Chapter Seven

Twenty minutes later an old gruff man who had a scowl on his face walked into the office. Jared and Evan were sitting two chairs away from each other not saying a word to one another. Jared looked at the man and thought he didn't like him at all. He looked mean and scary to him. His eyes were cold and unfeeling. The guy looked irritated as if he had better things to do than being there in an elementary school. Jared noticed Evan shrinking back as if he was trying to hide and fuse into the chair. The old man looked at him and gave him an angry stare.
Jared thought he definitely didn't like this old geezer. The old man talked to the lady at the desk then signed his name on the form list and turned around to Evan. With one look at him Evan got up and walked out of the door with his grandfather right behind. Just then Jared's mother walked in. She looked at him with a disbelief look on her face.
"Oh, Jared, I don't understand." Without waiting for a reply or explanation from him.
She signed the paper and told him it was time to go home. They both walked out to the parking lot to their car. While his mother was unlocking the doors, he heard a loud muffled voice from a couple of cars down from them.
"My goodness is there any real reason to truly yell at a child like that?" His mother said looking over to them as well.
He heard a thump and walked over to the car more. What he saw enraged him so much he couldn't really remember what had happened next. The next thing he knew the old man was kneeling on the ground clutching his groin with his hands with a pained expression on his face.
Evan was wide eyed. Jared's mother came rushing forward and gasped. "Jared what has gotten into you?!" She looked at Evan and gasped again and threw her hand to her throat.
Evan's cheek was very red, and a bruise was beginning to form. She grabbed his face gently and looked closely at it. Evan was embarrassed that they had to witness what always happened to him when he was with his grandfather. The old man slowly got up.
"Your damn kid should mind his own damn business! He's lucky I don't beat the shit out of him right now!" he grouched.
Jared's mother got red in the face from rage. "How dare you! How dare you threaten my son! How dare you lay a hand on this boy! If you so much as go near my son, you will have far worse to worry about! You sir are the lucky one that I don't have my husband to beat the shit out of you straight to hell! You are a pathetic excuse for a man!"
The old man's eyes bulged, and he went to grab her but both Evan and Jared yelled out. Evan ran up behind his grandfather and again kicked him in his groin. The old man fell again. Jared grabbed the book he had been carrying and whacked the man in the face. Evan than jumped on his back and started pounding him on his head saying,
"You leave her alone!"
Finally getting over her shock she tried to pry the boys away from the old dirt bag. People started rushing out of classrooms and the office to see what all the commotion was about. When the Principle got there he said,
"What...What the hell is going on?!"
"Principal Stroll, please help me get them off of him!"
The principal grabbed Evan tightly to him noticing the boy had started crying with an anguish look on his face. Jared's mother finally got him away and before anybody spoke Jared ran in front of the principal.
"It's all his fault! He tried to attack my mom! He was hitting Evan, so I acted! He got mad because my mom was telling him off, so he tried to attack her!"
The principal looked from the old man to Evan. The old man was heaving and had red marks with scratches on him. He then looked to Mrs. Cooper. "Is this true?"
Everyone looked at her. She sighs heavily. "Yes, I'm afraid it is."
The principal’s face became hard. "Alright, Martha?" He looked behind him at a middle-aged woman who looked quite concerned.
"Yes, Principle Stroll?"
"Call the authorities and have two male teachers escort Evan's grandfather in the office and guard him until the police arrives." He then looked down at Evan and saw the ugly bruise that was now on his left cheek that hadn't been there before.
"Come with me son and you as well Jared, Mrs. Cooper they will want you here as well."
They all walked back to the principal’s office. Evan and Jared were walking side by side.
"Thanks, you didn't have to do that." Evan quietly said to him sounding ashamed and embarrassed.
He felt a tug at his heart and gave him a weak smile. "Hey, what are friends for right?"
Evan snapped his head up at him and saw that he was sincere, and he smiled back at him. "Yeah, what are friends for."
From that day forward, they had become inseparable and became best friends. His grandfather was arrested for only a few days since the charges had been dropped by Evan's parents. But he was warned that if ever the child was to complain about abuse again that they would put him away for good and Evan would be taken into Child Protective Services for neglect from his parents.
The old man hadn't touched him since, but he hated Jared with a passion and resented the fact that he was always by Evan's side. Evan was always at his house and stayed with them every weekend and even on the holidays. He was even there throughout the entire summer vacation. His parents seemed to have not noticed that their son was hardly ever around as if he didn't exist to them.
His own parents pretty much adopted Evan as their own son. They fed him, provided for him with new clothes, shoes when his was so worn out, and new school supplies. Every Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and birthdays they got him gifts and even threw him birthday parties. His parents never offered to lift a finger for his sake. Being the drug addicts and alcoholics that they were half the time they stayed in bed or went out for days on end not caring that their only child was being cared for by another family.
He started going to school every day and even started to do his work. The teachers were so glad about the new change that they were more than willing to help him catch up on his grades. When he found out that Jared got accepted to a private school of advanced intelligence, he worked so hard, studying every night, and tried to apply several times to be accepted as well. He was turned down the first couple of times and he was so bummed out about it, but he never gave up and by the fifth time they finally relented and accepted him.
Jared's parents were so proud of them that they had thrown them a congratulations ceremony. They had been fourteen at the time and of course he was a higher stage than Evan, so they had to take separate classes, but his parents made sure that they got the same dorm room together. They were only able to go home Thanksgiving and Christmas. But now at the age of sixteen he missed home and was beginning to want a normal high school experience.
They didn't meet any new friends for they didn't want any. The kids there were snobs, know it all's, and thought they were better than anybody else because their IQ was so high. He kept it a secret from everyone, including Evan, that the Dean was so impressed that he had the highest IQ in the entire school in the last five decades. He passed with flying colors and the Dean might transfer him to a higher education since there was nothing to even challenge his brain. He told him if he spent his education in a normal high school, they would have to move him up four grades which meant straight into the second year of a college University.
That was where he got the idea to go home and be a normal teenager. He didn't want to move up ahead of everyone. He wanted to graduate at the same age as everyone else. So that was why he was there now.
He kept staring at the ceiling when he heard a door open in the hallway.