So far nothing unusual had happened, two days letter he
got called to the office. He waited outside
the office to be called in. Miss
O’Sullivan walked up and knocked on the door and was asked to come in. He tried to see who was in there besides the
dean of students and Miss O’Sullivan.
Did this have anything to do with the poem, or something else?
Colleen and Jon had talked, about the problem. Should
they let the Dean of Students handle this or should they handle this. They had hatched a little story that just might
work. Jon arrived at Polly Prep, a few
minutes after he had put the boys on the bus, giving them time to get to class
and not see him.
Colleen didn’t have a first period class, so she met Jon
at the Dean of Students office. Jon sat
with his back to the door, so Jake wouldn’t know he was there. They had made a
deal, with the dean of students, that they would handle this, without hurting
Jake’s academic standings. If it wasn’t
for all the money Jon had raised for the school, Jake would be in deep shit.
“Whatever you do, don’t laugh.” Colleen told Jon right before she called, to
have Jake brought in.
“I know, put on my proud dad face.” Jon told Colleen, which was going to be hard.
This was the first time, which he knew, that any of his kids had been caught
cheating.
Jake was brought into the room, it wasn’t till he sat
down, and that he noticed that there was just Miss O’Sullivan and his dad in the
room. ‘Oh shit, what’s going on?’ Jake
thought as he sat down in the only other chair.
“Hey Jakey,” Jon smiled at his son.
“Hey Dad.” Jake
answered quietly. What’s daddy doing here? He didn’t say anything as me and Romeo got on
the bus. Jake was nervous. He didn’t know where to look, so he looked at
the floor.
“Jake, I asked your dad to come in to hear this
news.” Colleen said as she looked from
Jake to Jon.
“News?” Jake sat
down in the other chair beside his dad.
Looking between Miss O’Sullivan and his dad.
“You remember the poetry assignment? I submitted a few to a local contest, and
you’re was chosen as one of the top in the State.” Colleen had the certificate she had made, it
looked legit, thanks to Microsoft Word.
Jake took the certificate from Colleen and looked it
over. Great the one time in my life I cheat, I win a contest for something I
stole from my dad. Well isn’t that fucking wonderful?
“Jake I am so proud of you.” Jon turned and looked at his son. I
should get an award for this performance.
“I was just about to read your poem to your dad, but now
that you’re here you can read it.”
Colleen smiled at Jake and then Jon.
Which one would break first? She
handed Jake the paper.
Jake looked at the paper from his teachers hand. Looking
at it like it was the first time he had seen it. I should admit it now I stole it from dad’s office and take my
punishment like a man, or I could just throw up now and get out of this. Jake cleared his throat and started to
look a little green.
“Maybe I can read it for you.” Jon told Jake, never once taking the paper
out of his hand. Reciting the words, which he had said to Colleen on the beach.
“One heart one other, they met last summer, one move she
started, Now they love that way. The Pain of pleasure, lying together, you’re
at their mercy no one said there’d be nights like this, risk your life for a
stolen kiss,” Jon sang softly like he did to Colleen that night on the beach.
Jake’s heart went to his feet, he was in deep shit and
was it going to be suspension or expelled.
He knew he had broken the honor code, depending on what Miss O’Sullivan
did. He knew what his dad was going to
do to him was going to be one hundred times worse than what the school did.
“I can explain,” Jake started to say, but the look on his
father’s face stopped him cold.
“You stole a song out of my office and submitted it as
your own, your last name might be Bongiovi, but Jon is not your first
name.” Jon was trying to stay calm, but
the Sicilian in him was boiling under the surface.
“I tried to write a poem, but I su, uh I was terrible. I
panicked and thought I could borrow one of the songs, no one would
notice.” Jake explained.
“You owe Coll, Miss O’Sullivan, an apology for not doing
the assignment. She went to the Dean of Students to keep this from going on
your record.” Jon took a deep breath to
keep his cool.
“I’m sorry for what I did.” Jake said as he turned to speak to his
teacher.
“You will receive a zero on this assignment and you will
not be allowed to make it up. This is a
warning, Mr. Bongiovi, the next time this will be handled by the Dean of
Students and it will go on your record.”
Colleen looked between Jake and Jon.
“You can go on to your next class, I will see you later in class.”
Jake got out of the room before he was expelled.
Colleen waited until the door shut and Jake was away from
the door. Colleen put the paper back in her file.
“That was harder than I thought it would be.” Colleen told Jon. “From his record, he’s a straight A student,
top of his class, then this.” Colleen
sighed and looked at Jon. “That’s why I
didn’t want this to mess up his record.”
“You were too easy on him.” Jon looked at Colleen. “My teachers in school would’ve suspended me
or kicked me out for plagiarism.”
“Jake’s a good student and he panicked. I had a professor that bent the rules for me
once, I panicked on a test. My parents
had died and my brother and sister were doing the best to keep us together. I
got a zero on the test and didn’t get a makeup, but I didn’t get booted out of
college.” She put the papers back in his
file and dropped them in her briefcase.
“When I asked him why he didn’t throw me over to the student court? He told me that, one day I was going to see a
great kid, do something stupid, and I am going to remember, that a teacher gave
me a second chance.”
“And you saw that in Jake?” Jon asked her as he stood up.
“I saw a kid, who is a straight A student, that panicked
when he came across something his dad was great at, and that he couldn’t be the
same writer.” Colleen came around the
desk and they walked out of the office.
“When I heard those same words read out allowed in class, I knew what he
did.
“Yeah, when you read his paper to me, at first I thought
he might have gotten the words off liner sheets in an old cassette or lyric
site online.” Jon chuckled a
little. “I never thought he would go
into the office and go through my files.”
“I guess you’ll lock the door from now on?” Colleen laughed a little.
“Yeah, I got one more son to get out of this school one
day.” Jon finally laughed. He didn’t think Romeo would ever do anything
like this, the kid was so honest, and he would get an F before cheating.
Colleen walked with Jon through the halls and out to the
parking lot.
“I was gonna call you later to see if you have plans for
Saturday night? I know its short
notice.” Jon leaned on his car, looking
at Colleen.
“I’m working the football game, I have the home
concession stand, but other than that, my night is free.” Colleen said as she stood at Jon’s car. Reminded her of High School, standing at her
boyfriend’s car. But was Jon her
boyfriend or just a man who was her friend?
“I’ll be at the game, Jake is playing, and we always go
out after the game.” He said then he
stopped. Was he ready for her to go out
with the kids? Granted it would just be
Romeo and Jake. He should ask them before he surprises them with her.
“That’s great, I hope you three have fun.” Colleen told Jon, letting him off the
hook. She knew by the look on his face
he was back peddling just like the night they had ice cream. “I better get back in, looks really bad when
the teacher is late to class.” She
smiled at him.
“I bet, listen I’ll call you tonight.” Jon laughed a little at the teacher being
late to class. He watched her turn to
head back to the building. He would talk
to the boys in the next couple of days, if they would let Colleen join them for
dinner.
Jake kept his head down in class, and Miss O’Sullivan
didn’t call him for any answers. He was
not looking forward to going home. His dad
was really pissed, he knew going home today was going to hear his punishment.
The rest of the day went smooth, it seemed to Jake that
the ride home was shorter. Daddy was
waiting at the bus stop, there was no sneaking into the townhome today.
“Hey Guys, how was school?” Jon smiled at the boys. He noticed Jake
trying to sneak into the house.
“Great, I passed my math test and my science test.” Romeo
told his dad proudly.
“That’s great Roe, I know you really studied and showed
that you really tried hard. I’m really
proud of you.” Jon tasseled Romeo’s
hair. They made it off the street and
into the foyer of the building. He
noticed Jake hung back some as they got to the elevator. “Get your homework done as fast as you can, I
thought we’d have Pizza tonight.”
“Extra pepperoni?”
Romeo asked as they rode up to their floor. “And Garlic knots?”
“You got it buddy, we’ll celebrate your two tests
tonight.” Jon said proudly looking at
his youngest son.
Jon watched Romeo head to his room, Jake sort of hung
back finally. Waiting till Romeo’s door
shut behind him, Jon pointed to his office and went to the door waiting on Jake
to enter.
He let Jake sit there while he called in his order for
deliver and then, once off the phone he counted to ten, then counted again.
“I don’t know what to say.” Jon said softly, trying to remain calm.
“I panicked, I just couldn’t write a poem. I tried for hours and nothing was coming to
me. I looked on line and I listened to
songs. You can ask Roe, he read some of
them.” Jake explained.
“Why didn’t you come to me and asked for help?” Jon asked
Jake. “Instead of asking for help, you
used my friendship with Colleen, to get me out of the house.” That brought up Jake’s
head fast enough to give him whiplash. “Did you think I wouldn’t put two and
two together to come up with you using one of my songs?”
“Dad I panicked.”
Jake told him again. “Have you
ever felt like nothing was right? The
words, just weren’t there. I never
thought Miss O’Sullivan would catch it.”
Jon wasn’t going to tell him how she knew, that was
between Colleen and him. Jake was just
preaching to the choir about what had happened over the past three years, about
nothing coming. First the defection of
Richie, who was like a brother to him, his brother from another. Topping that with Dorothea’s suicide, it was
a wonder, he hadn’t crawl into a hole and pull it in on top of himself. But that didn’t excuse Jake stealing his song
and turning in as his own poem.
“You are grounded till Saturday, you will come right
home, and do your homework. I will be
checking it, so no more borrowing from anyone else.” He told his second son. “If I ever hear you cheating again, you’ll
lean to hate the color of your bedroom.”
He watched his punishment wash over his son. “On yeah I forgot. Give me you cellphone,
tablet and laptop.”
“But I use my laptop for research, I’ll need it for my
homework.” Jake was shocked he was going
to be tech punished.
“When you need it you can use it. Then it comes back to
me and to make sure you don’t cheat, you’ll be doing your homework in the
office with me.” Jon said
Jake cringed at the cheating reference, which hurt less
that his father losing faith in him. Why
did he ever think he could get away with stealing his father’s song? Standing up he pulled his cell out of his
back pocket.
“Ok, go get you tablet and your laptop, then you can get
your homework done.” Jon watched him walk out of his office. Slumping down in the seat he took a deep
breath. How did his wife deal with this?
Dinner that night was a mix of one son bouncing on all
fours and one that was like on death row.
Jon toyed with asking the boys about Colleen joining them Saturday
night, Romeo would be an easy yes, but he couldn’t see Jakey saying yes.
Jon and Jake went back to the office, Jake needed to
finish his homework. He looked at the
time and toyed with his phone, he promised to call. Jake finally finished his homework. The
laptop was closed and left on the corner of the desk.
“Good night dad.”
Jake said as headed out the door.
“Goodnight Jakey” He listened till he heard Jake got up the
stairs and his door close, he turned to Romeo.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Is it about Jakey using your song for his poem?” Romeo
kind of looked anywhere but at his dad. “Am I in trouble too?”
“I wish you two had come to me, instead of lifting my
song.” Jon started.
“I wasn’t in there with him, I told him not to get
caught.” Romeo told Jon. “Yeah that wasn’t a smart move, I guess.”
“Well not only did he get caught, Miss O’Sullivan save
him from being expelled.” Jon leaned
back and watched the news was over his youngest.
“Wow, I hope I have Miss O’Sullivan next year.” Romeo smiled.
“But, you won’t cheat, or borrow any of my songs for an
assignment.” He laughed then got really
serious.
“No way daddy.”
Romeo looked at his dad and saw that his father wasn’t smiling.
“Can I ask you something Roe?” Jon asked and waited for Romeo to acknowledge
the question. “Would it bother you if I
started dating?”
Romeo thought about what his father was asking. He noticed his father was slowly being his
old self again. He laughed more, and he
wasn’t using pills to sleep anymore. The
big thing was, he was writing again. In religion class, they were talking about
rebirth. That’s what his dad was
doing.
The door opened to the kitchen and Jake stood there. “You
want to date Miss O’Sullivan?” Jake
asked with a shocked look on his face.
