Walking Among the Shadows: Awakening: Revised Edition Read Online Free

with embarrassment
the quarterback decided to have another go at me. It never dawned on this dummy
that if I was fast enough to avoid that push I might know some things he
didn’t. But I guess he didn’t see it that way. So I calmly stood there waiting
for him to dust himself off and try again. As he rushed towards me with violent
rage in his eyes, I stood there contemplating how quickly I wanted to end this
confrontation. Did I want to show off and completely embarrass this jackass?
Did I want to instill fear in his buddies and other bullies to prevent future
retaliation? Or did I just want to do all the above by ending this with one
shot? I decided on the latter. As he got within range I struck his throat with
the outside of my left hand and punched him in his solar plexus with my right
fist at the same time. I made sure the blow to his throat was a mere tap, not
enough to kill him but enough to constrict his air supply.
    The force of the air rushing
from his mid-section and his throat closing up from the tap caused him to black
out instantly. I quickly stepped to my right and let him crumple to the floor.
Complete silence fell over the noisy lunchroom. No one moved as the entire
lunchroom took a deep breath watching the toughest student go down in less than
a minute at the hands of a freshman. I could feel the fear in the room; it
seemed to make time stand still.
    After about ten seconds the
“crumpled heap of stupid” on the floor came to, coughing and inhaling
frantically. His teammates rushed over to help him to his feet while staring at
me with disbelief. I calmly stepped towards them and looked them all over with
a satisfied stare and said in the most polite tone,
    “I’ll be in the principal’s
office. I’m sure he’ll want to speak to me now. You should help your friend
over there too because he’ll want to speak with him as well. You all have a
nice day.”
    Mission accomplished. I didn’t
have another physical confrontation at Deerfield High again. But that confrontation
was never forgotten and now big stupid’s little brother Brian was the new
starting quarterback. He’s never said anything to me but he has given me some
nasty looks from time to time.
    So you can understand my
hesitation, but unfortunately football was my only option. Basketball was out
of the question. I was only six feet tall back then and the entire basketball
squad was giants—the shortest guy was six foot four. I would look like a pigmy
next to those guys. Soccer wasn’t an option for me either; I just didn’t care
for it at all. So football was my only realistic option to avoid having to
watch my sister for two hours doing something I didn’t like. I’ve always been
great at the running back position because of my speed, strength, and
awareness. Our school’s running back was a scrub, so I knew the coach was
looking for a better alternative.
    I was just hoping I wouldn’t
have the same kind of problems with Brian that I had with his older brother
Adam. Actually Brian was a great quarterback, light years better than his big
brother and I knew it would be better to befriend him than beat on him. He may
leave the team and the team wouldn’t win a single game without him. He was
definitely NFL-bound, no question. But I wasn’t ready to deal with him if he
wasn’t open to burying the hatchet on his brother’s ass-kicking.
    Now there I sat at our kitchen
table feeling stupid because I just got played by my mom and she used Sarah to
accomplish her goal with Sarah not being aware of it.
    Suddenly the doorbell rang and
it could only be one person at our door this early, Tony Martinez; my only real
friend. He just got back in town a couple of days ago after spending the summer
in Israel with his dad. His parents were separated for about three year, but
his dad tried his best to still be part of his life. My dad and his dad were
both Navy Seals and the best of friends and that’s how Tony and I met. We’ve
been friends for as