Second Down
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 27
Saturday, we played L.D. Bell High School. I’d already played their freshman team in an away game early in the season, but this time, we were playing at home, which meant we didn’t have to do the four-and-a-half-hour bus ride.
It had been my only win on the freshman team, and we repeated it again with a 21-7 win. Weirdly, that was also the score we’d won by when I’d played them as a freshman. The only down part for me was that the hope I’d been holding onto that Coach was changing his mind about letting me make more passes, because we were focusing on it more in practice, didn’t happen.
He gave me four real pass plays, which was two more than the last game, one in each quarter. I completed all four. None were monster passes, mostly in the twenty-yard range, but two converted into touchdowns, which was the first time on JV where the majority of the points on the board came from plays where I was passing, instead of running plays.
I could only hope that he saw I was having success with the passes, although I didn’t think he did. I think he saw it as their team wasn’t expecting long passes since we still hardly ever did it, so they kept our guys out of double coverage, making it easier to complete passes.
I liked to think I could still have completed them, but who knows? He had been a coach for longer than I’d been playing the game, at least in this life, so maybe he knew something I didn’t.
Not that I was going to stop pushing for more passes.
The other good thing about playing a home game was that it wasn’t that late when we all got to the Silver Spoon. This time I was sitting in a booth with Melanie sitting on one side of me and Joe on the other, with Mickey and two other JV cheerleaders, Hanna and Emily, sitting across from us. I think Joe was annoyed he had to sit next to me on the far inside of the booth while Mickey was sandwiched between the two girls.
I tried to feel bad for him, but I was flying high. Between winning the game and Melanie holding my hand under the table, I’d completely forgotten about the stuff with Josh and Mom the night before. Well, not forgotten, but it wasn’t bugging me as much as it had most of the day.
Neither had talked to me about it the next morning and when I saw Dad and tried to talk to him, he said just leave it alone and let him handle it. They hadn’t taken the lock off my door by the time I had to leave for the game, at least, so I guess he managed to talk Mom down.
I was just happy to be with my friends. Joe was in mid-story, recounting his glory moments from the game, being as loud as humanly possible.
“ ... see me? Blam. Right through the line. That’s my tenth touchdown this season.”
“Because Coach just loves shoving your big ass down the middle of the line,” Mickey said.
“Whatever,” Joe said, annoyed as all three girls laughed.
“Well, I thought Blake stole the show with those two touchdowns. Coach Holloway really should let you guys do more of those long passes.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Mickey said.
“Only ‘cause it gets you the ball and a moment of glory,” Joe said.
“Well, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black,” I said.
“Jesus, the testosterone is getting thick over here. Maybe we should go and let the boys finish arguing,” Melanie said, half standing up.
“No, no, no,” I said, not letting go of her hand and pulling her back down. “We were just messing around. It’s the oldest rivalry in the offense: receivers versus runners.”
“Fine, but only ‘cause you’re cute,” she said, which got an ‘ooohhh’ from Mickey and Joe. “Are you going to get a milkshake?”
“I don’t know. Still deciding.”
“Sorry, I think I misspoke. Order us a chocolate milkshake. I don’t want a whole one, so we can share.”
I shook my head and laughed, as she got up to let me out so I could go get it. I could hear Mickey making kissing noises as I walked away, and I flipped him off without turning around.
The diner was packed. Wheaton was a football town and the whole place lived for high school sports, so even the regulars were happy to have the team here, even though we weren’t the varsity. Many of them had been to the game and would stop and ask kids about the season or give suggestions.
It was a real town affair.
As I waited in line, I looked back at Melanie. We’d only been on the one date and had the one kiss, and that was yesterday, but already, it felt like this was going somewhere. She’d been all over me during the portions of the game and after when we had a chance to socialize, and she’d been glued by my side ever since we got to the diner.
It seemed impossible that this girl I’d been crazy about in my dream life was here with me. We weren’t official or anything, but I think we both felt the chemistry hard and knew where this was going.
I got back to the booth with the milkshake, which included the mixing container that held the extra and my soda, and slid back into the booth after Melanie got up to let me in.
“ ... going with to homecoming,” Emily was saying as I sat down.
I suddenly noticed that Hanna was a junior, same as Mickey, Melanie and I were freshmen, and Joe and Emily were sophomores. That seemed like too much of a coincidence, especially since Melanie and I’d gone out on a date.
I smelled a rat and looked over at Melanie, who seemed to read my mind and rolled her eyes at me.
“What about you, fresh? I’m assuming you two are going since you’re a couple now.”
“We’re not a couple,” Melanie protested. “We’ve only been on one date.”
“Still, it went well. What about it? Want to be my date to homecoming?”
Melanie took a long sip of our milkshake, making me wait.
“I suppose I could clear my schedule,” she said finally, squeezing my hand under the table.
“Way to put pressure on the rest of us,” Joe said.
Emily looked across the table at Joe, expectantly. The silence stretched uncomfortably as Joe shifted in his seat, his usual bravado, at least with us guys on the field, gone. It also proved that this had been a setup all along to get Emily and Joe together.
“So, uh, Emily,” Joe started, stumbling over the words. “Would you maybe want to, I don’t know, go to homecoming? With me?”
“Very smooth,” I said, earning an elbow to the ribs.
Emily studied Joe for a long moment, during which I thought he might actually pass out.
“Sure,” she said finally. “Why not?”
“Really?” Joe’s voice cracked on the word.
He was actually surprised. Poor fool didn’t realize he’d just been set up. Not that it was such a terrible fate. Emily was pretty and seemed nice, although I didn’t know her well.
“And then there was one,” Mickey said, looking at Hanna. “Good thing we already figured this out, right?”
“Did we?” Hanna asked innocently. “I don’t remember agreeing to anything.”
Mickey’s face fell. “But I thought ... I mean, we talked about...”
Hanna burst out laughing. “Your face! Of course we’re going together, you idiot.”
“When did this happen?” Joe asked.
“I’m honestly shocked. I’ve never seen someone with so little game. Hanna, did you hit your head or something?” I asked, grinning at Mickey.
“Shut up. Both of you.”
We burst out laughing.
“We started talking a few weeks ago,” Hanna confirmed. “And went out last weekend. It took forever to get him to realize I was trying to get him to ask me out. All he wants to talk about is football and some pass he caught two weeks ago.”
“It was a really good catch,” Mickey protested.
“It really was,” Joe agreed. “The way...”
“No,” Melanie cut him off. “We are not spending another hour discussing every play of the game. Some of us were actually there and saw it happen.”
“But don’t you want to hear about...” Mickey started.
“I will dump this milkshake on you,” Hanna threatened.
Hanna reached for the glass and Mickey quickly leaned back, hands raised in surrender.
“We’re all going to the homecoming game first, right?” Emily asked. “Did y’all wanna do something after? Dinner?”
“That could work,” Hanna said. “School dances are usually lame, so I really just want a few dances, get our pictures, and see them announce the homecoming court. We can go after that.”
The girls got down to planning our evening, which was going to apparently include the three of us, and confirmed this was a setup. They’d maneuvered it so each of them ended up with the guy they wanted to take them to the dance, and seemed to already know they were all going together, well, with us in tow.