The following is a pure work of fiction and is the property of the author. It's a story with some sex, not sex with some story.
Please remember this is fiction. Representation of characters and institutions may not be relevant to today's society.
I do not usually acknowledge e-mails, instead using my time to write. I do appreciate hearing from you to let me know if this story is meeting your expectations. Hope that you continue enjoying the story. LJB
Joseph Andrew Collins Chapter 10
It had been a pretty routine day so far. It was now a quarter to four on Thursday afternoon and I was standing inside the entrance to the main Sports Complex waiting for my Coach, Ken Williams to show up. James, my twin wasn't with me as we had been allowed to separate, so he could attend the special outing planned with the rest of the Frat. Coach Banks came up behind me and clapped me on the shoulders. I immediately came to attention.
"Good afternoon, Sir." I stated.
"Good afternoon, Joe." he responded. He purposefully walked around me in a small arc looking at my stance the entire time. "Are you standing at attention, Joe ?."
"Yes, Sir" I responded.
"And that would be because...?" he trailed off expecting me, I suspected, to fill in the pause.
"A Pledge always stands to attention in the presence of a Brother, Sir." I reported.
"Have the Brothers been trying to trick you to get your markers, Joe ?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir, Brother Roger." I verified.
"Stand easy, Joe." he instructed. "I'm not after your markers and you can be certain I will have a few words with them about having you so on edge over it."
"Please don't do that, Brother Roger." I requested. "I know where I stand with them right now. If I'm just careful when any of them are around, I'll be okay. The hard time is when some are doing things one way and some are doing them another. Then I never know where I stand." His expression appeared concerned.
"I won't interfere then, but when you're in these buildings, you're under my authority and I want you to relax. If any Brother approaches you, you are instructed to tell them to see me. Is that understood ?"
"Yes, Sir." I acknowledged. Just then I saw Ken Williams coming in the front entrance and trailing along with him was a major surprise. My prime competition and good friend, Darrin Kildare strolled alongside Ken as they entered the building. I hadn't seen him since the Nationals, at least 4 months ago.
Darrin and I had competed next to and against each other since I entered my current weight class. He was a vibrant, active 19 year old, who had left school a couple years ago, but continued with his study of the Arts. Over the past three years, we had seesawed back and forth on the Winners' podium, me winning 1st and him winning 2nd in one competition and then the reverse in the next. I had taken 1st at the Nationals prior to the Olympics and he placed 2nd. A month later he had taken Silver and I Bronze at the Olympics. At the West Coast Finals, 2 months later I had won 1st and he placed 2nd. In spite of our fierce competition, we were the best of friends. Competing for us had always been more of a mental battle than the physical.
"Hey, I thought you Freshmen dressed in funny costumes, had your faces painted and wore strange hats." Darrin boomed out when he saw me.
"That's just the first week" I called back. "Leave to you to get here too late for the fun."
"Since when did we need any special time to have fun ?" he laughed.
"God, it's good to see you." I told him. "Your getting a little heavy aren't you ? You sure you still fit into the right weight class ?"
"Bend over and I'll show you a fit." he leaned toward me and whispered into my ear as we hugged each other. I laughed.
"Promises, promises. That's all I ever seem to get from you." I teased. I introduced Coach Banks to him and they shook hands. "I'm really glad you came up to see me." I told him. We went to the little gym, which had been designated for our use.
"So what's on for today ?" I asked Ken, while we changed from our clothes to our uniforms.
"Well, I asked Darrin if he would come with me, so you could put on a little demonstration for the people Coach Banks has here today. Besides, you seem to need a little more exercise than you got last week." Coach Williams explained. "Someone named Vince sent me a message and said, you need to have more to do." I couldn't help laughing.
"Who is Vince ?" Darrin asked.
"One of my future Fraternity Brothers who wants to get into my pants." I quietly replied to Darrin who already knew I was gay. He arched his eyebrows questioningly. "He just might be the right one, too." I added. Darrin's eyes grew wide.
When we finished changing, Coach Banks went and opened the door to the gym as he had last week. The line of people started coming in. I began my stretches and didn't pay any attention until I happened to see a short guy in the line and realized it was Gary. When I looked around, along with the group who had attended last week, my entire Pledge Class and all the Brothers were seated around three sides of the mats. From the way the Pledges were looking at me, most were as surprised to see me, as I was to see them.
"Gentlemen." a voice called out and I turned to see my brother, Brad speaking. "Gentlemen, we told you this outing involved something special, which you would not likely see very often in your lifetime. Let me introduce two men who you have possibly seen before, but may not have realized who they were. First, a man I have known and respected for the last five years. His titles and distinctions are too numerous to list, but you'll likely recognize him best for his Bronze Medal win at the last Olympic Games and as the 2001 National Light-weight Martial Arts Champion, Mr. Darrin Kildare." Darrin stepped forward and gave a greeting bow then waved and moved forward to shake hands as the group applauded and cheered loudly for him.
"The second man you do know, but in another role. For those of you who may not have connected him as yet to his sport, I'd like to re-introduce the Bronze Medal winner at the past Olympics and the current, National Light-weight Martial Arts Champion and more importantly, my brother, Joe Collins." I felt myself blush uncontrollably as they clapped and cheered and carried on like I was some kind of celebrity. I bowed to them, waved and moved over to shake my brother's and Darrin's hands. Darrin wrapped an arm around my shoulder and made me step forward and wave to everyone. They continued to cheer and clap.
I pointed to Brothers Sandy and Ray, indicating for them to take positions with us on the mats. I then began a Tai Chi cycle, the same as we had started off with last time. Darrin and the other two joined in and I saw those from last week stand and move into positions to join in. The next time I turned around, with Brad's encouragement, everyone had stood and was trying to flow into the positions being demonstrated in the cycle. The routine lasted for about ten minutes. At the conclusion Darrin and I turned and bowed to Sandy and then Ray who each returned our bows and then we bowed to the groups on each of the three sides of the mats and they each returned our bow. Everyone returned to his or her seated positions.
"I have something I need to do." I said to my Coach and he nodded for me to go ahead. I went to the middle of the mats and bowed to the group.
"To say I am surprised to see you all here would be a gross understatement." I told them. "Now at least I won't have to beg the Pledge Master to tell me where you all went without me." There was a laugh from the Frat group. "Just so that everyone knows each other, these are the Fraternity Brothers of Delta Phi Delta and my Pledge Class," I indicated the group, "and the others present are individuals with an interest in martial arts." I pointed to the other grouping. Each group applauded the other.
"More of an interest in you teaching us, Sensei." a voice from the audience spoke out." I decided just to go on without responding.
"Now, what has been planned is to show you some actual competition style martial arts." I explained. "Darrin and I are going to show you how two competitors try to kill each other, without really hurting each other too badly. I warn you, what we are going to do is dangerous, so don't try it on your friends, or you'll find very quickly you won't have any friends." A quiet laugh ran throughout the group. "First I want to demonstrate the basic throws and falls." Sandy started to step forward to help me demonstrate, but I waved him back. "No, no, Brother Sandy. I don't get many opportunities to have my pick of football jocks, but today it appears I have a multitude of opportunities." I looked around the group and many of the football players; both Brothers and Pledges raised their hands to volunteer. "I like them big for demonstrations, so how about you, Pledge Tyler." Ty hopped up readily and came onto the mats after removing his shoes.
I spent the next 10 minutes demonstrating twists and throws and levered holds, which all caused a controlled amount of pain for Tyler. He had the wind knocked out of him a couple times and was a bit of a wreck when I had finished with him. I saw Darrin was concerned about some of the things I did to him and Coach Williams even frowned a couple times.
"Thank you for your help Pledge Tyler." I said loudly after I had knocked the wind out of him the third time. "Let's have a loud round of applause to thank our Pledge brother." As the group hooted and applauded, I leaned in close to Tyler. "And if you ever do to anyone else what you did to James, or bother him again, this will seem like a summer holiday." I smiled largely as I guided Tyler back to the area he had been seated in. I glanced over to Vince and saw big grins on both his and Chris' face, no doubt feeling everything was proceeding just right.
Darrin and I then took turns doing competition style matches with Ray and Sandy. We would stop at certain points and explain to the group how a certain movement, or shift in balance would be used to score. Other times we would be halfway through a flip and stop to show the mechanics and the leverage. Sandy and Ray were great. They caught on very quickly how to immediately stop a movement, so that positioning could be explained. They realized that Darrin and I would not release them on a flip, usually holding their lapels, sleeves or another portion of their Gi and setting them down softly.
Rounding out the presentation, Darrin and I sparred. The competitive spirit between us started to come into play and we both put a maximum effort into what we were doing. Our audience actually saw a match at Olympic level and responded with their applause and cheers of encouragement for both of us. Darrin had me sweating and soaked after 15 minutes at this level of workout and my consolation was that he had to put out every single bit of effort I did. We both had a hell of a good time.
Time passed so quickly that it was after 6 o'clock before any of us realized. Coach Williams called a halt when the time was noted and we started to pack things up.
"Before we break this up, we would like Mr. Kildare and Coach Williams to step forward, please." Brad announced. They moved up to where he was standing.
"Gentlemen, as President of this College's Chapter of Delta Phi Delta Fraternity," Chris Service said, "and on behalf of our members and Pledges, who have had two hours of the highest quality entertainment and instruction, we would like to present you with this symbol of our appreciation. Dinner of course, goes with it." Two large boxes were brought forward and when opened each received a Fraternity jacket, like the ones all the Brothers wore. The jackets were in the Frat's colours and had the crest on them. The right sleeve on each had 'Honorary Member' stitched on the shoulder arch. "Gentlemen, only 18 of these 'Honorary Member' jackets have ever been given out in our Chapter's 79 years. Yours are numbers 19 and 20." There was loud cheering and applause from everyone assembled, especially me.
"Tick, you better have a helluva good reason for what you did, or there's going to be hell to pay." Brad informed me with his voice somewhat louder than I thought was necessary. "You beat up one of your Pledge brothers and you did it in front of the entire Fraternity. Now explain yourself." Chris had called me into his office where Brad was waiting after we returned from dinner and Brad was reaming me out over what I did with Tyler.
"Did Tyler complain ?" I asked.
"Tyler doesn't know yet like you and I do," Brad growled, "that when he wakes up tomorrow morning he'll be black and blue and every part of his body will be screaming at him."
"So he hasn't complained," I stated. "and he won't."
"You're going to tell me what this is about in the next minute, or I'm going to pick up that phone and have Dad here tomorrow morning." Brad growled at me. I stared at him and he glared at me. I was aware he had tried to probe my thoughts earlier, but I had shut him out, as he has done to me when there are things he doesn't want to share with me.
"This is Fraternity business. It doesn't involve Dad." I reasoned.
"You forget. Dad is a Brother." Brad countered. "Fraternity business is his business." He just might do it, I thought. Dad might understand, but he'd be pissed about having to drive down here. Maybe he'd be pissed at Brad.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four," Brad counted down the seconds, "three, two, one. That's it, Tick. I'm going to call Dad." he reached for the phone.
"Before you make that call," Andrew interrupted as he came in the door, "I wonder if I could have a couple minutes alone with Joe ?" Brad stood up when Andrew came in and Chris rose as well. Pledges stand to attention when any Brother comes into a room, or approaches them. In a public area, office or meeting, Brothers stand when the President of the Chapter arrives, or the Chapter President and everyone else stand, when the senior Advisor, who this year was Andrew, enters. I found out later that the entire House would stand for the entrance of a graduate Brother, such as Coach Banks under similar conditions. It was considered polite recognition of status within the Fraternity.
"Yes, Sir." they both replied and left the office shutting the door behind them.
'I believe I asked you to come and see me, Tick," Andrew said to me quietly, "when there was a problem." He motioned for me to sit down as he took a seat. "The Fraternity has a way of dealing with problems, so that individuals don't need to take matters into their own hands. It works quite well." He paused and gave me a moment to think about what he had said. "Will you tell me about it ?"
"I would very much like to tell you, Sir," I admitted, "but there is someone else involved in this and I can't betray his confidence. That's why I didn't discuss it with you."
"Yes, I know." he told me. "James came to see me as soon as he decided that you'd gotten into trouble. He told me, what Tyler did to him and about telling you last night in the dressing room." I was relieved that I didn't have to betray what James had said to me. "I understand why you did it, Tick, but it was not the way things should have been resolved. It's not the Fraternity way."
"I didn't know how to handle it without James being put through more." I admitted. "I just didn't want him to have to suffer anymore embarrassment because of it."
"You should have come to me, Tick. That's why there is a senior Advisor. If not me, you could have talked to Brother Ralph (Coach Banks). He would have helped. It was not up to you to punish the offender. Now you must face a reprimand of your own." Andrew stated. He asked me to call Brad and Chris back into the office.
"Tick was made aware of an incident in which a certain Pledge sexually misused another Pledge against his will." he informed them. "His concern about putting the aggrieved party through further trauma and embarrassment caused him to act on his own to punish the offender." I stood looking at the floor, uncertain if I was going to be cast out. Brad moved up to me and hugged me.
"I'm sorry, Tick." he said. "I knew there would be a good reason behind it, we just had to find out what it was."
"He will have to undergo reprimanded." Andrew stated. Both Chris and Brad started to argue with him at the same time. Andrew held up his hand and silenced them. "Tick has taken the duty of Judge and Executioner on his own shoulders and that can not allowed to go unanswered. Brad, we need a third member of the Executive. Please go and see if Steve or Vince is available. You may return as well, as Joe's Agent." Brad left the office and returned in about 5 minutes with both Vince and Steve. Andrew told them what he had told the others.
"I think he deserves a bloody medal." Vince offered at the end of the story, as he moved up behind me and putting his arms around me, gave me a hug.
"None the less and in spite of what our personal views are, he circumvented the Fraternity and the Executive Council and mete out punishment to a fellow Pledge." Andrew maintained. "That can not be endorsed." Everyone was silent as they contemplated the next move.
"Andrew's right." I acknowledged. "If I deserve to be cut, then I will have to go. I expect to be treated as any other Pledge."
"Shut up, Tick." Brad ordered. "You've done your part in this, the rest of it is up to the Executive."
"He'll have to undergo reprimanded." Andrew declared. "The problems are deciding how to reprimand him, without disclosing the injured party and select who is going to bestow the reprimand."
"The normal procedure would call for Tyler, as the injured party, to dispense the reprimand, but I think he's forfeited that role by his prior actions." Steve observed. "A surrogate will need to be selected. As for disclosing the reason, Tick and the injured party will accept that the reprimand be dispensed without declaration. No one has a right to know beyond that."
"And who will witness ?" Brad asked. Again there was a pause while each person there thought over the question.
"Because it's Joe, I don't think the Brothers will accept witnessing a reprimand without a declaration of the facts, which is their right." Andrew stated. "If the Pledges witness, then there will always be a question about what he did. Do you think any of them know ?"
"None of them, that we know of, are martial arts students." Brad said. "I don't think they actually understand the extent of the pain and damage Tick can inflict handling someone. They will all be questioning when they see Tyler in the showers for the next week. He will be black and blue and various shades of purples and yellow for at least that long. None of them are stupid, they will reason out quickly it's a result of the demonstration, but will likely accept it as just being that."
"The more we look at this, the more problems we will find. It needs to be over and done, not hanging around while the Trials are completed." Andrew stated. "Nathan will administer 5 paddles and the Executive will witness. Are there any objections ?"
"Does mine count ?" I asked.
"NO!" they all replied in unison.
Our routine 6:p.m. meeting in the lounge Thursday evening didn't start until 7:30. When I finally entered the room with the group of Brothers from the office, my Pledge brothers embarrassed me again by standing and applauding. I know I blushed as I walked across the room and took my seat next to James, my twin.
"It's not standard procedure to showcase the talents of any one Pledge during the Trials," the Pledge Master declared, "but we felt the opportunity of having Darren Kildare meet with us and provide a demonstration, could not be passed by. Pledge Joe is not one to generally advertise his accomplishments, so it may have been a surprise to some of you that he is a member of such distinguished circles. That of course has no more weight in the selection process than the achievements of any other Pledge."
The meeting was taken up almost entirely with the rest of the introductions. They had much more slant toward impressions of the personalities of individuals and less about statistics. Most of the introductions told us more about our Pledge brothers than we had known and the Brothers seemed impressed with the insight shown in the comments.
"I want to break this off now as early as we can." the Pledge Master stated. When we dismiss, the mute restriction is lifted until tomorrow morning, but twins must remain together. Tomorrow being Friday, there will be a Beer Fest here at the House beginning in the evening at 9 o'clock. All Pledges are invited. Bring a date if you wish. By all means, feel free to get laid if you can. Your admission fee to the party is the essay assignment you were given about love and caring relationships. If you do not attend the party, the essay must still be handed in here, by midnight. You will not be sleeping here again after tonight, until you report back on Sunday at 6 o'clock. There will be a meeting tomorrow after dinner at 6:p.m., here in the lounge. Make sure you take all your belongings with you when you leave tomorrow after the meeting."
We were released before 10 o'clock and told to report back at 11:00. Most of the guys dove for the phones to see if they could make arrangements with their girlfriends or the Sororities for the party tomorrow night. James pulled me over to a corner and Gary followed us.
"What happened ?" James asked right off.
"Nothing. It's all settled." I lied to him, trying to make him let it go.
"Joe, you're lying." Gary said, looking at me carefully. "I didn't think you would lie to us." That hurt me.
"I wouldn't, about anything important." I professed. "So there's nothing for you to worry about. You guys better get set-up for dates tomorrow night. You don't want the others to invite all the best girls."
"And what about you ?" James asked. "Who are you bringing to the Party ?"
"Don't you worry." I replied. "I've got my arrangements all set." I didn't think I would likely want to come to the Party, even though I knew the Brothers would be conducting ongoing evaluations. Leaving everyone busy doing their own thing, I went upstairs and had a nice, hot shower. We had been so rushed after my practice, I hadn't taken any time and I thought I would likely be occupied while the others were having their showers tonight.
When I came out from the shower, James was sitting on a bench in the drying room waiting for me. I realized as soon as I saw him that we were still twinned and I had been so busy thinking about other things, I'd wandered up here without him.
"Sorry, Bro." I said when I saw him. "I wandered off, didn't I ?" He nodded.
"Tell me what they're going to do. Please." he asked. "I told Brother Andrew why you did it. They must know you had a reason."
"I never would have told anyone." I assured him. "You didn't have to say anything."
"I know you wouldn't." he verified. "I should have told them in the first place, then none of this would have happened. Brother Sandy was right there last night. I could have just opened my mouth and said something. None of this would have happened."
"This is not your fault, none of it." I stated emphatically. "Ty was wrong and I was wrong, but you did nothing wrong. Telling me was right, but I handled it wrong. I should have trusted Andrew. I should have relied more on the Fraternity."
"Do you truly believe that now ?" a quiet voice asked and we looked over to the doorway and found Brother Andrew standing there. James and I both stood to attention.
"Yes, Sir." I reported. "I know now I should have been a brother and trusted in my Brothers."
"That's very insightful, Tick." Andrew acknowledged. "Let's hope the reprimand will serve to help you retain that knowledge."
"What reprimand ?" James exclaimed, then realizing he had spoken out of turn, he tried to correct himself. "I'm sorry, Sir. Joe told us nothing happened and there was no problem, so you surprised me." Andrew looked at me as he spoke to James.
"The Executive Council is required to reprimand Joe for taking it upon himself to punish a fellow Pledge."
"But that's my fault, Sir." James claimed. "I should be the one to take the punishment. I want to take the reprimand, instead of Joe."
"I'm sorry, James." Andrew said. "It's already been settled."
"There has to be something that can be done." he argued.
"I'm afraid not." Andrew said with finality. "If there were any chance of using an alternative I would do everything possible to make it so.
(In Andrew's office, ten minutes later)
"Can I go over this with you ?" Brad requested. "You know I think better when I lay things out. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's as if all my connection to Tick has dissolved and he's operating alone. I didn't know about Tyler and James and I didn't know what he'd decided to do. We are usually so close and yet this past few days, I don't know, it's as if he has had no need for me."
"I don't think it's that he doesn't need you." I responded. "I think it may have something to do with your proximity to each other without the communication, which you normally maintain. The studies we've done show you and Tick are strongest when, either you associate closely, or you are distanced, but talk regularly.
"Is it my imagination, or is it true that every time I've turned around the last two weeks, something is happening which involves, Tick ?" Brad asked. "It all can't be coincidental. As a group, we've dealt with more things involving him than all the other Pledges put together."
"Bear in mind, Brad, that as you have had to adjust to Tick having a different role toward you, brother versus Brother, he has had that same adjustment, plus 38 other, lesser brothers becoming Brothers." I counselled. "I know the shift may appear insignificant, but your adjustment is multiplied 38 times for him. Balanced with that is his loss of communication with you, the one who has regularly shared consciousness with him for so long. He has always had the security of knowing decisions he has made have been thought out twice, but without you, they are thought out only once. What happened with Tyler is an example." Brad put his head between his hands as he leaned on my desk.
"So part of the problem is that in trying to manage Tick as an equal to the other Pledges, we have complicated the normalcy of his life and expected him to respond to situations in the same way he normally would." I conjectured. "We have accidentally handicapped him by taking away the supplement to his reasoning powers, which he gets through you. It reflects dynamically some of the ESP theories, which have been hypothesized, but in practical terms it has made life for Tick considerably more difficult.
"When Dad explained the connection between Tick and me so many years ago, I thought it was wonderful. It was and always has been. I've had a relationship with my brother unlike anything most people have ever had with another person." Brad commented. "Now, to feel this loss of him is causing me a lot of anxiety and stress. I responded to him badly the other night and accused him of threatening us. I've cross-examined him unintentionally, seeming to be against him, when that's the farthest thing from what I want. Andrew, you're my 'big Brother'. You've always been there for me, guiding me, helping me to steer past the obstacles. What am I going to do ? How are we going to get Tick through this ?"
"Maybe you two will let me work on some of those questions with you." a soft, strong, deep voice proposed. Brad and I both glanced toward the open office door and immediately rose to our feet.
"It's so good to see you, Sir." I remarked.