In this story, Pinocchio is going to be entering his freshman year of high school and gets caught by the seniors from Dazed and Confused who are hazing incoming freshmen. Pinocchio manages to hide from them in an alley, but is found by them once he...
It felt so nice to get Pinoke out of the dust after that moment. Pinoke was really looking bad, and, as he clung to my back as I drove him home, I couldn't help looking behind myself to check on him. He was still feeling pretty upset, and I couldn't blame him, I sighed, "Yea, almost every high school you go to, you'll always find that one senior who has to be the big 'I'm so bad' jackass. O'Bannion is probably the first to take that place for more than one year!" Pinoke sniffed and rested his head on my back, "That guy's such a jerk! Right?" I looked back at him, "Yea, he's pretty much a joke. I don't really know how anybody stands him, even his friends seem to hate him." There was a pause for a second as Pinoke had to get himself together again. Then he sheepishly asked, "Did you get paddled bad when you were a freshman?" When he asked that, I looked into the distance a minute before answering, "Dang, slats. They waited for me after a basketball game and got me. Gosh, it was viscious. Of course, not all the seniors were bad, some were pretty cool. Like, they'd take you out, get you drunk, you know that sort of thing." Pinoke smiled for the first time since it happened, "Cool."
Finally, we arrived at his place. He got off, thanked me, and headed in where his old man and Jiminy were up waiting for him (in the living room). I drummed my fingers on the bar for a second and then told him, "Uhh....Hey Pinoke, look, since we haven't got anything else better to do, me and the other guys are mostly gonna end up driving around. You want us to come by and pick you up?" He looked a little uncertain, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" I shot him a confident smile, "Yea, the guys who haven't gotten you yet should give you some recovery time. And...uhhhhh," I checked over both shoulders to make sure no one was listening, "It'd be pretty cool of you to come and show them you're not so upset about it." He seemed to get my meaning and smiled, "Okay, cool. That'd be great! Thanks again for the ride!" "Anytime kiddo, I'll come get you around 7, and one more thing." He turned his head as he headed for the door, "Just ask your old man to put a little ice on it, after that you just need some good times to take care of it." I wasn't gonna get Pinoke in trouble for drinking. Pinoke gave me a big grin, and went inside with a new bounce in his step.
Later that evening, I went and picked up Pinoke along with Pickford. We had to wait a few minutes for Jiminy to go over rules and telling him not to stay out too long (we made sure to get him back in time for bedtime) but he came out looking fresh and feeling better, "There you are, hop on in." I told him, Pickford was driving and Pinoke was giving him a curious eye, "Lampy? Who's he?" "I haven't introduced you to Pickford yet?"
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Pickford looked back at him before we drove off, "How's it goin' little dude?" Pickford was always that cool and somewhat goofy guy. There's never a dull moment with him around, Pinoke looked down at his shoes for a second starting to feel shy, this only made Pickford to cut up more, "Awwwww, you bashful?" Pinoke blushed, giggled, and nodded "Yea, I guess." Pickford winked at me, "So, your Lampy's social little brother, right?" Pinoke nodded, "Super cool man! Your always extra cool when you got a senior with ya." Pinoke blushed and, by then, we reached the drive-in and Pickford insisted on getting ourselves Cokes, "I don't want anybody falling asleep on me." He insisted.
