Matthew Pittman, better known as Coach Pittman, was seriously annoyed as he walked the corridors of Jackson Middle School in San Francisco.
This wasn't normally his yard duty shift. One of the other teachers was sick, so he had to cover for them. He'd been teaching all day and was tired. He wanted a break.
So of course, he got the opposite. As he rounded a bend, outside the Cafeteria, he noticed a scuffle in full swing. He shouts out to the fighters.
'Break it up!'
Of course, they don't listen.
He runs up to the wrestling mass and pulls out the first one he can get his hands on. He's lucky; it seems that the one he pulls out is the one that the other three are trying to beat up, and they stop.
'My office, now!'
Still keeping a firm hold on the collar of the Asian boy he pulled out, he shepherds the other three boys to his office. He has some detentions to hand out.
The first three boys, the ones he didn't pull out, turn out to be fairly open-and-shut cases. They're all in the eighth grade, bullies the three of them. They've got records as long as his arm and he sends them off to the Principal's office, detention notices in hand.
He thinks the fourth boy would be the same. And he is wrong.
'Name?'
'Hikaru Sulu, sir.'
He pulls up the boy's file on his PADD.
He's in seventh grade, again with a record for fighting.
'So tell me, Hikaru, why were those three beating you up?'
Hikaru looks him square in the eye as he speaks.
'Because I stopped them from taking some kid's lunch money.'
Well, that's a new one. Most of the time, it's due to petty insults, or revenge or the like. But this is the most original excuse that he's heard in a long time.
Of course, he doesn't believe him. The students that he's seen before give him no reason to. The other three boys had all claimed that Hikaru started it.
But there's something in the back of his mind that keeps nagging him. He skims over Hikaru's records. Lots of detentions for fighting...but every time, he's claimed that what he was doing was the right thing to do. Preventing theft of lunch money, beating up bullies, trying to stop fights...
And it seems the detentions never seem to stop him.
'And why did you do that?'
Again, the boy looks him in the eye.
'It was the right thing to do, sir.'
'Did you think to consider the consequences?'
For the first time, the boy looks down at his feet and squirms.
'Err...no, sir. I just saw it happening, and just jumped in, I guess...'
Coach Pittman takes a moment to reflect. He comes to a detention.
'Hikaru, I'm not going to give you detention.'
The boy looks up in surprise.
'You're not?'
'No. I'm giving you a chance. Don't waste it. Come to the Gym after school on Thursday, every Thursday for a month.'
The boy looks confused.
'I thought you weren't giving me detention, sir?'
'It's not a detention. It's Fencing Club. Bring your Gym gear.'
'Um...thank you, sir.'
Hikaru looks unsure as he leaves, as if he's wondering whether this is a punishment or not. But he shows up to the Gym on Thursday after school anyway.
The first week, he seems confused and reluctant.
The second week, he gets the hang of it. He smiles for the first time.
Coach Pittman discovers this is the longest time he's been without getting into a fight.
The third week, he wins his first match.
Three weeks and counting.
The fourth week, he's early.
And from then on, Hikaru Sulu is a fixture at the Fencing Club. He keeps it up well into high school, he hears, and his passion grows.
He manages to keep out of most fights for the rest of his school life. But Coach Pittman knew he'd never cure the boy's heroic leanings. He keeps out of trouble, mostly. But sometimes, he says, there are some things that you have to do, because they're right.
He's not surprised, years later, when he sees the holo-news, that Hikaru Sulu is now a Federation hero.
He called it first.
