The Cobras-Chapter 4

The final tardy bell rang as Spanky reached the gym door. Lance saw him coming and deliberately shut the door in his face. "Dick." Spanky said under his breath. "Now I'm going to get detention again. Oh well I guess it could be worse. I could be dead." He laughed. At that moment another door to the gym opened up. It was Oakie waving at him. "Hey come on Spanky over here," he said as he looked to see if anyone had noticed him opening one of the emergency doors.
"Thanks dude," Spanky said as he panted from the sprint to the open door.
"No problem, You deserve a break today," he sang the familiar jingle.
Oakie was simply the coolest guy he knew. He was smiling as he let him in the door. He was that kind of guy. He just did cool shit for people with no expectation of return. Spanky had no doubt that he would have stood up for him against Lance even if it meant getting his ass kicked. He hoped someday to be that kind of guy but he knew it was unlikely.
Spanky slipped inside the gym and moved carefully along the folded up bleacher seats and out of the sight of Lance who was talking with some of the other jocks. He slipped into the locker room which was curiously open when it should have been locked.
"Bonus," Spanky thought to himself and he quickly stepped inside. Most of the students had already left the locker room. He passed a couple of people dressed for P.E. Class and rushed to his locker. He began opening his locker when all of the sudden he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He quickly ducked behind the lockers near the open shower bay. Peering from behind the lockers he could see one of the P.E. teachers walk by and enter the office. He crept quietly back to his locker and opened the lock slowly and quietly.
He began to undress and was down to his socks and underwear when he heard another noise. It was the door opening. He quickly stashed his clothes in the locker and crept back to the showers for cover. Then he was surprised to hear a female voice. He was suddenly very aware of how naked he was. He recognized the voice. It was his swimming teacher Miss Jensen. She was a hot young 25 year old who had just finished her collegiate swimming career the year before. She was wearing a polo shirt and sweats in the school colors. Her long dark hair was in a pony tail under a white baseball cap. Her hair was still wet and she was wearing flip-flop sandals. Spanky figured she had just come in from the pool and was there to drop the key.
He was still trying to avoid being caught for being late since he knew one more tardy would result in detention. He decided to take a peek down the rows of lockers to see if it was safe to leave or if the coast was clear. He could see the door to the office was shut. Quickly he changed into his PE uniform and crept his way down to the end of the lockers. As he got to the last row he stopped momentarily and closed his eyes. He heard laughter coming from the PE office. As he opened his eyes he thought he could see figures moving behind the steamed up glass next to the closed door. He thought he saw two people engaged in an intimate embrace. He rubbed his eyes and it was gone. Realizing it was his chance to escape he quickly snuck past the door. As he got to the door exiting the locker room he thought he heard laughter again.
He imagined Miss Larsen in the throws of passion and turned to look back once more at the doorway and captured just a glimpse of the steamy glass. He thought he saw her eyes peering out of the glass winking at him. He smiled and winked back at the eyes and walked into the gymnasium.
The class was playing volleyball. It was his favorite activity. Not because he particularly liked the sport, but because all of the girls in the class liked to play and it was his chance to check them out up close without being called a pervert. As he scanned the gymnasium he could see three games going on. He searched for his team and immediately his gaze locked on the object of his thoughts and obsessions since junior high school. The time when he had received that one kiss. There she was, Amy. She was surrounded by her "in-crowd" friends looking perfect as ever in her green silk shorts and matching polo shirt. She wore leg-warmers, the height of fashion at the time and her long hair was in a green bow which perfectly matched her leg warmers. She had green Reebok sneakers with yellow and white laces to top it off. Her outfit was befitting of a sophomore on the Varsity cheerleading squad. School colors and school spirit oozed out of her every pore.
Spanky imagined what it would be like to have her as his wife. He would come home every night from his job "being rich" and find her cooking him dinner. She would give him a spoonful of her sauce that she slaved over all day and then smile and hug him. Then their three kids would run in and grab his legs. Two boys and a girl. Just like his family. They were all 5 or 6 years old and they would say "Daddy we love you. What did you bring us?" He would reach into his pockets and give them each a gold coin. "Ok kids go put this in your piggy-bank," he would say and they would run off and then he would pull a nice ring out of his pocket and put it on her finger. "But honey I already have so much gold jewelry. You shouldn't have." Amy would say as she kissed his cheek. He would nod and tell her "you deserve more honey, you deserve more."
Just then a volleyball hit him in the face. "Ow," he said. It hadn't hit him hard, just enough to jar him out of his daydream. Everyone on the court started laughing. he could see through the corner of his eye that Amy was laughing too, but when she saw him look her way she looked down shamefully.
"You can laugh now," he told himself, "but someday you'll be my wife."
Spanky watched as Lance walked over to the group and started talking to them. All of the girls laughed and two of them touched his arms admiring his biceps. Amy smiled but seemed distracted by something.
"You're in Spanky," Suzy said as she left the court and high-fived him. Spanky took the ball and gave it a whack over head. It sailed past the net and hit Lance, who was in the middle of telling what appeared to be a very important story, in the back of the head.
"Oh shit," Spanky said to himself as he instinctively turned around and non-chalantly started walking off the court, hoping not to be noticed.
From the corner of his eye Spanky could see Lance turning around and the girls, including Amy dying with laughter. Amy looked at Spanky the way a princess looks at a knight going off to die in a hopeless battle. Her eyes said bravo, but they also pitied him. She knew it wouldn't be good for him.
The veins on Lance's muscular face bulged under the anger at the sudden realization of who was responsible for the ball hitting him. "YOU!" He shouted as he clenched his fists and started running towards Spanky who had now turned and run back towards the locker room. He made it to the door about three steps ahead of Lance who had closed the considerable gap with blazing speed. Miss Jensen was coming out right as Lance grabbed Spanky by the scruff of the neck. "This time you're going to die you turd." He said.
"He's going to kill me," Spanky shrieked.
Miss Jensen opened the door and Spanky slipped out of Lance's grasp and into the locker room.
Miss Jensen blocked the door and looked up at Lance towering over her.
"Get out of my way Miss Jensen its time for that little creep to die now." Lance said his face red and his eyes bulging.
"Oh let him be Lance," she said. "Its beneath a stud like you to beat up a poor pathetic little boy like that." As she closed the door behind her she casually buttoned up one of the buttons in her polo shirt drawing his attention to her large tan breasts barely covered by the tight fitting knit polo shirt.
Lance stood only inches from her breathing heavily. He could smell the slight scent of perfume and was suddenly overcome by how attractive she was.
He smiled at her and said. "Okay Miss Jensen, but only for you and you owe me one."
"He's my pet," she said. "So leave him alone, and if you guys win the state in track maybe I'll pay up."
"Deal." he said walking away with all of the sure-fire cockiness that a senior athlete can possess. He knew he was destined for bigger things. Maybe he could add her to his trophy case of high school conquests before he graduated. "Man she smelled hot," he thouht as he walked away nodding and acknowledging the humor in the situation as it must have appeared to his audience.
Spanky was hiding in the showers when the bell rang. As the boys from his class filed into the locker room he looked for Lance so he could slip out un-noticed.
"There's the big dope," he thought. Lance walked with the crowd past Spanky's row of lockers. He could hear him bragging about his encounter with Miss Larsen. "Yeah she said if we win the state meet she was going to take me to Tahoe for the weekend." He was so engaged in his story that he didn't even look Spanky's way as he passed by.
"Whew," he said. "That was close."
Spanky slipped back out into the gym and went to the exit door where he saw Miss Jensen waiting by the door alone. She was going through her gradebook as he passed by. She looked up at him and winked. He winked back and walked outside singing to himself.
"She's on fire, my baby's on fire." The song was from the new Sammy Hagar album he had just purchased. It was in his head from playing it constantly and from his encounter, real or imagined with near death and womanhood. He didn't understand either of them. He only knew they were forces of nature.