Helllooooo Nurse (Ow, it hurts to catcall)

“Frankly, honey, you’re lucky nothing is broken.”

John reached up, feeling his nose which currently had a tissue in it to try and soak up the blood. “My nose wasn’t?”

“Nope,” the school nurse said, jotting a note down on some paperwork. “I was actually surprised at that. Guess Frank doesn’t hit as hard as he thinks. Or you’re just a tough cookie.”

John gave a small smirk, knowing the real reason why he avoided major injury. The nurse stood back up, walking over to check his head. “I don’t feel any lumps or see any major bruises. But you were basically **** when Mr. Silvernail brought you in. How do you feel?”

John gave the nurse a quick once over. Honestly, she was absolutely dripping with sex appeal. Long blonde hair pulled back into a tight handlebar of a pony tail, clothes that almost looked painted on with how tight they were, breasts bigger than John’s head and an ass to match. She looked more like she belonged on a poster above some lonely guy’s bed than as a school nurse. Hell, she even wore stockings that managed to make John shudder softly with desire.

If it weren’t for the fact that his head was still sore and his arms ached like nobody’s business, he would love to ogle her more and even try something. He felt on top of the world in terms of confidence. But in terms of physicality…

“To be honest, ma’am, I feel like Rocky Balboa just got done throwing me through a few trees.”

The nurse nodded. “First off all, ma’am makes me feel old. Please just call me either Nurse Callaway or Miss Callaway. Secondly, you did fight Frank Dickinson. Most people don’t get out of it as lucky as you did.” She shook her head, making a tsk sound. “I’m calling your mother over to pick you up. I don’t want you walking home until you get a good night's rest.”

“Thank you, ma’a- I mean, Nurse Callaway.”

“Good boy,” she said with a smile.

John was silent for a moment, watching her as she strutted over to her desk and started to look through the student roster. “Nurse? If you know that Frank did this to me, why can’t you use that to get him in trouble?”

Nurse Callaway sighed. “Mr. Newman, I know that Frank did this, and I know that Frank is the kind of kid that would start this. But just like his bully victims before, if I bring it up to the principal or even the board, all I would get is pushback or promises they will properly discipline him or Frank’s family claiming that the other kid started it or whatever BS they wanna come up with.” She sighed, shaking her head. “My best bet is making sure you kids are okay and going from there.”

“Wait, how often has Frank done this?”

“This year? You’re the second. But I used to work for the high school and I saw many more examples of his work there. I left there when my sister moved away and I had to go for a higher paying job, and hoped people like that bully and the people who protect him wouldn’t be here too. But I suppose assholes are in every school district.”

Nurse Callaway finally found John’s profile and picked up the phone, giving John a good opportunity to (try to) ignore the sexiest nurse he ever had seen and instead take a look at his character sheet.

Wait, why did his stats grow? He had more Charisma, Agility, and Wisdom now. Since when?

Oh, right, the pop ups during the fight. He probably should take a look at those too.

John smirked, glad that his insults not only managed to do some critical damage to Frank’s ego but that he actually got rewarded in a more permanent way. Plus, it confirmed that he won the crowd over, or at least some of them. It would be interesting to see if that support carried over to tomorrow, but for now he could ride the high of proving he was more than just some weak willed nerd.

Not to mention that it felt damn good to punch Frank in his stupid face. While he might have just left Frank’s nose a bloody mess, he might have actually broken it, which John couldn’t help but appreciate.

And hey! He fulfilled the quest of “Don’t Die!” And it looked like the XP was already applied, but he wanted to double check what all he had in terms of rewards to distribute.

Very, VERY nice! Now with his level up and the rewarded stat points, he had 8 points to distribute as well as a bonus of 5% to increase a stat. Oh, and a new piece of equipment! That one felt the easiest to think about, so he quickly opened his inventory and took a quick look.

Man, John felt like a kid on Christmas with these gifts! Granted, his fighting style didn’t reward block whatsoever, but if he managed to learn a new fighting style that DID reward blocking, this would be a perfect piece of equipment. Plus, a cool headband and hand wraps? He was basically a gi away from looking like a proper fighting game character!

And, you know, actual muscles. But maybe some more stats in the right places would fix that.

Speaking of, he had eight points to distribute. The safest, and best, choice seemed to be a nice and easy distribution between his three lowest stats of Strength, Endurance, and Charisma. Putting three in Strength and Charisma would bring those to eleven, putting them above the threshold to be getting bonuses. The same could be done to Endurance with only two.

But was that the best option? Eight points was a lot, and if he dumped them all into Strength, he would bring that to 16 which would get him to a +2 in damage and +20% in any stat things where he needed Strength.

But his HP would be faltering without the Endurance bonus, and if he did get a fighting form that rewarded blocking, he would need to powerlevel his Endurance at that point. And then there was the vain aspect of increasing his Charisma. Sure, he had yet to really use it that much but… maybe there would be something that made it better. Hell, maybe it would increase his Fightin’ Words potential if he had better Charisma to deliver insults.

It was a thought, and he would rather be well rounded for now. If his life was to truly be like a video game, he had no doubt that he would find a way to grind for levels and stats. And by that point he might have a specific goal to hit with his stats, so he could focus on those things then.

With a quick motion of his hand, he dropped the points into his stats. Three each went into Charisma and Strength, and two went into Endurance. That brought his HP to a solid max of 85 and his healing to almost 0.5 per hour. Still slow as molasses, but it really didn’t matter when he had such a good way of healing through Meditation.

Oh, and the other reward. He got a bonus +5% to one of his stats which he needed to assign. Honestly, none of them really seemed to have that much in the way of “need to be buffed” so it was more just up to what he thought would be best. After a few moments and flipping a mental coin or two, he decided to just throw it into his Strength. The One Hit No-KO already gave him a bonus +5% Agility increase so he would rather see how that panned out on its own before he just hard focused on a dodge build. Plus, it was a tiny bit disheartening to see just how little damage he did while using Lock the Fuck In and dodging. Sure, punching Frank in the nose was satisfying, but he would like to know that if he needed to dodge that he could still get SOME damage in rather than the piddling amounts he did while not punching Frank’s nose.

It did get him +1 Strength, which was nice even if pretty unsubstantial overall. Still, it was progress! Small seeds grow into mighty oaks and all that crap.

“John?” The melodious voice of the nurse pulled John out of his character sheet focus, and with a quick flick of his fingers, all the windows he was looking at vanished. “You have a few visitors.”

“Of the bully variety?” John asked worriedly.

“No, of the best friend variety,” Cho replied, walking past the nurse and pulling John into a hug. “You fucking did it, man!”

“Yeah, you managed to not die. Big congrats, Newman,” Alex said, crossing her arms under her chest and sitting next to John on the bed. “You still made us look a bit bad getting your ass kicked though.”

“Don’t listen to a word she says. She was crying her eyes out when the teacher had to carry you off the field,” Cho said with a smile. “Glad to see you’re okay though!”

“I have to admit, I had my doubts,” Moira added, walking in and sitting on one of the chairs. “You took quite a few blows to the face. I’m surprised your nose isn’t a mangled mess.”

“So was Nurse Callaway. Seems I’m just made of stronger stuff than most people,” John said with a cocky grin, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back.

All three friends rolled their eyes, but everyone did have a good chuckle. “Still, John, you’ve been holding out on us! Where did you learn those moves?” Cho asked.

“I told you, Moira trained me.”

“Yes, but I only trained you for a couple of hours. You moved like a seasoned pro.” Moira crossed her arms. “Are you sure you are as beginner as you claimed?”

“Maybe he had some sort of warrior ancestor or something who took over his body. Or a god decided he needed a boost,” Alex joked before leaning in towards John. “Wanna tell us something, John? Have you and Heracles been talking more than normal?”

John laughed, as Alex was so close yet so far. “No, no, Heracles still won’t return my calls after I called him a bitch in Hades 2. And I doubt Sun Wukong or Thor or Ares or any battling strength gods are going to suddenly call a nerd in the middle of fucking Springfield.”

“You’d be surprised,” Moira muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Moira quickly said with a grin. “Seems you got the student body behind you too. I saw a lot of students trying to see if you were okay, and a lot less caring about what happened to Frank and his team.”

“Good,” Cho remarked. “Its about time that people saw Frank as nothing but a useless sack of shit. Not to mention his buddies cheated! I saw Lyndon trip you up and grab you in that fight!”

“Pretty sure Lyndon isn’t really going to care if you saw him cheat to help Frank,” Alex said with an eyeroll. “But if he got help from cheaters, you should have done the same, John. Maybe have Moira step in and go a few rounds with him.”

“No, no, she did enough grabbing Coach Silvernail.” John smiled though, thinking about Frank getting his ass whooped by Moira and whatever paladin powers she was secretly hiding. “Good thinking, Moira. When did you run off?”

“After you got tripped. I ran over to the Athletic Offices and saw Coach Silvernail leaving. I was lucky that I was able to get him in time.” Moira shrugged. “I figured that if they were no longer playing by the rules, then I would stop the fight like I wanted to from the start.”

“Even if the fight got stopped, you did a service for nerds everywhere, John,” Cho remarked. “I heard Courtney got a video of it. I’ll have her send you a copy later.”

Just as John was about to ask Cho how the hell he knew Courtney, the door slammed open and John’s mom stormed in. “HONEY!” she yelled, quickly getting to John’s side and putting a hand on his head. “Nurse Callaway told me what happened. Are you okay? Is your head okay? Can you still see okay? Is anything broken?”

John chuckled, saying, “No, Mom, I’m okay. My head's a bit dizzy still but I’m fine.”

“Oh good, then I can do this.” Brenda then reached down and grabbed John by the ear, her look of concern quickly shifting into one of anger. “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!”

“Ow, ow, ow! Mom!”

“Since when have you gotten into fights?!” Brenda asked, dropping John’s ear. “And with a school quarterback no less?”

“I didn’t have a choice, Mom!” John shouted, rubbing his ear. “He got mad that I called him a loser and said if I didn’t fight him, that he was going to do worse to me outside of school!”

“So you come to me! Or another adult who knows what to do! Not decide you’re Mike Tyson and ready for your big match!”

“Ma’am, with all due respect, I don’t think you or any other adult could have really helped. Not before things got bad,” Alex said softly. She always tended to be rude to most adults, but John’s mom was a distinct exception.

“It’s true,” Cho added. “The Dickinson family is pretty well known and rich and powerful. At best Frank would have gotten a slap on the wrist and even more of a reason to target John.”

Brenda took a deep breath and sighed. “I know. I know. I just wished that this didn’t have to happen.” She took another breath, and let it out after a moment or two. “Okay. Honey? Let’s get you home. Alex, Cho, do you need a ride?”

Cho nodded quickly, and Alex looked to John before nodding slowly. Brenda smiled warmly and then turned to Moira. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Brenda Newman, John’s mother. Who are you?” She extended a hand to Moira.

Moira took it with an equally warm smile. “Moira Brighton, ma’am. I’ve been John’s partner in Chemistry this year, and helped get him ready to deal with Frank.”

“So I have YOU to thank that he’s not a pummeled mess right now,” Brenda remarked.

“Partially. But your son is a natural. John showed some real talent for this being his first time dealing with any sort of fight.”

Brenda turned to John and smiled. “Just like his mom, then,” she said cryptically before clapping her hands together. “Alright, let's all get going! Moira, honey, do you need a ride home too?”

“No, thank you, ma’am,” Moira replied. “My own ride is here. I just wanted to check on John and make sure he was doing okay before heading out.” She then reached over, patting John’s leg. However, as she did so, John noticed something. Now, had it been a few days ago, John could have contributed it to being a trick of the light or just a spot in his eyes. But after this morning, he could have sworn up and down that he saw Moira’s hand glow for a moment.

Heal! +20 HP

John’s eyes went wide before he quickly went back to neutral. Seemed Moira was trying to sneak a bit of her own magic in there. And considering that she was a paladin… yeah, it would make sense that she had some form of healing. Still, that confirmed it for him. Moira was far more than she seemed, and John would have to be cautious in dealing with her.

Then again, she did just heal him. Maybe she trusted him more than he knew?

John looked up to her and said goodbye, as did everyone else. But just before she crossed the doorway, John threw a quick Observe at her.

-

Lady Moira Brighton, Warden of the Golden Rose

Class: Holy Paladin

Level: 17

RP: +71

-

Okay, so she didn’t trust him as much as he would like, but it was still on the up and up! A couple more days and John had no doubt she would trust him as one of her closest allies. Then they could finally talk magic.

John had tuned out from what his mom and friends were saying, so he was caught a bit off guard when he felt their hands under his shoulders helping him up. “Guys, I’m not crippled,” John remarked and pushed himself up. Though Alex did keep a hold of him, offering a shoulder for support.

“You just got your ass kicked by Frank, dumbass. I’m gonna make sure you don’t fall over.”

John rolled his eyes, but as he stood up fully and felt a bit dizzy, he was glad to have Alex there. “Thanks,” he said, and together the four of them all walked out to Brenda’s car. But as they did, John threw a few quick Observes, wanting to see an update for his mom and actually see his friends' stuff.

-

Brenda Newman

Class: MILF, Fighter

Level: 12

RP: 150

-

Cho Ling

Class: Nerd

Level: 3

RP: 125

-

Alexandra Luellen

Class: Goth

Level: 4

RP: 154

-

… What?

-----

John stared out at the passing houses, having already dropped off both Cho and Alex at their respective homes. John was still thinking about how Alex had a slightly higher RP with him than his own mother. Did Alex… like him?

No way. Alex was firmly in the camp of thinking guys were pretty gross and dating was a social form of brainwashing used to sell stupid chocolates and overpriced movie tickets. She told him so on several occasions, especially when asked out by guys who just wanted to fuck a big tiddie goth babe. Hell, for almost half of high school Alex was convinced she was asexual and aromantic. There was no way that she liked him.

But his powers didn’t lie.

Maybe it was just cause he kicked Frank’s ass? Sort of an “I like you cause you kick ass. Fight the power, fellow comrade!” But then why wasn’t Cho like that?

“So, John,” his mom said, breaking him out of his thought process. “Moira said you’re a natural at fighting.”

“Yeah,” John replied. “Said I took to it pretty well for someone who only learned proper fighting today.”

“Then I think we need to do something with that.” She turned down another street, and John could see she was deathly serious about this. “When I was your age, I had to deal with some pretty creepy bullies myself. Granted, they were more looking to grab me than fight me, but still. Your grandfather taught me to do some basic defense, and then I went and learned at a school how to fight properly. Kept me safe all throughout college and my adult years. I think it’s time you do the same.”

“You want me to take fighting classes?”

Brenda nodded. “You pick the dojo. You’re smart, and I’ll trust you to find a good one. If it takes us a few tries to find the perfect one, that's fine too. But I want you to feel safe, and if learning how to defend yourself will do that and keep you from getting beat up like this again, then I will support it one hundred percent. Just promise me one thing, John.”

“Sure, Mom,” John said as she parked in their driveway.

Brenda took in a deep breath before pulling John into a tight hug. “Above all else, promise me you’ll be safe. That if anything happens, you’ll be able to come home safe at the end of the day, and that I will always be able to know my baby boy is okay.”

John could feel the damp spots of tears forming on his shirt right where his mother’s eyes were, and he couldn’t resist but feel the sting of tears form in his own eyes. He pulled his mom in tight and hugged her back, holding back a small sniffle that formed in his throat.