Ch-21

Steve drove over to the school with Kathy as fast as he could as soon as he received the call from Troy's school.

"Troy!" Kathy rushed over to her son and hugged him for dear life, only for him to groan in pain. She reluctantly separated from her son, only to see that Troy was holding his ribs painfully. His right eye was swollen shut, and despite his attempt to smile at her, He looked to be in a lot of pain. His right cheek was also slowly turning a darker shade.

"Who did this?" Steve turned towards the principal and asked coldly. His voice left no scope for an argument.

Mrs. Calder was sweating buckets at this point as she wiped off her brow, "Your guess is as good as mine. Troy won't tell us. The janitor found him passed out in the changing room after the gym class. Our resident nurse checked him for a concussion. Since he didn't have one, I didn't want to take him to a hospital and make this into a media circus. I thought it better to call you for that. As for how this happened, it's better if you ask him."

The three adults turned towards the only child in the room in unison.

"It's fine, Dad, Mum," Troy tried to smile again, but it came off as more of a grimace. "It was a prank gone wrong. I'll be fine in a few days."

"It's not fine!" Kathy exploded in rage. "This is not a prank! This is a crime. Whoever did this should be in jail. So you better name names or I'm walking over to your class and getting the names out myself."

Steve knew that the school management would never allow that, but he didn't argue against that logic. Rather, he went with another angle to convince Troy. "You can lose the role in the film because of this 'prank'."

Troy's eyes widened as realization set in. For an actor, their face is everything. With his one eye swollen shut, and half his cheek turning purple, Troy looked almost unrecognizable. True, there were a few weeks before the table read, and by then Troy may even be perfectly well again, but there was always a possibility of getting fired because of this.

"If you don't give out a name, I'll sue the school," Kathy made another threat. "Maybe then they would find out who did this?"

"Please don't," Troy pleaded, but seeing the serious faces of his parents, he caved in. "It was Jeff Spicoli."

"Only Jeff?" Mrs. Calder asked.

Troy sighed before giving out the other two names as well. From his expression, it was quite clear he didn't want to name anyone, but his parents made it very clear that that wasn't an option.

"I want those three kids out of the school by tomorrow," Steve said in a no-nonsense tone and didn't give the principal any chance to speak. "If you don't, a lawsuit would be the least of your worries. I'll make sure to use every possible connection to make sure that your school's reputation is dragged through the mud."

"But we don't know what happened exactly," The principal argued weakly. "At least let those three boys present their case. And Mr. Spicoli is a trustee." She whispered the last part, but it was heard by everyone nonetheless.

"Tell this Mr. Spicoli that I would not sue him and his family for everything they own unless they amicably remove their son and his friends from this school. Or I could give him a visit, and leave him in the same state his son left mine."

Mrs. Calder shifted uneasily in her seat before saying, "I'll call all three children's parents right away."

Steve motioned Kathy and Troy towards the exit before saying to the principal, "I'm taking my son to a doctor, as you should have done in the first place, irrespective of whether he is famous or not. What kind of stupid place do you run, huh?" He would have liked to say a lot more, but Kathy held his shoulder and shook her head. Steve took a deep breath to calm himself somewhat before leaving the office with his family.

(Break)

The next day, Steve and Kathy were called to the school again.

Seeing three subdued kids sitting outside the office gave him all the more incentive to glare at them hatefully. He wanted to slap some sense into these thugs, and he would have, had Kathy not held his hand tightly as she dragged him into the office.

"The kids have confessed to hitting Troy," The principal announced as soon as Steve and Kathy were inside. "Now all we have to do is decide their punishment."

"What's there to decide?" Kathy asked rhetorically. "Expel them all. If you do, we won't sue the school or the kids' parents."

"Oh come on!" A middle-aged man, one of the fathers of the perpetrators said. "It's ridiculous involving the judiciary for something so trivial. If it's the money you want, just say so, and we can settle something."

"Who are you?" Steve asked dismissively.

"Stuart Spicoli," Came the reply.

"Right," Steve nodded slowly. "You're the trustee?"

"Yes," Spicoli nodded. "Listen, Mr. Kloves, I know what happened was unfortunate, and I'll personally punish my son. He'll be grounded for a full month, and I'll make sure he understands why what he did was wrong. Mrs. Calder has agreed to settle for a week's suspension if you agree. Then we can have a personal agreement between us gentlemen away from all this crowd."

Steve thought about the offer for a good two seconds before nodding slowly, "I can agree to it, but I have a condition."

"Anything," Spicoli nodded genially.

"You'll beat your kid to the same level as my kid was beaten," Steve announced to the shock of everyone. "I have brought photos with me. See." Here Steve opened the folder he had brought along that contained the photos of Troy, with bruises on his face, chest, and back. The three kids' parents were shocked to see the brutality of the photos.

The principal gasped, "I didn't know it was that bad!"

Seeing the silence on the parents' faces, Steve spoke again, "Until and unless, all three of those thugs are beaten within an inch of their lives, like Troy, I won't allow them anywhere near my son. That's final. Of course, you can look for a different school, but that's your choice."

"Mr. Kloves–" The principal began speaking, but Steve raised his hand.

"This is non-negotiable. I have said what I wanted to. You have my phone number. Give me a call when you have made your decision so I can decide my next course of action. Come on Kathy." With that, the two of them stormed out of the principal's office.

Kathy looked at her husband sideways as they walked out of the school building, "You can be terrifying when you want to be. And did you have to photoshop those images of Troy?"

Steve smirked. He had asked an editor friend of his, Hank, to edit some photos of Troy to look more bruised than he actually was. This would not be admissible in a court, but this wasn't a court, just a meeting between parents, and no one was a forensic expert to tell the difference.

"I'll do anything for that boy," Steve said plainly as they got in the car. "This is nothing."

(Break)

The whole thing was blown way out of proportion in my opinion. I know the incident could have been worse, but it could have been avoided altogether had I not acted like an asshole in the locker room. I really don't like talking to kids because of this reason because I come off as a tad superior to them.

The big reason I didn't want to give out names was that I wanted to give the three my personal revenge. I may be many things, but Gandhi, I'm not. I knew that if I named them to the principal, then I wouldn't be able to do anything to them.

I don't know if this makes me a bad person, but I don't feel satisfied with just giving them out.

I had made this whole elaborate revenge plan of singling them out one by one and hitting them when they least expected it. I did this all when I was lying on the floor of the locker room. Unlike what the principal had said, I didn't pass out. I was lying there for quite some time in pain, and I fell asleep.

That pretentious principal only wanted to save her school's reputation. But when my parents came charging into the office and demanded that I tell them everything, I didn't think I had a choice.

It was only a few days later that I found that Jeff, Dumb, and Dumber were all expelled from the school with a strict warning from my parents to prevent the three from so much as to come near me. Apparently, they had not only bullied me, but when the Math teacher asked about my whereabouts, Jeff volunteered to check in the locker room and lied that I wasn't there. I was more than a little surprised that Jeff's father didn't stop that from happening.

With the plan of my revenge thwarted, I just wanted the whole thing to be over with. The incident had happened on a Wednesday and I took the rest of the week off. I had never seen Kathy so clingy to me as she was that week.

Steve, on the other hand, had a different approach.

"You want me to take self-defense lessons?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes," He said in a no-nonsense tone. "Those bullies might have been expelled, but that doesn't mean someone else won't try something like that. You are aiming to be an actor. Do you know how many psychos are there out in the world who stalk or want to harm celebrities? Too many to count. Consider this a wakeup call."

I nodded slowly. It made sense in a way. Celebs like Jodie Foster and John Lennon come to mind when I think about it. Foster's stalker shot the POTUS of the time Ronald Reagan, while John Lennon himself was shot by the stalker. Then there was the fact that I was terrible at anything physical, and this was the best age to change that.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked him seriously.

"There is this class that teaches Krav Maga and Muay Thai," With that, he offered me a pamphlet. "You don't have to rush into anything right now, but I would feel better if you could defend yourself."

I carefully read the pamphlet I was handed which went on about the instructor and the number of professional MMA fighters that had gone to those classes.

"But we'll go to London in the summer," I said hesitantly.

"I'll find you an instructor in London if you're interested. Just say so."

After some thought, I nodded, "Okay, I'll do this."

"Good," Steve smiled before ruffling my hair. "You know, my Dad used to say that you're not a man unless you've been in a fight. So I guess, you became a man now."

I scoffed, "Wasn't much of a fight. More like a one-sided beatdown."

"True," Steve agreed. "Don't worry though, I know you'll learn how to throw a punch soon enough. I'll be happy as long as you don't start a fight, but if it does start, I want you to finish it."

I couldn't help the smile that came on my face, "I will."

"Atta boy," He grinned. "You wanna check out these classes now, or after coming back from Philly?"

I didn't have to even think about it, "Right now. There is still a month before I have to go. Why waste that time?"

"Come on then, no time like the present."

_________________________

AN: Please stop asking for him to drop out of school. It will happen, but I wanted to do it organically. Nothing happens overnight and if kids telling their parents that they want to drop out worked that easily, most of the kids would be homeschooled. (I certainly would have.)

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