The next few weeks were really good.

Songs like C’mon Everybody and Something Else grabbed me. These songs were exciting. They made the world seem bigger. They told me there were places to go to, people to see, places to explore. Like anything was possible. For the first time in a long time, I felt like getting up and going. There’s a great big world out there. And now I’m a little less afraid to get into it.  

“Oh, well, c’mon everybody and let’s get together tonight
I got some money in my jeans, and I’m really gonna spend it right
Well, I’ve been a doin’ my homework all the week long
And now, the house is empty and the folks are gone
Ooh, c’mon everybody

Oh well, my baby’s number one, but I’m gonna dance with three or four
And then the house’ll be shakin’ from the bare feet a-slappin’ the floor
Well, when you hear that music, you can’t sit still
If your brother won’t rock, then your sister will
Ooh, c’mon everybody

Oh well, we’ll really have a party, but we gotta put a guard outside
If the folks come home, I’m afraid they’re gonna have my hide
There’ll be no more movies for a week or two
No more runnin’ ’round with the usual crew
Who cares, c’mon everybody”

C’mon everybody.

During the next two weeks, my mom took both of us to the Scout headquarters and we bought our uniforms, shirt, pants, sash, troop numbers, the whole works. We also got the handbooks. We’re committed now.

Tuesday

Our next meeting started at 7:00pm. Sawyer usually skated over to my house and then we’d head over together. As usual, when he arrived at my house, he walked right in. No knocking. Even my mother got used to it. Luckily, she likes Sawyer, so it didn’t bother her so much.

I was in my room checking out an Elvis Costello album I found in the box, GET HAPPY. I was really into the song “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down”.

“Dude!” Sawyer yelled as he heard the song. “Great pick! You ready to go? I want to stop at Crap in a Sack to grab some food on the way.” If you didn’t know, Crap in a Sack what Sawyer called a fast-food burger restaurant we passed on the way.

I scooped up my board and we headed out.

“Mom! We’re heading out! We’ll be back by 9:00!” I called to my mom as we bounded down the stairs and out the front door.

We started rolling down the hill towards Queen Anne Boulevard. As we stopped at the light, Sawyer turned with an excited look on his face.

“I’ve got news for you!”

“What?” I thought he was going to tell me of some crazy accident he had in science lab today. I was expecting him to tell me he accidentally set something on fire. That’s the thing with Sawyer, he’s never malicious or mean, but crazy things always seem to happen to him.

“I was surfing the web this afternoon. I started looking up old bands. And I found your dad’s band! “

“Yeah, I have their album.”

“Yeah, but check this out. I was digging around and checking out who was in the band. It turns out your dad’s band made a small splash. People knew them. They had a small following. “

“I’ve heard that from my mom. But then they broke up. So that was that.”

“Yeah. so?”

“He lives here! In Seattle! I found him on an art studio web site!”

“Get the fuck out of here.” I believed Sawyer. But for some reason I didn’t want to.

“I’m serious!” Sawyer exclaimed. “You should look him up. Don’t you want to talk to him? He can probably share some fun stories about your dad.”

“Yeah? I don’t know what I would ask him. I don’t know the last time he saw my dad. I don’t even know if he knows I exist. Would he even want to meet me?”

“The worst thing that can happen is that he says no. The best thing that can happen is you get some good stories of your dad out of him. I’ll text you the link to the web site where I found him. Then if you want to contact him, it’s up to you.”

“OK. Send me the link”

The light changed and we crossed Queen Anne Boulevard over to the Crap in a Sack for a quick burger then continued on to the high school for the scout meeting.

We skated into the parking lot of the high school and towards the door of the assembly hall, where the meetings are held. There were still a few kids and parents standing around outside. Sawyer and I always tried to stay outside as long as possible to avoid getting hassled by Kelly. We sat on a bench by the door waiting for the last possible minute to go in.

I noticed a new kid sitting on the bench next to me. I’ve seen him at a few of the other meetings. He was sitting in his scout uniform pants and t-shirt. But he had his scout uniform shirt in his lap. As I looked closer, I saw that he was still trying to sew some patches onto his shirt. He wasn’t getting it right. I could tell he was getting frustrated. I heard him swearing silently to himself. 

“Scouts! Form up!” We heard the Senior Patrol Leader yell from inside. We got up, Arnaub put his uniform shirt on and we helped him get as presentable as possible. Sawyer and I weren’t much better. I’m sure we had a few things wrong with our uniforms too. But we didn’t care. I get the idea of wearing uniforms, being part of a team, blah blah blah. But it wasn’t the most important thing to me.

We got into the hall and lined up in our usual rows. The new kids like us were always in the back. Arnaub took a place close to us. Sawyer and I lined up together.

“Tonight, we have a change of plans.” The Sr. Patrol Leader announced. “I will not be running the next few meetings. During the next three meetings, I will be working with our Scoutmaster, Mr. Miltner, on event planning for the troop.”

I looked over at the Scoutmaster’s office at the side of the hall. Mr. Miltner was standing in the doorway. He gave the group a small wave. Mr. Miltner was an OK guy. But isn’t a very involved Scoutmaster. Most of the time he stayed in his office and let the scouts run their own meetings.

“While I am working on the troop calendar during the meetings, my Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Kelly Kyle will be running the meetings.”

You could hear most of the scouts gasp or swear under their breath.
Kelly wasted no time taking over. He jumped up on the stage at the front of the room.

“Sign’s up! That means quiet!”

“This dude has a serious personality crisis.” Sawyer whispered to me.

I snickered trying to hold it in. But too late Kelly heard it.

“I said quiet!” he yelled.

And right on cue Kyle’s mother darted straight across the room, stood right behind us and started to cackle in our ears.

“This is nothing to laugh about! If you can’t respect your superiors, you will have a big problem with me.” She hissed into our ears.

“Superior?” Sawyer asked. “He’s only 6 months older than us. Six months ago he sharted while on the science class field trip.”

Everybody who overheard Sawyer started snickering but couldn’t hold it in.

“I’m not through with you” she threatened and walked straight over to the Scoutmaster’s office no doubt to start complaining.

“Announcements!” Kelly started yelling. “Now that I am in charge for the next few weeks, there will be some rule changes.

FIRST: Parents, as of right now I am not obligated to communicate with any of you! This is a boy led troop! Your son has to PARTICIPATE AND SPEAK for himself, meaning I will NOT give ANY attention to a shy scout. Don’t be so overprotective of your son!”

“What an asshole.” Sawyer blurted. Everybody around us started laughing causing a disturbance in the back of the room. This drove Kelly crazy.

“SECOND” Kelly continued, ” HOMEWORK IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT COMING TO THE MEETINGS.”

One of the older boys protested. “But we have papers due and reading to get done. That’s on top of prepping for SAT and ACT exams and college applications”

“But we have papers due and reading to get done. That’s on top of prepping for SAT and ACT exams and college applications” Kelly mocked the boy in a baby voice tone. “Then you don’t belong here. This is priority number 1 or find a lesser troop”

Kelly was in full dictator mode.

“THIRD:” He continued “ALL Scouts will come to every meeting IN FULL UNIFORM! No exceptions! If you are not in uniform, you will be doing work for the entire meeting!”

“He can’t do that” Sawyer said.

“We will start with a FULL UNIFORM INSPECTION! Attention!” Kelly yelled. He was in full drill Sergeant mode now. He started walking up and down each row of scouts looking at their uniform. He berated boys that had patches sewn at imperfect angles. He yelled at kids for having dirty sneakers. Finally he came down to where all the new kids were standing. He saw Arnaub first.

“What is wrong with your uniform, scout!” He bellowed at Arnaub.

“I’m having difficulty getting my patches on. I don’t know how to sew” Arnaub replied meekly.

“That’s no excuse. Step forward!”

Arnaub stepped forward out of line for all the scouts to see.

Sawyer and I looked over at each other.

“Our way?” he asked.

“Our way.” I replied. We’re going for it… together.

“Excuse me, Sir Sharts Alot,” Sawyer spoke up. The room went quiet. “You can’t do that. You can’t humiliate a kid in front of everybody just because his uniform’s not perfect.”

“Step out of line.” Kelly bellowed

At that moment Sawyer turned the entire meeting around. He snapped to his best version of military attention, took two giant goose steps forward and ended with an over-the-top salute. “Sir!” He yelled. “I am proud to report that my uniform is also not in perfect condition! I am wearing hand-me-down pants from my older brother. My troop neckerchief is not ironed, and I am missing three number patches on my sleeve for signifying my troop. And I don’t care!”

I couldn’t believe what Sawyer was doing. He put himself right in the line of fire like that. But I wasn’t going to let him take the heat alone. Mimicking Sawyer, I did the same military goose step out of line and snapped to attention with the same mocking salute.

“Sir!” I yelled “I too must report that I am also out of perfect uniform! I am wearing my skateboard sneakers, no socks, my hat is missing, and I haven’t changed shorts in two days! And I too don’t care!”

Ok for the record, I did change my shorts that morning. But I just wanted to get under Kelly’s skin. I’ve had enough of his bullshit. It’s time to stand up for myself. Kelly started charging right towards us. We were expecting the full brunt of his temper tantrum. I heard others laughing. But I wasn’t sure if this little insurrection was going to go over so well.

Just as Kelly reached us and was ready to start yelling, we heard another foot stomping from down the aisle. Another boy stepped out of line did the same military goose step out of line and snapped to attention with the same mocking salute.

“Sir! I too must report that my uniform is not in perfect order! I am missing merit badge patches; my shirt is not ironed, and I too did not change my shorts in two days!”

Wait a minute! I know that guy! He was the equipment manager for the soccer try outs! But he looked different. His foot wasn’t all bent out of shape. Instead, he had one of those large walking boot casts on his foot.

Kelly exploded at this insubordination.

“All right! For infractions against the dress code. All four of you will give me 15 pushups right now! ” Kelly yelled.

Arnaub and the tall kid just looked at us. Sawyer and I looked at each other. We were in synch.

“Come on assholes, just do it” somebody from another row blurted out.

“No.” We stood our ground.

“You will obey the commands your senior leader gives you!” Kelly was starting to melt down.

“Wrong. It is clear in the scout manual that corporal punishment is forbidden in scouting. The answer is no.” Sawyer replied in the sternest tone he could muster.

He was right. I lurched for my backpack and dug out my copy of the scout manual.

“Right here” I started flipping through the pages:

“Discipline must always be given in a constructive manner.
Corporal punishment is NEVER permitted. Disciplinary activities involving isolation, humiliation, or ridicule are also prohibited.” I continued.

“Kelly, shut the hell up. ” Another scout blurted out from the other side of the room.

“That’s it! Everybody gives me 15 push-ups right now!” Kelly demanded.

Most of the boys complied and dropped right to the floor without even questioning if it was right or wrong. Seven of us stayed standing.

Just before the scouts on the floor started counting off, the Scoutmaster, Mr. Miltner stood in the doorway of his office.

“Mr. Kelly” he said to grab Kyle’s attention.

Kyle spun around to look at him expecting Mr. Miltner’s full support. Mr. Miltner looked at Kyle, simply shook his head no. Kelly caved. Kelly’s mom let out a cry of exasperation. She couldn’t believe her boy was overruled and humiliated like that.

“Everybody on your feet. We will now break into patrol meetings.”

The rest of the meeting was pretty tense. But Kelly stayed on his side of the room, and we stayed on ours. As the new kids we were split into two groups and assigned to learn how to put together a patrol box. Basically, we had a checklist of all the equipment that went into each storage box for a camping trip. A camping stove, gas, utensils, rope, tarps, first aid kit and a bunch of other stuff. But I noticed that Arnaub and the kid from soccer practice left their group to join ours.

“Your name is Alex, right?” I asked the kids from soccer practice.

“Yeah. I remember you. Robbie?””Yeah, this is Arnaub and this is Sawyer.”

Alex pointed at Sawyer, “We’re in the same study hall” and he pointed at Arnaub “We’re in the same science lab.”

I was nervous because I wanted to ask Alex about the medical boot on his right leg. He must have caught me staring.

“I had surgery a few weeks ago. That’s why I’ve been out of school. This is the second of three surgeries I need to get done. But I’m walking better after each one.”

“That’s good.” I said. “Are you going back to working with the soccer team?”

“Probably. I want to keep up my training on taping ankles and joints. I want to be a trainer when I graduate. If the ankle heals well, I’ll also be able to do a bit of light running with the team; just as a form of light physical therapy.”

“Form up!” Kelly bellowed from the front of the room. We packed up the last of the patrol box and all fell into our lines. Kelly continued with the closing announcements.

“Starting next week” Kelly announced, “we will have new Patrol Assignments.”

“What!” most of the boys cried out. “What the hell are you doing that for?”

“It’s my call. I’m making the troop more efficient!” Kelly barked back. “Your new assignments are posted on the announcement board. Meeting dismissed!”

The entire troop bolted for the Announcement Board to check out their new patrols. We heard some boys celebrating. They obviously were placed together. Other times a few scouts started swearing “Kelly, you asshole.” They obviously got split into separate patrols.

Finally, me, Sawyer, Arnaub and Alex made it to the front of the crowd to read the list.

Disaster. Sawyer and I were in different patrols. Alex and Arnaub were separated from us. Just then Kyle’s mom came up behind us.

“Now that you’re separated, maybe you’ll learn to behave.” she snickered as she walked off.

“What the fuck?” Sawyer exclaimed.

“What can we do?” I asked. I saw Mr. Miltner come out of his office and started locking up his office door. “Let’s go” I grabbed Sawyer by the arm gesturing we should talk to Mr. Miltner. We started to approach him.

“Wait.” Arnaub called out. “Us too?” he asked as he gestured to him and Alex to join us.

“Yeah! Come on!” I waived my hand to have them join us.

The four of us approached the Scoutmaster.
Mr. Miltner was locking up his office as we started approaching. He already knew what we wanted to talk to him about.

“Boys, I know what you’re going to ask. But I can’t switch the Patrols around. I’m sorry.”

“Why? Isn’t there any way we can stay together?” I asked.

“The problem is, the troop has too many scouts and not enough parents.”

“But what about all the parents that attend the meetings?” Alex asked.

“They only come to watch their kid. They’re not registered or volunteering any time this the troop. If I kept you four together in a new patrol, I wouldn’t have any parents to supervise or mentor you. In addition, If I moved you four together, then I’d have to move every scout that asks. That would make chaos. Until we can get more parents to step up, we need to stay at four patrols.”

“So if we get one of our parents to join and be in charge of our troop, we can stay together?” I asked.

“Probably. But I would have to put more in your patrol. It wouldn’t just be you four. We’d need about 7 in your patrol. Sorry kids. Let’s go, I need to lock up.”

Mr. Miltner ushered us out the door of the hall into the parking lot. He locked the door and left the four of us standing there in the dark.

“Shit, now what do we do?” Alex asked?

“I think I’m going to quit” Arnaub sighed in desperation.

“No!” I snapped. “That’s the last thing any of us are going to do. We need to do this.”

The other three were surprised by my harsh reaction. But I looked at Sawyer. He seemed to understand.

“Yeah guys, let’s stick together. Don’t quit. We all need this. We’ll figure it out together.” Sawyer chimed in.

“Here’s what we need to do next. First, everybody go home tonight and start talking to your parents. If you don’t know what to say, text the group, we’ll help you figure it out. Second, let’s all meet at my house on Saturday. Bring your uniforms. If we’re going to do this, Kelly, his mom and everybody else will be looking for reasons to say no. So we need to be perfect. We’ll pass every uniform inspection and bull shit task Kelly can try to dish out.”

“I’m in.” Alex smiled.

“Me too.” Arnaub smiled

“Our way…together” Swayer added.

We exchanged phone numbers and created a group chat. Then we headed home. I didn’t fully realize it at the time. But at that moment, my squad was fully born.

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