Chapter 5: Starting

"Sixty yards, and a touch further if I'm not mistaken." Coach gave me an admiring look before continuing, "Son, I have never seen a Sophomore throw the ball so far, before!"

Meanwhile, by my side, Kevin was jumping up and down, crowing in his delight.

Turning around, I gave him a smile. I couldn't resist getting in a shot though, "Well, Coach we've only just met. Of course you haven't seen someone like me until now!"

Coach Franklin glowered at me for a moment before he laughed out loud, "Enough of your cheek. Take a lap for that, Talbot. I'll have you try passing in a scrimmage once the team is done with their drills."

Giving him a cocky salute, I slowly headed towards the track once more. As I jogged away, I heard Coach mutter indistinctly, "Oh good grief! Now there's two of them Talbots..."

I suppose there were many reasons for my athletic abilities.

Superior genetic material from my parents, for one, or the quality nutrition and care provided by them over the years. Various types of cross training over the years, albeit at a junior level may have helped too.

Between playing cricket as a bowler, rugby as a scrum-half, and recently starring as the male lead in my various masturbatory fantasies, my forearms had developed a sort of wiry strength at the very least, belying what my skinny frame looked to be able to do.

I can understand the surprise felt by Coach Franklin when I threw the ball slightly beyond sixty yards. I certainly didn't look capable of such a feat.

Finishing the lap, I spied Coach speaking to a group of boys which included my brother and Kevin. As I approached the group, he turned to me and said, "Alright Talbot..."

Charlie piped up, "Which one, Coach?" inducing a round of laughter from his teammates around him.

"Bunch of knuckleheads..." I heard Coach Franklin grumble to himself. "The younger one!"

"Call him Chetwynd, Coach, that's what I do." This time, it was Kevin's contribution.

God save me from my friends, I can defend myself against my enemies.

What a singularly true statement, so apt for this moment.

"Alright, Talbot ... Chetwynd! This is what's going to happen. You'll be taking part in a live scrimmage, where... " and off Coach Franklin went, using football terms that made my eyes fairly glaze over.

"So you want me to just throw the ball to Jackson, down the right?" I asked.

"Not quite so simplistic, but otherwise yes. Don't worry, the linemen will at most jostle you slightly. I want to see how you deal with the pressure. Got it?" he looked at me for a response.

"Uh, yeah. F'sure."

Thinking about what I had to do, it didn't seem that complicated. Once the linemen were in position, I stood behind the centre. When I felt ready, I accidentally brushed the back of my hands down his perineum.

"Hey, what the fuck man!" he turned and stared at me.

"Oops, sorry, sorry." I totally did not intend to do that. Although if I was being honest, shouldn't the centre be used to people tapping all parts of his ass by now? I know props in Rugby get their crotches grazed unintentionally by the locks all the time.

'Oh well', this was my time. Taking in a deep breath, I readied myself, before braying out in the loudest possible voice, "Greeeeeeeeen 86, Greeeeeeeen 86, hut-hut-HIKE!"

This time round, the whole line of players in front of me, as well as those opposite me stood up and stared at as like I was an idiot of the highest order.

"What in the heavens' are you doin' son?" Coach Franklin shouted at me from the sidelines.

"Is ... that not what I'm supposed to do?" before I could explain further about how Keanu Reeves did it in 'The Replacements', and how I had always wanted to do it ever since I watched it in the cinema, Coach Franklin had already stormed over and gotten into my face.

Desperate to look anywhere else but into his face, it being so close to mine, I looked past the Coach into the smiling faces of both Charlie and Kevin who were serving as the opposing linemen for the purpose of this exercise. 'Great, ' I thought, 'at least something positive came out of that mistake.'

Taking a deep breath in to calm himself down, what with his face so close to mine, I could feel him almost moving the littlest hairs on my face. Coach Franklin backed away and said, "Just ... hike the ball. Once. Is that clear?"

"Uh, yes Coach." I replied, slightly dubiously. I honestly felt at the moment I was treated fairly unjustly. How was I to know what I should have done? Haven't I already declared my lack of experience to the Coaching staff from the beginning? For goodness sakes' I was seriously contemplating ignoring Kevin for the rest of our time here at East Boston. And Charlie. Shouldn't forget about him.

Shrugging, I bent my knees and got to it, hoping I could grab a nice, warm shower as soon as this nonsense was over.

I couldn't resist it though. I chose a scene from 'Remember the Titans' for inspiration – the only other movie about American football that I had watched. "Reaaaaaaaaaaady, Two-twenny four, Two-twenny four, Hut!"

I don't know for certain till today whether my brother said anything to all of them, or that they were all somewhat in sync. Whatever the case, both sets of linemen played along, and when I moved visibly away from the centre, both lines surged against each other. The hits did not sound friendly at all. Panicking slightly, I took a few steps back while looking out to my right, tracking the assigned runner as he headed downfield.

'I'm not even wearing armour for goodness sakes!' I thought to myself. From the corner of my eye, I saw a fast approaching figure. At this point of time, I couldn't have cared less. Throwing the ball away as quickly as I could, I instinctive closed my eyes and braced for impact.

A few seconds later, I felt a light tap on my shoulder as I heard Charlie chortle in glee. Opening my eyes, I glared at him sourly. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I could have died out here for fuck's sakes' Charlie!"

"Oh lighten up, will you? We had explicit instructions not to touch you." he said.

"Well, thanks for telling me ... now!" was my resentful answer.

At least in rugby, I had the referee on my side when any unexpected contact over the ruck was strictly penalised. Here, I didn't even have the time to set myself and target a pass to the receiving player.

Coach Franklin interrupted my pity party when he laid a heavy hand on my shoulder. "Well done son, you've have showed me you can pass while under pressure."

My surprise must have showed on my face because he continued, "That was a heck of a fine throw, for a raw beginner like you."

"I just think that maybe you need some time to learn the plays, get comfortable with playing in the position, and getting used to being rushed. Whaddya think? Are you keen to play for the JV team as a reserve QB?" he suggested.

Well, I certainly did not anticipate such an outcome. I was so sure that I would fail the try-outs.

For awhile, I hemmed and hawed. Coach Franklin sensed my indecision, although he mistaken thought that I had higher ambitions than being the reserve QB for the JV team. When he offered me a way out, I just took it. "Why don't you tag along for a week, and observe how my QBs practice. It wouldn't hurt and will probably help you make up your mind a wee better than you hem-ming and haw-wing here!"

Breathing out a breath of relief, I quickly rushed off the field to get warm. What did I get myself into?

"And then he stood there hugging himself, eyes closed. You should have seen him, Mom!"

Over dinner that night, Charlie related the tale of my embarrassing try-outs to our parents. While Mom was at least trying to stifle her laughter, Dad had no such compunctions what so ever. He was laughing uproariously at my brother's increasingly dramatised re-enactments of my reactions.

"Ha-Ha. laugh it up guys. See if I don't just decide to not play at all, Charlie!"

"As for both of you," turning to my parents, who in turn raised identical brows of superiority and challenge back at me, " ... I've got nothing."

'Pfffffffft, this was entirely too much of a bother', I thought as I excused myself from dinner and trudged upstairs to my room.

After a good night's rest, I felt better about football. While I still wasn't sold on the idea of the game in general, at least I wasn't entirely disinterested. Why not take some time to discover if it was really for me? After all, what harm could there be in tailing the Varsity team QBs?

Seeing Charlie enjoying football was also another reason why I thought I should give it a go. Just in case, I also made up my mind to talk Mom in allowing me to join a local rugby club. As it turns out, Boston had a fair few rugby clubs with youth programmes. In terms of standards of play, while incomparable to those in England, it was still better than nothing.

I suppose, 'in the absence of fish, prawns would too suffice'. My Dad had picked up this particular saying in Singapore which was a favourite of his, directly translated from Hokkien, a dialect group of the Chinese language.

September, 2004

Mrs. Reagan was one of my favourite teachers. After testing out of half of my Sophomore classes, the requirements of the curriculum meant that I had to enrol into some additional elective units to be on track for graduation. Over the summer, as I grew rapidly, my balance was compromised. I had to adjust to the new dimensions of my body. Because of that, I had also lost some of the agility that I used to have in spades. After looking at the electives list offered by East Boston High, Mom suggested I take up Dance to fulfil my Arts requirement, but also to help me train and regain my sense of balance.