Chapter 32: No One’s Ready

Monday April 17
Sometimes, having a dog is a pain in the butt. I’d gotten home late from LA. Thank goodness I’d planned ahead and chartered a flight. If I’d flown commercial, I probably wouldn’t have arrived until after noon because I would’ve missed the red-eye last night. Mom had given me permission to skip class this morning, which I’d planned to take full advantage of by sleeping in.

That’s where my hound being a pain came in. He has this internal clock that he goes by, come hell or high water. This morning, when it was our usual time to get up, and I hadn’t woken, Duke took it upon himself to wake me up. He started by nudging my hand with his nose. I ignored him and rolled over so he couldn’t reach it. Next was a little ‘woof’ to let me know I was sleeping in. That graduated to his jumping on the bed, followed by him standing on my chest.

Labs aren’t meant to stand on your chest. This same chest had taken a bullet last week and still felt like someone had taken a Louisville Slugger to it. That convinced me to get up and let him out. Being lazy, I left the door open so he wouldn’t bark at it when he was done doing his business and playing with Precious.

Obviously, I hadn’t thought the whole thing through in my sleep-addled mind because not only did Duke come in, so did the cat from hell. They both jumped on my bed and cuddled up next to me.

“You know what, fuck it,” I mumbled and tried to go back to sleep.

I was about to doze off when I heard someone come up the stairs. I opened one eye to see Brit standing at my bedroom door with her phone out, taking a picture of me and my bedmates. She’d apparently come to investigate why her cat hadn’t come home.

“I wondered where my baby had gone. I guess I’m not surprised to see her in bed with a man.”

“Take her and close the door as you leave,” I strongly suggested.

Instead, Brit sat down on the edge of my bed. Aw, crap. I was too tired for this.

“Does it ever start to get to you?” she asked. “It’s like people expect you to be a certain way. The problem is you don’t really know who you are or if that’s the way you want to be.”

I opened an eye to see if she might just leave if I ignored her. Then my mind started to wake up and wonder how she’d gotten into the yard to begin with. I doubted my parents had buzzed her in.

“Leave me alone,” I complained.

“That’s just it. You’re supposed to be this big problem-solver and figure all this out for me. It’s sort of what people think, but I get the sense that you’re as trapped in your roles as I am. I’m supposed to be the good daughter, the one who will actually make something of my life. Unlike my idiot brothers, who don’t have a care in the world, I’m supposed to be the responsible one. You get that, don’t you?”

“Dear God, Brit. Don’t you have to get to school or something?” I asked.

“No, tell me. You’ve thought about this stuff, haven’t you?”

Shoot me, shoot me now! You could even do it without my gear on if it made this stop. I finally decided to give in.

“I think every teenager thinks about this. No one’s ready for what comes next. The good news is that high school doesn’t define who we’ll be. It’s a chance to try on different roles to see what fits and what doesn’t. When you go to college, you can become a new person. None of the expectations of others will be there to shape who you are,” I rambled.

“How do you see me?”

I blinked. Somehow this felt like a trap, sort of like when a girl asks you if she looks sexy or fat. Anything you said would be disregarded. I think they asked us those questions just to start fights.

“You’re the girl who wanted to date Tim over me,” I said with a straight face.

“Do you blame me?” she asked and then rushed on. “I didn’t want to be just another girl you bedded. Plus, is that all guys think about? Whether a girl will sleep with them or not?”

“Pretty much,” I said with a cocky grin.

“You’re so full of it,” she huffed.

Even when you agreed with them, you were wrong.

“Please! Don’t tell me that girls don’t think about guys like that, too,” I countered.

I felt pretty pleased with myself for distracting her from her trap question. She narrowed her eyes at me and then smiled.

“You still want me,” Brit announced.

“Let me clue you in on something: every guy my age wants you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Well, maybe not the ones who actually know you,” I teased.

“Shut up,” she complained.

She scooped up her cat and headed for the door. When she got there, she looked back and caught me checking out her butt. That made her happy as she left.

“Duke, buddy. We need to have a talk about your guard-dogging abilities. I think you’re worthless.”

His tail thumped on the bed.

I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

I made it to school in time for lunch.

“There he is. It’s now confirmed that David is a better kisser than Ryan Gosling,” Wolf announced.

Gina just ducked her head and shook it. This was her worst nightmare come true.

“I think we should put that to the test. I saw that you and he met last night,” Pam said.

“He just wanted my autograph,” I rejoined, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

“You’re kidding,” Dare said.

“Nope,” I said and then leaned forward to share a secret. “Honestly, I was floored, too.”

“Why? You’re supposed to be a big deal, aren’t you?” Tim asked.

“I guess. It’s hard to reconcile ‘Hollywood David’ and who I really am. Heck, if I were ‘Hollywood David,’ I wouldn’t be allowed to be seen having lunch with this group.”

“Oh, yes. We’re so lucky you grace us with your presence. It’s lucky for you we know you, or we’d think you were serious about all that,” Cassidy weighed in.

“I’m surprised Emma didn’t punch you when you announced you wouldn’t kiss her,” Gina added.

“Halle told me she was engaged. You know my rules about that.”

“I’d kiss her,” Yuri said.

“Wolf, educate the boy,” I said.

“I’m with him,” Wolf said, shrugging and nodding at Yuri.

“Maybe David is more mature than you guys,” Gina said.

“Hang on,” I said, getting my phone out. “I need to mark the date when Gina said I did something right.”

“I take it back. You’re just a ‘stupid boy.’”

“No, you said it,” Dare said and then pointed his phone at her. “Now, if you could just repeat it so we could record it for posterity.”

“He’s kidding,” Chrissy said to save her boyfriend.

We all laughed because Dare didn’t get how close he’d just come to Gina ending his life.

This was what I’d wanted, to feel like I was living a normal life. Brit was right when she said people saw you in different roles. Right now, I wanted to be ‘David, the normal high school kid.’

The trainers cleared me to play ball this week. We’d gone 2 and 1 during the three games I was sidelined.

When I got home after practice, both my mom and dad were there waiting for me.

“Ms. Dixon called me today with an update on you adopting Little David,” Dad said.

“When did you plan to tell us you were doing that?” Mom asked.

“And how exactly do you see this working?” Dad asked.

“Would you agree that I treat Little David like he’s mine?” I asked back.

“That’s not the question,” Mom said.

“When Little David was born, Mitch didn’t want anything to do with him. He went so far as to agree to give up all his parental rights to the little guy. I told Peggy that I want to make Dave my son. So, in effect, I would take Mitch’s role in his upbringing,” I explained.

“And you don’t plan to marry Peggy?” Mom prodded.

“No, I don’t plan to marry her.”

“Ms. Dixon explained that the big hurdle was the termination of parental rights for Mitch,” Dad explained. “With Peggy’s approval, your adopting Little David is straightforward. The court may require that someone from Child Services confirm your intentions and certify that you are willing, able, and would provide a good environment for him to grow up in. Ms. Dixon said it would just be a formality, in your case.”

“Oh, and something else: we need to start calling him Dave,” I said.

“Why?” Mom asked.

“I saw Jeremy Pike again when I was in LA—you know, that psychic I met when I did The View—and he made a good point. He said Dave will be physically smaller than his siblings. Adding ‘little’ to his name will only highlight that. He doesn’t need to be reminded that he’s different,” I explained.

“I always thought it was because he had your name. It’s like your friend in New York who everyone calls Little Tony,” Dad said.

“Well, I don’t; I call him Tony. I mean, the guy’s married and has a son. It doesn’t feel right to me, adding the ‘little.’”

“I think it’s a great idea. I’ll let everyone know,” Mom said.

“You might want to talk to Peggy before you change her son’s name,” I reminded her.

Mom just waved me off. She was THE grandmother, after all, and with that came some rights. I would give Peggy a heads-up about what was coming.

“I’ll have Ms. Dixon move forward,” Dad said.

“Thanks.”

“What else did Jeremy tell you?” Mom asked.

I looked at Dad. He wasn’t about to bail me out since I’d opened my big mouth. I decided he was right; there were just some things not worth fighting about. I gave in and brought them up to date with everything that happened on my trip. Well, not everything ... just the PG stuff.

Tuesday April 18
Tonight, we played the Canton High Little Giants. One of the sillier team names, in my opinion. It wasn’t as bad as the Cornjerkers, Appleknockers, or Bunnies, as three other state high school teams had been labeled. I rather liked ours, the Lincoln High Bulldogs.

While we were warming up, Wolf and Tim cornered me.

“So, we’re all set for Friday?” Tim asked.

We’d decided to move up our plans and have our Senior Skip Day this Friday because if we went to state in baseball, we might want to actually play in the game. Moose was such a hard-ass about some things; skipping school was surely on his list of offenses that would get you benched. If that were to happen, we wanted it to be for a meaningless game.

As a matter of fact, I’d been told that because I’d skipped Monday morning, I was riding the pine today. The real reason was that my chest was still bothering me. But Moose wasn’t one to miss a chance to set an example. What better way than to bench me?

“It’s all set,” I assured them.

“And you’re really charging everyone ten dollars?” Wolf asked.

I shot him a look, and he gave me a sheepish one back.

“I know. It’s not fair to make you pay for everything,” Wolf quickly backtracked.

“Tracy, Tami, and I cleaned up the lake house, and my people have arranged for food and drink. The least everyone can do is help pay for it,” I said.

“You’re getting a keg, right?” Tim asked.

I’d thought about it for about a second, then the reality of teenagers driving home drunk from the lake house sank in. It wasn’t that long ago that our neighboring town, Washington, had lost a carload of teens to drunk driving. We’d invited them to our alternate prom when their school had canceled theirs because of the accident.

That, and the fact that teens already got up to stupid stuff, led me to realize I couldn’t see adding alcohol to the mix. I knew that our crowd was capable of having a good time without the need to drink, so it was an easy call to say I wouldn’t provide it.

“We can BYOB, though?” Tim pressed.

“Just don’t tell me about it. I want to be able to say that I knew nothing,” I conceded.

It wasn’t a battle I was going to win. I knew that if a bunch of teenagers put their minds to something, there was no changing it. If they wanted to go off and sneak a beer or three, I wasn’t their mom.

“Would you prefer schnapps, Jägermeister, or Absolut Citron?” Wolf asked.

I flipped him off.

“We could make Jägerbombs,” Tim added.

I smiled because it was a mixture of Jägermeister and an energy drink. Sometimes alcohol made you sleepy, and this was the perfect cure for that ... at least in theory.

“We no longer have our bartender. Mona graduated last year,” I reminded them.

“Oh, I know,” Tim said excitedly. “We should get a celebrity bartender.”

Wolf got a thoughtful look.

“Who do we know that’s a celebrity?”

The two comedians could suck it. The juice wasn’t going to be worth the squeeze on that one to see where they were taking their joke.

At one point, Cassidy had offered to hurt people for me in exchange for favors. She’d made the offer right after she’d taken out my manny when he’d hurt Coby and Duke. I’d let her drive my Demon as a boon for her services on that one. I bet she would take out both Tim and Wolf if I offered to take her to dinner again. She might do it for a bag of chips. Hell, she might do it for free since it was these two knuckleheads.

Moose called us so we could start the game.

Through seven innings, Moose had trotted out three pitchers: Bert, Phil, and Trent. He was gearing up for the end of the year when we would need pitching, since we would have back-to-back games in the state playoffs. The three of them had done an excellent job by not allowing a run.

The problem was, we hadn’t scored, either.

In the bottom of the seventh, Johan went in to pinch-hit. He hit a walk-off home run on the first pitch to end it.

After dinner, I was studying in my apartment when my phone rang.

“This is David,” I answered.

“I was told to call you,” Bo Harrington informed me.

He was my former personal quarterback coach, former assistant at Alabama, and now head coach at Western Michigan.

“I take it Kevin Heathcott asked me to vouch for him,” I said.

“As a matter of fact...”

“He was dosed. He didn’t take anything knowingly,” I said to cut to the chase.

“So, he wouldn’t be a problem in the locker room?” Bo asked.

“They named him their defensive captain as a junior. Kevin has plans to play in the NFL someday. He would be the last person to take recreational drugs.”

“What about other stuff?” Bo asked.

That was always something I suspected, too. Steroids and other performance-enhancement drugs found their way onto football teams everywhere.

“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted.

The fact was, high-level football teams had come a long way as far as training and proper nutrition go. Many star athletes from years past might not even make it onto the field nowadays. The size, speed, strength, agility, and explosiveness of today’s players were light years ahead of what they had been even just ten or fifteen years ago.

It was amazing to see the transformation of players as they matured in these systems. Many programs put out before and after pics of new athletes as they came into a professionally run strength and conditioning (S&C) program. They used it as marketing for what they could do for prospective recruits.

I’d been exposed to a lot of this because of my status as a top quarterback. It was one of the reasons Lincoln High had brought in a high-level S&C consultant to help establish our own program. The training was starting to trickle down to the high school levels, and I predicted it wouldn’t be long before we saw it in the middle schools.

With all that said, there were always players willing to take risks to get ahead. Kevin’s upper body just looked like he’d had some chemical help to get there. At least, that was what it seemed to me.

“What do you know about the other players Ohio State forced out?” Bo asked.

“I honestly only know Kevin. I suspect he would tell you if he thought they were problems,” I suggested.

“Well, I’m considering offering all of them,” Bo shared.

The difference in the level of recruits that Ohio State could pull in and what Bo was able to attract at Western Michigan was stark. An infusion of five high-level players would certainly help.

“I’m a firm believer in second chances. I’m also a trust-but-verify kind of guy,” I suggested.

“Okay, I’ll make Kevin the offer. If he accepts, I’ll talk to him about the rest. I have enough headaches starting a new program without inviting trouble.”

“I think you should be okay. Unless they’re total idiots, they now know that there are consequences to their actions. I doubt there’ll be a third chance if they mess up again.”

After we hung up, I felt better about the Kevin situation. Bo would take care of him. Plus, Bo had NFL contacts that might be able to open some doors for Kevin when the time came.

Thursday April 20
Tonight, I played my first baseball game since being shot. I struck out three times, but we won. I came home to find Lexi sitting in my kitchen, talking to my parents and Peggy.

“How’d it go?” Dad asked.

“We won, no thanks to me. I was terrible at the plate. Thankfully, they didn’t need me. We won 4–1,” I said, and then turned to Lexi. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“You wanted me to plan your Senior Skip Day,” she reminded me.

“I thought you could do that from LA.”

“You’re not skipping school,” Mom announced.

Everyone turned to look at her. This had all the earmarks of one of our power struggles. If it had been Greg who had received this comment, I might have gone to make some popcorn so I could watch the show that was about to unfold. Being on the other end sucked.

“I wouldn’t be a good mother if I condoned such behavior. You miss enough school as it is,” she added.

I glanced at Dad, and he gave a little head-shake to let me know I should ignore my mother and not start a big fight. I was surprised when Lexi looked concerned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“If you’re not there, I’ll have to find another celebrity bartender.”

I blinked a couple of times in confusion, and then both Lexi and my mom burst into laughter. I’d been punked.

Duke came into the kitchen to let Peggy know something was going on with the boys. We heard a commotion in the living room. That couldn’t be good.

“I’ve got this,” I told Peggy and left my mom and Lexi to their evil plots.

“Dave! Coby! What are you boys doing?” I asked as I walked in.

Dave had somehow gotten on top of the coffee table and was holding a toy over his head while Coby tried to reach for it. It looked like Dave had outsmarted his younger but bigger brother. That was until Coby retaliated and pulled Dave off the table on top of him. Not the best plan ever conceived.

What happened next showed why you should only have boys. Instead of tears, the two little brats were a giggling mess. That was until Duke snatched the contested toy from Dave’s grip. Their focus turned from playing keep-away with each other to my trusty hound. Duke ran around the coffee table, showing off his prize. The boys teamed up, and the chase was on.

With Duke’s help, I wore out the munchkins. Peggy told me to get them their baths and to put them to bed.

Lexi and I had gone to my apartment after I’d put the little ones down.

“Why are you really here?” I asked.

“Kendal took over the management for Gwen, and it was suggested I needed to take a few days off.”

There had to be a story behind that.

“Don’t leave me hanging,” I prompted.

“Gwen has a new fixation, her costar Chad Dickenson. They found her in his trailer.”

“Hang on. Isn’t Chad like mid-thirties and married?” I asked.

“So?” Lexi asked.

This was why I hated Hollywood. What I couldn’t figure out was why Gwen being in his trailer was a big deal. It wasn’t like they would have been the first on-set hookup. Even if he was ten or more years her senior and married, it was nothing new. Still, something didn’t add up. Plus, why would that get Lexi sent on a sudden vacation?

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“I had to sign an NDA,” Lexi said.

“A nondisclosure? What the heck for?” I asked.

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to say anything to another soul.”

Clearly, Lexi was dying to tell me. It had to be good, so I nodded my assent.

“Gwen had handcuffed him to the bed, cut off all his clothes, used a ball gag on him, and then shoved something up his bum. His wife walked in on them.”

“What?” I asked in shock.

This was big, even by LA standards.

“Remember, you can’t tell anyone,” Lexi reminded me.

“Why did you get in trouble?” I asked, trying to piece this all together.

“They had to suspend filming. Gwen’s mom blamed me because I was supposed to be watching her daughter. I pointed out that she was there too, which made her demand I be fired. Kent had to come to the set to smooth everything over. I might have some ‘pent-up anger issues,’” Lexi said, making air quotes.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I let my feelings be known about what a crazy wench Gwen was and that her mom was probably the cause of it.”

“And Kent didn’t fire you?” I asked.

“Hell, no. He had to make a big show in front of the client. Kent agreed with me that they are both batshit crazy. He gave me a few days off for hanging in that long. I think he also wanted me out of town because Kendal was told she had to take them on. Kent was worried Kendal might want to do me bodily harm.”

“What happened with Gwen?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I asked in disbelief. “She didn’t even get sent to crazy town again?”

“No. They have to finish shooting the season.”

“What about Chad and his wife?”

“The rumor is that she kept the gear Gwen used and promised Chad that if he wandered again, she would leave him like that for a week.”

I was flabbergasted at what actors could get away with. An average person would’ve done jail time for tasing police officers. Not Gwen. Then she basically kidnaps and sodomizes a guy, and nothing? Even his wife was giving him a pass. What got me was that Lexi was the only one who had suffered any consequences from all of this. I guess it really was true that if you were rich or famous, the law didn’t apply to you.

“So, you decided to come here to hide from Kendal?” I asked.

“That, and I figured you would want to comfort me and help me recover from all that trauma.”

Yep. Best PA ever.