Phillip & Matty went to the gym and a tall good looking red headed boy came over. "Hey, aren't you Phillip King?"

Phillip nodded. "I am. You want an autograph?"

Matty felt his face turn red. God, Leann and Mandy were right. Phillip was not going to help his popularity at this new school.

"I'm Jeff Kenwood. Last year's captain. Are you here to talk to the team? Because tryouts aren't until next week. There is no team yet."

Phillip smiled, "No, kid. Hey is Bobby Kenwood your older brother? Your family used to live in my neighborhood."

Jeff answered "Yeah, Bobby is my oldest brother. We moved to the other side of town when I was born. My parents wanted a bigger house. Is this your son? Is he as good a player as you were?"

Phillip made a face at Jeff. "Hey, I'm not that old. This is my little brother and he's way better than I ever was."

Jeff walked over to Matty and shook his hand, "It's nice to meet you. What's your name?"
Phillip put his hand on Matty's shoulder. "His name is Matty Stetson. He's deaf and can't speak. But don't underestimate him. He is a really cool kid. Give him a chance if you want to win some championships."

Jeff threw Matty the basketball. They started playing and Matty got the ball away from Jeff and threw a three-point shot. Just as Coach Hayes walked into the gym. He was an overweight balding middle-aged man. He looked like a stereotypical high school coach.

Jeff and Matty stopped playing when the coach came in.

Jeff was grinning at Matty. "Oh wow, you are awesome. Seriously the way you move is incredible."

Matty signed thank you to Jeff. He figured Jeff probably didn't understand, but Phillip pulled Matty over to talk to the coach.

The coach was smiling as he looked at Matty. "So, your King's other little brother. You have some moves. If you can get the ball away from Kenwood like that. Consider yourself on the team. Alex, right? I remember when Amanda used to bring you to the games as a baby. Oh, it will be nice to see her again too. Your father was a nice guy too. Took me a little bit to realize that he was not King's actual father. "

Phillip smiled at him. "Everyone calls him Matty, Coach. He is getting surgery in a month, so he won't be able to play basketball this season. But you'll have him for the Warrior's soccer team this spring. Just wanted to say hi and introduce you to him. You will probably be seeing me a lot this year."

Coach Hayes looked disappointed. "That's disappointing. Oh well, you have three kids now right, King?"

Phillip nodded. "Yep, and a fourth one on the way. Two of them are girls though. So, they would be playing for Coach Mason."

Coach Hayes smiled. "Well, it will be good to see you around more, King. It will be good for my players if you can come by and give them some pointers."
Then Phillip looked at his watch. "Sure anytime, Coach. Oh shoot. We are going to be late for Principal Dennis. Sorry Coach, we got to run. Nice to meet you, Jeff."

They went to the main office.

Principal Dennis saw them and beckoned them into her office. She smiled at them. "Well, this feels like old times having you in my office again, Phillip."

Phillip grinned. "It does, doesn't it? You know you love me, Principal Dennis. You followed me from middle school to high school."

Principal Dennis laughed then turned to Matty. "Mr. Harrison the interpreter is running late. He won't be here until 3rd or 4th period. His car broke down. I am so sorry, Matty. It is your first day too."
Phillip looked at her. "I can stay and interpret for him. I just have to make a couple of phone calls. But I would be happy to do it."

Principal Dennis smiled at him, "Thank you Phillip. It is good to see you again. I understand you have three more coming our way in the coming years."
Phillip smiled. "There is a fourth one on the way too. My wife is pregnant again. Hopefully it is only four. Twins run in my wife's family, and we already have one set. "

Principal Dennis smiled, "Well that is good. It means we will have Amanda involved with the schools again for years to come. The PTA has not been the same since you and Jamie graduated. How is Jamie doing by the way? I saw he won the Pulitzer Prize last year. We would love to have him come talk to the students sometime."

Phillip smiled. "Yeah, he's not that into public speaking though. He is still a little shy. But I'll tell him to call you. He might do it for you."

Principal Dennis then turned to Matty, "You have a clean slate here at Arlington High. Your mother told me what happened at your last school. We have a zero tolerance for bullying here at Arlington High. You come to me if any of the kids are giving you a hard time. But we also have a zero-tolerance policy for fighting. Remember that. Tell your father to remember that as well."
Matty nodded yes.

She smiled at him. "Now, here is your schedule. Phillip should be able to help you find your classes. Good luck to you, Matty. We are happy that you are here. Your mother is a good friend of mine. Also, for today Matty, you have a free pass if you get thrown out of any classes for having a smart mouth while Phillip is your interpreter."

Phillip smiled at her and looked at Matty's schedule. "Oh man, he has Mrs. Jenkins for history. 1st period. Yeah, it won't be Matty's fault if we get sent right back here."

Principal Dennis laughed, "It is nice to see you again Phillip. Now get out of my office and stay out for the rest of the day at least."

They got into the hallway and Phillip pulled out his cell phone to call into work. Matty had spent his home room period in Principal Dennis's office. He followed Phillip to the classroom. They went inside.

"Hey Mrs. J, how's it hanging?" Phillip said as they walked into the classroom and handed the teacher a note.

"Oh, dear god. It's you. You're back." Mrs. Jenkins had a look of horror on her face and read the note from Principal Dennis.

Then Phillip said, "Don't worry Mrs. Jenkins. It's just for this morning. This little dude can't talk back. He is more like Jamie. It is my sister and my twins you are going to have to watch out for in a couple of years. Got another little one too but it's too soon to tell what her mouth is going to be like."

Mrs. Jenkins sighed but then she winked at him. "Well, just take a seat and please, Phillip. No funny business."
Phillip nodded. "I wouldn't dream of it Mrs. J. I will try really hard for my little brother's sake to not get him thrown out of his first class."

Phillip and Matty found a couple of desks in the back. The class went alright. Mrs. Jenkins did not call on them at all. Phillip actually was having a really good time. The next class was English with Mr. Roberts. He was very happy to see Phillip again. His third class was gym with Coach Hayes. They just played Dodge ball and Matty was the last kid standing.

After gym class he went over to Phillip who was sitting with a short old man. Phillip spoke. "Hey Matty, this is Mr. Harrison. He is your interpreter. I am going to go back to work. You be good. I will pick you up at 2:45PM."

Matty hugged his brother. "Thanks for everything today, Phillip."
Matty had one more class and then it was lunchtime. Mr. Harrison left him alone for lunch. His mom had packed him a peanut butter sandwich with the weird granola bars he liked.

Matty looked around the cafeteria trying to decide where to sit to eat his lunch. There were some other Junior Trailblazers and Bomber kids he knew. But he was not really close to any of them. The other Trailblazers and bomber kids were always nice to him. But Matty never really had any close friends his own age. He was different. He was not normal. Even when he had lived in England his best friend had been Tony.
Now his best friend was his little sister Leann, but she was 10 almost 11 and he was 15 almost 16. He was kind of looking forward to next year because Leann would be in middle school. It was not the same school, but they would share a parking lot. It would kind of be like when he went to school in England and got to share a parking lot with his dad.

Matty decided to go to the stairwell area in the back of the cafeteria. It was not the main stairwell. So, nobody was there. He could be alone. He sat quietly in the stairwell eating his sandwich and he pulled out a book. A very pretty, dark-haired girl came over and sat down next to him.

"Hi, my name is Rachel. You are the new kid, Matty right? Can I sit here and eat my lunch with you? My friends are being jerks right now."

Matty nodded yes. Why was she talking to him? Most kids were scared of him. Maybe his reputation as a freak had not spread to Arlington high yet.

Rachel smiled at him. "We actually know each other a little bit. My little sister is Jessie. Your sister Leann used to be best friends with her. My grandma lives on your street. We've met a couple times, but we never really talked. Well, you don't talk right?"

Jessie was his sister's best friend until his dad had overheard Jessie making fun of Matty. Matty was not even that hurt by it. But his dad went ballistic. He had thrown Jessie out of their house, and Leann stopped talking to Jessie because she had been mean to Matty.

Matty had felt so bad. Jessie was Leann's best friend and Matty had ruined it. She really had not said anything worse than the other kids in his old school had said to him daily. He was so used to being called a freak, psycho, and that the other kids thought he had killed and ate a bunch of people. Usually worked to his advantage. Because the other kids were a little scared of him so mostly left him alone. Well, that was until last year when Warren Ziegler just would not leave him alone.

Matty took out his white board so he could talk to her. "You do look familiar. You probably don't want to be seen with me. I am not exactly Mr. Popularity. I can go if you want to eat your lunch here. I'll just go eat in the library or something."

Rachel smiled. "No food allowed in the library. I don't care who I am seen with. For the record, I don't think you're a freak. My little sister doesn't either. Not really. She actually has a crush on you that was why she was being so mean to you that day."

Matty laughed and wrote, "Jessie does not have a crush on me. I thought she liked my cousin Joey."

Rachel laughed, "She likes him too, but you have the pretty eyes. My sister is right you actually do have really nice eyes."

Matty blushed. Did Rachel like him? Oh god what if he did start dating her? His dad was not going to be happy if Matty started dating a Gilstrap girl. Then Matty shook it off. Rachel was not interested in him. Her 10 year old sister was. No girl would ever be interested in Matty. He was too much of a freak.

Matty was about to write something in response when Jeff Kenwood from this morning popped his head into the stairwell. "Yo Rach! We are sorry. Come back and sit with us. You can come too, Matty."

Matty was confused. Why were these kids being so nice to him? He followed them to the table. There were two girls and two boys sitting at the table. They all looked like they were probably popular. He knew Davy Ferguson from next door. He played basketball in the park with him sometimes and they had been in Junior Trailblazers together. But they were not close friends.

Davy smiled at him "Hey Matty. Jeff said you totally annihilated him on the court this morning. I was just telling them what a legend you were in Junior Trailblazers. That you achieved raccoon level faster than any other Junior Trailblazer ever. Sucks that we can't have you on the basketball team yet. Oh, and Jeff, dude you should see him play soccer. We were on the Bombers soccer team together. It is unbelievable how this kid moves. He was good on the Bomber's baseball team too. But he's amazing an amazing soccer goalie."

None of these kids were teasing him and making fun of him. Davy Ferguson had always been very nice. Davy was the youngest of the seven Ferguson children.

Jeff was smiling at him. "So, elephant in the room, Matty. Did you actually ever kill anyone?"

There it was. He knew it was coming. Matty took out his white board out. "No. I never killed anyone. But well, you might not want that to get out. It is better if the other teams think I am the freak that killed a bunch of people when I was little."

Jeff laughed "I like you. You are welcome at our table. Also, I am always in the gym before school. So, if you ever come to school early again and play some one on one with me. I would be down for that. Think playing against you will make me a better player."

The rest of the day went well. Phillip had been right Arlington high was so much better than his last school. Phillip bringing him this morning really did help with his popularity which amazed Matty. That and his mom. The teachers at the school absolutely adored his mother. They were all happy that she was going to be involved in the school again.

After school he was waiting in the parking lot for his brother. When Rachel came up to him again.
"Hey Matty." She was smiling at him.

"Hi Rachel." Matty wrote on his whiteboard.

"I was wondering if you would like to get coffee with me, sometime. You know after school. We could go to the coffee shop across the street." She seemed nervous asking him and was looking at her shoes.

Did a girl just ask him out? Matty had no idea how to answer. What if it was just as friends? Why would anyone want to date him?

But then he felt an arm on his shoulder. "My little brother here would love to get coffee with you. He can't do it today though. How about after school tomorrow?"

Rachel smiled, "I'll ask my mom. But yeah, that would be great."

Rachel then kissed Matty on the cheek and said, "See you tomorrow, Matty."

Matty turned very red. What had just happened? Did he really have a date after school tomorrow. Had Rachel really just kissed him on the cheek? He touched his cheek where she had just kissed it. His cheek felt all tingly and warm.

Phillip was laughing. "C'mon Casanova, let's go home. Mom and grandma are going to love this."

Notes:

Is Matty going to end up with Rachel in the long run? No, of course not. He did not give her a package. That does not happen until Prodigal Son III. But we are only on chapter 2 of this story right now.

Next Chapter - Matty goes home and he has his first date.