Chapter 4

I didn’t get a sore throat and my temperature barely reached one hundred. Dane said I’d been fortunate to have a light case and it might have been due to having the vaccine. Mom bought some Calamine Lotion and that was a big help. Kim brought my schoolwork home with her on Monday and I was able to keep up. By Friday, I was feeling pretty good but Mom wouldn’t let me go to the first football game of the year and Kim’s debut on varsity cheer. That sucked but we both understood.

I had so much free time that week and I hated to waste it. I wanted to work out but I didn’t have the energy. I wanted to read but I didn’t have the focus or attention span. Dane told me my body was busy repelling invaders and I simply needed to let it do its job. I knew he was right but it still sucked.

By Thursday evening, I had enough of an attention span to study for my permit. There were a few questions, mostly about speed in different locations, that required simple memorization but it was mostly common sense. It was still early and I was more alert and awake than I had been all week. I called Sally.

Her dad picked up the phone. “Hey, Mr. Hinkleman. This is Jack Pierce. Is Sally there?”

It was quiet for a minute. We hadn’t talked much in the past and the last time we’d talked, I had really challenged him. “She’s here,” he said at last, but he didn’t set the phone down. “That was pretty gutsy. What you said to me a couple of weeks ago. That took a lot of guts.” He didn’t sound mad.

“I think mostly, I was just angry. Sorry.”

“Maybe so, but it still took guts. You were right, you know. I don’t give her enough credit.”

“And you decided to let her go to McGavock?” I asked. McGavock was the high school Sally wanted to stay at.

“I decided to listen to her. She’ll be eighteen and married and have kids before I know it. You’re a good friend for her to have. I’ll get her.”

“Thanks, Mr. Hinkleman. She’s a pretty good friend for me, too.” He set the phone down to get Sally. It sounded like he went to get her rather than hollering for her. Wow.

“Hey,” Sally said when she picked up the phone.

“How are things with your dad?” I asked, really curious to hear her take.

“The best I can remember. I finally feel like an adult most of the time. We talked a bunch. How are you?”

“Getting over the measles.”

“No way. German measles or regular measles? I don’t know why I asked. I don’t even know the difference,” she said.

“That’s a good thing. Regular. I’ve been out all week but I’ll probably go back on Monday. Kim cheers varsity tomorrow night but I won’t be there and that kind of sucks.”

“Yeah. Hey, guess what? I have an audition at Merrill’s Ranch.”

“I don’t know what that is,” I said.

“Oh, of course not. Everybody here does. It’s a sort of a saloon, but not really. It’s family friendly but it looks like a saloon from an old west movie. They need someone to play Sunday afternoon. Honkey tonk. It’s not much but it would be my first job.”

“That’s really cool, Sally. I wish I could be there. You’ll kill it.”

“I hope so. They want me to play exactly what I know how to play the best. It doesn’t pay much, though.”

“I bet you get tips,” I said.

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that. Mom said if I get the job, she’ll get a dress for me to play the part. You know, old west, and all. Tips, too, huh?”

“You never know. Or maybe you’ll get discovered or something.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“You never know. Oh, I’m going to get my permit next week, probably Tuesday. I told you that Vince left his little sports car here, didn’t I? Kim drove it once when we went to supper in it but I’m not going to drive it.”

“No? Why not?” she asked.

“Because Kim and I have been hit once, almost hit a second time, and that car is tiny. I might get a tank or something.”

“Definitely, get a tank. People would get out of your way but where would you park?” she asked.

“Anywhere I wanted to,” I answered and we both laughed. We talked about school for a little while and were about to hang up.

“Sally, we don’t talk as much as we used to,” I said.

“I know it,” she said and there was some sadness in her voice.

“I don’t want to talk less and less and then never. I don’t want you to not be part of my life somehow,” I said.

“Good,” she answered and sounded a lot happier that I had said that. “Me neither.”

“Okay. Good. I’m happy for you. You and your dad. I miss you.”

“I miss you, too, Aquaman. Next time I visit, it will be more than talking an hour or so at The Cut.”

“That was good, though, right?” I asked.

“It was perfect. I’m happy for you. I have to go. Miss you so much,” she said and we hung up.

By Sunday night, I knew that I’d be ready to get back to school on Monday morning but Mom had another plan and it sounded good to me. She took me to the DMV to get my learner’s permit before taking me to school. The test was easy and her idea to do it first thing Monday morning paid off since it didn’t take long. Back in the parking lot, I offered to drive. She laughed. I took that as a ‘no’ and opened the door for her instead.

“Let’s let Dane work with you in a big open parking lot for a while before I let you drive in downtown Charleston, shall we?” Fine.

After checking in at the office, I made it to precalculus. I slid into my seat and smiled. Everyone noticed my return. I showed Kim my learner’s permit and she smiled. Those dimples. I don’t know what it was about them but when she smiled like that, it just turned my world upside down. Maybe it was that she couldn’t fake a smile like that. If she showed off her dimples, the smile was genuine. That was it.

After class, Kim took off for her class in geology and I turned in a couple of papers.

“Nice to have you back, Mr. Pierce. Are you one hundred percent?”

“Yes ma’am. I don’t like to miss.”

“No, I wouldn’t imagine so. Miss McTighe said you had measles. That must have been awful.”

“It wasn’t too bad, but I’ve had way too much practice recovering from things.”

“Oh? Such as?”

“I broke my foot last year and then Kim and I were in an accident. I was out of commission for a couple of weeks.”

“Yes. I knew that. Well, then, measles must have seemed like nothing to an old pro like you,” she said in a light-hearted way.

“Yes, ma’am. I’d much rather go through something like measles than a car crash.”

“Painful?”

“Knowing that my girlfriend had a concussion and stuff? Yeah, that was painful. This was easy.”

“I think that’s a pretty good perspective. All the same, I’m sure it was no fun,” she said, handing me a note to excuse my tardiness to biology.

When I stepped into Mrs. Nichols’ biology class, I held up my note. She saw it and motioned for me to take a seat. “Your timing is perfect Mr. Pierce. I hope you’ve been keeping up.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, fishing out a couple of papers to turn in.

“Let’s find out. Is a virus alive or dead?” she asked.

“Ah. You know I just got over the measles, right?”

“That’s why I’m asking.”

“Dead,” I answered.

“I bet it didn’t seem that way. What criteria of life does a virus fail?”

“There’s a bunch of reasons. It’s not made of cells, can’t maintain homeostasis, doesn’t actually reproduce, it doesn’t grow. I know there’s another reason but I can’t think what it is.”

“That’s a pretty good answer. Can anyone provide another criterion?” she asked, and smiled at me. She mouthed the words, ‘welcome back’. It was nice to be missed.

I was the last one out for lunch. When I sat down with the squad, they all looked at me, then quietly got up and left. “What’s that all about?” I asked Kim.

“They’re teasing. They don’t want the measles,” she said, as they all came back, laughing.

As they sat down again, I said, “It wasn’t that bad and I got to miss a week of school.”

“Ooh. Breath on me, Aquaman. I need a break,” Lisa said.

“Give me a kiss, Aquaman. I want to be certain,” Annie said and grabbed my shoulders. I pretended like I was going to kiss her.

“Measles won’t kill you,” Kim said. “But I might.”

Annie’s eyes got big but she didn’t let go of my shoulders. I choked back a laugh. Annie just looked at me, then Kim, then me again.

“Oh, happy dagger,” Annie said, leaned forward, and gave me a quick peck on the lips.

“Ooh, you better hope he had poison on his lips,” Kim said, using another Romeo and Juliet reference, and we all laughed. I wondered how much Shakespeare we’d all be using as the year went on. It was funny and neither of us died.

The topic of the day was the first football game and how badly we’d been trounced. Vince was a tough act to follow. He’d made the most of it but Porter-Gaud was known for academics rather than athletics. Our success in swimming the previous year was something of an anomaly.

“Jay got knocked around a lot,” Bobby said. “You can’t really blame him if the offensive line doesn’t give him enough time.” I don’t think most of the cheerleaders understood the game very well.

“He’s okay, though, right?” I asked.

“He’s okay. I don’t think it did much for his confidence or optimism. If it were me, I’d be trying to figure out how to get rid of the ball a lot faster,” Bobby said. “Maybe that’s what Conrad is doing out there. Who knows?”

“Allen? Allen Conrad?”

“Yeah,” Bobby said. Apparently, I’d missed a lot. “Allen is practicing with varsity?”

“He’s been out there every day since last Friday,” Lisa said.

“Holy crap.” I didn’t know what to think. “Coach Littleton came out to our PE class last Friday. Allen and I...,” I started but didn’t finish.

“You, what, Baby?” Kim asked.

“We had a scrimmage in PE class. Allen and I were on opposite sides. I’m pretty sure we’re the only guys in the class with any real competitive experience and we ended up as QBs. We played each other and afterward, Coach Littleton asked us to go to practice to help the team.”

“And you got the measles so you couldn’t,” Lisa said.

“No. I mean, that’s true, but I told Coach Littleton I wasn’t interested. It’s way too late anyway. Varsity has been practicing for weeks. Wait. They’ve been practicing for years. He’s probably working with their receivers.”

“You turned him down?” Lisa asked, and I think she found that tough to believe.

“Yeah. It’s fun for PE but that’s it.” It got pretty quiet. I looked back at the tables a lot of the football players usually sat at. I was so used to seeing Vince. Instead, I saw Jay Spencer with Allen Conrad sitting next to him. Huh!

“You had a chance to play football and you turned it down? That’s your story?” Marci said, and it was obvious she didn’t believe me.

“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” I said, in what I hoped was a humorous tone.

“Marci, if that’s what Jack said happened, that’s what happened,” Melanie said, coming to my defense.

“If Allen can help the team, I’m pretty sure he will,” I said.

“But you won’t,” Marci said, and it sounded pretty much like an accusation.

“Last year, Vince did a great job with the football team, and not just as a quarterback,” I said, and Marci nodded in agreement. “He didn’t help out the swim team at all. I don’t think anyone can fault him for that. I don’t think anyone would expect him to.”

“There’s a big difference between football and swimming,” Marci said.

I was trying really hard not to get ticked off but if she was trying to make me angry, she was doing a pretty good job of it. I took a deep breath and tried to hide it. “Marci, last year, I tried out for two teams. I didn’t know if I could make either team, and I especially didn’t know if I could help. I did pretty well swimming. I never got the chance to play baseball. I plan to help the swim team out again this year and, if I make the team, I plan to help the baseball team out as well. Football simply isn’t in the equation.”

“I don’t get it,” Marci said. Jan gave her a gentle elbow and was whispering to her but I don’t think she noticed. “Football is THE sport. Why would you turn down a chance to play football so you could swim? No one even goes to swim meets.”

“We did,” the rest of the cheerleaders said in a chorus. They were right.

“Most of varsity cheer went to one meet. If you missed it, you didn’t see Bobby in his Speedo, so ha ha ha,” Melanie said and everyone laughed. Bobby didn’t. He blushed.

“It’s okay, Jack. Marci just needs to expand her horizons a little,” Jan said. It was clear to Marci that she was the only one that thought I’d made a mistake by not playing football.

“Marci, Vince is a good guy,” I said. “He really is, and he never tried to talk me into playing football. It never even came up.”

“How would you know?” Marci asked, still a bit upset about it.

“He came over to Jack’s house a bunch of times during the summer and I was there for most of them. He’s a good guy, but even he couldn’t lead our team to a winning record. Jack went to regionals as a freshman. He’s a fish,” Kim said.

“He’s not a fish,” Annie said. “He’s Aquaman.” Everyone agreed with that. I was most definitely stuck with Aquaman.

“Why would he go to your house? Seriously, why would the graduating quarterback go to your house?” Marci asked.

“Because Aquaman gave Vince and me boxing lessons, that’s why,” Bobby said.

“No shit?” Marci said.

“No. No shit,” Kim said. “So come down off your high horse and relax. Not every girl at Porter wants to be a cheerleader. Not every guy wants to play football. Besides, if Jack played football, he wouldn’t get to watch us cheer.” That got a round of agreement. I raised my eyebrows at Marci and smiled. She was beat and she knew it.

“Last year, I switched PE classes to swim with the middle school kids. I did it because Coach Miller asked me to. He wanted me to see if we had any potential swimmers, coach them a little, and see what happened. You cheer for the team but you don’t score any points. Most people don’t even do that. They get a ticket to the game and watch.”

The bell rang and we gathered up our trash. I took Kim’s empty lunch sack and told her to go on ahead. She knew what was on my mind. I stepped around the table and grabbed Marci’s trash from her, then sat down next to her.

“Are we good?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she answered but it didn’t sound much like it.

“If Allen can help, he will. They don’t need two swimmers. There’s nothing I could do for the team that Allen can’t,” I said.

“That’s not what I heard,” Marci answered as we stood. “I heard you kicked his butt.”

“It was PE. It was fun. Who told you that, anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter. Look, if swimming’s your thing, then swim, I guess.”

“That’s my plan,” I said. “You don’t get it, though.”

“No. Not really.”

“That’s okay. I do.” I held the cafeteria door for her. At first, I didn’t think she was going to go through but she did.

I caught up with Kim and we went to Chemistry. “What was that all about?” Kim asked.

“You tell me. She seemed ticked that I wasn’t interested in football.”

“No one else thinks that. Sheesh.”

Mr. Trent welcomed me back and I was able to catch on to where we were pretty easily. There was at least a week until our first lab. At least that’s the way it seemed. I was behind in Keyboarding. There was no way to work from home. I worked through the drills as quickly as I could, trying to catch up. There are only so many words you can type using only the home row. The funny thing was, posture was important and it was almost identical for riding. Shoulders up and hands forward and light on the keyboard. Or reins.

Allen wasn’t in PE. I wasn’t quite sure what was up but the mystery of it drew me to Coach Miller’s office after class.

“Hey, Coach,” I said, as I walked into his office.

“Hey, Aquaman,” he said, setting some papers down and leaning back in his chair. He offered me one and I sat. “I hear you had a case of the measles. Haven’t seen that in a while.”

“Lucky me. It wasn’t bad. Hey, Coach, do you know what’s up with Allen?”

“Funny you should ask. Coach Littleton just left. Jay Spencer didn’t have quite the outing they were hoping for Friday night. I guess Allen has a pretty good arm. I don’t think he could get up to speed quickly enough to help, but Littleton thinks it’s a possibility. Nothing decided yet.”

“Dang. Has he ever played before?”

“Pop Warner. He’s actually got a lot of experience but for some reason, chose swimming instead. Littleton said you have a pretty good arm, too.”

“I guess it’s alright. I’m going to save it for baseball, though. Swim season and football season have a lot of overlap.”

“They do,” he said and waited for me.

“Well, I just wanted to stop in and let you know I’m all in for swimming. I’ll swim whatever event you want me to. I think Allen was going to breaststroke and IM.”

“Jack, high school provides a rare opportunity for young athletes. You’re developing and learning new skills. I know you work out at home and that’s helpful, both to you and the team. Jack, you could play whatever sport you wanted. You could probably do that at a much bigger school where competition to make varsity is tougher but at Porter-Gaud, you’d be welcome to try out for any team we have, with the possible exception of badminton.”

“You heard about that, huh?” He smiled. We didn’t have a badminton team. Was there even such a thing?

“If Allen wants to play football, I certainly won’t try to talk him out of it. Who knows, it could be the key to a scholarship for him. I’ve seen crazier things. That goes for you, too.”

“Thanks, Coach. I think I’ll stick to swimming and baseball. But if we had a badminton team...”

“We don’t. Sounds good, Aquaman. Nice to have a returning sophomore with experience.”

“I’m on track to graduate in three,” I said.

“Nice to have a returning junior with experience.”

“Thanks, Coach. Is Bobby going to be team captain?”

“I think he’s earned it. Don’t you?”

“Definitely,” I said quickly. “I wasn’t asking because I wanted it.”

“Calm down, Aquaman. I know you weren’t. It’ll be a big step for him. Just be there to support him.”

“I can do that. He’ll do great, Coach.”

“I’m sure he will. You’ll get your chance.”

“I just want to swim, Coach.”

“Uh-huh. Practice starts Monday. If you want to get wet early, I can arrange that.”

“Yes, sir. That would be great.” He nodded and looked back at his papers. We were done.

I ran out through the back side of the gym to find Kim waiting in her truck. There weren’t many cars left. I slid in and apologized for being so late.

“It’s okay. I know you needed to touch base with Coach Miller,” she said.

How did she know that? “How did you know that?”

“A girl just knows things,” she said and started the truck. I turned in my seat and stared at her. She didn’t just know things.

When we got to the parking lot exit, she turned to me. “Bobby told me. He went through the gym and saw you in Miller’s office. Happy?”

“Yes. Sheesh.”

“Let me know when you want to be mysterious and I’ll pretend I don’t know what’s going on,” she said.

I pouted a little. We pulled into the driveway just as Mom came down the front steps. “Are you ready to go?” I asked. She seemed fired up.

“Yes. I don’t know why I didn’t work out when you had the spots.”

“Because it’s more fun to work out with a partner,” Mom said.

“You’ve got me,” Kim said, giving Mom a hug.

“Yeah. We don’t need you,” Mom said, sticking her tongue out at me, and they walked into the gym. Fine. I followed them and started setting up for a push day.

“What was the deal with football?” Kim asked. “Start with the scrimmage you had a week ago.”

I told them the whole story, including my conversation with Coach Littleton and Coach Miller. They listened as we lifted. I hadn’t told either of them much about Coach Littleton trying to recruit us. It didn’t seem to matter to me since I had no plans to play football. When I finished, Kim told Mom about our lunch conversation.

“Sounds like Marci doesn’t care for much besides football,” Mom said.

“Or maybe boxing. That got her attention, although I don’t know why.”

“That’s my take,” I said. “It was pretty funny when Mel said, ‘You haven’t seen Bobby in a Speedo.’ I thought he was going to bust.”

“He got pretty red.”

“Nothing’s changed, though, right?” Mom asked. “You’re not tempted to play football.”

“Nope. Franklin and I had this conversation before school started last year. I’m having fun playing flag football in PE and that’s enough for me.”

“Not interested in being the big man on campus?” Mom asked.

“No. Definitely not, and just one more reason I’m not interested in playing football. I think the best thing about playing football is that you might get to date a cheerleader. I already have one,” I said with a smile.

“Glad to hear it,” she said. We finished our workout and went in so I could go over some precalculus with Kim. It didn’t take long, and she went home. By the time I was done with supper, I was also done for the day. I’d worn myself out.

I hit the sack early and woke up feeling a lot better. Tuesday felt a lot more like normal. I started on time and didn’t feel like I was playing catch-up all day. At lunch, there wasn’t a bunch of football drama so that was good. Marci was quiet and I was having a hard time trying to understand her. I guess when I met the squad for the first time, Kim already knew everyone. With Jan and Marci, it was all new. I think Marci felt like she and Jan were outnumbered and she was trying to carve out a spot for herself. Who knows?

That night, Karen and Franklin came over to help plan for the Labor Day party. Mom called Hector to get a head count and he gave her his best estimate. This was the second time for us to host Hector’s crews and we thought we had a pretty good idea what to expect. Some of his people were delaying their return to Mexico, just so they could come to the party. After some talk and a few calls to Hector, we agreed to have our party on Saturday rather than Labor Day Monday. The weather forecast was better and anyone wanting to leave for Mexico could do it on Sunday rather than Tuesday.

When we had knocked out all the planning, Franklin drove me over to a big, empty parking lot behind the Methodist Church. After he gave some instruction, he drove a route around light poles and said he wanted me to do the same. We swapped places and I followed the simple route. I did that a couple of times and then he had me do it in reverse. That was a bit trickier but still not bad. Then, he drove us onto the peninsula so I could get a feel for how narrow some of the streets were and how crowded it seemed. I’d been there plenty of times but not with a permit in my pocket and the possibility of driving there in mind. Some of the streets in downtown Charleston are pretty narrow and there are a lot of one-way streets. South Adgers Wharf is a one-way street of cobblestones. There are neat old houses on the left and a park on the right. Narrow, one-way, cobblestones, and distracting beauty. It had it all. It was kind of intimidating.

Back home, he joked with Mom about how he had me drive around the Battery, which is the tip of the Charleston peninsula. He couldn’t keep a straight face any better than I could and laughed far too soon. He promised to give me plenty of practice before my birthday. He went to the kitchen with Mom and Dane, while Karen dragged me to the library.

“What’s changed?” she asked as we sat.

I knew what she meant. “I didn’t think anything would. Really, it hasn’t. Not for us. But other people have expectations now.”

“Do tell,” she said, settling back into the chair.

I told her about Mr. McClusky’s pitch to me and that Miss Bentz said about the same thing to Kim. People would be paying attention to us more than ever and that we could set a good example. I told her that we’d each had a couple of people ask us for advice and a few doubters. Mostly, people took it in stride, figuring that’s just the kind of people we were.

“Going to do anything differently?” Karen asked.

“Not much, really. I mean, what Mr. McClusky said about being intentional in what we say or do makes a lot of sense but that should be the same for anyone.”

“True, but you’re not just anyone and everyone else isn’t watching to see what they do.”

“I guess that’s true enough. I haven’t really done anything differently. At least not yet.”

“Good. I was afraid you’d feel some extra pressure.”

“Not really. Last summer when I was on a roof talking with Wash, he told me about the only pressure we ever feel is what we put on ourself. He told me I got to choose how much pressure there was on me. It sounded like some sort of Zen stuff at first but I think he’s right.”

“Wow. I like that. Good. Is Kim doing okay with it all?”

“Kim absolutely loves it. She loves me, which is really weird. How did I get so lucky? And she loves being engaged to me.”

“Some people seem to like having a bunch of options and other people seem to like having a matter settled,” Karen said.

“Yeah. That’s Kim. It’s not that she doesn’t like options. It’s just that she likes things settled, like you said. We took the word ‘if’ out of our planning and put the word ‘when’ in, instead.”

“Settled. I’m really happy for you both.”

“Are you about ready to go?” Franklin asked Karen when he came to the library door. She nodded and stood and so did I. She gave me a big hug. I could see Franklin over her shoulder so I stuck my hands out, palm up, so he could see them and he laughed.

After they left, Dane came into the library. “I hear you don’t want to learn to drive like a Yankee,” he said, laughing.

“Not sure why anyone would,” I answered and Mom bopped him from behind.

“Maybe Franklin can give you some lessons when he’s done teaching Jack,” she said to Dane.

“Wait a minute,” he said, turning to her. Then he saw that she was at least a little bit serious. “How do I drive differently?”

“Oh, bless your heart,” Mom said with her best Southern accent. “If you want to drive like a local, you need to be more polite when you drive.”

“More polite? How can you drive politely? You just drive,” he said, clearly clueless.

Mom sighed a heavy sigh. “You could use your turn signals for one thing. It wouldn’t hurt if you let people in every now and then. When someone’s trying to make a left turn across your lane and you have some room, flash your lights and slow a little. Just be nice.” This was new stuff for him but it was obvious to me.

“Be polite,” he said.

“Charleston has been voted the most polite city in America a bunch of times but if we have a bunch of Yankees move here and not learn to drive the right way, people will vote for Savannah,” I said.

“Okay. I wouldn’t want that,” he said and we all laughed.

“I never knew how much work de-yankifying someone would be,” Mom said, brushing her hair back and returning to the kitchen.

“She’s gonna de-yankify you,” I whispered. He rolled his eyes. “Don’t blame me. You moved here,” I said and we both laughed.

On the way to school the next morning, I asked Kim about driving. “What are you doing when you drive? I mean, besides the obvious. What are you looking at and stuff?”

“Ah. The drive to school is pretty short. Normally, I’m trying to space myself so I’m not too close to the person ahead of me. I’ve been a lot more careful since Puerto Rico. I really watch intersections.” She thought about it for a minute. “You know what I really try to do? I try to read minds. I try to figure out what the drivers around me are planning to do. Right now, the guy in front of me can speed up, slow down, stay the same, or turn, except there’s nowhere to turn. When we come to an intersection, he’s got an option so I try to figure out what he’s going to do before he does it.”

“I think I’ve heard all this before,” I said as she pulled into parking.

“What’s rule numba one?” she asked, with a reasonable impersonation of Timex

“Don get hit,” I said, trying miserably to sound like him.

“What’s rule numba two?” she asked.

“Hit,” I said, but that was for boxing. “Don hit.”

“Das right. Das right. Now yo talkin. You just folla dos two rule an you don get inna axe dent.”

“I want to take kung fu or karate but I miss Timex.” We kissed, then walked to first-period Shakespeare.

That day felt like the first, real, normal day of school. We weren’t getting oriented. I was over the measles. Kim had shown her ring to everyone and we were old news. Marci was pretty quiet and it seemed like Jan was warming up to all the new varsity cheerleaders. Friday night football took over the conversation on Thursday.

The football team had a players-only meeting and the rumor was that Jay Spencer had stepped up and become a lot more of a team captain. I’d heard that Allen had been practicing with the team and had suited up for practice, instead of just running drills. As soon as I heard that, I knew exactly what had happened. Jay realized that his position as starting quarterback wasn’t automatic and he set out to prove himself. Coach Littleton didn’t have any plans to start Allen but Jay, Allen and the rest of the team probably didn’t know that. I did. I just knew it.