Author's Note: This is a story I wrote about the Dukes and their first years at the farm. I tried to keep it with them from the point where they got to the farm, and carry on throughout a couple of years. It's a growing and learning experience for all of them. There are also notes at the end of each chapter, a credit of sorts to a father from his son.
Warning : The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen.
Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix….
Learning To Love…
Chapter 15 ….. School
Luke tried not to yawn where he sat in his desk, he was not fond of school, he could not see why he would want to go there. In fact he didn't want to go there, but he had to. His aunt and uncle said everyone had to go there when they were old enough, and he didn't like it at all. Cooter was there too, but he was in a lot higher grade then Luke was.
Luke weren't always able to see him, and that it made it all even more pointless. There were several kids that wasn't too bad in school beside Cooter, but some were terrible.
It hadn't taken him long to become a mortal enemy of both Dewey and Hughie Hogg. They were mean to everybody, and they cheated. Luke had tried to play marbles with them, he had thought that they were nice who came over and play with the younger children, but they were not. They cheated and took his marbles, and when he was fighting with Hughie, Dewey came and helped him.
A boy called Enos was nice though, but he was incredible clumsy, he was always tripping over everything, but he was nice and so Luke didn't laugh at him, or at least not very much. Enos didn't really mind it anyway.
They did have recess where they were allowed to go out and play, and that part Luke liked because there were swings and there was the monkey bars and there was a lot of things to climb around on.
Sometimes he would play with a boy named Brody because they both liked to climb. There was a tree some kids liked to climb in, but he didn't do that very much since he didn't like being too high up. Climbing was fun, he just never went very high.
What made Luke surprised was that Brett hadn't tried anything with him and they even had recess together a lot of the time. He avoided Luke who was happy to leave it that way. If he didn't bother him it was fine, if he did, then Luke would fight him again.
Now thought he was incredible bored and they were supposed to sit and write down figures and letters, where was the fun in that? He already knew most of them anyway since he could read a few words. Whoever needed them silly figures to count anyway, if he looked at the chickens he knew how many there were and he didn't need to draw figures to see that.
"Luke Duke, pay attention," Miss Robinson who was the teacher said sharply as she saw him looking out the window.
One of the girls took the opportunity to whisper something to one of the other girls who started giggling.
Luke propped his elbow on the desk and his chin in his hand as he looked out the window again.
Then he nearly hit the desk with his forehead as the teacher swept away his arm from out under him. "I told you to pay attention," she told him sternly.
"Yes Miss, sorry," he wasn't really all that sorry since he considered this very pointless. Someone giggled behind him and he turned around and glared.
"Luke," Miss Robinson repeated as he turned around in his chair. "Do ya want me to let yer folks know ya ain't behaving yerself?"
He sighed and turned around again, teachers were even worse than aunts and uncles, but if she told them he wasn't behaving himself he would be in trouble.
"Well, do ya?" she demanded and Luke sighed again.
"No, miss."
"Then pay attention an' maybe ya won't grow up to be completely illiterate," she told them sternly.
He really didn't like school, but there was one thing he had never considered. That was when he brought home the results of a homework to show them.
Holding up the note to his Uncle he didn't know what to expect. He wasn't even sure if it was good or bad.
"Well, well Luke, look at this," Jesse smiled at him as Luke showed him the paper they had all been given to bring home.
"It ain't bad is it?" Luke frowned thoughtfully.
"This ain't bad at all," Jesse leaned forward and ruffled his hair. "It's very good Luke, very good, I can tell ya's been working really hard here."
"Well, they told us we had to, I didn't want to," Luke admitted. "I don't like that stuff, it's boring an' difficult an' all."
"A lot of things are Luke," Jesse smiled at him, oh, he could remember thinking the same thing so very clearly. "But ya know something, I am very proud of ya to be bringing this home an' showing me. Ya did really good to get that kind of score, reckon yer a mighty smart little boy."
"Uncle Jesse, can I ask ya something?" Luke put his arms on the arm of the chair and looked up at him.
"Alright, ya go ahead an' ask me," when Luke formulated himself that way, it was something that he thought might be rude to ask about, or was afraid they would consider rude. He appreciated the boy's awareness of it though, so he usually just let him ask whatever he wanted.
"What's the point?" Luke asked looking up at him.
"What's the point with what?" Jesse frowned as he didn't understand.
"What's the point with all of it, I do a lot of things I don't wanna do, every day, an' they's all boring, then I get a paper an' yer telling me it's good, but I don't know if it is, an' why do I do it when none of it is good for me?" Luke looked at the paper again.
"Well Luke, if everyone only did things that were good for ourselves an' no one else, we would be living in a mighty bad world." Jesse tried to explain to him.
"I know that, I ain't talking about doing bad stuff," Luke explained. "I'm just wondering if it will ever be good for me?"
"Sure it will Luke, it will be plenty good for ya," Jesse nodded. "Just think of them stories I read to ya, then ya can read ya own. An' ya can count out how much money that ya have."
"I ain't got no money," Luke pointed out.
"Ya will have when ya get older." Jesse ruffled his hair again.
"What is the point of doing it now, if all the use I will have of it is when I get older?" Luke frowned.
"Ya start learning it now, an' as soon as ya know it yer gonna get more an' more use for it." Jesse explained patiently to the boy. "But I tell ya what Luke, ya did good here, so this once I'm gonna make sure its something good for ya. Now, I am not gonna do this for ya all the time, I expect ya to do good things without needing to get things from it, but this once, the next time we go to the store, ya can have some sweets, an' that is gonna be yer reward for this, how do ya like that?"
"I like it," Luke nodded eagerly. "So, if I do the stuff I don't want to. I will learn stuff I need, an' sometimes it will be good for me?"
Jesse nodded. "If by good for ya, ya mean a reward, yeah, on occasion. But ya had better not start counting on them boy."
"Ain't gonna, but it feels good to know." Luke stated. "Thanks Uncle Jesse," he leaned forward and hugged his uncle before sliding down to the floor.
"Are ya running off to play now?" Jesse asked, he wasn't sure when supper was, but he didn't think he would have time to go to far.
"Yeah, I was gonna go play in the hay," Luke nodded. "I'm making a cave in there."
"Alright Luke, but ya mind we're gonna have supper later," Jesse cautioned.
"Okay," Luke ran out happily to continue on his attempts to make a cave in a haystack.
He wasn't happy the next day, there just was something foreboding about brining home a note that said you hadn't been behaving yerself at all in school.
He didn't even know how it came he misbehaved that bad.
It had started out pretty good, he had even kept his attention to what he was doing. Then Thomas Lee snatched his paper from him and started giggling as he showed his buddy some mistake on it. When Luke made to snatch it back the paper ripped and Miss Robinson noticed. She was mad, really mad, she was yelling at them how they had misbehaved themselves. When Luke tried to explain to her that it was all Thomas Lee's fault she got even more mad at him. She told him to hold how his hand and then rapped his knuckles with her ruler.
Luke bit his lip so he wouldn't cry out, but it hurt and it made him mad. Why was he the one who was punished when it was Thomas Lee who had started it all? It was silly and the teacher was silly to.
When he got home and gave the note to Jesse he wasn't mad, he was scared. He stood there with his lower lip trapped between his teeth and his hands clasped on his back as his uncle read it.
"Well Luke, can ya explain this?" Jesse wanted to know.
"Well, Thomas Lee snatched the paper from my desk," Luke explained, telling his Uncle what had happened, and how the teacher had his hand with the ruler.
"Well Luke, did ya learn yer lesson?" Jesse wanted to know, the boy had already been punished, and it was nothing serious, so he just wanted to make sure he understood.
"I dunno," Luke didn't have any idea what it was he was supposed to have learned.
"If they do that again, ya just tell the teacher that they did it, that way, ya won't be the only one who gets in trouble because of it," Jesse explained.
"Okay," Luke agreed.
The next day when Thomas Lee did the exact same thing he did what his Uncle had told him too, he told Miss Robinson that the other boy had taken his paper, and it was Thomas Lee who got into trouble and not him.
When the day was over he hurried outside to tell his uncle he had done like he told him. He was hurrying so much he didn't see when Thomas Lee stuck his foot out in front of him and tripped him. Luke fell to the floor sliding a little on his stomach before he came to a stop on the linoleum tiled floor.
When he was finally outside and saw his Uncle's pickup he headed there, opened the door and crawled inside looking very unhappy.
"What happened to you?" Jesse frowned as he saw a bruise on Luke's face.
"It was a bad idea," Luke informed him.
"I can see that, what was a bad idea?" Jesse frowned wondering if he had been trying to climb something.
"Thomas Lee took my paper again, an' I told Miss Robinson. An' it was a bad idea," Luke declared.
"Luke, son, why was it a bad idea?" Jesse wanted to know.
"Cause he called me a tattle tale an' he tripped me an hit me in the face wi' his bag." Luke stated.
"Thomas Lee did that?" Jesse was surprise seeing as he knew the boys parents and would never have thought their son would act like that.
"He did," Luke stated firmly. "I was gonna fight him but he ran off so I couldn't."
"Well Luke, it ain't never really a good idea to fight. He did wrong there, he did really wrong."
"He was doing the bad stuff, but it's me that hurts," Luke stated none too happily. "It ain't fair."
"No, it ain't fair Luke, but ya didn't do nothing wrong, an' at least that is something. Come one now son, we need to pick some things up at the store, an' one of them things is that bit of candy I promised ya."
Heading home with the candy in his pocket Luke tried to figure out exactly what he thought about school. At times it was absolutely horrible, other times it was almost nice. The kids could be mean, but some was nice, and the candy was sure good.
He supposed that it was better to go there than to make a fuss about it.
In credit of the man who never were able to explain what the benefits of school were, and who I sometimes ain't sure knew if I was there or not…
TBC
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