Saturday rolled around. It was the day of The Bonesaw Challenge event. Harry was going to come over and try to convince my uncle to let me off the hook. The more I thought about it, the more stupid it seemed. While Harry did have a way with words, he was still just a kid, like me. So as I lay on my bed, looking up at the ceiling of my bedroom, I was thinking of ways to try to avert the possible crisis that was going to happen later in the afternoon.

Fortunately for me, my uncle was able to handle that situation unwittingly.

"Cephas," I heard my uncle say. I sat up and looked over my shoulder, seeing my dad open the door. I turned my body and placed my feet on the floor before standing up.

"Good morning, Uncle," I said.

"Slept well, Cehpas?" he asked. I nodded as he stepped up to me.

"What's up, Uncle?" He usually didn't come to my room in the morning unless there was something important he needed to talk to me about. While I was talking calmly, I was worried underneath. Did Harry make his presence known this morning? Did Gwen leave evidence of her being here the night before? The possibilities were running through my head and my heart rate increased.

"Well, Ceph'," he began. "I was talking with your aunt this morning. It's about your punishment."

"Oh boy…" I muttered out. He placed his hands on my shoulders and gave me a subtle shake as he smiled.

"Relax," he said. "I don't normally do this, but considering you don't exactly make it a habit of causing trouble at school… we decided to end your punishment today." My eyes widened a bit.

"Are… you serious?"

"As a heart attack, Ceph." His smile then faded slightly as he leaned forward. "Let this be understood. This isn't gonna happen all the time. I expect you to be on your best behavior and not get suspended for the rest of your high school days. Alright?"

"Definitely, uncle," I said, nodding vigorously. I then tilted my head. "Thanks, uncle. Is there anything else you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, about Gwen…"

"Oh boy." I groaned.

"I just have a few questions. Just meet me downstairs in a few minutes. We'll talk over orange juice."

So, after a quick wash of the face, I was sitting at the dining room table with my dad, dressed in a black t-shirt and blue gym shorts.

"So," my uncle began as he poured the orange juice in my glass from its carton. "What is going on between you two?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"We're just friends," I said. "I guess…" I added that part noncommittally.

"Uh huh." He leaned backward in his seat, cup in hand. "It seems like you have taken quite a liking to her, if the scent of perfume I smell on you almost every day is any indication." I remained quiet, not knowing what to say at first. I wanted to deny it at first, but it was obvious that everybody who was close enough to me knows how I feel about her.

"I do," I admitted with a slow nod.

"So what are going to do about it?"

At that, I picked up my glass of orange juice. "I don't know. I had a plan, but that kinda got dashed." I took a sip of the sweet and somewhat sour liquid.

"Were you going to do something at Homecoming?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I couldn't go." I set the glass on the table. He opened his mouth. I already knew what he was going to say. He was going to apologize for grounding me but pointing out that I brought it on myself. As true as it was… "It wasn't because of the grounding. None of us was going anymore, anyway."

"Carl?" he asked. I nodded.

"We just didn't feel right about it, going without Carl. And even if we did, it wasn't going to be a good night for us." I looked off to the side in thought. "You know how high school students are. We'd be hearing nothing but whispers about what happened to him all night. Plus we'd have to worry about guys… and some girls… making passes at Jessica." I looked back at my uncle. "Even if I did go, that wouldn't have been the right time."

"So what are you going to do now?" he asked. I opened my mouth to say something. Nothing came out. I sighed.

"I don't know." At this, my uncle leaned forward.

"Did I ever tell you about what happened to me about a couple of years back with the lottery situation?" I shook my head. He chuckled a bit, as if to tell me that this story was going to be a good one. "I had these numbers I was going to play. Normally I would do so in the morning. But I was feeling lazy, and I was off from work, so I decided to do it around noon." He scoffed. "Problem was, around 11:30, things started to get very busy. Your mom's van broke down, you had to be picked up from school because you were sick from… from…"

"Pneumonia," I said. I would never forget that day. I had no appetite, I was sluggish, I had a high fever, and my lower right lung felt like it was going to explode. Uncle nodded.

"Pneumonia," he repeated. "And not only that, Anya got suspended… again." He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "And just when I thought I had everything resolved, we still had the PTA meeting to go to. By the time everything was wrapped up, it was too late to play the numbers." He shook his head. "Thirty-seven million dollars..." My eyebrows rose in surprise. Then, at random, I got an image of Uncle being surrounded by stacks of money, hookers, and blow. Before I could laugh at it, my uncle continued. "Point is, Ceph', you keep waiting around with Gwen, you're going to miss your opportunity. Talk to her. Do something. Got it?"

"Got it, Uncle."

I was dwelling on those words for a while. The only time I wasn't thinking about it was when I gave Harry a call. Fact of the matter was my uncle was right. I was trying my best to find out what was holding me back. I finally came to the conclusion that I was scared of what would happen if I ask her out and she says no, that we wouldn't be friends. I told Harry as such when we were on our way to the convention center.

"I don't get you Cephas," Harry said with a shake of his head. "I just don't get you."

I stopped gazing out the window of the passenger side of Harry's car before looking over at him. "What?"

"Don't 'What' me!" Harry slowed to stop in front of the red light. He looked over at me and gave me a look of incredulity. "You are the only person I know that can sleep in the same bed with a girl, while she is in her underwear, while you are cuddling with her, and still doubt whether or not she likes you like that." He turned his head back towards the street as she shook his head.

"What if she's just that trusting of me?" I countered. At this, Harry's grip on the steering wheel became slightly tighter.

"I just slapped you just now," he said in a near whisper. "Not literally, but in my head. I just slapped you so hard that that you forgot what week it was." He took in a deep breath before speaking again. "Look, Cephas, there are only two scenarios where a girl would allow that to happen without liking you like that. Either she's a relative that has an unhealthily high comfort level around you, or she's the type of girl who's used to crawling in bed in her underwear with random men. Now, I know she's not your relative, unless she got whatever is the opposite of the skin condition Michael Jackson had. Does she?"

"No," I said with a roll of my eyes.

"And if it was the latter, I don't think we'd be having this conversation. I never saw her in her underwear. And I'm pretty sure Carl hasn't either. Geez Louise, man, what does she have to do get the point across?" He shook his head again. "Seriously, dude. You need to handle that." The light turned green, and Harry pressed the accelerator. As he continued along the way to our destination, I thought about what Harry said. I tried to think of all the reasons why Harry would be wrong, but I couldn't really find any reason that would hold water. The reasons I did find were so much of a reach that Plastic Man would break in half trying to grab hold of them.

Harry was right. Anya was right. Uncle Ben was right.

With that realization in mind, I leaned to the right and fished out my phone out of my left pocket.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"I'm handling it."

I didn't bother flipping through the contacts of my phone. I knew Gwen's phone number by heart. After I hit the send button, I put the receiver to my ear. After four rings, Gwen finally picked up her phone.

"Hello?" she said. My eyes narrowed. She sounded a bit weak, her voice but a near whisper.

"Hey Gwen," I said. "You okay?"

"I'm not feeling good, Pete." I heard her moan. I knew she was sitting up and stretching her back. "I feel a bit weak. I… I think I'm just fighting off a cold." She paused for a moment. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's cool. I'm just with Harry, trying to explore a possibility of getting Carl sprung." I glanced at Harry. He hung a right off of Sunrise and onto US-1. As he went south, his eyes didn't even move from the road. The expression on his face said it all. I knew he'd kill me if I didn't man up. "Gwen um…" I turned my head out towards the road again. "Hey, I need to talk to you tomorrow."

"About what?"

"About… About s-something I should have gotten off my chest a long time ago." I said. I took in a deep breath. "Look, it's nothing bad, really. It… it should be something good, hopefully."

"Does it… involve us?"

"Yeah, it does." I smiled slightly. I then frowned. I had to dig deep for what I wanted to say next. "Gwen, remember where we first met?"

"How can I forget?" she said with a slight chuckle. "It was the Jamba Juice at Galleria Mall. Your aunt and my dad were speaking while we were off to the corner. I tried to get you to talk. And you did, albeit barely. You were so quiet and you got cross with Anya when she told me why. You had a Tahiti Green Tea while I got an Aloha Pineapple." I smiled from ear to ear at the memory.

"Let's meet there at around 3 o'clock. Would you like that?"

"Yeah I would." I could feel her smile.

"Awesome. I'll see you there. Until then, get your rest, drink fluids, load up on Vitamin C…"

"Yes mom," Gwen quipped. I rolled my eyes. "I'll be fine, Peter. Just don't stand me up tomorrow."

"I won't," I said. "You have a good night, Gwen."

"You too, Pete. You, too."

I ended the call and slipped it back into my pocket. I looked over at Harry and cocked an eyebrow. "Happy now?"

"I won't be happy until you seal the deal," Harry said. He smiled slightly. "But for now, I'm placated."

Within a few minutes we were at the Convention Center. The Parking Garage was packed. On our way into the inside of the building, we passed by quite a few wrestlers. Some of them were dressed in the types of clothes you'd expect from gym-goers: sneakers, shorts, and t-shirts with different logos. I recognized some of the logos as those belonging to different wrestling leagues, such as World Wrestling Federation (I refuse to call it by its current name), Ring of Honor, and Dragon Gate USA. Other people were in colorful costumes. I had to hold myself back my laughter from looking at some of them.

This was a good thing, seeing as I didn't have room to talk.

"What the heck is this?!" I yelled out as I walked out of the bathroom I was changing in. From the waist down, the costume was okay. Black sneakers, socks, and shorts; nothing too out of the ordinary, right? But from the waist up, I had on a skin tight, long sleeved shirt made out of dazzle (the type of polyester used to make jerseys). It was mostly colored pink with a purple web pattern all over it. And over my head was a black ski mask that concealed everything except for my eyes.

"What, you don't like it?" Harry said with a snicker. I narrowed my eyes at him. He forced his face straight, even though the corners of his mouth were still slightly curved upwards. "Come on, it's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" I repeated incredulously. "First of all, this was hardly creative. Second of all, I look like the love child of Kirby and The Hamburglar!"

"You don't look like…. Okay, maybe you do." I rolled my eyes upward. Harry placed his hands on my shoulders and gave them a slight. "Look, this isn't a beauty contest. We're here to collect some cash for Carl's sake."

"I know that, but this?!" I tilted my head. "Is this payback for -?"

"Yes." Harry smiled evilly.

"But that was four years ago, man!"

"I know. That's what makes it sweeter." He tapped me on the side of my face lightly. "Now let's get going."

The line was long, and we were in the back of it. While we waited, all of the challengers were given forms. I looked over it as I filled out the form. Name? …Cephas Parker. Wrestling name? …Arachnikid. Height? …Six feet. Weight? I looked up at the ceiling and tried to think of the last time I weighed myself. With a brief tilt of my head, I resumed filling out the form. 160 pounds… I kept on filling out the form until I reached the final part, which gave me pause.

"Waiver?" I muttered. I flagged down one of the passing staff members and asked him about it.

"You heard of the Mass Transit incident that happened at ECW?" he asked. I nodded. "Yeah, that's what we're trying to protect ourselves from. You'd be surprised how many high school kids try to step into the ring with Bonesaw. This waiver right helps us avoid litigation."

"I see. Thanks." He smiled and nodded before going on about his business. I turned my head back to Harry. I had a feeling that, even with the mask on, he knew I was glaring at him.

"Will you stop worrying already?" he said with a roll of his eyes. "All you have to do is dodge him. That shouldn't be hard for you to do."

The line eventually moved along, and I turned in my form. As we moved on from the hall to the waiting area, we all drew numbers out of a hat to see who goes when. I drew number 15.

"My lucky number," I said.

"Remind me, why is that again?"

"I found forty bucks in this library book when I turned to page fifteen a few years back." I looked aside in thought. "I think the book was called Amazing Fantasy or something like that." I looked around the waiting area, noticing that there were seats and a flat screen television set. I figured it was so everyone can keep their eyes on the action inside of the ring. I was proven right when a staff member came over and turned on the television set.

Eventually, things got underway. I finally got a look of Bonesaw as he made his entrance. Harry said he was six foot six and three hundred pounds, and he looked the bit. He was clad in a black tank top and leather pants that were tucked into knee high boots. He had a long brown hair that extended to his shoulders and a thick beard that extended from his jaw. What made it even worse was his piercing grey eyes that almost made him look like he was lacking an iris. He looked crazed, like he was the warrior a medieval army would keep shackled up, only releasing him in extreme emergencies. The announcer went through the usual spiel: Where he was from (Parts Unknown… of course), height and weight, and his name. He was apparently a popular one amongst wrestling fans. A lot of people in the crowd had signs bearing his name and fake saws, which they would use to saw across his their forearms in a rhythmic motion.

The announcer then took time remind the crowd of the stakes, that a wrestler gets twenty thousand dollars for lasting three minutes, forty thousand to beat him. Once that was said, he called for the first challenger. The first wrestler stood up, who was a black guy wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black Rey Mysterio mask.

"I hate to break this to you, but all of you are wasting your time. I'm taking that cash home!" With that, he ran out, full of energy. I turned my head back to the monitor. After a few moments, this guy came out, full of energy, he was slapping hands with the fans as the announcer introduced him as Black Mask. He entered the ring quickly and started jawing off. Eventually the bell sounded, and the match begun. Now, at this time point, it should be pointed out that this guy is only slightly bigger than I am. I figured this man would use the strategy I had cooked up: dodge, duck, dip, dive… and dodge.

So it surprised me when this guy charged him out of the gate. What didn't surprise was this guy getting smashed hard in the face with a huge forearm and falling to the floor, knocked out. I turned my head towards Harry, who was looking down at his watch.

"Ten seconds," he mused with a nod. He looked over at me. "I'm not going to lie to you, he lasted a little bit longer than I expected."

I was hoping that that Black Mask's idiocy was the reason why the match ended as quickly as it did. However, the other matches didn't last too long either. I'm going to spare you the details and give you a concise list of what happened before it was my turn.

Wrestler Number 2: Mortem. Lasted 30 seconds before eating a Big Boot.

Wrestler Number 3: Ragdoll. Lasted 20 seconds before being tossed out of the ring like a ragdoll.

Wrestler Number 7: El Delincuente. 40 seconds, Armbar.

Wrestler Number 10: NFL Superpro. 10 Seconds, Spear.

Wrestler Number 12: Demolition Man. 17 Seconds, Bonecrusher (or Burning Hammer).

Wrestler Number 14: …You know, I didn't even get his name. He fainted before he even reached the stage.

You may have noticed that I didn't include the fate of some of the wrestlers before me. Well, that's because all of them left before their turns were up. By the time it was my turn, the room of practically thirty was nearly empty. One of the staff members stepped in.

"Number 15, you're up! Follow me."

I nodded as I stood up. I looked at Harry. "Are you coming with me?"

"Yeah," Harry said as he stood up. We walked to the staff member and followed him to the arena floor. We stopped at the gorilla position and waited for the announcer to… well, announce me.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS OUR LAST MATCH OF THE NIGHT! THIS GUY IS THE ONLY HOPE OF THAT MONEY BEING PAID OUT! THIS IS A LOCAL GUY, HAILING FROM LAUDERHILL, FLORIDA! STANDING AT SIX FEET AND WEIGHS IN AT A LEAN MEAN 160 POUNDS! HE IS THE EIGHT-LEGGED TERROR. THE VENOMOUS STRIKER! THE WEAVER OF THE WEB OF NIGHTMARES! AAAAAAAARACHNIKID!"

"Arachnikid?" Harry said with a raise of his eyebrow.

"Yeah, what of it?" I said before stepping out from behind the curtain. I brought my fists up in the air, posing to the crowd. The crowded responded with a chant of "DEAD MEAT!" I brought my hands down and scowled at the crowd. I shook my head and made my way down the ramp. I got all kinds of insults. One person called me a stick. Another person said that Bonesaw will break my spine in half. And one person even called me a few words that got me to stop and turn towards the person who said them. Maybe I would have looked more menacing if I didn't look like The Hamburglar coming home from a drunken night. I almost said a few words back, but Harry put his hand on my shoulder and pushed me along.

I finally reached the ring. I took in a deep breath before I jumped on to the apron and grabbed the top rope. I looked into the ring, at the man that was called Bonesaw. His promoter was saying something, but I could quite hear it. I was too focused on my opponent at hand. What I did pick up was the announcer dubbing this match as a battle between David and Goliath. I would have laughed had it not been for the fact that my stomach might as well have been a section of Butterfly World at the time. What people don't tell you about that analogy is that David was a shepherd who was used to taking on lions and bears. They also don't tell you that, back then, David using a slingshot against Goliath was like using a gun in a sword fight. I wasn't a shepherd that could take on lions and bears. I didn't have a slingshot, gun, or any of the like on me. I was just a kid that was planning to just dodge.

Well… things had a funny way of changing.

I jumped over the top rope and moved towards the middle of the ring. It was at this point the referee moved between me and Bonesaw, making sure that the action didn't start until the bell sounded. He went over what was on the line for me. With that done, he backed away and called for the bell. Once the bell sounded, I moved backward before circling the ring. I didn't circle for too long before Bonesaw spoke.

"Is your sister a good lay?" he said. I stopped in my tracks and narrowed my eyes.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Is your sister a good lay? Because I'm going to give her the business tonight, and I figured you had firsthand experience."

There was a couple of seconds when I blacked out. Fortunately, Harry was able to fill in the details for me later.

After those words were said, he gave me a smug smile. That smile faded when I quickly ran forward. I leapt into the air. Before he could even react, my right fist went across his jaw so hard that blood from his mouth splashed across the canvas, along with a couple of his molars. The crowd went silent as I landed on my feet. When I finally snapped out of my blackout, my eyebrows rose in surprise. I looked from left and right at the crowd. Medical staff slid into the ring and attended to Bonesaw as he laid disturbingly still on the ground.

The silence from the crowd got to me. I hated it. It was like when I fought Flash and his boys. I felt like a freak again. I could see them, whispering amongst their selves, wondering how a guy could as small as I am do what he just did. I wanted to just leave, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head to see Harry giving me a slight smile.

"We just bailed out Carl," Harry said. That's when it all came back to me. Carl was the reason I was doing this. I nodded before I made my way towards the ropes to exit the ring. The way I saw it, the quicker we get the money, the soon I could put this night behind me.