(Thanks to Junior's Princess for her help.)
"Where is Sheri tonight?" Carol Boone asked.
"She had a date," Coach answered.
"With Ray Budds," Sheryll added.
Coach made a disgusted face and shook his head at that. He didn't know why he had said she could go. He knew better. Oh, well, maybe she wouldn't want to go out with Ray again.
"You hate that, don't you?" Boone laughed.
"N..," he paused, then laughed himself. "Yeah. Is it that obvious?"
"Yeah," Boone grinned.
"Ray is.., I don't know him. As many years as I've been coaching him, I really don't know much about him. I mean, I know Gerry and alan are good kids, and Jacob and Jimmie aren't nearly as bad as they'd like you to think they are, but Ray, he's just mean sometimes."
Boone nodded. He had already made that observation.
********************************************************************
By the time she got to the phone, Sheri had stopped trying to convince herself Gerry wasn't going to go after Ray. She knew him too well. He had a terrible temper when he thought one of his friends had been hurt.
She dialed the Boone's number.
"Hello? Mrs. Boone?" She said as soon as she got an answer. "This is Sheri Yoast."
"Oh, hi," Carol Boone replied, cheerfully.
"Um.., is my Daddy still there?"
"Yes, he is, would you like me to get him for you?"
"NO!" Sheri replied a little too quickly. If Coach knew she was on the line, he would insist on comeing home, and he needed to go and find Gerry and talk him out of doing what ever it was he planned to do. Coach was the only one who could reason with him when he got really mad. "No. Now, I know I have absolutely no right to ask you to get invovled in this, but please don't tell my Daddy I'm on the phone. I.., I need you to tell Coach Boone that something is going on with some of the boys on the team, and there's probably going to be a fight, and him and Daddy, or at least Daddy, need to go to.." She paused. " Oh, where would they go?" She thought frantically. They couldn't go back to the party once they had left, and the pool hall was already closed. The A&W!!! Of course!!! That's where everyone went. "To the A&W and stop them before they get themselves in big trouble." She said it in one breath, then gasped when she was finished.
"Okay, I'll tell him," Carol replied, uncertianly. She had a funny feeling that the trouble had something to do with Sheri. "Hold on."
She went into the front room. "Herman, come here a minute."
She whispered what Sheri had told her.
"Who told you that?" He asked. "Who's on the phone?"
"A reliable source, just trust me, okay?"
"Okay, Momma, I beleive you." He turned around. "Yoast! We got a problem."
"What?" Coach asked.
"Some of our boys are trying to start trouble with each other, downtown.
Coach sighed, "We need to stop 'em before they get themselves into some serious trouble."
"That's what I was thinking. Come on."
"I'll watch Sheryll until you get things settled," Carol offered.
"Thank you, ma'am."
They left.
*************************************************************************
After they left the party, which wasn't long after they arrived, Alan and Annie, Sunshine, Rev, and Louie went to the A&W for some burgers and fries.
Even though the A&W was a Drive-In, most everyone was out of thier cars, visiting with this person of that one.
Ray and some of his buddies were sitting on the tailgate of his truck.
"Hey," Louie said, walking over to Alan's car. "Didn't he have a date with Sheri?" He pointed to Ray.
"Yeah," Alan answered. "He did." He looked at his watch. "I wonder why he's here. Sheri must have made him take her home. Her cerfew isn't up for another hour."
"Sheri went out with 'him'?" Annie asked.
Alan nodded. "She said she was. I didn't actaully see 'em together, though." He got out, then opened Annie's door for her. "Hey, Ray!" He called out. "Where's Sheridan?"
"Home!" He called back. "She was... too... tired.. to come here."
"Yeah, whatever." Alan replied. To louie and the others he said, "She probably got mad and blessed him out."
"I can imagine," Rev replied. "She seems a lot more refined and enlightened than him."
"A cave man is more refined and enlightened than him," Sunshine laughed.
Ray nudged the boy standing next to him. "Watch this," he whispered. Loud enough for Alan, and everyone else, to over hear, he said, "Yeah, me an' Sheri had us a 'real good time' tonight." He laughed and winked at Alan. "If you know what I'm talking about."
"What?!" Alan whirled around to face him.
"You heard me," he replied, coolly. "Now, 'I' know why Gerry put up with her junk for so long. Personally, I don't why he let that go, except, well, Emma's pretty good herself."
"Ray, you need to shut your mouth before you say something you're going to regret," Alan forced his voice to stay even. "I don't know if you're drunk or stupid or what your malfunction is tonight. But don't you say another word about Sheridan or Emma."
"Gerry was right," Ray continued to taunt Alan. "Sheri's good at EVERY thing she does." He drawed out his words, watching the color rising in Alan's cheeks.
"Shut up!" Alan's fists were clenched by his sides.
"Who's going to make me, Bosley?" He asked, getting in Alan's face. "You? Or maybe your queer hippie friend?"
"I'd be glad to," Sunshine replied, knowing Ray was talking about him. What did he care if Ray thought he was queer?
"No," Alan said. "Ya'll stay out of it. This is my fight."
"Your fight?" Ray scoffed. He looked back at his friends, not caring that not too long ago, he counted Alan among his friends. To his way of thinking, it was Alan who chose the others over him. "This is going to be as EASY and Sheri is."
Alan punched him. Maybe he shouldn't have. The fact that he threw the first punch would be how Ray would eventually get off the hook, but he wasn't thinking about that then. All he was thinking about was shutting Ray up.
Ray tasted the blood in his mouth. He spit, then looked at Alan. "Oh, that's it! You're a dead man!"
***************************************************************************
"Sheri, honey, do you want to tell me what's going on?" Carol asked. "Did I just send my husband and your father into the middle of a racail fight?"
"No, no, it's nothing like that," she answered. "It's just...." her voice trailed off.
"Just what?" Carol voice was soft and full of concern.
"Just Gerry is mad and wants to hurt Ray..."
"Ray?" Carol interrupted. "The same Ray you went out with tonight?"
"Yes, ma'am." Her voice had become small and almost too soft to hear.
"Sheri, did Ray do something to make Gerry want to hurt him?" She chose her words carefully.
Sheri didn't answer right away.
"Are you still there?"
"I d..don't want to talk about it." Sheri hated the wavering sound of her voice.
"Baby, are you crying?" Carol asked. She didn't wait for an answer. Her mother's instinct or maybe woman's intuition knew something was wrong with Sheri. "Are you at home?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good, stay right there." She said, then hung up. "Girls!" She called out. "Get your coats."
"Where are we going, Momma?" Nikki asked.
"Nevermind that, just do what I said," she answered. She scribbled off a quick note to Herman. If he did get there in time to stop the fight, then he would aready know the situation. No need for much.
'Herman,
Sheri was the person on the phone. You already know all this. She sounded awful. I went to check on her. Be back soon as possible. Love, Carol.'
She taped it to the door while the girls got themselves settled in the car.
"Sheryll, Sweetheart, tell me how to get to your house."
**************************************************************************** ***
Gerry and Julius got to the A&W just in time to see Ray hit Alan. Now, they didn't know that Alan had hit Ray first, all they knew was Ray was hitting Alan.
Gerry was out of his car almost before he got it parked.
He reached the two boys who were fighting and grabbed Ray's arm, just a he raised it again. He spun him around gave him a hard shove.
"Alan was in my face, Gerry," Ray said.
"I'm in your face, now," Gerry growled.
"Gerry?" Alan could hardly believe it, where had Gerry come from?
"Stay back, Alan," he said. "He's mine."
Julius pulled Alan out of the way. "Just trust him, man."
Ray knew Gerry knew.
"How could you, man?" Gerry asked. "She's one of us."
"No, she may be one of you, but she was never one of me," Ray answered. "She's just a girl like any other."
"She's our friend, she was your friend too," Gerry continued. "She trusted you, man! How could you do that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ray replied, coolly. "I don't know what she's told you, but I didn't do anything she didn't want at the time."
Gerry looked at Julius. 'I'm gonna kill 'em. I am going to kill him." He looked back at Ray, his eyes dancing with anger. "Tell the truth."
"I ain't afraid of you, Jerry Lewis." He replied, shoving Gerry back.
That was his mistake. Gerry came back with a punch that sent Ray on to the ground. He grabbed him and hauled him back up to his feet. "Tell the truth."
"Get off me!" He managed to break away and hit Gerry.
Gerry hit him again, knocking him to the ground and splitting his lip.
Ray got up and charged at Gerry knocking him down. Soon, both boys were rolling around on the ground, grappling for the upperhand.
***********************************************************************
When the Coachs got to the A&W, there was agroup of kids in the parking lot, and just like they expecting, they were hiding to kids fighting, however when they did managed to part them, they weren't expecting to see the two boys who were fighting. Gerry had Ray pinned down, hitting him.
It wasn't some simple schoolyard fight that was easy to break up either. Gerry and Ray were seriously trying hurt one another.
"Say it," Gerry demanded. With Julius's help, Coach was able pull him off Ray, while Boone pulled Ray up off the ground.
But Gerry wasn't ready to give up the fight, and it was taking all Coach had to hold the grown boy back.
"Gerry, you stop this, right now! You hear me, son?" Coach said, sternly. "Whatever it was, it's over now."
Gerry continued to struggle.
"Gerry, boy," Coach said a little louder. "I'm warning you. Stop this now!"
Gerry's arms fell slack by his sides. When Coach raised his voice, you didn't push any farther.
"You wouldn't say that if you knew why I was fighting," he muttered.
"What's this about?" Boone demmanded.
No one spoke. Gerry and Ray glared at each other.
"You boys can speak up, or we can let the police handle this," he continued.
"Gerry, what's going on?" Coach asked. "Why were you fighting him?"
Gerry didn't care how much trouble he got in to. He wasn't about to tell him why he wanted to kill Ray. That was up to Sheri.
Alan finally spoke up. "Coach, Gerry didn't start the fight. I did. Ray was talking bad about Sheri, and I hit him."
"So, why was Gerry fighting instead of you?"
Alan shrugged. He didn't know the answer to that one.
"Gerry?"
"It's personal. I can't say." He looked into the eyes of the man who was like a second father to him. He prayed Coach wouldn't make him say more.
"Is this over?" Boone asked.
"It's over," Ray muttered.
He looked at Gerry.
"Yeah, it's over," he replied.
Coach let go of Gerry's arms, but he kept a hand on the boy's shoulder. He knew whatever Gery was fighting for had to be important. Ray was one of his closest friends.
"You three," Boone motioned to Gerry, Alan, and Ray. "Will meet Coach Yoast and myself on the field at 3:00 p.m. tomarrow afternoon. We'll have a little job for you.
The three boys in question grimaced. They had already learned that Coach Boone's way of dealing with fighting was to make you to exhausted to fight more.
"Ya'll go home, now," he told everybody.
"Coach, I'm sorry," Gerry said. "But I just can't tell you."
"It's okay, son, just go on home before Jean gets worried about you," Coach told the boy. Sometimes it was creepy how much of Micheal he saw in that boy. He gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Get some rest. I have a feeling you'll need it."
"Yes, sir." Gerry smiled, happy Coach wasn't mad with him. Then he turned serious again. "Coach, you need to go home and check on Sheri." With that he and Julius left.
"Where is Sheri tonight?" Carol Boone asked.
"She had a date," Coach answered.
"With Ray Budds," Sheryll added.
Coach made a disgusted face and shook his head at that. He didn't know why he had said she could go. He knew better. Oh, well, maybe she wouldn't want to go out with Ray again.
"You hate that, don't you?" Boone laughed.
"N..," he paused, then laughed himself. "Yeah. Is it that obvious?"
"Yeah," Boone grinned.
"Ray is.., I don't know him. As many years as I've been coaching him, I really don't know much about him. I mean, I know Gerry and alan are good kids, and Jacob and Jimmie aren't nearly as bad as they'd like you to think they are, but Ray, he's just mean sometimes."
Boone nodded. He had already made that observation.
********************************************************************
By the time she got to the phone, Sheri had stopped trying to convince herself Gerry wasn't going to go after Ray. She knew him too well. He had a terrible temper when he thought one of his friends had been hurt.
She dialed the Boone's number.
"Hello? Mrs. Boone?" She said as soon as she got an answer. "This is Sheri Yoast."
"Oh, hi," Carol Boone replied, cheerfully.
"Um.., is my Daddy still there?"
"Yes, he is, would you like me to get him for you?"
"NO!" Sheri replied a little too quickly. If Coach knew she was on the line, he would insist on comeing home, and he needed to go and find Gerry and talk him out of doing what ever it was he planned to do. Coach was the only one who could reason with him when he got really mad. "No. Now, I know I have absolutely no right to ask you to get invovled in this, but please don't tell my Daddy I'm on the phone. I.., I need you to tell Coach Boone that something is going on with some of the boys on the team, and there's probably going to be a fight, and him and Daddy, or at least Daddy, need to go to.." She paused. " Oh, where would they go?" She thought frantically. They couldn't go back to the party once they had left, and the pool hall was already closed. The A&W!!! Of course!!! That's where everyone went. "To the A&W and stop them before they get themselves in big trouble." She said it in one breath, then gasped when she was finished.
"Okay, I'll tell him," Carol replied, uncertianly. She had a funny feeling that the trouble had something to do with Sheri. "Hold on."
She went into the front room. "Herman, come here a minute."
She whispered what Sheri had told her.
"Who told you that?" He asked. "Who's on the phone?"
"A reliable source, just trust me, okay?"
"Okay, Momma, I beleive you." He turned around. "Yoast! We got a problem."
"What?" Coach asked.
"Some of our boys are trying to start trouble with each other, downtown.
Coach sighed, "We need to stop 'em before they get themselves into some serious trouble."
"That's what I was thinking. Come on."
"I'll watch Sheryll until you get things settled," Carol offered.
"Thank you, ma'am."
They left.
*************************************************************************
After they left the party, which wasn't long after they arrived, Alan and Annie, Sunshine, Rev, and Louie went to the A&W for some burgers and fries.
Even though the A&W was a Drive-In, most everyone was out of thier cars, visiting with this person of that one.
Ray and some of his buddies were sitting on the tailgate of his truck.
"Hey," Louie said, walking over to Alan's car. "Didn't he have a date with Sheri?" He pointed to Ray.
"Yeah," Alan answered. "He did." He looked at his watch. "I wonder why he's here. Sheri must have made him take her home. Her cerfew isn't up for another hour."
"Sheri went out with 'him'?" Annie asked.
Alan nodded. "She said she was. I didn't actaully see 'em together, though." He got out, then opened Annie's door for her. "Hey, Ray!" He called out. "Where's Sheridan?"
"Home!" He called back. "She was... too... tired.. to come here."
"Yeah, whatever." Alan replied. To louie and the others he said, "She probably got mad and blessed him out."
"I can imagine," Rev replied. "She seems a lot more refined and enlightened than him."
"A cave man is more refined and enlightened than him," Sunshine laughed.
Ray nudged the boy standing next to him. "Watch this," he whispered. Loud enough for Alan, and everyone else, to over hear, he said, "Yeah, me an' Sheri had us a 'real good time' tonight." He laughed and winked at Alan. "If you know what I'm talking about."
"What?!" Alan whirled around to face him.
"You heard me," he replied, coolly. "Now, 'I' know why Gerry put up with her junk for so long. Personally, I don't why he let that go, except, well, Emma's pretty good herself."
"Ray, you need to shut your mouth before you say something you're going to regret," Alan forced his voice to stay even. "I don't know if you're drunk or stupid or what your malfunction is tonight. But don't you say another word about Sheridan or Emma."
"Gerry was right," Ray continued to taunt Alan. "Sheri's good at EVERY thing she does." He drawed out his words, watching the color rising in Alan's cheeks.
"Shut up!" Alan's fists were clenched by his sides.
"Who's going to make me, Bosley?" He asked, getting in Alan's face. "You? Or maybe your queer hippie friend?"
"I'd be glad to," Sunshine replied, knowing Ray was talking about him. What did he care if Ray thought he was queer?
"No," Alan said. "Ya'll stay out of it. This is my fight."
"Your fight?" Ray scoffed. He looked back at his friends, not caring that not too long ago, he counted Alan among his friends. To his way of thinking, it was Alan who chose the others over him. "This is going to be as EASY and Sheri is."
Alan punched him. Maybe he shouldn't have. The fact that he threw the first punch would be how Ray would eventually get off the hook, but he wasn't thinking about that then. All he was thinking about was shutting Ray up.
Ray tasted the blood in his mouth. He spit, then looked at Alan. "Oh, that's it! You're a dead man!"
***************************************************************************
"Sheri, honey, do you want to tell me what's going on?" Carol asked. "Did I just send my husband and your father into the middle of a racail fight?"
"No, no, it's nothing like that," she answered. "It's just...." her voice trailed off.
"Just what?" Carol voice was soft and full of concern.
"Just Gerry is mad and wants to hurt Ray..."
"Ray?" Carol interrupted. "The same Ray you went out with tonight?"
"Yes, ma'am." Her voice had become small and almost too soft to hear.
"Sheri, did Ray do something to make Gerry want to hurt him?" She chose her words carefully.
Sheri didn't answer right away.
"Are you still there?"
"I d..don't want to talk about it." Sheri hated the wavering sound of her voice.
"Baby, are you crying?" Carol asked. She didn't wait for an answer. Her mother's instinct or maybe woman's intuition knew something was wrong with Sheri. "Are you at home?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good, stay right there." She said, then hung up. "Girls!" She called out. "Get your coats."
"Where are we going, Momma?" Nikki asked.
"Nevermind that, just do what I said," she answered. She scribbled off a quick note to Herman. If he did get there in time to stop the fight, then he would aready know the situation. No need for much.
'Herman,
Sheri was the person on the phone. You already know all this. She sounded awful. I went to check on her. Be back soon as possible. Love, Carol.'
She taped it to the door while the girls got themselves settled in the car.
"Sheryll, Sweetheart, tell me how to get to your house."
**************************************************************************** ***
Gerry and Julius got to the A&W just in time to see Ray hit Alan. Now, they didn't know that Alan had hit Ray first, all they knew was Ray was hitting Alan.
Gerry was out of his car almost before he got it parked.
He reached the two boys who were fighting and grabbed Ray's arm, just a he raised it again. He spun him around gave him a hard shove.
"Alan was in my face, Gerry," Ray said.
"I'm in your face, now," Gerry growled.
"Gerry?" Alan could hardly believe it, where had Gerry come from?
"Stay back, Alan," he said. "He's mine."
Julius pulled Alan out of the way. "Just trust him, man."
Ray knew Gerry knew.
"How could you, man?" Gerry asked. "She's one of us."
"No, she may be one of you, but she was never one of me," Ray answered. "She's just a girl like any other."
"She's our friend, she was your friend too," Gerry continued. "She trusted you, man! How could you do that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ray replied, coolly. "I don't know what she's told you, but I didn't do anything she didn't want at the time."
Gerry looked at Julius. 'I'm gonna kill 'em. I am going to kill him." He looked back at Ray, his eyes dancing with anger. "Tell the truth."
"I ain't afraid of you, Jerry Lewis." He replied, shoving Gerry back.
That was his mistake. Gerry came back with a punch that sent Ray on to the ground. He grabbed him and hauled him back up to his feet. "Tell the truth."
"Get off me!" He managed to break away and hit Gerry.
Gerry hit him again, knocking him to the ground and splitting his lip.
Ray got up and charged at Gerry knocking him down. Soon, both boys were rolling around on the ground, grappling for the upperhand.
***********************************************************************
When the Coachs got to the A&W, there was agroup of kids in the parking lot, and just like they expecting, they were hiding to kids fighting, however when they did managed to part them, they weren't expecting to see the two boys who were fighting. Gerry had Ray pinned down, hitting him.
It wasn't some simple schoolyard fight that was easy to break up either. Gerry and Ray were seriously trying hurt one another.
"Say it," Gerry demanded. With Julius's help, Coach was able pull him off Ray, while Boone pulled Ray up off the ground.
But Gerry wasn't ready to give up the fight, and it was taking all Coach had to hold the grown boy back.
"Gerry, you stop this, right now! You hear me, son?" Coach said, sternly. "Whatever it was, it's over now."
Gerry continued to struggle.
"Gerry, boy," Coach said a little louder. "I'm warning you. Stop this now!"
Gerry's arms fell slack by his sides. When Coach raised his voice, you didn't push any farther.
"You wouldn't say that if you knew why I was fighting," he muttered.
"What's this about?" Boone demmanded.
No one spoke. Gerry and Ray glared at each other.
"You boys can speak up, or we can let the police handle this," he continued.
"Gerry, what's going on?" Coach asked. "Why were you fighting him?"
Gerry didn't care how much trouble he got in to. He wasn't about to tell him why he wanted to kill Ray. That was up to Sheri.
Alan finally spoke up. "Coach, Gerry didn't start the fight. I did. Ray was talking bad about Sheri, and I hit him."
"So, why was Gerry fighting instead of you?"
Alan shrugged. He didn't know the answer to that one.
"Gerry?"
"It's personal. I can't say." He looked into the eyes of the man who was like a second father to him. He prayed Coach wouldn't make him say more.
"Is this over?" Boone asked.
"It's over," Ray muttered.
He looked at Gerry.
"Yeah, it's over," he replied.
Coach let go of Gerry's arms, but he kept a hand on the boy's shoulder. He knew whatever Gery was fighting for had to be important. Ray was one of his closest friends.
"You three," Boone motioned to Gerry, Alan, and Ray. "Will meet Coach Yoast and myself on the field at 3:00 p.m. tomarrow afternoon. We'll have a little job for you.
The three boys in question grimaced. They had already learned that Coach Boone's way of dealing with fighting was to make you to exhausted to fight more.
"Ya'll go home, now," he told everybody.
"Coach, I'm sorry," Gerry said. "But I just can't tell you."
"It's okay, son, just go on home before Jean gets worried about you," Coach told the boy. Sometimes it was creepy how much of Micheal he saw in that boy. He gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Get some rest. I have a feeling you'll need it."
"Yes, sir." Gerry smiled, happy Coach wasn't mad with him. Then he turned serious again. "Coach, you need to go home and check on Sheri." With that he and Julius left.