INTP

by Nico Grey

Part 6

Jodi Corse was waiting for Josiah again when he arrived at his homeroom Friday morning. He was still worrying about Ian and trying to figure out what he could do about his harassment, but Jodi's attention was a pleasant distraction.

He wasn't sure what he had done to deserve that attention, and he worried briefly that her interest might change when she found out about his INTP assessment, but it felt really good to know that such a pretty, intelligent, and nice girl liked him.

Josiah let Jodi carry the conversation. She had deflected his attempts to shift the conversation to her cousin and the way he was being treated, and Josiah did realize that it would be better to let her talk about what interested her if she was to stay interested in him.

Josiah was surprised and delighted to hear Jodi call his name when he arrived in the cafeteria. She waved enthusiastically as he exited the lunch line, gesturing him toward the table where she was already eating with her friends. Offering him that much public attention had to mean something pretty good, he thought. It was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy day.

Josiah was starting to turn in her direction when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. A flash of dark red. When he glanced in that direction, he noticed Ian turning away from him and back to his lunch.

Something about the way Ian's shoulders were hunched tore at Josiah. He looked back at Jodi, smiled apologetically, and tried to pantomime his intentions and their urgency. She didn't seem pleased. Maybe he hadn't conveyed his message effectively enough.

Josiah made a mental note to explain himself to Jodi in homeroom at the end of the day. When he joined Ian and Jake at their table, he noticed with satisfaction Ian's relief. Jake beamed broadly at him.

Josiah spent the lunch period observing Ian and Jake. Ian appeared to be recovered from his public shaming the previous morning, and Josiah worked hard to make sure the subject didn't come up in their conversation… or that Ian hadn't time to notice Daniel and Russ, who were obviously eager to attract his attention.

He tried to direct the conversation toward the younger boys and their interests. He hoped that Jake wouldn't bring up baseball — he was really hoping that Ian still planned to run track with him that spring — and Jake cooperated with him. In fact, Jake seemed more interested in getting Ian and Josiah to talk about their shared interests.

The conversation was interesting. Josiah just couldn't figure out precisely what was going on. The subtext was confusing.

Josiah did his best to distract Ian, and to be a calming influence, during the rest of the afternoon. He really wasn't looking forward to seeing Ian exposed to the wolves in Psychology class.

It was Ian who first mentioned the class in conversation. He wondered what Ms. Porter had said about the Myers-Briggs personality types the previous day. And he was relentless in trying to weasel the result of his assessment out of Josiah, but he wasn't willing to share his own type with Josiah.

Josiah didn't understand why. That secretiveness from someone like Ian, whose general tendency was to be gregarious and open, seemed rather unusual.

Ms. Porter had changed her plan to conclude the week with further discussion about the MBTI. Instead she gave the class an assignment to spend the period writing about what they had learned about themselves as a result of their personality assessment. She overrode the groans of the class with a tart observation that a productive and silent afternoon might be the best way for the group to conclude a bad week.

Josiah was disappointed. He wasn't sure he would be comfortable discussing his INTP assessment in front of the entire class, but he had been hoping to glean some enlightenment from a group discussion.

It was one more frustration in a very frustrating week. He realized that even this rare bright spot in his school day hadn't been very enjoyable since the Waxon incident. As he worked on his assignment, he wondered if there might not be some way to get Daniel and Russ expelled from the class. In his mind he began to explore the possibilities.

Josiah had been pleased that, as they were leaving Psychology class, Ian asked to join him on his run that evening. It was odd. It felt like Ian had been saving the request all period, like there was something about it that was particularly meaningful to him. But he was still happy that they would be spending the time together.

As they ran, Josiah tried to maintain some occasional light banter. Ian seemed distracted, like he was considering something of deep importance, but he did let Josiah draw him out occasionally. Josiah even picked up the pace slightly over the final mile and was pleased that Ian was able to match him without apparent strain.

When they arrived back at Ian's home, rather than making a plan to run the next day, followed by a quick wave goodbye, Ian asked Josiah if he would mind answering a question. His tone was reluctant and he was having trouble meeting Josiah's eye.

Josiah had no choice but to agree. But now he was starting to feel reluctant. He had no idea where the request had come from or where it was going.

Ian stumbled around the bush for almost half a minute before he could blurt out his question. He still couldn't look Josiah in the eye.

"Is it true… " he started, before he lost his momentum. "I was wondering… " Finally he gathered himself and looked directly at Josiah for a second. "Are you hanging out with me only because you feel sorry for me?" He couldn't hold Josiah's eye long enough to finish the question.

Josiah was shocked! He was certain that his sincerity was beyond reproach! He needed to defend his integrity! But the raw emotion radiating off Ian forestalled his protest. He didn't know why Ian was questioning him, but it was obvious that he needed reassurance. Josiah tried to gather his thoughts into coherent expression.

"No way, Ian!" He made sure that he had Ian's full attention with that denial before he continued. "I like you! Seriously! You know I don't hang around with anyone else. I hang around with you because you're smart and we share a lot of the same interests. And I'm really comfortable being with you. I don't feel that way around many people. It feels really good to spend time with someone who understands what I like and likes those things, too." He thought it might help connect better with Ian if he mentioned how he felt around him.

"Oh." Ian didn't have anything more to say while he processed Josiah's declaration. He stood gazing toward the hills west of town, where the sun had already disappeared. He finally set his shoulders and turned back toward Josiah.

"J---," he stammered, "Uh, someone… told me that you said that. I never should have believed them," he glanced at Josiah apologetically. "I guess I just haven't been feeling very good about myself lately. And kinda feeling sorry for myself. But I never should have doubted you. I really didn't mean it about you. It was more about how messed up my head is right now. I'm really sorry."

Josiah wasn't sure if Ian was more relieved to hear the reassurance or to get his own explanation out. But Ian began to appear less agitated as they chatted quietly together. He wondered if Ian might like to get something at Maureen's bakery, but the idea didn't really seem practical.

Josiah kicked himself. Who cared if it was practical?! But it was at least five minutes back to town and darkness was beginning to fall. He needed to get home. Maybe he could buy Ian something at the bakery after the next time they ran together.

As he resumed his run home at a casual jog, he wondered who would have told Ian that he was only feeling sorry for him. "J---", he thought Ian had started to say.

Why would Jake tell Ian that Josiah only hung out because he was sorry for him? Josiah had started to like Jake! Why would he say something like that and upset Ian?

Josiah wouldn't discover any answers over the weekend, mostly because he wasn't willing to go to the source for them. Ian was in a much better place on Saturday, and then again on Sunday. Josiah didn't want to take a chance on disturbing that positive energy. So he settled for buying Ian a snack at Maureen's Baked Goods after they ran on Saturday. And he complimented him on how much progress he could already see with his running.

Mentally, Josiah was steeling himself for Monday and a new school week. He was pretty sure that the storm there hadn't yet passed. And he really wanted to know why Jake would even hint to Ian that he was just an object of Josiah's pity. He thought that Jake liked Ian!

Josiah never made it to homeroom Monday morning. He spent the first hour of the day in Mr. Harding's office.

Josiah could sense a feral energy before he even set foot through the front door of the school. Dozens of students were gathered outside the door — he saw even more once he entered the building — milling about, laughing, shouting to each other. There were no police cruisers or fire trucks outside, no alarms blaring, but it was obvious to even the most casual observer that something big was happening. The one element missing was any school staff trying to quell the commotion.

In the school lobby, some of the students were clustered in small groups staring at items posted on the walls, pointing and laughing. Others were gathered in twos and threes, sharing what looked to be notices on letter-sized sheets of paper. From a distance, the posters and notices looked very similar. Bright white paper, a few words in large red letters, and some sort of graphic in the center of the page.

Josiah noticed Daniel and Russ bouncing around the main lobby, obviously stirring up the simmering excitement. He could feel oatmeal congeal like lead in the pit of his stomach.

He really didn't want to look at the posters. Josiah was sure that nothing good would come of it. But he needed to know.

'WANTED' was printed in large red letters at the top of each page. 'Just a Few Hairs to Keep the Little Guy Company' was bannered across the bottom of the page. In between the banners was a photograph of Ian.

Well, Josiah realized, the face was clearly Ian's. The rest of the image appeared to be Photoshopped in. The body looked to belong to a naked ten-year-old. It wasn't wearing anything except a tiny circle with a diagonal line struck through it, to barely preserve modesty.

He stood frozen for a moment. Then realization set in. The scene was terrible. But it would get even worse when Ian appeared at school.

Josiah panicked. He really wasn't sure when Ian usually arrived each morning. They rarely saw each other before lunch.

He considered tearing down the hall to Mr. Fisher's room to see if Ian was there. He thought about rushing out of the building to turn Ian away if he hadn't already arrived. He thought about bellowing his rage, both at the people who had perpetrated the outrage and at the mindless sheep who were amused by the entertainment, giving little thought to the shame and emotional agony it would visit on a fellow student.

Josiah couldn't make up his mind. But he knew that he had to do something. Without thinking, he began to shove through knots of students between him and the posters on the walls. He ripped each one off the wall, folded it over, and tucked it under his arm. When he passed a student holding one of the notices, he ripped it out of their hands and concealed it, too. Most of the students had the good grace not to protest too much as he tore their amusements from them.

When he couldn't see any more posters or notices in the school lobby, he stormed down the corridors. There were dozens of the damn things posted. Wherever Josiah saw one, he un-posted it.

As Josiah stalked the corridor in the administrative wing of the building, Mr. Harding emerged from the central office. Josiah stopped dead and just glared at the man accusingly.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Brantley?" the vice principal demanded.

"Do you have any idea what's going on in your school?" Josiah couldn't control his outrage.

Mr. Harding noticed the collection of posters folded under Josiah's arm. His eyes narrowed. "You have something for me?"

"You aren't doing your job, you… " Just in time, Josiah's brain kicked in. "This… this… crap!" he was relieved to get the right word out, "Is posted all over your school!"

The vice principal's eyes widened, then narrowed again. "I'll be needing that."

"You need… " Josiah weighed his responses for a moment, then decided that he just didn't care. "You want this kiddie porn?!"

Mr. Harding was an experienced administrator and school disciplinarian. Over many years, he had established an effective modus operandi for dealing with crises and troublemakers. Muscle memory almost made his reaction automatic, but a flicker of recognition appeared in his eyes. He paused deliberately and took a deep breath. He glanced at the chaos in the corridor. Then he let muscle memory take over for a moment.

"Everyone to homeroom! Immediately! Anyone still in this hallway in thirty seconds will spend the rest of the day with me!"

Josiah was outraged. But he also couldn't help but be impressed. Standing next to Mr. Harding, he was almost deafened by the outburst. He felt a little dazed. The aftershock rocked him again when the echo of the vice principal's bellow returned from the other end of the corridor. Student bodies scattered in all directions.

"Mr. Brantley. You! In my office right now!"

"Now, Mr. Brantley," the vice principal sounded almost reasonable once they were seated in his office. He pointed to the wad of paper under Josiah's arm. "I need those."

Josiah clutched the paper protectively. He glared at the man.

"If I'm not doing my job, Mr. Brantley, I need to see what it is that I'm not doing, don't I?" Mr. Harding continued to hold his hand out expectantly. But he appeared completely calm.

Nonplussed, Josiah couldn't find any reason to object. He handed the wad of posters to the vice principal.

Mr. Harding's eyes widened perceptibly when he spread the first poster on the desk in front of him. Josiah found it painful to even look at it.

"These are around school?"

Josiah nodded. "There are hundreds of them."

"Is Mr. Corse here yet?" The vice principal appeared to have his priorities in order.

"I don't know," Josiah admitted. "I wasn't sure where to look for him, so I just started grabbing them."

"A moment, please," Mr. Harding said. He picked up the telephone on his desk. After a few seconds, "Paxton? Has Ian Corse arrived yet?"

He listened briefly.

"Have you seen this poster with his face on it?"

"Okay. I'll call his home and try to catch his mother before he leaves for school. If he arrives, please escort him straight to my office. And if there's any trouble at all with other students, shoot to kill." The vice principal appeared to remember that Josiah was sitting with him, smiled uncomfortably, and shrugged.

"Humor," he explained briskly. "I need to make another call."

Josiah was rather impressed to watch the man work. He was immensely relieved that Ian's mother did appear to be home, and that Ian hadn't yet left for school.

"I hate to ask this of you, Ms. Burton, but could you possibly keep Ian home today?" He waited.

"I'm sorry, but yes. There's been another incident. I don't think it would do Ian any good to be here." He waited longer, as the voice on the other end of the telephone went on at length.

"When can I call you today? I'll explain the situation then. But right now I have Ian's friend in my office." He glanced up at Josiah. "He's very unhappy."

Mr. Harding scribbled a brief note on a scrap of paper. "Thank you, Linda. I'm very sorry about all of this. I hope you understand that everyone here is doing the best that we can."

He listened for a moment or two longer, then hung up the phone. He turned his attention back to Josiah.

"I know there's more going on here than I've been told, Mr. Brantley." He reflected for a moment. "Josiah. I know many of the details, going back to the situation in Mr. Waxon's class. The desecration of the PowerPoint," he explained when Josiah looked at him uncertainly. "But I suspect that you know more about all this than I do."

The vice principal paused to collect his thoughts about how to best approach this student who had never crossed paths with him.

"We really don't know each other, Josiah. I know that you're a very good student. A thinker. I know that you run for the school in the fall and spring, and that you've never been in trouble. You know me as the ogre that sits in these school offices." He tried a smile. It surprised Josiah that it actually worked.

"Sometimes I don't do my job," he repeated Josiah's accusation, finding the admission tasted sour in his mouth. "But it isn't for lack of trying. My job involves people; people with many competing interests." He paused to see if Josiah was following what he was saying.

"I don't just have to deal with almost five hundred students. I also deal with dozens of staff here at the school. I deal with parents, the school board, administrators from the supervisory union, the state department of education, legislators, and the people from all of the communities that make up the Ball Mountain Supervisory Union. Some days it feels like everyone has a different expectation of me and the school administrators; often expectations that are in direct conflict with each other," he concluded sadly.

"I can't do my job well without some help."

Josiah thought that maybe he was starting to get to the heart of the matter.

"Could you please help me, Josiah?"

It felt very weird to Josiah to hear such a plea from the fearsome vice principal. Observing Mr. Harding, he thought that maybe it felt weird to him, too.

Josiah agreed uncertainly.

"Who's responsible for this?" Mr. Harding held up a poster. "Hamilton and Hartnett?"

Josiah didn't know how to respond. The vice principal recognized the difficulty.

"Daniel Hartnett and Russell Hamilton?" he tried again.

"Oh. Yes. I think so. I don't know their last names, but they're in my Psychology class."

Mr. Harding nodded.

"How do you know that they did it?" he asked.

That was the nub of the matter.

"I didn't see them," Josiah admitted. "But there are all sorts of reasons how I know. They've been bullying Ian for weeks! I have seen that!"

"I believe you," the vice principal said. "But can you tell me what you do know? The things that make you certain that Hamilton and Hartnett were responsible for these?" He prodded the pile of posters with distaste.

Surprisingly, Josiah found himself telling Mr. Harding everything — or almost everything. He shared what he knew. He shared what he suspected and the things that he knew that supported those suspicions. He even shared details of petty meanness and nastiness that weren't cause for any discipline, but that helped illustrate how Daniel and Russ felt about Ian and treated him.

The only detail that Josiah withheld was the sexual assault in the bathroom. Even if he hadn't actually seen the older boys touching Ian, he had seen and heard enough to support the conclusion that something criminal had taken place there. He knew that if Mr. Harding was aware of the incident, he would have to report it to legal authorities and that Ian's mother would have to find out. He suspected the Ian wouldn't want any of that to happen.

Josiah did tell the vice principal that the older boys had accosted Ian in the bathroom the day after the incident in Mr. Waxon's class and that's how they were aware of Ian's vulnerability to bullying about his development. He hoped that Mr. Harding would let it go at that and wouldn't feel the need to dig any deeper.

By the time that Josiah was through spilling his guts, Mr. Harding had two single-spaced pages full of notes. He promised to follow up all of the leads Josiah had provided. Josiah was convinced that he wouldn't stop investigating and interviewing any students and staff involved until Daniel and Russ were lined up against a wall.

Josiah just wasn't sure how long that would take. He was painfully aware that, no matter how heinous the abuses Daniel and Russ had committed against Ian, he hadn't been able to provide Mr. Harding with the smoking gun that proved there was a violation of the school's major discipline policy. The only way to do that was to share everything he knew about the bathroom encounter. And he was uncomfortably certain that would cross a line that Ian didn't want crossed.

As Josiah reflected on what he shared with Mr. Harding, he realized that the vice principal would need even more help from him. But it would fall to him to figure out how to provide it.

He considered the entire series of events since Daniel and Russ had tampered with Mr. Waxon's PowerPoint. His understanding of Mr. Harding had evolved dramatically over the past few weeks, but he still had questions. It surprised Josiah that he found the courage to ask them.

"You seem to understand that it was Daniel and Russ who messed with Mr. Waxon's computer. And I think now that you really like Ian. So why did you give him a three day suspension for what happened to Mr. Waxon?"

It was Mr. Harding's turn to squirm. But he answered Josiah honestly. Mostly.

"Ian accepted the blame for what happened, Josiah. I knew that he hadn't created that insulting slide, but he did take responsibility for it… sort of."

"But Mr. Waxon kicked Ian out of his class… for the rest of the year," Josiah challenged. "Why was he suspended, too?"

The vice principal groped for the right words to explain the event to a student. "Mr. Waxon's authority had been challenged in a very crude way. He had a right to demand that the school administrators uphold that authority." He found himself on uncomfortable ground.

"I'm relying on you to keep this entirely between us, Josiah." Mr. Harding held Josiah's eye until he gestured his consent. "This is really important, Josiah. I'm telling you something about the adult world now. That world isn't all black and white, right and wrong, as adults often tell kids.

"I think that Mr. Waxon also knows that Ian didn't create that insulting slide," he sighed. "But he needed to have his authority upheld. He believes that he'll lose respect as a teacher if kids think they can get away with saying something like that about him. Somebody had to be punished for what happened. And when Ian appeared willing to take the blame, well, that kind of took care of that… the easy way." His mouth twisted in a grimace.

"That's not right, Mr. Harding!" The injustice almost outraged Josiah.

The man nodded. "But it's the way the world works, Josiah," he reiterated.

"Ian said you wanted to give him more than three days!" Josiah challenged. He didn't want to let it go.

"I'm no thespian, Josiah. But in my job, you have to do a bit of acting. Even Mr. Waxon realized that a three day suspension was more than enough. When I pretended I might make it longer, he felt fully supported. He was satisfied that the incident had been resolved. I knew that Ian was never going to get more than three days," he insisted.

"He's a very bright young man. I don't know if you're aware, but your friend may be the most intelligent student Ball Mountain has seen since I've been here. I knew that three days at home would do him no harm. Having him away allowed tensions here to calm down, as well as giving Mrs. Grissom and I some time to figure out how to fill the hole in his schedule after he was expelled from Mr. Waxon's class. It wasn't fair, but it worked well enough for everyone involved."

Josiah couldn't let go of the sense of injustice. "It still isn't right. There must have been a better way to do it."

Mr. Harding sighed. "It was the best I could do, Josiah. When you're an adult, I hope you can do better, although I'm not sure it will often be possible. But even if you do succeed sometimes, you're certain to fail many times along the way. Just don't let it break you when you do." He stood up to indicate that the discussion was over.

"What about these posters?" Josiah demanded.

The vice principal considered the problem.

"I'll give you a pass, Mr. Brantley. Go around the school and collect any that you find. Just don't enter any classes in session, and don't confront any students over them. The teaching staff will take care of that." He tore a student pass from a pad and filled in some details.

"You have until the end of second period. But you need to be in your third period English class. I think Mr. Fisher would like to see you. He's concerned about you and Mr. Corse."

Josiah half grinned. "He just wants me to play soccer for him in the fall."

"Would that be so bad, Josiah?"

"I love cross country. And I'm pretty good at it," Josiah insisted.

"I know," the vice principal agreed. "But if you're willing, maybe you could do both. Students have done it before. I can talk to your coach and with Mr. Fisher to help with arrangements if you'd like me to."

Soccer and cross country? Josiah hadn't really considered that possibility. He wondered if Ian might be willing to do both, too.

The rest of the day, Josiah felt rather lonely. He had finally made a friend, but Ian had missed as many days of school as he had attended over the past few weeks.

He spoke with Mr. Fisher for a few minutes after English class. Soccer never came up. The man just had questions about Ian. Josiah got the sense that the teacher might be feeling more than sympathy; like perhaps he was actually concerned that the ongoing bullying could leave deep and permanent scars. Knowing that Mr. Fisher was worried, made Josiah worry even more.

He really didn't want to go to lunch without Ian there. He was still trying to figure out how to confront Jake. Even the possibility that Jodi might ask him to eat with her again wasn't enough to sway him. He couldn't get the brief conversation with Mr. Fisher out of his mind.

Josiah spent his lunch period in the library thinking. He weighed the obvious damage that the ongoing harassment was doing to Ian. He considered the likelihood that Mr. Harding wouldn't be able to pull together a case for suspension or expulsion of Daniel and Russ for weeks, if not longer.

Josiah couldn't think of any way that Ian could be kept away from any mischief that his tormentors might foment. The school-wide incident that morning had more than demonstrated how easily they could target Ian anywhere and anytime.

He briefly considered trying to set up the older boys so they would be caught red-handed doing something too outrageous to ignore, but every idea he considered had potential weaknesses that could backfire on him. He even considered taking very direct action. But the thought of doing something like that, even to people like Daniel and Russ, was shameful to him.

By the time his Chemistry class was due to start, the only possible solution that had occurred to Josiah was to run a bluff. He wasn't at all sure that it would work. But the worst that would happen is that nothing would change. There wasn't any considerable downside that he could see. He decided that he needed a plan.

He thought about it while he pretended to pay attention in Chemistry.

Josiah didn't even realize it until Ms. Porter announced a new subject area to start the new quarter, but the second marking period was already over. With all of the drama that had been taking place in his life, he hadn't even noticed. He assumed that he had collected 'A's in all of his classes. That's what he had been anticipating, and his parents hadn't said anything to him about his grades. Josiah was quite certain that even a B+ would have been brought to his attention immediately, and in dramatic fashion.

His only disappointment was that there really hadn't been an opportunity for him to learn more about his MBTI assessment. That INTP label really bothered him. 'The Thinker' and 'Logician' sounded like pretty cool titles. It was the little things about the assessment that were frustrating him, like being fated to a life without friends, spouse or fulfilling work. That didn't sound great.

But a thinker and a logician would be just the sort of person to call on for his plan to end Ian's bullying. He wasn't sure that he was completely up to the challenge, but he was hopeful.

Daniel, Russ and a few of the older girls appeared to be in a celebratory mood. But their enthusiasm was subdued. They enjoyed sly glances at Josiah and the empty seat next to him. But they were cautious about being too demonstrative. Sitting sternly at the front of the class, Ms. Porter looked wrathful. It appeared that while Josiah had spent the day deep in his own thoughts, messages had gone out. Even the most rebellious students realized that a deadly-serious line had finally been crossed.

Josiah wasn't following Ms. Porter's lesson. He was preparing himself. He thought that a few days to tease out any shortcomings with his plan might be a good idea. But he wasn't sure what Daniel or Russ might do to Ian while he was perfecting his plan. He was certain that he needed to act before they could do anything more.