Chapter 9: School’s Out

Friday December 16
There was a whole different work ethic at Halle’s movie from that at the J-drama. I was playing Injustice: Gods Among Us with Ben, and he was kicking my ass. My gaming skills were embarrassing for a teenage boy.

There was a knock on the door, then Lexi opened it and stuck her head through.

“There you are. You’re supposed to be on set,” she said, pointing at me, and turned to Ben. “And you’re supposed to be in makeup.”

“Damn, David. Your PA is a slave driver,” Ben complained. “I was about to beat you again.”

He smashed all the buttons on his controller, and I died spectacularly. That one hurt my pride because I thought I was doing better. Oh, well. Back to work.

“Lead on, Slave Driver,” I said to tease Lexi.

She gave me one of those looks that promised bad things would happen to me but didn’t say anything. As we walked to the set, Lexi handed me my phone.

“Call Lily,” she said and then split off to give me privacy.

I saw by the time on the phone that Lily was probably finishing up lunch at school, so I took a chance and called her.

“Thanks for calling me back. Lexi said you were busy today. Do you have a minute?” Lily asked.

Lily and I had a history. It was because of my party that she’d almost died at the end of middle school. Since then, we’d become friends. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but she was in charge of my social media and websites. The reason I let her do most of it was that it saved me from myself. Most young athletes or celebrities didn’t have a filter on what they posted. My example was the alien baby bump I’d posted that featured Adrienne. That was why teenage me wasn’t allowed to post very often. I didn’t want to have my stuff come back and haunt me twenty years from now.

I know that it made almost no sense to allow a teenage girl to handle it. After all, they were prone to the same brain cramps boys were. The thing was that I trusted Lily. She took what she did seriously. That didn’t mean that she didn’t act goofy sometimes, or take on people who posted stuff about me. Frank Ingram, my PR guy and Lily’s boss, said she had a knack for it. He observed that, unlike most of his employees, she came across as young and playful. Those were two qualities he wanted to push forward in creating my image. Frank said his twenty-somethings acted too old for what I needed. They had been to college and hammered with political correctness. Not that Lily got me in too much trouble, but she hadn’t been beaten down to conform yet, either.

I stuck my head onto the set and saw they were still setting up. What I liked most about Mr. Otsuki was that he was always looking towards the next scene, and there was no messing around. That filming style fit my personality much better than, say, Love Letters. Not that Kitty Ellis, the director, was doing anything wrong; her crew simply took more time to get everything right before they would shoot a scene. It was a lot of hurry up and wait.

“They’re working on setting a scene. I should have a few minutes,” I assured her.

“I think I found my mom.”

When she was younger, her mom had left without even saying goodbye. Lily had been devastated, to the point she had a complete meltdown. It still bothered her that her mother could just walk away from their family. No one seemed to know anything.

“I hadn’t realized you were still looking for her.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t, but then I was. I got Megan to help me. I’m not sure what all she did, but she thinks she found her.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? I only ask that because I care for you. If you decide to follow up, I’ll do whatever you need to help,” I said.

“I am. I’m debating whether I should go alone or bring my brother and dad with me,” she said hesitantly.

“If it were me, I would want my family there.”

“Could you loan me the money for airline tickets, hotels, and the like?”

“Do you want me to make the arrangements, or do you want to do it yourself?” I asked.

“Honestly, I would rather I do it. I think I need to be in control of that part since I feel so out of control with everything else about my mom.”

“When I hang up, I’ll call Megan and have her set you up with one of our corporate cards. I want you to use it and not worry about paying me back. Don’t get goofy and think you have to scrimp, either. I want you to focus on what’s important: your family,” I said.

“Thank you, David. You keep saving me,” she said, and I could hear the emotion in her voice.

“My pleasure,” I said, and I looked up to see Kitty staring at me. “I have to go. Keep me up to date. If you need anything, and I mean anything, call me.”

I had to hang up. Lexi was right behind me and held out her hand for my phone. I’d put her in charge of it because I didn’t want to have it become a distraction on set.

“I’ll let Megan know,” Lexi said.

Then she shooed me toward where I needed to be.

I wasn’t sure if it was good or not that she was so involved in my life. I mean, to the point she felt at ease eavesdropping on my conversations and then acting on what she heard.

After I finished my morning scenes, I was starved because we’d run late. Lexi was waiting for me.

“Call Brook,” she said as she handed me my phone.

I looked at the time and saw that Brook had just gotten out of school. Today was the last day of classes before Christmas vacation. She would be here tomorrow, which made me smile. Coming with her were her parents and my mom. I knew Dad was as eager to see Mom as I was Brook.

I waited until I got to my trailer and found that Lexi had gotten me a salad and an iced tea. She was batting a thousand today, as far as being the perfect PA. I had a bad feeling she was up to something.

But I did as she said and called Brook; Cassidy answered.

“I have bad news,” Cassidy said.

“Destiny took over while I was gone, she’s now head cheerleader, and I’m dating her?” I asked.

“No!”

“What part did I get wrong? I am now dating Destiny, aren’t I?” I asked.

“You better not be,” she said and giggled.

“So, what’s up, Bad Girl?”

“Daddy says that because I hurt Aaron, I can’t come to California with Brook. Can you talk to him?” she asked.

Fritz had told me that Coach Hope had asked that Cassidy stay home through Christmas. He was taking Brad and Cassidy to Florida with the plan that they would stop at Busch Gardens and visit the tigers. Part of the deal for donating them was lifetime park access. Cassidy would much rather be with her tigers than me.

“I’ll talk to him, but don’t expect a miracle. Your dad doesn’t always listen to me,” I said.

“He deserved what he got,” Cassidy said.

I assumed she was talking about Aaron, our former manny.

“Thank you for being there. I watched the security footage, and if you hadn’t tried to snap Aaron’s arm off, I was going to come home and do worse.”

“He did cry,” she admitted.

“Good. Now that you’ve saved my son and hound, you can demand a boon of me,” I said with a fake British accent.

“Like what?” she asked.

“Anything I have the power to grant you. Just name it, it’s yours,” I said.

“Could I have the Demon?” she asked to test the waters.

“Sorry, I don’t own the Demon. It’s in my company’s name,” I said, dodging that one.

“But you could grant me access to it,” she reasoned.

“You can drive the Demon if the roads are dry. You can’t take it to school or the mall and leave it in the parking lot. I don’t want some idiot to ding it up,” I said to lay out the ground rules.

“Pam wants me to make Yuri cry. What do I get if I do that?” she asked.

OMG! I’d created a monster.

“You’ll have to work that out with her,” I said.

“She did say at lunch that you love her best. I bet I can get her to get you to do things for me,” Cassidy teased.

“Cassidy Hope! When did you become such a greedy gut?” I asked.

I knew she was playing around. Then I heard Brook in the background, asking, “Who are you talking to on my phone?”

Suddenly Brook was on the line.

“Some days I wonder about that girl.”

“She was trying to extort things out of me. Cassidy’s figured out that if she hurts someone for me, she might get a reward. If you want to solve your Destiny problem, you might want to strike while she’s in the mood,” I suggested.

“I’ll take that under advisement. Destiny has been civil since our last blowup. I think I’ll leave that alone until I get back,” Brook said, sounding way too reasonable to be my girlfriend. “What did you agree to give her?”

“I told her she could drive the Demon for saving Duke and Coby,” I explained.

“I guess the soccer mom he was banging was married. That whole thing is a mess.”

“I hadn’t heard that part. I’m just glad Cassidy was there. Do me a favor and give her a hug from me. If she hadn’t dealt with it, I would have. And I’m afraid of what I might have done.”

“The good news is Coby and Duke are fine. Your mom talked Lacy and Mrs. A into taking up the slack while she joins us in California,” Brook shared, being a fountain of information.

Lacy was Coby’s grandmother, and Mrs. A might as well have been. She was my second mom, along with a couple of others, while I was growing up.

“Hey, I have to go,” Brook said. “Chuck is here to pick us up, and we have to go to the airport for Cassidy’s flight test.”

That irritated me a bit. I’d planned to get my flight test taken care of before I left for LA but never got around to it. I was glad Brook had kept Cassidy going, but it reminded me that I’d let that slide. We each told the other that we would see each other tomorrow and hung up.

Kitty let me go early enough that I could go home and eat dinner with my dad before going out to see Birthrite perform. It was the first chance I’d had to be alone with him in a while.

“Did Caryn fire Aaron?” I asked.

“She put him on leave. Ms. Dixon suggested that so he didn’t lose his medical insurance for now. It was done to try to head off a lawsuit,” Dad said.

I snorted.

“I sometimes wonder about this country. The guy who attacks your son and dog is the victim somehow.”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Dad spouted.

“Cassidy was not wrong. She was defending Duke when she took him down. If she had continued to beat him, then I would agree. Cassidy showed remarkable restraint, as far as I’m concerned. If it were me, he might have needed help wiping his ass after I broke his other arm.”

Dad raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, come on. Tell me you wouldn’t want to do the same,” I challenged him.

“I would just get Cassidy to do it,” he finally agreed.

“This and a few other things have gotten me thinking. I’m not sure I want to be away from the boys for college. I want them in my life and not to be the dad who misses them growing up.”

My talk with my new mentor, Tsuyoshi Nomura, was still rattling around in my brain. Two points stood out from that conversation. The first was that I was trying to make things too complicated. The second was that family came first, regardless of what I did.

“How is that supposed to work?” Dad asked.

“I don’t know yet. If I go to either Michigan or Oklahoma, it’s more than a four-hour drive. USC would be nuts. I guess I might want to consider going to State.”

When it came out of my mouth, I was as stunned as my dad.

“That would be a terrible idea on so many levels I can’t even begin to fathom it,” Dad said.

Every university had its strengths and weaknesses as far as major fields of study go. State was known for its programs in engineering, psychology, education, law, computers, and business. They also had an excellent agriculture department. It wouldn’t be like I would get a lousy education there. State was considered one of the top 50 universities in the country.

The downside was they were a work in progress as far as football was concerned. They did have a decent baseball team, though. I personally didn’t think it was such a terrible idea, even though my dad did.

“Okay, I might not be ready to go so far as to commit to State—again,” I said with a half-smile. I remembered my freshman year when I’d committed to State to help Luke Herndon keep his scholarship. “I just wanted to throw it out there, and I’m sure you’ll share it with the brain trust. Maybe between you, Mom, Grandma Dawson, and Uncle John, you can figure out some alternatives.”

“Aaron shook you up,” Dad guessed.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I still wanted to hurt that guy but knew that there would be plenty of ‘yadda, yadda, yadda’ from everyone. The warnings were etched into my brain, but that didn’t mean it didn’t suck serious donkey dick. The fact was I hadn’t been around to protect my boys. I’d invited Aaron into our home and paid for the privilege of having him abuse my son and dog.

“Yeah, he did. I realize I have commitments, especially next summer and fall. Those are going to make it tough. I can’t imagine dragging the kids around the world as I work long hours. And I don’t want them not to know me when they see me.”

Secretly, I’d worried that when I was away, they would have bonded with Aaron as their father figure.

“Okay. I’ll talk to the ‘brain trust’ and see what we can figure out. I’m guessing it’s not only Coby and Little David you’re worried about?” Dad asked.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’ve just started to get to know Dawson, Allen, and Carol. I seem to be the common denominator in all this. That’s why I might need to think in terms of going to State.”

Halle and Trip were swinging by to pick me up. Manaia had the night off, and Flo was elected to watch the three of us. As I finished getting ready, there was a knock at my bedroom door.

“Come in.”

Lexi stuck her head in and smiled.

“Teresa is here, and your J-drama castmates said they just left the hotel.”

“I didn’t realize we were going as a group. How did they even know I was going out?” I asked.

“Oh, I think Misaki might have gotten it out of me. I just assumed...” Lexi said and trailed off.

“It’s okay. I’m sure Jett wants all the friendly faces in the crowd she can get,” I said, pushing down my irritation.

I’d thought that it would just be Halle, Trip, and me going out. It still would be, only now there would be more of us. I must have forgotten that I’d agreed to show my Japanese castmates the LA nightlife.

Tonight would be something new for them. We were going to West Hollywood to watch Jett play at The Troubadour. She was excited to be playing there this weekend. It was one of the iconic music clubs in LA. This was the same place that Sam Hunt, Imagine Dragons, Faith No More, Alicia Keys, and One Republic had all played at. Tonight, The Troubadour would host Birthrite.

When I finished getting ready, I found everyone in the living room, drinking wine. It looked like my dad had opened a couple of bottles to help kick off the evening. I was amused when Teresa jumped up, kissed me, and grabbed my arm. Halle ignored her and gave me the same treatment. This was going to be fun.

“Don’t I get a kiss?” Trip teased.

Just when I would forget that he was bi and into me, he would say something like that.

“Do you have a death wish?” Halle, his sister, asked while giving him ‘the look.’

She’d explained to me that she and Trip usually had different tastes in men. For some reason, they were both into me. I just put it down to all the Jameses having good taste in men. That didn’t sound conceited at all, which made me chuckle.

“What?” Halle asked.

“I was just thinking that this reminded me of when Cassidy would announce that I was giving out kisses. That was always a bad idea.”

Me and my big mouth. Misaki got up and laid one on me. I blinked at her and gave her a look of disbelief.

“I thought you were my big sister!”

“Well, I like to act like one, but if your girlfriend ever dumps you, give me a call.”

This was about to go south because Halle suddenly had a possessive look on her face. I turned to her and laid a serious kiss on her.

“I promise you if Brook dumps me, I’ll call you two minutes later,” I said and turned to the group. “Halle is my backup plan.”

“What about me?” Trip asked.

“If I ever decide to switch teams, I’ll call you,” I promised.

I forgot Dad was in the room. Sheeeit! Mom was so hearing about that.

Bill Callaway showed up, so we had an extra car for everyone to ride in. Flo insisted that Halle, Trip, and I ride with her. I ended up in the back in between Teresa and Halle. Lexi called shotgun, and Trip sat in the middle with Misaki. Bill and his new girlfriend, Ai, took Haru, Jiro, and Hana.

When we arrived, we were met by TMZ and a few other paparazzi who were waiting for us. I looked at Halle, and she shrugged.

“My bad,” Trip said. “I’m up for a couple of roles and need the exposure.”

“Why don’t we have Flo drop off Halle, Teresa, and me, then circle the block and let you out with Misaki and Lexi? That way, you’ll get your moment in the spotlight and have two attractive women with you,” I suggested.

“Dude, you’re the bomb,” Trip said.

“Anything for you, brah,” I said in my best surfer imitation.

“It’s going to be a long night,” Halle complained.

We pulled up, and I helped Teresa and Halle out of the back. I saw the TMZ guy I was sure had brain damage from all the drugs I was certain he was ingesting.

“Are you and Halle back together?” he blurted.

“That’s the hot girl you were with last weekend. Are you seeing them both?” another one asked.

I pulled both the girls to my side, and we mugged for the camera. Teresa and Halle played it up. I think Halle was giving Brook a hard time. Teresa grabbed my butt, and I was afraid if she kept it up, I would have a hard time right in front of the club.

“My girlfriend still wants you to do her show,” the TMZ guy reminded me.

“Is that the one where I get naked?” I asked, and he nodded. “Tell her if she gets naked too, I’ll consider it.”

He just laughed.

Bill had parked, and he and my J-drama castmates walked up. I grabbed them and explained what we were working together on. Then I saw the Range Rover coming up and pointed.

“I think that’s Trip James and his dates.”

Suddenly, I was yesterday’s news.

We discovered that to buy tickets at the door, The Troubadour only accepted cash. You could order tickets on their website with a credit card, but not at the door. The Japanese contingent used credit cards mostly because it was easier to convert money that way. I’d done much the same when I traveled. To expedite matters, I ended up paying for everyone to get in. Lexi said she would figure it all out and get me paid back.

The Troubadour had opened its doors in 1957. It wasn’t the largest music club, but it had a classic bar up front along with several other bars and a kitchen. Then there was a large room with a stage taking up the back wall. Admission for tonight was open seating. We could either hang out downstairs, or there were tables in the balcony. I wanted to get sweaty and dance, so I opted for downstairs. Several others in our group decided to grab tables upstairs as a base for us all to go to when we needed a break.

It didn’t take long for the place to start to fill up. Flo wasn’t happy when Trip decided to go upstairs and sit down. I told her to go with him, and I would watch Halle.

As the show was about to begin, someone in Birthrite must have spotted me because a large security guy pushed his way through the crowd.

“You and your guests are to come with me,” he said.

He took us front and center. A few minutes later, Jett and her bandmates stormed the stage and rocked out. They did a few covers but rolled out a lot of their own stuff. They ended up playing for nearly two hours with a break in the middle. I know I had a blast, and I sweated my balls off as it got hot in there and everyone danced. This was the most fun I’d had since I’d gotten back to LA.

We all ended up back at the house. Bill had stopped and picked up alcohol because I’d told him all we had was wine and scotch. We bounced inside and found my dad watching Netflix.

“We’ll be out around the pool,” I announced.

“Enjoy it while you can. Your mother will be here tomorrow to ride herd on you,” Dad warned.

“Pfft,” I said in response, which made my dad laugh.

We both knew I wouldn’t get away with anything with her around. Then again, she’d been known to ramp things up just to see how much she could embarrass me.

The first thing I wanted was a shower. Once I got everyone out around the pool, I went inside, jumped in the shower, and then changed into my board shorts. I figured if my Japanese friends wanted to go skinny-dipping, I would swim with them, but I wasn’t going to be the one to lead the charge tonight. I was on Brook countdown and didn’t want to do anything to possibly upset her. Running around naked might just do that, especially if one Halle James was in the house.

“Dude!” Bill complained when he saw me with a towel around my neck.

“What’s got your boxers in a bunch?” I teased him.

“Ai told me that you were going skinny-dipping with them.”

“No, I told them if they wanted to do it, they could use my pool,” I said.

I jumped in and splashed water at my friend as he danced away. I laughed out loud when Trip didn’t hesitate. He stripped off and did a cannonball to join me. There was an unwritten rule: if you want to get a group of girls naked, you had better go first. Trip had broken the seal on their hesitation. Soon clothes were flying, and everyone was in the pool. The group that had stayed on the balcony at the club had a few drinks in them. Those of us who were on the main floor dancing were sober. The ones who had their drink on were a little freer with their hands than the rest. I was glad I had my swimsuit on, or it might have gotten more interesting than was good for me.

I saw what Bill liked about Asian women. They were tiny little things I could imagine doing naughty stuff with. Teresa, on the other hand, was a Brazilian with a killer body. In a lot of ways, she reminded me of Tracy, who was all woman. Not many women have an hourglass shape like those two had. Then there was Halle. She was simply gorgeous. Halle had a more athletic build, but her features were striking. Teresa was a beautiful girl, but Halle James was destined to be a leading actress for good reason.

I think Teresa saw that Halle had my full attention because she started to flirt with Trip.

When things slowed down, and people started to get out of the pool, Halle found me talking to Misaki. I’d told her that Halle and I had history, so she left us alone.

“I think my brother is going to steal Teresa from you,” she teased.

“Damn him,” I said, trying to act frustrated.

“She told me that her mom taught her chocolate, coffee, and men were all better if they were rich.”

“Yeah, right,” I said.

Halle was pressing the gold-digger theme she’d heard from someone. My guess was Lexi. Halle shook her head at me.

“Bill and Ai are taking off. Lexi told them they couldn’t use her room,” Halle shared.

Ah—suspicions confirmed!

“They left it a mess last time,” I agreed. “They can go to Ai’s hotel room and let the maid service deal with however they leave the sheets.”

I sometimes forgot that Halle was somewhat innocent. She blushed at my frank assessment.

“Sorry. Too much information?” I asked.

“What time does Brook get here tomorrow?” she asked, ignoring my question.

“Around noon,” Lexi said, scaring me to death.