Chapter 76: Transformations

The night of the takeover of the Darq Squad was a seminal event in every witness’s life. Several were uncomfortable with the sudden and extreme escalation of the violence. Most of the new Darq Squad were gang members looking forward to a short life of crime. These members quickly separated themselves from the more eager ones. That sat fine with the new leader, Tommy.

Tommy did not sit on his laurels. He had plans, and his plans were partly to reimagine the gang. He was more interested in creating a feeling of a family rather than a gang. The idea of a family protecting each other was more profound than a gang watching over their territory. That first night, he began creating his new Darq Family — a family to everyone in it and a cult to those outside it.

Tommy was a brilliant individual – not only street-smart but also book-smart. He was an enigma since he not only knew the streets but he was very well-read. He understood what he wanted to create and had spent most of his free time investigating how to do it. He had read and learned. He spent much time reading about how cults were formed and how they grew.

Tommy felt ready to try his hand at a cult willing to follow him. He initially gathered the other gang members’ attention through his sudden and dramatic escalation of violence when he killed A-Train. Those who knew him were shocked when he stood against A-Train and murdered him right before all the other gang members.

Tommy had already maneuvered the guys he thought would be the most significant assets into place around him before he made his move against A-Train. Since A-Train had placed him in charge of acclimating new members to the gang, he used his access to everyone to find the kind of individuals he could trust when needed. He had chosen several people who would not only be desensitized to sudden and frightening violence but would be willing to use it themselves.

The main guys were a set of twins with an impoverished upbringing. They were friends of A-Train’s, and that was who brought them into the gang. The Rogers Brothers never had much of a childhood, being forced to live house after house with a negligent father and their mother in jail on various charges. If there was any weakness within the Rogers Brothers, it was their attachment to their mother, who they made a point to visit at least once a month in jail. Each time she would get out, she’d return to her life of crime. It was all she knew, and she always brought her twin boys to serve as mules and had them shuttle illegal substances wherever necessary.

The last time she was busted, A-Train was the guy who got their mother sent back to prison. This time, it would be for a long enough sentence that the twins needed to begin thinking for themselves. A-Train did not let the brothers know of his involvement initially, but he accidentally let the wrong information out one night, and he didn’t even realize he had done it. From that night, the Roger Brothers were very interested in taking down A-Train.

The only thing the brothers didn’t like about Tommy’s plan to take over the gang was that he would be the one to take out A-Train. Tommy showed them how important it would be for him to do the deed, and they needed to watch his back when he did so. That set them up as Tommy’s protection.

The Rogers Brothers were ruthless. They had both already killed several people, usually other drug dealers. The brothers were not that intelligent, but they were street smart, and both understood A-Train would always keep the two well underfoot because of what he had done to their mother. Once Tommy showed them the truth of their situation, the two decided to back Tommy when he made his move.

Once Tommy knew he had a solid backup for his plans of taking over, he had them do some recon. Since the twins were not considered intelligent, A-Train tended to let them hang out around him when he met other vital people. As such, the Rogers Brothers knew each of A-Train’s contacts for drugs around the city. They had been introduced, and their mother’s reputation was known throughout the criminal underworld. She wasn’t a leader as such, but she was a known buyer and seller who never snitched on anyone else, no matter how much time the District Attorney offered her for more information on who she worked with in her past.

When Tommy took out A-Train, Tommy already knew which members of the gang he was going to appoint to which positions. He also understood which members would not go along with his new management. The new leader was sure no one else would try to take over after the spectacle of disposing of A-Train. When he sat down in A-Train’s seat, he noticed which members had left incredibly quickly. He put those people on a list for him to check off later. If they wanted out, okay, but they needed to acknowledge him as the new leader if they wanted to stay.

Tommy also decided that others might not want to listen to new management unless they were brought up in position. Most of the guys he would bribe with different posts and responsibilities, and several others he would need to either kick out or find a way to get rid of them. That’s where the Rogers Brothers would come into play. They were to be his new avenging angels. Tommy’s primary scare tactic was to let them know that if you wanted to take over for yourself, you needed to get past not only Tommy but Tommy’s new protection, the Rogers Brothers.

Right below the Rogers Brothers, Tommy would use the guys he used to attempt to get his money back from Tim in the school restroom. They weren’t successful, but they went in willingly just because Tommy asked. That showed they were more than halfway there to follow Tommy as a new leader.

Many more people committed to staying with the Darq Family once the Rogers Brothers showed they were in high positions. If they had the ambition and knew how to be in charge, most would follow them. Tommy understood how much more powerful he could become with the brothers standing beside him and backing any plan.

Sundays during the NFL season were unofficially family time in the Murphy household, but in the middle of the first Sunday afternoon family time after the Riders’ win, a producer claiming to be from ESPN was persistently calling the home phone and asking to speak with Tim. The first playoff win nearly quadrupled the press requests for more of Tim’s time, but those new calls came from national sports TV and internet websites.

After several calls, Juanita made a managerial decision and flamboyantly unplugged the landline from the wall. “There! That’s it! Tim, from now on, give out your cell number. I’m not your secretary. Raymond will fix the phone later.” She then continued her display by dramatically dropping the line onto the floor like a “mic drop.”

“That’s cool. We’ll catch the call-waiting if it is important, Juana,” Raymond announced without fanfare. Knowing this would upset his wife, he calmed her down first with a mischievous smile. “I’ll bet it felt good, but remember to put it back in and just turn off the ringer.”

With an exhale of frustration, Juanita rolled her eyes, plugged the phone in, and dramatically sat back down. It took a couple of minutes before the phone rang softly. While it could be heard, the sound was muted. Everyone smiled and then laughed.

A minute after the Cowboys beat the Saints, the doorbell rang. No muted ringer there. Tim got up before everyone and answered the door.

“Hey, Tim, do you have a few minutes? We’d like to talk to you,” Terry Holden offered. His brother, Sam Holden, and a cameraman Tim had not yet met all waited with Terry on the porch.

“Sure, fellas. The game just finished, so it’s cool,” Tim opened the door for the three men and introduced them to his father, Raymond, who was still jubilant after watching another Cowboys victory. “Do you wanna talk in the dining room or my room?” Tim asked.

Raymond quickly spoke up. “Tim, take them to your room,” he proclaimed loudly with a broad smile carved on his face. “Y’all go talk in there, and I’ll go check on the woman of the house and see about this so-called dinner she claims to have been making for another ‘After Cowboys Victory’ meal.” He rose from his chair, puffed his chest out, and marched toward the kitchen, proudly singing about his winning team.

“I swear he gets more excited about a Cowboys victory than mine,” Tim joked, leading the guys to his bedroom.

“Okay, Tim, we came over because we wanted to let you in on some changes on the filming schedules starting this week,” Terry Holden began the conversation once in Tim’s room.

“ ... and to maybe give you a hand with stuff that, if I’ve heard correctly, is beginning to pop up. You know, like recruiters calling at all times and all the different ways,” his brother said, and they gave each other knowing smirks.

“Okay, sounds good,” Tim agreed, then asked, “So I’ll be seeing you guys a lot more often then, I guess?”

“Well, just Mike. He’s the main cameraman for this project. If he needs to miss something, he’ll let you and your coaches know.”

Tim’s mother, Juanita, made her voice known from the kitchen, “Carmen, come help your father set the table and put three more places down.” Sam stepped out the open bedroom door toward the kitchen and caught Juanita’s attention.

“Oh no, Ma’am! Thanks for the offer, but we have a couple of other meetings we need to get to tonight before the day gets by us for next week, but again, thanks,” Sam answered, but regretted his appropriateness when he smelled the food cooking. “Ooh, maybe we could catch a rain check on that. It does smell incredible.”

“Oh, okay. Just the four of us then, Carmen,” she updated her daughter.

“Tim, we won’t keep you very long. Here is the preliminary schedule for the week. This is the first, and we’ll just email them to you along with any changes. You’ve got our numbers if any problems pop up. Like, if you’re gonna miss school for an illness or whatever, please give us a call, and we’ll make changes as necessary.”

Tim nodded his agreement while he read the schedule.

“We also came by because we’ve heard that the college recruiters have begun making themselves known to you. Am I right?” Tim again nodded. “Well, that’s something you need to get out in front of, Tim. You gotta promote yourself a little bit. Just waiting for colleges to come to you won’t really work. You gotta sell yourself.”

“What do you mean? It seems like my work on the field is doing a decent job of selling myself to colleges,” Tim paused, and disgust showed across his face. “I don’t like the idea of ‘selling’ myself to colleges. If they want me, they can get a hold of me.”

“Oh well, Tim, that’s true, of course, but you need to get yourself out there for others as well. You want all the college recruiting websites coming after you. You want them to know what colleges are coming after you. You want the other colleges to know what colleges are coming after you. You want the money men to know where you want to go. With the new NIL [name, image & likeness] rules opening the pocketbooks, officially, you want them to know you might want to come to their school, but their rival school just offered you so much to come there that it is moving you toward that decision.”

“Well, I definitely don’t like that,” Tim said with his disgusted look burrowing deeper into his face.

The brothers looked at each other, and the older brother, Terry, took over the conversation. “No one really likes it, and those who do probably aren’t going to take the time to see which is the right school for themselves. They’ll take the biggest bag of legal money.” Terry paused to lean in for emphasis. “As well as the illegal money that will appear, for that matter.”

Terry leaned back again and continued, “Listen, there is gonna be plenty of time. When we have more time, we can sit down with your family and help you go through it all. Believe me, we have no horse in the race, but, well, in the little bit of time we’ve known you, I’m positive you’ll do whatever is the right and best thing for you.

“But back to what is going to start up this week. We are all here to make a buck and to hopefully help you, but we are business people, and we want to make money. We are going to do that by telling part of your story. We want to follow your journey through football — in high school and onto college. If we will follow you there, we really don’t know yet. That will be a business decision for a different time.”

Tim looked at the two brothers out of the corner of his eye. They noticed it, and Sam took over the conversation. “Well, like anyone looking to make a buck, we gotta make sure there is an audience for it. Now, we’ve bet that people all over the world are going to want to watch what happens with you and some of the other Rough Riders as y’all move toward your first state championship.”

Tim smiled, and Terry continued with the spiel. “So we are going to make a few episodes to finish off this season and then post those on YouTube this summer and see if people click on it. We think they will.

“We have already started some filming in the last couple of weeks, but just some background stuff. We begin filming tomorrow morning in earnest with practice. You’ll notice the difference since we’ll follow a few of you guys around through your classes. We’ll try to stay as far back as we can. We’ll give you and a couple other guys microphones to wear under your shirts so we can record audio.”

Sam explained, “If you are recording for audio, it might be best to let your teacher know before class begins that you have an active microphone. You’ll be able to turn it off or on, as necessary, but in all likelihood, you’ll need it for passing periods and lunch. That’s most likely when the best conversations happen and when your real-life high school life happens – not listening to the teacher drone on about dates and algorithms to memorize, am I right?” Sam asked with a smile.

“Sure. Not a problem on my end. I don’t think anyone would want to watch what happens to me and my friends at lunch. You guys want to record it, then record it,” Tim figured. His life was dull in his mind, and no one would want to see what was happening to him at lunch. “I mean, at least it ain’t streaming live! That would suck for everyone,” Tim chuckled, but he did notice the brothers snicker to themselves again. “Now, wait a second, what was that?”

“Oh, nothing. No, we aren’t going to live stream your lunch. That would never work; if we wanted to do something like that, it would be practice. I doubt your coach would let us do that,” Sam joked but quickly moved on, “Right, so we’ve gone over the starts, the mics, and also that we’ll be taping times at practice.”

“What do you mean taping times at practice?”

“Well, Tim, we don’t want to just tape practice. That would be boring. We’ll tape opening warm-ups and a few plays with you getting contact. Basically, getting film of you hitting someone and you interacting with your teammates. This will probably be a thrill for them, mostly. You’ll get sick of us after a while,” Terry laughed. “We’ll show you the final product before we post, and we’ll get your sign-off before then. It’s something we do differently than other YouTube channels we’ve heard about. They usually just tape and post. They show whatever they want to show. Even if it is something that might embarrass their star, they show it.”

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds before Tim responded, “Okay, I’m on board, and I’m looking forward to it. Really, it sounds like fun.”

“That’s what we are shooting for as well, Tim,” Terry answered for his brother. The three representatives from UTRHighlightVideos visibly relaxed. “We thought we’d have a harder time convincing you to do this. Seriously, it might get a little harrowing having a film crew follow you around all school day. The only time we might leave you alone is when you go to the can.” Everyone appropriately laughed at the joke.

“Well, I’m still apprehensive about having you follow me from class to class.”

“We won’t be at every class. No one on YouTube will want to sit through a math lesson or even History. No, we’ll be at your second-period Journalism class, though. We understand it’s unorthodox from the regular class.”

“You hit that right on the nose.”

“Exactly. We’ll use that as a template for how you interact with other classmates. Not just other football players.”

“Well, there are a few in the class with me.”

“That’s fine, but we’ll focus on you,” Terry said.

“Have you brought this up with Mr. Baird? He’s pretty cool, but he’d want to approve of this happening in his classroom.”

“I got it approved, overall, through the principal’s office, and he said neither of the two classes we pointed to would be a problem. They suggested we could counteract the laid-back attitude of Mr. Baird’s class with a regular class with your English teacher, a Miss...” Terry disclosed as he quickly scrambled to look for the name in his notes.

“Holmes,” both Sam and Tim answered at the same time.

Tim could not keep his opinion of Miss Holmes off his face, and he looked embarrassed when she was brought up in the conversation. He also couldn’t stop his memory from reverting to the wildfire-like relationship with his English teacher. He quickly returned to the now and prayed no one noticed any blush on his part. The awkward teenager hoped for both of them to forget that subject. He decided, though, to go ahead and speak up since the others were snickering at his sudden input.”Well, yeah, the two teachers are night-and-day different from each other, but they both are still good teachers,” Tim answered as politically correct as possible.

“I guess that settles it,” Terry declared. “We’ll all be seeing much more of each other at school and after practice. We might even want to put a cameraman in the stands with your family during your playoff game. We might not use the footage, but it’s always great to get film of the fans – humanizes our boy, here.” Terry then turned his attention back to Tim, “Memento Mori, young man. Memento Mori – but enjoy the ride. Not many get to take it.”

“Yes, I could die,” Tim answered.

“All right! Before we go, one last thing. We pressed on it briefly earlier, but it’s something we suggest you really need to work on,” Terry impressed upon Tim.

“What?”

“Your online presence, or really your lack of an online presence. You need to promote yourself and anything impacting your day. Just short of live streaming, like you said earlier. You should, at the very least, put out a short list of schools you are interested in going to so when you start getting offers for scholarships from colleges all over the country, they’ll know. A lot of those press requests will fall off if everyone knows who you’re thinking about going to go,” Sam explained.

“Do you know where you want to play football in college?” Terry challenged Tim. He was suddenly terrified of the answer. He realized they hadn’t even asked the young man if he wanted to attend college! if he didn’t, they might have made a mistake in centering one of their new shows on this particular high school football player.

“Oh, yeah, I’m going to college. I don’t know where yet, but I do know a few of them don’t even have a football team,” Tim answered as he swiveled in his desk chair and reached for a small pile of envelopes. It was a nice handful of letters with several different college logos visible on them.

“Oh, are these the recruitment letters you’ve gotten so far?” Sam queried as he reached for the pile to pass around.

“Na. Those are the non-athletic offers so far,” Tim countered. “These are the athletic recruitment letters sent so far,” he clarified as he got up and opened one side of the wall of closets. “I had to squeeze my clothes into just one side of my closet to have someplace to save these letters. I want to hang onto everything I get from recruiters just to remember it all. Dr. Johnson, from the Booster Club, told me to hang onto it all so I can brag to my kids whenever I eventually have them.”

In the closet were five large, clear plastic boxes stuffed to near-overflowing and stacked one on top of the other, nearly reaching the clothes rod. “I got a few more of these boxes filled up in the garage. Dad has been joking that I’ll need to get a rental unit and put them in there if I want to keep them ‘cause if they hurt his mowing equipment, he’ll make me cut the lawn with a pair of scissors,” Tim chuckled.

Sam and Terry opened a couple of the envelopes passed around by Tim. After counting the number of offer sheets and sorting them, they could not believe they were looking at 18 different standing offers for full-ride scholarships to play football at some of the largest football schools in the country. The envelopes and form letters within each featured letterhead and logos of easily-recognizable institutes on the top, namely in-state ones like the University of Texas, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A&M, Texas Christian University, and Baylor University.

Some of the best from the rest of the country were Louisiana State University, the University of Oklahoma, Florida State University, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, the University of Alabama, Auburn University, and Clemson University. The country’s west coast was represented by the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and the University of Oregon. Excellent Midwest teams found in the pile were Pennsylvania State University and Ohio State University.

Each of these schools was already offering a full scholarship to a freshman high school football player without asking for a chance to try to sell their school to Tim and his family. They wanted him to announce he was coming to their school.

“Oops, I forgot to put these in the pile. I got them yesterday,” Tim stated and handed over a couple of more envelopes. Terry reached for them and didn’t bother opening the already-opened letters, but he could recognize the logos on the envelopes. They were from Stanford University and the University of Michigan.