Chapter 4: National Signing Day

Monday January 30
My breath came in steady huffs as I ran along the path through the park. It was barely past dawn, my favorite time of day if I wanted to be alone, and I was out for my morning run. The park was quiet as I followed the path to the pond. The only noise I heard was the sound of my feet slapping on the pavement. The air was cold and dry, typical for a winter morning. I’d started to prepare in earnest for baseball, so I hadn’t brought Duke. It would be a distraction to worry about him keeping up if I pushed myself, and I didn’t want that. I’d worn my weighted vest and had brought my Bo staff to increase the difficulty. I felt good and soon dropped into my thinking zone.

This was the big week, the one everything football-related had been leading up to. I would officially announce I planned to play for Michigan. I’d promised Coach Haber that we would all make our announcement to help him with recruiting, even though we wouldn’t sign National Letters of Intent.

I’d had several people ask why we weren’t signing if we were making a commitment, but once I explained, the reasoning was obvious—at least to us. Wolf, Tim, and I would not enroll at Michigan until the spring semester of next year because we’d be working on the Star Academy movies. That meant we wouldn’t count towards this year’s class.

Instead, we would be doing what was called ‘gray-shirting’: postponing our enrollment until the second term of our freshman year. That meant we couldn’t take classes during the fall term. The university could use all their available scholarships on other incoming players.

The NCAA allowed college athletes five years to complete four years of eligibility after initial enrollment. We would get the whole time frame, which meant that if any of us needed to, we could redshirt if we suffered an injury or if we need an extra year to develop our skills.

The downside to not being able to sign our National Letter of Intent was that technically, our recruitment hadn’t ended. The act of signing meant that a recruiting ban would go into effect, and we would be committed to Michigan. In my book, that would be a win for both the university and us. I didn’t need the Southwest Central State Universities of the world hounding me anymore.

Instead of signing our National Letters of Intent now, we would sign enrollment paperwork, including financial aid paperwork, right before classes started for the spring semester.

I knew that if my classmates were confused by how all this worked, we would clearly need to explain it to the public. In particular, I wanted our plans made clear to the Michigan fan base so they didn’t have a meltdown.

I knew I should probably consult Frank Ingram, my public relations guy, to get the right words for the explanation. We also needed to organize an announcement event. That brought up a question. Who did I contact for that? In the past, I would just call Caryn, and she would coordinate with everyone. The problem was that she no longer worked for me. Did I call Kent, who was technically my manager; Scarlet, who ran my remaining businesses; or Lexi, who had been my personal assistant and would be again when I started filming?

Then inspiration struck. If in doubt, dump it in my dad’s lap.

I picked up the pace for the last mile, then sprinted the final two blocks. I probably shouldn’t have pushed so hard since I had my strength and conditioning PE class first period. There was no doubt in my mind that Ms. Marshall would kick my butt again today.

I had Cassidy park the car in the lot. After she played with the drone to make sure no one was trying to do me harm, I got out of the car, put on my sunglasses, inserted my earbuds, and cranked today’s song for my entrance—Shake It Off. I began to snap my fingers, which caused Cassidy to give me a sideways look. When the tune started, it had an upbeat feel that made me want to dance. I began to strut my stuff and shake and shimmy what God had given me as I practiced my ‘Walk Like The Man’ walk for the movie.

Cassidy caught up with me and jerked the jack out of my phone so everyone could hear the music as we approached the school. Watching their reactions was fun. They ranged from ‘Oh. My. God. He is sooo cool!’ to ‘Seriously?’ Overwhelmingly, my entrance put smiles on their faces. I could see why they would want to take video of me doing my thing. That way, they could say they were there when I first developed my signature walk for my James Bond movie.

As I made my way to the school’s front door, I saw Mr. Palm, our vice principal, with his arms crossed.

“Mr. Dawson,” he said in greeting, or at least that’s how I chose to take his tone.

“Sir?”

“What are you doing?”

“Preparing for my role in the James Bond movie.”

He contemplated his response.

“Very well, have a nice day,” he said and opened the door for me.

I strutted and danced my way towards my locker. When I was almost there, Destiny Crown stepped in front of me. She looked me up and down like I was something the cat had dragged in.

“You’re so weird,” she decided and then she turned and walked away.

That made my day. Weird was the new cool, right?

I’m just saying, people are rude. My ‘entrance’ might need some work if social media was any indication. Even my own mother made some unflattering comments. She claimed this might be better than naked baby pictures at scaring off unwanted potential girlfriends.

The thing was, I didn’t really care. People loved to give me a hard time. What could I say, haters were going to hate.

I was almost to the lunchroom when my day was really made. I spotted Tracy Dole talking to her BFF, Pam. Tracy saw me coming, crossed her arms, and began to tap her foot with a scowl on her face.

“I have to come visit you?” she scolded.

I hung my head. Of course, I knew she couldn’t be too mad because we’d just seen each other in LA.

“I know. I should have come to visit sooner,” I admitted.

“Come here, you ‘stupid boy,’ and give me a hug,” Tracy said, holding out her arms.

“What are you doing here?” I asked when she let me go.

“Lexi called me. We’re planning your signing-day event,” she explained.

It sounded like my dad had gotten the ball rolling. Tracy had been our de facto press-facing spokeswoman since freshman year. She planned to go to USC in the fall with the goal of becoming a sports journalist. I couldn’t think of anyone I would rather have introduce everybody on Wednesday.

Once we finally got through the lunch line and found our seats, Tracy explained the plan for our announcement. Wolf, Tim, and I would share the stage in the field house. I suggested that Ty be a part of it because he was also going to Michigan, even though he had signed in the winter. Tracy had already spoken with Mr. Palm, and we would have an all-school assembly for when we made our announcement. Frank had contacted a streaming service that would host the event so everyone could watch it live on the web if they wanted to.

When she was done, I reminded her that we couldn’t talk about anything having to do with acting or modeling. That included the upcoming Academy Awards and my nomination for Best Supporting Actor. She gave me a patented ‘you’re being a stupid boy again’ look and then smiled. I think Tracy must have desired some scoop since she was at State and didn’t eat lunch with us every day...

“Who are you dating now?” she asked me.

“No one wants me. I always thought you would be my backup plan. I was thinking about getting you drunk, making it special,” I teased.

“You’re hilarious,” Tracy said.

“I thought you weren’t ready to date,” Gina said.

“The problem is, I’m used to the women in LA. They dress better,” I said to offer my opinion.

“Oh, here we go again,” Tim mumbled as he shook his head.

“Are you saying that we should dress better for you?” Gina asked as her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.

I was about to answer when Wolf offered his little gem of an observation.

“I don’t think so. Women dress for other women. If they dressed for men, they’d all run around naked.”

He received high fives all around. Maybe it was just from the guys.

“I miss this,” Tracy said, amused at our antics.

“What? All the boys being dorks?” Pam asked.

“Yep. College boys try to be suave and sophisticated. Sometimes you just want your boys to be ‘dorks,’ as you called them. It’s a lot more fun,” Tracy said.

After lunch, I took a moment to talk to Tracy one-on-one. She made me promise to come to visit her at college. I figured I could combine it with a trip to see my brother and his rug-rats while I was there.

She shared that Lexi would be here tonight. It was a little cumbersome that my PA lived in LA. First, I missed Lexi taking care of me. I liked having her around. Second, I was used to having someone nearby to deal with my schedule and keep me in line. Kendal had spoiled me when she was my go-to person.

Okay. That’s it. Mr. Happy needed to be put into time-out, just like my niece and nephews, and go sit in a corner by himself. Seriously.

After school, Cassidy and Ms. Marshall had made it their mission to kill me. I noticed that they didn’t seem to work anyone else as hard. I think they had it in for me.

The problem was Ms. Marshall. She was wearing a little pair of exercise shorts and one of those sports bras. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and it swung from side to side with that jaunty little walk of hers. Damn, I could imagine her hair down, flowing over her shoulders. I bet it would feel amazing with my fingers running through it. The problem was that Mr. Happy thought so too and wanted to come out and play.

“Someone needs an ice bath,” Cassidy observed.

What the hell? She looked me in the eyes and dared me to say something. Joey—aka the cause of the problem—looked confused. I wasn’t about to explain it to her.

“Yeah, I’m feeling a little stiff,” I said as I gave Cassidy a look.

“After you get out of the ice bath, I should rub you down,” Joey said with a little worry in her voice.

“Rubbing would help,” Cassidy offered with a straight face.

She was so going to die. I jumped off the machine I was on, and Cassidy bolted. Joey just shook her head when Cassidy shrieked as I caught her. I made her walk in front of me to the locker room so I could take a quick shower before I used the ice bath. I was sore, so it was a good plan.

“You’re going to get into so much trouble if you do anything with Ms. Marshall,” Cassidy warned.

I grunted my agreement. She stopped me at the locker-room door.

“I’m serious, David. She works for the school, and she would get fired.”

I nodded and pushed past my friend. Cassidy’s reminder took all the fun out of it, and Mr. Happy lost interest. At least I wouldn’t be on display in the showers.

Instrument flight rules (IFR) training was going well. They’d set Cassidy and me up on an accelerated course schedule that Roy Tyro was teaching us. He kept asking, “What’s the next thing you do?” He wanted to hammer home that there was a general flowchart, plan, or procedure for every IFR flight. When the items in the basic flowchart were memorized, mistakes were minimized. We’d touched on a lot of what we were covering today way back when we’d obtained our initial pilot’s licenses. Now, we were drilling down and learning things like how to make different approaches. There were a ton of acronyms like GPS, ILS, and VOR, to name a few. Each acronym had its own set of rules on how to fly the plane, and we had to learn them all.

I liked that Roy felt that the best way to learn was in the cockpit. Today, we’d been practicing approaches and landings. Because we both now had our first pilot’s licenses, he let each of us ride along while he taught the other. When we would land, we would switch seats to fly the plane.

Once we got home, I noticed several cars parked on the street. I came in to find the usual chaos a large family generates. Our added guests were Tim, Wolf, and their parents. Along with them were Tracy, Frank Ingram, and Lexi. Mom had ordered Monical’s pizza, which put a smile on my face.

Lexi bounced out of her chair over to me and gave me a hug. I held her in my arms and looked her in the eyes.

“I’m glad you came,” I said.

“Kent had me doing gofer work around the office. When you called about the Academy Awards, and then your dad called about college signing day, I knew I would rather be here. Even if it was in the middle of nowhere, I’d rather be your PA because what you have me doing is a lot more interesting. So, I’ll stay even if it is only to help you through Wednesday, and after that, I’ll stay or travel as needed.”

“You could always stay longer,” I suggested.

“There is the middle-of-nowhere problem, though, and the Oscars to get through. I’m an LA woman, after all.”

“Then I guess I’ll take you as long as you’re here and count my blessings,” I said.

“Grab some pizza. Everyone’s been waiting for you,” Lexi said, pulling away from me.

I turned and saw my mom had taken Lexi’s and my interaction in and had an unreadable look on her face. I knew without a doubt that she had picked up on our attraction and suspected that we were more than we probably should be.

Ignoring that for the moment, I made myself a plate of pizza and salad and joined the group. They were talking about the signing announcement.

“I think we should do the whole hat routine,” Wolf said.

“What’s that?” his dad asked.

“You have hats from all the schools you’re considering, and then you put on the one that you pick,” Tim explained.

“Better yet, we put on the wrong hat and then switch to the right one,” Wolf suggested.

“That’s a terrible idea,” Frank said. “You’ll just piss people off, and they have long memories.”

“Remember that basketball player who was down to State and Kansas, and he did that?” I asked.

Both Tim and Wolf got scowls on their faces. We’d been in grade school when it happened, and even now, it would occasionally pop up on the State message boards as someone who’d done them wrong. Despite the fact that they were pissed, they had added a touch of humor. Whenever there was a close recruiting battle, they would be guardedly optimistic, but they talked about wearing their cups so the kick in the nuts wouldn’t hurt so much if it went against them.

“Ohio State will hate us, anyway. Why not do it to them? The folks in Michigan will think we’we’re gods,” Wolf pointed out.

That would be funny.

“Would you want them gunning for you guys when you played?” Dad asked, being the pragmatic fun-sucker that he was.

“How long is the presentation supposed to be?” Tracy asked.

“We scheduled the streaming service for thirty minutes,” Frank shared. “The announcement will be in the last couple of minutes.”

“I would like you to play a video at the beginning while the student body files into the field house. It’ll give them a chance to get settled,” I suggested.

“We have plenty of video of the three of you playing. Why don’t I put together a twenty-minute film and then have the last ten minutes live?” Frank suggested.

“I don’t want the focus to just be on us. I’d like it to be on the teams we were a part of. We wouldn’t be here without them,” I reminded everyone.

“We talked about building a legacy,” Tracy added.

“She’s right. I know it’s our big moment, but let’s do something better than making it just about us,” Tim suggested.

That gave me a great segue to discussing what I’d been thinking about. I explained my idea of mentoring the younger guys and what I’d talked about at church. I considered Lincoln High to be a part of my larger family and wanted to reinforce that culture at our school. Tracy was right; we all wanted our success to continue after we left. It was all part of my ‘make a difference’ life goal.

We bounced around ideas and came up with a plan for Wednesday.

After that, Frank cornered me to talk about his numerous ideas for the Academy Awards and the events surrounding the show. I put a stop to that as quickly as I could, which brought him up short in surprise.

“Frank,” I explained, “this spring is the very last chance I’ll have to just be a high school kid, and I don’t want to lose that. I’m going to the awards ceremony, and I’ll hang around the rest of the night, but even then, I’ll probably have to catch a red-eye back here. To handle all this, I’ve put Lexi in charge of coordinating everything out there. I’ve also asked her to keep a muzzle on Ari and his next batch of ideas that all have me quitting school and working my ass off to make him money. I’m sure Lexi will be coordinating with you and listening to your thoughts, but I don’t want to be bothered with this until I have to be.”

Frank nodded his agreement.

“For now, just assume that I don’t want to pay much attention to the Academy Awards until I’m actually on my way to board a plane for LA. I trust that between you, Lexi, and Kent, you know what to do for something like this. I do reserve the right to override you if you make me look like a goof,” I said.

Frank gave me a slow nod, which I took as acceptance. Thank God. The truth was, they had this, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of it.

Lexi and I had gone up to my apartment to catch up.

“Who’s the guy you’re dating?” I asked Lexi.

Over the weekend, one of the gossip websites had shown her on a yacht with a South American playboy. I had an app that alerted me when there were stories about people I knew. It was a real time-saver when surfing the net. I was surprised when Lexi’s name had a hit.

She gave me a look like I’d lost my mind.

“A friend of a friend of the guy got me an invitation. His name is Alejandro Sandoval. He’s a Colombian soccer player. Rumor has it Alex’s great-grandfather made his money in drugs, and his family owns half the country. His parents moved him to California for high school. I never really got to know him because I didn’t hang out with the soccer guys. I did know that he was good enough that in his junior year, he made their national team and moved back to Colombia.”

“Was he here looking for an American trophy wife?” I teased her.

She shoved my arm.

“If I were ever going to do something like that, he would be on my list for a sugar daddy. He’s not too bright, spends his time looking great, and has lots of guy toys to play with. I think you would actually like him,” Lexi said.

“Guy toys?” I asked.

“There’s the yacht you saw us on, and he lives on like a bazillion-acre ranch with horses and motorcycles. And, at last count, he had seven Bugattis—one for each day of the week. His ranch even has its own private airstrip. Alex has dated the who’s who of South American models and actresses.”

“So, you know him through school?” I asked.

“More through my dad. Alex’s father is one of the studio’s investors. I’ve met him at some of the parties,” Lexi explained.

“Did you guys hook up?” I pressed.

“I wish,” she said and covered her mouth with her hand.

I grinned at her.

“Lexi Andon, you have a crush on him, don’t you?”

“I do not.”

“Puh-lease,” I said as I brought up the picture on my phone and showed it to her.

“Is it obvious?” she asked as she looked hopeful and then dejected. “Alex hooked up with my friend. I don’t think he even knew I was there.”

“He thinks you’re hot.”

“Shut up!” she said and then gave me a coy look. “Does he?”

I laughed.

“How do you know?” she persisted.

“I’m a guy. Trust me, you’re hot,” I assured her.

She got a mischievous look. By now, I was getting good at reading her.

“I think you have a crush on me,” she teased.

Pulling out all my acting talent, I gave her a haughty look.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I happen to have a girlfriend.”

She bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing at me and shook her head ‘no.’

“Nope, that’s not true. You used to have a girlfriend. As in formerly. As in single and dateless.”

My mouth dropped open and I looked at her in mock horror.

“Face it. When you let Brook get away, you messed up. No one will ever want to date you again,” she piled on.

Her smile turned seductive, and the sight of it went straight to my dick. Jesus, I was in so much trouble. Every bit of moisture in my mouth dried up. I could see it now. Our casual hookups would transform into The frickin’ Notebook. I knew better; sex changed things. I had a sneaking suspicion that Lexi had started this off as a fling. The problem was, I wasn’t sure she believed it would stay a fling. Honestly, I couldn’t remember why I’d agreed to the ground rules.

If asked, Lexi would say what we had was just a hookup. She might even believe it. But the look she gave me said that she thought it was more. The problem was, I didn’t want more with Lexi. Not right now. It would be best if she just stayed my PA because what her eyes promised would mess that up. I could see how it would go if this went bad. Despite the fact that I’d never lied about my intentions or misled her, not even for a second, I would turn into the villain.

I stood up from the couch, and she did the same.

“Lexi...” I started and then held up my hands to try to slow her down.

FRICK! I needed to just get out of my own head.

“You’re hot, and I want to be naughty with you,” I said in a rush, knowing I would burn in hell for this.

Lexi looked me in the eyes as she tried to figure me out. Then she snorted and knelt in front of me. I looked down as she unzipped my jeans, reached in, and found what she wanted. Her devious grin told me I would enjoy this.

“Oh, God, you’re the best PA ever,” I moaned when she took me in her mouth.

At least one of us knew what they wanted. I think that someone was Mr. Happy, and Lexi had an idea she could go through him to get to me. After all, he had the whole ‘no-strings/make me feel good’ bit down. I thought maybe I should let him drive the body ALL the time.

Wednesday February 1
I was at my locker before school when Dare came rushing up, looking agitated. I scanned the crowd to see if anyone had been bullying him. When I didn’t see any of the usual suspects, I turned to him.

“What’s wrong?”

I could tell it was something serious because he looked like he might break down in tears.

“I can’t tell you,” he mumbled.

“Did Chrissy touch you in your special place? Do we need to go to the police and have you point it out on a doll?” I asked.

He blinked a few times before his mind wrapped around the fact that I was giving him shit.

“No,” he said with a scowl and then shoved his phone at me.

I frowned because we’d had this discussion like a million times. He needed to learn to use actual spoken words instead of writing down what he had to tell me. I looked at his phone and saw a message to Brook.

‘Now that you’re single I wanted to just say that I like you a lot and think you’re special. Not the friends kind of special but the kissing kind of special. I think you feel how special it is. We have a special bond. The kind of bond that allows us to do special things with each other like kissing and we could see where that leads because I love you and you’re special.’

“You might have used the word ‘special’ a few too many times,” I said.

“Huh?” he asked, confused because I hadn’t taken his head off.

“We also should talk to your English teacher about reviewing run-on sentences. Just because you’you’re sending a text doesn’t mean that the rules go completely out the window.”

There he went again, blinking his eyes with his mouth trying to work out the words he wanted to say.

“Did you actually send that, or was this a test run?” I asked.

His face got a lovely shade of pink.

“Dude,” was my response to let him know this was bad.

Then I had a thought.

“Does Chrissy know about your ‘special’ relationship with Brook?” I asked.

If he could look any more miserable, I don’t know how.

“I’m impressed. This is some high-level shit you’re playing with. Two girls at once is hard to pull off and not have it blow up in your face,” I said.

I tried hard not to let my enjoyment of his epic fail show through.

“Fix it,” he begged.

“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Call the police and have them confiscate Brook’s phone before she reads the message.”

If they ever invented a way to pull back a text or email, it would be a billion-dollar idea.

My phone rang, and it was Brook. I showed Dare, and he scampered off.

“Told you,” I said triumphantly when I answered.

“Shut up, ‘stupid boy.’ I take it Dare showed you what he sent me.”

“He wanted me to call the cops and have them confiscate your phone. I think he has buyer’s remorse.”

“Again, shut it,” she said rudely. “Is Dare okay?”

“He’ll be okay. I sometimes forget that he’s so young. Then he does something like this.”

“Well, tell him I think he’s special too, but...”

“How about we use the long-distance excuse and that he is already dating Chrissy?” I suggested.

“Just don’t be mean to him,” Brook warned.

“My mom thinks Dare needs to be toughened up.”

“Since when do you listen to your mom?” Brook asked.

“Good point. I’ll go and see if I can talk him off the ledge ... and Brook?”

“Yes?”

“I told you so.”

“I heard you the first time. Yes, you were right for a change.”

I would take that as a win. I really missed her.

When I arrived after last period, the field house was already filling up. They’d pulled out the bleachers on three sides and put folding chairs down the center facing the open end where the stage was located. The center was set aside for the press. I saw Jeff Delahey with a cameraman from Sports TV setting up along with some other reporters. To one side in the front, an area had been reserved for friends and family. On the other were our teachers, coaches, and VIP guests. The student body helped fill up the floor while the townsfolk sat in the bleachers. It was humbling to see so many fans had taken off early from work for our announcement.

There was a buzz of anticipation. Many of my classmates wanted a word with me as I made my way toward the front, where Tracy was orchestrating everything. Once she’d gotten her okay, she and Lexi had worked with Frank Ingram to organize everything. Delegation is wonderful once you learn to trust it.

When it was time, Tracy motioned for us to stand to the side of the stage. She first brought up the players that had signed in December: Ty Wilson, and Brock and Bryan Callahan. Tracy did an excellent job of highlighting their individual awards and then where they would go to college. Tim Foresee and Wolf Tams received the same treatment, minus the college destination.

To this point, the crowd had been polite and sedate in congratulating the players. AC/DC’s Thunderstruck began to play over the PA system, and the gathering got to its feet. I wasn’t escaping my entrance, not on the big day.

The crowd sang along as the lyrics began: Ayaahhayaayaayaa ... THUNDER! Ayaahhayaayaayaa ... THUNDER! Ayaahhayaayaayaa ... THUNDER! Ayaahhayaayaayaa ... THUNDER!

I bounced up on stage and was going to take my place at the table, but Tracy grabbed my arm and made me stand beside her.

“We have a surprise for David,” she announced as the music ended. “Gatorade gives awards to the best football player for each state. David is the first two-time winner of that award for our state. Last year, he was selected as the National Player of the Year for football, and to our delight, won the Male National Athlete of the Year for all sports. That only confirmed what we all knew: David was the best high school athlete in the nation.

“Gatorade compares all the state winners and then selects their national winner. We just got word that David is the first football player to win the National Player of the Year for Football twice. This puts him in line to possibly be the first two-time Male National Athlete of the Year,” she announced, surprising me.

Tracy had to clarify the male aspect of the award because a track athlete from New Jersey had won the female equivalent twice.

Tracy continued on, detailing all the All-American teams I’d been selected to. She then enumerated my other awards for being a top quarterback, including my Elite 11 Co-MVP last year. I started to get embarrassed when Tracy listed the national, state, and school records I’d set. She rattled off my records for passing yards, touchdowns thrown, and scoring, which included my rushing touchdowns. She then talked about baseball and my MVP honors for the USA’s Under-18 Team at the Pan American Games.

When she was done, I took my seat, and the video started.

It began with our freshman year and included highlights of the games as Jeff Delahey narrated. We all laughed when Kevin Goode, our All-State linebacker, was shown. The other two leaders of that team followed: ‘Magic’ Mike Wade and Luke Herndon.