Things were pretty quiet down at the Frostee Freeze the following Friday evening. It was getting toward the end of the season for them, and they’d be closing down in another couple weeks. The breeze blowing off of the lake was chilly, and both Cody and Janice had decided that wearing jackets would be a good idea for walking down there.

Janice really hadn’t wanted to go down there at all, remembering the hassles that had come out of their last visit, but Cody had pointed out that it was a football Friday after all, so there wouldn’t be any football players around to cause problems. Besides, the team was playing a traditional rival, the powerful Coldwater Icebergs a long way away, so it was unlikely that any of the football crowd would be showing up until long after they were in bed.

It was a little surprising for them to find Wyatt and Spring sitting at one of the tables, working on fries and hot chocolate, appropriate for this chilly night that showed that winter wasn’t far off for the north country. “So you two are out and about again, huh?” Wyatt asked. “We haven’t heard much about you all week.”

“I take it you weren’t interested in going to the football game,” Cody asked, not really wanting to talk much about the events of Monday and Tuesday, no matter how much in their favor things might work out. He probably would, he figured, but Wyatt and Spring were going to have to worm it out of him.

“No, hell no,” Wyatt said. “Hell, I wouldn’t go to the game if it were here, especially the way Payne has been talking up the football players and talking down everyone else all week. It might not be so bad if everybody thought that avoiding a mercy kill was the same as a victory.” The mercy kill rule put a limit on how far a winning team could run up the points on a badly defeated loser. Cody knew his Uncle Josh expected it to be invoked in the first half.

“It would be,” Spring snorted, “and it would also be a miracle if it happened.”

“Tell you what,” Cody said, “let’s not ruin a perfectly good evening by talking about football.”

“Suits the hell out of me,” Wyatt replied sourly. “That goddamn Payne thinks the world begins and ends with football, and he came right out and said at the pep rally that he’d never played football in his life. I mean, go figure. You’re lucky you’re out of there, especially the way he was badmouthing you all week. You’re not planning on going back, are you?”

“Not on a bet,” Cody shook his head. “Me or Janice.”

“So what are you going to do?” Spring asked. “Don’t you have to be a high school graduate to get into college?”

“We’re now both in a state-approved alternative home school program,” Cody explained, willing to go that far without mentioning who he expected would be paying for it. He hoped that Janice would remember his warning not to say anything about the lawsuit; there were a couple bear traps they knew about that it would be best to be kept secret until the school’s attorneys walked into them. Letting the rumor mill get hold of them was the best way to give up the secret.

“So how’s it working out?” Spring wondered.

“So far, pretty good,” Cody replied. “We just got signed up for it and had a look at the first of the course material yesterday. It looks pretty reasonable, and I don’t think we’re going to have much problem with it. It’s almost all on the Internet, so there wasn’t any real time lost.”

“Jesus, going to school on the Internet!” Wyatt shook his head. “What a dream that would be!”

“It sounds good,” Spring chided him, “but the only problem is that you’d sit down at the computer and play World of Warcraft instead of working on your homework.” She turned back to Cody and Janice and said, “Actually, I think it would be a problem for me, too, except that I’d probably be playing Second Life.”

“It’s going to take a little self-discipline, no doubt about it,” Janice nodded. “But neither Cody nor I are big time-wasters on the computer. I mean, we don’t play games or mess around in chat rooms or like that.”

“I think it’s going to work out all right,” Cody said. “Jan and I learned how to push each other last year.”

“Yeah, but still!” Wyatt shook his head. “You don’t have to get up in the morning. You don’t have to go out in the snow and the cold and the shit in the winter. You don’t have to put up with the lousy food in the cafeteria. You don’t have to put up with football players and especially you don’t have to put up with Payne in the Ass. Hell, I’d rip World of Warcraft right off the box to not have to do all that shit.”

“I’m not denying all those advantages,” Cody grinned. “Except that Janice and I tend to get up in the morning anyway. I mean, we’re early to bed, early to rise types.”

“Especially the early to bed part, right?” Wyatt snickered.

Cody knew exactly where Wyatt’s wisecrack was pointed. As close as he and Janice had been over the last few months, he was pretty sure that it was the common wisdom around the community that the two of them were screwing like minks, even though it still wasn’t the case. He’d long ago come to the conclusion that there was no point in confirming or denying it because no one would believe the truth, anyway. Sometimes, considering everything, he had trouble believing the truth, too.

“Well, it helps a lot if you get a good night’s sleep,” he shrugged as if he hadn’t caught the hidden meaning of Wyatt’s words, and decided to try to get the subject off that line of thought. “So have you two made any progress on where you want to go to school?”

“We’re still kicking it around,” Spring shook her head. “You two going to Southern Michigan has got us thinking about heading down below, too. It’d be farther away from home and there would be a lot less chance of our parents dropping in without warning. Southern Michigan, though, well the business about the dorms and the lack of student aid has me a little concerned. I’m sort of thinking Grand Valley right now, but it’s not like I’ve made my mind up or anything.”

“I’m looking at Ferris State, which isn’t all that far from Grand Valley,” Wyatt added. “But I haven’t made any decisions. We’ve still got some time to look. But I agree with Spring, the student aid is an issue. From what I hear, there’s going to be a lot of cutbacks in it, anyway. I headed over to Mrs. Blauwurst’s office today to see about filing for a Donna Clark Foundation grant, but she told me that Payne in the Ass told her to not give out applications to anyone but athletes, so I guess I’m screwed on that angle.”

“What with everything else going on, we haven’t even had time to look at it,” Cody shook his head. “I guess we’re going to get a more serious about it when we get a settled down with the home schooling. At least that’s one place we won’t have to bother looking.”

A groan went up from well down the line of picnic tables, where there had been a small group of people who hadn’t gone to the game gathered around. “I take that to mean that the Icebergs just scored again.”

“If that wasn’t the mercy killing,” Cody smiled. “It’s still pretty early, so they about have to be in the first half.”

“Well, I guess that makes me understand why the Clark Foundation grants are going to the athletes, I mean beyond Payne in the Ass being a pain in the ass,” Wyatt shook his head. “There’s no one on that team who’s going to be getting an athletic scholarship.”

“Right,” Cody sneered, as if he hadn’t had enough of Spearfish Lake High School football players even before the incident with Untermeyer and Hamilton. “What’s more, there’s no one on that team who would qualify for an academic scholarship to kindergarten.”

“You sure got that right,” Wyatt shook his head. “It wouldn’t be so bad if Payne didn’t make the football players out to be little tin gods who can do what they want. Those bozos are getting away with shit that Hekkinan never would have allowed. I mean, it’s like they can do no wrong.”

“Maybe it’ll die out by basketball season,” Spring said hopefully. “With Mrs. Wine coaching, maybe the basketball team will really be something to cheer about.”

“What do you want to bet that Payne in the Ass will try to bounce her out of that job?” Wyatt snorted. “I mean, come on, a woman coaching the boys’ basketball team? That has to really piss him off, despite the championships she’s won with both the boys’ and girls’ teams.”

“He might try,” Cody smiled, “but Mom does dogsled racing with her husband, and I know she’s got enough money to tell Payne exactly where to get off. She’s the kind of person who would do it too.” Here they were, back to talking sports again, about the last thing Cody cared about. He decided to change the subject. “So I suppose Janice and I are still the main topics of rumors over at the school.”

“Well, actually it’d died down quite a bit since you aren’t there any longer,” Spring shook her head. “There’s some kids who seem to think that you’re pretty lucky to be out of there. I’m afraid that our senior year isn’t going to be as much fun as I hoped it would be.”

“Just keep your head down, your mouth shut, and count the days till you’re out of there,” Cody advised. “I’m told that things are different in college. Maybe not necessarily better, but at least different.”

One of the things that Cody and Janice had agreed upon even before starting on the home schooling program was that they needed to get out of the house once in a while, just for the sake of doing something different. Going to the dojo on Tuesday evenings and the range on Thursday seemed to do a pretty good job of filling the bill. They had been going there already, liked what they did there, and liked the people, who were universally adults and not kids playing the school dominance games they’d come to hate.

They’d gone to the dojo the week before, the day they’d turned their backs on Spearfish Lake High School and decided to do the home schooling program. One of the traditions of the group at the dojo they hadn’t previously realized is that if any of the members got into a fight in the real world – an exceedingly rare occurrence that hadn’t happened for years – the group would hold an analysis and critiquing session of the confrontation, replaying it to see what could have been done better.

The previous week’s meeting was the first time Cody and Janice had gotten together with the group since the incident with Untermeyer and Hamilton, it was obviously the subject of discussion and reenactment. The common opinion of the group was that Cody had done pretty well with Untermeyer considering his relative lack of training – at least in comparison with the rest of the group, some of who had been doing martial arts for decades – but that he’d been pretty sloppy with Hamilton. After a couple dozen reenactments of that part of the incident, Cody had gotten pretty sore and achy, but if a similar situation arose in the future he’d be much better equipped.

But that had been the week before, and Cody was hoping that they wouldn’t go through the same analysis and critiquing again, since by now he was very tired of the whole incident and hoped that he could put it behind him.

Meetings with the group weren’t all just working out; sometimes they spent quite a bit of time just sitting around casually talking on the floor mats. Gil Evachevski was getting on up there, well into his seventies, and didn’t do much martial arts stuff anymore, other than demonstrations and teaching, but there was a great deal to learn from him and some of the others. Among the others was Randy Clark, the paramedic from the ambulance service, and the husband of one of their former teachers. They knew that he was also owner of Spearfish Lake Construction, and he did martial arts because he enjoyed it and needed the exercise, and the ambulance service because he felt it was important to contribute to the community.

Cody and Janice were sitting back against the wall watching a couple of the other members of the group work on a mystery move from some obscure form of martial art when Randy came over and dropped down beside them. “You’d never use something like that in real life,” he commented. “It’s much too complicated, but it is one of those things that’s fun to watch.”

“Yeah, it is complicated,” Cody shook his head, “but you’re right, it is fun to watch.”

“So are things getting settled down for the two of you?”

“Pretty much,” Cody said. “We’re starting to get into the home schooling program, and it’s going pretty good.” In fact, Cody didn’t want to boast about it, but in only four days they’d pulled a week ahead of schedule and were still getting used to it. If things didn’t get considerably harder, they figured that they’d make their Christmas deadline with some time to spare.

“You’re still planning on going to Southern Michigan?” Randy asked.

“Probably,” Cody admitted. “That’s the plan at this point, anyway. There’s still a question of how we’re going to pay for it without killing ourselves with student loans.”

“Yeah, I can see how that could be a problem” Randy shook his head. “I was lucky, my folks were able to pay my way through college so I didn’t have to worry about that, but you don’t have to do everything through student loans. There’s grants and things like that available you should be applying for.”

“We know that,” Cody conceded. “We really haven’t done much looking, what with everything else.”

“Well, you probably ought to look at filing an application for a Donna Clark Foundation grant. That could go a long way to getting you through college.”

“We thought about that,” Cody sighed, “but we’ve been told that they only go to athletes. A friend of ours asked for an application over at the school, and they wouldn’t give him one.”

“No, they don’t only go to athletes,” Randy said firmly. “In fact, the guidelines for the grants specify that athletes have to meet and surpass the academic and community service requirements. You really ought to look into it.”

“Yeah, but we can’t get an application, at least through the school. Hell, I don’t even dare set foot on school property.”

“That’s not a problem,” Randy smiled. “I don’t think I have any application forms in the truck, but if you want to drop by Clark Construction in the morning, I can fix you up. If I’m not there, Regina, my secretary, can handle it.”

“Are you sure?” Janice spoke up. “That’s nothing like what we’ve been told.”

“Janice,” he replied. “What’s my name?”

“Randy Clark.”

“And what’s the name of the foundation?”

“Ohhhhhhh,” she smiled, the light dawning. “You have something to do with it?”

“The name of the foundation is the Donna Clark Foundation,” Randy grinned. “I won’t go into half-century-old family politics, but the seed money from the foundation all came from my great-grandfather, Wayne Clark. The majority of foundation board members have to be his descendants, if available. Speaking as a board member and knowing you kids for what you are, you meet all the requirements for a pretty good grant.”

“That’s good news,” Cody smiled. “I never made the connection. But, Randy, considering the hassles we’ve been through, especially with the school, is the rest of the board going to go along with it?”

“Shouldn’t be much of a problem,” Randy grinned. “There are two other board members. One of them is my father, who has never turned down a grant recommendation of mine. Would you like to guess who the third board member is?”

Cody shook his head. “No idea, but I’ll bet from the way you’re talking this has to be a good one.”

“I think so,” Randy smiled. “Gil’s wife. You probably don’t know her much, but I’m sure Gil has given her a pretty good account of you two kids.”

“You’re kidding! I didn’t know any of this.”

“You still have to fill out the applications,” Randy pointed out. “The board will have to review them and your financial status to determine the size of the award. That’s a rather subjective judgment we make, but given the fact that in making college grants we like to give good awards to kids who have clear and solid plans for community service, you should be able to get a pretty good one.”

“Oh, God,” Cody shook his head. “You have no idea what a difference that’s going to make.”

“In a way, I do,” Randy smiled. “I could probably have avoided getting on the board if I’d wanted to, but I like to see what I do make a difference in the community; otherwise I wouldn’t be doing ambulance runs, either.”

“Randy,” Janice spoke up. “Can I ask a question?”

“Sure, Janice, what’s that?”

“I’ve been told that Susan McMahon got a big award from the Clark Foundation for school. I’ve also been told that her goal is to travel the world, more than anything else.”

“Well that, and get someone else to pay for it,” Randy smiled. “The truth of the matter is that she came to us with an idealistic-sounding proposal for promoting world peace and understanding by personal contact. Dad, Carrie, and I pretty well figured we knew what she was up to, but sometimes audacity and creativity count, too. Susan has both of those qualities in spades. There was a little more to it than that, but we don’t need to get into it. The important point is that both of you have strong goals and career plans for community service, you’re not easily moved from your goals, and most importantly, you don’t just talk the talk, you’ve already proved you walk the walk.”

“You mean that kid on the beach last summer?” Janice said. “That was just something I had to do, and there was no one else around who could.”

“But you did it without a second thought,” he replied. “Janice, I know you’ve already got a pretty full plate for this winter and will be heading off for college, but I had thought about asking you if you’d like to get involved in the department’s EMT class this winter. It’s too late now, it’s already started, but I wish I’d brought it up sooner because you have the makings of a fine EMT. It’s not the same thing as being a nurse, but there’s no reason you can’t do both. That’d make you all the more valuable when the time comes to look for work.”

“Yeah,” Janice said. “I hadn’t thought of that, either, but I see your point.”

“And Cody,” Randy went on, “you get a lot of points for community service, too. I don’t mean just pounding those two punks last week or shooting those two last winter. Charlie Wexler tells me that you’re thinking about being a law officer. Well, the purpose of a law officer is to protect and serve. When you rescued Janice you were doing more than protecting her, you were protecting and serving the community, partly by doing a job that the cops and the human services people already ought to have done, but partly by turning Janice’s life around. The city, the state may never give you an award for that, but the Donna Clark Foundation can. So get those applications and get them filed.”

“The first thing in the morning,” Cody promised. “I never expected this.”

“I’m just glad I happened to mention it to you,” Randy nodded. “Otherwise you might not have gotten around to filing the applications.”

“We probably wouldn’t have, at least not after what our friend told us the other night that the school isn’t giving out applications to anyone but athletes.”

“That is something that needs to be looked into,” Randy said, a hardness crossing his face that instantly reminded Cody and Janice that he was also an expert at martial arts as well as being a benefactor, “and I’d probably better not do it second hand. Do you mind telling me who this friend is?”

The session in the dojo was winding down by that time, and Cody and Jan knew instinctively that it wasn’t polite to talk about the discussion with Randy very much just then, but that changed as soon as they were out in the pickup. “My God,” Cody shook his head. “What with everything else that’s happened in the last few days, that was the last thing that I thought could ever happen!”

“I still can’t believe it,” she replied. “Not this, not all the stuff from the school . . . hell, the last nine months. Don’t wake me up Cody. This has to be a dream or something.”

“Fortunately, I don’t think it’s a dream,” he replied. “I don’t know how much the grant could come to, but anything will help.”

“It sounded to me like it was going to be more than just a little. In fact, it sounded to me like it could be quite a lot.”

“Yeah, it did to me, too. I suppose we won’t know until the acceptance comes through, but whatever it is it should make paying for the rest easier. Now all we’ve got to do is to do our best in our classes to turn those provisional acceptances into real ones. When that deal with the school first came down last week, I know I was thinking something like ‘no good deed goes unpunished,’ but I never expected things to work out this way!”

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