Chapter 7: Music Video

Monday October 20

I was dreading this week. It was Homecoming, and Eve Holliday was coming back to shoot her video for Hometown Hero. I was still not happy about her breakup song, as it made me look as though I'd cheated on her. I had told Kendal that I would help her any way I could, and that promise was about to be called in. They were supposed to meet me at the park this morning, and follow me on a run.

I grabbed some running clothes, and I made sure I had my Range Sports gear. I went out and stretched and then ran to the park. I was met by a cameraman and the director, Mr. Lester. He laid out the shoot sequence.

"At the beginning of the video we are going to show you running in four different locations. This morning will be here in the park. We'll do one downtown, one on Eve's farm, and another down a country road. The idea is a short video of you working alone to get ready for the big game. Then there will be some shots of the crowd arriving. We have worked it out with Fox High School Sports to make this the game of the week. We plan to use their video to show the game sequences."

They had me run down one of the running trails. It was the perfect fall morning. The trees were all in color, and you could see my breath as I ran. I loved this time of year. There was a faint smell of smoke, as someone was burning their leaves. He had me put my hood up so they would just catch a glimpse of my face as I ran. They shot me from three different angles with the direction to ignore the cameras. This guy was good ... okay, that was a little sarcasm.

When I got to school, Peggy was waiting for me.

"So, do I even want to know what happened this weekend?" Peggy asked.

"I got really drunk for the first time in almost a year and a half. Actually, all the guys got really drunk. They had beer bongs and this peppermint schnapps-like drink with gold flecks in it. Let's just say that if I hadn't seen the pictures ... shit. Tell me you didn't hear that," I said shaking my head that I was so stupid as to mention the pictures.

Mom had deleted all the truly bad pictures, before she'd let the other parents see them. I was pretty sure Peggy would understand me letting off a little steam. She reached out her hand, and I gave her my phone.

"We made a pact that we wouldn't tell anyone what happened this weekend," I explained.

"Good thing you aren't telling me, but showing me."

Peggy flipped through the pictures until she got to the one with all the signatures on my chest. She pointed at it, and I rolled my eyes. She just giggled. I was sure her imagination was not going to be worse than what really happened. She gave me a hip check and then handed me back my phone.

"Next time, I want to go. You guys looked like you had a lot of fun."

"I don't think so, princess. You wouldn't be able to handle all of this," I teased her.

She grabbed my ear and pulled me down into a kiss. I looked up and Mr. Lester and his cameraman were filming us. Where had they come from? I stalked over, because I knew Peggy had no desire to be caught on film.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Following you around for the rest of the week. We cleared it through Angel," he told me.

Angel was Eve's agent. I called Kendal.

"Good morning," answered a chipper Kendal.

"Did you know that I have a camera crew following me around?" I asked.

"David, is that you?"

"Yes it is ... did you know?"

She made some weak crackling noises.

"David, I think I'm losing you. Did you ask... ?"

She was so dead. She hung up on me. I would never give her a free pass again. The bad part was I didn't think I was even getting paid to put up with this. I just motioned for my new shadows to follow me. Peggy had gotten smart and disappeared. I headed to physical therapy.

Paige and Becky were waiting for me. My back was starting to look much better. I had that sickly yellow look that a bruise has before it completely heals. The cameraman got some good shots of the two trainers working me over. Paige was put in charge of rubbing me down, while Becky went and worked on Ed.

When I got done, I found Wolf, and we did our upper body routine. I noticed a mark on his neck.

"Is that a hickey?" I asked.

"Shhh! Remember, what happens in Evanston... stays in Evanston, '" he misquoted at me.

"I was so drunk I missed most of it. Then the parents were around. So what happened?" I asked.

"I think the Northwestern football players love you. They started hitting on our dates so you told them that you would get them dates too. You went down the street and found an apartment complex and started knocking on doors," he told me.

"Hang on, how do you know what I was doing?"

"Are you kidding me? I wasn't missing that, for anything. I think half the party followed you. The first place we went to there was this slightly overweight girl with thick glasses that answered the door. I was expecting you to pull the old wrong place and move on, but you asked her why she wasn't out on a Saturday night. It took some convincing because you were drunk off your ass, but she agreed to come.

"It was a good thing you did invite her. Because of her you talked almost every girl into going with you to the party. You are the Pied Piper of girls. When you came back with like twenty girls, the college guys left our dates alone," he explained.

"Anything else happen?"

"You about got in a fight with Mike. He had this really hot girl and you stopped and did a double take. You gave her a big smile and said 'How you doing?' Jim smacked you in the back of the head and told you that Mike was with her. I think he had gone to the can. He came out and looked pissed. You just hugged him and went to find your date."

"I'll have to apologize," I said.

"Don't worry about it. I think Mike got lucky and has forgotten. I do have one question. I saw the pictures of your chest covered in signatures. How did that happen?"

I shook my head. I figured I could get away with playing dumb.

"I wish I knew. Suzanne said her dorm floor signed me. It took her forever to get the permanent ink off of me," I said as I saw his look. "Remember our agreement!"

When we were done, we went and ran a little. Wolf told me more jokes that his dad and uncle told him about Riverside. We were playing them this Friday.

In math we had a pop quiz. I did something completely out of character. I bombed it. I should have studied, Sunday, but I was half hung over all day long. I'd just wanted to lie on my couch and watch Sunday night football. The 49ers traveled to Denver. I fell asleep during the first quarter. Luckily for me, they allow us to throw out one pop quiz score from our grade. I needed to get my act together!

At lunch, Mr. Lester went up a couple of notches in my book. He had ordered Monical's pizza for my lunch crew.

"How did you know to get Monical's?" I asked.

"Eve told me it was your favorite. She said to feed you and your friends."

I suggested they grab a table and take a pizza with them, because I knew these would be inhaled in no time. When the cheerleaders started to show up, they were giving me a funny look. I had sent them all texts, to tell them that I had lunch for them. I didn't want them buying lunch, and then having to throw it away. I shook my head when they dug into the salads and just grabbed a piece of pizza.

I was a little surprised when they designated Maggie as their spokeswoman.

"I notice you have a video crew following you around. What's up with that?"

"They are shooting some b-roll footage for Eve 'Country Girl' Holiday's music video," I said seeing I confused them. "B-roll is footage they use for extra scenes that they cut into the main story line of a picture. Have you ever seen a scene where a couple is talking and they will cut away to what the view is, out of the window? That is b-roll footage."

I really wasn't that smart about the business. Mr. Lester had told me what they were doing after I'd had to ask him what it was. The girls all looked at me like I was an alien that was deposited in the lunch room.

Ray saved me. He came and sat down. Someone forgot to give him the memo about lunch. Today they were having what they called Salisbury Steak. I personally think it comes in a can and they slice it off and then they put gelatinous brown gravy over it and heat it to room temperature and then serve it to us. I tossed him a paper plate and he gave me a huge smile.

"Thanks man. I was getting queasy looking at what they are serving, today."

Maggie just ignored Ray and continued with the interrogation. The good news was that Ray's interruption had thrown her off her stride.

"What's the song you are doing the video for?" she asked.

I pulled out my iPad and went onto iTunes and found the song. I played it for everyone. I glanced over at Mr. Lester and he was smiling. I guess he was getting what he wanted. I felt sorry for him because it was going to be a pain to get all the releases signed if they used the footage.

Ray then took one for the team and started talking about the girls' vampire show. I just sat back and enjoyed my pizza.

When I got to practice, Jim was looking down. I sent Wolf over to talk to him. I knew if anyone could get him out of his funk, Wolf could. I was getting dressed and I saw that Wolf didn't look happy either. I decided I needed to find out what was going on. When I walked up, Jim gave me a weak smile.

"I need a date to Homecoming. Cassidy broke up with me."

I took in a deep breath and then slowly let it out. I was afraid to ask, but I had to.

"How come?"

"On the ride home she asked me if I wished I hadn't invited her this weekend. I thought she was joking and told her it might have been fun to make out with a college girl."

Both Wolf and I flinched. Then Wolf got a panicked look on his face. Cassidy had enough on all the guys that went to cause some major havoc with their girlfriends.

"Do you think... ," Wolf started, and Jim shook his head no.

Cassidy was many things, but she didn't have a mean bone in her body. Well she could kick your ass if you deserved it, but she would never go out of her way to hurt the guys. Then I got worried. Did the guys deserve it for stepping out on their girlfriends? Crud.

"We may have a problem. Cassidy has a strong code of ethics. Do you think she would feel obligated to talk to everyone's girlfriends?"

Jim looked at me, and the sagged. Double crud. I needed to talk to Cassidy, and now.

"Tell Coach I needed to talk to Cassidy," I told them.

I headed to the gym where they were getting ready to work out.

I motioned her over.

"Can one of the wrestlers lead the workout, today?" I asked.

She went and put them in charge, and then walked with me out to my favorite thinking tree. I sat down, and she crawled onto my lap and started to cry. I felt like shit, because I had been more worried about what she would say, instead of comforting my friend.

One thing I had learned was that women need someone to listen to them. Cassidy did not need me to voice my opinion on who I thought was right or wrong. If I did that, I was going to hurt one of them. I considered them both good friends, and didn't want to make things worse.

"You want to talk about it?" I asked to get her talking.

I knew what I was in for, so I just listened. For such a strong woman, Cassidy had some typical teenage insecurities. I listened as she poured her heart out to me. She was afraid that Jim didn't want to be tied down. I knew he cared for her deeply. I also knew they were both still in high school.

I ended up missing practice. Coach Hope found me under the tree with his daughter sound asleep in my arms. She had not really slept since we'd arrived back on Sunday. He pulled his car around, and I just stood up with her in my arms and carried her to their backseat. She woke up enough to give me a kiss on the cheek.

I found Jim as I went to talk to Moose and Coach Diamond. They knew what was going on, and spent half an hour giving me the highlights. Jim waited for me and I took him home for dinner. Mom took all of ten seconds to figure out what was wrong.

"Did Cassidy break up with you?" she asked Jim.

He wasn't used to her direct approach, and just did his best impression of a deer in the headlights. I saved him.

"Yes. She thinks he wants to spread his wings. I think Cassidy also wants to do that," I told Mom as Jim watched us.

"Do you think some time apart will do them good?" Mom asked ignoring Jim.

"I don't think Jim thinks so. Cassidy just needs some time."

"Okay. How was your day?"

I pushed Jim to a chair at the kitchen table, and I shared how everything went. We were just sitting down to eat when there was a knock at the front door. I went and got it as Dad served everyone. It was my camera crew. I had forgotten about them.

"Hey, sorry. I got distracted. Were you supposed to film my family?" I asked.

"Would it be too much trouble?" Mr. Lester asked.

"Actually, I would rather you didn't. My parents don't need to be in the video. You are welcome to come to dinner though," I offered.

We were having spaghetti so Dad had enough for everyone. I put more noodles on because I knew Jim and I would have seconds. Jim was in a much better mood after dinner. Mom, Dad and I toned down our normal discussions because we had guests.

Mom gave Mr. Lester the third degree about their plans for the week. I found out that tomorrow I was going to run downtown. Then they were going to leave me alone until Friday and Saturday. The plan Saturday was for Eve to give a concert at the farm.

After dinner I took Jim home. I called his sister on the way back.

"Hey, Suzanne, miss me?" I asked.

"'Stupid boy', of course I miss you."

I told her about Jim and Cassidy. I knew she was close to her brother. I'm sure that she was talking to him before I made it back home. I made a point to study. I wanted to watch Monday night football, but I made my parents a vow that I would not let my grades slip. After I was done, I went to bed early. I knew that tomorrow was going to be a long day, and I needed my rest.

Tuesday October 21

Peggy was waiting for me when I came to school. I had finished with the video crew until Friday, so I didn't have them stalking me. She gave me a curious look.

"When are you going to ask me to homecoming? Or do you have another date?" she asked.

I had just assumed...

"How about I do it right now?"

She started tapping her foot.

"You want the actual words ... my bad. Peggy, would you go to homecoming with me?" I asked.

"I'm not sure you're sincere."

I threw my hands up. Was she seriously going to make me beg? I took a deep breath to calm down. My first instinct was to just go stag. Why do girls feel the need to control you? That was when it hit me. They needed to exert control, if they felt they had none. Did Peggy want more out of our relationship than just dating? Did I want more than just dating with Peggy? Why did I have a headache first thing in the morning?

"Peggy, if you're not sure, I don't know how to convince you. I'm sorry. I made an assumption. I know we are just dating, and because of that I need to be more clear if I want to ask you out ... by actually asking you out. If you decide you don't want to go with me, just let me know, and I'll go stag."

I mentally kicked myself for the last comment. I should be above making snarky little remarks. I took a moment and thought about it, and it was a true statement. If she didn't go with me, I would go by myself. I know I'm kind of weird as far as teen guys go, but I liked to dance. I wasn't going to sit home and pine over Peggy if she didn't want to go with me. So I tried to save my last vestige of manhood, and I shut up. The ball was in her court. She was now in control if we went out Friday night or not.

"I guess I can't find a better date, so I accept your invitation. My mom expects you to pick me up early, so she can take pictures."

I wondered how happy her dad would be when I showed up. I worried about that all the way to my first class.

Today, Wolf and I worked on our lower body while lifting. He wanted to talk about Jim and Cassidy. I suddenly had a great idea (I know, be very afraid when that happens!).

"Do you have a date to homecoming?" I asked Wolf.

He looked at me funny.

"I wasn't planning on going," he told me.

"Why?" I asked.

I then kicked myself because I knew why. Wolf was broke. He probably didn't have good clothes, either. He was about to give me some lame excuse.

"Just shut up. I know why. Will you let me help you, or am I going to have to drag you to the dance?"

"Dude, you can't always help me out. If it wasn't for football, I would have a part-time job. I'd have the money I need for things like this."

"What if I hired you?" I asked.

"David, I appreciate your offer, but I am not looking for a handout," he said then sighed. "If I did work for you it would have to be a real job."

I thought about it for a moment. I could go two directions here. I could hire him to work out with me or to do some of the things my dad wanted me to do around the house. He already worked out with me, so I held that in reserve as Plan B.

"Can you do yard work and minor repairs?"

"What kind of things are you talking about?" he asked.

"Well, Dad was bitching that we needed to take the screens out, and put on the storm windows. We also need to rake the yard and burn the leaves. When we do that I always get volunteered to do half the neighborhood. I think it is some kind of child enslavement thing, where I work for free. Don't even get me started on what I have to do if it snows! I would pay good money if someone would take that on for me."

He thought about it and then frowned.

"It wouldn't help me for homecoming though. Plus, who would go out with me this late?"

I smiled.

"I would give you an advance on your pay, and you would ask Cassidy."

He saw through my evil plan.

"What about Jim? He will kick both our asses. Plus, I'm not sure Cassidy would want to go with me," he complained.

"Grow a pair. Ask her at lunch today. If she says no, come talk to me. I'll handle Jim," I assured him.

After PE I took a quick shower and then ran to Jim's locker. I caught him before he was off to class.

"Hey, Wolf is going to ask Cassidy to homecoming," I told him. "They are going just as friends."

He gave me a look, and then just shrugged. He knew that Wolf wouldn't do anything that would make him mad.

"I see your hand in this. Thanks for taking care of her. Now you need to find me a date," he teased me.

"I guess I owe you one. I found the guys at Northwestern dates, but you brought your own," I said.

Jim gave me a playful shove.

"I'll get you a date, but you have to treat her right."

"You know me, I just want to go and have fun," Jim said.

I ran to my next class so I wouldn't be late.

At lunch, I waited 'till the girls were about to drive me nuts. The models in New York had introduced me to a game I called Bed, Wed, Dead. They called it F*ck, Marry, Kill, but I tried to clean it up some. The basic concept was that you are given three names and you had to explain if you would just sleep with them, marry them, or kill them.

Here's an example. Today they were doing Disney Princes: Eric from The Little Mermaid; the Beast, from The Beauty and the Beast; and Aladdin, from Aladdin. Emma went first.

"I am going to marry Eric because he's the kind of guy that likes conversation. I'm going to bed the Beast because he would be an animal in bed. Finally, I would kill Aladdin because he is a con man who steals an engaged girl from another man, and he wears a stupid vest."

"Okay, I think I need to leave, or ask who needs a date to homecoming," I said to change the topic.

"Hang on, are you telling us that you need a date to homecoming? What happened to Peggy?" Maggie jumped in.

"No, I'm going with Peggy. I just have a friend that needs a date."

I saw the guys relax because they weren't getting dumped. I just winked at them.

"I think we need to be careful here. David is up to no good," Kylie said.

"Tell us about this friend of yours," Emma inquired.

"I'm sure you would have a good time with him ... well ... he just got out of a long term relationship. He does have a great personality. I guess you could say he is big boned."

"So he is an ugly overweight guy that is going to be whining about his ex. Do I have that about right?" Maggie asked.

Thank God I never dated her. She was more shallow than I had ever imagined. I just ignored her.

"I'll go with him," Faith said.

"I'll have Jim call you to make arrangements."

"Hang on. Are you talking about Jim Ball?" Maggie asked.

"Yep," I said with a smirk.

You would have thought Faith had won the lottery. She had bagged a varsity football player who was a junior. I had heard other girls call him handsome. I guess he would have to be if he was related to Suzanne, who I thought was drop dead gorgeous.

I sent Jim a text with Faith's number. He sent me a smiley face back. I showed it to Faith, and she did that squealing and bouncing up and down in her chair thing, that drives me nuts.

After practice, I came home to find Tracy had parked in my spot on the drive. I had to park on the street. I went to the house to see what was up. I walked in the back door and found Mom and Dad drinking wine at the kitchen table. I looked around and no Tracy. Mom saw my look.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Where's Tracy? Her car is in the drive," I said.

"She must be up in your apartment. We haven't seen her. Go get her and invite her to dinner. We have Chinese coming in a few minutes," Dad said.

I grabbed my bag and headed up to my apartment. I walked in, to find soft music on, and a trail of clothes that led to the bedroom. I don't know what came over me. That's wrong, because I do know what came over me. Mr. Happy wrenched control from the big head. He thought that if Tracy was losing clothes, so should I.

As I pounced on her, I told her, "We only have a few minutes. Dad ordered Chinese..."

Thirty minutes later we appeared in the kitchen. Mom took one look at us, and broke out laughing. I knew better than to ask, but Tracy didn't.

"What?" Tracy asked.

"Dear, your blouse is buttoned wrong, and it's obvious you lost your bra. David forgot to zip his pants, and his hair is a mess. Do I need to spell it out?" Mom asked.

Tracy and I both blushed.

I was surprised when Mom just let it go. She used to torment Greg and me. I just chalked it up as she was not upset about the turn of events. Tracy and I ate quickly, and then went back to the apartment. I wanted to talk about what had just happened. Tracy was not bypassing this opportunity. She had me naked and back in bed for another round. I honestly don't remember fighting her on it. When we were both relaxing I figured that it was now a good time to talk.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you in my bed?"

"Suzanne called. She was worried about you. She asked if I was willing to help you out."

"I take it you were okay with her request," I said as she kissed me to shut me up.

We spent an evening in bed and she reminded me why I used to love her. I got a little emotional after she left. I was really feeling the loss of my friends, especially Tami. I knew her text to me before had said Anonymous, but Mom had confirmed that it came from Tami's new cell phone. I sent her a text.

'I miss you so much'

It was probably good that she didn't respond. At that moment, I would have found the next flight to London.

Friday October 24

I was up extra early today because I had to finish my work with the film crew. They started me out running down a pretty stretch of country road. I was filing away the location as a possible place to go parking. There was a farm pond in the pasture that had steam rising off of it in the cool fall air. The sun was just rising and you could see everything was coming alive. You could hear the birds chirping and a cow bawling as I ran up the road. I knew this would be the intro to the video.

"Cut," Mr. Lester called. "I think that should do it. All we have left is at the Holliday Farm and then the game, tonight."

We packed up and headed to the farm. When we pulled up, I saw Eve for the first time in almost five months. The memories came flooding back. There had never been a question that she would leave to pursue her dreams. I don't think we would have made it in the long run, but I was still a little sad that we were not even friends, anymore. When Eve left she kept in touch for a while, but over time it had stopped. It was as much my fault as it was hers. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. The first time she went to Nashville no one heard from her until she came back home. I think, in her mind, that she never intended to come back home.

I got out of my Jeep and I saw her smile at me. Mr. Lester was in a hurry and had me go to the barn and change into work clothes. They then filmed me doing various chores. I finally had to tell Mr. Lester that I had to go to school. I didn't get a chance to say hi to Eve.

Peggy saw me stroll up to the school in the outfit I had on for the video: jeans, dirty white t-shirt and boots. When I got close she wrinkled her nose.

"Did you forget that you have a football game, tonight?"

We wore our jerseys on game day. I just went up to her and kissed her. Kissing Peggy helped get Eve out of my head.

"No, I had to do more of Eve's video this morning. I brought a change of clothes. I promise not to look too grubby for you."

She ruffled my hair and kissed me. I think that was the first time she initiated a kiss between us. I smiled at the progress. Peggy was still worried I would get her excited, and she would want to have sex with me. It wasn't really a religious thing. Peggy just had this fairy tale dream of giving her husband her virginity their wedding night. I couldn't buy into that. What if the sex sucked? Then you were trapped in a marriage where you weren't sexually compatible. I cared for Peggy, though, and wouldn't try and sway her from her dream of remaining a virgin. I think that was why I was fine with just dating her.

We walked into school holding hands. I saw Tracy and the rest of the varsity cheerleaders eyeing us. I had an uneasy feeling that something was up by the way they were checking me out. I had seen that look, before, and it normally led to making Mr. Happy stand up and pay attention.

What caught my eye was the new cheerleader. I hadn't met her, before. Her name was Pam Bell and she was a sophomore that had transferred in at the beginning of the school year. Her dad now worked at Tom's law firm doing estate planning. Her mom was supposed to be drop dead gorgeous. The rumor mill had her as the runner-up in the Miss Teen California beauty contest. Pam looked like what you think of as a California surfer girl. She had blonde hair and legs that never seemed to end.

I hadn't realized that we were staring at each other until Peggy gave me a little hip check. My head snapped down and she gave me a knowing smile and tightened her grip on my hand as I walked her to her locker.

"You do know that I know about you and Tracy?" she asked.

I hadn't tried to hide it from Peggy, but I hadn't advertised it, either. Greg had taught me not to act guilty, own it and act confident when confronted with something like this. He said if you evaded or acted guilty you were only going to cause things to be worse.

"I hadn't realized that," I said.

She gave me a tight smile.

"You know that we're just dating. I don't expect you to just date me. What I don't want to have happen is you sleeping with everyone. I wouldn't want to get lumped in with your other conquests."

"Peggy, I like you more than you probably realize. I've had a crush on you since I was twelve. I would never do anything, intentionally, to embarrass you."

She gazed deep into my eyes and smiled.

"I know you wouldn't. I would have never known, if Tracy hadn't talked to me before she visited you. You know she loves you, don't you?" she asked.

"Tracy's and my histories are complicated. We love each other, but will never be together, if that makes sense."

"I know. She's unpredictable and I know you love her. I can tell by the way you look at her. Don't worry. I see you look at me the same way."

The bell rang and I went to PE.