Chapter 20: Kick Off

Juanita didn’t exactly know what to do to get Tim ready for his first game. Her initial feelings were to make a good solid breakfast, for him to have enough energy for the game. Raymond came in for his cup of coffee and was able to confirm what she was thinking, but she was making too much food.

“Honey, what are you doing? Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, cinnamon rolls. Good God, dear, we’ll never be able to finish all this off,” Raymond was rubbing her shoulders from behind her, softly, knowing she was just a worried mother.

“Believe me, babe. He will be fine. You saw the scrimmage, just like I did. You know I was a little worried as well, but did it look like he was in danger of being hurt at all?”

“No. But like you said that was just a glorified practice, with coaches on the field pointing out mistakes to their players. This is the first time he’s playing in a real game and well ... okay, I will admit it. I’m worried about my baby.”

Raymond turned her around to face her, he hugged her, gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek and a ‘Don’t worry’ look she was easily able to understand. He then started sipping coffee from his favorite ‘Greatest Dad in the World’ mug.

“Seriously, Raymond, what if he gets hurt? What if some kid decides he is tired of losing and tries to hurt my baby. I don’t know if I would be able to stay out if it at that point, Raymond. I’ll being yanking the other kids off my baby, and throwing them into the stands.”

Raymond couldn’t help it! Coffee shot out of his mouth and nose, straight into the kitchen sink along with a strange guttural combination of laughter and a coughing fit. Now Juanita was fixated on her husband as she helped him try to get his breath back.

“Honey, are you okay? What happened?”

Each time he got some semblance of his breath back, he would imagine seeing his wife flinging high school boys, in full football regalia, several feet in the air to get to her baby. The thought was threatening to make him pass out from laughter and lack of breath at the same time.

“Good God, I would pay a lot of money to see that!”

She slapped him on the shoulder but couldn’t help smiling.

Carmen quickly pulled her small “TR sister” t-shirt over head, she called out to her parents at the kitchen sink, “Mom what was that noise?” she said as came into the kitchen, obviously worried from the loud coughing and laughing combination. It’s not something you’re ready to hear at eight-thirty in the morning. She then saw her father still coughing and also laughing at the same time over the sink.

“Is Dad okay?”

“Yes, dear. Daddy is okay. He just had coffee come out of his nose. You remember when you did that with milk that one time? Well, the coffee was hot and he’s just cleaning out his nose now.”

From the sink, Raymond offered up a different explanation. “Yes, pumpkin, I’ll be fine. Just like Mama said, I had some coffee come out of my nose. Mommy said something very funny, and it caught me off guard.” In between his explanations, he was also still laughing. Now Carmen was smiling and satisfied with both explanations.

“What did Mommy say that made you shoot coffee out your nose, Daddy?”

“Well, Mommy said she was worried about Tim’s first football game, today. She’s scared he could get hurt. So she said that if anyone would hurt Tim in the game, she might have to run on the field and start throwing the other team all over the football field, to make sure they don’t do it again.” He was now able to breathe and every few seconds he still giggled a little bit. “Daddy just pictured Mommy throwing around all the other high school football boys all over the place, and Daddy thought it was very funny.”

“Oh, okay. I can see it would be funny.” She started giggling but abruptly stopped. “But if one of those guys did hurt my brother, Mommy would have to get past me to get to the first guy who hurt my big brother.” It was matter-of-fact like and she just then continued forward gathering up a plate and fork to serve herself some food for breakfast. “Wow, Mommy! Are you gonna cook like this for every game? You’re gonna get Tim all fat, again.” She laughed at her own joke then set her food down. “I’ll go wake up Tim.”

Tim was already up, and was also a little nervous. He wasn’t worried about being hurt. He knew he had the nanites taking care of him. He was worried about making a mistake, and disappointing his teammates and coaches. He knew everyone had worked hard over the summer and over the past week to get ready for their first game against Earl Warren High School.

He heard a ruckus in the kitchen, but with his improved hearing he knew what was going on, and knew the situation was fine. That was when he realized that yes, he had heard the entire conversation going on in the kitchen ... through the closed door, and over the radio he liked to have playing while he slept, and on the other side of the house.

“What the hell was that?”

“What do you mean?” The omnipresent closed captioning from the nanites wrote across his line of sight.

“I just realized I could hear the whole conversation between my parents, in the kitchen, without being anywhere near them. Is something wrong in my coding or what?”

“There is nothing wrong in your ‘coding, ‘ as you put it. We have simply turned on your advanced hearing, to show you how well it could work for you. You have not been testing out the wide range of skills you now possess. We understand your main goal to this point, since our integration, has been football and your schooling. But there are several other things your body is now capable of doing, that you have not yet discovered. We are rather anxious to see how well our work functions.”

“Okay, I can understand you want to test out the limits of our new abilities but I think we should put a pause on that until I have time to fully test them all out with you. I’m thinking after football season when I can use the after school time I generally use for practice to work with you guys on these new abilities. What do you think of that idea?”

After a moment, which struck Tim as a little different, considering how the nanites generally answered questions very quickly. “That plan has merit, and it would allow for longer training times after this season of football has completed. Yes. An excellent plan, sir. We concur. Shall we reduce the hearing to just normal, or maybe a little above normal?”

Tim could swear he could almost see the nanites smiling when they suggested learning a little of the higher quality hearing still on, as a taste of what may come. He smiled as well and replied, “Sure.”

“All approved. ;-)” A brief pause. “End of message.”

Tim almost laughed out loud when he saw the small emoticon on the peripheral of his eyesight. But just then, his sister knocked on his door and told him breakfast was ready.

Tim picked up his over-sized backpack he used to hold his clothes, but decided to just go ahead and wear a simple t-shirt and blue jeans combination. After all, he was not going to a major football game. It’s just the first game of the season for the freshman football team. He might go to Sombrero Rosa after the game, and meet up with friends there; or just decide to come home and rest, after the game.

“Plans are up in the air until we know the outcome of the game,” he said to himself.

He opened the door and turned off the lights to the room and knocked over his little sister who was still waiting in the hallway. “Oops, sorry! I didn’t see you there. Are you okay?” He kneeled down to look her in the eyes.

“Tim. Are you going to get hurt? I don’t want you to get hurt. If you get hurt, I’ll never watch football again!” She was working herself up for a major crying fit, and Tim knew he had to nip this in the bud.

“No!”

“Whadda ya mean, ‘no’?” Her tears were affecting her speech, and wiping at her tears with her arms wasn’t helping much either. “You don’t know if someone wants to try to hurt you in a game. If they really do then there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“Yes, there is,” Tim said.

“What?”

“I’ll stop him, and then after I stopped him, I’ll give him to you and Mom! Then you guys can fight over who gets to hurt him first.”

Tim gave his sister a big hug, and a kiss on the forehead. She always loved that from the men the men in her life, the brother she was close to idolizing and her father whom she idolized from long ago. Tim picked his now giggling sister up like a rag doll, turned her upside down, and then put her on his shoulder. He made quick work of the short walk to the kitchen, and the breakfast he had been smelling from his room for the last few minutes.

“Oh, wow, Mom cooked a lot today, huh? Did you get your food already, little one?”

“Uh huh.” She was still rubbing the tears from her face.

Tim reached for the paper towel roll next to the kitchen sink and he ripped a sheet off and handed it to his sister. “Here, clean your face and blow your nose to get rid of boogers.” After a strong nose blow from up above his head, she crumbled up the paper towel sheet, he reached over to the kitchen trash can and she dropped the trash right in. Tim covered up his mouth to put a false echo in his voice like an announcer at a basketball game as he said, “Yes. Yes. Yes. The Spurs win the game on a last second two pointer from Carmen Murphy!”

She was now full on laughing, and she signaled she was ready to come down from his shoulders. He gave her another hug and set her in her chair, right in front of her breakfast.

She whispered in his ear, “Win and don’t get hurt, so I don’t have to get in trouble for fighting.”

He looked her in the eyes and said, “Okay.”

Normally, Tim’s mother Juanita would taxi the children to wherever they needed to go. But after preparing a large enough breakfast to feed the family many times over, she deemed herself not yet ready to face the public without her face on. From experience, Tim knew that meant his mother was a good thirty minutes away from being able to leave the house. Attempting to rush her along was an exercise in futility, so his father smiled and grabbed the keys to his car and nodded at his son.

“I’m gonna go drop Tim off at the locker room, I’ll be back!” he yelled at his wife. After a muffled approval from the parents’ bedroom, the Murphy men were off to Roosevelt High.

The ride to Roosevelt was quiet as both men were caught up in their own thoughts. Tim was going over the game plan for the defense, and Raymond was daydreaming about how well his son was going to play in the upcoming game.

Pulling up to the parking lot outside the locker room, Raymond stopped his son before he stepped out of the SUV. “Tim, hang on a second will ya.”

“Sure, Dad. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to tell you to try your best and be there for your teammates. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Make sure you remember the other guys on the defense. I know you have all kinds of talent, and that talent is going to open up all kinds of opportunities for you. But don’t forget your teammates. Most of them will be working just as hard as you. Maybe even harder.”

“What do you mean, they might be working even harder than me. I’m not slacking off, and I even do my extra weightlifting when I get home after practice.”

“Oh, I know all that, Tim. And I’m proud of you for working so hard. But remember, with everything coming so easy for you, others will have to work that much harder just to stay up to potentially reach their highest level, which I’m sorry to say is going to be their absolute highest level. Their highest level will be your basic level. They’ll need to do that just so they don’t get lost in the wake of the wave you’re gonna make. Don’t forget about your teammates. You’ll understand more when you get a lot better and they just can’t keep up. Just don’t forget your teammates.”

“Okay, Dad. I’ll remember but I’ll also do my best to win the game.”

“Oh, without a doubt.” Raymond offered his hand for a shake. Tim pushed it out of the way and lunged at his dad pulling him in for a strong hug. “Ooof.” The grunt from his father made Tim realize he might have been hugging his dad a little too strongly.

“Sorry about that, Dad. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He leaned forward for another hug. When they finished, Raymond looked his son in the eyes and said, “One more thing, Tim. Have some fun winning out there, will ya!”

“Definitely!”

Tim grabbed his bag from the floorboard of the SUV and darted towards the locker room.

Players continued their new tradition of stepping onto the carpet then saluting the “Rough Rider Country” sign along the long wall of the locker area, only after they were ready to leave all other distractions from their lives aside, to concentrate on football. Tim was like many of the other players and spent a few minutes once he arrived greeting his new friends and checking if they were prepared to go onto the field, and do the best they possibly could for the team. The news story from the night before was heavy on everyone’s thoughts, and some of the guys who showed up extra early said they saw all the coaches, that morning.

Johnnie Boynes was standing with a group of other players all looking over the sports page with the top story about what happened to the varsity during their blowout loss. “Says here some of those Warren assholes were saying a bunch of shit at our guys calling them niggers and wetbacks and stupid shit like that. Now I know you guys have played before and sometimes emotions get going but there are limits and what I want to know is if it’s true they were saying shit to us, then why didn’t our guys fight back?” The grunts of approval from the collected players showed the group considered it a valid question.

Tim joined along aide the group and looked over Johnnie’s shoulder getting a quick look at the newspaper. “What’s up, guys?”

“Tim, did you read what they wrote about the Varsity game in the paper, this morning?”

“Why would I want to relive that loss? That was hard enough to watch from the stands.”

“Dude, read this.” Johnnie scooted back to let Tim in around the newspaper. Of course with his speed reading, he had read the entire page with the glance over the shoulder but he went through the motions to look like he was reading the whole story.

“Have any of the coaches said anything about this? I don’t remember hearing any nonsense like that last night at the game? Did you hear anything, Johnnie?

“Nah. You know me, man, I would have said something.” Johnnie smiled his nuclear smile and continued. “Dude, I would have pulled a Master Chief up on that field if I’d heard anything like that! Their would be severed heads rolling down the field as I slew a path of gore and violence through those so called warriors. I would have fought my way through each one, until I’d be standing face to face with the head coach where I would just point at him, the chunks of skin, bone and blood dripping off my clothes would paint a pretty picture of death as it collected at his feet. He would then fall to his knees begging for his life, and I would turn around, drop my jeans and tell him to kiss my ass.”

The laughs from the group were growing with the inclusion of others in the locker room.

“All right, all right! Enough chit chat, ladies! You’ve got a game to get ready for, or did ya’ll forget?” Coach Barrett was smiling from his seat on the coach’s bench right in front of the coaches office. He had heard the entire conversation.

“Hey, Coach, what happened last night? I mean besides the loss,” Tim asked the coach who was watching the players salute the wall one by one. He sipped his coffee.

“Truthfully, I don’t know. I was up in the press box helping the offense. Hopefully, Coach Fontana will talk to you guys before your game. Now, go on. You need to be ready to cause some mayhem this afternoon.”

The mood of the players in the locker area was strange, and Tim had a hard time pinning down what the problem might be. He finally realized that many of his teammates were nervous and anxious for their first real high school football game. Many hushed discussions in the room were guys complaining about not getting enough sleep the night before. Another section of the team were still discussing the alleged racial slurs from last night’s game, but they had seen a story on the local TV news. But there was one prevalent feeling throughout the freshman team. They were all convinced that they were not going to lose their game like the varsity had. They were confident they could do better.

Hanging from hooks under the shelves for their helmets, were their white home jerseys. He reached for his and smiled seeing the 99 in red lettering with blue border on both sides. Tim felt 99 was a good number and was happy with it.

He pulled out his phone and texted his dad, “Look out for number 99, today. Think he’ll have a good game.”

A few minutes later he got back, “Good. I’ll tell the girlz. Good luck!” and put his phone up where his helmet was.

Hidden under his helmet was a box that fell to the floor along with a post it note that obviously was attached to the box, but fluttered to the floor. Tim caught the floating post it note from Coach Barrett, which instructed him to attach the eye shield under his face mask bars, as added protection for the game. He picked up the box off the floor and looked up at other players noticing some attaching the eye shields as well, and figured the coach was giving some guys a little extra protection since the guys with the new equipment were some of the better players on the team. A quick look under Johnnie Boynes’ football helmet and he saw another eye shield for his friend.

Eventually the rest of the team reported for the first game of the season, and no one was late. Tim took that as a good sign that his friends were ready for their first game.

Tim had to admit to himself that he was nervous. But when he thought about it, he’d been more nervous before the scrimmage, than he was at that moment. He had never played a single play of football, in pads, in his life before the scrimmage. Now he knew that either hitting someone else, or being hit, was not going to injure him. A person’s natural inclination is to avoid being hit, but Tim realized right away during the scrimmage that he would much rather hit someone else, than be hit! Now he was sitting on the blue carpet, leaning up against the wall and going over his defensive assignments in his mind for the umpteenth time.

Just sitting in the locker room, there was little to no noise. Nearly no one was talking, and if they were, it was in hushed whispers. His friends were all in the same general area, and Johnnie Boynes was quite relaxed. At least it seemed that way with his light snoring.

“All right then, men! On me, on me!” Coach Barrett and Coach Alvarez made their way to the white board in the center of the main wall. All the team quickly made their way over to the white board, and took a knee on the carpet. “Okay men. We all know what we have to do today. We have practiced and we have drilled. Now go out there and do you best.”

“Sorry to interrupt, Coach; but I was wondering if I could talk to the boys for a moment, if you don’t mind?” Coach Fontana said.

Coach Barrett waved his assent, and took a couple of steps back. He leaned slightly against the wall as he listened to Coach Fontana’s speech.

“Men, how many of you were at the varsity game last night?” A few hands went up including Tim and his friends who had gone together. “And how many of you have seen the news reports about what happened during the game?” All their hands went up.

Coach Fontana concluded with, “But, right now, the freshman need to go out and show the Warren Warriors that they may have defeated the varsity last night on the field, but they have not defeated the Roosevelt Rough Riders!”

Frank Robinson stepped up and the others in the locker room could feel his emotions ramping up. “Your varsity brothers failed to get a win last night! Your junior varsity brother failed to get a win the night before! But we know that newest guys in our family, the freshmen, will get the win for our school! The future of Roosevelt football is bright, and today you’re going to show it to those lucky people who have come here to help cheer you guys on to a victory. Are you going to let them leave disappointed, like your brothers did this week?”

“No!” The yell was loud, simple and direct.

“Well, then, let’s go and show them what the future of Roosevelt football is, starting right now!“ Coach Barrett yelled as he ran out of the locker room, with the team following quickly behind him.

Everyone began yelling and screaming and there were even a few laughs. But everyone put their helmets on and ran to the field on the other side of the school. They ran behind the school, actually on the service road where delivery trucks unloaded their supplies.

When they turned, beyond the last delivery bay, and straightened out for a side entrance to the football field, it was a sight to see. Surrounding the field was the Roosevelt track. The track served as a natural barrier to separate the fans from the teams. Also on the track was something Tim was not expecting to see. The freshman football team had their own cheerleaders, but Tim didn’t recognize any of those girls, and he thought he had met all of the female population of Roosevelt, since they all seemed to want to come up and introduce themselves whenever he was walking through the halls toward his next class.

Before they jogged toward their sidelines, Coach Alvarez collected everyone in a huddle around him. “Can you all hear me?” The ‘yes’ was loud. “You’ve heard from Coach Barrett how he wants you to play, you’ve heard from Coach Fontana about how and why the varsity played the way they played last night! Now I want you to hear from me how I want you to play,” he paused for effect. “Don’t forget to win!”

The yell was loud and long a virtual chorus of “HA-OOH’s” one after the other but heard in the back with a lone but almost just as loud “YEAAAAAAAH, BOYEEEEEE!”

The team jogged toward the near side of the field and lined up to begin their normal exercises to warm up for a practice, however this was for the game. Extra precision was called for, featuring even lines, proper stretches and no horseplay. The team automatically knew this to be true.

Tim, like many others while waiting in the locker room, was already stretching and working up a good sweat to get the blood flowing. So these calisthenics in front of the crowd were unnecessary, but Tim felt it was a final motivational tool. Do everything right, or everyone Monday morning will know you screwed up.

During the jumping jacks, Tim spotted his mom first, and his sister sitting right next to her near the center of the stands. But he didn’t see his dad. But after finishing the last of the jumping jacks, he saw his dad walking back to the stands overloaded with food from the concession stand. Tim smiled at the thought of hearing about those details tonight as to why his dad was forced to go alone to get food for everyone.