Chapter 11

David
Choosing all morning classes might have been a mistake, at least from a sleep perspective, but being done by noon on Fridays made up for it. David had stuck to running each morning and visiting the coffee house. This morning was no different.

“There’s my fine-assed white boy!” Doreen, the owner, called out. “Come dance with me.”

With a beat thumping, Doreen’s hips started moving to the rhythm of the music. She crooked a finger toward David to tell him to ‘come here.’ He began to wiggle his hips to mirror her movements.

“Oh, yeah. That’s what mama needs,” she said while giving him an appraising look.

David blew her mind when he busted a move and began to dance around her. Doreen squealed and began to shake everything she had. He didn’t know if he should be aroused or amused. Various parts of her anatomy were jiggling all over in a provocative way.

Kat, aka Goth Barbie, aka Katherine, came out from the back.

“Doreen! What did I tell you about sexually harassing the customers?” she said with a look of interest.

“Honey, you need to let this one take you out. He at least doesn’t have a stick up his uptight ass like all those Palace boys that come in here.”

“He’s not interested in taking me out,” Kat told her boss and friend.

“What gave you that idea?” David asked.

Doreen stopped dancing and gave him a hard stare.

“What’s keeping you?”

“Kat, would you go out with me tonight?” he asked.

“I was planning on going to a party with some of my Goth friends tonight. I will if you dress appropriately,” she challenged.

’Either I hand in my manhood card for being coerced into dressing as a Goth, or I hand it in for passing up a date with Kat,’ he thought.

“I have just one condition,” David decided.

“This should be good,” Doreen predicted.

“I get to start picking out what I drink around here. I don’t actually drink coffee very often, and when I do, I prefer Cuban. Believe it or not, I would rather have tea in the morning.”

They’d been giving him a coffee each morning. Not that he was complaining, since it was free. Doreen claimed it was in honor of him being the first customer each day. He wanted to believe that was the real reason. David had been giving the coffee to Alex, who, in turn, thought David was the best roommate ever. Alex thought he should also bring him a pastry but had shut up when David threatened to give his coffee to the guard at the front desk instead.

“I’m a little embarrassed I never asked,” Kat said and then bit her bottom lip. “Now, I have to make a bigger fool of myself. What’s your name?”

“David,” he said without thinking.

’Frick!’ This whole ‘Allen’ deception was going to come to a rapid end. Already the baseball team knew he was on campus, as well as half the football team. It wouldn’t take long for the whole ‘Where’s Waldo?’—or, rather, ‘Where’s David?’—question to finally be answered. So far, Ohio State, Clemson, and Alabama had all denied to the press that he’d enrolled there. It was probably for the best that he be honest with Kat.

Not that he felt like he’d lied to his dorm-mates; he just hadn’t been entirely forthcoming. In his defense, it had been eye-opening to find what a bunch of posers lived in Sandoval Hall. On the other hand, he’d discovered a lot of people he really liked, too. So, it had been worth it, in his mind. He might not have gotten to know them if he’d walked in as David A. Dawson.

“Where and when should I pick you up?” he asked.

Kat wrote it down for him and then made him tea. He left to start his day, all smiles.

By noon, David had completed his first week of school. After the cancellation of the first class, it had gone well. The most significant adjustment he’d had to make was to the fact that college wasn’t as structured as high school had been. In high school, your day was filled with back-to-back classes. College was more pick-and-choose, with less classroom time. So, instead of sitting in a particular course for five hours a week, you only attended for three.

The reduced classroom hours meant you were expected to be prepared for each class since the professors didn’t have the extra two hours a week to hold your hand and spoon-feed you the information. David found that his high school practice of reading ahead, which had been his secret weapon in getting straight ‘A’s, was something college required of every student who hoped to pass.

Another, albeit less significant, difference was that he’d basically skipped a year and was taking classes in his major now. With that in mind, the professors had higher expectations than they would have in entry-level courses. They assumed you’d established the study habits you needed to be prepared.

Both Coach Farrow, on the football side, and Coach Hob, for baseball, had approached David about availing himself of the tutoring that was available to athletes. That was why he’d skipped his workout with Ridge, Cassidy, and the two new guys today. Instead, David had an appointment at the John McKay building that housed the Stevens Academic Center for student-athletes. He was meeting with one of their counselors to determine what help he needed.

David found the room number he’d been given. The door was open, and a woman his parents’ age was reading a file. He knocked on the door frame.

“Dr. Carter?”

“You must be David. Come in and close the door.”

He took a seat in front of her desk.

“I understand that you were a last-minute addition. How is your first week going?” she asked.

“Good, actually. I’m coming to grips with what’s expected.”

“Before we talk about your specific needs, I wanted to give you a quick overview of everything we offer our student-athletes. Our primary goal is to provide all the necessary academic support services to guarantee that you have academic success while participating in sports at USC. But we do more than that.

“We work to prepare you not only for what you need to be successful here but also for after college. To that end, we are big on your personal development.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you. Without our help and support, you’ll probably find it almost impossible to juggle all your responsibilities. We do more than just provide tutoring services,” Dr. Carter explained.

“Such as?” David asked.

“You’ll find that we are a conduit to many services. For example, we collaborate with the counseling center, athletic medicine, and the health center. We also provide outside speakers for workshops and seminars on nutrition, sexual health, and alcohol use. As well, students can schedule individual appointments with the athletic department sports dieticians.

“In-house, we provide academic counseling services, priority class scheduling, and for when you travel, we offer both excused absence letters and travel laptops. In a moment, I’ll take you on a tour and show you our study hall, computer labs, and the rest of the facilities.

“But before we do that, let’s talk about your current classes...”

David had expected to have a quick meeting and maybe get a tutor assigned to him. Instead, over the next two hours, he was shown that they provided a lot more help than he thought possible. USC was like most big-time universities, he suspected. They had put together a program to help student-athletes be successful in the classroom if they availed themselves of what was offered.

When they’d completed the tour and returned to Dr. Carter’s office, she had one more surprise for him.

“We found someone who wants to be your tutor for all your business classes. It seems the two of you have already met.”

“Who might that be?” he asked.

“Margaret Tilghman.”

“I met her when Professor Courtney couldn’t make his class on the first day. I thought she was a teaching assistant.”

“She is, but she doesn’t have a particular class she’s responsible for. Ms. Tilghman works directly for the dean and floats where needed. We sent a request for a tutor specifically for you, and she intercepted it,” Dr. Carter shared.