Finals: The Dolbin School Book 4--Chapter 9--The Afternoon

 

Finals: The Dolbin School Book 4

I am serializing my next book here first before it is available anywhere else.  It is still in the formatting stage at the moment.  I have serialized the other three books here on Steemit in the past year.  

Here are the first chapters from where I serialized each book.
Dolbin School for the Extraordinary

The Dark Cloud Rises

The Return of the Professor

You can click here to see them on Amazon.

And Now this book is available for preorder on Amazon.  Click here to have it delivered to your Kindle when it is released.

Hope you follow along!  Click here for Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8

Chapter 9 The Afternoon

“Boom!” yelled Mark.  He threw his fists into the air.  Jake hung his head in defeat.  “Anyone else want to try and beat me!  Come on Cooper!  Let’s go for another round.”  The numbers 5-1 floated in the air above the holographic foosball table.  Mark’s team scored the five.

It was Monday afternoon, and everyone was playing.  

Jake waved Mark off, “No, I’m good.”  He sat down on a sofa.  The common room was full of fourth grade boys enjoying the evening study break.  

“Who else wants to take me on?” Mark stood by the foosball table with his arms out.  He smiled confidently, as he waited for another challenger. 

“Okay, I’ll give you a run for your money.  Someone has to shut you up”

“Oh, Jack, come on down, and give it a try!” Mark replied.

Next to the foosball table, Cal and Henry sat on a sofa playing a football video game.  Bruce and Red cheered them on screaming instructions at them.

Jake sat down next to Cal.  He watched Cal throw a touchdown on the game.  “Woo Hoo!” Cal screamed as he threw the controller into  the air.  Henry threw his controller to the ground in disgust.

“Be quiet!” Henry screamed.

“Oh, don’t get your underwear in a knot.”  Bruce smiled, and jumped over the sofa and grabbed Henry’s controller.  Bruce looked at Cal.  “You ready to lose?”   

Cal smiled back.  “You may try.”  Bruce flopped down next to Cal.  

Henry headed to the refrigerator and got a drink.  Bruce and Cal began their game.

Jake watched Bruce and Cal play their video game.  Jake watched and realized it really didn’t look like a video game.  At least one he was used to seeing, this game looked like a full real-live football game.  The players looked like flesh and bone players.  Footage of the people in the crowd looked as if it was taken from an actual NFL game.  Jake just watched in amazement, as Bruce and Cal moved the human looking figures on the screen.  If it wasn’t for the controllers in their hands, it would have looked like a normal football game.

“Hey Brad!  Where have you been?” shouted Jack as he played Mark.  Jake leaned back over the couch to see Brad coming in from the main stairwell.

“I’ve been out,” he replied quietly.

“You look like you’ve been at the gym working out,” said Henry, as Brad walked past him.

Brad jerked his head back to look at Henry, “So, what if I have been?”  He glared at Henry as he kept walking.

“Nothing, you don’t have to be a jerk about it,” replied Henry.  Brad continued to the hallway and headed to his room.

Brad slammed his door and the sound echoed throughout the common room.

The room went quiet.  The fifteen boys in the room stopped what they were doing.  Some shook their head, some went back to playing what they were doing, and Jake looked at his friends with the color drained from his face.

Slowly the noise of boys playing and socializing came back to the room, expect for Jake, Mark, Bruce, Red, Henry, and Cal.  They exchanged glances.  Mark quickly ended his game with Jack by scoring, and he went and sat down on the sofa with Jake.  Bruce and Cal stopped their game.  Red came over from the 3D game he was playing.

“Do I even need to wonder why you have such long faces?” Red asked.

Jake shrugged his shoulders, he stood up, waved at his friends to follow him and he went to his room.  The boys followed him.  Jake sat down on his bed, and his friends followed him in.  Red the shut the door.

“I didn’t want to talk about this in front of the other guys, and especially his roommate Jack.  But it scares me that he is working out.  With his workout clothes and sweat all over his face, he was working out.”  Jake took a deep breath, “He is trying to get stronger.”

“Enough of this silliness,” said Bruce.  “Let’s go across the hallway and ask him, what’s made him so mad.”  Bruce walked out into the hallway.

“No!” shouted Jake.  “I don’t want him angry and mad at me.”  Jake chased after him.

Bruce knocked on Brad’s door.  Brad opened the door.  He looked all the boys looking at him.  “What do you guys want?”

“Where have you been?  Why are you so angry at us for asking?” asked Bruce.

“What is it too you?” replied Brad, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

“Wait!” Jake stepped forward.

“Is this you?  Are you the reason everyone is here?” He put his finger into Jake’s chest.

“You don’t need to poke him.  Get your finger off of him,” Bruce said firmly.  

Brad removed his finger.  Bruce stepped forward to Brad.

“Leave me alone!”  shouted Brad, and he slammed his door shut.

Bruce took another step toward the door, and he put his hand on the door knob.

“Stop!” Jake said.  “Let him go.  We don’t need a fight here.”

“If he’s not careful, he’s going to get one,” Bruce replied, and he turned and walked briskly back to the common room.  The other boys followed him slowly back to the room.