A Matter of Life and Death
Copyright© 2016 by G. J. Raven
Chapter 8: What a Difference a Week Makes
Coming of Age Sex Story: Chapter 8: What a Difference a Week Makes - James was a slightly atypical, globe-trotting, sports playing, arcade loving teenager. Here's his journey from a boy to a man, through middle school to college as he learns about his strengths and weaknesses, and grows to dream about becoming a sportsman, whilst dealing with all the vagaries of life.
Caution: This Coming of Age Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa mt/ft mt/Fa Mult Teenagers Consensual Romantic Drunk/Drugged Lesbian Heterosexual Fiction Celebrity Humor Sports
What a difference a week makes! In the span of a week, I had gone from relative anonymity to being featured prominently on in our local paper. I didn't have to buy a copy, I damned near drowned under the multiple copies being showered on me by my teammates and friends in school.
In spite of my previous status as the JV quarterback, I was not known around school for being on the football team. In fact, I was not known around the school, period. With the exception of Tom and Carlos, and then subsequently, my homeroom classmates; I didn't think that anyone else beyond my teammates knew that I was a football player. JV games were not usually attended by many people discounting the various family members and friends of the players. The majority of the people at our games were either high school football nuts, alumni, or the nearby airport workers on their breaks.
Such a situation actually suited me fine since I wasn't too keen on being 'the Man', or in Charlie-speak – the chick magnet. In his efforts to blend in with our American classmates, he started listening to what passes off as music produced by hip-hop artists. The lesson that 'bitches love gold does not necessarily translate well to high school life. Charlie, being ever so selective in utilising his intelligence understood 'gold' to mean 'status' – and I would have to agree that most high school girls would love nothing better than a jock with brains and looks.
For me, I was fine. I had my regular lunch buddies in Tom and Carlos. I had my various friends in the other classes whom I would joke around, and discuss homework with.
I had my family at home, and then I had my favourite game – Red Alert, although the newly released World of Warcraft (WoW) seemed to have great potential in usurping Red Alert in that regard – in commanding my time aside, from homework and practice. Yes, I am a computer nerd, bite me. Hormones still hadn't hit me hard as of yet. While I found girls pretty, I didn't feel the compulsive need to impress them as such. Mostly, my desires could be satiated with a quick wank here and there. So, to say that I was relatively contented, with not being the man, would be fairly accurate. Come to think of it, I was not really keen on being a man for that matter. Being a boy and leading a carefree life still held some appeal to me.
All in all, I had what I felt to be a fulfilling life with various outlets for me to have fun.
That was, until the following piece appeared in the bi-weekly East Boston Times, the first of which was published on Monday. The paper which had a good circulation in East Boston, was then brought to school by my teammates, and students who had been in attendance during the Varsity match the previous Friday. School spirit meant that the paper with its articles about the Jets was further circulated amongst the student body.
Written by John O'Leary, 11/20/2004,
Sophomore Quarterback, James Vũ is turning heads with his strong performance in games with the Jets Junior Varsity team. In eight games, Vũ has thrown for a total of nine hundred and thirty-nine yards, with eighteen touchdowns. That figure is substantially more than what any other quarterback in the Junior Varsity conference has achieved. When interviewed after the game, Vũ credited his coach and teammates for helping him achieve such figures.
Interestingly, I managed to learn that Vũ had never played football prior to this season, and was recruited, 'unwillingly' as he puts it, by the Jets Varsity team linebacker, Kevin Whittaker (for more on Whittaker's stand-out performance, see pg 20). Before he left, Vũ reiterated that he was merely doing his job as taught to him by Jeremy Yoast, coach of the East Boston Jets JV team. If his performance was just him doing his job, then it remains to be seen the heights that could be reached by this young man.
Readers will also recall that Vũ was substituted into the Varsity game on Friday after starting quarterback for the team, Jason Finch, suffered a concussion late in the second half. Following our interview the previous day, I was just as shocked as anyone in the stands, at his introduction. It must be noted that Vũ has no Varsity game experience prior to this game. Passing for a hundred and ninety-seven yards, Vũ managed to split apart the defence of the Weston School Puritans, and finish with three touchdowns. Final score: 21-9, East Boston High.
The only player from the Jets with a better production in the Varsity game was Vũ's older brother, Charles (more of him in, 'Five Reasons why Charles Vũ is 2004's Massachusetts' top performing Senior' – pg 11). Indeed, scouts from Boston College, and Harvard, present on Friday, have confirmed that they were indeed there to observe the older Vũ, and have already extended invitations for unofficial visits to him. Interest showed by the local colleges is all fine and good, but certainly after this night's performance, I expect to see an increase in interest from out of state colleges as well. When asked about James, the scout from Boston College who declined to be named, opined that he was surprised by the solid performance of the substitute quarterback. When pressed, he allowed that Vũ had qualified as a player to be included on the 'to evaluate further' list that he had.
The future certainly looks bright for the Jets with Vũ in the pocket. With two years left to play, expect greater things from this young man.
The first I knew of the article about me was when Tom walked into class and tapped me on my head with a rolled up copy of the paper. "Somebody's famous!" he sang as I lifted my head from the table where I had rested, trying to catch a few more winks before Mdm. Damo walked in.
"Huh?" I had stayed up way past my bed time, engrossed as I was with playing WoW.
"The paper wrote an article about you." Tom told me as he gushed about the plays I had made against Weston on Friday. Surprised, I grabbed his copy and tried to figure out what he was talking about. After reading the article, I didn't know whether to be proud or embarrassed. I figured that while I was proud of my accomplishments on the field, the article was slightly cringe-worthy, what with its tone and glowing commentary on my future. You would think from that article that I was the next best thing to sliced bread that East Boston had seen.
Groaning, I passed the paper back to Tom as I went back to my previous position of slumping on the table. If I thought that Tom gushing about my plays was bad, I was ill-prepared for the reaction of other students. Once again, Mdm. Damo singled me out in class to congratulate me. My classmates kept their applause fairly restrained although they too seemed excited.
As I looked around the class, Carlos flashing me a thumb-ups, Tom maintaining his goofy grin, I spotted Melody rolling her eyes. "Ahhh, I knew I could always count on Melody's scepticism to keep me grounded", I thought to myself sardonically.
After homeroom ended, we made our way to the U.S History II class, which at this point, was pretty much the only class I had in common with my homeroom classmates. Surprisingly, I was not the only one in my class who had a make-shift curriculum of sorts. Tom was taking Advanced Chemistry and A.P Science classes. Melody was taking quite a few advanced classes on top of the A.P Economics and French classes that we shared. While tailored curriculums were frowned upon, if only because of the work it took, both administratively and professional in offering up such options, East Boston was if anything a supportive school. Add in the fact that we had partnered with Harvard's School of Education student-teacher programme, those who tested out of the contemporary curriculum could take all the advanced classes they wished.
Walking through the corridor of East Boston High to History was an introduction to alternate reality. Where the previous week, I could have wandered almost unobstructed through the corridor, this week, I literally had to stop every other step to fist-bump or high-five a random student, or just simply acknowledge the many people offering me their congratulations at my performance on Friday. Part of the reason for this was due to Eddie's exuberant cry when he spotted me. The other reason why people recognised me was due to Tom and Carlos, who both looked to be enjoying my discomfort. They flanked me as I walked down the hallway, announcing to the world at large, for everyone to move out of the way since the 'hotshot QB' had to rush to History class. Amidst this, they were constantly laughing at the slight grimace I had on my face.
I endured the exuberance of the school with the stoic knowledge that there was little I could do. At lunch, some of my JV teammates swamped our usual table. I was just about to ask them to leave, figuring that Tom and Carlos might feel slightly out of place, when Carlos started to speak to Joey, who played wide receiver for the JV team.
"You guys know each other?" I asked.
Joey gave me a funny look as he answered, "We're cousins!" Ignoring me once again, the cousins began to converse in spit-fire Spanish. Next to me, Tom was arguing with Eddie, whom he had already met about some play action fake that the Patriots used in their latest game.
Surrendering to the fates, I tossed my hands up and decided to work on my sandwich while the conversation – mostly about football, and our conference winning season, sailed over my head. Things got even crazier when my brother and Kevin elected to sit with us. By now, the table which was meant for at most twelve normal sized individuals, was overflowing with fourteen boys. Considering that Charlie and Kevin were larger than most men, and that despite being in the JV team, some of my teammates were independently bulky, we must have looked quite a sight. Sardines in a can wouldn't be wrong when used to describe the situation.
