Chapter 5: Band Auction

Wednesday October 8

Peggy was still playing her game of wait and see. We were running in the morning and talking, but she was not ready to commit to dating. I was starting to consider my other options. I decided that this morning I would make one last attempt. If things didn't work out, I was going to move on.

I went to Peggy's house to pick her up so we could run. She was looking good in her sweats and t-shirt. Her red hair was pulled back into a pony tail. I really liked her and could not figure out what was keeping her from going out with me. We started an easy pace and after a few minutes picked it up. I waited until we had settled into a nice pace, before I challenged her.

"Can I ask you a question about us?" I asked.

I could tell she was guarded.

"I guess," she answered.

"What have I done wrong?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean that just a couple of weeks ago we were going out. Then you said you had to break up with me to think about it. I've been stuck in the friends zone ever since. I was wondering if I had done something to warrant that," I said.

"No, I just don't know if I should go out with you," she said.

"Oh, okay."

She looked at me confused. "That's it? Just okay is you response?" she asked.

"Yeah, what else can I say? It's obvious that you don't want to go out with me, so I need to move on," I said.

"I never said I didn't want to go out with you."

"Now I'm really confused. You can't decide if you want to go out with me. I'm supposed to put my life on hold until you decide? How is that fair to anyone?" I asked.

"So, because I can't make up my mind, you are moving on?" she asked.

"If I had a clue as to what was up for debate, I might understand. I like you a lot. I have for a long time. I'm just tired of not knowing. I would hope you would want to go out with me, but I can't force you. When you keep saying you have to think about it, what I'm hearing is no. Do me a favor and put me out of my misery."

"I guess I want to go out with you," she said, clearly sounding uncertain.

I sighed. Now it felt like I forced her to go out with me.

"There's no way this will work if you aren't sure. Let me do us both a favor, and just leave us in the friend's zone. I'll find someone else to date."

"No, I want to go out with you," she said more forcefully.

I seriously had my doubts. This was not the way to start a relationship. I stopped running so I could have her full attention.

"Peggy, I really like you, but I feel like I'm forcing the issue. I'm sorry. Take your time and think about it. When you decide that you want to go out with me, we can talk."

She looked pained and just nodded. I had no idea what was going through her mind. If she wasn't willing to share with me, I would never know. We finished our run in silence.

I went straight to the training room. I was allowed to run and light throwing, but no lifting yet. I found Becky, who was in charge of me until I was cleared to play. I was hoping that she would let me practice, tonight. If I couldn't practice, Mike would start against Mt. Vernon.

"Are you taking any meds today?" Becky asked.

"No, and I ran this morning. It still hurts, but I'm ready to go," I assured her.

She had me stretch my back, and then examined my range of motion. She poked and prodded and then came to a decision.

"You can practice tonight. We are going to tape extra padding to your back and see if you can throw. I want you to come in after practice, and we'll apply some heat, and massage your back. I don't want you to stiffen up. I also want you to take your muscle relaxants before you go to sleep, and to use a heating pad tonight."

I was cleared to practice! I would follow her rules if it meant I could play. I went and found Wolf and we tossed the football back and forth. I felt okay, but I didn't push it.

At lunch, I found Maggie in the lunch line.

"Would you go out with me after the Mt. Vernon game on Friday?" I asked.

"What would we do?"

I laughed, and just walked away, shaking my head. I really should have my head examined. I wasn't playing that game again. I was tired of girls jerking me around. Either they wanted to go out, or they didn't. I was not in the mood for there to be conditions on whether or not she would go out with me. The real question was: would anyone go out with me? I sent Mona a text.

'B my date Fri?'

'Yes!' Mona answered.

Maggie had caught up with me at the table. She looked anxious.

"I'm sorry. Yes, I would like to go out with you Friday night."

"I already have a date," I told her.

That got everyone's attention, and Maggie got mad.

"How could you have a date, already? You didn't talk to anyone, yet," she accused me.

I got out my cell phone and showed her. Her eyes got big, and she jumped up from the table and left. Carmela, Ann and Sarita all went after her. Emma wanted information.

"Who are you going out with?" she asked.

"Mona. We are going out after the game," I said.

"Where are you going?" Faith asked.

I snorted. WTF was up with these girls and asking twenty questions?

"I have no idea. I would guess we would go to Monical's if we win. Heck, we might even go there if we lose," I said.

"Could you give us all a ride?" Emma asked.

I laughed. I knew it sucked being a freshman, but there was no way I was taking them on my date.

"Uh... noooo! I will be on a date," I said.

I guess that didn't really matter. They all gave me the look.

"Hey, stop right now. I'll be on a date. Think about that for just a moment, and then ask yourselves... 'Would I want David on my date?'" I asked.

"I would," Kylie said, and then blushed when Nick gave her a dirty look. "Maybe not."

"I trust that you gals can figure out how to get to Monical's after the game. I was able to do it when I was a freshman and I'm a guy," I teased them.

"I call bullshit! You were seeing a sophomore with a car. We are either not dating or are dating freshmen," Kylie said.

"Can we talk to you when you're on your date?" Emma asked.

I decided to ignore Kylie.

"It's okay to talk to me. I'm not that mean. I think you all might know Mona and she would even talk to you, too."

"We should ask Mona for a ride," Faith said giving me an evil grin.

I jumped up and tickled her.

Football practice found Bert on the second team. I went to Coach Hope to find out what the deal was. I made sure to do it after practice when it was just the two of us.

"How come Bert was demoted?" I asked.

"He has to learn to better protect your back side before we can let him back on the field."

"What would he have to do to be able to move to first team for our next game?"

"Are you serious? He about got you killed and, during the same play, he ignored the ball on the ground and cost us the game," Coach Hope said.

"Coach, I've been blamed for losing a game. Yes, Bert messed up on that play. If we don't get him back on the field, we'll lose him for the season. You've seen what something like this does to a player. We need Bert."

"I'll give him a chance on Thursday, but if he messes up we will go with his backup. The kid can at least call out a warning."

I chuckled.

"That is a step in the right direction."

"How's your back? The trainers say you will be ready come Friday. Don't bullshit me," he ordered.

"I'm about eighty-five percent, right now. I would say I can run the short and medium pass plays, but the long balls don't have the zip on them that they need."

"Would we be better served playing Mike?" he asked me.

Coach knew I would give him an honest answer.

"No. I read defenses better. Better enough to make up the difference in how I'm feeling. Mike deserves to play quarterback. I saw the game films. Take me out, if you think I'm not playing well enough to win," I told coach.

"I'll trust you to be ready," Coach Hope assured me. "We are making a change at kicker. We'll have the JV kicker handle short field goals and extra points. We'll leave our kicker in for long field goals and kickoffs. We can't have our kicking game lose us games."

I shook my head.

"He has missed two kicks, all year. I think you are messing with his confidence," I said.

"No, you weren't here. He folded under the pressure. I should have had anyone but him kicking. You could see it in his body language. We can't have him kicking in pressure situations, until he can do it."

"Who is the new kicker?" I asked.

"Wayne Turk. He's a cocky freshman."

"I'll agree with that. I had to teach him some manners," I said.

"Cassidy told me about that," he said.

"Speaking of which, how are the after-school workouts going?"

"They had almost sixty people, last night. The wrestling team is attacking it like animals. She's working with a couple of them to be able to step in and lead the workouts. In the military, they taught us about cross training your team. If anyone in our group was out of action, the rest of the team had to be able to perform. We need to start working to do that, especially any upper classmen that we have that are in leadership roles. This can't end when your group graduates."

Coach Hope had a great point. I wanted to leave a legacy.

Thursday October 9

I woke to my phone ringing. I glanced at the clock, and the LCD lights said it was six-thirty. Who would be calling this early?

"Hello?" I croaked out.

"I thought you got up early to run? I wanted to catch you before you got your day started," Nancy said.

I got up, grabbed a water bottle out of the refrigerator, and took a swallow as I picked up the phone, again.

"What's up?" I asked trying to pry the sleep out of my brain.

"I wanted to give you an update on John," she told me.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"Yes, but Karen dumped him, like we predicted. I had a long talk with him about setting expectations. I told him that if he truly wanted to have multiple partners, he needed to tell his girlfriend. That way he wouldn't hurt her."

"No, he will hurt her. She thinks they are going to get married someday. I just don't see them surviving him sleeping around. I think John has let being a college quarterback go to his head. John never struck me as the cheating kind. I hate to see him throw away the perfect relationship for him, just so he can sow some wild oats," I said.

"It's that pledge class he's in. They're out of control and I see them working on him. There are all kinds of wild rumors about them. I was actually a little happy when we were told not to go back to Theta Chi until further notice."

"I hate to ask this, but will they target you for the rift between your houses?"

"They wouldn't dare," Nancy answered.

"Yeah, and they wouldn't punch you, either. Tell me the truth, is there a chance they would do something they shouldn't?"

"Maybe," she said and let her words hang for a few moments. "You're scaring me."

"Look, I had a similar thing happen last spring. Let me get you a bodyguard until this blows over."

"No, that's stupid. They wouldn't harm me, they wouldn't dare."

"Listen, tough girl, I like you too much to take that risk. I'll get someone who can blend in with you. I'll also call John and see if he has heard anything," I said.

"I can take care of myself. Don't worry about me," she started and then got serious. "Look, I know you care about me, and I appreciate the sentiment. But I'll not allow you to spend money on a bodyguard for me. That would just be a waste."

"I'll play it your way for now. But ... I want you to get pepper spray, and carry it with you. It can shoot up to ten feet, and it closes their eyes, they can't see until they go to the emergency room and get it washed out," I said.

"Really, that's your solution?"

I chuckled because it was good to hear the old Nancy.

"Yep, that's the deal. You get pepper spray, or you get a new buddy to follow you around. Your choice," I said.

"I should get a few cases of the stuff, so all the sisters have one," she teased me.

"How many sisters are there?" I asked.

"124 plus 26 pledges."

"I'll get enough for everybody. It'll be sent over, today."

"You're serious?" she asked not sounding like she believed me.

"Of course. It's not just the Theta Chi that could cause problems. I would feel better knowing you at least have something to protect yourself. Just don't practice on each other in the house. The collateral damage sucks. I was in a parking lot when my ex-girlfriend, Tracy, sprayed it. I was down wind, and I'll tell you, that just a little bit made a believer out of me!" I said.

"I'll keep that in mind. Call John and cheer him up. I've got to go, or I'll be late for class."

She hung up. It was still too early for normal people to be on the phone, but I was not going back to sleep. I got up and decided to go for a long run.

Between classes, I called Chuck (my security guy), and he took care of getting the pepper spray. He got them small containers that attached to their key chains. It would be there by the time they got home from classes. I called John and consoled him about Karen not wanting to go out with him anymore. He did tell me that his pledge class was in a lot of trouble. Some of them were mad at Nancy, but he figured everything would be okay.

At lunch Maggie was back eating with us. She brought some guy I had never seen before. Wayne made a point of talking to me about it. I think he thought I would put the new guy through the same treatment he got.

"Aren't you going to go all big brother with Maggie's new guy?"

"Why should I, she isn't interested in him. Plus, she isn't one of the cheerleaders," I said.

He just sputtered. Maggie was a game player. If I took her guy aside and quizzed him, I would be playing right into her hands. I chuckled when word obviously got back to her and she sat in the surprised guy's lap. I was going to have to talk to Wayne about being a little rat.

I had another chuckle when Emma told me that they had found rides for Friday night. I knew the girls could figure it out if they tried. My phone rang.

"This is David," I said.

"Hey, stranger, what are you doing Sunday?" Kendal asked.

"The usual, running, going to church, having brunch with my parents, and then watching football with Dad," I filled her in on my busy schedule.

"Want to make a lot of money?" she asked.

I had instituted a no modeling rule during football season. The weekend was the only time I could do it. That was also when I looked the worst with bruising. Plus I needed some time away from everything, so I had very little interest in Kendal's offer to make money.

"Will you take no now or do I have to act like I'm listening to you, and then say no?"

"You have to listen to me."

I handed the phone to Emma.

"Here, listen to my agent and, when she is done, hand it back so I can say no."

She took the phone and rolled her eyes at me. Then she seemed to get really intense and did a few deep 'Uh, huh' noises trying to imitate me. Emma got really excited and squealed and handed the phone back to me. I had never seen her this excited about anything.

"Hey, what got Emma so excited?" I asked.

"You're a jerk. I was telling her that you have been asked to read for a role in an upcoming movie."

"Oh, cool. When and where?" I asked.

Ashley Judd had told me about the movie this winter. I had never done anything like this, before. I wouldn't expect them to just hand the role to me.

"We are scheduled for Sunday morning at eleven, in Chicago. I'll pick you up at seven-thirty so we have plenty of time. I'll get you the script for your section, and email it over so you can learn your lines."

That was the part I was worried about, learning my lines. I had never done anything like that, but what the heck. I'd give it a shot. Kendal and I wrapped up our call and I turned to find the table staring at me. Emma must have filled them in.

What followed was an epic inquisition. Of course I didn't have any answers. I could tell this was getting out of hand. So I sent a tweet to slow everything down.

'Been asked to read for a movie role. No more info @ this time.'

Why that didn't work I have no idea. I probably should have talked to Lily first.

"WHAT THE FUCK! STOP!" I yelled.

I was in the training room getting ready for practice. Paige was looking pissed at me. My yelling had Jill and Becky running out of their offices. Paige was putting on my back pads. Instead of using the pre-wrap, Paige had just started to put the regular tape on. There was a reason you use the pre-wrap. It keeps the tape from sticking to your skin.

It didn't help that the two trainers had started laughing when they saw what had happened. Paige finally figured it out and was embarrassed. The good news was she only got my left side with one strip of tape. Becky walked up and had me lift my arm. Then the evil bitch ripped it off. I confess my mom would not be proud of the things I called her. For some reason they all thought it was funny. My sympathy goes out to women who wax.

Paige was transformed into my hero at that point. She got some spray that numbed me; then she got me ready for practice. It was getting to be quite the chore to get ready now. Besides the pads put on my back, I had to get both ankles and my left wrist taped.

In practice I was feeling pretty good. I still felt a twinge when I threw deep. I could do it, but I didn't want to have to do too many long balls on Friday.

Friday October 10

A cold front had pushed its way in during the day, and the temperature had been dropping. This morning when I went to school it was seventy; but just before kickoff, it was fifty-five, and there was a slight drizzle. It was going to be miserable, playing tonight.

Mt. Vernon was in our conference and they were 3 – 3 coming into tonight's game. We currently stood at 5 – 1. On paper we should win this game handily, but Mt. Vernon always found a way to play us tough. Tim and I were standing at the edge of the field waiting for Coach to lead us out. At his signal, we ran between the cheerleaders to our sideline. The booster club had gotten cow bells for the parents. You could hear them ringing while the band played our school song.

When Tim and I went out for the coin flip we weren't feeling the cold. Mt. Vernon was all in dark green.

"New uniforms?" I asked as we shook hands.

"We wear them for special occasions, like beating you," their quarterback told me.

"You better go change," Tim told them.

"Settle down," the ref told us. "Mt. Vernon you're the visitor so you will be calling it on the toss. This is heads and this is tails."

The ref told us as he showed us the coin. He then flipped it and Mt. Vernon called tails. It came up tails. They decided to defer to the second half. We took the ball. They had pulled me off of special teams and defense, until I was 100%. So I watched as our kickoff return team returned it to the 18 yard line.

Coach Diamond had called the first three plays so we ran out and lined up as soon as the ball was spotted. We were in the shotgun with a back on each side of me. The power was to the left of the formation since that was where Wolf was lined up at tight end. Mt. Vernon was rushing out on the field to get set so I was not sure what defense they were in. Their basic set was a five three. That was where they had five down linemen and three linebackers leaving just three defensive backs. It was geared to stop the run. I assumed that was what they would be in.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!"

We were running the option left to our power. I put the ball in Bert's replacements belly and saw he was going to go nowhere, so I pulled the ball out and made my next read, the defensive end. He was in no man's land playing the pitch. I made a jab step like I was going to pitch to Kelly and used it to plant and turn up field. One of the middle linebackers caught me after a 4 yard gain.

We lined up in the same formation except we flipped it because the ball was now on the left hash mark. Mt. Vernon was in their set defense with eight men in the box.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!"

We went option right this time. Mt. Vernon was determined to shut down the inside and I pulled the ball from the fullback again. The defensive end on this side forced me to pitch to Kelly. Wolf made a nice block on the linebacker on this side and Jeff had a block on the cornerback. Kelly was setup for a nice gain when the cornerback made a heck of a play and shed Jeff's block and made the play only giving up 3 yards. It was now third and three.

We hurried to the line and lined up with me under center in the 'I' formation. You could tell Mt. Vernon was fired up. They wanted to get a quick three and out to start the game. We were counting on them being aggressive and called the first counter play we had run in a real game. Basically it looks like dive right with the fullback leading the play. Everyone blocks as if that is where the ball is going to try and influence the defense into protecting that area. Instead the tailback makes a hard jab to the right and then goes to the left side of the line.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!"

It worked just like we had drawn it up. Kelly made the jab step and their defense took the bait. There was a huge pile on the right side of the line. When Kelly cut back he had a crease where the middle linebacker should have been and it was off to the races. Luckily for Mt. Vernon, their safety was able to track down Kelly after only 15 yards.

We ran up to the line and I called the play as the ref set the ball and the chains hurried to get set. Mt. Vernon was rushing to get into place.

"BINGO, BINGO!" I called option away from the power. In this case it was left.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!"

This time the fullback had a crease. I let him run the ball. He was able to pick up 3 yards. We ran up to the line.

"BINGO ONE, BINGO ONE! I called the first pass of the game. It was off the same play action as the option.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!"

I put the ball in the fullback's gut and then pulled it out. Wolf had brush blocked the middle linebacker and let him run past him. I did a little hop to get over the line and hit Wolf in stride. The safety made a hell of a play and Wolf only gained 11 yards. The only problem was the safety lost the collision. Wolf is a big boy at six-five and 235 pounds and their safety was five-ten and 165 pounds. He may have made the tackle but he was lying on the field holding his left arm. The game was called to a halt while Mt. Vernon took care of their injured player.

I trotted over to Coach Diamond while we had the injury timeout. Coach Hope came over with his clip board.

"Their backup is a sophomore that has not played but a handful of downs. Let's switch to the passing game and have Wolf work him over," Coach Hope said.

"Mike, Bert you're in!" Coach Diamond called. "Shift, Four wide, power strong, 'X' skinny."

We were going into a four receiver set with three receivers on the strong side. The receivers were labeled W, X, Y and Z. W was the weak side receiver. X was the tight end. Skinny was a tight post from an inside player. The final piece was the shift. We would move into it on Set forcing Mt. Vernon to react to our formation change.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!" I called with more of a pause to allow Mike to shift into the slot.

On the shift, Mt. Vernon was screaming a change in defense. The third linebacker was moving back to a safety position on the snap of the ball. The middle linebacker let Wolf go to help cover Mike. That was what we were looking for and I hit Wolf just as he made his cut to the post. The linebacker turned and crossed his feet wrong to run with him giving Wolf an advantage. The new safety closed and when he went to tackle Wolf he was hit with a straight arm that put him on his ass.

Wolf was gone until I saw the weak side cornerback make a shoestring tackle. He tackled Wolf at the five yard line.

"HUDDLE UP!" I called.

I wanted to give Coach Diamond time to get Kelly back into the game. He was our more experienced goal line back. He took Mike's spot.

"Dive right," Kelly told me.

I called the play and checked the defense. They were now in a six down linemen goal-line formation. I knew that meant that they were in man-to-man on the outside. Bill would be a lock to score.

"Check, Check! Check, Check!" I called to let everyone know it was a pass play. As I called check I held up a fist to let Bill know the ball was coming his way.

"Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!"

I made a play action motion to Kelly as I held the ball on my hip. I spun to the weak side hiding the ball as long as I could. I found Bill racing to the corner so I threw my rainbow arc pass just out of bounds for him to go get it. He reached up and pulled it back in and went to the ground so the defender couldn't make a play. The cow bells told me that the crowd knew we just scored. With the extra point, we were up 7 – 0.

Mt. Vernon could not get their offense on track. Their defense toughened up and held us to just one more score come halftime. We were up 14 – 0 when we came out for the second half.

Mt. Vernon got the ball first in the second half. They were making a nice drive and I was getting worried that we might have a game on our hands. They put together a nine play drive that had the ball on our 17 yard line. Their quarterback made a mental mistake and turned to the left to hand off when his fullback and tail back both went right. Jim was let go at tackle because he was on the side where the play wasn't going. He reached out and swatted the ball out of the quarterback's hands and fell on it.

Coach Diamond had called the same three plays to start the second half. We ran out onto the field and lined up. Mt. Vernon was slow getting off the field. On the snap they had a couple of offensive players slowly heading to the sideline. There were flags all over the field.

Bert had gotten his job back during the first half, so I made the option read for the inside and saw it was covered. The defensive end actually fell down. I cut up field with Ed on my shoulder, waiting for the pitch. If you broke through the eight man front, the only real obstacle was the safety. I made a move on him that made Ed laugh out loud. The poor kid was searching for his jock.

I saw the fast cornerback trying to track me down. I focused on running hard, but relaxed like my speed coach had taught me, and I found that I was not losing any ground. The long score took the life out of Mt. Vernon. Coach Hope pulled me from the game at that point and let Mike play most of the third quarter and all of the fourth. Neither team did much from that point on, and the score ended 21 – 0.

My final stats were 298 yard passing and 104 yards rushing. I also had two TDs throwing and one running. Bill had one of the TDs and Jeff the other. Bill had 8 catches for 160 yards. Jeff had 7 for 93 yards. Wolf had 6 for 103 yards. Kelly had 82 yards rushing, Ed had 56 yards and Mike added 52 yards. As a team we had 306 yards rushing and 356 yards passing for a total of 672 yards. Mt. Vernon managed only 236 yards of total offense. By all rights, this game was not near as close as the score indicated.

The best part was there had been no sacks and I felt great after the game.

Mona was waiting for me when I came out of the locker room. I took her hand and led her to the Jeep. It was interesting that we had not talked other than the text I sent to ask her out. We chatted about the game on our ride over to Monical's. When we got there, there was a line to get in. The assistant manager saw us standing in line and came out to get us. Mike's dad had reserved the banquet room for football players and their guests.

As we walked in, I got a video camera and mic shoved in my face by the local sports gal. I really didn't like her, because she was all about creating stories instead of reporting them.

"David... ," she started.

I held up my hand in front of the camera. I recognized their normal guy, and he looked a little embarrassed by the ambush.

"Hang on. Let's do this right. Let me get my teammates that did well tonight and we can do it on the stage," I told the reporter. I turned to Mona. "Go get Coach, Mike, Jim, Jeff, Kelly, Wolf and Ed and tell them to meet me on the stage."

She took off to help me. I saw Tracy and waved her over. She was talking to a guy in a Northwestern polo shirt. She came over.

"Can you act as MC and run the press conference?" I asked her.

She gave me a big smile. I think I made her day.