“Brandy!” I yelled at my Shetland as I climbed on the bus, ”will you get out of the way of the bus! We’ve got to get to school!” This particular dog of ours had an irritating habit of playing chicken with the school bus most every morning. Standing proud and erect though only just over a foot high the dumb dog would force the bus to stop. Once the bus stopped Brandy would seem to say to himself, “I have conquered you bus! Now in an act of great compassion I will let you pass.” He would then walk off the road letting the bus roll by. Looking back Mr. Atkinson, the bus driver, showed great restraint in not making a greasy spot out of that dog. I loved that dog but as my friend Tony used to say he was about as bright as a 2 watt light bulb.
I worked my way to the back of bus No. 17. Mr. Atkinson was his usually stoically quite self. I found a seat next to my best friend Tony Daniel, a person of unique personality and talents. He was the first real movie buff I had ever met. He, along with Ted Turner’s WTCG, introduced me to the world of old movies. I eventually became a movie geek much preferring anything made prior to the early 60’s to the newer movies. We were really very different personalities. I was a skinny, low-key, introvert who loved sports. Tony was a husky, flamboyant extrovert, who loved the arts. By all accounts we had little in common but for some reason really enjoyed each other’s company. For me he was one of the bright spots in high school.
“Hey I hear you won your chess match yesterday.” Tony greeted me. A wave of pride swelled in me.
“Yes, I did.” I was tempted to embellish my victory but decided truth was a much better idea. “I got lucky. He made a bad mistake and I just happen to have the right piece in the right place at the right time.”
“So is the next match the championship?”
“Friday. Its after school again.”
“So is your mom going to pick you up?”
“Yea.”
“You better not forget to ask her before Friday afternoon. Your memory isn’t exactly a steel trap, you know.”
“Yea, I know. I’ll remember, Dad!” I answered sarcastically.
“Do you know who you are playing yet?”
“Not yet. I think the other semi-final is today. I don’t know either of the players so Friday will be the first time I play against them.”
“You haven’t played them in the chess club before?”
“The tournament is open to the whole school and those players were not in the club.”
“Doesn’t say much for the quality of the chess club does it?”
“Hey!” I said with a small amount of indignation, “ I am still a member of the chess club. The chess club may yet claim the school title.”
“Well, I hope you win.”
“Thanks Tony.” I answered him and then changed the subject. “I saw North by Northwest last night!”
Tony’s eyes brightened, “So did you like it?”
“It was pretty intriguing.” I answered. We then vicariously entered the world of the movies for the next twenty minutes. Professor Daniels extolled the virtues of Hitchcock to me for a while, recommending a plethora of movies to view. I would eventually get around to seeing all of them. Really liking some, like The Rear Window and To Catch A Thief. Some of the others he recommended where so distasteful I cannot even recall their names now.
The next day in Mr. Moore’s algebra class Tony leaned over and whispered, “Did you find out who you play next week?”
“No,” I whispered back quietly. I didn’t want to start a conversation because we were supposed to be doing our work. Tony hated math so he really didn’t care. It is not so much that I liked math is that I liked not being in trouble. Mr. Moore was a nice teacher but like any good one he didn’t like students talking when they were supposed to be working. Besides, Tony had already gotten on Mr. Moore’s bad side by bothering Narissa Ponder. He tilted her desk and almost sent her crashing to the floor. And later to the amazement of everyone started singing “Mr. Moore loves Miss Arrington”. Miss Arrington, a tall attractive English teacher, and Mr. Moore were dating. I am not really sure why Mr. Moore didn’t nuke Tony after that incident, maybe because it was true, but after blushing simply gave Tony the evil eye and Tony stopped. So Tony was not exactly in Mr. Moore’s good graces now. Mr. Moore didn’t notice me and that was fine with me at that moment.
“So when do you find out?” came back a whisper.
“Be quiet Tony! I’m trying to do my work.” I whispered a little too loudly.
“Is there anything you two gentlemen would like to discuss with the class?” Mr. Moore said as he gave us both the evil eye. Oh, I wanted to clobber Tony. I had never been given the evil eye by any teacher, much less the calm Mr. Moore.
“No sir.” I said.
“Then get about your work quietly.” Mr. Moore replied.
Mercifully the bell rang and we all started to file out for lunch. We all shuffled through the line to grab something that was interesting and even edible. After snarfing down the food we all went outside to claim our corner of the courtyard to yak until lunch was over.
Tony, Mark Lee, Lisa Reed and I started to engage in our favorite lunchtime activity: standing by the air conditioner next to the teacher’s lounge and bending the vanes off the unit. It is somewhat painful to see how my conscience didn’t see much wrong with that. I was in the middle of enjoying that when Kevin Whiteside came over. Kevin was slightly taller than average and was somewhat of an athlete. He kind of leaned toward the cool athlete type, though in Newnan,
Georgia that was also usually mixed in with a healthy amount of redneck. Kevin definitely had that in him as he spit out a big wad of skoal laced spit. “Hey, I hear you are playing Lisa Fridell for the chess championship next week.” He said to me as he prepared to ‘skoal’ a spider on the ground near us.
“Is she the winner of the other match?” I asked.
“Yeh,” Kevin looked up at me and said, “I just heard it last period.” He stared back at the ground for a second as if thinking. “You are going to be toast.” He said rather matter-of-factly.
“Lisa Fridel!!”, interjected Tony as he laughed. “I feel for you man.” He said as he turned to me.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle”, added Mark “I had her in Trig class. She knows her stuff.”
“It’s not over yet.” Lisa Reed added trying to defend my mental honor, though not convincingly. It didn’t help. As far as my friends were concerned the match had already been played and I lost.
“What!?” I protested at this pre-game show analysis.
“Lisa is going to kill you, man.” Kevin said
“How do you know that?” I replied, starting to feel slighted.
“You don’t know her?” He asked in some disbelief, as if her mental genius was known to the whole world.
“No, I’ve never heard her name.” I answered
“Oh man!” he said chuckling. “She is the smartest kid around here. She going to medical school.”
“
Medical
School! Yikes!” I thought to myself. Heck I didn’t even know where I was going this weekend. I didn’t even know if I was going to college much less graduate school. This was more than a little intimidating.
“Well
Harvey,” added Tony “you gave it a good shot.”
“What shot? We haven’t even played the match yet!” I was starting to get really steamed.
“I think you can beat her.” Mark added. From anyone else I might have believed it but Mark was such a nice guy I knew he was just trying to cheer me up.
“Don’t listen to them”, added Lisa. “I think you can do it.” Lisa tried to sound encouraging but then added without thinking. “I like rooting for the underdog.”
The bell rang. Tony, Mark, Lisa and Kevin filed out to their next classes. I stood there stunned for a moment.
“What?!!” I thought to myself. I was still a little dumbfounded. “Who IS this I’m playing?” I thought
Ring! Ring! Ring! I heard the bell ring. Startled, I stopped and all the previous thoughts in my mind vanished as I raced to my next class hoping the teacher wouldn’t see me come in late.
A Grandpa's Musings 
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