Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 27
I watched Coach Holloway finish his conversation with Kenneth near the water station, waiting for him to head back toward the field house before making my move.
I hadn’t had the best practice today, mostly because I was distracted. I still had the thing my dad had mentioned on Saturday on my mind, trying to work out the nugget of an idea of how I could use that information to deal with the Raf problem.
On top of that, I was worrying about why I’d ever agreed to go to that stupid party with Melanie, and how I was going to wrangle an invite from Kenneth.
And I had the request from Li on top of everything else.
To say I hadn’t been having my best day was actually an understatement. I’d kind of sucked, and I was just glad Coach Moreno wasn’t here to see me do it. So I wanted to wait until Coach Holloway was out of earshot before I went to talk to the guys. I wished I could put it off longer, but Li had mentioned it again today and was getting pretty insistent.
Thankfully, as Coach and Kenneth left, Elijah and Aidan were also walking away from the group I wanted to talk to. There was getting support for Li’s project, and there was dealing with those two, and as far as I was concerned, those two things could stay separate forever.
The sentiment was mutual because, as I approached, both turned to glare at me.
“Hey, guys,” I said as I joined about half the seven-on-seven team clustered around the water station. “Can I bother y’all for a minute?”
Mickey raised an eyebrow. “This sounds ominous.”
“It’s not bad. Just ... well, maybe it depends on how you look at it.”
“See, that made it worse,” Miguel said.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m not great at this thing. Most of you know my friend Li, right?” I asked and waited for enough heads to nod before I continued. “So Li is in charge of the freshman class service project and asked me to get the football team involved, helping to get the word out.”
“If it’s anything like the disaster the juniors had, I’m out,” Joe said.
“What kind of project?” Miguel asked, waving Joe off.
“She’s calling it ‘The Blue & White Community Pantry Challenge.’ Basically, it’s a food drive competition between all the grades. Each class tries to collect the most non-perishable food items, and at the end, there’s this big weigh-in where everyone sees how much each grade collected compared to the others. Winning class gets bragging rights.”
The silence that followed wasn’t encouraging.
“Yeah, that sounds boring,” Mickey said.
“Come on,” I started to say until Jerry interrupted me.
“Why should the rest of the team care about some freshman project anyway?” Jerry asked.
“Because this isn’t really about the freshman class,” I said quickly. “I mean, yeah, they’re putting it on, but this is about us. About the team.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Mickey said.
“No, it does. Think about how much support we get from this town. Parents and fans drive hours to attend our away games, right? They fill the stands for home games, cheering us on no matter what. They decorate their stores and houses in blue and white on game days. People stop us on the street just to wish us luck.”
“So?” Hunter asked.
“So the town is always behind us,” I continued. “Always. Rain or shine, win or lose, they show up. They support us. If the community is willing to stand up for us like that, showing up at games regardless of distance or weather, then don’t we have some responsibility to stand up for the community in return? This food drive would be a way to give back to all the people who support us.”
Jerry was shaking his head. “I get what you’re saying, but...”
“Plus, it’s going to be fun,” I interrupted. “Think about it. No one in this school competes like we do. If we make the food drive into a real competition, people will get excited and rally behind it. Whatever class wins gets to throw it in the faces of the other classes for the rest of the year. And we know how to win better than anyone else at Wheaton High, so we should use that to get this thing started.”
Mickey smiled slightly and said, “See, that’s the first argument you’ve made that sounds good.”
“Plus,” I continued. “We all need service hours anyway, and this will help us long term. Colleges want good football players, but they also want good teammates. This kind of thing will be something colleges notice.”
Hunter frowned. “You think they actually care about that stuff? Scouts aren’t here checking up on our service hours.”
“Yeah, I do. Maybe not right away, but once they make an offer, they drill down and look into our lives. They’ve had too many prima donnas and troublemakers show up on campus over the last few years with athletic scholarships, who cause problems. Think about the thing that happened at Notre Dame last year. They’re starting to pay attention to more than just whether we can help win or lose games because that kind of drama can be a distraction in the locker room.”
“So what are you saying?” Wilbur asked.
“They want leaders, and this is a way to show we’re leaders.”
The group was quiet for a moment, considering. Miguel was the first to speak.
“When is this weigh-in thing?”
“Li said they’re planning it for the next Monday. Gives everyone about a week to collect stuff. I know it’s short notice, but it’s doable.”
Jerry shrugged. “I guess I could talk it up to people. Wouldn’t be that hard.”
“Same here,” Wilbur said. “And if we’re doing the competition thing, I want to beat the seniors.”
Mickey looked resigned. “Fine. I’ll mention it around. But I’m not going door to door or anything crazy like that.”
“Just talking it up is perfect,” I said. “And maybe showing up for the weigh-in, if you can. Li said they’re going to make it a big event, and there will be a table in the cafeteria all week she needs people to work. Try to take a shift doing that.”
That got a groan from all of them.
“Come on guys, we can do this. I mean, I gave in when you guys hammered me about doing seven-on-seven, so fair’s fair, right.”
That got me a lot of side eyes, but I wasn’t above a little emotional manipulation to get what I wanted. Besides, I’d said no to this a dozen times, and they kept pushing. They owed me.
Hunter nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.”
“Speaking of seniors,” Jerry said, looking over at Kenneth. “Did any of y’all hear about Kenneth’s party this Saturday?”
The mood shifted immediately. Everyone looked around at each other.
“What party?” Miguel asked.
“Some senior thing. Kenneth’s parents are out of town, so he’s throwing this big party for varsity players and cheerleaders only.”
Hunter looked annoyed. “How do you know about it?”
“Overheard Kenneth talking to Leon about it at lunch,” Jerry said.
“Did he mention anything about inviting underclassmen?” Calvin asked hopefully.
“Didn’t sound like it. Seemed like seniors only. Maybe a few juniors but didn’t sound like he was planning on inviting team guys.”
Mickey shook his head. “Well then I should talk to him. If they’re inviting juniors, they gotta invite me.”
“Good for you, but that does nothing for the rest of us,” Wayne muttered. “I heard Tammy and her friends are all going.”
Jerry groaned. “Great. So all the hot senior cheerleaders will be there, and we’re stuck with whatever’s happening at the bowling alley.”
“Maybe someone could ask Kenneth about it,” Hunter suggested. “I mean, if we’re all on seven-on-seven together...”
“You want to ask him?” Mickey asked skeptically. “Because that conversation would go well.”
“Not me,” Hunter said quickly. “I was thinking someone Kenneth actually likes.”
All eyes turned to me, and I felt my stomach drop. I hadn’t even talked to Kenneth about getting Melanie and me invited yet, and now the whole group was looking at me like I had some special connection.
“Why are you all looking at Blake?” Miguel asked.
“Because Kenneth talks to him,” Jerry explained. “Plus Blake’s dating Melanie, and she’s friends with some of the varsity cheerleaders.”