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It surprised John how many people were interested in Students for Freedom, a new club created a month before classes let out for summer. Dave, the student who entered his class on Monday to talk about the organization, seemed kind of extreme, but funny when he seethed because John likened the war to aliens.
The club met on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the gym. Dave said, that the organization split up into small groups to spread the word, and make donations. The gym bustled with people separated into clusters all around the gym, and it took John a good minute of searching to find Dave. His group took a small corner of the gym sitting in a semicircle around him on the floor, bags scattered around their area like a wall. They were separated the farthest from everyone else.
He plopped down behind a dark skinned girl, setting his bag beside him.
“What are you doing here?” Dave asked.
John frowned up at him. “Am I not allowed to be here?”
“Why would you want to be here when you made it clear that you were against the war?”
“Uh,” John said, as the other three kids in Dave’s group turned towards him. He reached into his bag, and brought out a notebook. “I have to write a paper on the war, and I figured you’d be the best person to get information off.”
Dave glared at him, then he sighed. He said, “Ignore him. Now, any questions before we get started?”
A boy with baby fat still on his face raised his hand. Dave nodded at him. “I have an after school job. I had to ask for today off so I could come to this meeting. What can I do to help?” he asked.
“Aren’t you a bit young to have a job?” John asked.
“I work at my family’s restaurant,” the boy said, wrinkling his nose.
“Just ignore him,” Dave said. “And yes, there’s tons of things you can still do to help, even if you’re busy. If you have any extra scraps of metal, buttons, clothes, or leather you can donate it to the war effort.”
“What if we don’t have much to give,” the girl in front of John asked.
“Of course you have shit to give. If you have two copper pans, you don’t need two of them to make a meal, just give one up. If you have any torn clothes, or clothes that don’t fit, donate it. Scraps’ll work, too. If you have old shoes that are worn down you can donate that, and there are buttons everyone. I live with my Bro, and even we found pots lying around to be donated.”
John snorted, and Dave narrowed honey brown eyes at him. John grinned, and Dave focused on something behind him.
“Oh, another thing I forgot,” he said, turning to the group. “Growing a garden helps, too. That way you don’t have to worry about food rationing, and the excess food that farmers grow can be sent to the soldiers instead of to the markets.”
“Do you grow a garden?” John asked.
“We’re working on it,” Dave bit out.
John smiled, and opened his notebook as Dave answered the other student’s questions about gardens. Which he didn’t know anything about. John piped up an answer when he could. If Jade taught him anything, growing a garden was beneficial to everyone.
“Dave, who are we fighting?” Tammy asked.
“Shut up, J—” Dave looked up from his corner of the quilt, and blinked at her. “I thought you were John.”
It was their fourth meeting, and the group was sewing squares together to make a quilt. John joined in when they distracted him with their sewing talk. Dave initiated the quilt on the second day, asking everyone to bring in scraps of square cloth. He brought in thread to use, and happened to be the best at sewing, with Tammy coming in at a close second. He didn’t tell anyone how he got so skilled, and dodged every question about it with a flushed face.
“Didn’t I already tell you?” Dave asked, tying off his thread.
John laughed to himself, then groaned when his thread broke. “Dave, I did it again.”
“Man, Egbert, didn’t I tell you to take notes?” Dave asked, crawling from his corner to sit beside John.
“Yeah, but my notebook is all the way over there,” John said, nodding towards his backpack just out of arm's reach.
“Christ, you’re a lazy ass, scoot,” Dave said, pushing against John’s thigh.
“Dave, are you stalling?” Tammy asked, setting her sewing down.
“What? No. John’s just a needy kid. Had to take care of him first, or he’d start bawling in the middle of the night, and wake all the neighbors up,” he said, stopping when John elbowed him. “I told you. We’re fighting the people across the ocean. The ones that are trying to take our rights and blow us up.”
“Yes, but,” she sighed. “I mean, which country? There’s hundreds of countries overseas. They can’t all be trying to take our freedom considering some of them are our allies.”
“W-Well,” Dave said. “It’s, uh, confidential. They can’t tell us because if we knew, we’d start doing stupid things. America is a large country with immigrants. If we started pointing out who we’re fighting then there might be inside fights. Some people might start thinking that the people who immigrated here are enemy allies. So they locked that information down. It’s locked down better than a prisoner in Alcatraz.”
“Ew, Dave, you’re sweating,” John laughed, flicking his face. Dave jerked away, eyes wide. “You’re making this sound like those rumors about the government hiding away aliens. What reason would they have to hide aliens from the public?”
“To stop mass panic,” Toby said, the quietest kid in the group.
“Wow, sounds like what Dave said. But everyone knows aliens aren’t real,” John said.
The fist came out of nowhere, surprising an ‘oof’ out of John. It hit him on the side of his mouth, splitting his lower lip.
“What the hell, Dave?” John hissed, rubbing the cut with the back of his hand.
“Don’t talk bad about the government,” he said, locking eyes on John’s blue ones.
“What?” John asked, brows furrowing. “But they are bad, Dave. It’s messed up how they won’t tell us who we’re fighting.”
Dave lunged at John. His fist aimed at John’s neck, but John caught him by his waist, and rolled with the motion until Dave was pinned to the hardwood floor. Dave breathed hard through his nose, squirmed under John, and kneed John’s thigh. John winced, but didn’t move. Dave growled, and headbutted John. He yelped, and Dave rolled away to hold on to his head like John.
“God dammit, Dave, that hurts!” he moaned, rubbing at the red mark on his head.
“Take it back,” Dave whispered.
“What?”
“Take it back,” Dave yelled.
“What? No, why?” John asked.
Dave stood, and towered over John before kicking him in the chest.
John growled, and grabbed his leg, pulling him until he dropped like a log, his head slapping hard against the wood floor. Dave yelled out, clutching his head, and John crawled over him, pinning Dave’s biceps down with his knees, and held Dave’s head in his hands.
“What are you doing?” John shouted.
Dave hissed, and glared up at him. He hacked up a gob of spit at John. He recoiled, losing grip enough that Dave rolled him over, and punched him in the eye. John gasped in pain, and raised his arms up, but when he did, Dave’s weight slid off of him, and he looked up. Toby and Tammy grabbed both of Dave’s arms, and he tried to wriggle out, but they held onto him. He glared at John.
John wiped the spit off his face, grimacing. “What were you trying to do?”
“You have to apologize.”
“For my opinion?”
“Your opinion sucks.”
John sucked in his cheeks. “You sure are acting strong over an opinion.”
Dave hissed, and looked away, “Bro works for the government.”
“That’s why you got so angry?” John asked in disbelief. “Man, you need to find a new hobby that doesn’t revolve around your Bro. That can’t be healthy.”
“Shut up. Can you let go now?” he asked Tammy and Toby. They looked at John.
“Are you going to punch me again?”
“No,” Dave said. John gave him a stink eye, then nodded.
Dave wiggled his arms as they let him go. He leaned over to give John a helping hand, only to be pulled down by John.
“What the hell?” he asked.
“You should have seen that one coming,” John said, poking Dave’s cheeks.
“And miss out on sitting in your comfy lap? No way, man, just let me sit here and swoon all over you,” Dave said, pressing a hand up to his forehead.
“You can swoon later,” Tammy said. “John should visit the nurse.” She said, pressing a hand against John’s eyes. He winced.
“Nurse Strider will take you in,” Dave said.
“Aren’t nurses supposed to be sexy?” John teased as Dave got off.
“I am sexy. You must need new glasses,” Dave said, helping John up. He turned to the rest of the group. “Don’t worry, I’ll get John to the nurses office, just keep working,” he said, wrapping an arm around John, and leading him out.
“Did you get that paper finished?” Dave asked.
“Yes,” John said, as he came into the living room, and handed a slice of cake to Dave.
Dave reached for it. “Thank the lord for your good father. What’s on the agenda for today?” he asked, slicing into his bit of cake.
“Well,” John said, glancing up at Dave. His lips were wrapped around the fork, and he made a pleasurable sound, his eyes closing for a second. Then he looked at John.
“Well?”
John flushed, and opened his backpack. “Today, we are going to make a shirt?” John said, frowning as he studied Dave’s notebook on the coffee table. “Okay, the last time I had anything to do with sewing was around three weeks ago. What makes you think I’ve gotten any better in those three weeks of not sewing?”
Dave shrugged. “Just what the organization decided. Not me. I liked making quilts. Shirts are harder.”
“How did you even learn to sew?” John asked.
“Bro taught me,” Dave said. “Now where are our tools?”
“Bro,” he said, giving Dave a bland look. “Do you have any hobbies outside of your bro?”
“Just get the fabric, John,” he said.
“You know,” John said, getting off the couch to get Dave’s bag. “You have talents that aren’t just things your bro taught you. I’ve seen your art. It’s great. I bet you could do your own comics or something.” John carried Dave’s bag over to the couch, before throwing it at him.
“Yeah, well, maybe,” Dave said, getting out the fabric, ruler, and fabric cutter.
“Yeah, no maybes. You also collect records, and I’ve heard you tap out some cool tunes. Which, I know your bro does, but maybe you could do a different style of music? Like classical,” John said, grinning. He held down one end of the fabric as Dave marked up a shirt outline.
Dave snorted. “There is no way I’m going to even dabble in the classics. They’re for dorks with glasses.”
John rolled his eyes, and held down the ruler when Dave got to his side of the shirt painfully ignoring Dave’s lingering hand over his. Dave sighed, and got out the fabric cutter. For a moment, it was just the ripping of fabric and Dave’s breath.
“Why hasn’t our group disbanded?”
Dave glanced over at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, everyone left since I kind of made them not want to support the government. Now it’s just me and you. Why haven’t we left Students for Freedom?”
Dave didn’t say anything, and the silence dropped deeper and deeper into an awkward hole. He coughed. “I didn’t know you wanted to hang out with me outside the club.”
“Oh my god,” John rolled his eyes. “Dave, I wouldn’t have stayed in the club if I didn’t want to hang out with you. My whole reason for entering the club was you.”
“Oh,” he said, flushing red.
“I like you, man. Why wouldn’t I want to be with you.”
“Oh.”
John paused, and twiddled his fingers. “I want to kiss you,” he breathed, looking up at Dave.
“Oh,” he mumbled, his neck and ears red now.
“Cool,” John said, standing up, and taking the fabric cutter away from Dave’s hand, setting it down on the coffee table. John held Dave’s fingers, and looked up at him leaning up on his toes, and letting their lips touch glanced against each other. Then he backed away with a secret smile.
“That’s it?” Dave asked, put out.
“Maybe if you’d leaned down, I couldn’t get a better mack on you,” John said, grinning.
Dave snorted, and leaned over for John, puckering his lips up until John’s touched his, slow and gentle. For a second their lips were pressed together like a whisper, then Dave lunged forward, knocking their heads together.
When Dad came home they were sitting on the couch with frozen steaks held against their heads.
The gym was louder than usual when John went to his and Dave’s group corner. The other three member’s who’d dropped out were there, smiling up at Dave. When John managed to get close enough to hear, they were telling Dave congratulations on graduating.
“Hi guys,” John said.
“Congratulations,” they said, smiling.
“We hope you don’t mind us coming back,” Tammy said. “Just wanted to say congratulations before the last day. We have to go now, bye!”
When they were gone John poked Dave’s face. “You’re smiling, dweeb.”
“Shut up, I’m not,” Dave said, patting his face with his hands.
“You were,” John said, reaching around to his backpack. “Close your eyes.”
“Why?” Dave asked even as he closed them.
John stuck his tongue out as he made sure he placed them on right, then beamed. “Okay, open them.”
“I can’t see for shit,” Dave said, and John laughed. “I don’t think you’re supposed to wear shades in a building.”
“A cool guy like you shouldn’t be seen without shades,” John said, wrapping an around his middle.
“Excuse me.” John looked behind him to see a young woman with short dark hair.
“Yes?” he said, turning him and Dave around to look at her.
“The club president wants group leaders to assemble over there,” she said, pointing a pencil to the middle of the gym. “And he wants group members to go over there,” she said, pointing to the halls.
“Okay?” John said, and the woman nodded before going on to the next group.
“You don’t have to go,” Dave whispered. “You weren’t a group member, and I’m sure it’s something idiotic about the government.”
“It’s okay. I bet they’re planning a surprise for you guys,” John said with a wink.
“I already got the best gift.”
“There’s no way anyone could beat that gift.”
“They’re out of this world.”
“Yeah, okay, see you in a bit,” John said, waving goodbye.
“You okay?” Dave asked when John came back into the gym.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
“Nothing, you just. Seem off. Not as dorky as usual,” Dave said.
John laughed. “Nothing could be dorkier than your face,” he said.
“What did they have you do?” Dave asked, holding John’s hand as they left the school.
“Mmm,” John hummed. “I can’t remember.”
“You were just in there a second ago, what do you mean you can’t remember?” Dave frowned, and turned to look at him.
He gave Dave a reassuring smile. “It’s nothing. I can’t remember because it was boring. What did you do?”
Dave remained silent for a moment, then shrugged. “Not a whole lot. Just said thanks for doing such a spectacular job, and that they would be sure to send our donations to the troops in need. Some kid got a medal for having the most donations, but that’s bull.”
“Hey,” John said, frowning as Dave started towards the bus pick-ups. John followed, walking beside him. “I’m sure that kid worked hard for that medal. We should’ve done more work. Now I feel bad. We have tons of pots and pans at home. We could’ve donated those.”
Dave snorted. “Yeah, good try, but for a prank that’s pretty weak. You’re helping the government instead of getting a good laugh out of them.”
“It’s not a prank. I want to help,” John said, serious, as they stopped at the curb.
“No, you don’t,” Dave said, doing a huffy cough laugh.
“Yeah, I do, Dave,” John said, glancing at him. “If you don’t want to help, that’s fine, but I am.”
John lifted his arms up, waving them as his dad pulled up to the curb. He opened the door to the car, and said, “Hey, Dad, we have some pots and pans we can donate to the war, right?”
Dad wrinkled his brows, and nodded. John let out a little whoop, and got in.
“I’ll talk to you later, Dave,” he called out as Dad pulled away from the curb.
After graduation, John invited Dave over to his house to eat celebratory cake. They sat on the couch enjoying it. John stashed a pile of old pots and pans, some clothes, and buttons over by the door, and ignored how Dave kept glancing over at it, then back at him. When they finished, the plates were set aside, and John turned to Dave.
“I have to tell you something,” John said, a smile crossing his face. Dave returned it, nervous, as John’s hand inched over to hold his.
“Well, you know how they have those army guys that are around after graduation?”
“You didn’t—”
“Yeah! So, they said they’re already sending new recruits out. On Monday, there’s a meeting for new recruits, and I’m going,” John said, beaming.
“No, no, no you’re not,” Dave said, standing up and tugging his hand free. He leaned over and grabbed John’s shoulders.
“What did they do to you in that room?” Dave hissed, shaking his shoulders.
“Dave, calm down,” John said, his head bouncing back and forth like a noodle. “They didn’t do anything. This is my choice. Stop.” John grabbed his wrists. He sighed. “I knew you wouldn’t like this, since we just started dating. I promise I won’t canoodle with anyone while I’m over there.” John laughed. “I doubt I’ll even have time.”
This isn’t about that,” Dave said, fists clenching. “This is about how you weren’t even for the war, and in the span of three days you’re all about it? It doesn’t add up.” He huffed, and knelt down. “On Monday, early in the morning, before you go off to the army. Please come see me? At least four hours before you go.”
“Sure, Dave.”
“I have to go now, but don’t do anything stupid, please,” Dave said, soft and urgent.
John nodded, and Dave left after giving Dad a terse nod. John picked up their empty cake dishes, and headed into the kitchen, rinsing them off. He eyed his Dad’s fedora on the coat rack before grabbing it, and stuffing it away in his pile by the door.
On Monday morning, four hours before John’s meet up with the army officer, Dave dragged him to an office building. It squat low to the ground, beige and dull like the place his dad worked in.
“Bro told me that if there’s anyone who can help, they’ll be here,” Dave said. John nodded, confused.
Dave walked up to the desk, squeezing John’s hand. “Hey, I need to talk to Dr. S,” he said, tapping fingers on the counter.
“And who will be meeting with him?” she asked, getting out a scheduler.
“Dave Strider. B-Dirk Strider’s brother?”
“Right. His office is 111.”
“Cool, thanks,” Dave said, turning and leading John to the room down the hall.
“What are you doing?”
Dave looked at him. “Some volunteer work for the government. Don’t worry about it.”
John grinned. “You’re helping? That’s great, we can work together.”
“Yeah, I’ll be the sexy nurse to your doctor,” Dave said, stopping in front of a door, and knocked.
“I’m not going to be a doctor, though,” John said.
“Maybe you will. You’d be good, with your hands as deft as they are.”
The door opened, and they entered into a green room. A white suited man greeted them. He looked them up and down, before he said, “Dirk told me you wanted something, Dave?”
“Uh, yeah,” Dave said. He rubbed his arms, hesitant, and almost unsure. “Bro said that you’d do anything to get a lab rat.”
The man’s eyes flickered over to John. “You have a proposition?”
“I’ll be your lab rat, if you’ll break the mind influence on John,” Dave said. He stood tall and straight before Dr. S.
John frowned, “There’s nothing wrong—”
Gloved fingers wrapped around his jaw, popping his mouth open. John blinked up into white eyes, the pupil just a prick of darkness in the middle. The hands around his jaw released him, and patted the top of his head.
“This proposition is in my favor. It won’t take much to remove government suggestions from the mind, but for me to get an enthusiastic volunteer, now that takes a lot,” Dr. S said.
“Who said I’d be enthusiastic?” Dave asked, stiffening.
“It wouldn’t take much for the government to wipe John again. There are plenty of other eager boys willing to die for the government. One slipping free won’t harm anything.”
Dave’s fists clenched. “Alright, just. Help John.”
“John, please enter the room beside you,” Dr. S said.
John frowned, and turned to Dave, but he didn’t look at John, his gaze set on Dr. S. John nodded after a moment, and went into the room. The door shut behind him.
The room was green, and in the middle was a chair. John sat in it, and waited. For a second the room expanded like an inhale, then it exhaled. The seat shackled his wrists and ankles down so John couldn’t move. A bright light pulsated in front of him. He couldn’t blink without being blinded by spots.
“Where’s Dave?” John asked after Dr. S released him from the chair. He rubbed his forehead and eyes. “I have a headache,” he moaned.
“That’ll happen after being exposed to a blinking light for ten minutes. Dave is gone,” Dr. S said. He held out a hand with pills in them, and a glass of water in the other.
“Gone? Like he went home?” John asked, taking the pills and water. He drank a little, then popped the pills in.
“No. He won’t be going home for a long time,” Dr. S said. “Do you remember anything from before you entered the room?”
John swallowed hard around the pills. “Yeah.” John stood up. “I don’t guess you’ll let me go back under mind control so that Dave will be free?”
He laughed, a cold sludge that oozed out of him. “No, I’m afraid not. Although, I’m sure you knew that.”
“Yeah,” John groaned, and raked his hand through his brown hair.
“But, there is a possibility, that if the tests go well he’ll be sent off to the war.” Dr. S picked at the ends of his gloves before leveling a look at John. “Don’t you have a recruitment meeting to go to?”
John froze. “Yeah. Yeah, I do,” he whispered.