Wrestling Against Myself (32 page)

“Of course they are lies!” Tony couldn't get the words out of his mouth fast enough.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty certain,” Tony said.

“But not one hundred percent?” Tracy disappeared into C-wing before her friend could reply.

“She has a point,” Carl said as the two continued on. “Just be certain the rumors aren't true.”

“Even if they are, this isn't right.”

“See,” Carl said knowingly. “It sounds like even you have doubts.”

Antonio growled. He didn't have any doubts in the past, but he knew the more you heard a lie, the more you were likely to believe it. “I'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”

“Tiny, I'm on your side. Let's make it through the day and we got the weekend to figure stuff out.”
“Sounds good. Now get to class, I'm sure you have a test.”

“Nope. I haven't heard of any test today.”

Tony laughed. “Mr. Wilkins always gives a test on Friday.”

“Aw, nuts!” Carl frowned and then hastily headed to class hoping he could at least review his notes.

The end of the day, and school week, was upon Antonio and it couldn't come too soon. He didn't know when he lost control of the situation, but his scheme to get people to stop making fun of Courtney backfired. He spent the final three periods of the day hearing the same rumors and answering the same questions. It was starting to wear him down and he started imagining that every person that chose to bring up the topic of Courtney being a boy was doing so on a wrestling mat where he had the ability to put the hurt on them. But, they weren't on a wrestling mat and the best he could do was grin and bear the torture of having the same conversation over and over again.

The final bell rang and Antonio wasn't about to wait around to get into his millionth conversation on a subject that bordered on the absurd. The only constant that made any sense was to ask Courtney outright. He wouldn't go as far as to suggest that she was male, but it would help to know how the rumor got started. That could help put an end to all the nonsense, Antonio thought.

The one good thing about the final bell on a Friday was that as much as Tony wanted to get away from school was equally matched by everyone else. All of the students wanted to leave the prison of school and didn't engage in conversation as they scurried through the corridors and made their way out.

Tony wasn't in as big as a rush as everyone else. He knew that no matter how quickly he got to the student parking lot; there would be a bottleneck as everyone made their way to the exit. He enjoyed waiting for a little while to let the congestion die down. Besides that, with as bad as his day was, he figured it was a thousand times worst for the small girl that the fury was directed towards.

Antonio stopped off at the coaches’ office. It was an unannounced visit, but his often were. The coaches were sitting back and talking about the upcoming NFL and college football seasons. There were three coaches and none of them agreed on which team to root for. Coach Walker was a local team kind of guy, pulling for the Buccaneers in the NFL and the Gators for his college team. They were the same teams that Tony rooted for, adding to the reasons why he felt he got along so well with his coach.

“There's the man,” Coach Walker said as Tony hopped on the scale.

“Hey coach.” Tony manipulated the weights on the scale.

“How's it going?”

“Not good,” Tony said in disgust, he gained two pounds that week and wasn't all pleased with the development. “I got to start lying off those cafeteria hamburgers.”

“Not exactly what I'm talking about,” Coach Walker said as he stood behind his athlete and checked the scale. “Plus two isn't that bad, it could be muscle or you getting water back in your system. I wouldn't be concerned and I don't want you going on a workout binge. I'm not supposed to tell you, but weight certification is going to be before the first week of practice and I don't need you disqualified.”

Tony laughed as he got of the scale. “Who would've thought that, huh Coach?”

“You did well this summer. Let me ask you again, how is it going?”

Antonio sighed. “As good as could be expected.”

“Your name kept popping up in conversations today,” Coach Walked said as he sat on top of an unused desk near the scale as Tony put his shirt and jeans back on.

“I can imagine,” he said in a huff.

“People didn't say anything to us,” Coach Walker motioned towards the other coaches in the room, “but there was fire in their voices.”

“It's about this girl at school.”

“Okay. You didn't do anything stupid did you?”

“Coach!”
 

“Sorry, forgot who I was talking to,” Coach Walker said with a smile. “All the bits and information that I overheard didn't make sense anyway.”

“The whole situation doesn't make any sense. The school wouldn't let a boy come to school dressed up as a girl would they?”

Coach Walker gave his athlete a sideways look. “Come again?”

“That's what this whole thing is about. They think that this girl at school is really a boy.”

“Oh, a Leslie problem.”

“Huh?” Antonio was confused.

“It was before your time. We had this girl at the school a decade ago. Leslie the lesbian they called her. There were rumors about her being a guy and using the lesbian angle to get girls. Fun times,” Coach Walker said sarcastically.

“So this isn't new?”

“What, a girl being called a guy? No. It's not common, but it isn't unheard of.”

“So what happened to Leslie the lesbian?”

“She graduated, married a guy she met in college and has two kids.”

“What happened to the lesbian part?”

Coach Walker laughed. “Nothing. It was a lie that got started that never went away. Turns out she liked wearing her hair short and didn't like wearing dresses.”

“But she made it through school though,” Tony said with a sense of relief. “That's good.”

“Yeah, but I'm sure she wished people didn't bully her. Sounds like you made friends with this current version, at least that explains the bitterness.”

“I wasn't going to stand around and watch someone be destroyed.”

Coach Walker put his arm around Antonio. “You're a good guy, Tiny. You see the best in people, and that's rare for any person of any age, none the less a high school student. You'll be a good friend to her, I'm sure of it, but don't get in over your head.”

“I'm just being someone's friend.”

“Tiny, I know you better than that. You'd take on the whole school in a fight to prove you're right about something. Sometimes the best way to defeat something is a tactical retreat.”

“You mean, not be this girl's friend?”

“No. That's not what I'm saying at all. Rumors come and rumors go, some take longer to go than others, some never go away at all. Sometimes the more you fight a rumor and insist that it isn't true, the longer it hangs on. Be this girl's friend, but don't fight everyone on the lies they spread. Sometimes that fight is the only fuel that keeps the rumor alive. Be a friend, and let everything else take care of itself.”

Tony nodded. “Thanks coach.”

“It's my job. Now get out of here, I see you enough during the season.”

Tony grabbed his books and made his way out of the coaches’ office.  

By the time Antonio made it down the embankment and onto the student parking lot most of the other cars were already gone, including Peter's Ford pickup. 'Thank God for small favors,' Tony thought as he strolled towards his Firebird.

A few feet away he could tell his windows were rolled down and though he couldn't see her, Tony knew Courtney was in the car. He walked to the driver’s side, threw his books into the back seat and opened the door. The small girl was crouched in the passenger side so no one could see her.

“If you're trying to hide from me,” Tony said lightly, “next time don't roll down the windows down.”

Courtney sat up; her eyes were red and puffy. “I wasn't hiding from you,” she said with a sniffle.

“Tough day, huh?” Tony knew he was stating the obvious but didn't know what else to say. He turned the key in the ignition and fired the car up while Courtney composed herself.

“I'm glad it's over.” The small girl ran the back of her arm across her face. “It's the weekend and I won't have to deal with people.”

“Not even your mom and dad,” Tony joked. He didn't know why he was making light of the situation, but he was at a loss on how to handle things.

“They're not people, they're parents.”

“I forgot. To me they're people; to you they're aliens from the planet Parentisia. I wonder what they did to hide their tentacles.”

Courtney cracked a smile. “You're making fun of me.”

“Not at all. It's not nice to make fun of someone who is being held prisoner by aliens. And right here in Florida, who would've thought it. They probably came for the orange juice and got a slave girl.”

“You're being silly.”

“Yeah, but I made you smile, two points for me.”

“Is that for a takedown or a reverse thingy?”

“A reversal. Maybe two for a reversal, that will work. Hey, you're learning about wrestling, that's more than most girls.”

“I looked up wrestling on the internet.” Courtney was pleased with herself. “I had good motivation.”

Tony pulled out of the student parking lot and onto the main street. “That's good. Wrestling is an awesome sport. Did you know it's the only sport God Himself participated in?”

“Is this a joke? Kind of like Moses playing Tennis because he served in Pharaoh's court.”

Tony chuckled at the lame joke. “Nope. Not a joke at all. It's in Genesis. Jacob wrestled against the angel of the Lord. Word for word. There is some debate if that was a pre-incarnate Jesus.”

“So you and Jesus have something in common,” Courtney said. “You both wrestle.”

“I hope that's not the only thing we have in common, but that's kind of cool.”

“Yeah. Real cool. But I can't see Jesus wearing those little tight thingies.”

“Me either. Listen; there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Sure,” Courtney said nervously. “What is it?”

“I know you already know this,” Tony said hesitantly, unsure if he wanted to broach the subject considering the girl was crying when he got into the car. But, he already set things in motion and figured it would be best to get it out of the way than prolong it and keep wondering all weekend. “There's been this rumor going around school about you, and I wanted to talk to you about it.”

“Pull over,” Courtney said in a whisper.

Tony followed the girl's instruction and pulled down one of the side streets so he could get out of the way of any traffic. “Okay. I'm pulled over.”

It was evident that the girl was nervous as she looked unsure what to do with her hands. “What rumor did you hear?” Fear dripped with every word.

“It's stupid really,” Tony said, trying to put the girl at ease. “But a few people have come up to me and said that you were a boy. Ridiculous right?”

Courtney remained silent as her eyes grew wide. She wanted to answer but words failed her.