"Andrew Clark, how can you let that girl take your patch, yourchampionship patch I might add?" screamed Andrew's father. "Doesn't that mean anything to you? It's bad enough you get detention, but now you're giving away your patch, your damn pride to some girl?"
"I didn't give it to her, she just… took it, that's all." Andrew replied, just wishing he could get to his room and hide from the machine of a man he called dad. Since they got home Ron Clark had been reading his son the riot act about pride and manhood, he always got this way when he thought Andrew wasn't being enough of a man. Andy hated these talks, well they were more like monologues since his dad did all the talking, he tended to repeat himself over and over again to drive home a point and these would go on for more than an hour. The talks would end with a speech about winning and being the best that would make the speeches inRocky look tame, it was like listening to a fire and brimstone preacher who liked wrestling.
"You think I'm blind?" asked his father, "I saw you kissing her, and you sure as hell didn't try to stop her. You think you can give away a testament to your skill to get in some slut's pants!"
"Shut up!" Andrew couldn't take it anymore, he hated getting the talk but he wasn't going to let anybody talk about Allison like that, even his own dad; this shocked his father as well as Andrew himself. "Don't you dare talk that way about her, you don't even know her and she is NOT a slut! And don't worry, I'll win a dozen more patches just like you want, I'll win one tonight at the match, but don't you dare talk about my friends! Now let's go, the match starts in 20 minutes." He knew he'd regret saying that stuff but he didn't care, he just grabbed his coat and climbed into the truck. The ride was quiet, he knew his dad was seriously pissed but it didn't matter, half an hour from now he'd be cheering him on in the match.
When they got to the school gym Andy hit the showers an changed into his required uniform, he couldn't help being reminded of a brief exchange he had with Bender and Brian.
"I wanna be just like you! I figure all I need's a lobotomy and some tight!" said Bender in an attempt to get a rise out of Andrew.
"You wear tights?" Brian asked with a degree of amusement.
"No, I don't wear tights, I wear the required uniform." Andy replied defensively
"Tights." Retorted Brian, with a hint of smugness at Andrew's lack of a comeback. Andrew's spirit's lifted thinking of the guys in detention, but he had to focus on the match.
His opponent was from Fairfield High, he had a reputation for being fast on the mat, he was the same build as Andrew but he was faster than anyone on the Shermer or Fair Field wrestling teams. He ran track before he got on the wrestling team and he brought his speed on the track to the mat, his name was Kiro, but he was known throughout the tri-state area as the Flash. Andy thought about strategy on the way out. This is gonna be difficult, he has the faster than me but I'm stronger than him. I'll have to keep him grounded so his speed won't be a factor, then I can out muscle him.Kiro was standing by the doors to the gym, waiting for their match to start when Andy saw him. He wasn't that different from Andy, but he seemed more confident.
"So, I hear you're a pretty good technical wrestler." Said Kiro in a challenging but friendly way.
"I hear you're pretty fast, in fact I hear nobody in the tri-state area can keep up with the Flash." Replied Andy.
"I hate that nickname, the Flash is one of the three dumbest superheroes ever, the other two being the Green Lantern and Aquaman."
"I gotta agree with you there. Can I ask you a rhetorical question?" The next thing that Andrew said was unexpected to himself as well as Kiro. "If you were stuck in detention with four people you never knew and at the end of the day you were friends, but you still had pressure about hanging out with them from your other friends; would you act like the detention never happened or try to stay friends with the people in detention?" Kiro was caught off guard by this very question. He thought about it for a minute and finally spoke.
"Well…I don't know. If these people were really great once I knew them better, I'd go for it." Kiro looked at Andrew's expression " And judging from your expression this isn't a rhetorical question, it's asking for advice so I'm telling you go for it, cause if you really think you can be friends with these four rhetorical detention going people, then you'd be stupid not to try." Andrew was surprised, he was sure he would say that it was a lost cause but he agreed with Kiro, it was worth the risk.
"Thanks man," said Andrew as he heard Kiro being introduced. "Well, that's us, guess we better go."
"Yeah, may the best man win." Kiro said shaking Andy's hand.
The bell rang and the match started, Kiro was already starting to display his speed, always keeping himself out of Andrew's reach. Andy tried to ground Kiro with a headlock but got caught in a body scissors, after escaping that he applied an ankle lock submission but Kiro rolled through and caught Andy in a cross face. It went back and forth between Andrew and Kiro for 5 minutes, they were halfway through the ten-minute time limit and neither could gain the advantage.
The crowd was on their feet cheering them on, Andrew's father among them, all cheering and clapping and shouting encouragements to both of them. They faced each other, sweat pouring off them, their bodies aching from being thrown around, the primal part of their brains had taken over, they forgot about school spirit or winning a championship, they just wanted to see which of them was truly the best. This was the part of wrestling Andrew loved, the adrenaline rush, the feeling of proving himself, but he hatedwhen the match ended cause then his dad would stepin and start the pressure and act like Andy was a mindless automaton who's only reason for existing was to wrestle. Andy had his strategy worked out, he rushed Kiro, and then it happened. Andrew didn't know what hit him, but his left leg felt like it was hit with a baseball bat and set on fire. He fell to the ground clutching his knee; a hot flash started at his knee and shot up his leg into his thigh. Andy had never felt anything as painful as this before, he didn't hear a gun go off but it felt like he was shot.
"Dude, what the hell happened!" asked Kiro, who was freaking out, but Andy didn't hear him, the pain overlapped his other senses. The paramedics ran in and checked Andrew out.
"Where does it hurt?" asked a medic
"My knee…my knee, oh God!" Said Andrew through grated teeth.
"Can you feel this?" a medic tapped his shin."
"Yes." Andrew groaned.
"No nerve damage. Come on we need to get him to the hospital." Andrew was loaded into the ambulance, his father road with him but Andrew didn't notice with the pain in his leg. After they got to the hospital Andrew's father was sent to the waiting room, and for the first time in years Ron Clark cried. He never thought this would happen to his son in a million years. His son was in a hospital getting x-rays and tests cause he got hurt wrestling, he couldn't believe it. After what seemed like hours of waiting, Ron was called in to talk to the doctor.
"Mr. Clark, Andrew has torn a muscle in his knee and some cartilage is snapped." Said the doctor. The bottom dropped out of Ron's stomach, he was petrified that the next words out of the doctor's mouth would be that Andy couldn't walk again. "He's in surgery now. We'll have to keep him here over night, but it could've been a lot worse. He can go to school on Monday but he'll have to wear a cast for three to four weeks and attend physical therapy everyday after school for about six months. He can walk but he'll need crutches, and he can't wrestle or any other physical sport for at least a year."
"OK." Ron said weakly, he was relieved Andrew wasn't permanently injured but he also wasn't exactly happy that Andy couldn't wrestle anymore. A few hours later Andy was finally wheeled into a room followed closely by his dad. Ron sat by the bed thinking about everything, Andrew's wrestling, him getting a detention, the girl he kissed, and the relationship between the two of them, until Andy finally woke up. "Hi Dad."
"Hi son," Ron replied. "The doctor says you tore some muscles in your leg and you can't wrestle anymore, and you'll need crutches."
"Oh…wow." Said Andrew, who was a little shocked by this turn of events. Inside he was thankful that he didn't have to wrestle anymore but he hated the pain in his leg, though it had subsided for now.
"Son, I'm glad you're not injured worse but I got to talk to you about something," said his father, in a low voice "How could you screw this up?"
"What?" asked Andrew, completely caught of guard by his dad's question as well as the look of frustration on his face.
"I asked how could you screw this up? How could you be so careless and let yourself get injured?" His father said, his voice full of anger and disappointment. "You were on your way Andrew, you could've gotten into any college you wanted and you went and let yourself get injured!"
"Are you serious! 'Let myself get injured'! Are you shitting me!" asked Andrew incredulously at his father's diatribe.
"No, I'm asking you how you could be so stupid and get hurt, I told you to watch yourself on the mat, didn't I tell you? God, I thought I raised you better than that, I thought I raised you to be a winner, but I guess I was wrong!"
"Well I'm sorry Dad, I guess I'm not a winner like you! I guess maybe I'm not worthy of being the next Ron Clark, high school wrestling champ three years in a row. And that's good, cause I don't want to be. I hate being your damn racehorse, I hate you breathing down my neck every second and guess what, I'm done. I'm through taking your win-win-win crap, and if that means you and me can't be friends anymore, too freakin' bad."
His father was dumbstruck by his son's sudden attitude, Andrew and him had their little spats but he never unleashed like this before. Ron backed off, thinking maybe he shouldn't have talked about this so soon. "You're tired and hurt, I'll just let you get some rest. I'll be back to pick you up tomorrow, get some sleep." His dad said calmly before leaving.
Andrew was disgusted at the way his dad acted about his leg, he knew his father wasn't an emotional man but he didn't expect him to go off like that. But the fact of the matter was that Andrew was done wrestling for the foreseeable future, the pressure of being the best was gone, but so was the rush from being in a match. He didn't know what to feel, about this but he didn't dwell on it, he was more focused on something else, or rather someone else.
His thoughts again went back to his "friends" he met in detention, specifically Allison, the cute but crazy girl who said nothing most of the time but when she did talk she said whatever she wanted no matter how weird it sounded. He remembered her walking around the room before sitting down, the Pixie Styx Capn' Crunch sandwich, the beautiful picture she drew, and the way she seemed free to be herself. He wasn't sure what would happen on Monday but…no he did know what would happen, he would talk to her. He meant it when he said he was done being a racehorse, he stood up to his dad twice today and now with this injury his status as the superstar athlete of Shermer High was now in question.So what the hell's stopping me from talking to her, or any of them? Kiro was right, they're worth the risk,and I'll be damned if I let myself get cheated out of great friends like them. And besides, I need to find out if Allison wants to date a former racehorse.