No Ordinary Nerd

Chapter 37

The following day, day two of Donnie's suspension, the black haired boy woke up and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Without even looking at himself in the mirror first, Donnie went straight for the shower, turning the water on and letting it get warm before stepping in, the water feeling nice as it hit and ran down his back.

Once Donnie was out of the shower, he dried himself off and wrapped a towel around his waist before going over to the mirror and wiping it with his hand. Once he could see his reflection, Donnie stared at the noticable bruises that decorated his stomach and face, along with a few cuts that decorated his face as well. As Donnie looked at one of the darker bruises on his face, particularly on his jaw, he noticed how his lip looked red before registering a slight pain there. Hovering a hand next to his face, Donnie slowly moved his hand closer, barely touching his lip before pulling his hand away as he winced. Looking at himself in the mirror again, Donnie concluded that he had a busted lip, a few cuts that would get by without needing stitches, and a handful of bruises, dark and light that decorated his face. Looking back to his stomach, he saw that it was only decorated by a few bruises that were dark, but not as dark as some of the bruises on his face. Sighing to himself, the boy knew he would most likely be questioned if he wasn't home alone today. With that thought in mind, Donnie left the bathroom to get changed into some clean clothes before slowly making his way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he saw one figure sitting at the kitchen table alone, sipping a mug of hot coffee.

"Hey, Donnie. Why aren't you at school? And what happened to your face?" Mrs. Jensen asked as she saw the boy slowly enter the kitchen and noticed his cut and bruised face as he sat down across from her at the table. "I may or may not have been suspended from school for a couple days." Donnie said, getting the woman's full attention now. "What did you do?" She asked in response. Donnie shrugged his shoulders. "I got into a fight." He answered simply. "How? Did you start the fight?" She asked as she stayed calm, wanting to hear Donnie's explanation before chosing how to react. "This one guy was being a jerk and saying this stuff about Hannah that is not at all true, and I guess I just lost it." Donnie said. "What did the guy say?" The woman asked. "He said how Hannah is a slut and is only with me for sex, and that once she gets what she wants, she'll completely forget about my existence and move on to the next guy." Donnie explained. The woman looked shocked for a few seconds before she became calm again. "But none of that is true." She asked, the sentence coming out as more of a statement than a question. "No. Everything that he said was just rumers. I only started the fight because I wanted to get him to stop saying all that stuff about Hannah, but I guess I let my anger control my actions before I really thought about what I was doing." Donnie explained, looking slightly guilty and as if he was expecting to get yelled at or grounded. While the boy was looking down at his lap, the older woman smiled at him. "I think what you did was a good thing. Especially since you stood up for your girlfriend. I'm not mad about it, and you're not in trouble for getting into a fight." She explained. "Really? I'm not?" Donnie asked, surprised at his mother-figure's answer. "Of course not. You're my son. Even if it's just by me and Matt taking you in when your actual parents died. I've always liked you and viewed you as my own son, and I'll always be proud of you, no matter what you do, Donnie." The woman said with a warm, gentle, caring smile. Donnie smiled back. "To be honest, I've always viewed you guys as my family. Especially when you took me in after what happened to my real parents. That's why I got used to calling you my mom and dad so quickly. I'm glad that you're the ones who took me in." Donnie admitted. The older woman smiled at his words. "Hey, how about you and I go do something? Just the two of us for a little mother-son bonding time. It can be whatever you want to do." Mrs. Jesnsen suggested with a bright smile as she stood from the table and put her now-empty mug into the sink. "Well, my parents never offered to do stuff like that with me when they were still around." Donnie said. "Sounds like fun." He added, smiling just as brightly as the older woman. "How about we go down to the arcade restaurant place that opened about a month ago?" Donnie suggested. "Alright. Let's go!" The woman exclaimed as she grabbed her purse and keys before heading out the door, closely followed by Donnie as the two got into the car and headed off.

Once they arrived to their desired location and found a vacant parking space, the two exited the car, locked it, and headed towards the large building. As they walked inside, they looked around at all the different arcade games and the seperate section that was a restaurant. As they walked around, they also noticed that there was even a seperate setup outside - a few rides, a go-kart track, and even three different mini golf courses. The two glanced t each other and smiled. "We don't have to do it this instant, but I challenge you to a go-kart race." Donnie said, making the older woman chuckle a little. "You're on!" She said, accepting his challenge.

After the two had played a couple games inside and got themselves something to eat, they headed outside to the outdoor portion. As they walked around outside, the two decided to start off with a round of mini golf. After walking up to a small counter to get the right sized putter and a golfball of their choice color - green, red, yellow, purple, pink, orange, or blue - they headed off and seeing the three paths that lead to different courses, they decided to go with the middle path.

"I still can't believe you won by getting a hole-in-one on that last hole." Mrs. Jensen said as they finished their mini-golf game and returned their putters. Donnie chuckled with a smile as they walked. Seeing how short the wait line was, Donnie smirked over at the older woman as they made their way towards the go-kart track.

When it finally became their turn, Donnie and Mrs. Jensen, along with a few other people walked over to the awaiting go-karts. "Nice ride you got there, bud." Mrs. Jensen joked with a smirk as Donnie was instructed to use a pink go-kart. Donnie just playfully rolled his eyes with a small smile. As they watched the retangular lights, they waited for it to go from red to green, signaling them that they could go.

When the light finally did turn green, everyone was off, racing around the long track, Donnie and Mrs. Jensen keeping up with each other really well as they went around the track, going around twists and turns and even over and under a bridge that was a part of the track. The two laughed as they forgot about the race between them and just had fun as they drove around the track, Donnie getting ahead at times while Mrs. Jensen got ahead at other times.

Once they both parked the go-karts afterwards, they both smiled as they walked around and decided to head back to their car. "Well, I do have to say, that was a lot of fun, I'm glad you suggested doing that, Donnie." Mrs. Jensen said after they had arrived back at the car. "I'm glad I suggested that too." Donnie said in agreement as they got into the car. "The day's still young." Mrs. Jensen said after seeing the time. "How about we stop for some ice cream?" She offered. "Sure. I'd be up for that." Donnie agreed. Mrs. Jensen then proceeded to start the car, back out of the parking space, and make her way out of the parking lot. "I'm sure by the time we get back home your friends will be out of school, too." She said as she focused on the road and driving. Donnie nodded in response as he smiled to himself. "I'm glad we did this today, Mom. Just you and me. I had a lot of fun." Donnie said after a few seconds of comfortable silence. "I had a lot of fun with it just being the two of us, too. Maybe this is something we'll have to do again." Mrs. Jensen replied as she briefly smiled at Donnie before turning her attention back to the road.