Free Will of Man - Part One by William Scanlan Page B

11                                          Waterloo Duathlon (2nd 0f 24)
    July 17-18                            Midland Triathlon (4 th 0f 50)
    July 23                                          Wells Fargo Triathlon (1st age)
    July 25                                          Howell Crosstown Triathlon (11 th)
    August 18                            T-Rex Mid-Week Triathlon (3 rd )
    August 21                            Summer Quest 4 hour (1 st )
    August 28                            Lansing Legislature (1st age!)
    September 11              Tawas Olympic Distance (1 st )
    September 19              Cedar Point Olympic Distance
    October 23                            Breakout 24 hr

Dec 4                                          December Chill
     
     
    Tyler’s Journal Entry: 12
    Date: October 1
    Day: Friday
    Weather: Sunny, warm
    Training: Doesn’t matter – I got suspended from school today.
     
    TODAY SUCKED! I got suspended from school for three days. This is what happened; throughout the day Glenn Diceman had been tormenting me. He’s a huge kid that lives down the street from me. I used to play with him when we were kids and he used to be really nice. Well, recently he made the football team and his whole personality changed. He’s taken on that stereotypical football “jock” persona and has become a really arrogant jerk.
     
    So today in social studies, he decides to sit next to me. I said hi and asked him how football was going. He pulls himself up close to me and get’s in my face and says he’s going to beat me up. I’m not one to back down from anyone, so I get in his space and tell him to go for it.
     
    Mostly I was posturing for show, because I thought he was mostly joking. I didn’t think he was serious. But he was and now I had to deal with him. My town is small and I know how word gets around. I knew if I back down from him at all, I will be seen as weak and then I will have a whole team of Glenn’s to deal with.
     
    So now I’m on the defense all day. I was looking over my shoulder, down the halls, listening for his voice, etc. I was kind of getting scared as the day went on, but I wasn’t going to show it. And besides, part of me really didn’t think he was going to do anything since we were kind of friends not too long ago.
     
    But at the end of fourth hour I was walking down the hall when all of a sudden BAM! Glenn punches me in the arm from behind and it hurt. I turned around and there he was with this big dumb grin on his face being patted on the back by his idiot teammates.
     
    I was ready there and then, but just as I was about to lunge at him, I saw a teacher and realized how stupid this whole thing was.
     
    I looked at him and quietly said “You better knock it off, or you and I are going to have a problem.” I stared him in the eyes and didn’t look away till he did. Dad told me how he used to stare down his opponents’ when he was a boxer.
     
    He said the first to look away or blink was the most scared. So I stared him down till he looked away. I don’t know if he was scared or not. But his teammates pulled him away and he walked on by.
     
    But then came last period gym class. I hadn’t been thinking about Glenn at all since I was playing basketball with Kendrick and Jax. Then out of the blue BAM! Someone punched me hard in the back of the arm again and I knew who it was.
     
    I turned around, with basketball in hand, and threw it right in his face as hard as I could. It hit him hard, but he barely flinched. He grabbed me by throat with one hand and squeezed. As he squeezed my neck with one hand he started to cock back with his other.
     
    He took a swing and I ducked.