The school year was almost over and Nolan was getting along a little better than he had been at first. He and David got along better since the incident with the football and of course the field trip. Nolan was learning how to deal with David and by next year they might even be friends. Some of Nolan’s friends from last year had stopped messing with him every day and it seemed like he might be friends with some of them again soon too.
David came up to Nolan near the end of the week and asked him to do something, a favor. David knew that Nolan had been a stand up guy about the football and now he wanted Nolan in a little deeper. David told Nolan that one of those jerks in class had been talking bad about Nolan in private. It wasn’t shocking, Nolan kind of assumed that’s how all of those guys acted. But David made a big deal out of it so that Nolan felt angry. Then came the second hit of the old one, two punch. David told Nolan to get back at that jerk.
Nolan didn’t care much for revenge. His parents taught him the smallness of such things. But David made it sound like there was a lot on the line here. So David helped Nolan feel angry and then he helped him desire revenge. Of course, David had the perfect idea for revenge. Nolan should steal something from the jerk of a kid who was saying all of those terrible things about Nolan. It didn’t make a lot of sense to Nolan and yet somehow he let David steer him into acting like it made sense. Nolan gave way to his anger and to his new friend.
The two boys looked at what their victim had with him and there wasn’t anything worth stealing. David decided they should wait until the kid brought something cool to school and then he would help Nolan get his revenge. David seemed to think it would be Monday, so Nolan was ready. At lunch David sat with the jerks at the jerk table. He talked to the jerk in question about his recent birthday presents. David knew this boy had just gotten the best basketball on the market; so he talked him into bringing it to school on Monday for David to see. The trap was set.
Practice Outlaw 