Chapter 53 Even in paradise there is homework

No sooner had he returned to Hawaii than he was surrounded at his table by Leo, Eddi and co. He looked at them. They all looked exhausted.

"I seem to have missed something..."

Eddie nodded.

" Sarge was on the road, dance class, etiquette, extra sports." 

" Well then..." He stretched. 

Eddie came closer, supporting himself demonstratively with his hands on the table.

" You don't understand, the man has too much energy and free time! " Eddie pulled a thick stack of papers out of his pocket and slammed them down on the table in front of Luke.

"Your homework to catch up on," he said with a grin.

Luke looked at the pile and ran his fingers along the side of it. 

" Well ... since Sarge emailed me the homework while I was there ... " 

Lina crossed her arms.

"One of the homework assignments was to do something with the live partners. So, while we're here, who did you pick?" 

Luke sighed and looked at Lina. 

"A local acquaintance ..."

"Really?" he said insistently.

"Or were you just lying by the pool drinking Pepsi?

"They didn't have that, just the company's own brand, Gudarnas källa..."

"What kind of stuff?" 

"Tastes 1 to 1 like Pepsi, fizzes the same, but is crystal clear and is supposed to be healthy."

"I see... Proof?"

Luke groaned, pulled out his cell phone, looked for the picture of the bottle with the name and middle finger on it. Put the phone down in front of him.

"There... " 

They looked at it.

" Is that so?"

" When I asked where I was getting it from, I was told. That the masses only want unhealthy stuff. So... no. "

An inner urge overcame him and he grabbed Leo, Lina and Lisa's hair, who looked at him, confused and annoyed. 

"Hhmm," he looked at his hand.

"Luke, what was that about? " 

He looked up. The three of them stared at him. 

" I just wanted to test something..."

" I see, and that's why you're grabbing our hair, right?" 

Luke nodded. 

" And what's your test? Hm?" 

" Let's see who has the softer hair." 

They were confused, very confused at his statement.

Sarge came in, looking tired. Looked at Luke as he came to the table.

Luke grinned.

"Well, looks like Liz found him," came from Leo.

Sarge smoked one first.

" Luke, why was she so loaded?" 

" I don't know Sarge, I mean according to my mom..." 

Sarge raised his hand.

" She told me. What the hell were you guys doing?" 

"Well, I've been told many times that I'm not an old man and old people have the old man program" Luke shrugged. 

Sarge looked at him questioningly.

"That's why Liz told me that you ..." 

" Sarge, please ... "

The smirked. 

Ted sat down in a seat.

" Sarge, why didn't Luke have to do homework like we did?"

Sarge blew out a cloud.

" He had to, his mom guaranteed me he'd do it, plus all the extra stuff we did in class."

"Oh, is there proof of that?" it came back.

Sarge nodded, pulled out his remote control and switched on the projector. The picture of the panoramic landscape was shown, then the building, then the rooms.

"Woha blatant ..." Lisa exclaimed.

"Good, then the first lessons here were dancing."

"Yes!" came from Eddie.

Images of Luke appeared, in the iron grip of his aunts. Then one with the redhead, then one with Tara.

"Good, my mom only sent the good ones."

Sarge raised an eyebrow and grinned.

The next pictures showed Luke surrounded by his aunts and being pushed into dance poses.

"Whatever I did, it was wrong ..." 

"Then Ettikete, why did you have to do that in Praixis?" 

" They didn't like what I wrote ... "

An image appeared of Luke having to set the table, then bring a white haired man, with a younger girl to the table and serve them.

"Who's that? " came from Sarge. 

Luke leaned back.

"That's Uther's old man, a real relic. "

Sarge raised an eyebrow. 

"Then he must be really old ... "

Luke nodded.

"I get that when Luke makes mistakes, there's trouble. "

"Unfortunately..." Luke groaned.

Sarge clicked on the next picture, showing Luke in a chef's apron at the sinks, with an apron and toilet brush in front of the toilets, in swimming trunks getting pool boy stuff out of the pool and scrubbing. 

"Holy shit... " came from Ted.

"I never thought toilets and pools were so complicated in terms of technology..."

Ted looked at him doubtfully, the others in the class looked at him in horror.

" Sports... although I don't know why they said you were banned from training." 

Picture changed to a picture of Luke jumping over obstacles.

Luke looked at the picture, saw the weights on his body. Someone in his family must have done that. 

"Well... Tes said the wrong thing to the coach and well, the coach pushed me and then my mom did too. " 

Sarge seemed to be thinking.

"Liz implied something about you running away from her. " 

Luke grinned.

"Sarge, are there any more pictures?"

Sarge scratched his head.

" I didn't look at all of them, the written ones were flawless."

Sarge kept clicking, showing the pool where his family hung out. Then came the picture of the redhead with Luke where he had to cream her. With a very stressed look on his face. 

Then picture of his father throwing Liz into the water, followed by picture of him being pushed into the water by Sue and being swept away. 

"Who's that? "Leo asked.

Sarge seemed to be thinking.

"My father," came from Luke.

Leo stood up, walked over and pointed at Vic.

" That's your dad?" 

" Sure. That guy back there is Paul, his manager. Then there's Don on drums, Jimmy on bass and Karl on guitar. "

" He's a musician?"

Luke nodded.

" Sure. He went to the same school as my mother and my aunts. "

Leo leaned forward.

"He really looks like Luke ... "

Lina nodded. Luke sighed.

"Better him than his father ..."

"Why?" came from Lina.

"Sarge, is there actually a picture of my paternal grandfather in the system?"

Sarge looked at him with irritation.

"There should be, if he was in the army..."

"According to my father, he was in the army and his father and his father and his father etc etc etc."

Sarge scratched his head, pulled out his tablet, clicked around on it.

"Good, your father's name?"

" Victor Akim..." 

Sarge typed in the name.

" Hhmm he's in the system... okay... aha lieutenant in the 6th Armored. " clicked, continuing.

"Sarge ... more understandable for us?" came from Rita.

"The way I see it, he and the hatch were all in the armored unit, then switched to the music corps after the reformation."

"I see..." came the reply.

" Ah there... Valetin Akim... " he clicked, looking at Luke.

" Are you sure?"

" Sarge, I only know what my father told me."

Sarge looked at him worriedly.

Ted let out a groan.

" Sarge, why the face?"

Sarge put the tablet away.

" Well ..." 

"Come on, Sarge, what if Luke takes after his grandfather?"

Sarge sighed, clicked the remote, an old photo of a Russian officer appeared on the wall. Didn't look any different from Luke's father, just looking sternly into the camera.

"Aha, doesn't look too bad," came from Ted.

"That's the picture before the plague, too." 

Sarge clicked on. 

Picture of the same man, only he looked more like a bear in stature, full beard, shaved head, upper body bare, battle axes in his hands. If it weren't for the icy landscape in the background, you could be mistaken.

"Valatin the Butcher, the last survivor of his battalion on the east coast of Russia. According to records, he was tracked down and recovered in the last days of the reconquest of the country. " 

"Why do they call him the Butcher?" came from Leo.

" He hunted down and slaughtered the infected. "

Sarge switched back to the image of Luke's father dragging Sue to Pool. 

Eddie looked at Luke. 

"Dude, either side ..." 

Luke looked at Eddie.

"Yes?" he demanded.

"Ah... now I know why his face looks familiar, that was the musician on stage back then" came from Sarge.

"Yes. He said you were the only guy at the party. " 

Sarge laughed.

Sarge continued clicking, pointing at Luke, in the Swede's headlock you could see hickeys on Luke's neck.

"Dude what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything... they were drinking and one of them decided to play a trick on him and because they didn't dare go near Uther, my grandpa wasn't there. My dad and his buddies were in on the pranks. I was the victim. So..." 

He took a deep breath.

"They gave me hickeys and then persuaded the redhead and her daughter to join in. They were always teasing him anyway. .."

"I see, and what did he do then?"

"Fought a duel like a man," he groaned. 

"Although one of them dared to play a trick on Tes, the redhead, she gave Uther a hickey and then kissed him hard in front of Tes. She ran after her. "

"Oh, and what did they do?" 

Luke looked at Eddie.

" Eddie... do you remember the cats at school fighting?" 

Eddie thought about it and nodded.

" Yes. I lost a thousand points that time because the striped one lost." 

Luke sighed.

"So what, then I heard from the Swede that they'd moved on somewhere else without causing any collateral damage. I think an aunt of mine bashed both their heads in to make them stop. "

They looked at him speechlessly. 

"And what did Uther do?" 

Luke shrugged his shoulders.

"He only found out when they were both unconscious. He didn't look too thrilled. "

"Dude, your family really is crazy..." 

Luke groaned.

" Tell me something I don't know yet... "

Ted looked at Luke.

" I want proof of hickies, can be purely edited. "

Luke sighed, stood up and pulled his shirt down by the collar, the marks still clearly visible.

"Holy shit. " 

"Yeah, and," he turned around, lifting the shirt and pointing at the still visible handprint.

"Every time I've shown the Swede what a man is by his standards, he's slapped me on the back. " 

Showed fingerprints on his neck.

" Because I was too close to his daughter. " 

He pulled down his shirt, sat down, looked at Lina.

"So I guess my life partner for observing etiquette was stricter. "

" Luke, that's not strict, that's already assault..." 

" No ... His singing when he was drunk... that was already assault and my dad was singing along.... " 

He got goose bumps when he remembered it.