Stories - Young Adult Fiction

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War of the Words 4

From the moment he heard the police sirens as he was walking home one night not that long ago, John had wished that he'd never given in to the urgings of his friends and had heeded the admonitions of his big brother, who sometimes knew what he was talking about. Goodness knows, he's told me often enough to stay away from those guys. I know now that they are nothing but bad news.

Had he listened? Heck no! Wait a minute, he instructed himself. What else had Bob said?

I remember now. "If the cops come act, nonchalant. Whatever else you do, don't make a run for it."

"Stop! Police!"

"Yes, sir," John said, with what he hoped was an authentic smile.

"Did you happen to see three or four hooligans going hell for leather down this street?"

"Hooligans?" John asked stalling for time. "I do believe so."

"Which way did they go?"

"Let me see," John said. "I didn't really take much notice, you know. They were not running; they were acting rather nonchalantly, if you ask me."

"You can't remember?"

"Of course, I do. They went down Pine. If those are the guys you are looking for."

John had been in a bit of a quandry as to whether he should lie to the police officer and decided that he would tell the truth. His old buddies would be long gone by now.

"Much obliged," the police officer said.

"Any time," John replied feeling like a turncoat."

“That’s a pretty good story, so far,” Marsha said.

“It did have a happy ending,” Fred replied.

“Has John given up his wayward ways?”

“He seems to have but I’m not positive. His grades are getting better though so he’s spending more time studying and less time out on the streets hot wiring cars.”

“Is there more to the story?”

“Not really. Would you like to hear one of my Jonathon and Janice stories?”

“Love to.”

The initial session went by in a whirl, at least for Jonathon. During the recap at the end of the session, the instructor spoke about substrate.”

“Tomorrow we’ll be looking at cells that have been acted upon by an enzyme. These cells are forever labeled substrate.”

Jonathon didn’t know where his foolishness was coming from but he heard himself speak or at least he thought he had but he couldn’t quite believe his ears.

“Janice. I was wondering if you’d have time for a coffee.”

“Just as long as we spend the time going over our lab session.”

“I’d rather go over the vocabulary if you don’t mind.” Since when have I become so pushy? he asked himself.

“I noticed that you were very familiar with lab procedures.”

“I did a lot of lab work this summer. Once you’ve put in a substantial number of hours, it becomes second nature, well almost.”

“Okay. We’ll do vocabulary during study sessions and you can help me get up to speed in the labs.”

“Did she say study sessions? Yes she definitely did pluralize it but don’t get your hopes up, Old Boy,” he admonished himself.

I printed off a worksheet last night. Most of the words we probably already know but you never can tell,” Janice said.

“You’ve got that right,” Jonathon agreed taking a sip of his coffee.

“Right off the bat, there are three words on the list that I don’t know.”

“Shoot,” Jonathon said.

“Idiotropic, misogynist and ablation.”

‘That’s easy. Turning inward upon one’s self, a person who hates women and surgical removal of a tissue or organ.”

“Very impressive. Drag your chair around to my side and we’ll work on the crossword puzzle together.”