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Message-ID: <39478asstr$1038467403@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: "Rev. Cotton Mather" <revcottonmather@hotmail.com>
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Subject: {ASSM} Playing the Game II: Playing to Win, Ch. 17 (mf rom)
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 02:10:03 -0500
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And, to top off this Thanksgiving, here's another original chapter.

Enjoy!





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Welcome to the Church of The Reverend Cotton Mather. This story is
the sole property of the author, and may not be copied or downloaded
for the intent of profit. Permission is freely given for anyone to
download or copy for their personal pleasure or use, as long as there
is no intent to charge money or barter for the privilege of acquiring
this material.

(Copyright 2002, Rev. Cotton Mather)

E-Mail all comments to RevCottonMather@hotmail.com
Don't be shy!  I enjoy hearing from you.
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PLAYING TO WIN:
PLAYING THE GAME, BOOK II


by Reverend Cotton Mather




- 17 -

A MALICIOUS PAIR OF EYES



A bunch of us got together over at Josh's house on Sunday afternoon.
Austin, Tessa, Josh, Andrea, Jake, and I were in the basement.  The
television was on, tuned to a football game, but nobody, not even
Jake, was paying any attention to it.

"So," said Austin, "what did you girls find out?"

"Molly's scared practically out of her mind," said Tessa.  "I was
able to talk to her for a few minutes yesterday, right after the
football game."

Andrea added, "From what I could find out, the Bulls have been
recruiting, both boys and girls, and Jilly's making them stronger
than they ever were when Richie was running things.  They might not
be quite as visible, but they're a lot sneakier than they used to be."

"It's kind of odd, isn't it, that Jilly was able to take over the
gang?" asked Jake.  "After all, isn't he the youngest?"

"He's not the youngest by much," replied Andrea.  "He's carried on
the Del Toro family tradition of flunking a couple of grades.  Even
though he's only in the ninth grade, he's 16 years old."

"And," added Tessa, "even though Harold, for instance, is a senior,
the first thing Jilly did when he got to high school and joined up
with his big brother's friends was to jump on Harold and beat the
crap out of him, for no real reason other than he wanted to.  He kind
of asserted his dominance early, by pounding on the oldest guy.  He
not only backed up his swagger, he also showed them that he might be
just a little crazy.  It impressed them, and they all got in line
after that."

"A little crazy," I observed, "and also a little smart."

"Only within their circle," noted Andrea.  "Basically, he's dumb as
a rock, kind of like his big brother Richie.  But among the Bulls,
he's a rocket scientist.  But, believe it, he's got mean covered,"
she added.  "Whatever we decide to do concerning Molly, we're going
to have to go through Jilly first."

"That's not such a comforting thought," said Josh, "but I'll do what
I need to do to get my sister out of there."

"Josh," I said, "I know your parents have got to be concerned about
this.  Have you talked to them about Molly?"

""They want to call the police," said Josh.  "I keep on telling them
that the solution doesn't lie with the cops in this case."  He
sighed.  "They know we're trying to do something here, and they've
talked to Heather at school quite a bit about Molly, and Heather told
them to let us give it a try first, before they do anything further.
She said that she thought Molly would be more receptive to us than
she would to any authority figure, whether it's the cops, or a
counselor at school, or even Mom and Dad.  So they're going to let us
do what we can.  Reluctantly, but at least they're willing to give us
a chance."

"Well, we can always fall back on brute authority figures if we
fail," said Austin.  For Molly's sake, I hoped it didn't come to that.

For all our good intentions, we didn't come up with a feasible plan
that afternoon.  We ended up ordering pizza, cracking open a bunch of
sodas, and goofing off.





The next morning at school, just before the first bell rang, I saw
Josh at his locker.  He looked like he had been up most of the night.

"Molly came home last night," he said quietly.  "Her face was puffy,
and she had a black eye.  My parents were really upset, and they
called the cops.  They came over to interview her, but she wouldn't
say anything to them, or to Mom or Dad.  Refused to press charges,
refused to even say what had happened.  When she heard the cops at
the front door, she ran upstairs and locked herself in her room, so
they couldn't even see her."

"Yeah?  Then what?"  I knew there was more to the story.

"The cops finally left around midnight.  They said they would have a
talk with Del Toro and his parents.  Jilly's almost as well known to
them as Richie, apparently.  Anyway, they told my folks that there
really wasn't much they could do without cooperation from Molly, even
though she's a minor."  He looked around to see who else might be
hearing our conversation before he continued.  "They said that, under
most circumstances, they could scare the suspect into stopping
whatever they were doing wrong.  In this case, they were pretty sure
that wasn't going to work, but they promised to do what they could."

Josh slammed his locker door closed in frustration.  "When I walked
by her room, after the cops left, I could hear her crying in there,
behind the closed door.  I knocked, but she ignored me.  I couldn't
go barging in, you know?"  He looked at me, wanting confirmation that
he had done the right thing.  Not sure if he had or not, I still
nodded encouragingly.  "Maybe an hour later, after Mom and Dad had
gone to bed, I was still up.  Couldn't sleep, you know?  So I was
reading, or at least trying to.  What I was really doing was worrying
about my sister."  He took a deep breath.  "Anyway, Molly came into
my room, Sean.  She was still crying a little, and she was limping
pretty badly, kind of shuffling along."

"Yeah?"  I wanted to offer encouragement for him to go on with his
story, because he needed to tell someone, even though I really didn't
want to be the one to hear it.

"And she started taking off her clothes.  She was wearing, like, a
dirty t-shirt, and a scruffy pair of jeans, and she took off her t-
shirt, and then sat on the edge of my bed and took off her jeans."
Josh's voice was catching.  If we had been alone, I knew he would
have been close to tears, telling me about this.  "She just sat
there, without saying a word to me, Sean, in her underwear.  And her
whole body was marked up.  Bruises, some of them looking kind of old,
but definitely some fresh ones, too, all up and down her ribcage.
There were scrapes on her shoulders and back, and hickeys and bite
marks on her legs, her... her thighs, you know, up near... there."
Now he wouldn't even look at me, he was so uncomfortable.  I put my
hand on his bicep, hoping the contact would give him a little
comfort.  "She pulled the top of her... her bra down, just a little,
and her... her boobs... at least the tops of them... had a bunch of
hickeys on them, too..."

The bell rang, startling us both.  He drew himself up to his full
height, and took another deep, cleansing breath.  We started walking
down the hall to our first classes.

"So I helped her get cleaned up as best as I could, and put some
antiseptic on her cuts, and put her back to bed.  I told her to just
stay in bed today, and I would get some help for her by this
afternoon.  She never said a word, the whole time, Sean, but I could
see it in her eyes, that she wanted me to help her.  She was sleeping
when I left this morning.  Dad went to work, but Mom called in so she
could stay home with Molly, in case she wanted to talk.  I don't
think she will, though."

We were outside Josh's classroom.  "What do you want to do?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," he admitted.  "Can you get out of practice this
afternoon?  I'm going to talk to the football coach, and let him know
I've got a family situation."

"Sure," I said.  "You want me to meet you at your house?"

"I don't know yet," he said as he turned to go into the room.  "Let
me think about it a little, and I'll talk to you at lunch."

The second bell rang.  I was late for my class, but I didn't care.

"Okay," I said.  "Lunchtime, then."  I turned and sprinted down the
hall to my first period class.

As I settled into my desk, the intercom speaker in the corner of the
room crackled to life, and Dr. Osgood's voice came through, a tiny
whine of feedback screeching as he moved the microphone around.

"May I have everybody's attention, please.  I have received reports
of an incident that occurred last Thursday.  Apparently some vandals
broke into private property where one of the Homecoming floats was
being constructed.  Anybody with information about this break-in is
strongly encouraged to report their awareness to me or to Mrs. Ford
in the front office.  All information will be treated with the utmost
confidentiality."

He paused, as if waiting for confessions from the masses.  When none
were received, he continued.

"In light of the damage done to the float and the personal property,
construction on all class floats is to be stopped."

There was a collective groan in the room, and, I imagined,
throughout the school.  I knew that there were a lot of kids who had
put in a lot of hours on all the floats.

Dr. Osgood's voice cut across the complaints.  "In the interest of
fairness, no class floats will be a part of this year's parade.  Any
school clubs or organizations that have been planning on decorating
vehicles or trailers may continue.  As far as class displays, I would
encourage the various class officers to meet and choose an alternate
project for the parade.  Suggestions such as lawnmower drill teams,
mop and bucket brigades, and clowns and acrobats might be considered.
All projects must be approved by the front office, so get your ideas
together as soon as possible.

"Thank you for your attention."

Well, that freed up some evening time for me, I thought.  But it
also took away another opportunity to spend a little time with
Kristina.  I got the feeling that fate was working against us, and
the clock was ticking.





I met Josh, Andrea, and Jake after school in the parking lot.  We
got into Jake's car and drove over to Josh's house.  We still didn't
have a plan, other than to surround Molly with friends for support.
When we got there, Tessa's car was already in the driveway.  We
walked in through the kitchen.

"Hi, boys," greeted Mrs. O'Toole.  "Oops, I'm so sorry.  And
Andrea," she added with a bright, artificial smile.  Her good cheer
was forced, as she busied herself getting snacks ready.

"Hi, Mom," said Josh.  "Where's Tessa?"

"Oh, she's upstairs with Molly," she said.

"I'll go up and join them," Andrea said softly.  She headed for the
front stairs.

"I'll bet you boys are hungry," said Mrs. O'Toole, as she set out
some glasses and a gallon of milk and a bowl of apples.  "Well, help
yourselves," she added.  "I'll have some crackers and cheese ready
for you in just a minute."

"Has Molly been down?" asked Josh.

"No, not really," said his mother.  "She came down for lunch, but
she just picked at her food, and went back upstairs to her room."
Her upper lip trembled, and her eyes got teary.  "She said she wasn't
feeling very good, and she was going to take a nap."


"That's good," said Josh.  He grabbed an apple, and we headed for
the family room to wait for the girls to come back down.

Josh, Jake and I were sitting on the floor, doing our homework, when
Andrea and Tessa finally came back down, a couple of hours later.  We
huddled together, and they let us know about Molly in hushed tones.

"She's doing better," said Andrea.

"She wanted us to let you know how much she appreciated your help
last night, Josh," added Tessa.

"Tessa and I gave her a bath," Andrea continued.  "She's really beat
up.  And it's not just the bruises that are hurting her."

"She wouldn't hardly talk to us at first," continued Tessa.
"Answering our questions in monosyllables, if at all.  But after she
soaked in the tub for awhile, she started telling us a little more
about what's been going on."

"Without going into detail," said Andrea, "let's just say that Jilly
isn't the most... considerate... of partners."

"You mean Del Toro did all that to her?" asked Josh, outraged.

"Well, not exactly," said Andrea.  "I think that, um, Joey might
have helped."

Josh hopped up and started pacing the floor in agitation.  "Shit!"
he exclaimed.

I stood up and walked over to stare out the front window.  It was
getting dark out, and the street lights had come on, casting lonely
cones of illumination on the street corners.  I had the bad feeling
that I might have contributed to Molly's problems.  It was me, after
all, who had introduced Molly to the pleasures of the flesh.  All
right, I could admit to myself that we had kind of mutually
discovered sex together, but still, I had the feeling that if it
hadn't been for me, and our breakup, that she probably wouldn't be in
the situation she was in now.  It was very upsetting to think that I
might actually have been one of the bad guys here.

I was still standing there, thinking dark thoughts, when I heard the
growl of an engine from down the street.  I watched as Joey Amonte's
car pulled up in front of the house.  I couldn't tell if there was
anyone else in the car besides Joey, but I had the feeling there was
at least one other malicious pair of eyes, looking my way from the
back seat.  The car stopped for a moment, and then, as if the
occupants knew they were being watched, it pulled back out and sped
down the street, tires squealing.

I turned to the others.  "They know we're here," I said.  It came
out sounding melodramatic, when, in reality, it should have come out
sounding just the way I felt, which was terrified.  I, for one, was
scared shitless about what the Bulls might be planning.




(Continued in Chapter 18)








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