Let Me Love Him

VII.

If Ted wasn't the captain of the football team, Dan Wilson would never talk to him.

"So Mandy is a whore. Fact."

Jeez, what is he talking about?

And how to learn to fight back against Ted Thompson?

"It's not. She's not like that."

Dan envies Bo when he succeeds and when he stands up for Mandy in all seriousness, knowing that there is strained relationship between her and Ted.

"Oh, yeah," Ted just laughs, stopping at a traffic light, and turns to his teammate sitting on the right. "Do you remember those pictures? All Bullworth enjoyed looking at them last spring."

Dan envies Johnny Vincent, who punches Ted right in his nose — easily, aggressively and boldly. Punches him hard because he just can. Dan would never hit someone from the football team — he tried too hard to be on the team and get Burton's attention. He spent the whole summer before the selection to the team, building a good figure to stop being a target for ridicule. That's why he tolerates all these guys — Damon, Casey, Juri and, of course, Ted himself. Who is the most privileged.

"I thought we forgot about that already," Bo says grimly.

"Nah," pressing the gas pedal, Ted taps his friend on the shoulder. "Awesome pics."

"Pics of Mandy?" asks Casey sitting next to Dan. "Man, I should've seen them, but some idiot already painted them over!"

Dan will be lying if he says that he enjoys being in this clique. He plays football, he dates girls, he can get a scholarship and go to college. But Dan also knows that he is not the best football player. Not the one whose pictures will hang on the walls of Bullworth Academy after graduation. Not the one whom the coach will remember and cite as an example to others; Burton would rather curl his lips into a grin, only to later say that Dan Wilson was a frail and whiny.

"Damn, dude, you dated her," Bo looks at the team captain. "She was your girlfriend. Why are you like this?"

"It doesn't matter if she was my girlfriend. The fact is, she's a whore. I see this for the second time, bro."

Dan wants to push him, or maybe even yell at him, but Dan knows very well what they say behind his back. The words "nerd" and "brother of that sucker Thad" have stuck to him so tightly that only frequent beatings of the nerds and their leader in particular help to get rid of them. Dan just wants to be cool. Or at least look like that.

But Bo doesn't even have to try to look cool. He can tell Ted what he thinks.

"I don't know what she did to you personally, Ted, and to you, guys. But I think she's great," he says. "She's a good cheerleader. She has a lot to talk about. And she draws well. She even likes football, man!"

"Oh, man, she likes football, wow! Thanks for reminding me. This makes her the perfect girl right away," the car stops sharply in the middle of the road, and annoyed Ted turns to Bo. "What the hell, Jackson?"

"Come on, Ted, he's just being touchy," Casey smiles. "He likes to sit in the library and goes on those Carnival dates, guys, relax."

Bo just shakes his head, and Ted, keeping his eyes on him, again steps on the gas pedal. Everyone knows that Thompson is just like that — a quarterback, Bullworth star, pretty, popular boy. But no one knows that people shouldn't agree with him that often. They don't have to agree with him if they don't like something — even Damon constantly repeats everything he says. And that's what makes Ted like that. Like a spoiled jerk.

"So," he says as everyone in the car becomes awkwardly quiet, "you're saying you don't know why Crabblesnitch called us all yesterday?"

"No, dude, I don't know."