The Hate Game

4 | Lyle

"Burgess?"

Silence.

"Lyle Burgess?"

He opened his eyes, leaving the daydream, and entering his PE class. Around him, several of his sophomore classmates stood, chattering about their summers and wearing gym shorts. He looked at the teacher, Mrs. Greenwood, and raised his hand. "Here, Mrs. Greenwood!"

She nodded, scribbling on her clipboard. "All right. But next time, hon, be more in the present." she proceeded to calling role once more.

"Yes, ma'am, I was just thinking about..." Lyle started but realized no one was listening to him. No biggie. He would get all the attention he needed later.

He proceeded to picking up a basketball and dribbling it before attempting a two-pointer. When it fatally missed, a guy laughed to his right.

"Dude, my grandma can shoot that better and she's half blind!" he guffawed, whacking his knee with his hand and laughing. A couple more guys behind him laughed as well.

"Some grandma you have there," Lyle said, grabbing the ball and dribbling it. He aimed again for the two-pointer, positioning his stance like those he saw in the NBA. Just as he was about to shoot it...

A large, meaty paw reached over and smacked the ball from Lyle's hands, the tough texture of the ball scraping his palms. Lyle cried out in pain as he realized that same guy had grabbed it from him and did a slam dunk, earning the applause of his friends and a few girls.

"Yeah, she's some grandma," the guy said, dribbling the ball. "I guess her talents run in the family." he smiled at Lyle, and earned more giggling from girls around him.

Lyle examined this guy. He was a tall figure, with huge legs - mainly muscle, which probably meant he ran a lot. He wore a basketball jersey with a t-shirt underneath, and the name on the jersey read Colon.

"Colon?" Lyle said out loud. "Some team name you have there."

All the guys who had mounted themselves around the guy pestering Lyle burst out laughing. "Dude," the guy with Colon written on his jersey. "You're just as dumb as everyone says you are. Colon is my name, not my team, you idiot."

Lyle felt his face burning read but forced a witty remark out of him. "Well, Colon, you certainly have some name there."

The Colon guy stopped laughing and glared at Lyle. "Do you know who I am, punk?" and he took a step closer to Lyle, towering over him.

"Some guy with the last name of colon," Lyle replied, trying not to let his fear show. "More or less, right guys?" he looked around at his classmates, but they were all just watching this encounter.

"My name is Kyle Colon," the guy snarled. "And you don't mess with me."

"Kyle?" Lyle said. "Kyle? For real? Your name is Kyle?"

Kyle smiled. "More or less. Right guys?" and he gestured his muscular arm out at the crowd of people who let out a cheer. "Now, if you ever cross paths with me again..."

"Kyle Colon!" Mrs. Greenwood suddenly barked, pointing her pen at him. She was talking to a woman who had an administrative office tag on her. "This lady needs to talk to you!"

Kyle frowned, then sneered at Lyle. "These old ladies can't get enough of me," he said, as he strutted over to the two women.

The crowd dispersed fairly quickly after that, and Lyle decided to head over to Mrs. Greenwood to ask about the year's curriculum. His parents saw to it if Lyle studied ahead of the class, his grades excelled. And also while he was talking with Mrs. Greenwood, perhaps he could hear a little bit about what Kyle and this lady were talking about?

Mrs. Greenwood stood fairly close to Kyle and the woman, so Lyle managed to catch a few words.

"All right everyone, five more minutes before we get into the real stuff!" Mrs. Greenwood shouted. "And boys, no wedgies! We're not in elementary school anymore, are we?"

Lyle chuckled. "I have a feeling those boys have it all wrong."

Mrs. Greenwood looked at him. "And what can I do for you, Mr..."

"Burgess. Lyle Burgess. Mrs. Greenwood, I just have a small question to ask of you." Lyle turned on his "Good Student" charm which won all the good grades he was proud to show.

"Sure, what'll it be?" she replied, crossing her arms.

Lyle happened to hear Kyle, a few feet away, shout out, "But I'm advanced!"

He heard the office lady say, "But you're no match for what these sophomore can do, Mr. Colon. You're just a freshman, and if these sophomores found out that you..."

Lyle focused his attention back to Mrs. Greenwood. "I would just like to know this year's curriculum - health class as well as this physical class so I can study ahead of time to prepare for future lessons." Mrs. Greenwood just laughed. "Is there a problem, ma'am?" Lyle asked.

She slapped her knee. "Sorry, son, but youknow your brother? The one who's off to college this year?"

"Greg... and yeah?" Lyle replied, not sure where this was going.

She wiped a tear from her eye as she beamed down at the student. "He asked me that same thing and you want to know what I told him?"

"Ah, what?"

"NOO!!!!!!!" she full on roared at him, and he took a step back. "Don't you be bribing me for good grades, sonny boy! Doesn't your brother ever talk to you about these things? If I see you asking me anything like that again, I'll personally see to it that you'll flunk this class!" and with that, she turned around and stalked towards her office.

Lyle heard a snicker behind him. It was Kyle.

"Damn, boy, you really don't know how to play it well with the women, do you?" Kyle snickered.

"At least I'm not the freshman sneaking into sophomore classes," Lyle shot back, and the look on Kyle's face almost made him laugh.

"I... What..." Kyle mumbled. "I..."

"Stick with people your own size, freshy," Lyle snickered as he headed over to his basketball again.

And what did Kyle do?

He hurled his basketball at Lyle's head.

Which is what lead both of them to being suspended for the first week of school.

And yet they still got into the game.