Men, Women & Children: A Novel by Chad Kultgen

Author:Chad Kultgen [Kultgen, Chad]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2011-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

chapter

thirteen

Principal Ligorski began his Monday morning announcements by congratulating the Goodrich Odyssey of the Mind team on its second-place showing at a competition that weekend. And he ended them by encouraging the Goodrich football team to remain enthusiastic about the rest of the season and to prepare for their game against the Scott Shining Stars the following Friday, adding that the entire school should come out to show support for their team at the next game.

Most members of the team had used the weekend to reconcile themselves to their loss. Tanner Hodge had not. Instead, he obsessively thought about why they hadn’t been able to overcome the Irving Aardvarks in a game he felt they should easily have won. Tanner convinced himself that all blame for the loss was to be placed with Tim Mooney and his decision not to play in the eighth-grade season. Having to deal with an entire morning of his classmates consoling him and telling him they were sure the following Friday would produce a win that would get the Olympians back on track only made Tanner angrier with Tim Mooney. By the time he found himself sitting across the cafeteria from Tim during his lunch period, Tanner could no longer suppress his rage.

He waited until Mrs. Rector, who was the only faculty member lunch monitor that day, was on the other side of the room, and then he took the orange he had sitting on his lunch tray and threw it toward Tim Mooney as he said, “Faggot.” Instead of hitting the intended target, the orange struck Brandy Beltmeyer, who was sitting next to Tim, in the shoulder. Tim followed the orange’s trajectory back to Tanner Hodge, who was walking away from his own table toward Tim, saying, “We lost because of you, homo.”

Tim looked back to Brandy and said, “You okay?” She said, “Yeah. Don’t get into it with him.” Although up to that point Tim had found the anger of some of his classmates amusing, he no longer found any levity in it once it manifested itself in violence toward Brandy. Tim stood from his own table, bringing himself face-to-face with Tanner Hodge as he said, “You realize it couldn’t have been my fault because I wasn’t there, you idiot.”

Tanner said, “Yeah, that’s why it was your fault, fuckface. And if we don’t make it to district it’ll be because of this game.”

Tim said, “Who cares?”

Tanner said, “I do, faggot,” and then pushed Tim backward, causing him to fall over the bench part of his table onto the ground. Tanner took the opportunity to jump on top of Tim, swinging wildly. A crowd of students, Brandy included, immediately surrounded them. Some were screaming, some clapping, some silent in shock, having seen nothing like this in their lifetimes. The ruckus eventually gained the attention of Mrs. Rector. She had been a teacher in some capacity for almost fifteen years, and although she had seen her fair share of disagreements, arguing matches, and on occasion even a shove, she had never seen an altercation of this magnitude.

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