What If? Episode 907

Interpersonal Dynamics

Word travelled fast in the school. It seemed that the teachers didn't say a word to Scott in any of his other classes after Logan set the principal straight, though the hushed whispers from the kids were coming a bit more frequently. By the time he got to hockey, he was pretty tired of it - but he didn't expect his coach's reaction at all.

"You know what," his coach said as he looked Scott over carefully. "I think they might help you focus better." He paused and tipped his head to the side. "Just tell me if you have problems seeing the lines. We might have to adjust your position if you do."

Scott smirked the slightest and thanked him before he went out on the ice, going right into warm ups, but the slight reprieve didn't last too long. Not that he expected it would.

Of course, he had expected one of the upperclassmen to give him a hassle. There was always trouble from that one kid. Nathan was a big guy. And he'd been on the team since he'd hit high school - always in the same position, never good enough to pull off team captain or co-captain.

So of course, the guy had been just barely holding it back when Scott took his best friend's spot as defenseman. Seeing Scott wearing the red lenses ... well. That had been too much. It was just one more strike on him as far as Nathan was concerned. And he latched onto it - making snide comments every time they passed each other - trying to trip him up with his stick every chance he got - 'accidentally' body checking him into the wall. Just busting his chops all. Practice. Long.

By the end of it, Scott was frustrated. And sore. But if Nathan's aim had been to get Scott to quit - he couldn't have been more off. There was no way that was going to happen. Particularly when the coach was right. The red lenses did seem to help him isolate the puck faster. And for some reason, the detail seemed to actually pop more when it was taken down to a monochrome. So of course, there was no way Scott was going to let one jerk keep him down.

The game came up quickly that week, and though it wasn't a big rivalry school, it was still important to Scott to prove his spot on the team. He wasn't entirely sure if it helped or hurt his nerves in general to know that Logan had come out to watch the game - though he was sure that Logan was watching for trouble more than anything else.

Scott did his best - and after the game went into overtime with an even 3-3 score, they managed to squeak out a win. The team celebrated properly, and when it was all over, the party broke up pretty quickly, considering how tired all the players involved were from the late running game.

Logan met up with Scott near the parking lot, and the two of them were headed to the jeep when Scott heard the first insult fly. It was from Nathan, of course. But to make it worse, and it did make it worse, it sounded as if Nathan's father was joining the boy in the teasing.

Of course, as luck would have it - Nathan's father had apparently been one of the fighters from the bar brawl, though it took a moment for Scott to put that part together. While Nathan carried on about how something was obviously wrong with Scott, his dad was going on about how rigged that fight was. And both of them concluded quickly that the pair - Logan and Scott - were just a couple of lowlife freaks.

Oddly enough, the slams that Scott was hearing about himself weren't bothering him too much. Well. That wasn't entirely true. His heart rate had ticked up a bit at the casual and cruel toss of the phrase 'freaks'. But it was nothing. Not when compared to what he was hearing from Nathan's dad anyhow.

It was of course, the same lines of insults that had gotten Logan to knock Mr. Pelletier off his feet and into the mud before. It was painfully obvious that he was trying to rile Logan, and to Scott's surprise, Logan simply wasn't rising to the bait. Or at least he didn't look like he was getting irritated. At all. In fact, as he talked, Logan pulled a cigar out of his pocket and lit it, leisurely enjoying his smoke and flat not bothering to acknowledge the guy's existence.