Chapter 9: Aftershock

Wednesday February 15
I was mindful of Frank’s tenets of getting out in front of the news and preparing for the worst. So, I got the bodycam video of the previous night’s fight from my security and emailed it to him. I accompanied that with a message to call me once he’d had a chance to review it. Luckily, he was still asleep, Los Angeles being two hours behind our time.

What had happened last night had already reached my parent’s ears by the time I came downstairs. That was something I hated about growing up in a small town: trouble always beat you home. I told them I’d sent the bodycam video to Frank, ‘just in case.’ I was saved from having to talk about it further because my dad had his morning workout with Joey. Mom had started to go with them to make sure both Greg and my dad took this seriously. Both men had some weight to lose, and there was the specter of my dad’s heart issues to contend with.

Joey had talked to my dad’s doctors and gotten the dos and don’ts of his rehabilitation. She’d worked with athletes to help them recover from injuries, but had never before dealt with someone with a heart condition. She had him riding a stationary bike and walking on a treadmill for now so he could build up his stamina while not overdoing it.

As my parents walked out to go to the gym, they informed me that we would talk tonight. Great, I had that to look forward to all day.

The Lincoln High grapevine was in fine form as the various versions of last night’s massacre made their way through the student body. Dare filled me in on what he’d been told.

“Did you really fight both Luke and Mike Herndon last night?” he asked.

“Why? What did you hear?” I asked.

“That it was payback for what they did to Phil and Jill. You made Luke get on his knees and acknowledge you as the Alpha Male, and then you beat Mike bloody. Luke had to take him to the hospital after you were done exacting your vengeance,” Dare gushed.

Crud! It sounded like I was some kind of comic-book werewolf or something that had come to life and decimated the Herndon clan.

“Did you really pass on Gwen Larkin and give her to Tim and Wolf as a reward for being your loyal servants? Could you get Brook for me? I promise to be a loyal servant,” Dare babbled on.

“Settle down. I didn’t give them anything. You’re aware that they lost their girlfriends last night, right?” I asked.

“But it was totally worth it. They had sex with Gwen Larkin,” Dare pressed.

“So, you’re willing to lose Chrissy as a girlfriend if I snap my fingers and give you Brook Davis for a night?” I asked.

This was something that teenage boys did. You asked, ‘Would you give up your left nut if you could have sex with {insert random name}?’ I didn’t expect Dare had ever played before because his brain finally caught up with his motormouth, and he didn’t catch on that I was teasing him.

This chattiness was a new side of Dare that was both amusing and irritating. Next, he would be like Alan and never shut up.

“No,” he said dejectedly. “I don’t want to lose Chrissy.”

I thought of a couple of more clever retorts, but let it slide because it was Dare.

“I guess there’s no talk about Dumpster Girl?” I asked.

“Oh, there is, but you finding a new girl is no big news. Everyone says that they seem to throw themselves at you. She does get high marks for getting your attention by jumping into a dumpster,” Dare said, looking at his shoes, and then he looked up and smiled. “We all thought it was funny that Paul stole her from you.”

I put him in a headlock and rubbed the top of his head, which made him squeal. My little ninja appeared and made me let him go. Dare was giggling like a little girl. It pleased me to see that he could now take something like that and know I wasn’t trying to hurt him. The kid had come a long way from the introvert that arrived at Lincoln High. He still didn’t talk to many people, but since Brook left, he’d opened up to Cassidy and me. He was even brave enough to make comments at lunch.

“You’re not hurting him?” she asked.

“No. Dare was being a smartass,” I said.

“I pointed out that David lost his dumpster find to Paul,” Dare said to fill her in.

“Are you going to try to fix things with Don?” I asked to change the focus from me to Cassidy.

“As if. Not after he walked out like that. He should have taken us home at the very least,” Cassidy concluded.

“If you listen to Dare, I’m some sort of avenging angel. I can go kick his butt if you want,” I offered.

“No. You’ve reached your limit on hurting boys this week. I’ll take care of it,” Cassidy said.

“There he is,” Dare supplied helpfully.

The three of us looked at Don as he walked into the school. He saw us and went white. Don impressed me when he used his sister as a human shield while he hustled inside. It looked like she was just as impressed as I was. I suspected that we would be dealing with the aftershocks from last night for some time.

Joey and Cassidy sent me to lift with Tim and Wolf during PE because the training staff was busy evaluating my little brother’s injuries from last night. I’d caught a glimpse, and Mike had done a number on him. The only difference from what I’d done to Mike was that Phil didn’t look to have any serious cuts, though he did have a split lip.

My friends had already begun lifting when I came into the weight room. They both gave me a wary look.

“Joey told me to rotate in with you today,” I said to explain my presence.

“We’re doing upper body today,” Tim said.

I just nodded.

Everyone in the weight room remained quiet as we worked out. It took about ten minutes for me to notice the silence. Typically, when you had a bunch of high school guys lifting, there would be constant banter going on.

Wolf was doing bench presses with Tim spotting when Don appeared at my side.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” he asked.

I glanced over, and he looked like he was afraid I planned to kick his butt or something.

“Sure,” I said and let him lead me into the hall.

“Is Cassidy really angry enough to beat me up?” Don asked.

“I offered,” I said with a straight face, and he noticeably flinched, “but she told me she would take care of it herself.”

“I messed up. I should never have left Cassidy at the restaurant without paying,” he admitted. “I wanted last night to be just the two of us, and once again, we were on a double date.”

“Did you ever try to talk to Coach Hope about that?” I asked.

Don looked at me like I had told him one of Wolf’s jokes that made no sense.

“He would never agree to that.”

“Then why are you bitching about something that’s never going to change? That’s part of the deal if you date Cassidy.”

Don knew the score and had finally come to grips with it. I wasn’t about to let him in on the fact that I’d asked Coach Hope and gotten her out of the double-date rule.

“I might have made a big mistake. Do you think she’ll ever forgive me?” he asked.

I shrugged. I didn’t want to be in the middle of this. I imagined that Cassidy would forgive him, but they would never date again. Don’s best course of action would be to apologize and move on.

“Are we okay?” he asked.

“Just because you dated Cassidy and broke up with her doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends and teammates. Now, if you do something to hurt her, that will be a whole different story,” I warned him.

“Thanks,” he said and left me in the hall to collect my thoughts.

When I walked back into the weight room, I noticed the conversations had started again. They must have wanted to see what would happen between Don and me. Wolf and Tim, on the other hand, remained focused on working out. That was probably for the best, since I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about them right now. I had a little too much of my mom in me and feared I would say something I’d regret if they set me off somehow.

I spotted Yuri and Roc buddied-up on one of the weight machines and strolled over. They looked up at me expectantly.

“Did either of you or your dates take any pictures of Phil or Jill last night?”

Roc nodded slowly and pulled out his phone to show me.

My anger rose again when I saw the pictures of Phil’s battered face. Only the thought that Mike now looked every bit as bad kept me from punching a wall.

“Send copies to me, store the originals in a safe place, and don’t spread them around. Tell your girlfriends to do the same. I’m betting there will be some fallout from what I did to rectify the situation. Being in the public eye sucks sometimes,” I shared.

They both nodded their agreement.

“I’m sorry it got out of hand,” Yuri said to remind me of his promise to look out for Jill.

“Yeah, Luke’s friends kicked us out,” Roc explained.

“Did they... ?” Yuri asked.

“No. They didn’t touch her, but I suspect they may have slipped her something.”

“Really?” Roc asked.

I just nodded.

“That sucks. If I’d known...” Yuri started and trailed off.

“You did the right thing by calling me. It all turned out okay,” I assured him.

I knew the guilt that the ‘What if?’ game started in your head if you let it. The two of them were no match for Luke, Mike, and Luke’s football teammates. They would have just ended up like my brother with their butts beat. They also had to worry about their dates. With that in mind, Yuri had made the right choice.

“Hey,” I said. “Thanks for being Phil’s friend. You two were there when he needed you.”

I was cooling down from my own workout when Frank’s call came in. He was almost hyperventilating with worry but calmed down when I took him through what had happened and why. I told him I’d been practically surrounded by my teammates, so I doubted that anyone had gotten any decent video of the parking-lot activities. I did manage to reassure him that no one but me had any film of my confrontation with Mike.

I also shared that I was sure both Luke and Mike would be every bit as interested in burying the story as I was. They both had scholarships and playing time to protect, just as I did. Publicity that they had drunk underage girls in their bedrooms would get Luke expelled and risk destroying Mike’s Michigan ride before it even started.

“Yeah,” Frank grumped. “It’ll keep them quiet only until they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by making it public. That might happen as early as two years from now.”

We talked it over and agreed to create a ‘defense’ file, with its own packet of films, pictures, and statements. That was what we’d done for both the feminazis and the underage actress Laurent Vance had set me up with the previous spring. Frank promised to call me if anything at all came up.

By the time we hung up, it was halfway through second period. Great.

At lunch, Pam sat down next to me before everyone else joined us.

“Three things: You’re taking me to State tonight, and we’re taking Tracy out to dinner. The second is that you and I are going out on a date Friday night. Finally, you’re babysitting all the little ones Saturday night so that Angie, Ashley, and Peggy can have a girls’ night with Joey.”

“That sounds fine. Why aren’t you and Scarlet joining them?” I asked.

“I’m too young, and Scarlet is going out with Paul,” Pam informed me.

“And I take it Greg and his little ones are coming over as well.”

“I think that’s the plan,” she confirmed.

I would have to make sure our new nanny was available because I didn’t see Greg and me surviving a night alone with all eight of the ankle-biters. Not with five of them just learning to walk. On second thought, I might need more backup than just our nanny. Maybe I could convince some grandmas to show up and help. When we’d gone shopping for Halloween, they’d had a good time. Greg could order Monical’s, and we’d make a night of it.

“Good,” I said, which seemed to shock her. “Ask your mom if she wants to join us. I’m thinking of inviting the grandmas to come help.”

Pam wasn’t impressed.

“You just don’t want to have to deal with all of them at once,” Pam said and then got an evil glint in her eye. “Are you sure you want the grandmas to get together and compare notes?”

I shrugged. It wasn’t like they were their daughters who knew me a little too well. What was the worst that could happen? Plus, the grandmas all loved their little ones. Surely, they would be focused on their grandkids and not me.

How I ever thought Joey was attractive escaped me. The evil woman tried to kill me after school. She wanted to demonstrate to Cassidy how far I’d come in only a few weeks under her tutelage. Yes, baseball practice started next week. Yes, I wanted to be in top condition so I could focus on baseball and not on getting in shape. And yes, I had let the two of them change up my training.

What I hadn’t done was sign up for them to torture me. I didn’t realize that the rowing machine had different levels of difficulty. Joey let me warm up at my normal level, which I already considered damned hard, then she cranked it up to eleven.

When I first tugged on the ‘oars,’ they didn’t budge.

“I think you broke it,” I said, unaware of their evil plan.

“Try harder,” Cassidy urged.

I settled in and figured I would jolt it free. I gave a mighty pull, and it was like rowing in quicksand.

“What the heck?” I complained.

“Quit being a baby and see how far you can go,” Joey ordered.

The rowing machine is a complete body workout. After I’d gone five minutes, I was about to hyperventilate and was soaked in sweat. My legs and butt muscles seemed to be on fire, my stomach screamed for relief, and my shoulders were on the verge of cramping up.

“Fight through it!” Joey yelled.

That caused everyone in the gym to take notice of the pain and suffering I was being subjected to. This reminded me of the Elite 11 football camp when they ran us through different exercises with the knowledge that our bodies would fail us. It had been a way for them to gauge how we faced adversity. For many of the guys, they’d never crashed and burned before. Some didn’t handle it well. I’d dug down and refused to give up and somehow had pushed through to the finish.

“Come on, David. You can do it,” Cassidy encouraged.

What was it that made athletes push so hard? Without their desire and willpower to improve their performance, all the other mental factors—poise, intensity, focus, and passion—were meaningless. To become the best, an athlete must be motivated to do what it takes to push past where others stop. I’d read about many rising stars who had peaked early and became disappointments when their development leveled off. I wasn’t going to be one of them.

Being the number-one football recruit in the land put a target on my back. It would be easy to get by on my talent. I might even become a fantastic college quarterback or college baseball player. If I played in the pros, I didn’t want to be the guy they said had a lot of potential and didn’t live up to it. I’d worked too hard to allow that to happen and had an inner desire to prove myself the best.

To get there, I had to face each challenge head-on. If Joey thought that killing me on the rowing machine would get me closer to my goal, I would grit my teeth and do it. My heart seemed like it might burst from my chest as I pushed beyond anything I’d ever done before.

“Time!” Joey finally called.

I gave it two more pulls and then collapsed. I felt like I’d sprinted a marathon.

Joey had a huge smile on her face.

“I’ve never had anyone at any level last that long at that setting. We might actually be getting somewhere,” she shared.

Cassidy handed me a water bottle. I took a swig and poured it on my head to help cool down. When I could finally stand up, I did, and pulled my shirt over my head. I caught Joey checking me out, which secretly pleased me. Even though I’d put her out of bounds in my mind, now that she was no longer actively trying to kill me, my attraction to her reasserted itself.

They sent me out to the field house track to run a few laps to cool down. As I left, Joey was sharing with Cassidy my progress and what she planned for me next. Cassidy was like a sponge, hanging on every piece of wisdom Joey uttered.

When I finished, I took extra time stretching. If I didn’t, I would be sore tomorrow. I almost certainly would anyway, but stretching helped prevent the worst of it. After that, I took a quick shower and jumped into an ice bath.

It had been a good workout.

I’d slipped my security. Cassidy had been assigned to watch me, but I told her what I planned to do, and she let me off my leash. It gave me a chance to drive my Dodge Demon, which was always a treat. I swung by Pam’s condo and picked her up so we could take Tracy to dinner. I’d promised I would stop by her dorm room since Christmas break, but had been a complete slug and not gone.

When we got close to her dorm, Townsend Hall, Pam sent her a text.

“We’ll see her dorm after,” Pam said.

I pulled up on Gregory Street and found Tracy waiting for us. She jumped into the back seat.

“Where to?” I asked.

“We’re going to the Krannert Art Museum first. My roommate is having a show of her photography, and I promised to bring you to her opening,” Tracy explained.

“Do we get to eat?” I asked.

“Yes, David. I promise to feed you,” Tracy said like she was put out.

I glanced back in the rearview mirror, and her face betrayed her. She was just giving me a hard time. I’d missed her.

“David is taking me out Friday night,” Pam shared.

“Is he? Do tell,” Tracy responded.

I tuned them out as I drove through campus. This time next year, I would be at the University of Michigan, experiencing all this firsthand. I was jealous that Tracy got to do it now.

The Krannert Art Museum, or KAM for short, was one of the few cultural hot spots in our area. Tracy’s roommate’s exhibit was being held in the lower-level lobby. She displayed a series of photographs using a technique called ‘horizontal mirror.’ The idea was simple: you took the image, flipped it over, and then butted the two images together to create art. It was as if the photo was a reflection of itself.

The end result was not something you usually saw, so it had a noticeable impact that was oddly beautiful. The first photo had been taken from atop a grain silo. It was a simple picture of a fence row, slightly off-center. The converging halves of the mirrored image made fascinating and unexpected forms from an otherwise ‘ordinary’ rural setting. It had the vibe of one of those art pieces meant to trick your eye. The fence seemed to merge into itself.

“Hey, Big Hands,” a female voice said behind me.

I turned around to see Destiny Crown’s cousin Jocelyn. She was the girl in the sorority who had invited our baseball team to a frat party last year. She’d also taken Destiny and me to another party on the date Destiny won by gathering signatures for Duke’s candidacy for mayor. I’d teased Jocelyn and her friends with the old wives’ tale that big hands and big feet equaled being big in other areas of your anatomy.

“Hey.”

“David, meet Jocelyn. She’s my roommate, and this is her exhibition,” Tracy said.

“We’ve met a couple of times,” she said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tracy asked her roommate.

“Because I was afraid he wouldn’t come to visit if he knew I was your roommate. I think I scared him the last time we met.”

“Tell me about your photographs,” I said before we had to talk about my big hands.

“The marketing piece I wrote explains that the mirrored images are meant to represent the duality of life. There are always two sides to every story. The yin and yang of it, if you will.”

“What’s the real meaning?” I asked.

“I just liked how it looks,” Jocelyn said.

“I agree. How did you do it?” I asked.

“I found it works best with a wide-angle lens. Stitching the images together isn’t too hard with the right software. When my photography professor saw the images, he loved them.”

“Show me the rest,” I urged.

The next image was of one of my favorite old covered bridges that crossed a small river just a few miles from us. The picture had been taken on a cloudless day, so the clear blue sky looked like calm water that captured the reflection of the bridge.

“How did you do this one?” I asked.

“That was the hardest one to do. I had to frame it so it just showed the bridge. I actually waded out into the river up to my waist to get the shot.”

Then she showed me a picture of the reverse. This one showed a tailgate party at a football game with an RV next to a canopy where a group of people barbecued and drank adult beverages. She’d taken a great picture that told a story and then twisted it when the image was flipped upside down and looked to be crashing down on everyone. It had taken a cute picture and given it a sense of being both claustrophobic and intense.

She walked me through several others, and they were equal parts disturbing and beautiful.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“I have two thoughts. First, you need to immediately find a publisher and create a coffee-table book with these pictures. It will sell like crazy. Second, your next endeavor should be done in video. If you were to add movement to this technique, it would take it to another level,” I said.

“Young man, you have an eye,” I heard as someone came up from behind to stand beside me.

“David Dawson, this is my professor, Dr. Garrison,” Jocelyn said.

The next thing I knew, I was in an in-depth conversation about her art and different ways to tweak it. Before we concluded, I’d called Mr. Hill at Hill Advertising and introduced him to both Jocelyn and Dr. Garrison. I’d also bought the covered bridge picture and the rights to it. Both Jocelyn and Dr. Garrison were excited. I mentioned that I could help her sell more of her artwork if she were so inclined. I was thinking of Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Wesleyan and their design businesses, along with the internet resources I might use to sell this particular type of art.

If my stomach hadn’t loudly announced that it hadn’t been fed, I might have spent the rest of the night talking. I was going to love college.

Jocelyn came to dinner with us. College kids do not pass up free food.

Tracy picked Alexander’s Steak House, making me a happy boy. While in no way did it compare to some of the steak places I’d been to, it was budget-friendly. They also had a salad bar that you could fill up on. The restaurant was unique in that they gave you the option to cook your own steaks. Somehow, the girls put me in charge of that.

When I came back to the table, Jocelyn was grilling Tracy and Pam.

“You never told me that you dated him,” she said pointedly to Tracy.

“Pam did too. We actually have a son together,” I said as I sat down. “Want to see pictures?”

Jocelyn looked at me funny, but I was past feeling guilty about having kids at my age. It was what it was.

“I think someone did say something about that,” Jocelyn said.

You would imagine that whipping out your wallet and showing a girl pictures of five little ones would slow her down. Think again.

“Does he really have a big ... uh ... you know?” Jocelyn asked.

Both Pam and Tracy looked at me.

“Please! You know that as soon as she gets you back to your dorm room, you’re going to tell her,” I said.

“Well, okay, then. Yes, David is big all over,” Tracy shared.

“I knew it,” Jocelyn said triumphantly and then locked eyes with me. “Word is you’re currently single.”

Oh, Hell, No!

“I’ve been put on notice that I can’t date anyone older than I am until I graduate high school. So, don’t even go there.”

“He’s taking me out this Friday,” Pam added to slow Jocelyn down.

“Send me the video,” Jocelyn said.

I suddenly liked her. She had a sense of humor and seemed just the right amount of slutty. I was ready to drop out of high school right now.

I should have visited Tracy sooner. I ended up having a great time. The best part was that my parents were in bed by the time I got home, so I didn’t have to rehash the Valentine’s Day debacle.

Thursday, February 16
The rehash finally happened at breakfast. Phil had managed to hide what happened from his parents for a day, but last night, his mother had finally seen his bruised face and split lip. This was followed shortly thereafter by a call to my dad, who wanted to know what had happened. Even though Phil wasn’t Mom’s child, she seemed almost as concerned as Dad.

I told them how Phil had been beaten up, what I’d done to rescue Phil’s date, and that I’d made sure that both Mike and Luke had taken the first swings. I was letting them know that I’d sent the recordings to Frank when, speak of the devil, he called.

“I got a call from someone at TMZ last night, asking me for videos and a comment about David’s fight. Luckily, I smelled a rat and said I couldn’t possibly comment without seeing what they had. It turns out the video doesn’t show David doing anything except walking up to Luke, and later David walking to the door of an apartment. Everything else is blocked by a bunch of other guys crowding around.”

“I called TMZ back. I said that David was just getting his little brother and his brother’s date away from a college party where they’d gotten in a bit over their heads. He agreed it didn’t make for much of a story but said that I owed him for not running it. I promised them an exclusive when you come to town for the Oscars,” Frank said.

His tone said he was pleased with both turning this into a nonstory and roping me into an interview. He also knew that I wasn’t about to fight him because when your PR guy is relaxed about something, it’s good—trust me. I hoped this would put an end to it, at least as far as the media and my parents were concerned. How I felt about Mike being a teammate at Michigan was another matter entirely.

Friday February 17
By Friday morning, I’d given the events a lot of thought and had decided that I didn’t want to play ball with someone like Mike. I’d gotten a chance to talk to Phil, and he told me how Luke and Mike had gotten Jill drunk. The way he described it, I still suspected that they’d slipped her something like ecstasy.

Phil said that he’d stayed close to her, and they were having a good time. The next thing he knew, she’d gone to the bathroom and didn’t come back. When he went to look for her, Luke and Mike had jumped him.

The long and short of it was that Phil had had enough and decided to break up with Jill. She’d made a comment over the phone to him about him abandoning her and that I’d had to save her. When Jill had come to school and seen his condition, she’d regretted saying that.

Before I did something drastic, I wanted to talk to Wolf, Tim, and Ty about Mike. I’d arranged to meet them at Granny’s West for breakfast before school. When Cassidy learned about my plans, she insisted that she had to be my security today. I suspected she just wanted a cinnamon roll.

We were the last to arrive, and the other three already had their drinks and a starter roll each. Our server came right over when she saw me and took our order. Cassidy was happy when they brought us our rolls.

“I’ve had a couple of days to cool off over what Mike pulled. But even having calmed down, I’m still having a problem envisioning him as a teammate,” I said to kick our meeting off.

“You’re not planning to back out of your commitment, are you?” Ty asked.

“Ideally, they would pull Mike’s,” I said.

“Do you really believe they would? He’s already signed a National Letter of Intent. I think they’re bound to take him,” Tim said.

“But we already said that it didn’t really matter if he went to the same school because he was one of 85 players,” Ty reminded me.

“Mike was given multiple chances to straighten out and ended up quitting the team and going to Wesleyan,” Wolf said. “I thought that his BS was over with. What he and his brother did to Phil was a step too far, and I really detest that he’s hurting people you care about, trying to get at you. If he’d do it to you, I’m sure he’ll do it to all of us. Heck, he messed with Jim last year. That’s just asking for trouble. I don’t need to be around someone like that.”

“What are you saying, exactly?” Ty asked.

I thought it was pretty clear, but apparently, Ty needed to hear the words.

“I’m not talking for Tim or Wolf. They need to decide for themselves,” I qualified. “But if Mike is at Michigan next year, I’ll go somewhere else.”

“Even though you gave your word?” Ty asked to dig at my core values.

“Ty, I realize this doesn’t make you happy, but I respect you too much not to talk to you first. If Mike hadn’t said what he did to me in that apartment, on top of what he did to my little brother, I might let it go,” I said.

Ty threw a face.