Chapter 12: Somewhere Between Raising Hell and Amazing Grace

Monday October 5

First thing Monday morning I was called out of PE to meet with my guidance counselor, Ms. Jaroslav. I’d never met her before, so I wasn’t sure what she wanted. They had her in a small office with a huge file cabinet and a desk. I would go crazy in that cramped space if I were her. She had my folder out and, when I walked in, she looked up from reading it. She looked to be in her thirties and had a figure that looked like a mom. I wondered if she had any kids.

“I understand that you’ll be leaving school at the end of November and miss the last three weeks of the semester. Is that correct?” she asked.

I’d thought all the arrangements had been made, so I was curious why she was asking me.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“We’ll need to help you compress your classes and arrange for you to take finals early,” she said as she pulled out a calendar. “The best possible day looks to be the Friday of Thanksgiving week. I’ll make arrangements to have your teachers come in to give you your tests.”

I wasn’t going to be very popular if my teachers had to come in during their vacation.

“Could I maybe get a proctor to give the exams? Maybe one of my coaches would do it,” I suggested.

She gave me a tight smile.

“Let me worry about it. I just need to get your schedule for now.”

I guess I would let her do her job.

“The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is the SAT and ACT tests. We plan to offer them at the end of January. I understand that you would like to attend the prep classes. You have three options: you can either take it during your lunch hour, after school or on Saturdays,” she said.

“I have football practice after school, and my weekends are busy. I’d have to do it at lunchtime.”

She shuffled through some papers and pulled out a form.

“Please have your parents fill this out and bring it back to me with a check to cover the expenses for the class,” she said.

I took the form and she looked at my folder again.

“Have you started to think about where you want to go to college?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ve had some scholarship offers,” I said. She looked confused and flipped through my folder again.

“Did you apply for them without going through the school?” she asked.

“They’re athletic scholarships,” I explained.

She gave me a funny look, and then it dawned on her who I was.

“I might have heard something about that. Sorry,” she said, and then she seemed to recover. “If you want help with college applications, or for us to help find you grants, please let me know.”

I thanked her and went back to class.

By lunchtime, several people had talked to Ms. Jaroslav, and had gotten their paperwork for the prep class for the SAT and ACT exams.

“My sister said that the prep class was a big help on how to take the exam. She said they give you practice exams to help you determine where you need to focus your studies. She thought it helped her a lot,” Jim said.

“When are you going to take the class?” Cassidy asked me.

“I’ll have to do it at lunch,” I said, and then got worried. “When’ll we get the script for the movie?”

“Mom said this week,” Halle said. “We’re going to be swamped between now and the end of November. Did they tell you when you’ll take finals?”

“Ms. Jaroslav said the Friday after Thanksgiving. That’ll be the day before we win State,” I said.

“Me too. That’ll make for a long day,” Halle said.

“When d’you guys fly out to LA for your movie?” Alan asked.

“That Sunday. Speaking of movies, what’s happening with our movie, Star Academy? Mom said it’s almost impossible to move a release date, but apparently it won’t be shown until after the first of the year now,” Halle said.

“Star Wars,” I said and shrugged. “The projections are that they’ll dominate ticket sales so much that we’d get lost if we came up when we planned, is what I was told.”

“It looks pretty cool. I saw an ad for it on the Syfy Channel,” Jim said. “Do you get to take a date to the premiere?”

I looked at Halle and she just smiled at me. I wasn’t sure if I got to, nor was I sure whether she would be my date. When I saw other red carpet events it seemed the actors were interviewed alone. Then I had an inspiration.

“Kate Upton is my date,” I said.

All the conversation at the table stopped. I saw looks of disbelief to shrugs of acceptance. I was surprised that I kept a straight face. My friends knew I was full of it and just took my proclamation in stride. Then my phone buzzed. Alan had just posted who my date would be on my Twitter account. I needed to talk to Lily about her giving him access. I figured at some point Kate would fold under my relentless pursuit and I would get an actual date. She just needed to dump that baseball player.

At football practice, the coaching staff introduced us to our next opponent, Mt. Vernon. They had a solid football team and a new coach. I could tell from watching the game film that they were playing much better than they had the last two years. Mt. Vernon had managed to win all their games to this point, but just barely. They relied on their defense to keep them in games and then did just enough to win. If it was close at the end we might have a problem, because they didn’t have any quit in them.

The other thing they did was win the turnover battle. I could tell they coached their players to knock the ball loose. We would have to make sure we secured the ball to the whistle. Mt. Vernon was a physical team, and I suspected we would be in for a good game.

I was happy to see Tim at practice. He was on crutches, but he wanted to be involved. Coach Zoon had him work with Yuri and Mike to make them better linebackers. He told us after practice that he had started his rehab. His doctors had told him that he should be back for football next year.

After the practice at the dojo, where Cassidy was learning to use the Bo staff much faster than I was, I stopped at the diner across from the hospital. I picked up fried chicken and all the fixings. Duke greeted me at the back door, and I let him out and took the food upstairs. Pam was studying, so I put the chicken on the counter and went back down to get my dog. His nose was in the air sniffing when we came upstairs. I thought the chicken smelled good, too.

“I’m going to grab a quick shower,” I said.

Pam was rearranging the coffee table into a real table when I made my way to the bathroom. When I came out, I was surprised to see Halle and Pam waiting on me. It was a good thing I’d ordered a lot of chicken. I’d planned to have the leftovers as a snack.

“I brought you the script,” Halle said, pointing to it on the end table.

“Thanks. What do you think of it?” I asked.

“It’s much better than what I read this summer. Mom’s happy with it now. She said to tell you she was sorry they hadn’t gotten it to you sooner.”

We sat down and Halle joined us for dinner. I had to tell Duke to park it in his crate. He thought he could flirt with the girls and they would feed him. He was normally good, but when my niece and nephews were around it was a losing battle. I would have to watch the trash because he was too interested in the chicken. I couldn’t blame him because it tasted as good as it smelled.

After dinner, Halle left and I cleaned up. Pam put the table down and turned on the TV. She wanted to watch The Voice. I picked up the script and began to read it. I went to my bedroom and found a highlighter so I could mark my lines as I read it the first time.

The movie was taking creative license from the book it came from, and would be different from the TV series. In the book and TV series, the story was based in a small New England town. The movie had it located in LA. The plot revolves around a young girl who moves to live with her grandmother. When she goes to high school, a girl bullies her. Another girl eventually steps in and defends her, and they become like sisters. The lead character gets kidnapped and forced to join a club, which she soon learns is actually a coven of witches and warlocks. She discovers that all their parents had created a coven of witches and warlocks when they were their age.

My part was that of the school’s star baseball player, another change. It had originally called for me to play football. I flirt with the lead character and do typical movie jock things. All was fine in my world until my body was found hanged, by the neck, in the school’s boiler room. The lead character doesn’t believe I committed suicide.

I was relieved to see I didn’t have many lines. Most of it was me doing physical stuff that’s more of the background of high school life. After my first read-through I was much more comfortable with what I would have to do. Halle, on the other hand, was the lead, and she was on screen most of the time. I stopped reading after I got past my death scene.

The one thing I realized was that I would have a lot of time on my hands in LA. Once I got the shoot schedule, I might find what I could get up to when I wasn’t on set.

When I put my book down Pam gave me a funny look.

“What’s up?” I asked.

I could tell she wanted to say something. I wondered if she was bothered that Halle had showed up and interfered with our time together. She shook her head and leaned against me.

“You like me, right?” she asked.

“Of course I do. You’re one of my best friends. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know,” she said, unwilling to tell me what was on her mind.

I figured she would tell me when she was ready. I just put my arm around her and held her. When The Voice was over, she gathered her books and left. I wondered if I had done something wrong, but I couldn’t think of anything. I guess I would have to just wait and see.

Wednesday October 7

I went outside to run and it was chilly out. Duke went to the backyard and found Precious. I had to laugh at them play-fighting and rolling around in the leaves that had started to fall. Since it was around fifty degrees out I made it a point to stretch more. I saw Buster and Rachel walking towards me.

“Morning,” she called, as she undid the leash for Buster so he could join his friends.

I saw Rachel stiffen up as she looked in the backyard. I turned in time to see Buster make a beeline for Precious. Oh, shit! Brit would never forgive me. I had my Bo staff next to me and I picked it up. Precious hunched her back, hissed at Buster, and then yowled. The noise caused Buster to stop in his tracks. Hell, anyone would freeze if they heard that. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a brown flash as Duke tackled Buster to protect his friend.

I had never seen him so ferocious. Every time I needed protecting, he was behind me telling me to take care of it. It was as if they had worked it out, as Precious jumped into the fray. Buster was a huge pit bull and all I could imagine was him killing both Duke and Precious. I was not expecting him to roll over on his back and surrender. As quickly as it started, it was over. I checked the combatants over and everyone seemed to be okay.

We gathered up Duke and Buster, put them on their leashes, and began our run. I practiced with my Bo staff as I ran. I found my lower arms, wrists, and hands felt it after my morning run.

“You look like a baton twirler. Do you plan on going out for the marching band?” Rachel teased me.

“I’ll get you!” I yelled, and she broke into a sprint.

The little shit was fast. I could have caught her, but I was having too much fun. Buster and Duke both enjoyed the chase. The only problem was she was screaming as I ran after her. I’m six-four and have a big stick in my hand. She’s five-two and running for her life. We only made it five blocks before a police car pulled up. I had to laugh when Billy jumped the curb to put the squad car between my victim and me.

I think if they let him take the bullet out of his shirt pocket, he might have shot me. He jumped out of his car as if he thought we were on TV. I stopped and smiled at him. Rachel was no help. She collapsed in a front yard, trying to get her breath back. I let go of Duke, and he went to Buster as they joined Rachel on the lawn. Billy saw it was me and I could see him visibly relax, but he still had his hand on his gun.

“Are you going to shoot me?” I asked.

“I’m not sure yet. Were you trying to kill that little girl?”

“Only if I caught her, but she’s pretty fast.”

“What’s that in your hands?” he asked.

“It’s a Bo staff. I use it in my martial arts classes,” I said, as I handed it to him.

He hefted it and shook his head.

“You could really hurt someone with this thing.”

By now all the neighbors on the block were on their front porches to see what I was doing that would attract the police. Rachel came over and apologized to Billy. She said we were just playing. Of course, he wanted me to show him what I could do with my martial arts tool, so I showed him some of the flashier moves. He decided I wasn’t a menace, and let Rachel and me go home.

The thing about a small town is news travels fast. If I ever did anything wrong it would beat me home. When I got to school, Alan stopped me in the parking lot.

“I heard you got arrested this morning for trying to kill a little girl.”

“That would explain why I’m at school now,” I shot back.

“Everyone knows you can talk your way out of anything,” Alan smirked.

“Oh yes, I’m the star football player and the whole town covers up for me,” I said in a snarky voice. “That must have been why the cops suddenly showed up.”

“So you did get arrested,” Alan pounced.

I rolled my eyes and lunged for him. Alan was prepared and ran to the school. I found him surrounded by, well, everybody. I ignored them and went to class.

In second period Trig, Alan was smart enough not to sit next to me. I found Zoe giving me funny looks.

“Yes, the police were called on me this morning,” I admitted.

“Really?”

“Yep. You might want to stay away from me. I sometimes raise a little hell.”

“What did you do?”

At least she really wanted to know, so I told her. She figured I was still okay to hang out with.

At lunch, we started our college prep test class. Ms. Jaroslav was teaching it, and the rest of the week we would take tests to see where we stood, and what we need to work on to maximize our scores. The SAT had three parts: Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. The ACT had five sections: English, Reading, Math, Science, and an optional Writing portion. Today we were taking a test that covered both English and Reading. Before we started, Ms. Jaroslav had some test-taking tips.

“Read the instructions on the test cover and those for each test carefully. Take your time and carefully read each question. Do not get stuck on any one question. Answer the easy ones first, and then come back for the hard ones. On hard questions eliminate any obviously wrong answers.”

She paused to make sure she had our attention.

“Answer every question. You’re scored on the number of correct answers you give. You’re not penalized for guessing. So, if you get close to the end of the test-taking time, and you have some blank questions, make your best guess.

“Do NOT mark on your test after time is called. If you do it will be collected and not scored,” she said and then paused. “Do you have any questions? If not, you may begin.”

The English section started with several passages that you had to read. They would underline a section and then give you four choices of how it should be written. The Reading section was tricky. You had to go back and double-check what was actually written sometimes. A lot of it was reading between the lines and understanding the underlying meaning.

When I was done, I was glad I was taking this class. While I felt I had done well, there were areas that I could work on.

Brook and I were leaving the dojo to go do motocross again. I knew it was only a matter of time before my mom found out about my skydiving classes and riding a motorcycle. She had always said that I couldn’t own one, so I figured I was on firm ground on that technicality. As far as skydiving went, Dad had to sign off to get me into the class. It never came up in conversation at home, so I figured Dad was just keeping it quiet. The truth was that my mom had her own set of rules, and my acting like a lawyer would never save me.

As we got into the Charger my phone rang and it was Angie.

“David, I need a babysitter right now. I have a group project and Greg’s working. Could you come over for an hour?” she asked.

“Hang on,” I said and then turned to Brook. “Want to meet my niece and nephews?”

“Sure.”

“See you in fifteen minutes,” I said to Angie.

I saw Mac and Kyle looking out the window as we pulled up. They were worse than Duke. When Brook and I reached the door, I could hear the chaos on the other side of the door. When it opened, I pushed Brook in front of me. Both Mac and Kyle took a step back and looked up at her, not sure who she was.

“Tell her what your names are,” I told them.

“Hi, I’m Brook,” she said, as she got down on their level.

I was surprised when they became shy. Normally they would meet anyone. Angie came out of the back with her book bag.

“No winding them up. I need them to go to bed tonight. Your mom’ll be here in about forty-five minutes. Thanks,” she said, and kissed me on the cheek as she ran out.

I found Nate in his bouncy seat. It was like a small swing on bungee cords. It helped build his leg strength as he bounced up and down. I pulled him out of it so he could sit on my lap while Kyle and Mac sat on each side of me. Brook had her phone out and took our picture. Mac grabbed my sleeve to get my attention. She was very serious, so I leaned down so I could hear her.

“Unca David dance,” she whispered and pointed at the TV.

It took me a minute to figure out what she wanted. When I had filmed Star Academy, they had captured me learning dance moves from everyone. I also was tricked into doing lip-sync routines when we shot in Northern Canada. They had sent me several DVDs and I had given one to Greg. He said that Kyle and Mac loved to watch it, but it confused them because they wanted to know where I was. He said they were getting good at mimicking my dance moves. I’d yet to see it, and it amused me to think how two little tots would do dancing.

“You guys want to dance?” I asked.

They both squirmed off the couch and Kyle ran to the DVD collection and found my video. I put Nate into the bounce seat and then loaded the DVD.

“You do it!” Kyle yelled, as he bounced up and down.

“Can you video this for me?” I asked Brook, who showed me she planned to.

Angie was going to kill me. As I danced around like I had on the video, my two little mimics did a credible job for being almost two. I about fell down laughing when Mac did her imitation of Nicki Minaj in Bang Bang. She had the head twists down on the oh, oh. She was going to be a little diva someday.

When my mom arrived, Brook had joined the fun. At first I was worried that Mom was going to be mad that I had them wound up, but she took her jacket off and joined us. Luckily, Greg got home first, and smiled when he saw we had our own little dance party going on. I had Nate in my arms as we bounced around to the music.

The fun part about winding little ones up is watching them just fall over asleep. It’s almost as much fun as dealing with drunks. Brook and I helped Greg get the little ones down.

On the drive home, I caught the end of the Cubs - Pirates game. The winner would be in the playoffs.

“I take it you’re a Cubs fan,” Brook said.

“Did you ever see that movie Back to the Future?” I asked.

“Yeah, the one with Marty McFly in it.”

“In it they predict that the Cubs’ll make the World Series this year. I think it’s finally our turn.”

“Your brother’s kids are cute,” Brook said to change the subject.

“I need to spend more time with them,” I said, and then remembered something. “Send me the video from tonight. I’ll get it posted so others can see what little stars they are.”

Dancing baby videos went viral all the time. Kyle did this cute thing where he tried to shake his butt. Of course, I might have been responsible by telling him that he needed to shake his moneymaker. Mac, being a little older, was more coordinated. She tried to do everything Brook did.

We made plans to go skydiving Saturday morning. We had to get all our jumps in to qualify for our license. She gave me a quick kiss and jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped.

When I got home, I did something that I had been neglecting: calling my friends. The first call was to Tami. We talked about school, and then I broached a subject that was in the back of my mind.

“Can I trust you, or if I tell you something will you tell on me?” I asked.

“Oh, this is good. What have you done?”

“Answer my question first.”

“Of course you can trust me. Now spill it or I’ll figure it out,” she threatened.

In the old days that might have been a credible threat, but she had been gone long enough.

“I’ve been bad,” I admitted. “I’ve been doing things I thought I never would, but I admit they’ve been fun. I guess what I need from you is your opinion on if I’ve gone too far.”

“I find it hard to believe you’d go too far. What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Let me show you a video,” I said, and started the one of me doing motocross.

“Two things come to mind: the first is you are so dead. When your mom sees this, she’ll ground you for life. The other thing is ... why didn’t you invite me?” Tami asked.

“There’s more,” I said as I showed her Brook and me skydiving, and then the video of Devin’s new toy, the wingboard.

“I can see you doing all these things, but you do realize you’ll kill yourself, right?” Tami asked.

“Maybe.”

She looked at me hard and I felt like she was looking into my soul.

“Tell me the rest,” she ordered.

I told her about my last two recruiting visits. On the first I had gone to a swinger’s party. On the second, I had bought prostitutes for my friends, faced off their pimp, and spent the night with a prostitute who taught me stuff.

“Like what stuff?” Tami asked.

“Have you ever heard of the Helicopter? That’s where you swing your dick around in a circle,” I said with a big smile on my face.

“As much as I’d like to see that, what the hell were you thinking?” she asked.

I guess I wasn’t.

“You do realize that in a few short months you’ll become a household name when your movie’s released. This is the kind of stuff that will cause you no end of trouble,” she warned. “David, it’s one thing to raise a little hell. I understand you wanting to do fun things like motocross, but the risky sex stuff is going to bite you in the ass. I’m not going to lecture you. You need to decide about what you should or shouldn’t be doing yourself. Just know that at some point you’ll get caught, and it won’t be pretty.”

She was right, in that I had fun with the swingers and Raven, but I couldn’t see repeating it anytime soon. I guess if you had a bucket-list at my age, I could check those two off. Just how much meaningless teenage sex could I have? Shit! My Man Card just burst into flames!

“Can I make one observation? I think this all goes back to your mom ordering you around and not talking to you. I think this is your way of rebelling against how you were treated. I never knew you to keep things from your parents,” she said.

I had said there would be consequences. I no longer felt I needed to share everything. I was silently kicking myself because I’d told Tami.

“You may be right. I hope you don’t feel the need to tell my mom,” I said.

“It really upsets you that she talks to me about you, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“It really does,” I admitted.

“I’ll start telling her I don’t want to know. While I like your mom, I love you. No matter what happens in the future, please know that if you need to talk to someone, I’m here for you. If I get too nosy, just tell me to back off.”

“That means a lot to me. I really don’t want to feel like we’re at odds. I hope we can be friends the rest of our lives. I’d like us to be the type of friends that don’t have to hang out every day, but when we do catch up, it isn’t awkward,” I said.

“I think for now that’s the best we can hope for.”

After we hung up, I thought about where we were in our friendship. For the first time in a long time, I felt good about it. I didn’t feel the pressure that had always been there before. It honestly felt more like what I had with Beth. I could tell Beth anything and she never judged me. I hoped that was where Tami and I were going.

Thursday October 8

Today we had gotten smart about lunch. I ordered Chinese and got a variety of things. If someone wanted to join me for lunch, they paid me $5. Even Ms. Jaroslav thought it was a great idea and joined us. It was better than eating lunch in the cafeteria and it let us get to work on our next test.

Today we took the Math portion of the practice test. For me it was much easier than the Critical Reading and English test had been. In the fifty minutes given, I was able to complete the test, go back, and recheck some of my answers. Tomorrow would be the Science portion. Before I left I asked what everyone wanted for lunch. They decided on a sub variety tray. Ms. Jaroslav volunteered to pick it up and keep it in the faculty refrigerator. I gave her money and went to my next class.

The leftover Chinese food ended up in the faculty lounge and I was told it was a hit. I was happy I’d gotten to eat today. There just wasn’t time to go to the cafeteria and then make it to this class for most people. All they had time to do was go to the vending machines and get something to drink.

After football, and dojo practice, I went to Halle’s to work on learning the script. She and I had several scenes together, and Rita wanted us to read through them. The other reason I went was that they promised to feed me, and every time I went there they fed me something good.

When I knocked, Halle answered the door in a swimsuit wrap. Not that I was complaining, but I was a little confused by her attire. It was the first of October in the Midwest, which meant it was a little too cold to be swimming.

“The hot tub was installed this week in the solarium,” Halle said.

Rita James had added a glassed-in solarium off the side of the house. The plan was to use it as a four-season room and have a hot tub. Halle led me to the new room and I found Rita James in a white one-piece swimsuit, which caused the big brain to shut down. Then I felt arms go around my stomach, hands grab my chest, and I was pulled tight into a hug. I felt hot breath on my neck.

“Hi, Sexy,” a very male voice said.

Mr. Happy short-circuited, which caused me to jerk and spin away from whoever was holding me. It was a good thing I had been distracted, or I might have punched Trip, Halle’s brother.

“Dude, not cool,” I said.

He just laughed at me. I noticed he was in a speedo. The creep factor went up about tenfold. Halle came and rescued me from her brother. That was when I saw Fritz. He was at the outdoor kitchen grilling something. I wasn’t ready to talk to Rita, because I was afraid I would start babbling as I drooled. Not my best approach to talking to a gorgeous woman. Normally I was fine doing that, but Rita James was special.

“Need some help?” I asked.

“Can you make some potato cakes?” Fritz asked.

He already had it mixed. I just needed to fry them in a big cast iron skillet. I saw Fritz was making German sausage, and had a pot that looked like it had sauerkraut in it. He showed me how he wanted the potato cakes cooked. When we were done, we took everything to the table.

Over dinner, I learned that Trip’s rehab was going well. He had come home for the evening. He was starting to get a pass a couple of times a week, but he had to have Fritz with him. When we were done eating, Fritz took Trip back to the rehab facility.

Rita listened as Halle and I read our lines. She was happy with our work. Rita left us to get dressed and make some calls. I waggled my eyebrows at Halle and remained in my California Bad Boy persona.

“Babe, let’s hit the hot tub,” I said.

“But you don’t have a suit,” Halle reasoned.

I just started to take off my clothes.

“David! What if my mom sees you?”

“Chill, Babe. We have plenty of time.”

She bit her lower lip and looked at my growing member, as I finally got undressed.

“Want to see something cool?” I asked.

Halle didn’t answer me, so I showed her the helicopter. I was thinking this could be my signature naked dance move. Halle squeaked and ran for the hot tub as I flew towards her. I joined her and moaned as the hot water started to work its magic on me. Halle turned on the jets and I made sure one was shooting right at my lower back. I was in heaven.