Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2014 20:08:12 -0700
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Puget Posse  Chapter 33

Greetings. In this chapter, the fifth graders start to stake out their
territory as Jeremiah and Alden up the stakes in their rivalry with the
Puget Posse.

All Chapter 1 disclaimers continue to apply, and will continue through
the rest of the story. And please, remember to donate to the Nifty
Archive.

Douglas. thehakannen@hotmail.com



CHAPTER 33
LESSONS


Misha was having a busy week. There was always the busyness of
homework, of course, but on Wednesday the chess club would finally
be meeting again now that Mr. Nichols was back. Earlier in the week,
Cole had sought out Misha, asking him to sign a sympathy card for
their chess advisor. He had been away because of the death of his
mother.

Misha had managed to get in some games during lunch against Vern
who, as a sixth grader, had the same lunch period. He wished he
could play Cole, but thought maybe it was for the best that they wait
until the club met again to resume their rivalry.

When the Wednesday meeting of the chess club started, Mr. Nichols
thanked the group for the thoughtful card. "Let's draw and see who
plays whom," he said.

Arno's voice stopped him. Arno was an eighth grader and a friend of
Cole's. "Mr. Nichols, Cole has been really working hard for a rematch
with Misha. He is too nice to tell you what he wants, but I'm not nice
at all." He flashed Cole a quick smirk.

"There are no rules here that are etched in concrete," Mr. Nichols
said. "Is Arno correct regarding your desire?" he asked Cole.

"Yes, sir. I've been studying my books and have played some high
school kids in the Shoreline Chess Club."

"Well, Cole, you really can give your requests directly to me, you
know. It's been a long time since I've disemboweled a student for
asking a legitimate favor." He looked across the room to where Misha
was sitting. "And how does young Master Misha feel about Cole's
request. You are welcome to turn it down and enjoy the spoils of
victory for a while longer."

Misha took Mr. Nichols' statement as an affront. It was as if he was
saying Misha had been lucky and that Cole had been a bit
overconfident. He insinuated that now that his star chess player was
completely prepared, Misha didn't stand a chance of winning. Misha
disagreed with that notion. "I wish to play Cole again," he said matter-
of-factly. He wanted to add, "...and I can still enjoy the spoils of
victory," but trash talk was not his style.

There were 11 other boys at the meeting. They did not get out their
chessboards or any of the school chessboards. Instead, they took up
positions where they could see the board that Cole and Misha set up.
Mr. Nichols was pleased with the group; he could see they
understood that this was a big match.

Cole hadn't been the only one studying his books or playing better
competition. Misha had gone to two evening meetings at the
community center and one Saturday meeting, playing the adults
there, most of whom were excellent players. He won more than he
lost, and even in his losses, he impressed his opponents. He came to
the school chess club meeting feeling sharp and ready to play.

Everybody sat back waiting for a long strategic battle, but Misha's
opening gambit seemed to confuse Cole. Within fifteen minutes the
fifth grader had destroyed his eighth grade rival. Cole had a stunned
look on his face as he surveyed the remains of the disaster on the
chess board.

"Rematch?" Cole asked.

This time Misha did want to savor his victory. Cole had let everybody
know he was prepared and ready to destroy the fifth grade upstart.
Instead, he'd been taken apart like a raw beginner. Misha had
showed Cole and the entire chess club that he was capable of turning
his game up a few notches as well. There was no doubt in anybody's
mind from Mr. Nichols, to Cole, to Vern, the sixth grader, to the rest of
the Puget Academy chess club, that young Misha was a first rate
player.

But Misha didn't want to appear arrogant by declining and was about
to accept Cole's challenge when Mr. Nichols, reading the situation
correctly, saved him. "I think others should get a chance to get to
know Misha," he said. "There will be plenty of opportunities for Misha
and Cole to play each other again, especially with interschool
matches coming up after the holidays."

Misha breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, as did Cole. Cole
offered Misha his hand and Misha returned a firm handshake. "It
looks like the czar rules," Cole said. "You're fuck...damn...you're
really good."

"Thanks," Misha replied modestly.

"But that doesn't mean I can't beat you," Cole told him.

"You are good, too, and I know you will defeat me." Then Misha
smiled his impish grin and added, "But it will not be easy."

"You go czar!" Grant, an eighth grader, exclaimed. Nobody in the club
argued. Misha was now a full-fledged member.

He played a game against Arno that was quick and painless, but a
learning experience for Arno. After that game, he played Yung-Li, a
seventh grader, who proved to be a worthy opponent. They had a
tough, hard-fought match, which Misha won, to end the day.

After the club session ended, Misha put away his chess board and
pieces. It wasn't the expensive chess set he kept in his bedroom, but
rather his travel board. Still, it was a good chess set.

As he walked to the pick-up area to meet his mother, Cole caught up
to him. He handed Misha a piece of paper. "That's my phone number
in case you ever want to get together and play." Misha grinned and
thanked the older boy. Cole might be his rival as the alpha dog of the
chess club, but Misha could see it would be a friendly rivalry, which
pleased him. It looked like he had made a new friend.

++++++++++++

Two days later, the day for their student government orientation
arrived for the Puget Posse. They would be meeting in the student
council lounge in the basement with Paul, their eighth grade guide,
Tyler Mitchell, the student body president, and Mr. Vargas, the
student government advisor.

The Posse sat together at lunch, something they didn't do frequently.
"The last time we were down in that room it got pretty wild," Matthew
said.

"Too bad we can't have the Fantastic Five in there with us," Mark
said.

"We couldn't do any of that stuff anyway with Mr. Vargas and the
student body president there," Matthew sighed.

"Do you two think of anything except sex?" Neville asked the twins.

Mark looked at Matthew. "Is there something else for us to think
about?"

"That's all I know about," his brother answered. The twins were just
over a month shy of their eleventh birthday, but puberty was already
taking over their psyches.

"You two are crazy," Neville said.

"Neville, I think they're yanking your chain," Patrick said.

"I'd like to yank something else of his," Matthew said quietly.

Jeremiah stopped as he walked by their table. "We had our
orientation last week. I'm going to run for fifth grade president, so
none of you needs to bother."

"Jeremiah, you couldn't win an election against the zombies who live
in the basement," Mark said.

"There aren't any zombies in the basement."

"How can you run for president if you don't even know who lives in
the basement?"

Jeremiah walked away shaking his head.

"He hasn't bugged any of us for a long time," Patrick said.

"Maybe he's tired of getting in trouble with old man Cutler," Matthew
said.

"I have a boner," Mark said. "Does anybody mind if I jerk off?"

"Yes, we do mind," came four synchronized answers.

"I thought I'd ask. But, damn, Mattie, even you agreed with them."

"I just wanted to keep you out of trouble," Matthew said. "Nobody
jerks off in the lunch room. I bet even the eighth graders don't."

"You'd be on my side if you had a boner."

At that point the boys had finished eating and bussed their trays.
Student tuition included the cost of lunch, and while students
sometimes brought their own lunches, it was usually because of
outside plans during lunchtime, or because they didn't like what was
on the menu.

They went their own ways on the playground. Matthew, Mark, and
Misha went to the continually running soccer game on the athletic
field, Patrick went to join the four-square line, while Neville was
stopped by Ellis.

"I saw you guys talking to Jeremiah," Ellis said.

"I do not like Jeremiah," Neville said. "He is sneaky and mean."
Neville failed to see the irony in his talking to Ellis, who was a girlish
little boy, while not liking Jeremiah who came from a wealthy and
privileged family. "He told us he was running for class president. No
way he can win if one of the twins runs. The twins are loudmouths,
but everybody likes them. Nobody likes Jeremiah."

"I only talked to him a couple of times. He was nice to me. Nicer than
Lucas is." Lucas was one of the two leaders of the Fantastic Five.

"I still wish you and I could switch teams. Lucas could not bother you
as much. Patrick and Misha would be really nice to you." Neville
surprised himself by praising the two members of his team.

"Is one of the twins going to run for president?" Ellis asked.

"They keep saying they will, but they say they will do a lot of things,
and then don't always do what they say."

"Okay, well thank you for talking to me. I have to go find somebody
before the bell rings."

Ellis took off and found Alden at their agreed meeting place. "What
did you find out?" Alden asked.

"Nothing." Ellis refused to make eye contact with the bigger boy.

"I know the English kid told you something."

"He said he doesn't know what guys on the Posse are running."

"You better not be lying to me."

Ellis looked down at the ground. "Can I quit doing this? I helped you
all that I can."

"Nope. I got the picture. You have to do what we tell you if you don't
want me to let everyone know you sometimes wear makeup like a
girl. Plus they would all see your boner and know how much you like
doing it." Alden turned and walked away, leaving Ellis fighting back
tears.

After lunch The Puget Posse reported to class. They were dismissed
to the care of Mr. Vargas a half-hour later, which was the time the
student body officers had to vacate their lounge to allow the meeting
to take place. He took them down to the basement and into the
student council lounge where the measurement challenge had taken
place earlier in the school year. Two eighth graders were waiting for
them, Paul and Tyler Mitchell, the student body president. They first
saw him when he gave a brief welcoming speech at orientation.

"He never said anything about hazing when he talked to us at
orientation," Matthew said to Patrick. "He could have at least warned
us. I don't know if I trust him."

"I heard the two guys selling bathroom tickets were his friends,"
Patrick replied.

"The elevator tickets were bad enough. If somebody tried to make me
pay to pee, I would've given him a black eye for my payment."

"Boys, let me have your attention please," Mr. Vargas said. "I will now
go over how student government works and talk about the school
constitution. Each of you received a copy of it to read for homework.
How many actually read it?"

He was surprised when five hands went up. That group is either more
ambitious than most of the teams I've talked to so far, he thought, or
they were unanimous liars. He decided the latter was probably true,
although the former was the real truth—all five of them had read the
constitution.

After Mr. Vargas gave his presentation, he asked if there were any
questions. From what he'd learned of them, he wasn't surprised to
see both of the twins raise their hands.

"Mr. Vargas, why can't we vote right away instead of having to wait
for two months?" Mark asked.

"We want you to learn how the system works first."

"We read the constitution, so we should know. Don't some kids from
the other grades get elected for the first time?" Matthew asked.

"Of course."

"Then why don't they have to wait two months to vote?" Mr. Vargas
was quickly finding out what a double barrel attack from the twins was
like.

"They are merging with other students who are experienced. They
aren't starting from scratch like you fifth graders are." He saw
Neville's hand raised and called on him.

"Sir, we are merging like they are. We would learn more by voting
instead of just sitting doing nothing," Neville said.

Patrick was the next to comment. "The constitution is really
complicated about who can be elected and for how long, and about
who can vote and when they can vote. Did you make it complicated
on purpose?"

"The entire constitution was written by students and all of the
amendments were voted on by students."

"There's going to be a lot of amendments to vote on by the time we're
in eighth grade," Matthew said. Mr. Vargas glared at him for speaking
without being called on. But, the teacher realized making an issue of
it when there were only five students in the room would look petty.

Misha did get called on and said, "The senate has two from each
class from the fifth grade and sixth grade, but three from seventh
grade and eighth grade. That means the two younger grades get 12
votes and the two older grades get 18 votes. That does not seem
fair."

Mr. Vargas thought about saying it was much fairer than not getting a
vote at all in Russia, but once again he minded his tongue. "The
students in the upper grades have more experience and maturity for
making decisions. Remember, the constitution was approved by the
students of this school."

"Matthew is right about making amendments," Patrick said. "Things
need to be made more fair."

"The Puget Posse is gonna rock this place," Mark said. "You watch,
Mr. Vargas, we're gonna make things happen."

"I have to say that you boys are certainly more passionate about this
than the other teams I have met with so far." Most of them seemed
bored, he thought, which was a reason the younger boys weren't
given much responsibility—they simply weren't ready. This group was
certainly much more aware than any fifth grade team he'd been
around in awhile. It was apparent that nobody had lied; they had
completed their homework.  But, Charles Vargas had seen
enthusiastic, idealistic fifth grade teams before. By the time they
reached seventh grade, their original teams had been split up for over
a year and their ideas and idealism had long vanished.

When nobody had any more questions, Mr. Vargas thanked the
Posse for their attention. "You have a few minutes left. Paul will
answer anything else you need to know. Tyler and I both have to be
back to our classes." He and the president departed, leaving the
Posse alone with Paul.

"My boner came back," Mark said as soon as the door closed.
Nobody failed to notice Paul adjusting himself; he'd been hard the
entire meeting. The Posse always did that to him.

"You always have a boner," Neville said, "which is very disgusting."

Mark ignored him as he unbuckled his belt, opened the button, pulled
down his zipper and spread apart the flaps. Paul couldn't remember
being that brazenly horny when he was in fifth grade. There was no
doubt in his mind, however, that he was that horny as an eighth
grader.

"Anybody want to see it?" Mark asked, just like he had at lunch.
Hearing no objections, he worked his three-and-a-half inch piece of
pubescent steel out of his pants. "There it is."

"We need to see Paul and Misha," Matthew said. "They got the really
big ones."

"Mine is big," Mark said as he stroked himself.

"So is mine," Matthew said as he pulled his boner out of his pants as
well. "It's just not humongous like those two are, especially Misha,
and since Paul is older, he's supposed to be bigger." Like his brother,
Matthew was stroking himself.

Paul could feel his precum wetting his boxer-briefs. He opened his
pants and dropped them and his underpants to his knees. His just
under five inches of teen meat glistened as the precum on his
cockhead reflected the overhead lights. He then sat on the table,
frightened at the prospect of their getting caught, while at the same
time he was madly turned on by the idea.

"Come on guys, get your junk out. It's not like we haven't seen it
before," Mark said as he started stroking with more intensity.

"You will all get caught and expelled," Neville said.

"I don't see you leaving," Mark said. "You might as well join us."

"Yeah, you gotta live dangerously," Matthew said.

"Like I said, you are all disgusting." Neville got up and left the room. It
wasn't until he shut the door that he realized he had nowhere to go. If
he returned to class, Mr. Jackson would want to know where the rest
of the team was. Not wanting to dime out his teammates, he decided
to wait in the basement corridor until they were finished. He wished
his boner would go away. He was embarrassed to once again be
turned on by boys doing sex stuff.

"I guess he isn't into danger," Paul said.

"Neville's okay," Matthew told him. "I've even seen him jerk off once."

"Neville jerks off?" Paul asked incredulously.

"It's true."

"Where did you see him do it?"

"In his brother Dylan's bedroom, and Patrick is my witness."

Patrick nodded his head in agreement. He was intently watching Paul
stroking himself, wondering how he was going to shoot his cum
without getting it on his shirt or sweater. He heard a zipper open and
saw Misha with his uncut four-and-and-a-quarter inch boy tool
sticking out of his pants.

"You're the only one not showing his junk." Matthew told Patrick.

But, before Patrick could do anything Paul moaned loudly. "Oh shit,
Misha, your cock is so fucking hot," he whispered hoarsely as he shot
his young teen load, hitting his sweater twice and then dripping two
wads on his shirttail. "Ohhhhh, fuck man, that felt so good."

"You messed yourself up," Patrick said.

"Shit, I forgot to pull my shirt up."

"I guess that's called being totally horny," Matthew said.

Mark said nothing as he squeaked out, "Here I cum," and shook with
his dry orgasm.

Outside the door, Neville heard Paul's orgasm, which made his
cocklet even harder. He thought about pushing his hand inside of his
pants when he heard a noise on the stairs. He saw two boys come
around the corner whom he recognized as the eighth grade class
president, Roland Park, and another officer who'd been introduced at
orientation, Vance Dwyer.

"What are you doing down here?" Roland asked.

Neville felt his heart thudding, but he surprisingly kept his cool. "We
had our student government meeting and I am leaving early to use
the bathroom before we go to class," he said loudly, making sure he
was partly facing the door to the lounge.

"Did you hear a voice outside?" Patrick asked.

"I did," Misha said, quickly stuffing his boner back into his pants.

Paul was at the sink wiping his emission off of his sweater, his pants
still down to his knees. "I did, too," he said as he pulled his pants up
in record time.

Matthew's cock was safely put away when they heard a key being
inserted into the lock and saw two eighth grade class officers entering
the room. Neville peeked into the room and breathed a sigh of relief
when he saw that everybody was decent.

Roland took a sniff of the room; he detected the smell of sex. He
noticed the wet spot on Paul's sweater and saw that his shirt was
partly untucked. "Damn, Porter, are you perving over the fifth graders
again?" Roland said, using Paul's last name.

"Fuck you, Park. You wish you could get it from anybody, including
your dog." Roland Park was half-Korean, sporting a dark boystache
on his upper lip as well as dark peach fuzz growing down his cheeks.
He was tall and skinny and very popular with everyone, including the
girls he knew at the Fuller School.

"At least I jerk off with guys who can sperm."

Patrick and Misha tried not to look embarrassed. The twins thought
the entire incident was funny. Matthew almost wished he hadn't
stuffed his boner into his pants, but he'd been worried the person
outside of the door was a teacher. His zipper was still open, so he
thought, what the hell and stood up, making sure his condition was
obvious.

"Hey, Porter," Vance said, looking at Matthew, "the little shit is
wearing red boxers. Is that what turned you on?"

"No, but this is," Matthew said as he pulled open his zipper opening
and let his boner pop out.

"Fucking A, how did you get a team like this?" Roland asked. "My fifth
graders are still playing with their teddy bears and yours are fucking
playing with their cocks."

"Paul probably taught them how," Vance said.

Matthew stuffed his cock back into his boxers and zipped up. "We
gotta be back in class," he said, "or we'd show you how real fifth
graders play."

"Where were you guys when I was in fifth grade?" Vance asked.

"You still got cum on your sweater," Roland told Paul, pointing to a
spot he missed up near where his nipples were. "Damn, you horny
stud, you."

"Me and Rollie are going into the back room," Vance said. "We got
fifteen minutes to jerk off, so you guys go play with yourselves
someplace else." He glanced over at Paul. "You got a second cum in
you?"

"Sorry guys," Paul said, coming down from the panic he'd initially felt
when what had happened in the room had been figured out. "I have
to be back in class."

"Too bad," Roland said. "You miss the chance of seeing man sperm
shoot out." He looked at the four fifth graders as they left the room.
"And so do they."

Paul was the last one out and he closed the door. "That was fucking
close," he told the Posse members. "They think they know what we
did, but at least they didn't catch us. Thanks for the warning, Neville."

"Yeah, thanks for having our backs, Fox," Matthew said. "I knew you
wouldn't go back to class."

"I thought you might find a bathroom stall and jerk off, though," Mark
said. Neville didn't tell them that he was about to play with himself in
the basement corridor.

"That was fun," Mark said. "Thanks for getting all horny with us, Paul."

"Just being with you guys makes me horny," Paul said.  "I can't wait
to tell Curt this one. See what he can do when his Fantastic Five
meets."

"Next time I want to suck you off and see what sucking a dick that can
cum is like," Matthew said, causing Paul's dick to stir as if it hadn't
cum just minutes before. He had to figure out a way to get a next time
with his Posse.

"And now those other two guys are going into the backroom to jerk
off. I know I want to be a student body officer," Mark said.

"You know it," Matthew agreed.

"Don't believe them," Paul told the twins. "They're going back there to
blow each other." He walked away, leaving the twins as horny as
they'd been all day.

++++++++++++

Ellis finished his supper and excused himself from the table. His
father was home, and normally he would have hung around as long
as he could. But his encounter with Alden depressed him. He'd been
bullied before, but it was physical bullying. He took his punishment
and life went on.

After he became friends with Barry, the bullying he received in his
previous school had stopped. He was called names at times, was
ignored by almost everybody, but the violence ended when the bullies
found out that Ellis had a friend who was in middle school.

He was hoping to escape bullying at the Puget Academy. Their
brochure and their website made the school sound idyllic. At
orientation, Mr. Cutler had made it very plain what the penalties for
bullying in school were.  But with Alden, Jeremiah, Tony, and Conrad,
the bullying was psychological. He was threatened and held over the
fire, but none of the boys had ever actually gotten physical with him.
Ellis knew he should do something, but he didn't know what.

The issue was that although Alden was being nice to him, Ellis did not
trust Alden to keep his mouth shut about his girlish ways. He wished
he had listened to Barry's warning.

The only other boy who was acting nice to him was Neville, and Ellis
knew Neville was being nice because he wanted something. At least,
that's the way it was then. Now, he was beginning to think Neville
might actually want to be his friend. He knew that wasn't the case
with Alden. Alden wanted something, too, only he was blackmailing
him in order to get it.

He heard a knock on his door; it was probably his father. "Come in
dad," he said.

His father came into the room and sat next to him on the bed. "Are
you okay, son?"

"I'm fine, why?"

"When you wear clothes around the house without putting up an
argument, and when you don't say a word at the dinner table, those
indicate to me that something is wrong."

"I just had a bad day at school is all."

"You aren't being bullied there are you?" His father was pleased that
so far the Puget Academy appeared to be living up to its stated goal
of being a "Bully Free Zone".

"No. Everybody is nice to me." Ellis knew he couldn't tell his father
about the picture. He couldn't tell anybody about it, not even Barry.
He knew if he told, they'd show it to everybody and then beat him up
worse than he'd ever been beaten up.

Gordon ruffled his son's longish hair. Ellis and his mother managed to
keep his hair as long as they could and still satisfy school regulations.
His bangs came down to his eyes and his hair touched his ears on
the sides. In the back it was just short of his collar. Ellis kept it neat
and combed; he took great pride in his appearance. "Things will look
better after a good night's sleep."

"Thanks, dad."

"Is your homework all finished?"

"I just have my math left."

"Like I told you at dinner, on Monday I have to leave for two weeks. I'll
be back before Christmas and then you and I will go into the
mountains again. Sound good?"

"It will be lots of fun." If I live that long, he thought gloomily. He
wished his father could sleep with him that night and cover his body
with his big, strong, reassuring arms.

When Monday came, Ellis hugged his father good-bye as he waited
for his bus to arrive. Alden would be on that bus, but Alden only
spoke to him when he wanted something. Still, just the presence of
the sneaky boy was all it took to send Ellis into a dark mood.

"Have a good week at school. I'll see you soon," his father said.

"Yeah, in two weeks."

"Then have two good weeks at school. I was trying not to stretch it
out too long and wish you the next good week over the phone."

Ellis wished more and more that his father could stay home all of the
time. He knew that over the next two weeks his mother would be
nagging him to fulfill his promise of sleeping with her again. He was
running out of excuses for staying out of her bed. Life really sucks, he
thought as he saw the yellow bus stop in front of his house.

++++++++++++

In a different part of the area, Patrick and the twins had been waiting
for their bus.

"That was crazy wild down in the basement last week," Mark said.
"Paul shot his load all over his sweater, which was nuts."

"You were really horny," Patrick said.

"You know you had a boner watching everybody. I bet if those eighth
graders hadn't come in you would have taken your dick out, too."

"Maybe," Patrick said with a grin. He liked being accepted as a sexual
equal by the twins. Actually, he liked being accepted by them as an
equal—period.

"Mattie didn't get to jerk off until we got to your house."

"I didn't exactly jerk off," Matthew said. "Patrick all but did it for me."

The nine-year-old grinned his wide grin. "I was happy to help you."

"Nobody ever got you off, or Misha, or Neville," Mark told Patrick.

"I bet you a zillion dollars Misha got off. I know Neville knows how,
because we saw him, but he thinks he'll end up melting or something
if he beats his bone with other guys," Matthew said. "Did you get off?"
he asked Patrick.

"No, I don't do it that much."

"That's sure gonna change," Mark said.

"There's the bus," Patrick told them.

"Right on time. Want me to get you off on the bus?"

Patrick shook his head no and they boarded the bus, taking their
usual seats.

"I'm going to run for class president," Mark announced after Will
boarded the bus and took his place next to Patrick.

"What about Matthew?" Will asked. "Is he running, too?"

"Yep, I'm running for sergeant-at-arms," Matthew said.

"Like us fifth graders will ever have our own meetings where we need
one," Will said.

"Then it will be like Paul told us," said Patrick. "The sergeant-at-arms
gets to do all the stuff officers get to do and doesn't have to work."

"I read the constitution," Matthew added. "Most of it sounds like it's
not written in English, but it does say the sergeant-at-arms has other
jobs."

"So you get to do more than kick ass?" Will asked.

"Yeah, but kicking ass is the fun part," Matthew answered.

About that time Jeremiah got on the bus with Tony. "Good morning,
guys," Jeremiah said, still being sickly nice, like he'd been for the last
month or so.

"Good morning," Will said. While he didn't like Jeremiah, he didn't
harbor the animosity toward him that the twins and Patrick did.

"Any of you made up your mind about running for office?" Jeremiah
asked. "You only have two more weeks to sign up."

"The only thing I made up my mind about is to not talk to you," Mark
said.

"You're talking to me right now," Jeremiah smirked.

"Jeremiah, it shouldn't take half the day for you to find a place to sit,"
Mrs. Deaver yelled back at them. Jeremiah slinked off to sit with
Tony.

"He's such a phony," Will said.

"You watch, he's got something planned," Mark told them. "He's
being nice for a reason."

"You didn't answer my question," Jeremiah said as they got off the
bus at school. Mark stuck to his guns and said nothing. "Fine, be that
way. I bet I'll find out before you even sign up."

Before school started that morning, Mark told the rest of the Posse
what he planned to do. Matthew revealed his plan. Patrick and Misha
said they might run for the student senate.  Neville said he wasn't
interested in running for any office.

At morning break, Neville told Ellis that Mark was going to sign up to
run for class president. At lunch break, Ellis met Alden and gave him
the news, then begged once again to be released from his obligation,
which Alden refused once again. Five minutes later Alden told
Jeremiah.

"Now we can go after the twins for real," Jeremiah said. "You can run
against Matthew."

Alden grinned a slightly evil grin. "Beating him will be fun."

++++++++++++

By the end of the week, everyone in the Posse, except Neville, had
signed up to run for a fifth grade office. Mark was running for class
president, Matthew for sergeant-at-arms, while Patrick and Misha
were running to be class representatives to the student senate.

"It's going to be hard for two peeps from the same team to both get
elected to the senate," Mark said. "I mean we only get two
representatives since the upper grades made the constitution and
they don't want us to be equal."

"If we are good enough, we win," Misha said, putting everything to its
basic level, something he was good at.

"Neville, you have to run for something," Patrick said. "That would
show everybody how good the Posse is."

"Yeah, and if we all win, it would show we're the best there is and
ever was," Matthew added.

"You could even come into the student lounge as a guest to jerk off,"
Mark grinned.

"I will give it some consideration over the weekend," Neville said,
ignoring Mark's sexual innuendo.

"Don't get all stuck-up about it," Mark told him, "just do it. You need to
be on the list by next Thursday."

Neville glared at Mark, letting him know he didn't like being told what
to do. Mark smiled back, letting Neville know he understood. Ever
since Neville stalled the eighth graders at the door after their
orientation meeting, the twins had removed the dork label from their
minds and started to genuinely accept him. Neville wasn't sure if their
change in attitude was indeed genuine, or if it was an early campaign
ploy for his vote.

"Is anybody on the Fantastic Five running for anything?" Patrick
asked. He already knew that Will had signed up for an office, but that
was the extent of his information. The Fantastic Five had become a
friendly rival of theirs, more so than any of the other teams.

"Will is running for vice-president," Neville reported. "Lucas is running
for sergeant-at-arms, Chase is running for senate, and Ellis is running
for Treasurer."

"Ellis?" Matthew yelped. "Ellis is running for office?"

"I am happy he is running. Ellis is very nice," Misha said.

"Yeah, but Ellis? "

"He said Curt encouraged him to try at their meeting," Neville said.

"I wonder if he got naked at the meeting," Mark mused.

"If Ellis is running for something, you can, too, Neville," Patrick said.
"You two seem to be friends."

"You can run for secretary," Misha said.

"I said I would think about it," Neville told them in his most haughty
manner.

"Are we still good for tonight?" Mark asked Misha.

"I am looking very forward to it." Mark was going to spend the night at
Misha's house. He would be among the first of the Posse members to
stay overnight at the house of another. They would spend Saturday
finishing their part of the Social Studies project. "My mother says that
she is very happy it is only one of you coming."

"Yeah, if Mattie came then there would be lots of trouble. Plus he
would eat all of the food."

"I don't eat half of what you eat," Matthew protested.

"You only think that because you eat four bites for every one I eat.
You suck in your food like you're a vacuum cleaner."

"Well, you know what I'd like to vacuum on you," Matthew said with a
smirk.

"You are both so bloody disgusting," Neville said.

"Just because you didn't want to spend the night with Patrick and
Matthew don't take it out on us." Neville and Patrick would be at the
twins' house finishing their part of the project. Patrick was going to
spend the night at well.  He and Mark would be the first of the Posse
team to be overnight guests on the same night.

"I know what you will be doing. You will be wanking each other all
night long," Neville pointed out.

"Like you don't do it," Matthew said.

"I don't do it with every boy I see."

"I see like dozens of boys, and the only ones I've WANKED with are
the boys in the Posse and the F-Five at the challenge. That's not
everybody."

"I won't do it tomorrow."

"Nobody was going to ask you to." Matthew was sure from the way
Neville was complaining that he really wanted to jerk off with them,
but was afraid to.

Mark had a pass to ride on Misha's bus, while Matthew would ride to
Patrick's house as usual. Then they would both ride to his house with
his mother. All of the boys were looking forward to the weekend.
Even Neville was, although he wouldn't admit it.

     ++++++++++++

Down the hall in Mrs. McCann's room, Jeremiah felt good about
himself. He would be running for fifth grade class president, which
made his father happy and in turn it made his mother happy, which
made him feel good.

Jeremiah knew that so far only Mark had signed up to run for class
president. Ellis had once again come through for him since the
candidates wouldn't be announced until the day before winter break,
not that anybody kept their entry secret. But now he had extra time to
plan with Tony, Conrad, and especially, Alden.

He had turned eleven a month ago and felt very grown up. He had a
pizza party and invited Alden, Tony, Conrad, and his other three
teammates on the Fireballs. Jeremiah knew he was not nearly as
popular as Mark, but, thanks to Ellis and indirectly to Neville, he had
some weapons to use for his campaign. He was going to start using
them even before the campaigning started in January. By the time he
was finished, Mark wouldn't stand a chance of winning the election.

Alden was the brains behind their dirty tricks, not that Jeremiah was
dumb. A bit stupid at times, but far from dumb; after all, he had
passed the Puget Academy entrance examination. Alden would be
running against Matthew for sergeant-at-arms, but they agreed they
would let Jeremiah bring both of the twins down. Alden would get the
dirt, but Jeremiah would sling it. Alden liked being in the background;
his running for office was actually a bit out of character.

Jeremiah had started out the school year in his usual bullying fashion.
But the twins quickly closed ranks around their team, and he stopped
harassing Patrick and Neville, at least physically. Misha stood up for
himself without needing the help of the twins. Alden convinced
Jeremiah that being a bully would gain him nothing. As a result, for
the last six weeks he'd worked hard to be nice to everybody. He was
a politician at work. And Alden pretending to befriend Ellis had
brought a plethora of riches.

His first target was going to be Randy. But Randy had the problem of
not being in the right class as well as not being very good looking.
Jeremiah could see that Randy was a total loser. When Neville told
Alden about Ellis being naked in the student council lounge,
Jeremiah's ears perked up. The fact that he had his toenails painted
made him an obvious target, especially when Neville became
suspicious of Alden's motives and started to clam up around him.

That was when Alden came up with the idea of his befriending Ellis
so he could find out what they would have to do to own him. A couple
of weeks after the dumb boner comparison challenge of the two
teams from Mr. Jackson's room, their weapon fell right into their laps.

Alden had sidled up to Ellis on the playground during a lunch period.
"Hey, Ellis, is it true you paint your toenails."

Ellis shrunk away, waiting for Alden to call him names. He was
certain that somebody on his team had narked on him rather than
one of the Posse members.

"Sometimes," he finally said.

"I heard some boys put on makeup and lipstick."

"I don't know if they do or not."

"Well, if they do, there's nothing wrong with it."

"You really think there isn't?"

"I tried putting on lipstick once just to see what I looked like," Alden
lied. "I didn't like it, but it's not like it was totally weird."

That conversation got things started. Alden hit pay dirt a couple of
weeks before Halloween.

"Do you want to spend the night at my house this weekend?"

Ellis wasn't too sure he wanted to. He didn't totally trust Alden, not
like he trusted Barry and Barry's friends. "I'll think about it," was all he
said.

He talked to Barry about it after he got home from school.

"Don't do it," Barry said. "I bet he's lying about the lipstick...he wants
to make you do something and then tell everybody about it."

But, Ellis ignored his older friend's advice; he was desperate to have
a friend at school. He and Alden were picked up after school on
Friday. Ellis's mother spent over an hour on the phone talking to
Alden's mother before she approved of the visit.

Ellis took the camera he had received for his tenth birthday from his
father. He liked getting pictures of Barry and his friends when they
played games and wanted to get a couple of Alden. While Barry had
asked him to take some nude pictures of them, he refused—he didn't
want to have those where anybody could see them.

Alden had Jeremiah steal some lipstick and had it set up at his
house. He played some games with Ellis to eat up time. When they
finally settled in Alden's room, he suggested that he and Ellis get
naked, which didn't bother Ellis. He loved being naked.

"Show me how you put lipstick and makeup on," Alden ordered.

"I never said I put lipstick on," Ellis said. "You're the one who keeps
saying that."

"I figured if you paint your nails, you probably put on makeup, too."

"I'll do it, if you do it first."

Alden shrugged and picked up the lipstick tube. He did a lousy job of
applying it, but he needed to sucker Ellis in. If Ellis had been thinking,
he would have done a lousy job as well. Instead, he carefully applied
the lipstick and soon his perfect red lips contrasted with his pale skin.
He finished by applying some mascara around his eyes.  Ellis had a
boner by the time he finished.

"Wow, that looks good, Ellis. You could almost be a girl. Let me get a
picture of you, because you look so cool." Ellis's camera was not
something he had planned on, but he saw an opportunity and took it.
It looked like getting what he wanted was going to be easier than he
thought.

"No picture," Ellis said, feeling a bit panic stricken. But Alden had
picked up Ellis's camera already and, before Ellis could react, got a
picture of the naked boy who was wearing lipstick and makeup and
was rock hard. Ellis felt like crying.

"Don't worry, Ellis, the picture is just for me, so I can see how cool
you are. I will never show it to anybody."

"You can't because it is my camera."

"Yeah, you're right." He set the camera on his desk.

Ellis put his underpants back on and Alden followed his lead. Ellis
didn't want to be naked around Alden, who was scaring him. "I don't
feel good. I want to call my mother and go home."

Alden picked up the camera and took out the memory card. "I'm
going to keep this."

"Why?"

"Because I like your picture."

"Give me my card back or I'll tell my mother."

"And tell her you were putting lipstick on and letting me take naked
pictures of you? Look, Ellis, how about we make a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"I'll keep the card and if you do some things in school that I ask you to
do I'll give it back to you at the end of the school year."

"What kind of things?" Ellis was immediately thinking that Alden
would ask him to do sexual favors.

"I want you to be a spy for me. I need you to tell what some of the
kids in your class are doing. If you do that, nobody ever sees the
picture."

"You're lying. You've been lying to me all the time. You can just take
it and download it and make copies."

Alden picked up an envelope, dropped the card in it and sealed it.
"There, now if I take it out, you'll know it."

But Alden was used to dealing with boys of lesser intelligence at his
old school and on his athletic teams. Boys like the Kirkwoods, who
had been easy for him and Jeremiah to defeat during baseball
season.

Ellis was a sharp boy, as were the twins, who were easy to
underestimate. Getting kicked off of the baseball team hadn't been a
big deal to them. "Give me the envelope," Ellis said.

"No, it's mine."

"Then put it on your desk. I want to do one thing with it."

Alden shrugged and set it on the desk. Ellis picked up a pen. He
wrote his name across the flap and the body, along with a couple of
designs. If Alden opened the envelope it would be obvious.

"I said you could trust me," Alden said. "But, if you want to be like
that, then if you tell anybody about me having the picture or that I put
lipstick on tonight, everybody in the school will see the picture. And I
mean everybody." Alden gave Ellis a hard stare that said he meant
business.

It wasn't the most sophisticated scam ever devised, but it worked.
Ellis wanted the envelope back, and would do whatever Alden asked
him to do in order to get it. He was so afraid of Alden showing it that
he didn't even tell Barry about it, because he knew Barry would get
mad and go after Alden.

Ellis's mother picked him up and brought him home that night. Ellis
gratefully slept with his mother, but wouldn't let her touch him.

Ellis didn't see the irony on Halloween when he wore fingernail polish.
He didn't equate that with wearing lipstick. If he had truly noticed how
little grief he received from his classmates, he might not have been
quite as worried about the existence of the picture.

Alden turned the picture over to Jeremiah. Alden told the story behind
the envelope. Jeremiah and Alden figured the picture was safe in
Jeremiah's locker. Jeremiah wanted to see the picture badly and was
hoping to find a way to open the envelope and take the memory card
out without being caught. Alden was spending the night at his house,
the first time he'd ever had a friend spend the night, the big reason
being he had very few friends.

Jeremiah had the sudden thought that Ellis was very cute and he
wished Ellis could spend tonight at his house instead of Alden.

Next: Friday Night Sights