Just Try It

Chapter 35- Babysitting Moe is Hard Work

Wednesday, February 15th 3:15pm

Lincoln High School Boys' Locker room

When Korbin walked in the locker room he looked around. He saw that Moe had finished unbuttoning the shirt of his uniform and was tossing it to the side. He still had on the black Under-Armour tank that he always wore, and hadn't even started changing into shorts yet. Korbin relaxed, and began to wonder if Jamie was wrong for once, but then he saw Malcolm slip out from behind some lockers and head for Moe.

In a smooth move, Malcolm grabbed the edge of Moe's undershirt, and pulled it up over his head. If he didn't hate Malcolm so much he would have been impressed by the smooth move. Instead, he was just more concerned as he saw that Moe's arms were effectively trapped and he was blinded by his own shirt. Malcolm quickly locked Moe securely under one arm. It didn't take Moe long to overcome his shock and start struggling, but he was having trouble getting loose. Korbin knew from experience that Moe would never give up and would eventually get loose and tear into Malcolm himself.

It had been a long time since he had felt the need to jump into Moe's fights. This time was different though. For one, Malcolm had already shown he wouldn't fight fair since he had attacked from behind without warning and had trapped and blinded his victim instead of fighting fair. Another reason was that Malcolm was big enough to do some serious damage. Even though Moe could take a shot and keep coming back, Malcolm might be too much. Besides, Korbin didn't want Moe to have all the fun. A smile was forming as he moved forward to help his friend. The smile faded and he moved faster when Malcolm pulled out a phone and started taking pictures of Moe's back.

Moe didn't know what the clicking noises were, but something about them made him struggle even harder. With a hard wrench, that would hurt later, he jerked his elbow loose. Not even thinking, he reacted as Korbin had taught him long ago. Twisting his body around, he swung his elbow up hard. It connected with a loud CRACK that felt like he had connected to with a brick wall. He would have thought he had completely misjudged his surroundings, but the brick wall groaned and iron band around him loosened. Even as the shock reverberated down his arm he managed to get the shirt off of his face and see that the "brick wall" had been Malcolm's face. The bloody lip was quickly swelling, but Malcolm was far from done. In fact, the stunned look in Malcolm's eyes was quickly changing to a narrowed glare. A punch would come next, and Moe wasn't even completely loose yet.

His struggles intensified as Malcolm slipped something into his back pocket and made a fist, but he couldn't get enough leverage. As Malcolm drew back his arm, Moe braced himself. Eventually Malcolm would forget to hang on to him, and then it would be his turn.

Just then, Korbin body slammed Malcolm into the lockers. That broke Malcolm's grip the rest of the way, and Moe was able to stand up. He yanked his shirt back into place, and turned back to the fight. Moe wanted to leap back in, but for a few seconds he ended up just watching. He didn't want to step into one of Korbin's punches, and there were a lot of them.

Malcolm had been caught off guard by the Korbin's attack, and stumbled away in confusion as he rebounded off the lockers. Moe felt like laughing at the surprised look on Malcolm's face, but he really couldn't blame him. After all, people usually didn't go after someone that weighed more than two hundred fifty pounds of pure muscle and stood over six feet tall. The last time had probably been when Jamie had taken him on, and he had probably convinced himself that he had been sick or something. The urge to laugh disappeared quickly as Malcolm got over his shock, found his footing, and refocused on his new target.

Moe realized that Korbin had found a way to release some of the anger that had been gathering ever since Jamie had told him about the DHS worker and her run in with Malcolm. Not only that, but Korbin seemed to have been using Jamie's lessons in martial arts for more than a way to get close to her. As Moe watched Korbin dodge another swing, Moe couldn't help thinking that he might actually have to stop teasing Korbin about those individual practice sessions. Even though Malcolm was trying, he was unable to land any punches. At the same time, Korbin seemed even better at putting his whole body behind his hits.