FicWad

Chapter 12



Jean-Claude showed up on the Rugby pitch, wearing his old Bats jersey, hoping for some action. When he arrived, what he saw was a great difference between the high school and college level. Everyone had some size to them, including the backs. However, when they saw him approach, with the silver and maroon striped jersey trimmed in black, with a bat carrying a Rugby ball on his right breast, they saw someone they figured belonged on the Rugby pitch. Standing amongst them, he was the third tallest in the group and about the third biggest. The Ray Bans added to his image. The largest one on the team saw him, and popped out his hand as he exchanged pleasantries. "You're one of the few people that I have to look up at to talk," said Jean-Claude, smiling. The man laughed, and said, "You are...?"

"Sorry," said Jean-Claude, "Jean-Claude D'amphile."

"The guys around here call me Andre," said the man standing there. Indeed, facially, and size wise, he looked like Andre the Giant's son, just a foot shorter. The big man standing next to him greeted him, and said, "They call me Tree."

"I can see why!" laughed Jean-Claude.

"I see you played at some point," said Andre.

"Oh this?" said Jean-Claude, now realizing they reference his jersey, "This was the high school that I attended in Japan. We were all Tokyo and all conference champions. We came literally one foot away from the national title that year."

"Oh man!" said another listening in, "That had to suck!"

"It did," said Jean-Claude, "especially since I was the one that had the ball!"

"Dude!" said another, "that's so uncool!"

"Must have taken an ocean to stop you," said another.

"Indeed it did!" answered Jean-Claude.

"What do you play?" asked Andre.

"I played flank forward," said Jean-Claude.

"I'm Thomas Turlo," said one of the bigger men, "I'm scrum captain. Yeah, Icould see you there, but you also look like a second rower. You might want to try that."

"Never been a pusher," said Jean-Claude, "I like to tackle."

"Well," said Turlo, "We'll try you in different positions in and see what we have. This is college level, so you might actually be better suited in another position."

"So, are we going live at any point?" asked Jean-Claude.

"Well, today we'll probably be going over drills, and maybe some tackling practice," said Turlo, "but we'll probably scrimmage on Friday."

"Just let me know when contact starts," said Jean-Claude, "because I have acondition where I have to wear these sunglasses in sunlight as much as I can. It's not that I cannot play without them, it's just that I have to wear them when Ican."

With that, practice started, and the nicknames on this team reminded him of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the fifties. There was Andre, Tree, Bookworm, Pee-Wee, Bulldog, Meister Brau, Cream Cheese, Miracle McQueeny, amongst others. They spent time knocking the rust off them, and began to get their football heads back on. They did do some hitting drills, and Jean-Claude indeed showed his defensive prowess. However, the one thing that they noticed on him was the odd way that his mouthpiece fit on him. It looked like he had a set of fangs! It showed more when he took it out. As the sun was setting, (which was a relief to him, knowing that his exposure to it would be limited,) his wife and children approached, having shown up in time for the practice. Mickey showed himself helpful by getting water to all the guys, while Sheila policed his specs. When some of the men asked who the boy was, he introduced his wife and kids to them. "Whoa!" said Pee-Wee, "You're a married man!"

"No duh, Pee-Wee," said Turlo, very snidely, "They just spontaneously generated!"

"Hey," said Andre, "We're heading for the Bear's Den, want to come?"

"Nah," said Jean-Claude, "but thanks anyway. I have to get everyone home, and then prepare for class."

"Oh, so you take night courses," stated (Book) Worm.

"Due to certain circumstances," said Jean-Claude, "and due to my condition, Ilive mostly at night."

"Man," said McQueeny, "We should call you Drac!"

That rattled the D'amphiles. Jean-Claude nervously said, "What makes you say that?"

"Well look at your teeth," said Turlo, "You have sensitivity to sunlight, and you live at night. You're Drac!"

Tree came up and patted his shoulder, saying, "Don't worry about it. Almost everyone has nicknames here. It fits you!"

Jean-Claude played along with it and laughed, and said, "Well, I guess I'll see you all tomorrow."

McQueeny, (the team captain,) came up with a catalogue, and said, "Oh, hold up, here's a catalogue you can use to get a team jersey."

"Don't you have a standard set with the numbers on them?" asked Jean-Claude.

"This is a club sport," said Tree, "and because of that, we're low man on the totem pole, so we have to get all our own things."

"Okay," said Jean-Claude, but he looked at the catalogue, and thought that he would have to do something about it. This also meant that they had to supply all their own equipment. He would definitely have to do something about it!



At this point, there was a mass exodus from the manor of students. They all had their own limo service to the campus, and they left in such a fashion as not to look too conspicuous. Bridgette was left to care for the children, considering that she was the only one that Jean-Claude trusted to take care of things. Everyone split up on campus as they all headed for their respective lecture halls. For Hondo and Jean-Claude, they quickly learned that physical education entailed more than just sports. It involved nutrition, health science, some psychology that related to the matter, and other such things. Because Innocent was into nursing, that meant that she and the other two boys would be together in many of those classes, much to Innocent's chagrin. Fumio and Yuriya felt it odd to be going back to "high school," but when they saw the number of adults in there with them, it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. Karin had not, at first, wanted to go, but Kenta was going for a master's degree in engineering, and she wanted to be a part of things, so she decided on perfecting her culinary skills. Even though she now could no longer taste the food nearly as well as before, she was still able to cook, and she usually used Kenta and Kannon as her test pallets. She always knew that she could find classmates that could help as well, by using the excuse of wanting to have them give a "second opinion" of her work. Meanwhile, Anjou would be the most separate from them because of her major in music theory and composition. Despite being still in mourning, she still affected her black ensemble, and she looked more like a fine woman of the post-Victorian, pre-Flapper era. However, with her grace, she still could turn heads. Yet, when people tried to get close to her, her Wednesday Adams face scared many off. The fortunate thing was that they only had class three days aweek, so that allowed for more family and training time. If anything, they were not going to let their circumstances prevent them from having as normal alife as could be expected.



The next day, the children were arriving at Adam's Elementary, and everyone was abuzz about the school bully. Even he asked questions about things. The last thing he remembered before he woke up in the bushes was that he was walking in the trail of the woods, waiting for that Japanese kid. Everyone else was remarking on the nasty insect bites on his neck. Even he did not know what that was, and he had to assume everyone else was right about them being insect bites. However, Mickey was on his mind, and he was going to settle that score. Still, everyone remarked on his nervous actions, and they were not sure what scheme he may be creating. Sheila was met by Alicia, and they hugged. "Konichiwa, Alicia-chan," said Sheila.

"Is that how you say 'hello' in Japan?" asked Alicia.

"Yes," said Sheila, "or, I might have said 'Ohio,' which means 'good morning."

"That's neat," said Alicia, and then she noticed the extra box lunch.

"What's the extra box foah," asked Alicia.

"Oh this?" said Sheila, "I mentioned that you wanted to try some of this, and mom just made a whole box for you!"

She handed it over, smiling, and Alicia said, "Wow! I hope it wasn't much trouble."

"Oh, mom loves doing things like this!" smiled Sheila, "It was no problem at all!"

Then Alicia looked at the small ticket in her hand and said, "Oh, but I have the hot lunch today."

"Give it to me," she said, "I know what to do."

She then took the ticket, and then began to scan the school yard. She was looking for someone that looked like they were hungry, and she came across agirl who was wearing clashing, albeit clean, clothes, and her aura showed as if she were hungry and weak. Sheila asked, "Who is that?"

"Oh her?" said Alicia, "That's Jennifeah. She's a powah kid who has to wear those awful clothes she gets from thrift stowahs. She keeps to herself."

"Why?" asked Sheila.

"Everyone teases her about that," answered, Alicia, "They're so mean!"

Sheila looked a bit forlorn, and said, "How can they be so cruel to a starving girl?"

"Staahvin'!" exclaimed Alicia, "How do you know that?"

"I have my ways," said Sheila, with her best Anjou expression. With that, she went up to her, faced her, gave her most gentle smile, and said, "I won't be needing this, and I think that you do. Please, eat well!"

At first, Jennifer wanted to tell her to go away, thinking it was another kid wanting to tease her. Yet, she saw Sheila's gentle and friendly smile, it disarmed her. When she saw the lunch ticket put into her hand, she knew that this was no joke. She smiled, but tears began to well up in her eyes. Sheila then said, "Say, why don't you come and have lunch with me and Alicia tomorrow on. We always have plenty left over for the two of us. You could share it, if you like."

This was followed by the same gentle smile, and that did it for Jennifer. She tightly embraced Sheila, and said, "Oh thank you, thank you so much! No one's evah been that kind ta me!"

Sheila hugged her back and stroked her hair. "Know that, if you ever need help, a shoulder, or someone to just talk to, I shall be there. Come and meet my friend."

With that, Sheila brought her up to Alicia so that they could meet. Some of the other girls around turned up their noses at Sheila for talking to this girl, but all Sheila did was get a look on her face that said, "You snobs mean nothing to me, and not having your friendship would hurt me none!"

Mickey saw this and smiled, knowing the big and generous heart that his sister possessed. However, something was stirring nearby. The bully started to approach, and he said, "Okay slant, I..."

Suddenly, pain filled his head, and shot through every joint in his body at once. He felt like all his major nerve points were being pinched at once. He dropped to his knees, moaning in pain. As it subsided, another boy waked up and asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"

The bully did not want sympathy, and tried to shoo him away, saying, "Hey, doofus, I don't..." and it hit him again. Now everyone was watching. The pain subsided again, and the bully was trying to figure out what was happening. He then turned his eyes to Mickey, and Mickey fixed a death stare on the boy with a slight grin. The bully then said, "What did you do to me!"

All Mickey did was turn his head, look at him out of the corner of his eye, and said, "See you in class!"

The bully tried to approach in anger again, and again, he was on his knees in pain. Mickey wondered how long it would take for him to figure things out, and quit acting like an idiot! Sheila came up and said, "What did you do to him?"

"Only what Dad would have done," he answered as he smiled.



Meanwhile, in Iraq, at the convergence spot of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, Ryuu and Ai were meeting up with Ren and Chiyuki. Ren and Chiyuki had been taking an extended honeymoon, and the other couple had been spending time getting reacquainted with one another. Ren and Chiyuki had been keeping themselves funded by hitting the casinos and cleaning up at the poker tables. The other two had a vast enough fortune to sustain themselves. Their whole intent was for Ryuu to go back, somewhat, to his roots, and find himself. Since he had been set free, he had been spending time with Ai trying to see the world in a whole new way. They were at the location where many speculate was the spot of the actual Garden of Eden. Even to this day, it is a beautiful, lush garden spot with plenty of water to make it plush and fertile. In fact, Ryuu was actually able to find the spot where he had gone wrong, set up an altar, slaughtered the appropriate animal, and offered it up, saying, "This is the only way I know how to make it right, Father."

After tending to that, they went into Basra, and discussed the happenings that had taken place in Paris months before. Ryuu could not believe that the Inquisition was still in operation. He had hoped that they had given up on their evil ways by this point and dissolve, but apparently, they had not figured out the reality of things. It really hit home when it was one closest to you that was hurt. The fact that many of their family and Clan had to go into hiding over the matter made it worse. This was the main subject of talk as they sat at a caf