation endowing the program. It's not his style. Most admirable.

Oscar (Olson) has his hands full! Jacob knows what he wants and why he wants it. Jacob has figured all the angles and has solid reasoning. I think that Oscar has underestimated Jacob. I expect he'll get used to it shortly.

Jacob has a long range plan to grow Angel Corporation. He knows where the money is and is going after it. I think Jacob is right; there is good money in fast food and it's not going anywhere anytime in the foreseeable future. He has the wherewithal to buy out the franchisees and add to his business empire.

I wonder what Jacob knows regarding the auto parts chain that will be of an interest to Dewayne. I know Dewayne loves his car, but the fixing and parts angle hasn't revealed itself to me, yet anyway.

Ralph and his family have a real mess to sort out. Things are getting very complex for all concerned. Ralph wants to regress in is age and life, yet he wants to retain all the privileges of being eighteen. His parents are trying to maintain their parental control and authority. It's a classic tug of war and it's never pretty! It seems Emily has the right focus. I hope that cool heads prevail and all three work to find common ground and reasonable compromise.

I'm right along with Tom, David and Tom's parents being totally awestruck with the presentation of donated funds for Tom's college education! I wonder if there was a news story on the TV or what that resulted in so much money being raised. It gives me a warm feeling to think that there are still some selfless people in the world. I recall a news story from here in Dallas. A family's home burned down and their Chihuahua dog was severely burned. One lady took the dog to the emergency veterinary hospital and was funding the costs for the little dog's treatment. When the news story broke, massive donations flowed in to take care of the costs. With that in mind, I guess JPG's plot line could actually happen in real life.

Well, of course we are hung out over the proverbial cliff once again! What is going on with the crowd as Jacob takes to the stage? Well, like you, I have to wait and see!

Thank you to those of you that I got e-mail from in the last week. I really enjoy getting to hear from any and all of you and thank you for your kind words. I'm glad that the e-mails are complimentary and that the JPG team is putting out work that seems to please. Keep those e-mails coming! They are the fuel to keep all of us working hard to keep the JPG sagas going.

Until Next Time,

"Daddy" Rick

daddyrick@jacobmillertex.com