Chapter 24: Away Game

Wednesday November 2
I had my bags packed and was ready to go to St. Louis. The plan was to go to morning classes and then leave at noon. The game was to be shown on ESPN, and the network wanted to do their prep this afternoon. Coach Hope had shared that we were one of only a handful of high school teams that had had their games televised on ESPN in back-to-back years.

Until this week, I’d ignored this game for several reasons. Honestly, my focus had been on two things: recruiting and my injury. I’d not thought about Broadview Academy because this was one game our athletic director was crazy to schedule.

Last year we’d played King High and probably should have lost to them. I think if they hadn’t tried to hurt me and had it backfire, injuring their star linebacker, we wouldn’t have won. Broadview Academy was a college prep school for athletes. It was one of a handful of schools around the country that focused on helping kids get to the next level. Here, the target was high-level football players who wanted to play for the best college programs and eventually make it to the NFL.

Unlike King High, who drew their players from just their school district, Broadview Academy enrolled players from all over the country. Percy Wilkes was right; we shouldn’t play them. On paper, they were probably better than we were at almost every position.

I should’ve been nervous. I should’ve been wringing my hands, worried that we would get killed in this game. The game film showed them dismantling every opponent they’d played. So why wasn’t I worried? It was because we’d prepared for a game like this for the last four years ... as a team. We’d been given every advantage. Our booster club had made sure we had the facilities we needed and provided specialized training. We’d attacked off-season workouts and gotten bigger, stronger, and faster. We had some of the best coaching I’d seen at the high school level.

The key factor for me was that we were a team, not a group of individuals who’d come together to showcase their talent. I was confident because I knew that with teamwork, we could beat superior individual ability.

I met Brit as I stepped out of my apartment.

“How’s it going with Precious?” Brit asked.

“Since she got me to understand she could do whatever she wanted, we’ve been getting along fine.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“She’s allowed to sleep on my pillow on my bed when she wants to get away from her kittens. I’m also not allowed to lock the crate, or there are consequences,” I said, showing her my arm.

“Thanks. I don’t know anyone else who would have let Precious have her kittens at their place.”

“You need to thank my mom. She was ready to evict her and her kittens when she found out. Precious has terrorized her and my dad more than once.”

Precious had snuck in with Duke on a couple of occasions when he’d wanted his morning loving. For some reason, it was always my fault that Brit’s cat was so antisocial.

“I’ll be sure to thank her too,” Brit assured me, then went up to check on her cat and the litter.

Duke met me at the back door of the house, so I let him out. I walked in to find Scarlet and Peggy having coffee. Coby saw me and grunted as he reached his arms up for me to pick him up.

“Morning, ladies.”

“I have some good news for you,” Scarlet announced.

“What’s that?”

“They finalized the deal on Halle’s movie. They fired the director and producer because they both knew about Halle’s complaint against Zander and did nothing about it. I heard that filming will begin again on Monday, and you know the director they hired: Kitty Ellis.”

“Who’s that?” Peggy asked.

“She was one of the directors on The Royal Palm. She’ll do a great job for Halle,” I said. “Did they hire Ben Cowley as her leading man?”

“They did. Caryn said Halle says she owes you big time,” Scarlet shared.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You agreed to take a piece of the movie instead of suing her old studio. Caryn said she talked to Ari, and if this movie hadn’t been put back into production, they might have blackballed Halle. I guess they’ve done that to other actresses. Halle needs this picture to be a success.”

It sounded like Caryn was plugged-in and on top of everything. I was happy Halle would be back to work on Monday.

Then Scarlet chuckled.

“What?” I asked self-consciously.

“Did you know that there’s an express line for TSA?”

I hated airport security. They had groped me one too many times. I’m sure Scarlet could tell from the face I made.

“Caryn didn’t, either. If my parents didn’t travel to Alabama away games, I wouldn’t have known. It costs like $85, and you don’t have to get in line with everyone else. The even better part is the pass is good for five years. When you go through security, you don’t have to take off your shoes or do any of the other dumb stuff. I think the most we waited was five minutes to get through security,” Scarlet explained.

“Who do I have to kill for that?”

“Caryn filled out applications online and paid for you, your parents, and Brook. All you have to do is go see them in person when you get to St. Louis. It’s like a ten-minute meeting, and they fingerprint you.”

“You keep being useful and we might have to promote you,” I teased.

“Does that come with a raise, corner office, and car?” Scarlet asked, acting excited.

“I’m pretty sure it’s a title, and you’re put on salary. That means we can work you sixty hours a week and you won’t get any overtime. I bet all your friends will be envious when you’re a vice president of something.”

“At least I get a car,” Peggy teased, and then gave me a look. “Speaking of which, I’ll need something bigger than the Jeep if I ever have to pick up all the little ones, once Ashley gets here with her two.”

“We will probably need to hire you help,” I admitted.

I could barely keep up with Coby and Little David. Add in Dawson, Allen, and Carol, and I couldn’t make Peggy do it alone.

“Your mom has already talked to Caryn about it. I think her week with them out of daycare was more than enough for her,” Peggy said.

I still don’t know how she handled Greg’s three and mine. His oldest two were almost three and got into everything. Nate wasn’t far behind them because he wanted to do everything his older siblings did.

Paul came in the back door, and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten yet and we had to go.

“We have to drive through today,” I told him.

He was a guy, so he was okay with that. He grabbed my suitcase, and I followed him out to the car. I had to go back when I realized I still had Coby in my arms, and let Duke in while I was at it. I forget, is it your mind or knees that go first?

The school was abuzz with excitement when Brook and I arrived. The cheerleaders had decorated each player’s locker with their name, number, and our bulldog logo. They’d also hung banners that predicted a win over the Broadview Academy Vaqueros. ‘Vaquero’ is a Spanish word for cowboy; that’s what they were called in that region.

For us, this was the start of a tough stretch of games. All would be the best of the best. It was my opinion that Broadview might be the hardest one for us to win. After them, the state playoffs began. This year there was no drama around whether we were in.

I was glad when our teachers all seemed to realize that our minds weren’t on school today and took it easy on us. We went to lunch, and the guys all seemed in high spirits. I should have known it was all going too well.

“David?” Tracy asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you getting a suite and throwing an orgy this year?” she asked innocently.

All conversation at the table suddenly came to a halt. I scowled at Tracy.

“Didn’t you graduate already?”

“I just wondered where and when we should all show up.”

I turned to Brook, who had a neutral look on her face.

“In my youth, I was a little bit ... adventurous,” I explained.

“We miss fun David,” Pam shared.

I gave her my half-hooded-eyes look. To this day, I was shocked that Pam, the shy one, had climbed on me while I was occupied giving Tracy oral pleasure. Not that I complained at the time. I could honestly say I had no regrets, as far as Pam was concerned.

That included us having Coby. The timing wasn’t ideal for his arrival into our world, but I wouldn’t give him up for anything. As a bonus, it meant his mom Pam would also be a part of my life.

“I call David as my roommate!” Wolf shouted, putting a quick end to that train of thought.

That made the whole lunchroom look our way. He looked around and ducked his head.

“I’m just saying that if you don’t already have one,” he mumbled.

“Your girlfriend is a model,” I pondered.

Wolf dated Sarah, who was, in fact, a model, as well as Tami’s schoolmate. A little smile touched my eyes as I remembered past times with Sarah—before she dated Wolf—and how much fun she was. We’d spent an especially good day when she helped me after my breakup with Harper.

“Mine is your best friend,” Tim pitched his relationship with Tami.

“Blood is thicker than water,” Phil said, to make his entry in the sweepstakes to room with me.

“Would I be having sex with just you, or would there be other guys?” Jill asked.

“I’d be willing to be a part of this,” Yuri said as he looked at Jill.

The dumbass was sitting next to his girlfriend when he said it. He really was a work in progress, and Jan had her work cut out for herself with him. In his defense, Jill was H.O.T. hot.

That was when my girlfriend touched my hand. I looked at her and tried to read her mind. Mr. Happy thought it would be a good idea to throw this live grenade in her lap and make her the bad guy by turning everyone down. Curse Tami and her common-sense advice to ignore my first reaction.

“Guys, we’re going to St. Louis to play football,” I said and meant it.

None of them believed me. Mr. Happy wondered where ‘fun David’ had gone, too.

The Booster Club had sprung for charter buses for our trip. They’d gotten six buses that seated 56 people each. The coaches had decided to bring all the football players and cheerleaders, regardless of class. They had also invited the marching band. Then there were the chaperones and support staff. When I was in middle school, I’d gone to football games at State where the opposing team had had nowhere near that many buses for a college game.

I would have to make sure everyone let the Booster Club know how much we appreciated their support.

I settled in towards the back of the first bus with the usual suspects. Brook had to sit with the cheerleaders, who were on the fourth bus. I’d just gotten comfortable when Coach Hope made his way down the aisle.

“You need to come up front,” he said.

When I was halfway to the front, I saw Fritz, Paul, and Cassidy climb on board. Something was up. When we got seated, the buses all pulled out.

“The Marriott called me,” Fritz said. “I’ve been working with them to set up security.”

When we had traveled this past summer, one of Fritz’s crew had rented the room next to mine and had put video surveillance inside my room. We hadn’t kept that same level of security when I’d gone on recruiting trips. Something must have triggered this response.

“ESPN Radio has been hyping the game for the last couple of weeks. This week all the local TV, radio, and print media have picked it up. Of course, you’ve been a focus of their reporting. St. Louis doesn’t have a local football team that everyone supports. They’ve sold a lot of tickets in the last three days,” Fritz explained.

“That’s good, right?” I asked.

“The Marriott isn’t so happy about it right now. It seems news trucks showed up this morning. That has attracted a crowd, once word got out you’re on your way.”

“We’ve dealt with this before,” I said.

“Think the Washington fundraiser,” Fritz said.

That made me flinch. Well over twenty thousand people had shown up for a fundraising event that was planned for a couple thousand attendees. We were lucky that there was plenty of room and that Governor Higgins had made sure the state police were there to help manage the crowd.

“You can’t be serious. How would that many people get into downtown St. Louis?” I asked.

Okay. I’m a ‘stupid boy’ sometimes.

Before we reached East St. Louis, we pulled into a rest stop. I got off the bus with my security team, and we found a limo waiting for us. The plan was for the buses to unload in the back of the Marriott, and we would pull into the front. I was glad when Coach Hope and Coach Mason joined me.

We led everyone through East St. Louis and over the bridge that spanned the Mississippi River. The view showed barges on the river, and across the river was the Gateway Arch National Park. It’s a memorial to Thomas Jefferson’s role in the expansion to the west. It was near the actual start of Lewis and Clark’s historic journey. We got off I-55 and drove right by the Arch. The Marriott was close to The Dome at America’s Center, where we would play our game.

A couple of blocks before we reached our destination, the Missouri State Highway Patrol was waiting for us. We pulled over, and the buses continued on. It felt like I was with the governor when we were in the middle of four patrol vehicles with their lights flashing.

“I think we should have stayed with the team,” Coach Mason said, sharing his opinion of this convoy.

I found myself agreeing with him when we turned onto the street where the Marriott was located. Local police had blocked it off to through traffic. From all the hand-wringing, I’d expected we would have an out-of-control madhouse. What I found was more of a block party of my peeps. I shook my head when I saw a bunch of fanboys and girls. Some of them had dressed up as characters from various sci-fi or fantasy shows. Some restaurants on the street had taken advantage and set up tables and were serving food and adult beverages.

“Turn your jersey inside out,” Fritz advised.

I almost forgot the NCAA. If I was going to talk about movies, I needed not to be sporting my football gear.

“He could just take it off,” Cassidy suggested.

I thought I’d fired her.

When we pulled up, the press tried to rush the limo. We waited until the police pushed them back. Fritz and his team made me sit in the car until they were satisfied I wouldn’t get crushed by the press. I mean seriously, I was no big deal.

The police had the limo moved so everyone could see me as I had my picture taken and answered questions about my movies. Frank had prepared me for ESPN. But he neglected to give me talking points about Star Academy, The Secret Circle, or The Royal Palm, which would come out between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’d done this a time or two, so I muddled through.

Finally, I’d had enough of answering questions. Fritz and the state troopers about had a meltdown when I walked right through the press and hopped over the barrier to talk to my fans. It really wasn’t risky because I knew that fanboys and girls were harmless. They might act goofy and talk my arm off, but I wasn’t worried they would rush me. I knew my assessment was correct when they seemed to take a collective step back. They all took a deep breath when I smiled at them.

ESPN, several paparazzi, and other TV crews tried to follow me. But I pointed at ESPN and Jeff’s team to indicate only they could go into the crowd with me. Some of them weren’t happy when they were stopped. If anyone would end up causing problems, it was them.

What you must realize about most people who come to these types of events is that they are shy and, dare I say it, nerds at heart. The prospect of a horde of press would terrify them. I quickly discovered, however, that several office workers had taken advantage and skipped work. Some of these women weren’t as tentative about wanting to get to know me. I put Cassidy in charge of collecting phone numbers so I could spend my limited time taking pictures and signing autographs with fans.

After about twenty minutes, Fritz had reached his limit. He grabbed me by the back of my belt and began to walk me backward to the hotel. After I finished with the group I’d been signing autographs for, I turned, and we walked into the hotel.

Phil ended up being my roommate again this year. He’d traveled with me this summer and knew the rules about the video surveillance. I saw he’d grabbed my bag and brought it up to the room.

“Jill and Brook are roommates,” Phil told me.

I just nodded; I didn’t want to talk about his girlfriend or the chance she might think Tracy was serious at lunch. Instead, I quickly unpacked and then turned my jersey right side out. We had to get back on the bus and go to the football stadium to do our interviews with ESPN. It would also give us a chance to get out on the field.

The Dome at America’s Center had been home to the NFL’s Rams when they were in St. Louis. Designed as a multipurpose stadium, it was attached to a convention center. I figured out why so many people had a spontaneous block party: the convention center was hosting a comic-con-style event.

I firmly believed that the Washington fundraiser had attracted so many people because of the Star Wars tie-in. My dad and I’d shot a series of videos that showed us stealing the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo’s starship. At the time I’d just turned down the role to play the young Han Solo in an upcoming movie because it would have been a full-time commitment.

Ari, my agent, had shared with Caryn that it looked like I’d made the right decision. The movie would be a standalone, meaning there were no sequels planned. Rumors had also been circulating in Hollywood that the film wasn’t very good. It was hard to imagine that anything related to the Star Wars franchise would be a flop. Competition for the lead role had been fierce. I suspected that some of the rumors were just sour grapes.

When the buses pulled up to the stadium, we could see that ESPN had a film crew set up. Stacy Clute, from my art class last year, had made us a sign to hang in the locker room. It said ‘Irrelevant!’ to remind us of what Percy Wilkes had said in his interview. The poster was sitting at the front of the bus, so I picked it up to take it inside.

The driver opened the bus’s under-coach storage bays so we could grab our gear. I walked into the stadium carrying the sign and my bag.

“What’s the sign say?” asked the cameraman.

I looked down and saw it was facing me, so I turned it around for him to see and continued to the locker room.

ESPN had decided we would be the visiting team, so that meant we would wear our blue jerseys with orange numbers trimmed in white. For their team introduction sequence, they had us dressed in our football pants and jerseys with no shoulder pads.

When it would air on TV, it would show a graphic of who each player was and what position he played. They wanted us to move to show it was video and not just a still picture. All the guys had watched games where this was done and had plans for what they wanted to do. Typically, you would show your game face and maybe flex. Some chose only to smile. Others did something goofy, like try to dance.

I was hanging with Tim and Wolf as the line moved forward. I cringed when Phil tried to dance. Sometimes I wondered if we really were related.

“What do you plan to do?” I asked them.

Tim clenched his fists and did his imitation of the Incredible Hulk. At least he didn’t try to dance. Wolf’s was better. He simply took a football and tucked it like he was going to run.

“What’s your plan?” Wolf asked.

“That’s a tough one. Maybe I’ll strike the Heisman,” I said as I demonstrated what the Heisman Trophy pose looked like. “Or I could always point at the sky and give the ‘glory to God’ move.”

They both rolled their eyes at that one. I was almost convinced that was what I would do regardless of what my friends thought because it fit the all-American boy image.

“Why don’t you go get the ‘Irrelevant!’ sign?” Tim asked.

“Dude, you have to do it,” Wolf urged.

“Why don’t one of you do it?” I asked.

“Because Coach would kill us. You can get away with it,” Tim explained.

That was why I wanted one of them to do it. I didn’t need Coach Hope up my butt for doing something in retaliation for what Broadview had said. Then I used my get-out-of-jail-free card. My first instinct was not to do it. Since my first reaction was always wrong...

I jogged to the locker room and grabbed the sign. When Wolf and Tim saw I had it, they made an executive decision that I should jump the line before one of the coaches spotted me. It was Ty’s turn, and when he saw what I planned to do, he let me go next.

I kept the sign behind my back, and as they started to film, I pulled it out and held it over my head. Out of nowhere, Coach Hope appeared.

“Nope, not happening. Give me that and do it again,” he ordered.

What a fun-sucker. I asked Wolf to lob me his football and smiled when the video started as I tossed the ball up and caught it. Then I reached down and lifted my jersey to show off my abs, then pointed the football at my stomach as I stuck my tongue out. The cameraman got a smirk on his face, so I’d gotten a reaction.

“What happened to the glory to God?” Wolf asked.

“The Spirit came over me.”

Let them laugh at me. I believed in the Old Testament, vengeful God!

They asked a handful of us to do sit-down interviews with ESPN that they would use as filler during the game. I was sent to where they’d set up in the end zone, and there I found a familiar face.

“We meet again,” Margaret Chin, ESPN’s sideline reporter, said laconically.

“What do you plan to ask me?” I asked to get an idea before the actual interview started.

“We want to build on the rivalry that’s developing between your two schools to help sell the game.”

“But we’ve never played each other,” I complained.

“And yet you have a sign calling out what Percy Wilkes said about your team.”

“Coach Hope is so going to kill me. Can’t I give you five minutes of me just being lucky to play such a fine team as Broadview Academy?” I asked hopefully.

“We’re ready,” her director told her.

“Tomorrow night, two titans of the high school football scene will clash here on ESPN. From Texas, we have Broadview Academy, who has won 17 straight games and is the defending state champion. They are loaded with division-one talent, and the current number-one recruit in defensive end Percy Wilkes. They will face off with the pride of Illinois, Lincoln High, who is a two-time defending state champion. According to recruiting services, Lincoln also has several top-level prospects on their team, not the least of which is defending Gatorade Player of the Year, David Dawson.

“David was injured in a horrific vehicle collision earlier this year. Concern about the effects of those injuries has dropped him in the national recruiting rankings. This will be David’s first serious competition since the collision,” she said, and then turned to me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

She forgot to tell me about this part of the interview.

“To be honest, our coaches talked about me not playing in tomorrow night’s game because I’m still healing,” I shared.

That conversation had happened a few weeks ago ... but she was the one that wanted to generate a story. I already knew that Percy and his gang would be after me tomorrow night. If they believed I was still injured, it would be like blood in the water for a pack of sharks. I figured I could handle myself. Plus, if I never played another down of football, I would be okay. For someone like Wolf, football would change his life, even if he never made it to the pros. At the very least, he would get a college education out of it. The last thing I wanted was for someone else on my team to get hurt.

“You might not play?” Margaret asked.

“I’ll get checked out tomorrow, and it will be a game-time decision.”

I’d hoped that the news of my injury might derail her from asking about the brewing rivalry.

“Percy Wilkes said some things on local TV that I see you picked up on. Do you think Lincoln really is irrelevant?”

Talk about a loaded question.

“That’s why we play these games. I’m sure we’ll find out tomorrow. What I do know is that we’ve worked hard to get to where we are and I know we will give it our all. Percy may be right. From looking at their game film, they are everything he has said they are. Texas high school ball is serious business. We would be crazy to discount that.

“I’m just hoping our fans come out in force to support us tomorrow night. We’ll need them to even have a chance. I also hope that people in the St. Louis area will come out to the game and support an underdog. Heck, even Navy beats Notre Dame every once in a while. If they’re lucky, they’ll see us do the same.”

“Cut,” the director said.

“I can’t wait to see you stagger onto the field and take them apart,” Margaret said.

“That’s the plan.”

My parents had arrived, so we all loaded up to go to the TSA office to get our PreCheck passes taken care of. When we got into the limo, Fritz turned to me.

“We can’t have you wading into a crowd like you did earlier.”

I was instantly mad. My dad was right when he said you praised in public and chastised in private. Fritz had just called me out in front of my whole security team, parents, and girlfriend.

“Okay,” was my one-word answer.

“We have no idea what the risk could have been...” he began but stopped when I held up my hand.

“I said, okay.”

I think he could feel the white-hot rage building inside of me. My mom gave me a curious look. Even she could tell I wasn’t happy.

“In the future, come to me if you have an issue,” Dad said to Fritz to put everything back on a business level.

Fritz and I had become friends, and I think he realized his misstep. I really didn’t want to be a jerk, but I didn’t need him to challenge me like that. It would have been fine if it had just been him or maybe one or two other people.

“So, how are the kittens?” Brook asked.

My brain had to reset. I turned to her and smiled. I expect I caught everyone by surprise when I kissed her. She’d just saved me from myself. I guess that’s what girlfriends are for.

Everyone was now signed up for the PreCheck line through TSA at the airport. When we got back to the hotel, the street party had broken up. It looked like people needed to get home on a Wednesday evening.

“Hey, Cassidy,” I called, “do you have the phone numbers all those girls gave you today?”

“She gave them to me,” Brook said as she patted my hand.

“Good. I was afraid we would lose them.”

“Tell me what happened this afternoon,” Mom ordered, now that I wasn’t ready to kill anyone.

As we walked into the lobby, I shared all that had happened. I even admitted it was probably not a good idea to jump a police barrier to go talk to my fans. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Fritz relax. I didn’t want this to be an issue between us because I hadn’t handled it well and hoped my admission would get us past it.

Dad received a text and looked at us.

“Coach Hope says you’re going to dinner in an hour. I want to go take a shower and change.”

That sounded like a plan. I lured my girlfriend back to my room, intending to reward her for her save earlier. I didn’t even think to knock when we used the keycard to enter the room.

“Oh, shit!” Phil exclaimed when we caught him and Jill making out.

I suspect if we had come in ten minutes later, they might have been getting busy. Ignoring the evil look my brother gave me, I went to the dresser to see if Jill had signed the notice about being video-recorded. Nope.

“You need to read this and sign it,” I said as I pushed the clipboard towards her.

She read the big letters... ‘I Agree To Be Videoed’ ... stopped, and gave my brother a death stare.

“Was it your plan to make a sex tape and tell me about it ten years from now?” she asked with a little heat in her voice.

“I ... uh ... I ... uh...”

“That was what I thought,” she said as she got off his bed.

“Can you two clear out? Brook and I want to make our own video,” I said.

My brother and Jill both gave me a stupid look. Come on, it wasn’t rocket science. Then I remembered the form.

“I really need you to sign this,” I told Jill.

Fritz had been clear we couldn’t let anyone in the room without a signature. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t noticed the sign as they walked in.

“Oh, for later,” Jill said, and she quickly signed it.

Now it was Brook and Phil’s turn to give Jill a confused look. I swear that only children—i.e., ones without siblings—are clueless sometimes. Jill was jerking his chain, or so I chose to believe.