I think I finally understood the phrase ‘catch a tiger by the tail.’ The cat had nowhere to go but over the garbage cans. He tried to leap to get away, but Duke had a death grip and wouldn’t let go. He was shaking his head like a crazed windshield wiper.
Like the ‘stupid boy’ I was, I decided to help save the kitty. The cat latched onto my arm and began to climb its way out of its predicament. Of course, my soon-to-be dead-to-me puppy decided at that moment to let the cat go so he could bark at it. This freed the rabid beast to climb up my arm and latch itself onto my head.
Holy crap!
This damn cat would not let go! I felt it dig its claws into my bald head. I never realized that hair might be a form of protection. I finally ripped the Tasmanian Devil off my head and tried to keep it from reattaching itself to me as it flailed in my hands. Then the bastard decided to take my thumb off. I was in the process of helping Duke end the cat’s miserable life when I heard a scream.
Apparently, ‘Precious’ was the new neighbor’s cat. Three blond kids who looked alike and were about my age were watching me extract my thumb from Precious’s jaws. I tossed the cat from hell to one of the guys. Duke thought it was loads of fun that we were playing keep-away with his newest chew toy. I scooped him up and he wiggled all over. This was the most fun he’d had had since he’d arrived here.
“Get her off! Get her off!” one of the brothers begged.
The girl had a huge smile on her face as the two brothers got clawed to death by their family pet.
“Want me to go get my gun?” I reasonably offered.
The girl gave me a dirty look, but the brothers seemed to think it over before they finally subdued the cat. They left Duke and me to clean up his second mess of the day. He romped around in the snow while I picked up trash.
I walked into the kitchen as I bled all over myself, carrying a victorious puppy. Mom took pity on me and checked my wounds. The only bad one was my thumb. The beast had punched a hole in the web of skin between my thumb and hand. It stung a lot when Mom doctored it up. Needless to say, I didn’t get my run in.
I PULLED UP TO SCHOOL and saw the local TV station setting up. This seemed to draw a crowd of onlookers. I got out of my Jeep and grabbed my book bag, and as I made my way to the front door I recognized their entertainment reporter. Jessup had told me they would send out press releases over the weekend and I should expect something. I just didn’t expect it first thing in the morning.
Peggy saw me and waved. I went over and I kissed her good morning.
“Are they here for you?” she asked.
“I think so. The director told me they were doing a press release over the weekend.”
She checked out my bald head.
“Did you try to shave it yourself?”
“No, the new neighbors have this cat from hell. She scratched me this morning.”
She ran her hand over my head and smiled. I just arched an eyebrow and I heard the reporter call my name. Peggy kissed my cheek and I went over to do the interview. It was your typical fluff piece, used as filler on the nightly news. When I was done, I had a bad feeling this was just the beginning.
I walked Peggy to her locker. Our schedules weren’t in sync, so I wouldn’t see her the rest of the day. She had somehow drawn the short straw and had second lunch. I would have to introduce her to the freshman cheerleaders and Yuri.
“When are you done today?” she asked.
“I have sixty minutes of hell right after school and then I plan on going to the dojo and working out with Cassidy. Why don’t you come over for dinner?” I suggested.
“I’ll ask Mom if it’s okay. If she says no, it’ll be after dinner,” she said.
I hurried off to my locker to dump my book bag and coat. I had math first period. The first day of the semester was always such a waste of time. All you did was get your books and a syllabus. I spaced out and didn’t really pay attention during my morning classes.
I came out of my daydream for lunch. I was happy to see my friends were all there. Cassidy had saved me a seat between Tracy and Pam. It looked like the new couples were all there. Alan was with Stacy Clute, Wolf with April, Jim with Piper, and Jeff sat next to Cassidy.
Tracy reached under the table and took my hand to hold. I glanced over and saw she had bags under her eyes. I just squeezed her hand and let her hold it. Something was up, but I didn’t think we needed to talk about it in front of everyone. I looked up and saw that Gina was looking for a place to eat lunch. I called her over to join us. She looked at Alan and he gave her a smile.
“Tell us about your vacation,” Pam said.
“I went to Park City, Utah, to work for Range Sports. My family came with me, and we spent an extra week snowboarding. It was nice to have everyone in the family together. Then I went to LA and started working on my movie.”
“I saw you went out with Bree,” Piper jumped in.
“Who’s Bree?” Alan asked.
Piper explained she was the star of the vampire show that all the girls liked. Alan had no idea who she was, so I pulled out my iPad and showed him her picture from the Star Academy website. The rest of lunch was spent talking about the movie.
After lunch was PE. I had signed up for ballroom dancing. I was surprised when most everyone from lunch was in the class. Tracy had come out of the locker room with Pam, and she walked up to me and grabbed my hand again. I’d given her a curious look and saw her start to tear up. I led her over to the edge of the bleachers so we could have some privacy.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked her.
She just put me into a bear hug and started to cry. I held her and felt her shaking. I had begun to get concerned when Pam came over. She looked as concerned as I felt.
“Take care of her. I’ll call her mom,” she told me.
Everyone was curious as to what had happened. The PE teacher let me take Tracy to her office so we could have some privacy.
“What’s wrong?” I asked again, once she had calmed down.
“I tried to hurt myself over Christmas.”
“How come?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I just felt it would be better if I did,” she confessed. “I need you to be my friend right now. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she started, and then began to cry again.
I guess I wasn’t surprised when both Tom and Mary showed up. I was surprised when Dr. Hebert walked in. Mary and Dr. Hebert took Tracy and left. Tom sat down with me.
“David, I want to apologize. We didn’t want to burden you with Tracy’s problems while you were working,” Tom started. “She had an incident at the start of Christmas break. She’s been having some issues, but we thought she was ready to come to school. I guess she wasn’t.”
“She told me she tried to hurt herself.”
He had a haunted look in his eyes. It was clear this had been weighing on him.
“Yes, she took sleeping pills,” he said, and then just kind of stared off into space.
“Are you okay?” I finally asked.
“No, not really. I need to ask you a favor. You seem to be one of the few people she really listens to. Can you try and be her friend?”
I liked Tracy, but I was worried I’d get in over my head. It seemed her problems were getting worse, and I didn’t know if I wanted to get in any deeper with her. This was too much responsibility for someone who was supposed to be just her friend. Then I saw the look in Tom’s eye. It looked like he was grasping for straws here. At that moment, I didn’t know how to tell him no.
“Of course. Tracy and I will always be friends,” I assured him.
“Thank you. Not many guys would put up with everything she’s put you through. I know I haven’t helped with that, either. Just ... thank you,” Tom said.
“Is this related to what happened to her?”
I was referring to what Bill Rogers had put her through. It caused her to have to see a therapist since the fall of last year.