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Precocious	By : XxSwaggerMcJaggerxX Category: +M through R > Recess Views: 3538 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Recess and do not make a profit from this work.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Franklin thought it would be a surprise. Still waiting for the next school year, he’d take all the experience he could get before he was assigned a group of students of his own, which meant taking on jobs as a substitute. Money wasn’t an issue in the slightest for him, but he didn’t want to be rusty before he even stepped into his own first classroom.
            Grotke was out for the week, something family related, they wouldn’t give him the details, so he was given her class to teach for the week. Knowing that took the edge off of things since these kids already knew and liked him. While he sat at the desk, sipping on a cup of coffee, he looked over the lesson plan she had in mind. Something about learning how to write a story. He already had something in mind for that.
            As the kids started rolling in, he was met with many surprised faces, including Detweilers. Many years of keeping a straight face helped him from breaking out in an amused smirk.
            “You’re our substitute for the week?” Detweiler asked. Dude noted there was some barely restrained panic in his voice, though it didn’t seem that his friends noticed. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to have some fun with this.
            “Yep, that’s me. Surprised at seeing me here again?” Dudikoff asked. “It’s gonna be a great week, I promise.”
            To say that the class was happy that the Dude was substituting would be an understatement. And TJ understood why. The last time he was here it was a riot and he was more than welcome back. Normally he’d be excited, too, but with the last few weeks he spent with Dudikoff to consider, well, he’d rather wait until 5^th grade to see him in this building again.
            The Dude stood in front of the class, going on about some story when he was their age. Occasionally, he’d turn back to the board to write something down. Was there a lesson in all this? TJ didn’t care. He was too busy giving Franklin the stink eye the whole time. With too many eyes on him, Dudikoff couldn’t exactly return the look without a few eyebrows being raised.
            Was this supposed to be a surprise or something? Because TJ wasn’t impressed. When trying to calmly burn a hole in Franklin’s forehead got boring, he turned his attention to his notebook and started drawing. If he missed anything, Dude would help him catch up after school at his house.
            When the bell rang, the class stood up and ran out to the playground, Franklin watched as Detweiler trailed behind, taking his time at his desk before standing up.
            “You should get out there. Your friends are waiting for you, I bet,” Franklin joked. TJ glared at him.
            “You’re getting something out of this, aren’t you?” TJ asked.
            “I have no idea what you mean.”
            TJ rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Just keep your hands to yourself.”
            Franklin winked, enjoying the look on the boys face before he left.
ZZZ
            “What was with you, man?”
            TJ started his climb onto Old Rusty to follow his friends upwards. He needed this break from the Dude and his idea of a surprise. He was happy to see the guy otherwise, but him, standing
            “What do you mean?” TJ asked.
            “You were glaring at Mr. Dude the whole time this morning,” said Spinelli. “Figured you would be the most excited to see him again.”
            “Yeah. He was telling us about stuff he did when he was out age, but you looked like you didn’t care at all,” Gus said.
            “It’s nothing. I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind,” TJ said. That wasn’t a complete lie. His friends had no idea about the time he spent with Franklin outside of school (or Pete for that matter).The story told to them was interesting, with pranks and all that stuff he likes, but he was sure Dude was here, at least partially, to annoy him. And even if that wasn’t the case, and he woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, seeing Dude up there, teaching, in his element was a bit too much for him to handle.
            He just looked so good.
            His friends thought that was a good enough excuse and they went back to playing. He climbed onto Old Rusty more time that he could count, so TJ didn’t think much of the routine motions of grabbing a bar and pulling himself up. Grab, pull, step, repeat. Nothing complicated. However, when his grip slipped and he lost his footing, he fell backwards, tumbling to the ground. He only had time to see his friends shocked faces turning to him before he landed on the hard packed gravel below, head first.
ZZZ
Stepping out onto the playground, Dude was hit with a wave of nostalgia. Endless recesses spent causing a ruckus with his own friends back in the day, keeping things exciting when they got boring, those were the days. He leaned against the building, watching the kids play and run around without a care in the world. They have no idea how good they have it.
            His eyes scanned the playground for one kid in particular and eventually found him with his little group talking near the jungle gym.
            Just standing outside was enough for a small group of curious students to come up to him and ask him endless questions. Dudikoff didn’t mind; it was an excuse to talk more about himself and what he used to do. He still kept an eye on Detweiler, though, watching him talk with his friends. Watching him climb onto the jungle gym.
            Watching him tumble to the ground.
            “Oh, shi—” He barely stopped himself from swearing in front of an underage audience before pushing through. A small crowd gathered around the fourth grader, having either saw him fall or heard the sound of his body hitting the gravel. Dudikoff ran over, pushing his way through the growing crowd to get to the boy.
            With a growing puddle of blood around his head, TJ laid on the gravel with his eyes tightly shut, weakly groaning in pain and trying to move. He was barely able to move his arms and legs.
            “I need you kids to move back and give him some air,” he ordered the students. He kneeled down next to him to try and look him over. “You gotta stay still, Buddy. We’re gonna get you some help.”
            “. . .it hurts. . .”
“I know. I know. Just stay still.” Dudikoff looked up. “Which one of you runs the fastest?”
Both Vince and Lawson raised their hands, though the growing puddle in front of them kept them from arguing about it.
“One of you run to Prickly’s office, tell him what happened and to call 91l, and one of you find Finster, let her know what get the nurse,” Franklin ordered. The two of them nodded and ran off, and Franklin turned back to the fallen child in front of him. “What happened? Did someone pull him down?”
“He just lost his grip climbing up,” said Spinelli. “Is he gonna be okay?”
“I’m gonna do my best to make sure he’ll be,” Franklin said. As much as he wanted to scoop the kid up and take him inside, he couldn’t. Falling from that height, he had to not just consider Detweilers skull, but his neck as well. An ambulance would have a neck brace to keep him steady once they get here.
And they couldn’t get here fast enough.
ZZZ
            One moment he was climbing on Old Rusty, enjoying his recess with his friends, and the next, it felt like someone hit his head with a sledgehammer. He didn’t have the words or the focus to describe the pain TJ felt once he was on the ground. Agony shooting from the back of his skull, down his neck and across his shoulders that made his broken collarbone pale in comparison. Down his spine, arms, and legs, with each heartbeat and inch of movement he made.
            Was the sun always that bright?
            TJ squeezed his eyes shut. Through the ringing in his ears, he barely heard Dudikoff’s voice. He hoped he knew what to do, because he could barely move his fingers. Unconsciousness was a welcome escape from the pain he felt in every inch of his body.
ZZZ
            For once Franklin was thankful for Finster. She made quick work of getting the kids back inside and making it easy for the ambulance to get through the gates. He stepped back and let the EMT workers do their job, securing the boys neck, carefully placing him on a stretcher, and placing him inside the ambulance. As much as Dudikoff wanted to climb in right after him, he couldn’t. He was in no way related to the kid, and he still had a class to teach. A class that now had an empty seat.
            He sighed as the back was closed and the ambulance started to drive off. The janitor started to make work of cleaning up the blood.
            “I called his parents,” Prickly said. He came out not long after the ambulance arrived and the students were shuffled inside. “What the hell happened, Franklin?”
            “He fell from the jungle gym. That’s what his friends told me,” he explained. “It looks like it was just an accident.”
            “One hell of an accident. I know we should’ve had that thing knocked down. It’s a huge safety risk,” said Prickly.
            Franklin shrugged. “You think his parents will let us visit him?”
            “You? Probably not. They don’t know you, do they? They might let me see him,” said Prickly. “They let him stay with me when they were out of town and he got food poisoning. We’ll see, alright? Don’t forget, kids are durable. I’m sure he’ll be alright.”
            He nodded, and turned back to the jungle gym. With more spots of rust that he could count, his memories of climbing on that thing was starting to be tainted with the current state of it. He couldn’t help but wonder if any of the jagged spots on the poles had anything to do with Detweiler loosing his grip.
ZZZ
            If every time he moved caused him agony, TJ was perfectly fine staying still for as long as he could. He kept his eyes shut, and wanted to cover his ears because everything was too bright and too loud for him to handle. Instead he was subject to the commotion of the emergency room.
            Not only was his hearing and sight out of commission, but touch was as well. A hand that he could only guess was his moms landed on top of his, and that was too much for him to handle as he tried pulling away.
            Voices boomed through the ringing in his ears, and he wanted to be unconscious again to get away from it. A dark, quiet room sounded like heaven right now. As the minutes passed, the ringing started to fade, and sounds around him became slightly more tolerable, but his eyes stayed shut. He listened to his parents talking about him. A head injury, he knew that much already. A skull fracture and concussion. Lots of rest and care. It started to hurt just to think. He wanted to go home, but home wasn’t in his house or even in his bedroom. Home was in either Pete’s or Franklin’s houses.
            They didn’t know Dude, but they knew Prickly.
            His head so much doing all this thinking. With his last bit of energy, he asked for Prickly before passing out again.
ZZZ
            What on Earth was he doing?
            Prickly sat at his desk in his office, occasionally typing at his computer was he looked up information on head injuries. Either he was truly getting old or he was too worried to focus, because all he learned was that any cut on the head was going to bleed a lot regardless of the severity. Sure, that gave him hope that Detweiler didn’t get too hurt, but he saw him unconscious in that stretcher, and that was enough to make him worry again.
            “Sup, Pete.” He looked up as Dudikoff of all people came into his office. He checked the clock and saw it was lunch time. “How’s it going?”
            “Just fine,” Prickly said.
            “Really? Because it looks like you’re gonna give yourself some more wrinkles with that frown on your face,” Dudikoff said as he took a seat. “I’m sure Squirt is okay. Definitely has one hell of a concussion, but okay.”
            “I know, but it’s hard to get him out of my head.”
            “After seeing the blood or after you started fucking him?” Franklin asked with a smirk. Prickly glared at him, but turned his attention back to him computer.
            “Both, technically,” he mumbled. “I had to draft up an incident report. Someones gonna come down here and investigate in a little bit. Until that gets done, the playground is closed. This wouldn’t have happened if I stuck to my guns and had that thing torn down.”
            “Eh. I’d be more worried about how hard packed that gravel under it is. And how rusty the pipes are,” said Dudikoff. “I spotted more than a few sharp pieces of metal on that thing. Kid might’ve grabbed onto one of those, let go from the pain, and fell. Just my theory on it. If that’s the case then they could just replace the thing with an exact replica, but you know, not a complete death trap.”
            “Maybe. I have to wait and see what the Board thinks of everything before I make any sort of move. But I doubt we’ll have a protest against it like last time,” Prickly said. “Especially since the person who started it got hurt.”
            “Principal Prickly, Mr. Detweiler is on line one for you.” Ms. Lemon’s voice spoke through the intercom.
            “Probably calling to get the specifics on what happened.” Prickly picked up the phone and got ready for the dozens of questions that came from parents when a child gets hurt at school.
            Dudikoff, being himself, paid close attention to the one side of the conversation he could hear.
            “yes, that’s me, Mr. Detweiler. . . . .From what I’ve been told, TJ lost his grip while climbing the jungle gym and fell. . . .It was one teacher and his group of friends that told me, I was inside and didn’t see it myself. . . .that’s fine, I’ll make of note of that. . .yes, there’s probably going to be an investigation because of the nature of the incident, with all the blood and all. . .excuse me?. . .he did? . . . .I will, I don’t mind, but are you sure?. . . .Right. Okay. I’ll be there once school is over.”
            With a heavy sigh, Prickly hung up the phone. His chair creaked as he leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose.
            “Something up, Pete?” Franklin asked.
            “He’s awake, and he asked specifically to see and stay with me as he gets better,” Prickly explained. “And they’re willing to let him. You know, I can understand him staying with me that week when he had food poisoning and they were out of town. But I figured they’d want to keep him at home with a head injury of all things. Regardless of what Detweiler wants.”
            “Sounds like they’re pawning the kid off on you so they don’t have to take care of him,” he said. “Think they’ll mind if I tag along and visit with you?”
            “At this point, I don’t think they will. It’s a good thing I have a lot of vacation time saved up. He’s going to be out for at least two weeks.”
            “It’s that bad, huh? At least he’s awake. Alright, I’ll meet you outside after school to visit him. But I gotta go eat my own lunch before it’s time for the kids to come back inside.”
ZZZ
            The entire trip to the hospital was an infuriating mess for both Prickly and Dudikoff. His parents didn’t mind (or in better words, cared) that Franklin was there was well. They visited TJ, who, through the pain, was happy to see them. He laid in bed with his skull wrapped in bandages, looking ready to go back to sleep for a few days. While his parents were talking with the doctor, TJ told them that he actually wanted to stay with Franklin, and between his parents trying to pawn him off on someone else and how weak his voice sounded, it didn’t take long for them to agree.
            “The doctor says he needs to rest at least for the next two weeks. Nothing mentally straining for the first week and slowly working himself up to normal things the second. He should mostly be sleeping to let himself heal. His senses are extremely sensitive for now, so a dark, quiet room with would be best.”
            Franklin was the one who pushed the wheelchair he was required to leave the hospital in. While is mother showed some sort of concern, his father didn’t appear to care much, barely speaking a word since they arrived.
            They both helped him inside Dudikoff’s house since he was unsteady on his feet. Franklin gave up his own bed and resigned himself to sleeping on the pullout couch bed downstairs for the time being. The blinds were closed, and as soon as his head touched a pillow, he was out like a light.
            “You aren’t going to try anything while he’s like this, are you?” Prickly asked outside the bedroom.
            “Geez, Pete. What kind of guy do you take me for?” Dude crossed his arms. “Of course not. I might be a pervert, but I’m a respectful pervert. The Kid is in good hands, I promise.”
            “He better be. I’ll be checking in on him while he’s here. I’ll have Ms. Finster cover Grotke’s class and if they ask while you can’t come in it’s because of a family emergency, got it?”
            “Loud and clear, Pete.”
            Prickly nodded. He looked back into the master bedroom where TJ slept. At some point her shifted into a more comfortable position. After exchanging phone numbers, Prickly left and it was just him and the boy. The fall was enough to give him a linear skull fracture and one hell of a concussion, but there was no sign of brain swelling or internal bleeding, so he was safe to go home with a prescription of intense bedrest.
            “He’ll be fine,” He told himself. He kept the door to his bedroom cracked open just in case Detweiler called for him before going downstairs.
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Precocious