Circle Of Friends - Louis

I met Louis on the first day of my freshman year of high school. Dad had just moved us from Otis Valley to the city, and I didn’t know anyone in the school. I was a little bit overwhelmed: I had went from being an eight grader, the fiercest predator in the elementary school kingdom, to an insignificant freshman, the lowest lifeform in high school. I found my locker okay, thanks to the map of the school that I had been given at registration and orientation, but I couldn’t get the son-of-a-bitch to open. I checked the combination again, and carefully reentered it, but the bar refused to move.

“You have to wiggle it a little,” a deep, resonant voice informed me, “they get a little bit sticky during the summer.”

I turned my head and met my locker partner. Juniors and seniors rated individual lockers, while freshmen and sophomores had to share. To add to the feeling of inferiority heaped upon freshmen, they were assigned older, bossy sophomores as locker partners.

“Hi, I’m Louis.” The ugliest guy I had ever seen extended his hand in greeting. He was a little taller than me, had dark hair, and the worst case of acne in the world. It looked like it would be absolute hell just to try and wash a face like that let alone shave; of course I didn’t know anything about shaving yet anyway.

“Jeff.” I responded, pointing my index finger his direction. This was in 1963 and on the fifty-mile distant planet that I was from high school kids were too cool to shake hands with each other. I did what he suggested, and the locker popped open. “Thanks,” I said, sincerely. “I’m new here.”

“What’s your first class?” He asked.

“English,” I answered, “Mr. Nelson, in room 103.”

“He’s okay. Just don’t get him started on World War two. He’ll spend all period talking about it and then give you some homework that you won’t know anything about. 102 is just down the hall, around the corner. Maybe I’ll see you at lunch.”

He ambled off, talking to a girl, and I turned to deposit my extra books in the locker. The first thing that caught my eye was the crucifix attached to the door and the bible among his books. This seemed a little strange to me, even back then. ‘Jesus! A Jesus freak!’ I remember thinking. None of the guys I knew were that religious. They would put on the show on Sunday to satisfy their parents, but the rest of the time they left it alone. I knew a few girls who were pretty well into it, but most guys don’t come to Jesus until they are adults.

I found my way to English, and survived that without making any waves, then fumbled my way through Algebra without really figuring out what the guy was talking about. I would need some serious help with that one or I would get shifted back to bonehead arithmetic. General Science went okay, I like that stuff, and then it was time for lunch.

I was brown bagging it, so I got in the milk line, paid for a carton, and sat down at a nearby table.

“Don’t sit there!” It was Louis. “The seniors get this end of the cafeteria. They’ll come down on you pretty hard. Sit over there, with us.” He pointed to a table across the room.

“Who’s this, Louis?” One of the girls asked.

“I’m Jeff Miller,” I said, not waiting for an introduction. “I moved here a week ago from Otis Valley, and Louis is my locker partner.”

“Hi! I’m Sherry, this is Ann.” They were both pretty nice looking, even though Ann seemed self-conscious about her mouthful of braces.

Louis set his tray down, and bowed his head, silently saying grace. That surprised me, as I had never seen a kid do that in school. We spent the rest of the lunch period talking, and finally Louis asked me what my next class was.

“P.E.” I answered.

“So is mine.” He said, rising from the table. “See you later Sherry, bye Ann. Come on Jeff, I’ll show you the way.”

P.E. wasn’t my favorite class. I didn’t fear or loathe it the way the fat or underdeveloped kids did, I just didn’t like it for a couple of reasons. First off I wasn’t very athletic and hadn’t found a sport I liked. I was in good shape, and could run fast and was a good simmer, but I had terrible hand-eye coordination and poor spatial recognition. Throw me a ball and I would probably miss it, and if I did luck out and catch it I would throw it to the wrong person. The elementary school I went to only recognized football, basketball, and baseball as sports and that kind of left me out. Secondly, two older boys had victimized me during P.E. class in an unsupervised locker room, and again when they caught me alone in the woods. Later that year I inflicted the ultimate punishment on them, and then afterwards defiled one of them in a perverse act of sodomy that debased myself as well. I hadn’t told anyone about it and I still wasn’t really comfortable in locker rooms.

I stood in line to get my issue of jock strap, shorts, tee shirt, sweat socks, and basket assignment and then went to a bench and dressed down. P.E was required for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, and the class was evenly divided among the three grades. I was pretty comfortable about my stage of development, but I still took a quick look around to check everyone else out. All sixteen-year olds look so young now that it is hard to believe how mature and hairy they seemed when I was fourteen. Louis was across the room and had his back turned to me, but I could easily see that he was more mature than I was. He was a little stocky, but well muscled, and had dense hair on his legs. We listened to the teacher preach for a while before being herded out onto the field for a round of calisthenics, and were then ordered to take a quick lap around the track. All of the coaches were there, as they each wanted to talent scout the new freshmen for their respective sports. I quickly moved to the head of the pack and finished my lap ahead of everyone but one guy. The track coach came up and introduced himself and said he’d like me to try out for Track next spring.

The P.E. teacher whistled us back in and we stripped again and hit the showers. I was rising off amidst the noisy throng when Louis turned towards me. My eyes just about popped out of my head! Not only did he have the world’s worst case of acne, he also had a horribly malformed dick! I tried not to stare, but I couldn’t help myself. Instead of a normal roundish head with a narrow band of skin above it his was sloped and tapered and was covered with skin to a long, tubular end, almost like an anteater that had swallowed something. I quickly turned my head, and saw that another guy had the same affliction! I must have read the word ‘circumcise’ before, but all the guys that I had ever seen naked had dicks like my own, and I honestly didn’t know what an uncut guy looked like.

The next class was World Geography, and the last one of the day was Woodshop. My dad was a carpenter, and I was pretty handy with wood and tools but he wanted me to learn the basics from someone else, and it seemed like an easy ‘A’ to me.

Louis was also in the class, and he sat down at the table with me as we were handed out the mechanical drawing and safety assignments that had to be completed before we actually started woodworking.

“Sherry said that Ann thinks you’re neat.” Louis informed me.

“Oh yeah?” He had my attention.

“Yeah. Sherry and I are going to the DQ after school, and Ann will be there. Do you want to come too?”

The Dairy Queen was the center of off campus activities for freshmen and sophomores, as it was right across the street from the school and within easy walking distance for the kids without wheels. Back then you could go there after school, kill a half hour off campus, and still get back and catch your bus or walk home, as I did.

There was a pretty rigid code of conduct at the school back then, and girls all had to wear skirts or dresses and guys had to wear long pants. Kissing, making out, or just holding hands was prohibited in the hallways, and as soon as they left the school grounds Louis and Sherry locked their lips in a smooch that rivaled anything shown in the movies in those days. We settled into a booth with our Cokes, Ann beside me, and got to know each other. Ann was a freshman, like myself, and was Sherry’s alleged best friend. She lived on a farm out in the sticks and she wanted to be a teacher some day.

Louis and Sherry were as close as Siamese twins; I don’t think you could have worked a piece of dental floss between them as they whispered in each other’s ears.

Ann checked the clock on the wall and announced that she had to leave as her mom was picking her up, and as she did she rubbed her hand along the inside of my thigh all the way from my knee to my crotch and paused there, and smiled at me.

I took my Algebra book to bed that night, and tried to comprehend what the teacher had said, but my mind kept drifting back to Ann, and what she might look like in a swimsuit or even no suit. I finally put the book down, turned off the light, and reached down and got one of my socks off of the floor. I finally fell asleep contented. I had acquired an advisor and mentor and had made a few new friends, including one girl who thought I was neat. Maybe high school would be okay after all.

I made more friends, and even found a sport I liked. P.E. was held one day a week at the nearby community swimming pool, and I tried out for the swim team and was immediately placed on the J.V. roster, which was unusual for a freshman. Algebra was getting easier, and I was just barely managing to pull down a C, and the rest of the classes were a snap. I learned who the bad-asses in the school were and I didn’t have any trouble steering clear of them. I still liked Ann and had another two girls on my string as well.

I liked Louis, but he was still somewhat of a mystery to me. He was very religious, but no one seemed to know what church he belonged to. He never preached or tried to convert me or anyone else, but he tended to be a stabilizing factor and when kids got together no vandalism, shoplifting, or malicious mischief would occur with him around. I wasn’t a hell raiser by any means, but I did have a pretty bad case of potty mouth back then. I dropped a book in a mud puddle one day, and said ‘God damn son of a bitch’or something equally inappropriate, and Louis took immediate offence and warned me against ‘blasphemy’. He had that kind of look in his eye when he said it that made me think he would beat the crap out of me if I said it again, so I went to the school library and looked the word up to see what it meant. I watched my language after that, particularly around him.

He still had the hots for Sherry and I don’t think he dated anyone else. I was more concerned with Ann at the time and how to get into her pants than I was with Louis and Sherry’s love life, but it kind of shocked me when Ann told me that they were ‘doing it’.

“What?” I asked, naively. “Doing what?”

“You know,” she answered, “having sex together.”

“No way!” Not Louis!” I stated.

“Sherry told me, so it’s true.”

A week later I found a condom in our locker and I knew it sure as hell wasn’t mine. The next time I went out with Ann I asked her how often they did it.

“At least once a week,” she answered. “Sometimes two or three times.”

This looked like a good opportunity, so I asked her if she’d like to do it too.

“Someday, with the right guy.” She answered, leaving me wondering if I had a chance. Not with her, it turned out, nor with anyone else for another year and a half.

I was a typical horny teen and I desperately wanted to ask Louis some questions about what it was like and all that stuff, but I also had a pretty good sense of survival and figured that Louis, pious as he was, would cream me if I said anything about it.

I still hadn’t gotten anywhere with Ann by May, but other than that things were great. I would at least pass Algebra, I was practically guaranteed a spot on the varsity swim team next year, and I was doing okay in Track. Another girl, one who had a reputation for putting out, was mildly interested in me, and I had gained about three inches in height. Good old strong and stable Louis was still pronging Sherry and everything was rosy.

I don’t know when it happened, since I wasn’t there, but one day Ann told me that Sherry was pregnant. I was starting to get a little pissed off with Ann by that time. She would come on to me, get me all worked up by just about jerking me off through my pants, and then leave me hot and bothered and high and dry. She was also a gossip, and I doubt if Sherry had told her to spread the word that she was knocked up with Louis’ kid. A week after that, which I think was the last time I talked to Ann, she told me that Sherry had went to Seattle and had gotten an abortion, ‘but for heaven’s sake don’t tell anyone I told you’.

I don’t think that Louis saw any sin or wrongdoing in what he did with Sherry, but the idea of him causing the death of their fetus was too much for him. I don’t know if his religion condoned suicide, or even if it was a suicide attempt when he wired a stout cable to his balls and jumped off of the thirty-five foot high Second Street Bridge with twenty-five feet of slack in the cable. It wasn’t suicide because he didn’t die.

Author’s note----This description of my first day of high school is as accurate as I can remember it. All of the people are fictitious. Also, in November of that year Second period Algebra was interrupted by a hesitant voice on the intercom telling us that President Kennedy had been shot. School was ended for the day and students with cars and those within walking distance were told to go home. The busses were summoned for an emergency run for the rest of the students. Two days later another freshman voiced his astute learned opinion that ‘Johnson and Castro did it’. Nothing has happened in the last forty years to convince me that he was wrong.