Chapter 03

Interesting Times

The new school year starts well with us all looking forward to what we’ll learn. Then the remaining football team members start to express their displeasure at losing an important part of their team which they’re having trouble to replace. It seems without the four dead idiots they won’t be able to win any games because the school has no replacements who’re interested in being on the team. The players lose a lot more status in the student body and they get angry about that too. Some are dumb enough to try to take it out on me.

Lunchtime on the Wednesday of the first week a few of the football team are hassling Bron at lunch. I approach them and I tell them to lay off her. On seeing one of them looking over my shoulder and smiling I duck while I grab Bron as I move fast to my left three paces while pushing her along as well. The goon trying to hit me from behind staggers forward and into his friends when he gets no resistance from the punch which misses me. Two more of them move in on me while we back away. This time I keep backing away while I use my Calling skill to make trouble for them by pushing them off balance or stopping them from moving their feet to exactly where they need them for a proper balance. It takes about a minute for a couple of teachers to appear and get them under control. There’s plenty of witnesses of them harassing Bron and me, but since no contact was made they just get a talking to. I complain about that, and I get told off for complaining.

We’ve our car for getting to school for the first week, but the next week the car is over at the other school for some weeks to fix the body panels and to paint it. So we’re back to catching buses to and from school. Bron can’t wait for us to get the car back because she now has a Full Licence. She was old enough for one when she did the test. Then she was upset about having to do the compulsory six months as a Learner, and she was happy when that ended during the Summer Break. Bron even talked Mum and Dad into paying for her to do the Evasive Driver’s Course during the Summer Break. She loved it and she passed well. I think Mum and Dad only agreed to Bron doing the course due to my saying how it helped me deal with Barnes and his mates and how it gave me the skill and confidence in handling the car so well.

More Trouble

On the Tuesday of the third week I arrive near the school buses to find a couple of the football team harassing Cadi and Bron with more of them lounging about nearby, yet none of them catch these buses. Cadi says something and one grabs her. He bodily lifts her up to hit her against the side of the bus. The noise of the hit causes the driver to get out of the bus just as I rush up to kick the arse hole in the balls as hard as I can.

He lets go of Cadi and she drops to the ground, shaking, when he drops to the ground, moaning while holding his balls. Bron races over to Cadi, holding her tight while she hits a speed dial on her phone. I turn to face the seven other football players moving in for a fight.

I see another mandatory few weeks suspension for fighting coming my way so I figure on taking all of them with me. The one nearest me swings a punch so I duck and I use my right foot to sweep his feet out from under him at the same time. He hits the ground, hard. When I step over him toward the next player I take time to stomp on his leg, and I smile when I hear the bone snap. The next one has some training so he throws a straight punch, a perfect boxing jab. I sway away from it while raising my right hand to grab his wrist, I swing my left hand up and across to hit his elbow. I hear a crack and he screams while his forearm takes on a most unusual angle when the elbow breaks. I think he’s out of the fight for right now, if not fully out of it for today.

The driver is yelling at us to stop when the next two come in together. The one on my left has a knife and is slashing at me with it. I use my Calling skill to push it to my right a little more. Grabbing his right wrist I turn the hand back toward him and shove hard while I swing a left at his arm. The action results in the knife plunging into the belly of his mate beside him just before I break his forearm in half. Both of them give a nice scream.

The last three move to come at me from three sides while one tells the driver, “Shut up and f•©k off while we kill this mother f•©ker.”

All three have knives out and are weaving them before them: it looks like they know how to use them too. Sliding to my right I weave my hands about when I move in on the one at my right-hand end of the line. Striking fast I grab the inside of his right wrist with my left hand at the same time as I grab his belt. I’m quick to move back to my left while I use all of my strength to lift and pull him to me. I pivot on my left foot, my back foot, while I take most of his weight and throw him at the one on my left. When I let him go I drop to the ground and I swing my right foot at the left knee of the one in the middle. He screams when his knee shatters. The fellow I tossed screams too. I jump up again and I move toward the last one just as I hear sirens approaching. The last goon is part turned away while the guy I tossed slides off the knife he’s holding. When the knife comes free he turns to me just as I let him have a kick in the knee. He drops the knife when he screams and falls to the ground.

I back off to check on Cadi just as the police cars and ambulances pull up. I glance up to see a stunned look on the driver while the police swarm over the scene. To the police I point out the ones with knife wounds so they can have the paramedics see to them first. It takes nearly an hour for the police to get statements from the witnesses and all of those involved but not taken to the hospital. The paramedics are much quicker in getting the goons stabilised and off to hospital. I also have them check the girls, and they give Cadi a mild sedative to help calm her down. The cops give us a ride home when they’re finished at the scene.

Ripple Effects

All eight football players and I get a mandatory suspension of four weeks for a major brawl as against just fighting. The suspensions are over before any of the football players are passed fit enough to go to school by the doctors, and some of them are still in hospital when I return to class. I arrive back at school in style because our car is ready a few days before then, so I drive us in. The paint job is incredible: a basic burnt orange brown with typical Australian scenes on both sides, the bonnet, and the boot. I personally thank all of those involved in the work when I collect the car the Monday before I return to school on Tuesday. Bron and Cadi love it because it’s so distinctive and nice.

The football team now has a zero status level because they’re reduced to using the offensive team from the juniors, and they can’t handle the harder hitting seniors of the opposition. After two games the juniors refuse to play senior games and the seniors have to forfeit the rest of the season. Boy, are they unhappy. Why they blame me and not the stupid players who start the few fights is beyond me, but maybe it’s beyond their small mental abilities to work out the cause and effect process.

The principal has a word with the football players about not getting into any more fights. I think he does this due to pressure from above. I’d spoken to the lawyer handling the unfair discrimination case and we increase the claim by adding the latest suspension to it as well as a new bit about the school’s inability to protect students, namely me and my sisters, from an unruly element in the school. The first fight, car attack, and luncheon attack showed the school had an issue with one specific element but the school management took no action to increase student security. Our claim is now for a million dollars, we don’t expect to get that much but it does get the attention of the senior people in the district education system, which is our aim.

Another part of the claim relates to my suspension for the last fight, despite it happening on the public street in front of the school and not the school grounds. If it had been on the bus it would′ve been on property the school district controlled, but it was all on the public street beside the bus. Being between the school grounds and the bus it placed a major doubt on the rights of the school to suspend me for fighting while it also increased their liability for negligence due to their claim to have the right to suspend me for a fight while waiting to board the bus.

Time Away to Play

Again I’ll back up a bit. Four weeks suspension is a long time with next to nothing to do, but I manage to get along by doing the school work with borrowed notes from Mary and Peg on Friday then going through them on the weekend while we study and do the homework together. During the week I read the text books then I do more research on the Internet. I’m getting a much better understanding of the subjects while on suspension than I was in class. The teachers are very understanding of the situation and they mark the homework I send in with Mary and Peg.

One of the neighbours has a son, Paul, taking a year’s break from studies. He’s twenty-three and at home most of the time because his driver’s licence is suspended for a year for driving while drunk. It’s hard to get about the city from the suburbs without a car because most of the public transport is aimed at school and work commuters. During the first week of my suspension he offers to pay for my drinks and food for the day if I’ll spend the day driving him about. I agree, and we end up about fifteen kilometres north of town at the Casino Hollywood in San Felipe.

He sits there playing Blackjack for most of the day. I’m not allowed in the casino unless I stay with him and it’s very boring watching someone playing cards for hours on end. I often take some books and I stay in one of the general public areas studying. Sometimes I take in what little there is to see within walking distance of the casino. It’s his car and I’m not taking it anywhere without him in it, just in case the police pull me over.

At the end of the first week I point out my problem with the hours he sits there gambling. He doesn’t win big, but he always ends up with enough extra to pay for the day’s costs and a bit left over. The Monday of the second week he hands me a driver’s licence showing my age as being old enough to enter the casino to gamble by myself. I put this in my wallet but in a different spot, as I make sure to keep both of the licences hidden because I don’t want any questions about why I’ve got two.

Because we’re both now well known at the Hollywood and they know I’m not old enough to gamble we go to the Santa Ana Star Casino in Santa Ana Pueblo several kilometres north of town. Paul sits at the Blackjack table while I head for the Craps table. Here I’m safe to use my Calling skill to make some money. Not wanting to seem too lucky I start betting for a ’craps:’ I’m betting the shooter will roll a two, three, or twelve on his first roll, this gives me a seven to one payout with eight to one odds. I alternate that by betting the shooter to make his point, and I don’t bet at all on some rolls or shooters. I win most bets by using my Calling skill, but I make a point of not winning every bet. I bet the same amount for each bet within a specific hour. At the end of the hour I make a big show of checking all of my money, putting some aside, and doing a calculation before increasing the bet amount. During the course of the day I increase the two hundred dollars I got from my bank account to seven thousand and five hundred dollars. After we leave I go to the bank to deposit seven thousand dollars while keeping the five hundred for the next day’s stake. Paul is surprised my winnings are much more than his because he’s been gambling regularly for a few years and I′ve just started as a gambler.

The next day I start with larger bets than I did on Monday, I make a point of losing a few more bets during the day, but I still end up with nineteen thousand and six hundred dollars for the day. Like yesterday, at the end of each hour I review what I’ve got and retire a lot of it out of the game so I’m playing with new winnings from then on.

Wednesday is a repeat. At lunch time my winnings stand at sixteen thousand and seven hundred dollars when the casino security ask to have a chat with me. It’s a very interesting chat because they help me choose a nice meal at the bistro which we take to a room at the side of the casino. While I eat they ask me questions and run some sensors over me, I don’t know what they’re checking for. They’re straightforward about my winning streak when they tell me they suspect I may be cheating, so they’re looking to prove or disprove it. It’s in my interest for them to prove I’m not using any devices or associates to cheat, so I help them.

When they ask me to take my clothes off I make a joke and say, “Heck, if you get me something that fits and looks better I’ll let you keep them.” The joke’s on me when they take my sizes and measurements; ten minutes later two watch while I empty my pockets and strip, even the underwear, to put on some very nice clothes worth about double what I wore in. I even let them go through and test my pocket contents. My real licence is hidden in the car because I figured they’d want to do a search sometime so I’ve an old wallet for gambling and I keep the fake license in it. They check everything in my wallet, which is little more than money and my fake ID in my real name. To be thorough and safe they give me a brand new wallet as well.

After proving I’m not using any equipment of any sort they ask about Paul, and I explain our relationship of me driving his car for him as a sort of temporary job. He plays Blackjack which I found to be boring, so I started playing Craps. I liked it, especially when I won at it. Eventually we get to the real crunch questions.

The head security guy asks, “How do you decide what to bet on?”

I smile, “Mysticism. I sit at the table and meditate for a moment to settle down and become one with the universe. I seek the answers from within as to what will win, and I bet that way. At times I lose my balance with the universe because I get distracted by a lovely lady in my vision, and sometimes I don’t understand or correctly interpret the answer ’The Spirits’ give me.” He indicates he doesn’t believe me. Well, that’s how I interpret his hand gesture. I add, “It’s either that or I’m a space alien using rays from my space ship to control things.”

They give me a few comments on being a smart arse, and they let me go. Thanks to the delays my day’s winnings are twenty-three thousand dollars, so I make forty-seven thousand and two hundred dollars for the three days gambling. Wow, what an income.

That night I think long and hard about the casino and the security staff. I research their ownership and employment process. The Indian casinos are owned by the tribes the staff come from. They make good profits for the tribes, but not huge profits the way the big casinos in Las Vegas and some other places do, while the wages are the industry standards. I’d also noticed some staff and other gamblers seemed to become cool to me when I win more. So I decide to cut back a bit on my winnings, and to also tip the staff very well. This’ll mean less time at the tables all up, but a touch longer than the minimum to reach my target. It should also make the staff less angry with me. Time proves me right about the staff and how they feel about me.

The next day we turn up and I don’t gamble while I tip for services. When asked why I say, “The Spirits told me to leave your casino in peace for a while.” Which gets some strange looks from some of the security staff. I later find out some of them don’t believe in the old ways while some do, and being given directions by The Spirits is part of the old ways. So those who believe in the old ways half believe my answers. This helps me in my relationships with some of the other casino staff as well.

For the rest of my time off we visit a different casino each day. With nine casinos within a few hours drive we don’t appear too soon at the same casino again. When we next visit the Star they keep a close eye on me, but they let me gamble. I now make a point of stopping when I win fifteen thousand dollars at a casino, it’s always a bit more than that but I tip the staff very well for bringing me food and drinks at the table.

Beating Taxes

I keep a box in the car where I stick every fuel and food docket we collect during my suspension as it’s all paid cash so there’s no names on them. Paul asks why I’m collecting them and I say, “Want to bet the tax man will want a slice of the money? Want to bet the Star hasn’t told them how much I won there, and they have my name? These dockets can be legitimate expenses in earning the income. Now I’ve got to find a good tax accountant.” He laughs then mentions an accountant he’s heard of.

The Friday of the third week we finish gambling early to go to the office of an accountant I’ve an appointment with that was made earlier in the week. In the office I talk about wanting to reduce the amount of taxes. He calls a lawyer friend, and we’re soon set up with a company that’s only six weeks old and it hasn’t sorted out its bank accounts or top officers yet as it’s a shelf company the lawyer has. By the next Wednesday the papers are finished and now I’ve some documents to be signed by Mum and Dad for them to be the two senior executives. I transfer all of my winnings to the company bank account and then I’m reimbursed for the petrol expenditure plus I’m paid a per diem for the meals as well as an hourly wage in the hundreds of dollars range. The company shares are split up as ten percent to Mum and Dad each, five percent to Cadi and Bron each, with seventy percent to me as the main field worker and the creator of the systems used by our professional gambling operation. About half of the revenue will be disbursed each month to give each of us a regular income from the company.

During my four week’s suspension I win over two hundred and forty thousand dollars. The tax man would normally take almost one hundred thousand dollars of it, leaving me with only one hundred and forty thousand dollars. Even with the accountant’s and solicitor’s high fees the new arrangement leaves us getting one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Twenty thousand is my wages, per diem, and reimbursements; plus my one hundred and five thousand dollars from the company shares to give me a total of one hundred and twenty-five thousand. Mum and Dad get fifteen thousand each while Bron and Cadi get seven and a half thousand dollars a piece. After all of the money shuffling to make the tax people happy I end up with fifteen thousand dollars less than what I would’ve got normally while the rest of my family end up with forty-five thousand between them. That’s thirty thousand more within the family than without the fancy foot work. Thus I’m very happy with their work in setting the company up without them asking me questions about my age or how come I can gamble.

This has one problem, as I see it. Cadi, Bron, and I each have a bank account for the money, but we can’t access it without approval from our parents or a court approved trustee. This changes when we turn eighteen, which can’t come soon enough for us. Sure, we get money for clothing, education, and cars. However, if we want anything above a set amount we’ve have to convince our parents it’s a good idea.

Unexpected Trouble

The morning of the last Saturday of my suspension I sit Mum and Dad down at the dinner table to place the company papers and bank forms in front of them for them to sign. Dad checks them over and signs them all before he hands them all to Mum while he says, “OK, I see nothing requiring any money from us, so I’m signing. But I want to know what this is all about before I hand them back.” I smile while Mum reads and signs them.

I say, “The other day I came up with an idea about making money. Paul and I tried it out, and it works well. We spoke to an accountant and a lawyer, they agree it works and we’ve set up the company. To be legal we need some other adults as senior executives and three or more people as owners, this is to legally cut down on the taxes payable. This way I get a little less than if I paid general taxes but we, as a family, get to keep a lot more money than it cost to set it all up. I object to handing lots of the money over to the government if I can legally avoid it, while I don’t mind sharing with my family. It’s all legal under the tax laws.”

Mum is passing the papers back when she asks, “How much are you talking about us getting?” She keeps a very good hold of the papers while she talks to me.

“I don’t have the final figures yet, but I think you and Dad will get about fifteen thousand each while the girls get about half that each.”

While gulping Dad asks, “How much do you get?”

I give a weak smile, “It’s my idea and I do the work. So I get the lion’s share at about a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.”

They’re both stunned. Mum asks, “OK, what’s it doing? That’s a lot of money in a short time.” She still has a death grip on the papers.

“I’ve worked out a system for betting on Craps that works ninety percent of the time. As I only bet on the reasonable odds options, so it will even come out ahead if it only works half of the time.”

That opens the flood gates. Mum takes off like a Saturn Five rocket on steroids with boosters. She talks about gambling being organised theft for nearly an hour. Dad just sits there, stunned, the whole time.

When Mum runs down I say, “I did feel like I was stealing from them, until I think about how they’re stealing from everyone else. Mum, a few weeks ago I started with two hundred dollars and now I have over two hundred thousand dollars of winnings in the bank. After the first day I only played with winnings.”

She settles down again on learning I’m doing very well, until she remembers my age and the real legal age limit for gamblers. Then I really cop it for getting a fake driver’s licence and gambling while too young. The meeting ends with them giving me the signed papers while I hand over the fake licence and I promise not to gamble again until after I turn eighteen. Also, as a punishment for breaking the law, on their birthday I get to buy each of my sisters a nice car of their own from my own money.

Mum and Dad always paid us a small allowance for doing things around the house. As a result of this they speak to the accountant, the lawyer, and the public trustee. They start paying our allowance direct to the trust managed accounts and those accounts pay agreed amounts of a weekly allowance to our daily use bank accounts that’s double our old allowances plus a new monthly allowance for clothes. The additional money is from the winnings. The girls are happy with the extra money going to their accounts, until they learn they have a few thousand more they can’t touch yet. They grumble, but accept they’ll get it in small lots.

Some weeks later Dad takes us to one of the casinos for a weekend away, paid for from his share of the winnings pay out. The staff see me and ask why I haven’t been around of late. I tell the manager, “When I started gambling I was visiting a casino for several hours a day each week day. In order not to wear out my welcome at any one casino I started visiting a different one each day. When my mother realised I was gambling so much she became very concerned about it since compulsive gambling is a problem with many men in my father’s family. To prove I don’t have a gambling problem I’m keeping away from all gambling until December. Both Mum and I think if I’ve a gambling addiction it’ll raise its head by then, and if I can manage until then I’m OK.” They readily accept the explanation and they tell me they look forward to seeing me again in December.

I thought that was odd, until I realise they think they can either win it back or use me as good publicity for their fair and honest games. In both cases they get something out of the situation.

Back to School

After my return to school things settle down for quite a while. Peg, Mary, and I are happy. Bron and Bradley, plus Cadi and Peter are happy too. Yeah, Cadi is going steady: well, as steady as Mum will let her. Most of the time they do their homework together at our place. We all get good marks for our assignments and in the spot tests the teachers give us.

Mum and Dad don’t tell the girls about my punishment for the fake ID, so they’re very happy to get their own cars for their birthdays. Mum won’t approve new cars so I get them demonstrator cars of superseded models. Both are sporty looking four door sedans the school’s other female students see as very cool. So we all have our own cars now. Bron often loans me her car while she borrows mine because she loves it. As much as possible we go out as a group with me driving my car.

The half year exams come around and we do well. We’ve a little bit of trouble with the celebrations for Thanksgiving and Halloween, but we manage OK. A few of our fellow students are a bit surprised about our participation in Veterans’ Day, until we explain it’s an international holiday and why, as many didn’t know it’s an international one. We even get the local Veteran’s Association to incorporate the Australian Ode of Remembrance in their major public service. The VA manage to locate an Australian veteran who lives in the area to do it for them.

Winter Break is fun most of the time, due to the snow. It’s not a huge amount, but enough to let us know we aren’t in Australia. We even go skiing one day. Yes, I know we’ve snow and skiing in Australia but they’re in very confined areas, not huge swaths of flat areas that go on and on for miles like we see here.

On the first weekend in December Paul has me taking him to the casinos again, so I include Mary and Peg in the trips. They enjoy the entertainment and other activities the casinos have.

During December I add another one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the company coffers. On the skiing weekend at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino in Mescalero the girls are surprised to see me personally welcomed by so many of the senior staff. When I go to the gaming tables to gamble in the evening they ask Mum why she doesn’t object. They get a big surprise when Mum tells them about me being a professional gambler now and being the cause of their extra allowances through my winnings being shared with the family.

We’ve been spending one weekend a month away as a family and the girls did wonder why we usually go to a casino. Once Mum tells them about my work I explain how I claim from the company for the fuel and my accommodation as expenses when I work as it makes the cost of the trip cheaper for us as a family as Dad only has to pay for their costs.

We return to school after the New Year celebrations. We finish the year with excellent school results: Bron, Cadi, Mary, Peg, and I have near perfect Grade Point Averages. There’s no more trouble from the football team because many change schools to continue playing. Some had to change because they aren’t doing well in class and without the extra help given to the football team they weren’t likely to graduate due to poor grades. So that trouble seems to evaporate because the Junior Varsity Football Team appears to be a lot smarter than the seniors were.

About the time of the final exams the School District Board settle our cases out of court. I get a tax free compensation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and they erase the suspensions from my record. The principal complains about them settling, and he gets a transfer as of the end of the year.

Total income for the company for the period to June is over one and three quarters of a million dollars. I limit each casino session to around fifteen thousand dollars, but I don’t track the total so I’m as surprised as the rest when we get a statement from the accountant.

After the accounting fees, legal fees, and the taxes, Mum and Dad get one hundred and five thousand dollars each while the girls get fifty two thousand and five hundred dollars each. Mum and Dad are shell shocked because their money from me for the year matches what they get from the university each. My wages and per diem for the days I work is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars while my income from the company is seven hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars to give me a total of eight hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars for the whole year. These figures include those mentioned earlier as they aren’t additional to them. By the time I add in my compensation from the School I’ve one million, one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars as after tax income for the past year. Not a bad income for a high school kid. Heck, not a bad income for almost anyone.

One unexpected event is the accountant and the lawyer get visits from the Internal Revenue Service to check the set up and the books. I also get interviewed by them plus a couple of people from the Federal Bureau of Investigation because they’re concerned I may be laundering money for criminal organisations. The way I spread the losses around amongst the casinos and keep the daily losses down convinces them I’m not, but my name and bank account now have some flag in the government and banking computer systems.