Special Handling (manxman)

Chapter 20

 The picture on the right is Benji with his adviser Joe.

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Chapter 20

Benji's POV

"How did mid-terms go Benji?"  It was Thursday afternoon and I was driving downtown to the boy's club with Joe.

"Way better than I expected," I replied happily.  "I checked on-line this morning and I got 2 B plusses, an A minus and an A!"

"Benji, that's great!  WOW!  I'm impressed.  What changed?"

"I don’t know…lots of things.  Learning how to study was different than for High School than for college, Jamie's helped me, your advice helped a lot and going to Ajax's to study in quiet.  He's also really good at helping me focus for small time periods, then helping me burn off some energy and then back to focused studying.  Well, all of you have helped me with that…"

"He's just better at the burning off energy part," Joe teased.

"Oh shaddup!"  I tried to smack his arm, but he held up his hand.

"Driving, driving!"

"You're such a pussy, Joe!"

"Listen Benji, I need to stop at Walmart.  Derek asked me to pick up some juice on the way to the club." Joe swung into the parking lot of the consumer behemoth and I cringed.  "You coming in?" He asked 5 minutes later when he finally found a parking spot.

"No.  I'm not really allowed in Walmart."  Joe looked at me oddly, so I just grinned.  "Actually, I need to run into that store over there, I'll meet you back at the car?"  I gestured over to an art supply store.

"Sure, you taking up painting or something?"

"Nah, just want to pick up something for Liam."

"Okay, don't take too long."

"Dude, I'll be in and out before you make it by your first mama in stretchies and a tube top!"  I hopped out of the car and ran across the street to St. James Art Supply.   It only took me four minutes to find what I was looking for and two more to pay for them and I was back out the door and waiting by the car when Joe wheeled out a cart full of family sized juices.

Twenty minutes later we were parked at the Boy's Club and a bunch of the older boys were helping unload the car.  I grabbed a bag and dropped it off in the kitchen before I headed out back.  The basketball court was full of older boys, but I saw Brett, Aiden and Jonah kicking around a soccer ball in a corner of the lot while Liam sat on a table nearby his face buried in his spiral notebook.  Aiden kicked the ball and it came flying my way so I blocked it with my foot, did a few fancy moves I learned in High School and then kicked it back.

I walked over and sat down at the table across from Liam, noticing Jonah keeping a careful eye on me.  "Liam, I brought you something," I said when he finally peeked up at me.  Wordlessly he tilted his head looking at me quizzically.  I opened the bag and pulled out a sketchbook and placed it in front of him.  "A sketchbook, so you don't have to draw your pictures on lined paper."  Liam's head came up over his notebook and he looked at the book curiously.  I flipped the cover open and ran my finger over the paper.  "Feel the texture, I'm not an artist, but I had a friend in High School who was and he loved running a graphite pencil over a brand new sheet of a brand new sketchbook."  I pushed the book a little closer to Liam and a small hand came up and he ran his small pointer finger over the paper.