Donna "Double D" Dubinski was one of the cheerleaders at Jordan Hill High School, class of 1975. She was dressed in an adorable cheer leading outfit with the school colors of blue and white, waving her matching pom-poms, reciting a cheer. The school mascot came running out, a bulldog, doing a dance and following along with the cheerleaders as well.

Eventually, some of the nasty football players huddled up, grinning evilly as they looked at the mascot. They had planned a prank for the loser inside. While the bulldog mascot was doing the dance, they began throwing water balloons at him. Some of them nailed the cheerleaders, annoying them. The costume got soaked until the loser had to pull off his head. He had turned completely blue from the costume's dye. Everyone started laughing at the poor, curly-headed fat kid.

"Nice blue ass, Dumb-Back!" said Trent Jager, captain of the football team.

Everyone was laughing at the fat kid..except Donna. She got mad. She turned towards Trent with a frown. She shoved him.

"What is WRONG with you?!" she said. "Dale has been working all week on getting that dance right, you asshole! Nice going, Trent! You ruined everything!"

"Why do you care, babe?" Trent chuckled. "Dumb-back is just a loser. He'll always be a loser."

"That gives you the right to torment the poor kid?"

"Sure thing."

With a scoff, she went to help up fat Dale Doback off the ground. Dale looked into Donna's brown eyes. She was the only nice cheerleader. She always stood up for him when everyone picked on him. He never understood why she was with a jerk like Trent. He wished she'd break up with him. Despite all those years in elementary school, Dale always had a crush on Donna since the fourth grade. Ever since she beat up Chris Gardocki in the fourth grade for stealing his lunch, they became friends. Well acquaintances more like it since Dale was too shy to even talk to Donna. Yet Donna was always so nice to him. He always wished he'd asked her out, but she figured someone who was so pretty and popular would never go out with a fat loser like him.

And of course, there was Trent to consider. He always scared him off. He accused him of trying to steal his girl. He always called her 'double D' despite her breasts were no where near that size. It was a nickname she hated anyway.

"Are you OK?" Donna asked as she helped Dale up to his feet.

"Yea," he said, panting.

"You did great with the dance," she complimented. "I'm sorry Trent ruined it. You were doing just fine until then."

"Thanks. You looked good yourself, Donna."

The brunette blushed a bit and smiled. "Thanks, Dale."

"Why do you even go out with that jerk anyway? You deserve a lot better."

"Hm...I might break up with him, given that he ruined this routine we worked really hard for home coming," Donna murmured. "But it's hard, I guess. Being in love is hard-you always have to make decisions."

"You should break up with him, Donna. He's a jerk."

"Yes, he is. I'll consider it."

"Say, if you do...break up with Trent..." Dale began. "Would you..."

"Yea?"

He had been working up the courage to ask her to go out all week.

"HEY, DONNA!" yelled her friends. "Game's about to start!"

"We'd better hurry. I'll help you dry off the mascot costume," said Donna. "We're gonna need you at halftime and at the end of the game."

Dale nodded, frowning a bit. He blew his chance to ask the nicest girl.

PRESENT DAY

Donna Dubinski sat in the seventh grade classroom, going through papers. After high school, she hadn't seen many of her classmates after graduation, including Dale Huff. She was already getting close to forty, her dark hair was long and feathered. Her cheer leading days were long over. Despite being near forty, she still tried to keep in shape. Age slightly agreed with her, but it was the irritating fat that wouldn't go away. Mostly the spare tire. It was stubborn. Damn those years at college drinking away.

She studied at the UCLA to become a teacher. She had always known she wanted to be a teacher. It was a goal to teach kids, to educate them to a better future, and of course, be a guidance in their times of trouble. She taught the seventh grade on Wintworth Street. God! These kids were such assholes. Luckily for her, she was a strict, but fair teacher. She secretly enjoyed giving some of the troublemakers detention, especially that Chris Gardocki Jr-the kid's father she beat up in the fourth grade long ago. He always complained to Daddy Dearest that Miss Dubinski was unfair and mean. Well, when he came into that school all red in the face, Donna shot him down and made that man walk out of there with his tail between his legs.

After grading the papers, she went through the permission slips and money. Come next week they were going to the aquarium for a class trip. She counted the money carefully, placing it in an envelope and then counted the permissions slips of who was going so she could contact the bus company and call the aquarium for tickets. Well, it looked like all was accounted for...

...her thoughts were disturbed by the yelling outside. God! Kids could be so fucking loud. What the hell could they be screaming about? She got up and looked outside and saw the kids, some including in her class and others as well. She went outside to check it out and saw the kids tormenting a group of two grown men in their forties. Oh this wasn't right. One of them had a black eye and lo and behold, Chris Gardocki Jr. was forcing the man down towards the ground. His tongue was stuck out. Other kids were beating up another man. It boiled her blood that kids were so mean nowadays.

"HEY!" she shouted. "What's going on here?"

"Shit! Bail! Bail!" said Chris.

"No way!" Donna said. "Get your fat and skinny asses back here NOW!"

The kids froze when they heard their strict teacher's voice; her face red with anger as her brown eyes glared at each of them. Nobody messed with Miss Dubinski, the strict teacher of Wintworth Street Middle School. Crossing her arms across her chest, she eyed each child, taking down names in her head and memorizing what class they were in. The kids who had participated in this bullying were going to be brought up with the other teachers as well. She would be telling the principal about this. Donna had experience with bullies-she hated them and had a zero tolerance for them.

"Explain yourselves!" Donna said.

"We were just joking around, Miss Dubinski," Chris said innocently.

"I don't buy your bullshit, Gardocki," the teacher replied.

Some of the kids flinched, giggled, even gasped at the teacher's audacity to curse at them. Miss Dubinski did not tolerate any kind of bad behavior. Sure they pretended to be good kids in the classroom, but they figured if they were good, she'd leave them alone. But she didn't buy their act. She knew them too well.

"Now...let's try again. Explain yourselves or do I have to call each of your parents?"

"Like we said, we were joking around," Chris replied.

"Uh-huh," Donna said cynically. "Well, I don't find that funny. Bullying is NEVER funny. So, I want you ALL inside right now. I'll be speaking to the principal AND your other teachers about this to decide what will be a suitable punishment."

The kids gasped. Miss Dubinski didn't mess around when it came to misbehavior.

"Now all of you, get inside!" she said.

"But recess isn't over," someone complained.

"I don't give a rat's tail. Your recess is being cut short for this behavior. I want you all to go back to your classrooms NOW!"

The kids filed inside, groaning and moaning. Surely, they were going to complain to whoever listened. Donna didn't care. She ran a tight ship and wanted to make sure kids never turned out to be jerks when they grew up. She suspected a lot of it lied in the parents. They spoiled their kids. But she wouldn't tolerate their parents' behavior either. If they threatened, she dared them. The principal, the superintendent, the school board would always take Donna's side. She was a tough, but fair teacher

Once the kids were inside, she looked down at the two men. They were clearly beaten up pretty badly. She had seen worse from some of the weaker kids. Donna always made a point to make sure the bully received the discipline if it ever occurred. She always kept her eyes open while some of the teachers could care less. Or didn't really do anything about it. Donna had always been a passionate advocate against bullying and always got involved in groups after school. She ran an anti-bullying support group for kids to participate in. She would include both the bully and the victim in the groups, with the rules that they were allowed to confront their attacker in a way that was direct, but fair. There was to be no name calling, insulting and so forth. Each person was allowed to speak their feelings.

Lately, the group was getting smaller and smaller. Not a lot of people wanted to talk. Either because they were afraid to for fear of getting bullied again and again. But she kept the group open nevertheless. Often she heard stories from not just the victims, but the bullies themselves were victims too-they were often their parents. She would hear the problems at home: divorce, parents fighting, money problems, being belittled by their parents, etc. She would be compassionate and listen, using encouragement to the bully that they need to not take it out on others weaker than them, but to confront their parents. Tell them their feelings. And so forth. She always kept her door.

"Are you guys alright?" asked Donna, helping the men up.

"Yea. We're OK," said the blonde man.

"Thanks," said the brunette man.

"What did those kids do to you?" she asked.

"Why?" asked the brunette. "He'll just beat us up again."

"Chris Gardocki, huh?" she said, arching an eyebrow. "Well everyone knows he's a jerk and he's been in trouble multiple times at school. But I'll be dealing with him for sure."

Donna looked at the brunette man. A face she remembered for a long time. The blue eyes. The curly hair.

"Dale?" she said. "Dale Doback?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you remember me? It's Donna Dubinski-from Jordan High. Class of '75."

Dale squinted his eyes as he looked at the kind teacher who saved him from the group of bullies. It was as if he was back in high school again. He studied her features.

"Oh yea! Donna. Man! Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"

Donna laughed. He liked her laugh. It was nice. She even smelled nice too. Her shampoo she used reminded him of the syrup caddy at the IHOP: cinnamon, caramel, and maple. God! He sounded like a pervert just thinking that.

"Great to see you, Dale," she said smiling.

"You two know each other?" the blonde man with the black eye said.

"Yea, Donna and I went to high school together. She was always nice to me," said Dale. "Donna, this is Brennan. He's my step brother."

"Nice to meet you. Geez! What a black eye, you got there. Who punched you?"

"Why? Are you going to tell?" asked Brennan flinching uncomfortably.

"Well, I'm a teacher and as far as I'm concerned, all those kids are going to be punished."

"Cool!" said Dale. "You're a hot teacher...uh, I mean, cool teacher...you know what I mean."

"Thank you. I enjoy it very much."

"We...should be getting home," said Brennan.

"Say, Dale..." Donna added. "If you're not doing anything this weekend, why don't we grab a beer and catch up?"

Dale blushed. He was being asked out by a girl on a sort-of date. His whole world was spinning. No woman would ever approach him. They were either disgusted by him because he was such a man-child. Or he was just plain weird.

"Um...sure, Donna. I'd like that."

"Here's my number," she said, handing Dale her card. "Anyway, I gotta get inside. I've got to talk to the principal and deal with this situation."

"OK. I'll see you later."

Donna went inside towards the school; her dark hair floated behind her as she turned. Dale sighed with a big goofy smile on his face. All these years, his dream was coming true at last. He was going out with the girl he had a crush on for the longest time.

"She's nice," said Brennan.

"Yea. She was nice to me in high school," Dale said sheepishly. "I had a crush on her forever."

"She's got a nice rack though."

"Don't talk about her tits, man!"

"Chill, dude! I'm sorry. I didn't know she was yours."

"Well, I don't know if she's available, Brennan. She always dated this jerk. She might have a husband or something."

"I didn't see a ring on her finger. She might be single."

"Well, she might have a boyfriend too. I wonder if she's with that jerk Trent from high school."

"Just ask her then. You got a date with a hot chick. I'm so jealous. What was she in high school?"

"She was pretty hot in high school. She was a cheerleader."

"Lucky! I'm definitely jealous."

"What am I supposed to talk to her about? I can't let her know I'm still living at home with my Dad."

"Then DON'T, dumb ass! Save it for when you go on more dates."

"I'm telling you, I'm so excited that I've already forgotten about the whole Chris Gardocki thing."

"I still got a belly full of white dog shit in me," Brennan complained sourly.

"Yea. Sorry about that, man. What are we going to tell our parents when we get home that we fucked up our job interviews?"

Brennan shrugged as he picked up his bicycle as they walked down the street towards their house, excitedly chattering out Dale's lucky date.