Chapter 11: Tattletale

Monday October 3
I took the boys to the house and found a rested Peggy making coffee.

“Were they any trouble?”

“No, they slept through the night,” I said as I put them into their high chairs.

Peggy scattered some Cheerios on Coby and Little David’s trays to keep them busy while she made their breakfast. I decided I wanted grits after my trip down south. As I got the pot started, Chuck came in the back door. Duke gave him a cursory once-over and left it to Bandit to guard the house. Chuck picked up the complaining cat to give him some attention.

“Paul finally clued you in about breakfast?” I asked.

“Yes, and he’s a dick,” Chuck said.

“Chuck!” Mom scolded when she came in the room with Dad in tow.

“Sorry, Mrs. Dawson.”

He was such a wimp.

While we ate, Mom had more to say to make my day.

“Ava called me last night.”

“That’s nice,” I said when Mom gave me a meaningful look.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” she asked.

This boy wasn’t falling for that one.

“Nope.”

“You’re sure about that? She was upset about how you picked up Brook.”

I rolled my eyes.

“That was all Paul and Chuck. I straightened them out. They won’t honk when we pull up anymore, right, Chuck?” I said, giving him a meaningful look.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Chuck tried.

Mom gave him a look, and he couldn’t meet her stare.

“Really?” Mom said to him, and I think he peed himself.

“He made me do it,” Chuck blurted.

The next time I wanted to knock off a liquor store, I wasn’t taking him. I didn’t feel bad any longer that Paul hadn’t clued him in about breakfast.

“I’m sure that I’ll want to hear all about the ‘honking’ incident,” Mom said, using air quotes. “What I really want to know is why did you break into their house and get naked on Brook’s bed?”

Dad choked on the chicken bone in his coffee and Peggy had to beat on his back. Chuck got up and ran for the car. We would have to start a pool to see how long this little incident would scare him so he wouldn’t be back for breakfast. I put the over-under at two weeks. At some point, hunger would win out.

“Didn’t your mom give you ‘the talk’?” I asked.

Dad rolled out of his chair and hit the floor. For a brief moment, I wondered if Mom and I had finally killed him. We both glanced down, and he was shaking, he was laughing so hard. Peggy gathered the babies, having decided their safety was more important than listening to my mom and me fight.

“But before school...”

“You mean you and Dad have never had morning sex?” I asked.

Dad’s hand reached up and grabbed the table edge as he pulled himself up.

“Your mother’s and my sex life is no concern of yours,” Dad said with as much dignity as a man could muster while desperately trying not to break down laughing again.

“Exactly my point,” I said triumphantly.

Mom didn’t see it that way. I got the whole ‘When you live under my roof’ and ‘Respect your elders’ routine. While she ranted, I sent a text to Brook to warn her that her mom was a tattletale. I received back a sad face emoji and a quick note telling me to meet her at school. It sounded like she didn’t need a ride this morning. I decided I could wait to hear why.

I was finally released when Dad pointed out that I had to get to school. I could tell that Chuck was dying to know what happened, but I put in my earbuds and ignored him.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to Brook because I was late. I’d then planned to speak with her at lunch, but I was pegged to host a table today. They’d continued the lunch-buddy app this year. It was part of the school’s new anti-bullying campaign. I knew that Alan would approve of the new spin. It was supposed to give kids a place they could feel safe when eating lunch. I personally hadn’t felt the need to terrorize any freshmen this year, so I was a little confused as to where all this bullying was happening.

Right before lunch, I logged in and had to delete Yuri, Phil, and Roc. It defeated the purpose if I ate with my usual lunch crowd. One unexpected inclusion was Mr. Palm; our assistant principal had reserved two seats. My first instinct was to delete him also, but I figured he must have a good reason. I also saw that Marshal and Curtis, from my photography class, had signed up. I let them slide because I wanted to get to know them better.

I got in line to grab a lunch and found we were having double cheeseburgers with tater tots. That was about the best lunch they made, so I was a happy boy when I went to my table. I was a little confused when I saw that Mr. Palm was there with a woman and what looked like her middle school son. I set my tray on the table and then turned to the strange threesome.

“David, this is Dr. Rossetti and her son Darius. Today is his first day here at Lincoln High. They moved here because Darius had some problems at his last school, and when I told them about the lunch program, Dr. Rossetti wanted to see it,” he explained.

I saw the other participants for today’s lunch hanging back. Who could blame them? I looked at my lunchmates.

“Go ahead and take a seat. I’ll be right back,” I said, and guided Mr. Palm, Dr. Rossetti, and Darius off to the side.

I ignored everyone but Darius and looked him in the eyes. Okay, that’s not true, because he was looking at his shoes. His mom had dressed him up like he was going to church, not school. I gave him till the end of the day before someone stuffed him into a locker, or worse.

“What grade are you in?” I asked.

“He’s a junior. We told him that he can’t go to college until he’s at least sixteen. He had some ... uh ... social issues at his last school,” Dr. Rossetti said.

“Darius, do you think it would be okay if we let your mom and Mr. Palm leave? I’d like to introduce you to some of your new classmates,” I said.

Everyone was watching us, and I was sure that Darius was mortified that his mom had taken him to lunch with Mr. Palm. I looked around and found Pam. She was probably the best candidate for what I had in mind. I motioned her over.

“Darius, this is my friend Pam. She’s going to take you through the lunch line and then join us at the table.” She nodded and guided him to get some food.

“What’s his deal?” I asked when he was out of earshot.

“Darius scores off the charts in intelligence. He’s been pushing me to enroll him in college. He’s sure that he would no longer be bullied. I’ve been a professor for a number of years, and I’ve seen other children make the jump. It’s not easy if they have almost zero social skills. I’d hoped that a couple years of high school would help Darius better prepare for college.”

“I hope you’ll make sure Darius survives his first week,” Mr. Palm said to explain his role in all this.

“I’m not sure I want to take this on,” I admitted.

“Please. You won’t even know he’s around,” Dr. Rossetti pleaded.

“I’ve put him in the locker next to yours, and he’s in all your classes,” Mr. Palm said.

“I’m not promising anything, but let’s see how today goes,” I offered.

Pam had gotten him his lunch, and she’d come over to join my table.

“I need to go play host. I’ll drop him off at the office after school,” I said, and then left them.

I could tell that Darius didn’t want to introduce himself to the group, so I did it for him and then began talking about whatever folks wanted to. Once the awkwardness of Mr. Palm and a parent had been removed, everyone started to chatter. I noticed that Darius was taking it all in and becoming more relaxed as lunch went on. He even managed to eat.

The rest of the day was ... unusual. Darius walked a couple of paces behind me and didn’t say a word. I made sure that he had the desk next to mine so I could keep an eye on him. At the end of the day, Darius touched my arm and handed me his phone. On it was a text from his mom saying she couldn’t pick him up after school. I didn’t think he would survive a bus ride home, so I took him to football practice with me.

I found Coaches Hope, Rector, and Mason in Coach Hope’s office.

“Hey. I need a little help. Darius...” I started, and he touched my arm again, so I looked at him.

“Dare,” he whispered.

“You’d rather be called Dare?” I asked, and he nodded.

Interesting choice.

“Dare and I have been hanging out this afternoon. It’s his first day here. He needs something to do after school, and I figured you could put him to work,” I said.

“Go get dressed. We’ll figure something out,” Coach Hope assured me.

Coach Mason must have drawn the short straw because Dare was handed a clipboard and followed Coach around during practice. I shook my head at the poor kid as he watched in wide-eyed wonder while he took everything in.

Mondays are film days. We spent a half hour savoring our victory over our hated rival, Eastside. I finally was able to see ‘The Tip,’ as everyone was calling it. I launched myself at least five feet out of bounds to reach the errant pass from Eastside’s quarterback. I flipped it back into the field of play right into Ed’s hands.

“That is what we call football awareness. David has a knack for knowing where everyone is on the field,” Coach Rector praised me.

I kept my mouth shut. I’d just been lucky. At some point, the football gods would decide to tilt the scales, and something bad would happen. I wasn’t going to give it back, so I just smiled.

We then turned our attention to Mt. Vernon, this week’s opponent. They had a solid football team and a second-year coach. I could tell from watching the game film that they were playing much better than they had before he came. Mt. Vernon had managed to win all their games to this point, but just barely. They’d done the same last year. 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.

They’d come close to beating us last year. I hadn’t played because of the whole Mike incident. Mike Herndon had gone after Jim’s girlfriend the weekend before when we’d gone on a recruiting trip. I’d found out before the game what he’d done and went after him. Coach Zoon had stopped me with a leg sweep which caused me to crack my head on the floor, giving me a concussion. I’d missed the game, and we’d managed to win a squeaker 21–19. It was the turning point for our season.

This year they had to come to our field. Mt. Vernon was easily the farthest school from us in our conference. It was a small farm-town school which serviced their whole county. 83% of their students were from outside the city limits.

After watching game film and getting our marching orders for the week, we did conditioning. That was code for the coaches to run our butts off. We’d worked too hard to let ourselves slip. We prided ourselves on being the best-conditioned team on the field. Our goal was to still be fresh come the fourth quarter.

After practice, I took a shower and then went out to find Brook and Cassidy. I found Dare with his book bag at the locker-room door.

“Do you have a ride home?” I asked.

He shook his head ‘no.’

“At some point, you’ll have to start talking to me. It might as well be now,” I suggested. “That is if you want me to give you a ride.”

Dare looked up at me and seemed to come to a decision. I’d been patient with him all day, but this staring at his feet and not talking was getting old.

“I need a ride if that’s okay?” he asked.

“I’ll give you a ride, but there’s a price you have to pay,” I warned him.

“What’s that?” Dare asked.

“You have to flirt with Cassidy,” I said, and saw him blanch.

“I don’t know how to do that.”

I rubbed my hands together and did my evil scientist laugh. Mwahaha!

The evil flirting plan was a complete bust. Dare took one look at Cassidy, turned beet red and refused to speak. I had to have him write me a note to tell me where he lived. I’ve never seen someone bolt from a car like that before. Both Brook and Cassidy looked at me.

“He has it bad for Cassidy,” I explained.

They both ignored the little drama.

“What are our plans for tonight?” Brook asked.

We’d come to an agreement that on Monday I got to pick our activity, Tuesday was Brook’s turn, Wednesday I had Japanese classes, and Thursday Cassidy took us to the dojo.

“Video games,” I announced.

They weren’t nearly as excited as I was. It had been almost a month since I’d had time to log in and kill my friends or play any other game. The only game-like activity I’d been spending any free time on was the flight simulator software. That wasn’t really a game, though.

I had two controllers, and the girls weren’t interested in Call of Duty, so I loaded my new DiRT 4 racing game. I let the girls practice in DiRT Academy to get a feel for the game while I ordered pizza. We decided to play where the winner kept playing and the loser had to give way to a new challenger. Cassidy won the first game against Brook.

Cassidy was a total risk-taker, which paid off sometimes, but others, not so much. The off-road racing game had over fifty cars to pick from. After I’d won four straight, they decided they got to pick the car I would drive as a way to even the playing field.

We took a break when the pizza came.

“This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” Cassidy admitted.

“I’d rather be doing the real thing and four-wheeling at my house,” Brook said.

“I don’t think your mom wants me to come over. What was the deal with you not waiting for me this morning?” I asked.

“Your mom called mine and said she was going to talk to you and I should probably find another ride.”

I’d suspected this had been a planned attack. I would have to let Ava know that no one liked a tattletale. I needed to think about this one. Revenge was a dish best served cold; I would bide my time.

We got back to the game and Brook had been reading the stats for all the cars. She picked what she thought was the worst one for me, but she chose the best. I kept my opinion to myself because until she played the game enough, the one she’d picked was a beast to drive. I picked a course that had a hairpin turn that she consistently spun out on as my little car chugged right along.

“Cassidy, distract him,” Brook said in frustration.

Cassidy sat down next to me on the couch. I became aware of her planned gambit when she flashed me her boobies. Luckily, I’d seen them before, or I would have crashed.

Cassidy upped the ante and began to kiss my neck.

“Are you going to allow this?” I asked Brook.

She glanced over and just shrugged. Cassidy slid her hand up my thigh. That was enough for me to wreck my car. I reached for Cassidy, but she took my controller away so that she could race Brook.

I went to the refrigerator and grabbed everyone another soda. I sat between Brook and Cassidy and lifted my shirt so Brook could see my chest.

“Leave me alone. Distract Cassidy,” Brook ordered.

I took my shirt off.

“I’ve seen that too many times,” Cassidy teased.

I got up and turned on some music so I could do a little striptease. I was down to my boxers and twerking when Cassidy finally lost. I was nervous as to what Cassidy might pull.

“You might want to put a stop to this,” I warned Brook.

I could see the competitive glint in her eye and recognized I was talking to a brick wall right now. She should have listened to me. Somehow Mr. Happy escaped my boxers and Cassidy had a mouthful before Brook realized what I’d warned her about. It was fortunate that she loved me because I wasn’t thinking with my big head. While Cassidy did wonderful things to me, I pulled Brook into a passionate kiss.

My big head started to assert itself when I suddenly remembered something.

“Boyfriend!” I squawked as I pushed Cassidy off me.

“I bet she doesn’t care,” Brook predicted.

From the smoky look Cassidy gave me, I had to agree with her. I picked Brook up and carried her to the bedroom where I closed the door. I was grateful that Brook didn’t make an issue of my momentary slip and we had some fun. I was even more thankful that Cassidy wasn’t upset with us when we came back out.

I felt it had been an almost perfect night. Anytime a guy can eat pizza, play video games, and spend time with his girlfriend is a great night. The only thing missing was a beer.

Thursday October 6
Tracy and I’d agreed to hold off on filming more episodes for her vlog, Dessert First, until next weekend when I didn’t have a recruiting trip planned. On Tuesday, Brook had taken me to the little airport for our flying lessons. I’d been remiss in attending classroom sessions. She was now fully qualified to fly solo in a small single-prop plane during daytime and good weather. Cassidy had continued to learn in the simulator, and Brook and I agreed she would start joining me for classes.

Wednesday, we’d had my Japanese class with Hana Yamamura, Shiggy’s niece, who’d taught me in the spring and gone with us to Japan. She’d stayed in Japan for the rest of the summer and had spent it with Jiro Yamashita, one of the actors in My Butterfly, the J-drama I’d filmed. She planned to go to LA in December because Jiro had landed a role in the next J-drama I was in. We agreed that I would hire her as my interpreter and lines coach.

After football practice, I found Brook waiting in my car and no Cassidy. She usually caught a ride with us after school, and tonight was supposed to be her night to pick our activity; that meant going to the dojo.

“I decided we need to go on another adventure,” Brook said as I climbed into the back seat and Paul began to drive.

While I loved our adventures, I’d made a promise to Cassidy to go to the dojo.

“I can’t. I made plans with Cassidy.”

“What if I told you Cassidy is aware of the change of plans and is okay with it? I know how you get when you promise something,” she said, understanding me too well.

I leaned back into my seat and relaxed. Cassidy and Brook were best friends, and I was sure Brook had told her of the change of plans. If Cassidy had a problem with it, she’d have said something. She wasn’t shy about letting me know her feelings on any topic.

I perked up when I saw us pulling into our local airport where we went skydiving and took flight lessons. What had my full attention was that two of the runways had orange cones on them and I saw my Dodge Demon flying down the tarmac.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Driving instruction,” Paul said from the front seat. “The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is too much car to drive without learning its capabilities in a safe environment. Fritz has been getting everyone up to speed.”

We pulled onto the tarmac, and as I got out, I discovered why Cassidy had let me off the hook for the dojo. She was behind the wheel with Fritz in the passenger seat, giving her instructions. You could see Cassidy’s intense concentration as she maneuvered the car through the cones at high speed. You could hear the high-pitched whine over the monster roar of its engine as the Demon’s supercharger kicked in. My inner Alpha Male raised its head and wanted to scream ‘mine’ like a petulant two-year-old.

While Cassidy took my car through its paces, Chuck pulled me over to talk about my SUV they usually drove us in.

“I understand that you took driving classes before,” Chuck stated.

“In LA,” I confirmed.

Devin Range and I had been trained together. That training had allowed me to feel much more comfortable driving my old Charger. If I hadn’t taken the class, I would have felt nervous about driving the Demon. It was a lot of car, and you could get yourself into trouble with it in a hurry if you weren’t careful.

“We want to get you comfortable driving it and the Ford Hennessey VelociRaptor SUV. The Ford was designed to be an off-road pickup truck that Hennessey modified to create a high-performance SUV. Since we had the track, Fritz wanted to get us all familiar with its handling capabilities as well as those of the Demon,” Chuck explained.

Because the SUV’s suspension was designed for off-road, it had a comfortable ride. I got behind the wheel with Chuck as my copilot. The Ford Hennessey VelociRaptor was no slouch in the power department. The previous owner had them put in a twin-turbo supercharger setup, which they tuned so it pushed the 6.2-liter V-8 to 1032 horsepower.

I quickly discovered that Chuck knew a bit about defensive driving. Not just the boring stuff, but how to negotiate your way out of trouble. I knew that we would have to replace all four tires after he taught me how to do power slides with this beast. I was glad that he did because it let me know exactly how far I could push it before the tires would break loose. I started to feel a lot more confident driving it. It was longer and heavier than the Demon and had a higher center of gravity. While not as quick, it was still better-performing than most anything else on the road.

While I drove the VelociRaptor, Brook had gotten behind the wheel of the Demon. I chuckled when I saw her start to back it up and the wheels broke loose. You just didn’t understand the power unless you drove it. I was glad I hadn’t taken Hennessey up on their offer to beef up the engine on the Demon. That would have been insane. The Demon was already more car than anyone needed. With yet more power, I could see myself dead.

While Chuck checked me out on the VelociRaptor, he told me that Fritz had worked with my parents and Peggy earlier in the day. Of course, he and Paul had taken turns driving in the controlled environment. This gave everyone a chance to push the cars and not worry about running into anything.

Finally, it was my turn to drive the Demon. Fritz didn’t know that I’d secretly terrorized the local country roads and had a fair understanding of what it could do.

“Take it out easy until you get a feel for how it handles,” Fritz advised.

I grinned at him and heard him mutter “oh, shit” as I gave it gas. The Demon rocketed down the tarmac. I think Fritz about had kittens when I put it into a power slide to fly around the corner and then sent us screaming up the other runway. Fritz planted one palm on the dash and the other on the roof.

“I think you should let me drive from now on,” I suggested as we weaved in and out of the cones.

“I’m not sure you’d be safe in normal traffic,” he said.

I could see him cringe when I slammed on the brakes, causing the wheels to smoke. I appreciated that Dodge had upgraded the brake package over my previous car. It also helped that we had racing-inspired seat belts to hold us in place.

“Sorry, I wanted to see how good the brakes are,” I explained.

“Next time, warn me.”

I grinned, which caused him to shake his head. I didn’t feel sorry for him because the whole purpose of today’s exercise was to test our limits in the cars. Only with that knowledge could we use their full potential. I learned that I loved fast cars. I was a very happy boy.

On the ride home, I received my second surprise of the evening.

“My dad says that you have to come to our house for dinner tonight,” Cassidy told me.

“I think my mom made dinner,” I said.

“He’s afraid that your dad can’t cook,” Brook translated for me.

“I’m trying not to be rude,” I said pointedly to my girlfriend.

The look on Cassidy’s face told me I had reason to be concerned. Then she compounded the issue.

“Paul, can you drop me off at Brook’s, please?”

“You’re not eating with us?” I asked disbelievingly.

“Suck it up, you big baby,” Brook said.

“He makes spaghetti with ketchup,” I complained.

Brook looked at me in disbelief.

“He really does,” Cassidy confirmed. “You’re lucky I’ve broken him of making it with hot dogs.”

Brook shuddered. They gave me no sympathy and dropped me off.

When Coach Hope opened the door, I smelled pizza. He gave me a curious look at my obvious relief.

“What’s that look for?” he asked as I came in.

I saw Ty, Wolf, and Tim in the living room.

“Cassidy said you were making spaghetti with hot dogs.”

He laughed.

“That brings back memories. When you’re broke and have to feed two kids, you use whatever you have. It wasn’t that bad. I only made it for them because they would ask for it.”

I greeted the guys, and we sat down at the dining room table. Coach had ordered Papa Del’s. They had a party-size deep-dish pizza that would feed even this group. A couple of slices were more than enough. I felt good when I saw he’d also gotten a large Italian salad so I could at least say I ate something healthy. Not that pizza didn’t hit all the food groups.

Once we had something to eat, Coach Hope explained why he’d invited us all to dinner.

“I wanted to congratulate you on getting offers from the University of Michigan. I understand that Ty has accepted.”

“Hey, good job,” Tim said.

“Thanks. My parents are excited that I got the offer. Dad bought the whole family Michigan gear,” Ty said.

“Coach Haber told me that he feels optimistic that the three of you will also accept,” Coach Hope said.

“We felt good about the visit, but we have a couple more places to go to,” Wolf explained.

“I totally agree. I understand that you have official visits scheduled for Alabama and USC. I think you need to explore what they have to offer. I know that Bo Harrington has been in touch frequently, checking up on you. He’s pushing hard for you to join him at Alabama,” Coach Hope said, looking at me.

“They have a nice campus and outstanding football facilities. The women aren’t bad either,” I shared.

“I saw several nice-looking women in Michigan,” Ty offered.

Someone was helping them recruit. Both Wolf and Tim picked up on it and started to tease him. Coach Hope stopped it before it got out of hand.

“Coach Haber called me today and wanted me to run something by the four of you. I understand that David won’t enroll in the fall because he has a movie to film. Because of that, he’ll gray-shirt and start school in the spring semester. Coach Haber said it will technically put him in the next year’s recruiting class.

“The reason that’s important is that Michigan likes to take at least one quarterback in each class. He wanted me to talk to you about the person they’re thinking of offering,” Coach Hope said.

We looked at one another. Why would Michigan ask us about whom they were recruiting unless it had a direct impact on one of us? For example, if they offered Wolf and got an acceptance from a highly rated tight end, they might tell him about it. That way he could make the best decision about where to go.

All I could think was that they had had a positive response from another stud quarterback. I knew that all the top schools I was looking at either had or were recruiting high-level quarterbacks. I wasn’t afraid of competition. USC had signed Ridge Townsend two years ago. Bill had told me there was Heisman talk for him next year. Alabama had enlisted Wes Hunt last year; he was my Co-MVP at Elite 11 and the number one quarterback in that class. Clemson had signed Chuck Tess, another Elite 11 quarterback, last year and had a commitment from Larry Dell who ranked just behind me in this year’s class.

“I’m fine with whoever they take,” I said.

“Would you be fine if they took Mike Herndon?” Coach Hope asked.

That took me by surprise. I could see that even Ty wasn’t happy to hear that news. I was fine with competing for a spot. I wasn’t sure I wanted to have to watch my back the whole time. I knew that I would never let him near anyone I dated.

“I’m not...” I started, but Coach Hope cut me off.

“I also got a call from Mike’s dad, Coach Herndon. He asked that you give Mike a second chance.”

I let out a long sigh.

“I thought we already did that and it didn’t work out so great,” Wolf said, getting mad.

“I’ve already done that for him twice after the stuff he pulled, both times at his request. Funny thing is, he had no problem asking, but for some reason, he’s never had even a thought of thanking me,” I added.

“I said I would ask,” Coach Hope said.

“Guys. I bet that on a college team with eighty-five players there’re going to be a few we don’t like,” Tim said. “I think it would be better if we knew that a guy was a dick instead of finding out the hard way.”

“I personally think Mike would be a problem,” Ty said.

Everyone looked at me. Since when was I the tie-breaker? My heart said no way. My head gave me two reasons to allow it. The first was Mike would never challenge me for my job. I know that made me sound arrogant, but it was true. The second was that Coach Herndon had asked. If it had just come from Michigan, I would have said ‘no.’

“I’m not going to change my mind about Michigan just because Mike’s going there. If he gets out of hand, we can always have Tim give him a shot in practice.”