Chapter 17

OLIVIA MET DENNIS at school early on Tuesday to show him the video. They decided to move the taping into the training room instead of the gym. It was generally quieter there and Dennis’s voice would have less echo. They agreed to retape the same workout session they had done the previous day. The training room had weights and machines at one end and a hardwood floor at the other. When the wrestlers started practice, the mats would be put down on that floor. They’d never used it for conditioning exercises because it wasn’t big enough for the crowd. The setup worked well and they got the session recorded in plenty of time.

Cross country practice included only Dennis and the seven girls who would run as a team at the State Finals. Four of those girls were his girlfriends. The practices were light compared to the workouts they were having. Dennis wanted one more good hard run before they traveled to Fort Dodge on Saturday. Thursday morning, he set out on the trail from school. It was still in good shape from having been mown for the previous Saturday’s race and he felt good flying around the course. Friday would be a day of rest, as Bartley had a vacation day for the term break. Of course, he had to attend his classes at DMACC. Brenda had started basketball practice right after mid-terms and Dennis was commuting alone.

Dennis was on the bus with his team at 8:00 Saturday morning. It was a quiet trip with only Ardith, Andy, and the eight runners. It was cold and windy, but a sunny day. Everyone was wearing sweats over their running gear and their valuables were locked in a portable cage on the bus.

“I wish everyone could have come,” Tori moaned to Dennis.

“It’s really too far to expect them all to drive up here for a twenty-minute race,” Leanne sighed. “There wasn’t even a rally at school since there was no school Friday and finals on Thursday. But I’ll be cheering for you from right behind!”

“Chances are you’ll be ahead of me,” Diane said. “My period started yesterday. At least I’m not huddled over a heating pad.”

“That would be me,” Judith complained. “Let’s just get this over with.”

They arrived at the golf course where the race would be run and stood in line to get their bibs with electronic timers. Fifteen schools qualified full teams and nearly all were running the allotted seven runners. But there would be over 130 runners in the race, as thirty or more athletes had qualified independent of their team—like Dennis had.

Dennis collected the sweats from each of his girlfriends and gave them each a kiss for luck. They followed Janice, Liz, and Laura to the start at the driving range. At 10:30, the race was on. From the viewing area near the clubhouse, Dennis could see flashes of the maroon jerseys as the runners wound around the course. Janice was staying right with the leading scrum, but two elite runners were stretching out far ahead of the pack. They were really blazing and Dennis wondered if he could even beat them. They moved to the team area at the finish line and Dennis was surprised and delighted to see his girlfriends on the other side of the fairway, cheering as Janice crossed the finish line for her season best time of 19:19, but still a minute and a half after the first place finisher. Her time was good for fifth overall. In team scores she was counted third.

The real surprise was watching Tori and Diane both breaking twenty minutes and scoring twelfth and fourteenth places. Judith, Liz, and Leanne took sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth. All the girls had run season best times. Of course, Leanne’s position was twenty-ninth in the overall standings, but she’d pushed her teammates over the line, only a tenth of a second behind them.

They were all thrilled with their results and as soon as they were out of the chute ran to greet the girlfriends who drove up to surprise the team. Dennis didn’t have time to go meet them as he had to join the boys on the driving range for the start of their race. Teams lined up in what amounted to lanes with five lanes reserved for the independent runners. The fastest qualifying times got first position in the lane, so Dennis could see the top runners as he looked down the line. The Eagle he’d narrowly defeated in the district meet last week was just two lanes down, but he didn’t recognize any of the other runners in the front row. These weren’t just from his little part of Iowa, but from all over the state. He didn’t know how fast any of them were.

The buzzer sounded and they were off. There was nothing to do but run hard for the next three miles. That’s what he did. The frontrunner set a blistering pace and Dennis set his eyes on the boy. Suddenly, Dennis was the feral hog and this runner was his escaping lunch. They maintained a close pack of over a dozen runners, but by the end of the third kilometer, the string was stretching out. Dennis could feel his Eagle nemesis pulling up beside him and put on as much as he had to give. They held side-by-side through the fourth kilometer when Dennis began to slowly edge away from the Eagle. Unfortunately, there were still three runners ahead of him and the lead was farther out than he could hope to capture. He pelted into the chute in fourth place and turned to congratulate his frequent competitor from the Eagles. He found him doubled over and quickly went to offer his arm to hold his rival up. Neither boy had enough breath to talk as they walked in a circle.

“Thanks, man. I was about to go down.”

“You really pushed me on that one,” Dennis gasped.

“I can’t believe we did that.” The Eagle pointed up at the leader board. The winner of the race had run the course in 16:02. Dennis’s time of 16:25 was a personal best and the first time he’d run under 17:00 since the beginning of the season.

“It’s the competition. We always run best when we’re among the best,” Dennis said. The Eagle had been three seconds behind him and nodded.

“I wish I was going to be around next year. We could win the championship. But I graduate in the spring, so you’ll have to do it without me.”

“I’ll do my best,” Dennis said. They parted and Dennis went to join his coaches, the girls’ team, and his girlfriends who came to see the race. The forty-degree air was chilling him quickly, so he wasted no time getting into his sweats. In fifteen minutes, the girlfriends had all kissed each other and him, and he was on the bus. Cross country season was over.

“This! This is what I’m talking about!” a shrill voice cut through the gym as Dennis and the cheerleaders emerged from the training room. “They’re not decent! They incite others to immoral behavior. And those over there, bumping up against boys as they pretend to play basketball. Since when do boys and girls play in the same game?”

Dennis recognized the woman who had shrieked at them when they played basketball outside. It was a bad day for her to have shown up. Lily Armor, Renda Long, Superintendent Jones, Principal Morris, and a couple of other people he didn’t recognize were following Mrs. Conway. Lily quickly tried to direct her attention to the basketball players, telling her that the girls were in regulation sportswear and were playing a pickup game, not a school team sport.

Unfortunately, the cheerleaders had been shopping over the weekend. They were tightly regulated by the ICCA regarding what they could wear at games and for practice, but they were engaged in a non-school activity, so went for the sexiest outfits they could find for Dennis’s videos. The girls were wearing sports bras with a plunging neckline and booty shorts that were cut low in front and high on their butt cheeks. Dennis was in his normal workout clothes, but Fred, being a bit flamboyant, wore a short tight T-shirt and the same style shorts the girls wore. Dennis had already talked to them about the outfits as not being proper for his video tape and they had taped a session just so they could see how suggestive the outfits were. Mrs. Conway fixated on them as if they were stepping out of the flames of hell.

“Why are you allowing this kind of attire in the school. These students should all be suspended for indecency.”

“We solemnly swear we won’t attend your church dressed like this,” Fred said. “Please don’t bring your medieval morals into the gym.”

That was not the right thing to say in front of the school board and the principal. As soon as the shrieking started, all the basketball players gathered around as well. The shouting match escalated resulting in Dennis and the cheerleaders being suspended for one day and over twenty basketball players declaring they would strike the next day. Dennis was further forbidden to use school facilities to record his exercise v-log. The confrontation had escalated so rapidly that Dennis had no opportunity to explain they had already discussed the appropriateness of the attire and decided to go back to normal workout clothes. He actually didn’t say anything during the entire confrontation.

The students all left to get their showers and equipment and leave school. Dennis really didn’t want to participate in a school-wide strike over clothing rights, but his girlfriends were adamant in their support of the cheerleaders. And where his girlfriends went, the rest of the school’s athletes quickly followed.

In the morning, students picketed the school, carrying signs declaring their strike against clothing regulations. “Exercise your Rights!” declared a sign. “Butt out!” read another. It was too cold to stay outside all day, so the pickets and strikers showed up at the beginning of school and were joined by many students arriving on buses. Those who had someplace other than school to go to, stayed out for the day and were back in front of the school when parents and buses arrived to take kids home. Those who had no place else to go were marked tardy and sat sullenly in classes all day.

As it happened, Kristen Conway had timed her objections to the school board to coincide with their monthly meeting on the first Tuesday of the month. That evening saw the largest meeting attendance since the proposal to start a girls’ basketball team over a year previously. Only this time, the audience was overwhelmingly high school students and the majority were girls.