Chapter 10: Let's Get It Started

With the day’s drama complete after finishing with their equipment, they began leaving the locker area to try and enjoy their final day of relaxation before the two-a-days started. Tim and his friends crossed a very busy Walzem Road, right in front of the high school.

Walzem Road’s three lanes headed northeast and three lanes going southwest were divided by a median island running the length of the high school. Once beyond the high school, the divider island changed into a turning lane. Crossing Walzem Road was treacherous and difficult, but doable when using the proper crossing corners. But these are high schoolers, and they crossed when they saw an opening to cross. Crossing was difficult, but since school had not yet begun, the traffic was negotiable.

A small family-owned burger stand, a regional chain Mexican restaurant, a worldwide chain pizza restaurant, and another nationwide sandwich chain restaurant were the choices available to any Roosevelt student, right across the street from their school. However, most students walked an additional block northeast of the high school, for very inexpensive bean and cheese tacos. Not very good, but for a buck you got a bean and cheese taco, so who cares!

Sombrero Rosa was an independent family-owned restaurant, featuring Tex-Mex cuisine at very inexpensive prices. The building itself was designed to be a Mexican restaurant. The front roof of the entire building where diners ate was shaped like a sombrero with the wide brim reaching out over a patio area which was normally inundated with teens from not only Roosevelt but also from Judson high school.

A sort of unspoken truce was in place at Sombrero Rosa. Mainly, the owners have threatened to raise their prices if things ever got out of hand. If anything needed to be resolved immediately, the students would leave the large patio area, and settle disputes on one of the vacant lots behind the restaurant. Usually, a little release of testosterone from a couple of overly-aggressive high schoolers, and then the calming touch of the back up students, would settle down the combatants. Then everyone would return for more bean and cheese tacos, and of course, free soda refills if they had a Sombrero Rosa refillable plastic cup. Buy the cup for five bucks, and refill it each time you eat for a dollar, which was half the regular price. So the kids with five dollars and a refillable cup could eat four burritos and drink soda for the rest of the night, as long as they stayed on the patio. The Sombrero Rosa owners were willing to put up with the shenanigans, as long as each kid averaged five bucks a visit.

Judson and Roosevelt highs are natural competitors because of their proximity to each other and the way kids from one street attend Roosevelt while the next street sends the students to Judson. Growing up close to each other, yet separated, caused natural animosity. It usually swelled up on the patio at Sombrero Rosa, and ended in either a fight on one of the large vacant lots behind the restaurant, or on an athletic field. Roosevelt featured just over 2,500 total students, while Judson boasted nearly 4,900. Judson was it’s own school district and also had the resources for top notch athletic equipment in every sport where they fielded teams. Judson usually won on the football field, baseball diamond, basketball courts and even the volleyball courts for the girls. Roosevelt had an inferiority complex when facing Judson in nearly any sport. The size of Judson’s community also helps to keep their status as one of the top athletic programs in the state of Texas. The competition is not fierce, but Roosevelt kept falling short, year after year.

Tim had never been to Sombrero Rosa before, because only the cool high school kids went there. Of course he had heard of it, but he’d never gone there before because he did not fit in the proper social strata. Johnnie suggested it, and Tim tried to not act to surprised about what he was going to see while there. Tim went ahead and bought a cup, figuring he was probably going to need it again, or at least he was hopeful that he’d get to use it again. With his tacos and drink, he joined the others at a table off to the side of the patio. The weather in San Antonio in August would have made sitting outside on a patio almost unbearable, but the owners had recently installed misters circling the patio, and large fans oscillating from the corners, to make the atmosphere tolerable.

Conversation initially was brief featuring grunts and head nods toward different females in the immediate vicinity. Besides, you needed to finish your tacos, or else someone else might.

“Dude, when you turned around like you were gonna go get your pads to give to that asshole, I thought we were going to have a problem. But you turned it back on him, that was a smart move. I won’t ever not give you the benefit of the doubt in any situation, again.”

Mark then picked up his last taco and inhaled it like a growing high schooler should. Mark’s sentiment was backed up by the other guys.

Johnnie put his hand on Tim’s shoulder and looked him in his face. Then with a serious look to each of the guys, he said, “Dude, if you are ever in a situation like that, and need backup of any kind, I will back you up. Wherever. Whenever. I am there.”

The others all nodded their agreement.

“But if you ever try to start somethin’ with Frank Robinson ... you’re on your own,” Tony Parker said with a smile.

The other guys at the table could not hold back their laughs. Tim felt this place could be someplace he would visit often.

Tim’s mother Juanita was not happy she had to drop off her son at school, a good two hours earlier than she liked to get up. That would throw off all her schedules. What the hell was she going to do when school started. What about Carmen? Was she going to be able to drive without her morning cup of coffee? Was she going to become one of those people who carried a coffee cup with them wherever they went? Tim noticed she was getting ready to go off the deep end. She was worrying about little summer showers and turning them into category five hurricanes heading straight for her house!

“Mom, I need to go in early just this one day, to get my new helmet. Coach Barrett said that Coach Fontana ordered me a new helmet. One just for me. They had the wrong size, yesterday. They said they would have it in, this morning, and I need to get there earlier than normal so I can get it adjusted,” he said, calming down his mom. “If it’s anything like the shoulder pads, it’ll take a little while to get it fitted right.” Juanita visibly relaxed. “When the school year starts, I’ll only need to be there about an hour and a half before school, since we start practice an hour before school. I need to get there and get dressed out. It’ll mean us leaving about seven in the morning. That’s plenty of time for you to get your coffee before we leave.”

Juanita smirked at her son who, since his week in the hospital, had grown like a weed. Before he was fat and short but now he is tall and muscular beyond belief. When they went to the mall to go school clothes shopping, she noticed girls and even a few older women looking at her son like a piece of meat. She initially did not like it, but she noticed her son did not even pay attention to the attention being paid to him.

“Hey, I’m supposed to be the one who calms you down,” she said while gesturing for a hug.

A new twist on her hugs was that before his transformation, Tim would hug her and try to lift her off the floor to show that even though he was short and fat, he was strong enough to lift his mother off the ground even if it was only a couple of inches. Now when his arms enveloped her, he would just grab a hold and pick her up a good foot off the floor. Sometimes she even got a spin!

“Now are you sure you want to do this, I mean it is dangerous and I am worried about you.”

Looking right into his mother’s eyes, he hugged her again but this time rather than picking her up and spinning her, Tim gave all the love he could muster and assured her he would be fine. That temporarily satisfied his mother; but of course, she was still going to worry.

Cindy Crawford received her normal hello when Tim carried all the new clothes his mother insisted he buy, into his room. He still had misgivings about buying so much; but his father, who came along for the family outing, insisted on helping with updating his son’s look since he was becoming a high school man.

“What the heck was that?” Tim’s father, Raymond, asked.

“What?”

“Did you just blow a kiss to that Cindy Crawford poster?”

“Of course. I always do that.”

Raymond shook his head in disbelief but helped Tim separate the new purchases. Raymond had always been a clothes hawk. One thing Raymond had always believed was that you dressed up as much as possible, to show those around you that the situation calls for more than t-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes. Raymond loved opportunities to go clothes shopping. His second date with Juanita was to the mall to help him purchase a new suit. While Juanita loved the idea of going into stores and buying whatever tickled her fancy, Raymond was a cruise missile ready to attack exactly what he needed; but he also took his time, and did not like flitting back and forth between departments.

They even purchased expensive new natural wood hangers for every new garment they bought. Raymond had forced the sales persons to properly fold the new shirts and jeans, so that when they went to hang them, the wrinkles would come out immediately. Raymond fussed over the shirts and hangers like he was preparing liturgical vestments for the Pope. Tim could not believe he was treating Polo-style shirts they paid maybe twenty bucks a piece for, so carefully.

While picking up the bags, the receipt dropped out of the bag. Tim picked it up, noticed the prices, and almost threw a fit. While Tim was trying on different garments, Raymond had exchanged all the simple lower quality pullovers he had collected, and traded them in for actual Polo pullovers. They were the same colors he had already picked but the individual prices per shirt went from $20 up to $90 each! His normally frugal father had just spent over $1,500 dollars on shirts! Then Tim decided to check the jeans he had selected. The sizes were the same but rather than the ‘store brand’ less expensive choices, his father had switched those for the more expensive ‘name brands.’ The eight different colored jeans ranging around $40 a piece were now replaced by jeans costing almost $150 each!

“Dad! How could you spend this much on clothes! I mean does Mom know how much you spent?”

“Of course she does, son! Do you really think I could get away with spending almost two grand on clothes for you, without her okay?”

“But why, Dad? I didn’t ask for this. This is just way too much, Dad. I’m not trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ or anything! Good God, Dad, why did you spend so much on these clothes for me?”

Tim had a very worried expression on his face, like he did not know who this person in his room, was. He just could not fathom his father spending that much on clothes for a kid just starting high school.

His dad moved the stack of folded jeans over onto the now cleared desk, and sat on the bed beside his son. He then realized he actually had to look up to be face to face with his ninth grade son. A small smile appeared, and quickly left his face, as he seated himself on the edge of the bed.

“Tim, I don’t think you understand just how extremely proud we, your mother and I, are of you! You scared the living shit out of us this summer when you were in the hospital. I don’t know if you really understand our finances or not, but we doing very well! We can afford to do this for you.”

He put his hand on his son’s shoulder as he continued.

“You got out of the hospital, and rather than falling back into your old ways, you were committed. You were actually committed to something. Son, we saw how you were just coasting through life. We were really worried that you would not break out of that lifestyle. I cannot explain to you how wonderful it felt to come home and see you on the back patio punching the bag, or out on the grass doing whatever crawling and jumping techniques you saw on the internet, to get ready for football.

“Your mother and I had a little talk about you while you were in the hospital, and we decided to go ahead and get a little more involved in the day to day happenings of our children. I work hard and so does your mom, but we realized we had no idea what our kids did everyday. We already talked to your sister about this, and obviously she is happy we decided to be more active in her life by getting to know her friends and in how she is doing in school. We apologize for not being involved earlier with your life. So now we are going to be there the way we thought we would when you were first born.”

“But I really don’t understand, why are you doing this ... now?”

“Son. You really scared us when you were in the hospital. Oh, I know. We saw pretty quick there was not much to worry about; but before the tapeworm made an official appearance, the doctors really had no idea what was happening to you. You were dropping weight like a boulder falling into a lake. It just kept dropping. Officially, seventy five pounds! I feel that in reality you dropped more, since we had not weighed you in a while before you went into the hospital.”

Tim’s expression made Raymond realize his parent’s fear of what was happening to their was all news to him. In reality, Tim was feeling guilty for putting his family through something that was unnecessary in spite of the after effects. Raymond gently pushed his son’s chin up to look him in the face.

“We were happy you were okay. We are elated you apparently found a purpose in your life.” He removed his finger from under his son’s chin and grabbed both of his son’s shoulders. “I, for one, am happy not only about your new addiction to physical fitness,” he smiled to show the mirth behind the meaning, “but also in your interest in expanding your intellect. I swear I was almost as happy about your daily visits to the library, and taking your sister with you; than I was about your working out, and getting ready for football.” With a manly shake of his shoulders, Raymond stood bringing his son up to his feet, “Besides, I can’t wait to see you kick some ass on the football field!”

A shared laugh between father and son was interrupted with a snort from the doorway, as Juanita tried unsuccessfully to keep the tears from running down her face. Father and son opened their arms for a family hug. Especially when little Carmen, also crying, came running in the room behind her mother. They both had been quietly listening to the conversation between father and son. The family shared a nice moment.

Raymond patted his son’s shoulder and motioned for him to open the closet so they could start rearranging it for the new clothes. The old cheap hangers were removed. The t-shirts were folded and put in empty drawers in Tim’s dresser. A majority of his old clothes were packed up and ready to be taken to the Goodwill store, for anyone else who might be able to use them. It was a common practice of the family. Soon enough the closet was rearranged with the new expensive shirts hanging next to the new expensive jeans. They even used Tim’s computer to map out the different color combinations between the shirts and jeans, just to make sure Tim looked his best. Tim took a step back as his family helped rearrange his closet, and decided nothing would stop him from keeping his family proud of him.

The ride to Roosevelt the following morning was quiet, mainly because Tim’s mother was still waking up and had only had one cup of coffee, so far. She jokingly admitted she needed at least three to become coherent and capable of communicating with others. Tim had a small bag with extra socks, underwear, and t-shirts; as well as another pair of basketball shorts, almost identical to the pair he was currently wearing.

Tim’s mother pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the entrance to the boys locker room. Tim leaned over the seat to give his mom a kiss on the cheek.

“Remember what your father said: ‘Kick some ass ON the field,” his mom said.

She really emphasized the “ON,” to let her son know to fight hard while playing but to remember to leave it on the field.

“I will, Mom. I will.”

She also grabbed her purse while he was sliding out of the SUV.

“Hey there, we almost forgot about this last night.” She handed her son six twenty dollar bills. “We decided to up your allowance from nothing to a hundred and twenty a week. We feel that should be enough for whatever you need.”

Tim was again blown away by the sudden personality change of his parents. He quickly removed three of the bills, and returned the others to his mother.

“Could you go ahead and leave these on my desk. I’ll only carry a little, just in case me and the guys decide to go eat somewhere. I’ll call you if I need a ride home, or if I get arrested for assaulting these guys a little too aggressively.”

Tim’s Cheshire Cat grin returned, and his mother’s lighthearted slap of his shoulder was a little stronger than normal, but both mother and son were smiling.

Tim stuffed the money into his wallet while walking to the locker room’s door. Before he could enter, he heard someone calling his name from the parking lot. Tim turned and saw not another player, but Coach Barrett. He was carrying a bag over his left shoulder, and a large box under his right arm as he came towards the door.

“Well, come on then, come get this damn thing. It’s for you, anyway!” Tim jogged up to the coach and took the box from him now seeing it as his new helmet. “I’ll give you a hand fitting to you, since it has some sort of gel padding. I wanna see how it works.”

Tim pulled the door open, and waited for Coach to enter first.

“All right! Today we are going to see what kind of shape everyone is in; so get your shirts, shorts and cleats on, then I’ll help you get the helmet prepped for today. Make sure everyone knows today’s uniform,” Coach Barrett said while continuing on to the coach’s office leaving Tim to go on to the freshman locker room.

Turning the corner into the locker room, he didn’t even realize he did it, but he stopped and threw a quick salute toward the “Rough Rider Country,” logo, painted on the wall.

“What the hell are you doing?” The question actually startled Tim, and when he looked just inside the varsity locker room cage, he saw Frank Robinson. “Who the hell are you saluting?”

“That,” Tim pointed to the painted logo. Each letter easily three feet tall, and six feet off the floor in glorious red, and blue on a white background. The effect was quite patriotic and team unifying. Frank followed Tim’s pointing at the wall. After his initial thought of saying that doing something like that was stupid; something in Frank’s mind made him pause and think it over.

“You know what? That is a great freakin’ idea!” Frank said, his smile growing and becoming infectious. Frank then poked Tim in his chest and said, “You make the freshman salute the sign. I’ll take care of the JV and Varsity. Damn, I like the idea of focusing yourself on something, before you even come into the locker room!”

Coach Barrett was coming back into the locker room area when he saw Frank poke Tim in his chest. “What the hell is going on in here? Don’t you two have something to do before practice starts?”

“Coach, I just had a great idea; and it is all thanks to Murphy, here.”

“Well, what’s your idea?”

““I want to start a new tradition for this season. Let me set it up for ya. I saw Murphy here actually saluting the ‘Rough Rider Country’ sign on the wall, there. At first I was gonna make fun of him for doing it, but then I got a much better idea,” Frank explained. Coach nodded and waited for him to continue with his story. “I want to have each player, before they actually step foot onto the blue carpet, stop for at least two seconds. Then they are to look up at the sign and salute it. It will force them to stop whatever was going through their minds before they walked in, and will get them thinkin’ about what we’ve got to do on the field. Call it a focusing time for each player, before they start practice,” Frank was beginning to get a little animated. “We’ll take just a few seconds to get into a football mindset, and realize we are doing something that not many people get to do. We are Rough Riders! We represent ourselves as well as this school. We need to get our heads in the right place, and ‘be ready for some FOOTBALL!’” Frank’s volume was creeping up with each word until he was screaming at the end of his diatribe.

Coach Barrett reached out to calm down the varsity team captain and middle linebacker. Half chuckling, the coach reached for the teen’s shoulder.

“Settle down, Frank, settle down.”

The other coaches came running out of their office when they heard the yelling. It was way too early for that kind of nonsense, especially on the first day of practice.

“I think it’s a fine idea. In fact after you get your hat and shorts ready for practice, grab a chair, and sit right here and explain it to your fellow teammates. Just know you’ve got my support.”

Coach Barrett turned and looked at Tim noticing he was breathing heavily like he was ready to start playing right then and there. Tim was fired up and ready to go after Frank’s speech.