Chapter 13

I pushed through the football locker room, which was separate from the smaller area used by the track team, basketball team, and several other sports. I guess one of the benefits of being in Texas is that we had a permanent locker room to ourselves, separate from everyone else’s.

Even though I was running track, I still used my football locker, mostly out of habit and mostly so I didn’t have to keep track of two places.

It was usually fairly empty after school in the spring; I expected it to be mostly empty this time of day. Instead, I found Miguel, Dwight, Joe, and Mickey standing around the main bulletin board. An unusual group, since although Miguel ate lunch with us, he wasn’t on JV with the other three and as far as I knew, he didn’t hang out with them.

I dropped my gym bag on the bench and headed over, curious about what had them so animated.

“Blake!” Miguel spotted me first, his face lighting up. “Hey, come check this out.”

The others turned at his call, and when they saw me, they all started smiling. Which was a little odd. We were all friends, to more or less degrees, but they weren’t like smile when you walk up friends.

“What’s up?” I asked, sliding between Joe and Mickey to see what they were looking at.

It was a freshly posted notice with “Spring Seven-On-Seven Football League” printed in bold letters across the top. Below that was information about an upcoming meeting and a sign-up sheet that was still empty. I read through the details quickly, since I was more or less familiar with how seven-on-seven worked. The league was specifically for quarterbacks, receivers, and defensive backs. A note at the bottom explicitly stated “No linemen.”

“You’ve got to sign up, Blake,” Miguel said. “We need you for this.”

“Think about it,” Dwight said. “If we put together a solid squad and dominate this league, we send a message to the coaching staff.”

“What message?”

“That we deserve spots on varsity next year,” Mickey said. “Most of the varsity guys are juniors and seniors. They’ll be busy with college visits or just won’t care enough about a spring league. This is our chance to show we should be on varsity next year.”

“Damn right it is,” Joe said.

I stared at the sign-up sheet. I actually did remember the seven-on-seven league from the dream life, although I’d only played in it one time. Then, though, it had been with Elijah and his crew. Since I’d done so well in my freshman life and with Ben transferring, and Jorden imploding, I’d had a big leg up, and I’d used it. I’d kind of turned the seven-on-seven team into our own exclusive club and blocked most of the guys who weren’t in our group, or tangential to our group from it. Joe had been on the outskirts, friendly with Hunter, but Mickey hadn’t been around at all, at least not that I could remember.

“Aren’t you going to be busy with college visits and stuff?” I asked Mickey, who was a junior.

“Yeah, but I also want to make varsity, and this is a shot for me to prove myself.”

“The teams are usually JV guys,” Joe explained, interrupting my thoughts. “Sometimes they let freshmen play too, if they’re good enough.”

“Or if the other guys put in a good word,” Miguel said.

“So what do you say, Blake? You in?” Mickey asked.

I knew they were going to ask that, and I was kind of dreading it since reading the headline at the top of the page. Coach Moreno had been pretty hard line against seven-on-seven and even when he ‘gave in’ to my demands, it was with a four-week caveat. It had only been two days, so I was pretty short of the four weeks I needed to prove myself.

If he found out I’d gone and signed up already, the odds of him dropping me went up.

“I don’t think I can,” I said. “This coaching thing with Moreno is pretty intense. He’s got me on a strict schedule, and if I don’t meet his standards in the next few weeks, he’s walking.”

Their faces fell in unison, like I’d just told them Christmas was canceled.

“But this is perfect timing,” Mickey argued. “The league games would give you actual game scenarios to practice what he’s teaching you.”

“He actually told me it’s the exact opposite. He said this would build bad habits since I would be passing without paying attention to the line.”

“Come on, Blake,” Dwight said. “We need this. You might have a guaranteed spot, but we are still fighting to get to varsity.”

“I get that, but...”

“But what? You’re supposed to be our leader, right? Then how are you gonna lead us if you blow us off when we need you.”