Chapter 16

“ ... worry about it. Mom will understand,” Eduardo said as we walked into the cafeteria.

“Make sure she knows I’m going to keep coming to help, but I might have to switch to Sundays for now. JV plays on Saturdays every week, of which the evenings are going to be pretty packed. Maybe I could come earlier, but I want to see how the first few weeks go.”

“No, Sundays are good. I’ll check with Mom, but she’ll be good either way.”

“Cool. I’d come this Sunday, but I’m losing both Thursday and Saturday for doing homework, and I’m already starting to fall behind. So I need at least a full day to try to get caught up.”

“No, hey, it’s fine. I can’t tell you how happy Mom is just for the little stuff you did last week. Trust me, she thinks you’re an angel and keeps saying I need to be more like you.”

“Ha, no, you don’t want to do that,” I said, and then stopped as something caught my eye.

Li, who hadn’t been in the cafeteria on Monday, was back and sitting by herself again. We’d made some small progress on Friday, and I’d hoped to see her again yesterday, but she was here today, and I was still hoping to build on that progress.

“Hey,” I said to Eduardo. “There’s something I gotta do real quick. Could you let the other guys know I’ll be there in a few minutes?”

“Uhh, maybe I should wait with...”

“You’ll be fine. Trust me; I’ll be along in a minute. Okay?”

He nodded, took a deep breath, and started walking toward our table. I watched him for a moment, making sure he made it okay. The guys really had taken to him, I think mostly because they saw how hard I was working to get him integrated into the group. They were good guys and they’d welcomed him in almost immediately his first few days eating with us.

Which is why I was happy to see Miguel waving him over as soon as he noticed him, which seemed to make Eduardo relax. Or at least relax as much as he ever did.

Seeing that he was okay, I turned and headed toward Li, who had her head in a book and didn’t look up until I put my lunch down and sat in the seat in front of her.

“Studying and eating, huh?” I asked, seeing that the book was some kind of math textbook.

Her eyes flicked up from her book and then back to it, as she said, “I guess.”

It wasn’t exactly a warm welcome, but at least she didn’t tell me to get lost with her first sentence.

Progress.

“I meant to ask you something when we were walking on Friday, but I forgot. You weren’t at lunch that day, and I didn’t see you here yesterday. Don’t you eat lunch every day?”

“I do, but sometimes I eat it while doing a tutoring session for people who don’t have time after school.”

“Ohh, I’d been wondering why you were leaving school around the same time my practice got out a bunch of times. I couldn’t figure out what else was going on after school that would keep someone around. Do you tutor a lot of people?”

“Some.”

“Is it like a job or...”

She sighed and closed her book, I guess realizing I wasn’t going to leave her alone any time soon. “Kind of. Not officially, I guess, but my mom sets it up with some kids’ parents or whatever.”

“But you get paid, right?”

“Yeah. Plus, it’ll look good on my college transcript.”

“Huh, that’s interesting, actually.”

“Why?” she said, her eyes narrowing.

“I’ve been trying to get out of remedial classes and convinced a couple of my teachers to help me get on level for next year, so they’ve been assigning extra work to me that’s usually ahead of what we’re working on in class. But it’s a lot, and they said they’ll only keep helping me as long as I show I’m up for the challenge. I’ve been going in and getting help from them when I can, but football takes up my entire time after school, and honestly, I’m starting to drown in it. Since you do tutoring, and I think we live kind of near each other, I think maybe tutoring could help.”

“You’re seriously asking me to tutor you?”

“Yeah, if it’s not too much trouble and I can convince my parents and afford whatever you charge. Seriously, I need it. Football really is picking up, and the workload’s getting intense.”

“This isn’t some kind of trick?”

“No. You can talk to my teachers if you want and confirm everything. Ms. White and Mrs. Mace have been doing the most work with me.”

“I ... guess.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s okay, you don’t have to pay. That’s just for the stuff my mom sets up.”

“Well, if I need to, I will. I really could use the help.”

“Just do the work and don’t make me regret it, and we’ll be even.”

“Deal,” I said, and then decided that since things were going well, I was going to shoot for the moon. “So, why don’t you come over and sit with me and my friends.”

“Why?”

“Why not? Wouldn’t it be more fun to be with other people, and even maybe make some more friends? Really, they’re good guys, and they’re not just all football players. Eduardo is a friend of mine, he doesn’t play any sports that I know of, and he started sitting with us last week. He’s doing fine, see?”

Li looked past me to my table where Eduardo was listening to Miguel talk about something, nodding occasionally while Connor and Jamal were arguing about something I couldn’t hear.

“Just a bunch of normal guys eating lunch. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“A lot,” Li said, but she kept watching the table.

“And if it does, you could move back to this empty table. It’ll be more fun sitting with friends.”

“We’re friends now?” Li asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

“I hope so.” I shrugged. “I mean, you did just agree to help tutor me. That’s kind of ‘friend territory,’ right?”

Li stayed quiet for what felt like forever, studying the table.

Finally, she let out a small sigh and said, “Fine.”

I tried not to show how pleased I was, keeping my voice casual. “Cool. Here, let me help you with that stuff.”

I reached for her books, but she pulled them back. “I can carry my own books.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding up my hands. “Just trying to help.”

We walked over to the table together, Li trailing slightly behind me. The guys looked up as we approached.

“Hey guys, this is my friend Li. She’s gonna join us for lunch. Li, that’s Miguel, Connor, Jamal, Tyrell, and Eduardo.”

“Hi,” Li said softly.

“There’s space next to Eduardo,” I said, pointing to the empty spot.

Li hesitated for just a second before sitting down. Eduardo gave her a small smile, which she returned after a moment.

“So what were you guys arguing about?” I asked Connor and Jamal, trying to get the conversation flowing again.

Connor immediately jumped in, talking about his feelings about some movie they were arguing about, which Jamal clearly didn’t agree with.

No one brought a lot of attention to Li, but they weren’t shunning her either. Mostly just letting her exist with them, which is what I think she needed, because she visibly started to relax after a few minutes.

Honestly, I felt like I was getting good at this.

Thursday, we were back on the field against Eastwood High School from El Paso. For the first time since the season started, Elijah looked overly pleased with himself instead of glowering at me the whole time. As predicted, he had taken the news that I had been moved to JV badly, complaining loudly to anyone who would listen about how, if they wanted to turn things around, he should have been moved to JV instead of me.

Never mind that the only win the freshman team had was while he had been benched.

At least practice had been better every day since I had been on the opposite end of the field with JV and varsity. We would warm up together and then switch in and out with them, one group on the field working plays while the other was either in the locker room or with the defensive or offensive coordinator. I had to miss today’s practice, which would involve JV playing against varsity, as a buildup to varsity’s game tomorrow.

Miguel and the rest had told me that since I’d left, Elijah had become more of a pain, walking around like he was the big man on the team now. Technically, Tyrell had been assigned as captain of the team for today’s game, but the coach made it known they would be picking the new permanent captain soon. Gabriel should have been making a push for that spot, but he was deferring everything to Elijah.

Which was a mistake.

“Ready for the show? See how a real team plays?” Elijah said as we headed for the field house to do our run-on and start the game.

“Front row seat to watch us crush Eastwood.”

“Break a leg out there,” I said, and then muttered. “Preferably your own.”

The fact that he was the reason we had done badly never seemed to enter his thick skull.

Coach Heidemann gathered us up in the field house and said, “Listen up, guys. Tonight isn’t just about winning or losing. It’s about proving we can work together as a team. I expect to see hustle and hard work, but I also expect you to all play the mental game like we’ve been talking about. Watch the other team, make your adjustments, and we’re going to win this thing. Alright, let’s go show them what Wheaton is all about.”

The speech got everyone excited, and we ran out onto the field like we were going to roll over the other team. Unfortunately, motivation is just one part of the puzzle, and the rest of the pieces seemed to be missing.

The first quarter started rough. Gabriel was slow making his reads, and their defense was tough, putting a ton of pressure on our offensive line. He was barely getting his passes off before El Paso’s defense crashed in. Our running game wasn’t faring much better with a two-yard gain here, a three-yard loss there.

Every drive ended in a punt.

There was one close moment when Elijah broke free on his route, but Gabriel’s throw sailed high, missing by a mile.

The rest of the quarter unfolded like a slow-motion car crash. Their defense kept bringing pressure, and Gabriel kept looking more rattled. When the inevitable happened, a blindside hit that jarred the ball loose, I almost saw it coming before it happened.

Their linebacker scooped up the fumble and rumbled into the end zone as the quarter expired. One kick later, it was seven-nothing, visitors. The crowd groaned.

The second quarter unfolded a lot like the first. Gabriel kept forcing passes to Elijah, completely ignoring wide-open receivers downfield. I watched Miguel break free of coverage three times, waving his arms frantically, but Gabriel never even looked in his direction.