Woodshop
The crew was out in the back room at John's house. Morton and Hank were freshmen, while Peter, Dan and John were juniors in high school. John preferred to hang out with Peter’s brother, Morton, rather then Peter.

"But, Morton is two years younger then you."

"So what," said John. "Peter is a mean bastard."

They were telling Morton and Hank about high school Woodshop. It was really different then Junior High School. If you wanted 12 inches out of a 15 inch board, you were charged for the entire length. The thickness was really annoying. You were charged for a board being 1 inch thick when it was only 7/8 of an inch.

Peter started talking about the required project, a jewel box, for Woodshop II. They learned how to use the tools by making the required project - a jewel box. Ideally, since they started in September, they should be done by Christmas, but things did not go well. John remembered what a disaster his project had almost become.

He combined his money from home with his lunch money to buy walnut. It was the most expensive wood and when it was carefully worked, lacquered and polished, it looked phenomenal. The down side was it stained easily, was soft, showed scratches and tended to splinter. John was very careful when he worked with the jewel box. He always washed his hands before working with it so the oil from his hands wouldn't mark it.

The shop teacher had this maniacal preoccupation with the blades on the tools. They had to be as sharp as possible. If Matheson suspected one was dull, he would replace it and send the old one off to metal shop to get sharpened. John was thankful because the walnut would not be so prone to splintering.

If if it had splintered, he had no money left to buy replacement wood. He had told Peter and instantly regretted it. Every chance he could, Peter would remind John to not make a mistake in the most gloating voice imaginable. Everything had gone well to the point where he put yellow paint inside the box and, before it could dry, added yellow fuzz to create a yellow flock interior. The yellow paint never dried. Peter was ecstatic.

John's next few shop periods were spent wiping out the interior of the box with paint thinner soaked rags, until he got as much of the yellow paint out as possible. Finally, he tried coating the edge of the box and the interior with black paint. Once that had dried, he used red paint with red fuzz to create a red flock interior.

John's Mom was really thrilled when she opened her Christmas present. The jewel box looked really sharp.

“Remember the yellow flock, Meier?” Peter arrogantly said. John hated it when Peter called him by his last name. John had asked him not to, but Peter did whatever Peter pleased.

“My name is John.”

“Remember how you had to do it twice, Meier?” Peter said ignoring John. “You didn’t have the money to throw it out and make another one. You almost didn’t get it done,” he gloated.

John wanted to punch him, but knew it would be an excuse for Peter to beat him up.

“Hey Morton," John brightened. “Remember when Peter’s door was locked? You and I burst in?” It was like it happened yesterday, though it was the year before . . .

John had gone over to see Morton one afternoon, after school. He knocked at the side door and Morton opened it. He signaled for John to be silent and they crept into the TV room. Morton tip-toed over and gently tried the handle of the door to Peter’s bedroom. He got a screwdriver and quietly picked the lock. They crouched, Morton twisted the knob and they sprang forward.

"Yah!" they cried, but Peter was not at his desk studying. Their heads turned right. Peter was on his bed, trousers at his knees, right hand gripping his sock covered Willy, a look of shock frozen on his face.

Surprise!

Morton and John staggered back into the TV room laughing so hard they almost couldn’t walk. They collapsed on the couch focusing on the TV and the Uncle Bill show.

Peter appeared in his door (finally), was red-faced and said, “You guys got me.”

Neither of them responded, never lifting their eyes from the TV. Eventually Peter crossed the room. As soon as the outside door closed, Morton and John lost it; they howled with laughter.

John's remembrance had the desired effect.

Peter's arrogant gloating about John's Woodshop problems went away. His face grew pink.

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