Naked in School-Kevin and Denise
It’s Thursday now. I can’t believe what’s happened this week, it’s like a bad dream. Maybe I’ll wake up in Seoul and go have breakfast with Mom and Dad... no, stop it. I’ve just got to keep focused and everything will work out. Maybe...
At least I’m really enjoying school. That is, when I’m actually in class. I’m looking forward to when this craziness is all over. Ugh, a thought. If they’re gonna be running that damned Program in school from now on, it’s gonna be in my face all day long! Relief in classes. Nude kids and groping in halls. Nude girls in the boys’ locker room (actually that doesn’t sound so bad). Girls in the boys’ toilets (that does). How will this produce a calm educational atmosphere, when we’ll have horny teens, naked and clothed, running around all day long, trying to work off their rampant hormones? And even with my condition, I’m NOT immune from getting erections, you know? Even if I’m not nude myself and even being all strapped up, erections are still very painful. Maybe I won’t like school after all.
My morning routine continued with my stop to pick up Denise. She asked if we could stop at a convenience store on the way to school; she wanted to get some “personal feminine products” as she put it; she had run out and had forgotten to get them sooner. We pulled in to the parking lot and I decided to go in with her to get a snack for later. We walked in, smack dab into a guy who spun around, pointing a gun at us.
The world stopped. There was this guy holding a gun; he had just swivelled around to face us when we came through the door, and there was another guy about three meters away in front of the cash registers holding a gun in his right hand but pointed at the floor. I took all of that in in about a millisecond and then my body began to move. I softly tapped Denise behind her knees and she just folded down onto the floor as I spun to the side of the guy in front of me. One of my hands chopped his gun forearm in a full shuto; I felt the bones snap and the gun dropped harmlessly as my other hand did a shuto to his neck on his opposite side, breaking his clavicle. He bent over, yowling. His partner turned at the noise and looked at me stunned, but I had already leaped toward his left side, spun, and nailed him with an outside chiko chagi (axe kick) to the side of his neck. He went down like a stone. He never knew what hit him. As I completed the chiko spin, I was facing the first guy who was now scrabbling over, trying to pick up the gun, so I hit him with a mirro chagi (push kick) to the jaw. Both down. Maybe six seconds had passed.
Then the reaction set in; I felt a little lightheaded, dizzy, but I needed to see if Denise was ok. She was but looked dazed. I jumped up, pulled off my belt, rolled guy two onto his face and secured his arms behind him and then asked the stunned girl behind the counter if she had rung the cops and if she had something to tie up the other guy. She looked around wildly but then I noticed a pack of tiewraps on a shelf. I used the largest sizes to secure both the gunmen’s arms and took my belt back.
Denise was on her feet now.
“Kevin! What the hell! What happened!”
“Sorry I had to drop you. You were in his line of fire if he pulled the trigger.” She gasped. “I took them out.”
The cashier stuttered, “You sure as hell did! I’ve never seen anything happen so quick!”
I took some towels and used them to pick up the guns, placing them on a shelf. The door opened and someone walked in.
“Please stay out for now, this is a crime scene, ok?” I said, pushing him out. To the clerk, “Please ring 911.”
“Oh! Yes!” She did, and I found that I could lock the door, so I did. I went over to the girl.
“Are you ok? Did they hurt you?”
“No, just scared. They came in and were in that aisle until the last customer went out. Then they walked up front, pulled guns, and just then you guys came in. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast!”
One of the thugs was coming around and starting to moan, trying to roll over. I pushed him back onto his face. “Stay where you are or else I’ll break something else, buddy.”
Then I heard a siren in the distance, but suddenly a police car pulled up in front and two cops jumped out with guns drawn. The people outside moved away from the door and I unlocked it. They came in slowly.
“Show me your hands,” one shouted nervously. I stood back, raising my arms, poking Denise as I raised them. She did too.
They came in and looked around. One cop went looking through the store while the other stood covering us and staring at the thugs on the floor.
“All clear, Jim,” the searcher said.
The other looked at me. “Ok, who can tell me what happened here?”
I indicated the clerk. “She saw everything from the beginning. I only came in at the end.”
The clerk gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, right. You really ended them. Thanks for that, by the way. Whew. Let me gather my thoughts...”
She began to explain what happened when the door opened again and who should walk in but Detective Conners and his partner George. Conners looked at me and did a double-take.
“Kid, I thought you were going to stay out of trouble...”
One of the cops interrupted, “Conners, the kid did a number on these guys. Look at them and look at how they’re trussed up.”
I broke in, “I walked into an armed robbery. Their pistols are there in the towels. I used the towels to pick them up and put them in a safe place.”
Conners looked at the guns, then me, and then the clerk. “Ok, ma’am, can we start at the beginning again?”
The other thug was beginning to come around, the one I hit with the chiko kick. I didn’t think his neck was broken, but I warned the cops that it was possible.
“Hey, so you know. That guy was starting to point his pistol at me so I axe-kicked him. I had to do it quickly; I was going for his clavicle but may have gotten his neck too.”
The cop breathed, “Holy shit...”
Conners turned to me. “Well, I guess this shows me how you could have taken out Abover. Man. Two armed men taken out by a kid. Tell me, you give lessons? Ok, folks, I need statements. George? Meat wagon on the way?”
“Yeah. Three minutes.”
Everyone told their stories, gave their contact info, and the cops and detectives had a private chat with me before they wrapped things up. They told me that I probably wouldn’t be needed for the trial if the thugs pleaded not guilty, but I might need to give a deposition. Since Denise was on the floor during my brief activity and didn’t see much, any testimony from her wouldn’t be worth a lot. They thanked me profusely for the way I handled the pistols.
“Hell, son, you saved us a load of work just with your thoughtfulness about that. Here’s my card with the incident number on the back. You can use it as your school late pass; you’ll probably need it as your excuse. I think that this chain offers a reward for crimestoppers; you might pick up some change for your heroism this morning.”
Some press vans were now pulling in.
“I don’t need the money. The clerk could probably use it more than me. If they have a reward, it’ll go to her. Can we go? I want to get out of here before the press descends on us. Denise, let’s go quickly. Thanks, Detective Conners.”
We ran out and avoided the press crews, drove a few blocks to another convenience store (I went in first to make sure all was well), we made our purchases, and got out. Denise was still in a little shock but was beginning to recover.
“My God, Kevin. Don’t tell me you’re not some kind of hero figure now. I still don’t believe what I saw and I was there. You moved like a flash of lightning, jumping and spinning like a ballet dancer on steroids, and suddenly those two guys were down.”
“Actually that series of moves is a standard sparring sequence in taekwondo. The only difference is that I began with some karate moves, is all. My body was on autopilot. I saw the opening, I had the advantage, so I just went with it.”
“Whatever. You’re still my studly hero, but I don’t know if I can stand the excitement of being around you!”
Well, we missed home room again. And first period too. When we got to school, the second period was about to start. We explained what happened to Dr Fletcher, who was incredulous, but sent us off to class, shaking his head with disbelief.
“Kevin, I just don’t know about you... get to class now and please, please, try to stay out of trouble? Please?”
On the way to class I told Denise about my urologist appointment and she told me that she had made an appointment with the new therapist. Excellent. I told her the website was now underway and we’d need to get our local gurus mobilized to start getting content and getting publicity going.
Everything was quiet until lunch. When Denise and I got to the Program table, I noticed that almost every eye in the lunchroom was looking at us and the hum of conversations was decidedly different. Then Andrew walked up.
“Kevin, you’re the newest celebrity in town, you know. Now you’re famous outside the school, too. You’re never gonna live the hero label down now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Word’s out that you singlehandedly stopped the armed robbery of a CoffeeShak shop this morning and disarmed and disabled the two robbers. It’s all over the news. ‘High school hero foils armed robbery. Story at 11.’”
“How the heck did they find out?”
Some others had joined us. Sarah said, “Jonas saw you and Denise in the store. He went into the store and you were holding a gun, he said, and then you pushed him out and locked the door. He said he saw two guys on the floor, tied up. Then the cops came and moved him away from the door. Later he heard the news report of the attempted robbery. They have your name, too, from the police report, I guess.”
I groaned. I guess I’ll be fighting off reporters later.
Andrew told us that the morning announcements were routine except for the mention of the new Program booklets, which would be available in our sixth period classes, and that the rules would be discussed at Friday’s assembly. Sarah had arranged a working meeting for after school to work on website content and publicity.
~~~~
The Program booklets hadn’t changed very much, it seemed, but there was a lot more emphasis on certain words and phrases—italics and bolded words were much in evidence. Almost everything we has suggested was included, particularly the anti-groping rules and now the guardian corps was mentioned, with blue berets. Cool. So were whistles.
After school I went to the group’s meeting room to see how the project was going. Sarah had decided to start out the “first-person” section of the website with stories from our school and I told her my idea for a doctors’ section. Then I remembered that I needed to check my email. In it was the instructions for logging into the server. I began to worry that this data had been sent in the clear where it could be intercepted or subpoenaed but I shouldn’t have worried. The file was encrypted. The instructions said my key was the name of the aunt who lived offshore and her house number. I had to think a bit and then I realized it meant Aunt Janet. That was very clever. I entered her name and the number and the file opened.
The team who would be setting up the blog was at work in one corner of the room. I brought my laptop over and transferred the decrypted file to their machine using a USB cable for security. The file also had instructions for setting up and using a VPN to access the server. The kids were delighted with these toys and were soon hard at work setting up the new server. I left the details to the experts and sat down to study the new Program brochure.
It occurred to me that if Abover could make a list of rules for the teachers, I could too, so I began to take each item from the Program brochure and formulate them as “Allowed” or “Not Allowed” lists that Fletcher could give to teachers.
Soon it was time to go home. On the way, I stopped at the doctor’s office and picked up the medical disability letter. While I was driving home, I wondered how I would deal with the press... If I could avoid them for a day, then it would be old news and maybe they’d go away. I wondered if they had gotten Aunt Helene’s address. Driving up our street, I saw that they had indeed gotten her address. I drove past her house for a block and then rang her.
“Aunt Helene, have they been bothering you?”
“Kevin? What’s going on?”
“Tell you when I get home. Have they tried to talk to you?”
“No. They’ve been ringing my doorbell but I’ve ignored it. They’re camped out in front.”
“Yeah. I saw. I don’t want to speak to them either. I stopped a robbery this morning and they want to make a big deal about that; I’m not interested. I’m gonna park on Webster, behind the house, and cross through the back yard. Let me in the back door, ok?”
“Oh! That’s good. When?”
“I’m a block away now. Give me five minutes. See ya.”
I got into the house without being seen and from time to time the doorbell would ring. Eventually they gave up; the trucks pulled away. I told Aunt Helene that if they showed up tomorrow, she could answer the door but deny knowing me; our last names were different, after all, so they had no way to know we were related. I explained what happened.
“Kevin, I heard about the robbery on the radio this morning. I had no idea you were involved. They said a report will be on tonight’s news and I want to watch it.”
So we watched. An anchorperson with perfectly coiffed hair and a toothy smile soon appeared.
“...and now for the local news. At about 7:30 this morning, a local high school student thwarted an armed robbery at the CoffeeShak convenience market on South Baxter. According to the store’s clerk on duty, when the store was empty of customers, two gunman approached her displaying guns and demanded that she empty the register. Just then, a high-school boy and girl entered. We take you to the scene with Robin Carter. Hello, Robin.”
The camera showed a view of the store; several police cars were parked randomly in the lot with their lights flashing, medics were wheeling two stretchers toward ambulances, and the building was marked with yellow tape around its front. The reporter was speaking.
“Joan, I’m standing in front of the CoffeeShak shop on Baxter, where less than a half hour ago a young high-school boy displayed an act of incredible bravery by facing two armed gunmen and with his bare hands alone, disarmed and immobilized them; as you can see, they are being transported to the hospital as we watch. Police told us that both men have broken collar bones, one may have a broken neck, and the other a broken arm. Just a few minutes ago we were able to speak to the clerk on duty, Melody Cassidy. Here’s that tape.”
The scene shifted slightly; we were now right in front of the shop near the door. Melody had apparently regained her composure because she was quite animated.
“Melody, can you tell us what happened?”
“I had a couple of customers in the shop and these two guys were walking in the middle aisle when the last customer went out. Then they walked up to my counter, pulled guns, and demanded money. Just then two high schoolers came in and the guy closer to the door turned around and pointed his gun at the door and then everything became a blur. I’m not really sure what happened, it was over so quick. The next thing I saw was the girl was on the floor and also that guy and suddenly the man at the counter flew back like a car hit him and the kid had pounced on the first guy who was trying to reach the gun and then he was knocked down again. It all happened, I don’t know, in maybe five seconds? I still don’t believe what I saw. Those guys probably don’t even know what hit them.”
“Did you see how the boy disarmed them?”
“No, as I said, it was going so fast it was just a blur. The guys were standing up, pointing guns, and then they were on the floor, out cold.”
“What happened then?”
“The kid was so cool. He saw a pack of tiewraps so he took them and tied up the men’s wrists, then he picked up their guns and put them aside. Oh, without touching them with his hands. When people began to come in, he locked the door and then he asked me how I was.”
“What about the girl who came in with him? You said she got knocked down.”
“Uh, not really—it was like she just bent her legs and kind of just sat down on the floor. I’m not sure, it happened so fast—wait, yeah, I heard him apologize to her. He said he did something to her legs to sit her down before he hit the first guy. He said he thought she was in the line of fire if the guy pulled the trigger.”
“I’m impressed. To think of her safety and then attack two armed men barehanded is an incredibly brave act.”
And foolish, I thought, in retrospect. But my senses had a powerful impression that I actually had the upper hand.
“Yeah, it sure was. It all seems so unreal. Robbers are facing me in one second and the next they’re on the floor. So unreal...” she trailed off.
“Thank you, Melody. You were pretty brave, too. There you have it, Joan. A young man’s amazing act of heroism in our community. This is Robin Carter, reporting from the CoffeeShak on Baxter.”
“Thanks for that incredible report, Robin. WQQE contacted the police for a statement but they would only say that the young man involved was a high-ranking martial arts expert and anyone else shouldn’t try to act like a hero. In other words, folks, don’t try this at home,” she joked. “We did attempt to locate the young man before our broadcast but were not successful. He’s apparently a minor, so we will not give his name. Now, in other local news...”
Thanks at least for that. I wonder how long they’ll try to find me. Aunt Helene told me that I was lucky I wasn’t hurt (she’s right) and to please try to stay away from trouble in the future (I heartily agreed). Now I have Friday and the assembly to look forward to, not to mention next week. All I want is to be able to go to school, not live in an adventure story!
Copyright © 2015 Seems Ndenyal. All Rights Reserved.