The PTA Queen Bee & The Teen Rebel 02

In the adjacent room, Todd groaned as he sat his bruised buttocks down on the chair, while his mother sat on a bed, sucking at her asthma inhaler and close to tears. Soon the Principal would find out about Todd's latest antics and then there would be hell to pay, but not as much as what would happen when she got home and had to explain the situation to her husband. Carol was shaking with nerves, and her mind so focused on Todd and Mike that she did not give her younger kids and what they were up to much thought.

*

The younger O'Dea kids were still outside in the main area of the fete. Polly had heard about what had happened with her brother, and was making sure that everyone in the school heard about it in great detail. One of the first people she told was older brother Chris, and he was now also telling everyone in his path about what Todd had done.

Libby still had not strayed far from the car despite the many hours having passed since the family's arrival at the fete, while Justin also was ignorant of what had happened with Todd. The youngest O'Dea boy was counting the contents of a collection box to assist starving children in Ethiopia, the box discretely taken from the stall, the money extricated, and replaced with a handful of dirt.

Andy was a short distance away, watching with anger levels that increased exponentially with each passing second as a group of mentally disabled kids from a special needs school with their teachers and parents walked by, the kids clearly having a great time. Andy sure wasn't having a good time.

The misanthropic boy hated anything fun in life, and retards, spastics, slow learners and mongoloids enjoying themselves when they had no right to do so was no exception. Andy had once heard about a branch of the Baptist church in the Bible belt region through the South and Midwest that believed that anything pleasurable in life was a sin, and Andy cursed his luck. Why couldn't he have been born into such a family in one of these states, instead of Long Island and into a family of Roman Catholic faith?

Andy found few things as irritating as mentally disabled people, and if it wasn't bad enough that they had a special needs unit at his school, they were bringing in even more of these freaks from outside of Pine Tree Park just to piss Andy off even more. Andy knew that his older brother Todd was in trouble for bullying special needs kids this very week. Andy did not admire Todd in any way, he hated Todd for years of bullying him, such as by flushing his head down the toilet a couple of days ago. In fact, Andy already had Todd's murder planned in his imagination when he got older. He would knock Todd out, put him in the back of a van, drive down to Florida and throw Todd into a waterway, then watch as alligators killed and ate his older brother, tearing lumps of flesh off Todd's blubbery body with a series of death rolls before swallowing them whole.

In spite of Andy's intense dislike of Todd the boy had to agree that his older brother was 100 percent correct in bullying retards. Unfortunately Todd was nowhere to be seen - Andy had hardly sighted him all day - and Andy could have used his advice now about how to put a stop to these retarded kids having fun. Andy thought about the few people in life he admired such as Adolf Hitler and Al Capone, and what they might do in this situation. But to Andy's dismay Hitler and Capone were long dead and likely never had to put up with spastics and retards when they were kids, so it was up to Andy to think up a solution on his own.

Running in and punching, kicking and shoving these fucking freaks was the right course of action, but there was a significant problem for Andy, and this was like a gourmet at an all you can eat buffet, he was so spoiled for choice he couldn't decide which retarded kid he was going to attack first. He looked from one to another, but it was so hard to decide.

Finally choosing which kid he would target first, Andy backed away from the group of retards and collided with somebody, before hearing a surly young male voice, "Watch where you're going, you stupid little kid."

Andy turned around so fast the boy nearly gave himself whiplash and was confronted by the sulky form of Ryan, a 16-year-old high school student who was a sophomore like Andy's older brother Chris. Ryan had come to their house to work on a history assignment with Chris one time, this a complete debacle as both boys were slackers who argued constantly, and Ryan had done nothing to endear himself to Andy at all.

Ryan glared at Andy as the boy glowered at him with fire flashing through his crazy eyes. "You got some problem, kid?" the teenager sneered. "Why don't you go and play with the other spastics, slows, mongoloids and retards and go 'blub-blub-blub' where you belong?" Ryan pointed at the intellectually disabled children.

Being compared to these freaks was just too much for Andy's hair-trigger temper, and there was no way the boy was going to let this slight go unpunished. Andy didn't care that he was nine and Ryan 16, Andy was going to fuck him up for this.

With the speed of a striking snake, Andy kicked the shocked Ryan in the shin, the teenager letting out a cry of pain. "Now's my chance to fuck you up!" screamed Andy, delivering another kick to Ryan, this time to his groin, to which Ryan doubled over in pain. Andy then launched a full attack, punching into Ryan with one hard blow after another, his eyes showing his crazy rage. Ryan went to the ground screaming for mercy, but Andy was not going to let up and kicked Ryan in the rib-cage.

Silence fell as people watched in horror, too stunned to believe what was happening. The intellectually disabled kids were clearly terrified, some of them bursting into tears at the shocking scene. Andy was so intent on exacting his revenge that he did not notice one tall, African-American woman come up behind him and drag him off Ryan by his shirt. "You stop that this instant, Andy O'Dea!" came her stern voice.

Andy, fire still flashing through his eyes, turned around to see the tall, overweight, strict, scowling form of Mrs. Grundy, Pine Tree Park's second grade teacher. Second grade had been the longest year of Andy's life thanks to this fucking fat black bitch, who did nothing but scold and criticize him. Andy had hated her with a passion and was most dismayed that he had to take instructions from a black woman. Andy was white and therefore superior to her, and shouldn't have had to put up with that fucking shit. Andy did however extract some revenge upon the woman, presenting Mrs. Grundy with a mystery as to the disappearance of the class hamster. Andy had hated the hamster because it stank and had bitten him when he put his fingers in the cage, and that fucking black bitch had blamed Andy for getting bitten, a situation that to Andy was totally unacceptable and which must be put right. Only his cousins' cat and Andy - who had watched with glee as the cat teased, tortured, killed and finally devoured the hamster - knew the truth behind the mystery.

Now this fucking Negro bitch was trying to stop Andy from gaining his further revenge upon the teenager who had dared to insult him, and there was no way Andy was standing for this shit. "Fuck you, you stupid black bitch!" Andy yelled, moving quickly and like he had done with Ryan, got a fast advantage over his much bigger opponent by kicking Mrs. Grundy in the shins, then shoving her when she screamed in pain and was off balance. Mrs. Grundy again tried to restrain Andy, who delivered her a hard bite to her hand, then successfully pushed her off her feet with amazing strength for a boy aged just nine.

Mrs. Grundy had short hair but it had enough length for Andy to grab a handful and rip it from her scalp before kicking her in the back, her screams of agony a source of great delight to him, and inspiring him to cause her even more pain. However as Andy prepared to kick the woman in the head, he felt two pairs of hands grab him firmly from behind and drag him away.

Struggling violently and trying to escape, this time Andy had no such luck against two strong, fit, adult males in the forms of Kurt, the hunky local handyman and Coach Callaghan, the senior sports teacher in the high school section of Pine Tree Park. None of Andy's tactics to make good his escape worked, and Coach Callaghan forced him to the ground and held him down, Kurt grabbing a container of icy water and giving Andy a taste of what it would have been like to be on the Titanic by throwing it all over him. The enraged Andy continued to yell and struggle despite the icy bath he had received, but he was restrained and not getting out of Coach Callaghan's grasp.

The Principal came running across, while another man grabbed his cell phone - a large contraption about the size of a brick and which was a nuisance to carry around - and called an ambulance, Ryan and Mrs. Grundy clearly needing medical attention, some people coming across to provide first aid before the paramedics arrived. The intellectually disabled kids were all terrified, all screaming and sobbing, the adults supervising them trying to calm them down.

Nicole and Matthew had arrived on the scene in time to see Kurt come to the rescue, and the pretty young redhead was filled with two emotions. The first was arousal at the sight of heroic Kurt causing her to dampen the saddle of her panties, and the second was relief that the kids she taught were nothing like that horrible little boy responsible for this disaster, and that she would never have anything to do with him.

*

The Johnson family departed the fete while it was still being packed away, Allison knowing that there would be an extraordinary meeting of the PTA and school administrators on Monday night for a grim post mortem on the debacle. The family made their journey in absolute silence, matriarch Allison driving and her icy glances at Dennis as he sat meekly in the front passenger seat indicated that she was still furious about what had happened at the pony rides. The only sound came from Courtney in the back seat, as she twice vomited into a plastic bag she was holding during the drive home.

The O'Dea family likewise made their own way home, Carol in a state of nervous shock and Jenna driving as her mother was obviously unable to do so. Andy, his rage now subsided, sat looking completely defiant, despite being suspended for two weeks and facing possible expulsion depending on the outcome of a meeting with Mike, Carol, the Principal, the school psychologist and the school district Superintendent to be held on Monday.

Andy felt pretty satisfied with himself. He had beaten up a high school student and a female teacher he absolutely hated, and proven to everybody that they should be afraid of him and not give him shit. At the same time he had achieved another goal by stopping the spastics and retards having fun, so that was an added bonus.

Libby stared out of the car windows with her bored expression unchanged since the morning, despite the dramatic events of the day, while Justin was also quiet, the child coveting the money he had stolen from the old lady and the charity tin during the day.

Across from them sat Todd, with Jenna's tampon still inserted up his nose. This had of course attracted the attention of many people as the O'Dea family left the fete, Todd seemingly incapable of learning that offering the explanation of 'It's my sister's tampon,' made things sound so much more weird than they were already.

As soon as the despairing Principal had found out Todd had been bullying younger kids again as well as going into the girls' toilet block and hiding in there he had made good on issuing Todd a two week suspension from school, with extensive yard duty and detention upon his return. The Principal could only lament that the main victim of Todd's toilet escapades had been the high-achieving, popular head cheerleader and senior class President Courtney Johnson, whose domineering mother as PTA President enjoyed plenty of power at the school and had been on the warpath over the incident. Compounding the issue further was that one of the other girls involved, Amy Smith, was the girlfriend of Allison Johnson's oldest son Brad so she was outraged about this too. Amy's mother, high on the PTA social hierarchy was furious that Amy's privacy had been invaded in the girls' room when her daughter was having her period and had expressed this in no uncertain terms. The parents of the other two girls Lisa and Lauren were also friends of Allison and Mrs. Smith, so the long-suffering Principal had a lot of pissed off and powerful parents to pacify.

The extremely stressed Principal could only wish that Mike and Carol O'Dea would withdraw all their kids from Pine Tree Park and enroll them in Catholic boarding school like they had done with the bitchy and disruptive eldest daughter Jenna the year before. Well, it was a bit late for Todd as he was finishing high school in a couple of months, and the only sort of school Andy would probably be going to was reform school. No wonder the Principal was going bald and often found it hard to rise to the occasion in bed with his wife when he had to put up with the O'Dea kids and their antics every day of the week. And he would not fully get rid of them until 11 long years into the future, when youngest son Justin would graduate high school in the class of 1999.

Todd's situation was being hotly debated by Chris and Polly. "I can't believe that Todd's a pedophile," Chris said, repeating some of the gossip that had been going around the school about Todd's antics in the girls' bathroom.

Polly scoffed. "He's not a pedophile Chris."

"Yeah, he is a pedophile. You don't know anything Polly."

Polly shook her head. "No, he's not a pedophile because Courtney Johnson is over 18. If Courtney had been under 16, then Todd would be a pedophile. But because Courtney is an adult that means Todd isn't a pedophile. Todd's a pervert, he's a deviate, he's a sicko, he's a pig, and he's a weirdo, but he's not a pedophile."

The youngest boy Justin spoke up. "What's a pedophile?"

The know-it-all Polly was keen to answer. "You remember that really pretty girl Dana Marsh who used to live in the haunted house across the street? Her father used to dress up in her clothes until her mother caught him and divorced him. Mr. Marsh was a pedophile - a gay pedophile."

Justin then asked, "Is Todd going to Juvenile Hall like Andy?"

"Yeah," said Chris.

Again, Polly was keen to correct her older brother. "No, Andy would go to juvy. Todd's 18-years-old, so he would have to go to an adult prison with mobsters, bikies, gang members, murderers, sex offenders and bank robbers."

Chris opened his mouth to argue with his sister, but then changed his mind and instead gave Todd a provocative smile. "Good luck in jail, Todd. A fat 18-year-old guy in prison, I'm sure you'll make a lot of new friends very quickly."

"Oh shut up Chris, I'm not going to fucking jail," Todd growled, although he was completely puzzled by Chris's comments about Todd making a lot of friends in prison. Prisons didn't seem to be very friendly places, so why would the prisoners residing there be so keen to make friends with Todd?

Jenna, who was at an intersection that could be difficult to turn left across if one caught the wrong traffic flow as she had done so, was already irritated and became even more so as Polly, Chris and Justin began to chant, "Todd's going to jail, Todd's going to jail ..." repeatedly at their older brother and Todd yelling at them to shut the fuck up in response.

"Oh will all of you just shut the fuck up and stop giving me the fucking shits while I'm fucking driving?" Jenna snapped angrily. "I can't fucking concentrate on the fucking road! Nobody is going to fucking prison, okay?"

Carol found her voice. "Jenna, tone down the language please."

Jenna glared at her mother. "Seriously Mom, all of that fucking shit's going on in the back of the fucking car and you get pissed at me for fucking swearing? You draw the line there? For fuck's sake!"

Catching a break in the traffic Jenna pulled out into the intersection and down the road, Carol's heart racing as Jenna put on the indicator and turned into Swan Street. Soon, she would face her husband's wrath when Mike found out that two of his sons had been suspended from school for two weeks, with Andy possibly facing expulsion.

Jenna pulled the minivan into the driveway and into a halt in the garage alongside her father's car. The sound of Sambo barking was evident, but it was only Jenna that picked up that the way the dog sounded was different, his barks were shallow, hesitant and nervous. However, Jenna had little time to think of this. Libby and Chris climbed out of the car, Chris catching a mouthful of Libby's breath, with his sister having failed to brush her teeth nor use mouth wash for the better part of four days. Chris recoiled. "Fuck Libby, try brushing your teeth once in a while," he complained.

"Fuck off Chris," came his younger sister's surly response, Libby sweeping her hair that she hadn't washed or brushed for over a week back from her face.

Todd, seemingly unconcerned about his school suspension and his father's wrath when he found about it, rubbed his fat stomach. "What's for dinner?" he asked his mother.

Carol was stunned. "I think you have more important things to worry about than your dinner, Todd," she said.

"Yeah what?" Todd growled, dismayed to think that dinner would be delayed or non-existent.

"Such as that you're on suspension from school for two weeks after what you did," said Carol. "How do you think Courtney Johnson feels?"

"Why should I care about how Courtney feels, it wasn't my fault?" Todd complained.

"Yes Todd, it was your fault," Carol reminded her son. "I can tell you one thing, and that is that you will be making a personal apology to Courtney for what you did."

"Why should I, and even if I wanted to how could I?" Todd demanded. "I'm suspended from school for two weeks, and the way Courtney was throwing up and having the shits, she'll be off sick for a while."

"You will apologize to Courtney at the first opportunity," Carol said, trying to sound as authoritative as she could.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Todd.

Carol took a deep breath as she went into the house, knowing that Todd could be very stubborn and that such an apology would probably not be forthcoming. Todd was supposed to apologize to his maternal grandmother for saying, "You can't make me you stupid old bag," when she ordered him to stop eating all the chips and cookies at a Christmas party last year, but held firm and refused to say sorry.

But for now, Carol's biggest problem was going to be her husband's reaction when Mike found out both Todd and Andy were suspended from school for two weeks. She braced herself for the inevitable explosion.

*

The frosty atmosphere between their parents was certainly clear to the Johnson kids as their mother pulled the car to a halt in the garage next to their father's car. Allison stormed out of the driver's seat and to the back to assist the very dizzy Courtney, but turned and looked at Dennis with a sharp, withering glare.

As she helped Courtney from the car, Allison took the plastic bag that Courtney had vomited into during the ride home and thrust it at her husband. "You take this to the trash, and then you get on the phone and you call the doctor and get him out here. Is that clear Dennis?"

Dennis did not really want to handle a bag full of his daughter's sick but was too afraid of his angry wife to offer any protest, so meekly took it and went towards the trash cans, his wife glaring at him as he went on his way.

Brad, Simon and Rebecca looked at each other, not sure of what was going on. While they could see that their mother was worried about Courtney and that she was clearly pissed off about the debacles at the school fete, why she was so angry at their father wasn't so clear.