Chapter 18: And The Winner Is

Saturday July 16

Dad and Greg joined Fritz, Halle and me surfing. It was funny how Fritz always got the surfing duty.

Bo Harrington and I’d had lunch in Houston so we could talk football. He’d told me that I shouldn’t be surprised if I was told I couldn’t do things like surfing once I was on a college team. It was dead certain it would be banned if I made it to either Major League Baseball or the NFL.

Greg was learning, so it was good that the waves were staying small. He had the same gleam in his eyes as I’d likely had when I first got onto a surfboard. With the smaller waves, we also didn’t have many other surfers to contend with. It was reported that tomorrow there would be better waves.

Halle paddled next to me so we could talk.

“Oh, look. We have company,” I said, pointing at the paparazzi lurking on the beach. “You might want to fix your top so your nipple doesn’t show.”

Her head snapped down, and then she gave me an evil look when she realized I was teasing her.

“I think you knew they would be there,” I said.

“Why’s that?” Halle asked.

“Because you don’t have your wetsuit on. I think you wanted to show off your hot little body to the world,” I said with a big smile. “Are you an exhibitionist, Halle James?”

I found myself pushed off my board. I just laughed as she caught the next wave. Greg paddled up to me.

“Angie’s mad at you.”

“What did I do this time?” I asked.

“You didn’t get her a ticket for the awards show.”

“I had to fight to get an extra one for Halle.”

“Angie knows that,” Greg said with a smile. “She thought you loved her.”

“Yeah, right. She just wanted a trip to LA. Do you know how much damage Mom does to my debit card when she’s alone in LA? Just think of the devastation she and Angie could do. I shudder to imagine how much they would spend on Rodeo Drive. You might have to sell me Kyle just to finance the trip.”

“If you take him, you have to take Mac, too,” Greg said.

“You were the one who wanted a girl. Nature made it so Dawson men only have boys for a reason. We’re not equipped to stand up to daughters. If you think her horse obsession is bad now, wait until she’s sixteen,” I warned him.

He pushed me off my board. He was smart enough to take the next wave so I couldn’t grab him. I decided I was hungry, so I caught the next wave in. Halle joined me and we did the ‘frolicking in the water’ bit for the press. Halle made me take off my wetsuit jacket for the pictures, confirming the reason for her bikini. I would send Frank a heads-up that there were pictures of us about to hit. I also wanted to tell him about my talk with TMZ at the airport. I was sure he could spin that to get us a little exposure.

As I used the outdoor shower to get the salt off me, I realized how calculating my thoughts were. This time last year, I would never have thought about calling my publicist to generate some buzz. If I wanted the paparazzi to go nuts, I might accidentally let them get a picture of my butt again.

Halle went home and I had Fritz give Dad and Greg a tour of some of the tourist spots in LA. That left me alone with my mother. We first tried to sit on the back patio off the living room to relax and have coffee and tea, but the paparazzi drove us inside. We instead went to the roof.

“Greg told me that Angie was upset that I didn’t get her a ticket for tonight,” I began.

“Is it because you don’t think you can trust her?”

“I swear to God, I am never telling my uncle anything ever again.”

“I thought we talked about this. You and your brother will talk about your little darlings. I wouldn’t be surprised if you shared those conversations with your wife. You’ll figure out that if you want to keep them in line, you have to have a united front.”

There was no use getting mad. They were going to tell each other everything whether I wanted them to or not, and it didn’t matter if I complained. This was one of those instances where I’d lost the battle before it even began, so why fight it.

“You do know how irritating it is that you all know anything I tell any of you.”

“It saves us having to dig it out of you,” she responded.

It really wasn’t that big of a deal because we talked about almost everything. I hadn’t started keeping things from my parents until my mom shut me out about what was going on with my dad about Phil.

I just took a sip of my tea.

“Why didn’t you get her a ticket?” Mom pressed.

“I didn’t even think about it. If she was upset, she could have let me know and I would have seen if we were able to get another ticket. So don’t put all this on me,” I said, getting defensive.

“Calm down. Someone needed to watch your niece and nephews. Angie’s just complaining because Greg just went to Canada and now LA.”

“Maybe we could send her somewhere...” I thought but apparently said aloud.

“David,” Mom warned me.

“Fine. There’s nothing I can do about it now anyway.”

“You were right, to begin with. This really isn’t your problem. Let Greg deal with his wife,” Mom said, and then got a big smile. “Tell me about Kelly.”

My head was going to explode.

“How do you know about her?”

“Fritz showed us the videos.”

“What?”

Mom about fell out her chair laughing.

“You should see your face.”

“That’s not funny. He told me that even I couldn’t see the videos. I can’t believe he would show them to you,” I complained.

“He didn’t. I called your hotel room looking for you and she answered. I took a shot that she was there with you. When Fritz called your dad about starting to video in your hotel rooms, we made sure they would never get out. I just was giving you a hard time,” she explained.

“I should have known better,” I said, and then smiled. “Paybacks are hell.”

“You might want to be careful there,” Mom warned me. “So who is she?”

“You remember M.E. the batgirl?” I asked, and Mom nodded. “Kelly’s her friend.”

“ ... and?”

“Nothing.”

“So, she’s not the one?” Mom asked.

“I doubt it.”

“So, which one are you going to pick?” Mom asked.

“For what?”

“For your girlfriend.”

I blinked at her and she gave me a disgusted look.

“Listen, Mister, I know you, and I can tell you’re starting to think about it again. I figured you probably need my advice about who it should be.”

I think my mom enjoyed tormenting me just a little too much. There was no way I would ever ask her advice about my love life.

“Before you reject my offer of help out of hand, who was it that warned you about Tracy?” Mom asked.

“Who was it who kept saying I would end up with Tami?” I shot back.

“That will happen. I would bet my beach house on it.”

Of course, she didn’t have a beach house, but I just shrugged her prediction off as wishful thinking.

“Just for giggles, who should I date?” I asked.

“Brook Davis,” Mom said confidently.

“I know you’re dying to tell me. Why Brook?”

“The two of you have a lot in common. If you think about it, you’ll agree with me.”

She was right. There was a lot to like about Brook. I just hoped that my mom’s recommendation didn’t ruin her chances. No teenage boy wanted to date the girl his mom picked for him.

I was never so happy to see Greg come up the stairs.

“We’re back,” he announced.

I jumped up and put my hand up for a high five. He gave me a confused look but didn’t leave me hanging.

“I’m tagging out. It’s your turn,” I told him.

You could see him deflate right before my eyes. When Mom got in one of these moods, you had to just grin and bear it. I caught Dad coming up the stairs.

“You don’t want to go up there. Greg is taking one for the team.”

“Oh,” Dad said, and followed me downstairs.

Smart man.

I had Paul take me to Halle’s. I was surprised when she and Bandit were waiting for me at the door.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked.

“Bandit told me. When the car pulled in, he jumped off my lap and ran to the front door. I think that cat likes you better than he does me.”

I was holding him and rubbing his chest and he rewarded my effort by purring like crazy. For a cat, he was cool. I carried him to the kitchen and smiled.

“Rosy,” I said as I gave her a one-armed hug.

“I just made some pulled pork taquitos if you’re hungry.”

“Yes, please.”

I felt right at home.

I spent the afternoon with Halle. She’d auditioned for a couple of movies. The first was a love story. When she told me it was the next Notebook, I rolled my eyes. The other one was a mystery where a girl goes missing. She said she couldn’t tell me more than that, but I could tell she was excited. She said if she got the love story, she was making me take her to the premiere.

We were relaxing on the patio when Rita came out and joined us.

“I see your movie wrapped,” Rita told me.

“I didn’t realize that. I’ve been a little busy playing ball.”

“Word on the street is that The Royal Palm might win some awards. I also heard that you were great in it, considering what you had to put up with. I’ve been getting calls to confirm your work on The Secret Circle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ari starts sending you scripts from people interested in getting you under contract before The Royal Palm hits theaters.

“I also heard that they signed Ron Howard to direct the Han Solo movie. You’re going to end up being a trivia question on that one. I just hope your James Bond movie is worth it,” Rita said.

“I would have loved to play Han Solo, but it would have been filming the same time the Star Academy sequels were filming.”

I wondered sometimes how my life would’ve changed if I’d taken that job. I wouldn’t be playing baseball or football; I would be doing what Halle was doing, looking for my next movie and cashing in while I was still hot. I knew in my heart I’d made the right decision.

My phone chirped. I had a text from Frank Ingram, my publicist.

‘Check out link‘

I clicked on it and it took me to one of the celeb gossip sites. I read it for Halle and Rita.

“The headline reads ‘Halle James Gets Wet With Hottie,’” I said with a big smile.

Rita snatched my phone out of my hand.

“Halle James was caught reeling in dream guy David A. Dawson. We think love may be in the air as the new couple spent the morning surfing,” Rita read, and then flipped through the pictures.

“Let me see,” Halle said.

As she flipped through the pictures, it was clear her mom wasn’t happy.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s just that I’ve spent eighteen years protecting her from stuff like this. I never wanted her to have to go through what’s to come.”

“Mom, it was my decision. I decided to go into acting. It wasn’t your fault. Besides, I’ve had a lifetime to watch you handle it with grace. I hope I learned a thing or two over the years. I think having David as the guy was a smart move. With him, I don’t have to worry about a sex tape or a tell-all novel,” Halle said.

“I think Fritz would hurt me before he gave up any tapes,” I blurted out.

Both of them looked at me and then chose to ignore me.

“I know, but I just hate to see you pushed out into the spotlight. At least you have people you can trust helping you. I had to learn that lesson the hard way,” Rita related.

Rita took a deep breath and came to grips with Halle’s career taking off. At least the article didn’t say she was Rita’s daughter. She was starting to be recognized for who she was and not who her mom was.

Rita left us to our own devices.

“You want to go make that tape?” Halle asked me.

She didn’t have to ask me twice.

Rita’s stylist and her entourage showed up along with my mom. Halle and Mom were getting their hair and makeup done for tonight. I was made to sit down and get my hair trimmed to get it cleaned up. I was then sent to the beach house to get ready. Rosy packed me up some food for us guys.

One aspect of LA that sucks is that it’s three hours behind the east coast. That meant that the ESPY awards began at five o’clock in the afternoon, local time, and I was asked to be there by three to do the red-carpet bit. They wanted to prerecord it and then show clips during the awards show.

Mom, Dad and Greg would drive over separately so they wouldn’t have to get caught up in the mess of reporters. Gatorade had a room at the hall and had asked us to go there before the show so we could meet all the other individual sport winners I would be going up against.

When I got back to the beach house, we ate a quick lunch from the food Rosy had sent with me. Dad told me that my clothes from Dakora had come and were in my room, so I went to see what they’d sent. I found black skinny-leg dress pants, white dress shirt and black tie. The jacket was pure Dakora. It was a tuxedo jacket made of dark blue velvet with a black silk collar. I tried on the jacket and confirmed it was fitted for my tall athletic build.

When I came down, Greg and Dad gave me the once-over to make sure I’d done my tie correctly and hadn’t forgotten to do up my zipper.

“That’s an interesting getup,” Greg commented.

“You’ll stand out,” Dad offered.

“You think?” I asked.

They had the good grace not to laugh at me because they could tell I was starting to get nervous. I didn’t really care about the flashy jacket. It was starting to sink in that this was a big deal. I was about to walk into a room with some of the best athletes in the world, many of whom I looked up to. I was also up for the top high school award as male high school athlete of the year. I’d been told two past winners would be there tonight: LeBron James, who’d won the male athlete award, and Peyton Manning, who’d won the football award (they didn’t have an overall winner when he won).

Paul came in and told us he was ready to take us to Rita’s.

Whoever was running this award show knew what they were doing, as far as the red carpet went. They had the cars all come to a staging area. We were told the proper procedure. A car would arrive every three to five minutes. You were to exit the car and allow the paparazzi to take your picture. You then moved to an area with a large background screen covered with ESPY logos where you would be photographed. You were given a card that told you where you were to go to get an on-camera interview. Frank had given Halle and me our talking points, so we were good.

Fritz was driving Halle and me and he turned back and smiled at us.

“You ready?”

“Let’s do this,” Halle said.

We drove the three blocks to the venue. I could see a pitcher for the Cubs was on the red carpet as we pulled up. I hoped I would get to talk to him and maybe get his autograph before the night was over.

We waited until someone came over to open the car door. I got out and then helped Halle out. You would have thought we were in Tokyo. The paparazzi in LA were more geared towards the entertainment industry than they were towards athletics. The teaser at the beach had whetted their appetites with the juicy gossip that a new Hollywood couple was forming.

I glanced over at the Cubs pitcher, who’d stopped to stare, as the paparazzi went nuts shouting questions and taking our picture. I could tell Halle was losing her nerve, so I put my hand in the middle of her back to steady her. In my head, I counted down the time before we could move to the next station. I wasn’t happy when the ESPY people held us there to feed the frenzy. I made sure that we turned to each side so all the photographers could get our pictures.

“Smile,” I reminded Halle.

She shook off her initial hesitation. One of the men shouted out that we should kiss. I would have to talk to Halle later about not doing everything they asked for. If you did it for one side, you’d better do it for the other.

When they finally motioned us forward, there were three limos backed up. We’d messed up their well-choreographed plans.

At the official photo location, they wanted me alone and with Halle. I also had them take a few photos of her alone. She had on a dress that matched my jacket in color, which made us stand out. I would have to thank Adrienne later for making us look good.

The paparazzi inside knew not to ask questions; they’d be escorted out and banned if they did. Unfortunately, they were permitted to ask one question I hadn’t been prepared for and should have. It was...

“Who are you wearing?”

Uh-oh!

“It’ll have to remain a mystery,” I said with a smile.

We moved to the interview section and I was happy to see Margaret Chin. She’d been the sideline reporter who had interviewed me for the King game in Indianapolis and when I went to Northwestern.

“You know how this works. Do you have any questions before we get started?” she asked.

“Do you want Halle to join us?”

“No, this will be sports-related.”

I nodded.

“Please keep in mind that I really don’t want to get crosswise with the NCAA, so we have to limit the topics to just sports.”

She gave me ‘the look’! Cripes, I was getting it from female reporters now? I immediately went into Dawson male defensive mode by shutting up and sat down with her to do the interview.

“I’m with David Dawson, the number one recruit in the upcoming senior class, Elite 11 Co‐MVP last year, winner of multiple awards in football including Gatorade Player of the Year, and also currently trying out for USA Baseball’s Under Eighteen team that will be competing in this year’s Pan Am games. How do you have time to do both football and baseball?”

She did five minutes of similar questions. At least she never asked me how I felt.

In the hallway, after the interview, I pulled out my cell phone and called Adrienne.

“Hey, could you please call Dakora, ask them the price of the tux and get them to email Caryn an invoice, today? I just now realized wearing it and not paying for it for a sporting event may be a no-no with the NCAA, so I want to pay for it today if at all possible.”

Adrienne gave me a ration of shit, especially when I told her I hadn’t said who I was wearing on TV and then said she’d get on it right away. I told her to get with Frank. Maybe we could salvage it by making the mystery a story in itself while explaining at the same time how NCAA rules wouldn’t let me say at this particular event.

I called Caryn and explained what was going on and told her to pay the bill immediately, talk to Mr. Morris about the situation and how I’d handled it, and let me know what he said.

Then I thought for a minute. Situation assessed. Damage control efforts put in place immediately. Nothing more I could do now except follow up at the end of the day and make sure everything had been done. Time to move on, at least for now.

God, I hated the crap I had to go through for the NCAA. Technically, I wasn’t enrolled in college yet, so these rules shouldn’t even apply to me. It wasn’t like Dakora was a major donor or anything. It would be hard to find any relationship between them and sports, for that matter. It was just that Mr. Morris had everyone paranoid that the NCAA would darken our doorstep someday soon and question my amateurism.

I thought about it for a minute and called Caryn again. I’d better pay for my mom’s dress, too.

We found the Gatorade room and my dad handed me an autograph book. Greg had the camera with him.

“What’s this all about?” I asked.

“My mom told us to do it,” Dad said. “She said that if at some point you go into politics, you’ll want the photos and autographs to display on your office walls. I remember Dad had them displayed in his reception area. It gave people something to look at before they went in to meet him. It was a subtle way of showing he had friends in high places; your grandma said it gave him a psychological advantage. I’m not sure if it was true or not, but I remember looking at them. You’ll want to remember today anyways.”

“Halle, you want to be first?” I asked.

She thought I was a dork, but she was the first to sign my book and have Greg take our picture. From there it was on the hunt to add to my collection. It wasn’t that I needed an excuse to walk up to a sports star and talk to them, but it was a nice icebreaker. I was taken aback when several wanted Halle’s and my autographs. I soon discovered that many of them were just as much in awe of everyone here as I was.

LeBron James and Peyton Manning were easy because they stopped by the Gatorade room to meet their fellow award winners. We found that several sporting goods companies had rooms. I wasn’t surprised when I found my dad in the TaylorMade room, looking at golf clubs.

“Shopping for Christmas already?” I teased him.

“Just looking for the country club,” he played it off.

He had a bag with two boxes of Titleist Pro V1 balls in it. I knew that he sold them in his golf shop for over $50 a box, so he’d made out if they gave them to him. Greg and I smirked. We knew what he was getting for Christmas from us. He had a set of clubs, but I think they were at least ten years old and not the best quality. There had been a lot of innovation over the years. We could have our kids get him towels, club covers and more balls.

Greg had been picking up the game. There was a benefit to having a dad who managed a golf course when you were on a college student’s budget. I personally didn’t have the patience for it. If they had speed golf, where you ran to the ball and hit it right away, I might be interested. Every time I went, I wanted to blow my brains out because you inevitably got behind someone slow. It was funny that golf bothered me, but I would go fishing all day long and had a great time doing so.

The ESPYs were hosted by professional wrestler John Cena. I give him four out of five stars for his opening monologue. I wasn’t impressed with our seats. We were off to the side and two-thirds of the way back. I would have to make it a goal to move up in the next few years.

Halle got excited because Justin Timberlake was a presenter. I made fun of her because he was almost 40. She reminded me her mom was about the same age, and I shut up.

It wasn’t all about sports. They gave the Jimmy V foundation award for perseverance to Craig Sager. Craig was an NBA announcer who had the same cancer my mom had, acute myeloid leukemia. They showed a video of him getting chemotherapy and then calling a game.

He got up to speak, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he talked about the love he had for his wife. She’d begged him not to leave her, and he said there was no fear in love. Everyone in the place was on his or her feet during the speech. He put a face to the terrible disease that cancer is, and his impassioned speech about facing the prospect of death made me realize just how lucky we were to still have my mom around.

My big moment didn’t make it on TV.

During a commercial break, they would run a video showing the nominees for the lesser awards. Some examples of the categories that didn’t make it to air were Best Male College Athlete and Best Male Athlete with a Disability. Later during the telecast, they would say that so and so won, but then move on to the bigger awards and give them the full treatment.

My biggest competition for the Gatorade award was a basketball player out of Texas. How did I know he was my biggest competition? In the last ten years, four basketball and five football players had won. The only other sport to win was baseball.

John Cena came out on stage as they went to commercial.

“The High School Male Athlete of the Year nominees are...”

The video started on the big screen. It showed each one of us doing our sport in which we had won. When the video ended, John stepped up to the mic.

“And the winner is ... David Dawson of Lincoln High.”

I didn’t get a chance to go on stage and give a speech. I was taken out of the theater and back to the Gatorade room where I was given my award.

It happened the same way for the Joe Montana Quarterback award for the best high school quarterback. At least for that one, I knew who my competition was: Wes Hunt. I had a clue that I’d won when Wes didn’t show up for the awards presentation.

I was honestly okay with not getting my moment on stage because, like most award shows, this event seemed to never end. We’d been there for four hours when we called it a night. I needed to eat something and catch a red-eye flight back to Houston for my last game.

Okay, the real reason I was leaving was that I hadn’t been invited to any of the after-parties.

I called Caryn before I left, to check on what had happened with the Dakora tux.

“Dakora understands, especially after Adrienne explained it to them. She and Frank have gotten together, and Frank used his media contacts to create a minor ‘Who is David wearing and why won’t he say?’ buzz. It’s already gotten a bunch of hits on TMZ, and the blurb includes the reasoning behind it, so you’re good.

“Frank, Adrienne and I got together with Mr. Morris. He said it definitely would have been a violation without your agreement with the NCAA in place, and it’s possible it still would have been, but you made the right calls, even though someone in your camp should have identified the issue earlier and called him.”

I didn’t buy it. I’d read the rules and our agreement with the NCAA. I was golden, but there was no need to poke the bear. I also knew he earned his money by the hour. I guess I would rather spend some money and have the peace of mind. I told her I would see her when I got home and hung up.

I gave my two awards to my dad for safekeeping. Paul and I then went to the airport. I was happy my normal sidekick was going with me.

Sunday July 17

I had a small smile on my face when Allard told me they’d lost last night and pointed out that it was due to me not playing. It was funny how my goofing around had predicted what would happen. I just hoped the selection committee saw it the same way and that got me on the team.

Today we were skipping the meetings and practice. We were having a late-morning game. Coach Kingwood found me before we got on the bus.

“Did you win?”

“Yeah, I took care of business.”

“Good, because I need your head in the game today. Last night we met and pretty much figured out who’ll be on the team. We only have three spots not locked in, and eight candidates for those spots, four of whom are on our team. I want you to talk to these guys and let them know they need to step it up today.”

He handed me a list. It had on it Dave Gordon, M.E.’s brother (first base); Nick Madigan (right field); Mitch Underwood (shortstop); and Trent Black (catcher). I was surprised to see Dave on the list, but the other three had been on Pride in North Carolina with me and had been displaced in the starting lineup by other players, including the three young ones.

“Why’s Dave on the list?” I asked.

“Attitude. Without you here last night, he acted as if he was in charge. It messed up the team dynamic and I’m sure that was why we played so badly last night. That boy can be a pain in the behind. I had to sit him down and explain the facts of life to him or he might have gotten his butt kicked.”

“That’s too bad. Can we keep M.E. if he doesn’t make it?” I asked.

“Sorry, they’re a package deal, I’m afraid. We’ll just have to find some others to take their place.”

I didn’t want to think about that. I guessed since Coach Kingwood was talking to me about it that I’d made the team, but I didn’t want to ask or assume anything. He was at least letting them all play today to show what they had.

We were at the Urban Youth Academy to play our last game. I was glad we were playing in the morning before it got hot out. At least someone was thinking when they planned this. I pulled the four guys at risk together before the game.

“I talked to Coach and he said you were all on the bubble. They’re looking at eight guys to fill the last three spots. You’re all going to get one last opportunity to show what you can do today.”

“What, I’m not a lock?” Dave complained.

“From what I heard, you made an ass of yourself last night. Remember when we had the talk about fitting in and being a team player? If I were you, I would be the biggest cheerleader you can be today.”

Dave didn’t look happy.

“Snap out of it,” I ordered. “I personally want M.E. to be our batgirl in Mexico. I’ll be disappointed if she isn’t there because you couldn’t get with the program.”

I think that shocked him because he just nodded and went off to think. When he came back, he was a new man. I hoped it would be enough to get him on the team.

Austin was getting the start today. He was a right-hander who hailed from Florida. He told us he lived in an area called the Nature Coast, north of Tampa. It was noted for not having the urban sprawl that had taken over south Florida. They had sea cows called manatees that loved the warm water from the springs in the rivers.